Today was my first full day here in Chennai. I woke up VERY early this morning sweating and discovered that, had I not been sleeping under my mosquito net, the circulation of air from the fan would have hit me...I got up and immediately took a shower, and then put my nightdress back on, feeling a bit more refreshed.
I'm staying with my host mother's cousin Ahalya for the next few days and I'm at her house right now- she's an incredibly nice girl, and she even made me cornflakes with raisins and nuts for breakfast! When I had finished eating, Ahalya told me the plan for the day.
We went to a place called "Dakshina Chitra" which is a place a little bit outside the city where you can walk around and see models of old fashioned homes from all over India. We got there with Pratheeba (my host father's niece) around 1:00 p.m. It was a really awesome place, and I had fun looking at all of the homes and doing a bit of shopping at the center of the park. I even got my fortune told! Outside one of the houses there was a man with two parrots and a stack of folded cards. Ahala, Pratheeba and Ahalya's mother in law all asked me if I wanted to get my fortune told, and I said "of course!" So, I sat down in front of the man with Ahalya (who translated his Tamil to English). He asked me my name and age, and then he shuffled the cards and let one of the parrots out of it's cage. The parrot walked up to the stack of newly shuffled cards and started taking off cards from the top of the pile, one by one until he stopped suddenly and handed the card in his beak to his master. I was shocked and surprised when the man opened the card, revealing a picture of Jesus (even Ahalya and Pratheeba said they had never seen someone get this card...)! The fortune teller then proceeded to tell me (as Ahalya translated) that my life would be good, I would be successful in a career involving the sciences, money would never prove to be a problem in my life, that I would travel a lot and always be satisfied and feel good about my trips in life, and that when I leave India I will feel as though I have accomplished what I came for and be very happy about it. This was a very cool experience for me- I love getting my fortune told and hearing others too! (The video below is of the entire fortune being told!)
After all getting our fortunes told and looking around for a bit longer, we all got mahindi done on one of our hands! Then, we finished off the experience with ice-cream and shopping. When we left it was about 3:30 p.m. and we stopped for lunch on the way back before dropping Pratheeba off at home and heading to the beach to take a short walk. We arrived just as the sky was getting dark, and there were lots of people milling about in the twilight. There were food stalls, games, ice-cream stalls- it was a busy time of evening.
After leaving the beach, Ahalya, her mother in law and I drove back to Ahalya's house. Now I'm getting ready for bed before we eat a dinner that Ahalya's mother in law has prepared!
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