A Birthday Night Out (not exactly trick-or-treating!)

In the evening on my seventeenth birthday, my host parents and I went out for dinner and a movie! Our dinner was an all around favorite- my favorite restaurant, Annapoorna, my favorite food, naan and paneer butter masala, AND my favorite desert, a mango milkshake! It was a great meal and a fun dinner! My host parents and I discussed Halloween in the US- the costumes, traditions and all the candy! I told them how much fun it has always been to have a birthday on Halloween, and how this birthday was extra special and would always be throughout my life!
The movie we had gotten tickets to see, Aadhavan, started at 10:00 p.m. The story was about a man (Surya acted this part!) who is a killer and gets an assignment to kill another man. Throughout the movie he gets close to the man and in the end it is discovered that the man was actually his own father! The movie itself wasn't great, but both my host mother and I loved all of the songs and had a good time singing along in the theater! My host father hated it...:) Oh well! It was a great night and a great birthday that I will never ever forget!
P.S. the photo above is of my host mother and I in front of the theater before the movie!

Another Birthday??

After coming home from the orphanage with a big smile on my face, my host family and our neighbors (the two little girls and their mother Vadivu) each had a slice of the birthday cake that Rianna had brought over for me. It was really good! The first cake that I’ve liked since being here actually! The cakes here taste NOTHING at all like the cakes at home- they have an almost earthy taste to them…but this cake was different, and even had my favorite flavor for the frosting- strawberry! Vadivu, Sanju and Bapu also gave me several wrapped packages to rip open and find some really thoughtful gifts; a piece of artwork in the shape of a triangle, a small photo frame, a stitch kit, and a cute little basket/teddy bear from Bapu!
After my host father finished his lunch, he took me and dropped me off at another birthday party- one for a friend of mine whose birthday was over the week. She had it at Hot Chocolate, the restaurant where I first had a sizzling brownie! I arrived to a small welcoming party at the door- they were so cute! Even though it wasn’t my party, they all sang “happy birthday” to me and even gave me some jewelry and a card as a gift! We took some photos as I thanked them and wished the birthday girl a happy birthday, giving her a gift from Oregon- a deck of playing cards and a few pencils from the San Diego Zoo. We all went and sat down then to order, taking more photos and chatting as we ate through three pizzas, six tacos, a sizzling brownie, french fries and coke. The party ended with a bit of a mess….we all decided to force feed the birthday girl a taco, and then we dumped chocolate into her mouth from the sizzling brownie! It was a lot of fun!
P.S. the photo above is of me and the OTHER birthday girl!

Unending Smiles!

The morning of my seventeenth birthday here in India, there was a call from a Rotarian in the club here on my host father’s phone. He was calling not only to wish me “Happy Birthday” but also to invite me to go to an orphanage that morning. Within the next hour, the other exchange student Rianna and her host father came to the apartments to pick me up in order to go, bringing me a cake and a present! So sweet! We arrived at the orphanage around 11:00 a.m., meeting up with a few other Rotarians and their children there. Rianna’s host father had brought chocolates and candy to hand out to the kids, and so after our introduction to the fifty or so small children sitting in rows on the ground in front of us, they all sang an incredibly sweet “happy birthday” to me while Rianna and I handed out the candies.
We spent the morning there playing, dancing and singing with all of the wonderful little kids. Some of them spoke a little English too, so it was not too difficult to talk with them. They all asked me who my “hero” was (in India, your “hero” is your favorite movie star!) and when I told them that I loved Surya, they all screamed in delight and wanted me to sing a song of his. The only one I know a piece of is “Sutrum Vizhi,” and so I sang the few lines that I have memorized while all of them listened, laughing and singing along with me.
Throughout the morning I not only got “happy birthday” sung to me four times (my parents, two Rotarians that called and then the kids), but I also got a hand-held tour of the orphanage, my hair braided by one of the little girls and my nails painted an incredibly bright shade of red by another little girl while all of the other children crowded around and watched.
It was an incredibly humbling and yet very fun trip to the orphanage. All of the kids were so cute and sweet- all they wanted to do was hold my hand, talk to me and touch my hair. I can’t wait to go back again and spend another morning amongst the never ending smiles of all the little kids!

My Birthday (a day early...) at School!

Today is Friday, and tomorrow is my seventeenth Birthday! This morning I awoke to put on something other than the forest green, not so attractive uniform that I have to wear everyday! Since tomorrow is my Birthday, but I don't have school, I decided to dress up in what the Indians call "color dress" (meaning normal clothes) rather than wait until Monday. At my school here, Vidhya Niketan, it is customary for the students to dress up on their birthdays and sometimes even bring chocolate for all of their friends! Every week there are always a few birthdays, and it's really nice that the kids will dress up because then I can say "Happy Birthday!" and know that it actually IS their birthday...the chocolate just depends on the person. My host mother told me that it is more the younger kids who will bring the chocolates to school, so I didn't bring any today (luckily there were only two people that were disappointed- the "ayah-ma's" which are the women who help out with the work at school! I just told them that I would bring it to them next week. They don't speak any English, so it was fun to try and explain to them why I didn't have them! They just kept saying "sweets? sweets Madi??").
My first period class was Math. I walked into the room, got a few compliments on my outfit, and then sat down, only to look around and see that everyone else had suddenly stood and started singing "Happy Birthday" to me! It was really cute- the kids all sang at the top of their lungs while the teacher stood at the front yelling over the noise, "stop being so dull! Sing louder!"
The school day ended with "zero period" once more, only today there was a "football" (soccer) match during that time! It was an inter-house competition (my school has four houses- Chera, Chola, Pallava and Pandya- all past kings of Tamil Nadu. They have inter-house competitions of all kinds. It's just like Harry Potter with all of the colors!) between the Chera and Pandya houses. I watched with a few friends from my Maths class and another friend from my class in the cool shade of the outdoor hallway next to the Biology lab. It was a great game! Watching it made me miss the game- I told all of my friends standing with me how I'm used to going and watching (or playing in) anywhere from two to four soccer games every weekend!
The bell rang at 2:00 p.m. and there was the usual scramble for the buses, followed by the second bell signaling the second scramble to get out to all of the cars and private vans. I walked out with a group of friends who also ride in vans and we took a few photos before heading off to our separate vans, squeezing in among all of the other kids, and heading off on the newly fixed road (the road leading out was just recently fixed up to have new dirt and rocks)!
P.S. The photo above is of me and a few friends before heading off for our vans!

Two Tests??

Today in school I attempted to take two tests…both were in my 9th grade class, but still were quite hard given the fact that I didn’t know about either of them and hadn’t studied…both the teachers just surprised me by asking if I wanted to write the test. I didn’t see anything bad about at least trying, so I decided to just attempt them both and do the best I could- anyway it was better than just sitting there! The first test was History, and the subject was the American Revolutionary War-something I should know everything about because I’m American right? Not exactly…the last time I studied the Revolutionary War was when I was in the 5th grade! I think that it went OK though, for not studying and not knowing all of the dates off the top of my head, I think I got a total of half the questions right…Then came Math period, and another test that I had no idea about it. Now, Math is a different situation because I can actually understand all of it. So, the Math test went really good and I got most all of the answers correct. The nice thing about these tests today though was that I didn’t have to submit them for an actual score- they were merely taken for practice!
My host father arrived home the night before last very late from a trip to China, and yesterday evening was when I got to see him! He had a great trip and said that China is an amazing and incredible country. We didn’t have too much time to discuss all of what he did, but I am excited to go home today and see all of the photos! (I’m at school right now…my English teacher asked me to bring my laptop to school to play a DVD for her, and now I’m just typing this in WORD and later I’ll go back and cut & paste since there is no internet access here). Bye for now! I’m going to go check on some friends that are studying intensely in the classroom nextdoor…

Sutrum Vizhi :)

So, if you've read my Facebook status posts for the past week you know that I have become OBSESSED with Surya songs- one in particular called "Sutrum Vizhi" that I am actually attempting to learn! I got a few comments on the postings asking for a translation of the song, so here it is, as promised! Keep in mind that translation from Tamil to English is EXTREMELY difficult and confusing, so if it sounds really odd, it's probably the translation. Also, I've decided to translate it by the stanza instead of by line because it seems to make a little more sense...also, here is a link to the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo3hmilS0_U

Sutrum Vizhi
Sung by Surya in the movie "Gajini"

Sutrum vizhi sudare
sutrum vizhi sudare
enolagam unnai sutruthe
sattai payyil un padam
thuttu thuttu urresu
enidhiyam patri kulluthey
un vileel vilenden
vinvileel parenden
kanvilithu soppanum kanden, unnalay
kanvilithu soppanum kanden

(Rough Translation: Your eyes move in circle like the flame on a lamp when there's a slight breeze. My whole world revolves around only you. I keep your photo in my pocket, I keep it so close so that it's always touching my heart, holding my heart. I fell for your eyes- I was flying in the universe, and I must have been dreaming while awake.)

Mellinam marbil kanden
vallinam vizhiyil kanden
edayinam thedi alai endru

(Rough Translation: I found mellinam in your chest, vallinam I found in your eyes, and I 'm finding edayinam all over you.)

Maramkothi paravai andru
manam kothi ponathu endru
vudal muthal vuyir varai thanthen

(Rough Translation: There was one woodpecker, she came and pecked out my heart today- that woodpecker was you, and I'm giving up my soul and body to you.)

Thee indri thirium indri
megangal erium endru
indro thani naanum kandu konden

(Rough Translation: Today I've realized that even if there is no fire and no wick to burn in a lamp, the clouds will still burn.)

Mazai alhaga veyil alhaga
konjum puthu malhai alhagu
kanna nee
kobapattal veyil alhagu
kanna nee
kobapattal veyil alhagu

(Rough Translation: Is the rain beautiful, or the sun? This is my question, because honey when you're affectionate rain is beautiful, but honey when you're angry the sun is beautiful!)

Disclaimer: I'm sorry if any of you who speak the Tamil language disagree with any of these translations. They have come from several friends that I've asked, and like I had said before translating was very difficult!

A Late Night Movie

Yesterday was a Saturday, and I had school from 8:20 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. A lot of the time, schools here will have "make-up days" on Saturdays throughout the month to substitute for all of the holidays. Since Diwali was last week and we got a day off of school, this Saturday was added into the school schedule.
I got home from school around 2:00 p.m. and my host mother and I had lunch before heading off to our Yoga class at 4:00 p.m. Yoga was a very relaxing class- we spent most of the hour in the basement meditating and resting after our four daily rounds of "Surya Namaskaram" (a group of about six positions that you do all together in a row). It was so relaxing in fact, that my host mother and the other woman doing the class with us both fell asleep!
In the evening our apartment was full of smiling faces- not only were our neighbors over to chat, but my friend Appurna who lives in this apartment complex also stopped by! Sanju (the elder of the two little girls next door) was working on a spreadsheet where she was trying to put all of the states and capitals of India in alphabetical order. We pulled out an atlas, and were working on it together when Bapu (Sanju's younger sister) decided that she was missing out and climbed up into my lap to see! It was the first time that Bapu has ever sat on my lap. Usually she's very shy around me! Appurna showed up a few minutes later and I made tea for the two of us (I'm trying to perfect the art of tea making....). We then looked at a few of my family photos and talked for a few minutes about my birthday coming up this weekend before she had to go back home.
Vadivu (Sanju and Bapu's mother) then invited me to go with their family to the movies! They were planning to go to the late night showing that starts at 10:15 p.m. to see a movie called "Peranmai." It's a Tamil movie, and I had no idea what it was about, but I was so excited to get to go to the movies again! We left the apartments around 9:20 p.m. after LOTS of technology failures when trying to call my parents!
The movie was good! I absolutely loved the first half- it was all about a group of college girls that are in training to become forest rangers at a wildlife reserve. Their trainer (the hero of the movie) is very handsome, and they don't like him so they pull tricks to get him fired. But, when they're called into duty they realize how great he is and learn to really like him. Then there was an intermission. We all went and had a scoop of chocolate ice-cream before returning for the second half- the violent half! I was sitting next to Sanju, and both of us had to close our eyes for a few different parts. The movie suddenly had gotten really gruesome, with lots of killing and blood. It was pretty unrealistic, and after the movie we all agreed that the first half was much better than the first.
We got back to the apartments around 1:20 a.m. and I let myself into the apartment with the key that my host mother had let me borrow. Everyone was already asleep, so I quietly got ready for bed, turned on my mosquito repellent plug-in and went to sleep.
P.S. The photo above is of the main actors in the movie :)

School Days...

Today is Tuesday. Tuesday is the one day in the week when I have no free periods during the day, so I'm always pretty busy. However, today we had "zero period" again for Annual Day preparations and so we all (excluding the 12th grade) got an hour at the end of the day to do whatever. Those who are participating in the competition go and practice, while others work on homework or sit and chat with friends. I spent my zero periods the last two days working on my Tamil. I wrote down a few more words, and spent some time practicing writing my name. While writing, the PT (play time) teacher came over to where I was sitting with a few friends around me and asked me to write his name. He showed me how to write it and then let me practice a few times before telling me what the name was- it was Daniel! Daniel, an English (or so I thought) name could be written perfectly in Tamil. When writing other names such as mine or my family's, it's hard for my "teacher" for the time to figure it out because there is not an exact translation. They basically have to sound out each sound of the name and then put a Tamil letter in that sounds the same or similar. My name for example, written in Tamil sounds a lot more like "Med-ee-sun" than Madison, because there are not exact letters for the sounds in my name. The sounds is the Tamil language....CRAZY!!! They are so hard to pronounce, and not only that a lot of them have the same sound, but the length that you hold out the note is a different length of time. For example: There is a few different letters that are pretty similar to write, and sound the same, but one is pronounced "na" one as "naa" and one as "naaa" (the sound is not "na" exactly either, it's more like "llgna," but I'll spare you the difficulty of that pronunciation!).
After my brain had been expanded enough for the day, my friends and I discussed cute Tamil movie stars and we sang the song that I've been attempting to learn called "Sutrum Vizhi." The girls were all in agreement that I needed to see some more of the Tamil stars and THEN decide which ones I thought were handsome, because at this point I am in love with Surya- who is definitely the heartthrob of the Tamil movie stars. When I told the girls this, some of them agreed, but a few of them disagreed. I asked them why, and their answer was "he's old. He's 35 or something, and he's also short." I laughed when they said this. I told them "Brad Pitt has got to be older than Surya, and I still think he's the hottest thing alive!"

An Oil Bath and a Sari

Yesterday morning, my host mother and I woke long before the sun was up to take oil baths- a tradition of Diwali. Before bathing, the two of us had tea and coffee, then my host mother gave me a spoon full of yellowish oil to put at the top of my hair. I rubbed it into the part and then headed off for a shower. When we were both finished bathing, my host mother helped me into my new sari that was bought as a gift for me (from my host mother's cousin Ahalya) while I was in Chennai. When the wrapping, twisting and tying was finished I put on some purple and gold bangles and my host mother lent me a gold chain and earrings. She also gave me a purple bindi, so I matched everywhere! My host dad got up a few minutes later and bathed, and then the three of us sat in our living room with the neighbors and chatted for a few minutes before taking some photos and then heading off with my host mother's sister's family to the Murugan Temple (where my host mother and I sat and watched the homam and puja for three hours). We all walked around the temple, watched the puja and then left to go to breakfast at Annapoorna!
After finishing up with breakfast, we went to our neighbor's (Vadivu) parents home to visit and give sweets. We stayed for about an hour and a half. I felt bad because I was so tired, and my host mother sent me into the bedroom to sleep...luckily we went back to their house today and I was sure to participate in ALL the happenings to make up for it! We left and went back to the apartment for a few hours before we, and my host mother's sisters family left for lunch in the city. Later we went over to Piriyanga's house to burst crackers for a few hours before going to dinner at the Jenny Club- the fanciest building in Coimbatore. There were LOTS of people there, including Rianna (the other exchange student from New York) and her host family! It was fun to see so many people that we knew, and the dinner was great! We started off with some spring rolls (very different to what we have at "Chinese" food restaurants in the US) and gobi-65 (cauliflower fried in chili powder). For dinner, we all shared nan with several different graveys (including paneer! My favorite!) and had mango milkshakes for desert. It was a fantastic day, and a fantastic Diwali! It was so nice to spend so much time with all of the family again (I haven't seen a lot of them since Surya, my host brother, left for Oregon two months ago), I had lots of fun!

Sweets and Bombs (don't worry they're crackers! Not real bombs!)

Yesterday morning after breakfast, my host mother and I headed out to the sweet shop to pick up some last minute sweets to deliver to friends and family. We arrived at "Suriya Sweets" to a crowd of women, men and children, all pushing together in a mass towards the sweet counter and shouting orders over the heads of those in front of them. My host mother and I found a spot at the open door near the cash counter where she could pick up her order. We waited for about twenty minutes- me outside, comparing my metallic blue nail polish to the soft pink of a small girl's, while my host mother waited inside for the five bags of sweets.
We brought the bags home and joined my host father and host mother's sister and her son in the living room to watch a movie called "Cassandra Crossing." My host mother and I sat on the floor in front of the couch, folding small boxes and filling each with seven sweets to give out to all of our neighbors here at the apartments. When we finished we had sixteen filled green boxes in two stacks on the floor.
After the movie ended, we all went out to do a bit of shopping for the "men" at Shree Devi. They all hadn't gotten shirts to wear yet for Deepavali, so we had to go get them each one. Prabak met is there after his meeting- the store was SO crowded! Everyone seemed to be doing their last minute shopping at the same time. We had to weave through the crowds, sweating our way through the heat of the many bodies that all surrounded us. The highlight of the shopping trip though, was on the drive home when I saw the PUG again! This time we stopped and I got to pet him! His name is Pravi, and he is possibly the FATTEST pug I've ever seen in my life! He has a little stool that he stands on in the front yard where he can stick his body half-way out of the gate and greet everyone, so I got to love on him- petting, and (yes, Dad) kissing his fat little face! He was so cute! I can't wait to go back another time to love on him some more!
Later in the evening, my host mother, father and I all went out to deliver bags of sweets to my host father's sister's family and a friend of my host mother's family. When we got back, Piriyanga, Praveen and their mother Gheeta were a;ll waiting for us to go down behind the apartments and burst crackers in the street. I put on some tennis shoes and we all headed down. When we got there, there were already several families and lots of young kids from the apartments lighting off the crackers. The firecrackers here are SO much louder than the ones at home, but what is really awesome is, here the giant crackers are fully legal to light off from your home, while in Ashland (at least, maybe the whole of the US?) the big ones are illegal to light off from your street front. We had sooooo much fun lighting off all of the crackers! Some shot into the air (some shot into the apartment walls....luckily not into and apartment!), some spun on the ground and some exploded, sending big bursts of air and sound that hurt my ears by the end of the night!
When the kids got bored with lighting crackers. we all went to Sowbe's house and had a little dance party in front of her house. At first we listened to the radio, and then I plugged my ipod in for songs like "Mama Mia, Dancing Queen, etc." (ABBA is popular here!)
I went back up to the apartment around 10:30 p.m. and had a shower and dinner. When I finished, we all left with Bapu and Sanju to go and get mahindi done! We went over to a girl that I know from school's house- her mother does mahindi professionally and is the most amazing at it I've seen in my life! I couldn't help but just gawk at her designs while she quickly applied the brown gel from my wrists to the tips of my fingers. It took her about fifteen minutes total to finish BOTH sides of my hands, and the cost for mine, Sanju's and Bapu's? 300 rs., which is only about six dollars! Absolutely amazing! It's so beautiful! We got home by midnight, all of us "little girls" falling asleep in the backseat with our hands held up in the air!

Diwali (or Deepavali) in India

Diwali, which is a shortened name from the Sanskrit word "Deepavali" is celebrated all over India as the festival of lights. "Deepa" meaning light, and "avali" meaning a row. It is a celebration that every age can enjoy where the people will express their happiness by lighting earthen "diyas" (lamps), decorating the houses, bursting firecrackers and spending time with family and neighbors, giving gifts of sweets and dried fruits and nuts.
In the Hindu religion, lighting a lamp has many significances. To Hindus, darkness represents ignorance, and light is a metaphor for knowledge. Therefore by lighting a lamp, Hindus believe that they are destroying- through knowledge- all things evil; wickedness, violence, lust, anger, envy, greed, etc.
In the morning on the day of Diwali, people will wake at 3:00 a.m. for a traditional oil bath, emerging scrubbed clean and in brand new clothes and elaborate jewelry to light lamps, do a puja and go out to burst crackers. Throughout the day, people spend time visiting with friends and family, armed heavily with boxes and boxes of Indian sweets to give as gifts. In the evening, more lamps are lit and more crackers are burst in the dark- lighting up the entire night sky, and most of the ground as well!

Rotary Diwali

Last night I went to a Rotary party with my host mother for Diwali, which is tomorrow! We left the apartments with Mylswamy (a Rotarian who lives below us with his wife whom I call "auntie") and auntie around 8:00 p.m. When we arrived at the apartments where the party was to be held, I could hear some loud noise from above- I looked up to see fireworks coming off the roof of the building where we were headed! We took the elevator up four floors and walked up one more flight of stairs before coming out to see a party, with all of the Rotarians, their wives, and the many kids running around with sparklers and matches, lighting off fireworks in the center of the roof space! It was a little crazy with all of the little kids playing with the fireworks, so you had to avoid the middle of the roof if you didn't want to catch on fire...especially for me because the salwaar that I was wearing had net sleeves and a net scarf, making me a VERY flammable target...
I lit off a few crackers with a few little kids and then we played with sparklers. When dinner was served around 10:00 p.m., all the kids were sent into another room to have a meeting (one of the Rotarian's talked to us about an American girl who came to India a few years ago and is now doing community service projects here in Coimbatore for young girls who are in unfortunate financial situations. She raises money and then sponsors the girls for their higher education here in India.). It was a neat thing to hear about, and it would be very cool to get involved somehow!
After the meeting, about ten of the younger kids and I sang some Tamil Karaoke (luckily there were ten of us, because if I was alone...let's just say that it is EXTREMELY difficult to read Tamil written in English when you don't know Tamil.) and then we all went out and had dinner and desert of chocolate mousse. We left a little while later, saying good bye and Happy Diwali to everyone as we were walking down the five flights of stairs.

Sitting with Sweets

This week at school we have shortened periods in order for a "zero period" to be at the end of the day. My school is starting preparations for Annual Day, which is at the end of November, but the Principal and Correspondent take this program very seriously and give the students plenty of time to come up with good acts for the show. This year the theme is "Follow in the Footsteps of the Great Souls." Yesterday during the zero period, all of the students who wanted to participate came into the main hall of the school and sat on the floor, waiting to give their names to the Principal and Correspondent who will put together groups of students for dances, dramas, singing, etc. I sat on the floor for the full hour waiting to be called up, but it didn't happen. There were so many kids waiting that only about half of them were put on the list. I spent most of the time talking with a young girl about India- she's originally from Canada and moved back two years ago, so we had a lot in common to talk about!
Today I gave the Principal and Correspondent gifts for Diwali- some T-shirts and pencils and a pin. I also told the Principal that I wanted to participate in a dance for Annual Day. She said I could! During zero period I got a lesson from my friend Lavanya on Tamil writing. We were sitting in the class, bored, and so I pulled out a sheet of paper and asked her to show me how to write my name. She wrote it down for me and I copied the letters about ten times until I could draw the shapes a little easier.I also learned how to write "mom, dad, Olivia, I love you, beautiful, peace, and happy." The Tamil script is really cool! There are so many curves and circles and shapes that are so different from ANY of the English letters. The sounds and meanings of many words and letters are still very much a mystery to me, but I'm glad to report that I learn at least one thing new every day!
After school when the second bell rang signaling all of the students who ride in a vans to go out to the traffic circle, I went to my class to get my backpack and then headed out with a surge of kids- looking for some of the little girls who ride in my van to stand and talk to while we're waiting. I found three of them and we all stood together in the shade and talked about Indian food. The girls are always curious to know what I eat! We waited...and waited...the van FINALLY showed up at 3:00 p.m.! Forty minutes late! We all piled in and drove a little ways down the street where the driver pulled over and brought out plates of sweets and soda for us! He told us all "Happy Diwali" and we all sat and ate and drank and talked for a few minutes. When everyone had finished (or mostly finished at least!) we continued on, only to be caught up in traffic at the train tracks where we had to wait for about ten minutes for two trains to pass by. All of the kids were starting to complain of being late home when the gates finally went up and we drove slowly through with all of the other traffic. Then there was a bus backing up, but luckily that only took about a minute. I got home today at 3:45 p.m. which is an hour and a half later than usual. Everyone was waiting for me when I got back- the little girls next door and a few friends, Naresh (my host mother's nephew), Pati, and Raji (the maid). Mahesh got home a few minutes later and we had lunch. Now we're off to get some sweets for Diwali, and there is a Diwali party for Rotary tonight that we're going to attend!

Yoga at Sunrise

We stayed overnight outside of Valparai at one of the business men's house named Vinoj. He is the manager of a tea plantation, and therefore stays in the "manager's bungalow" which is basically my dream house. Not only is the home itself gorgeous with the furnishings on the inside and the structure on the outside, but it sits at the top of one of the taller hills among the many covered with tea plants and has a view of the ENTIRE valley below it.
I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and got Rianna up so that we could do some yoga together (we've been planning this for weeks but haven't found the time...) after using the bathroom and having to attempt flushing the toilet twelve times before it worked...it was such a cool toilet! It had a chain hanging from the ceiling to flush it! We went out and said good morning to those with us who were awake and had some tea. Then we watched Vinoj's wife do her morning yoga and got inspired to go out and ACTUALLY do our own. We walked out the back door to the driveway, cleared off a small spot on the cracked cement and faced the sunrise. I then taught Rianna the yoga practice that I had learned in school and we did a few rounds of it together before going back to all of the adults (who were all awake then) and telling them that we were going for a walk among the tea bushes. We set out down the steep hill where they grew and took a hike. We walked among the clusters of green (here they were planted in clusters instead of rows), finding our own paths and taking some photos of each other in the early morning light. We walked halfway around the hill before climbing back up to the house where we packed up our things, got into the car, started out of the driveway and had to stop because of a flat tire at the front right of the car. We all got back out of the car and Suresh, Rianna and I relaxed in the grass lawn for a while before we could leave again.
We went to another house where we had tea and some snacks. It took us awhile to get there but the drive was beautiful, and this house was just as beautiful as the other.
On our way back down the hill later that day, the rain started up and poured on us for a little while before stopping abruptly, just in time for us to stop at "Monkey Falls!" (That is the real name, I promise!) Rianna and I and Ram (the other Rotarian) all got out and hiked around a short bend to a magnificent waterfall- there were people and monkeys EVERYWHERE! Wherever there wasn't a person (usually dripping from their bath in the falls) there was a monkey. We took some photos- me of the falls and myself putting my feet in, and Rianna of all of the monkeys (she LOVES them!). It was so exciting for both of us when, on our way up we stopped at a bend where there were several families of monkeys sitting on the wall. We got out of the car and went up to them- at first they were a little shy, but after only a few moments, they were surrounding us and we even got to shake their tiny grey hands!

"Kissed by an elephant"

After packing a quick bag with nothing but the essentials (that included a jacket that took up most of the backpack...) I was picked up by the Rotarian Suresh and the other exchange student from New York, Rianna. We then went and picked up another Rotary family and all hit the road- headed off for another weekend adventure, and to another hill station called "Valparai" that is located in the Western Ghats (mountain range), but is the opposite direction from Ooty. The drive took around three and a half hours- we first drove through a few small cities and towns (Suresh is a crazy and incredible driver. I was seriously amazed that we managed NOT to hit any of the people, cars, carts, bikes, etc. that were literally centimeters from our car...). Then we started the climb up the mountain, up the forty "hair pin bends" that took us all the way to the top and left us with a view of the valley below. The dam, the towns we had driven through, and the rocky sharp cliffs that surrounded us.
Near the end of the journey up, we stopped at a small shack on the side of the road that was nestled in right next to a small waterfall and hills of tea plants. We all got out and had some lemon tea, served in small paper blue cups that had the logo and the name "Waterfall" printed on the side. Then we continued on. As we went the scenery around us got more and more beautiful, we were driving through hill after hill completely covered in the small green bushes planted in rows that were tea plants. We reached our destination, a clubhouse, just as the sun was beginning to set behind the green hills, the light shining warmly over us for the last part of the day. The clubhouse was awesome! It was recently built with outdoor hallways and everything new! There was a ping pong table (people call it "tt" here for table tennis), a badminton net, a pool table, a kitchen, bar, and even sitting rooms! Rianna and I toured around for a bit before having tea (again- it's so good we can't resist!) and then playing TT. When we finished our game, the party was just getting started in the bar where all of the businessmen and their wives were sitting and chatting. Rianna and I went in and joined in the conversations, telling stories and hearing stories (that were WAY more interesting than ours...) about elephants walking through backyards, and even one about a woman opening her curtains and being face-to-face with the trunk of a massive female. The woman said that her window had been "kissed by an elephant."

School Dance Competition

This morning (Saturday) I got up early to go to school for a dance competition- but, today was going to be quite different from a normal day at school. For one thing, the competition was being held at the old school (which is closer to the apartments where I'm living), I didn't have to wear a uniform (YES!!!), and I was going to school for fun instead of classes!
My host mother dropped Piriyanga and I off at the old school around 8:45 a.m. The competition was supposed to start by 9:00 a.m. but didn't end up starting until around 9:15 a.m. We spent the time before walking around the campus, her showing me her classrooms from when she was in first standard, and watching some of the participants get some last minute practice in.
The competition started- it was a competition between the four "houses" at my school (it's EXACTLY like Harry Potter! There are four houses, competitions between them for points, and at the end of each year the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup!). The houses are Chera, Chola, Pallava and Pandya- all past kings of Tamil Nadu. The dances were really cool, and each involved several different styles of dancing. There was some traditional dances, but also a bit of Michael Jackson thrown in where a few boys were doing the moonwalk! I had fun clapping along to the songs that I knew (that included Beat It and Jai Ho...!) and was in agreement when it was announced at the end that the Chera and Chola houses tied for first place!
After the competition ended, Piriyanga and I were picked up by my host mother and we dropped her off at home. The two of us then went and recharged our phones and my host mother bought a new charger for hers too. It always amazes me the things you can get on the side of the street here- at home I would have to go out across town to get a new cell phone charger, and it would cost around fifteen or twenty dollars, when here I can just walk outside the gates of the apartments to a little store across the street and get one for eighty rupees (a little over a dollar!)!
The weather here still seems the same to me- hot in the mornings and early afternoons with cooler evenings. It's really weird to think that if I was at home right now, not only would it be cold, but the leaves would all be changing colors and it would be an obvious Fall season. I guess it's kinda nice to have summer year round though! I've always been a warmer weather person, and when we went up to Ooty (where it was cold and rainy) everyone was laughing at me because I was so cold all the time! Who knows! Maybe I'm turning into an Indian!

A Day (literally) of Yoga

Today I spent a full three hours doing yoga. Not only did I have two periods at school today that were each forty minutes long, but a yoga class at our apartments started this afternoon and my host mom and I are participating together. At school the yoga contains quick movements, hard poses (depending on the age of the kids in the class the poses get more and more difficult), and of course the eye exercises....I had been told that yoga outside of school would not be so un-relaxing and forced, and the yoga class at the apartment wasn't...at least the whole time.
I got home from school around 3:00 p.m. (half an hour late) after sitting in the crowded and squished van waiting for the train to come for twenty minutes. When we reached the stop, the three of us getting off squeezed out through the legs and backpacks in the small isle and tumbled out onto the dirt road outside the apartments. When I got up to apartment D-13, my host father was sitting on the couch watching the news, and my host mother was in the kitchen cooking the lunch. A few minutes later we all sat down together to have lemon rice and curd rice. Indians will almost always end a meal with curd rice, because it is said to be helpful with digestion. My first two months that I was here I preferred not to have curd rice, but the last week or so there has been a change in my taste buds. Now, curd rice is actually starting to taste good...:)
The yoga class began at 4:30 p.m. and so my host mother and I went down to the clubhouse at the apartments around that time to meet up with two other women and the teacher for the class. The class was in the basement of the clubhouse, and was mostly quiet except for the few small feet that would run by the tiny open windows above. We started the class with Surya Namaskaram, which is a series of poses done with a certain breathing style. At school we also do this exercise, so I could follow along easily except for the chanting at the start. Surya Namaskaram poses are mostly good stretches, but some are difficult, and by the time we had gone through a few rounds, all of us were sweating. We then rested for a few minutes on our backs with our palms facing up, and then started meditation. We meditated for fifteen minutes on our breath, focusing completely on the in and outwards flow of air from our bodies. The teacher put on some relaxing music as well, so it was a nice end to the class.
The music ended and we all folded up our blankets from the cement floor and went up the stairs where I got the treadmill key from the office and everyone else sat down on the couches to rest for a minute. I went up to the gym and closed the doors to block out the sound of the singing class going on next door (all of the students in this class are little girls that live in the apartments), plugged the treadmill into the power source, and did my workout.
When I came back, I showered and my host mother and I made tea. Now we're getting ready to go out to the temple on the hill for a special puja. We'll leave when my host father gets home. Which should be any minute...

Back to Reality (well, reality here!)

I've been launched back into my Indian reality. Yesterday was my first day back at school in a month, and it felt good, but strange to be back doing the same things that I did a month ago. It was almost like I had never been away from it all, and yet I was! I got to do SO many cool things while I was out of school too!
This morning and yesterday, I rode in the van once again along the bumpy narrow streets that were familiar in a vague way, and reached the school at the normal, early time where there are only a few students around campus and it's easy to sit on one of the ledges and just relax in the quiet morning air with some girlfriends. When school started we had our usual assembly and all stood in our usual lines, but somehow, since I've been back for the last two days, school seems so much different. Different in a good way because I finally feel like I know what my schedule will (most likely) be, and I'm starting to even be able to understand what's being taught in class (where before I just sat there being frustrated because I couldn't understand what the heck was going on!)! Today I could do all the math problems in class even! Also, I think that there has been a big change for me socially. Since I went on the two day trip to Kerala with the twelfth grade, I've become a lot closer with the girls in those classes, and I find that I'm always drifting into that hallway at every chance I get to see my friends! I feel comfortable, almost, and it's a really good feeling to know that I'm going to school every day and I'll be able to see my new friends and be happy all the time because honestly, before it was really hard for me to get up and go to school every morning because of how frustrating everything (and everyone) was for me.

Brownies at a Holiday Inn?!

Our last day in Ooty was absolutely gorgeous! Rianna (the other exchange student from New York), her host parents, two other Rotarians and I had all been pretty FREEZING for the first few days, so when we walked out to the car that morning and the sky was clear and the sun was out, we couldn't help but laugh out loud from our happiness!
We went to breakfast first, to a restaurant that we had gone to before, and it was SO crowded! Rianna and I ended up having to sit in a small table in the corner so that we wouldn't have to wait very long to eat! It always amazes me though, how fast the food service is here. Almost every restaurant we go to there is almost no wait to be seated, and you order immediately and the food is sitting in front of you before you can even finish a conversation! It's so fast!
After breakfast, we all drove to the Botanical Gardens that Ooty is famous for. It was a beautiful and HUGE park with paths winding up into the mountain, brilliantly kept green grass, flowers planted in designs, and so many trees! We walked through almost the entire park, climbing high enough to see the entire city below us! On our way around, Rianna and I were stopped several times by people inquiring where we were from and/or wanting to take photos with us. Seeing as we were two blonds, and we were together, this behavior didn't seem to surprise the Rotarians at all. It was fun though, because most of the photos were with young guys or a group of young adults who were crazy! One of the groups had even been to California! When I told them I was from Oregon they got really excited, and when they told me that they had just gotten back and had gone to Disneyland, I was the one who got excited! I love Disneyland!
On our way out of Ooty, we stopped for lunch at a Holiday Inn (it's always fun to see American things here!) where there was a buffet in a restaurant, overlooking all of Ooty and the Nilgiri Mountains. It was an AMAZING lunch! There were even brownies for desert, and when I mixed them with vanilla ice-cream I got some weird looks, but it was SO delicious!
P.S. Photo is of Rianna and I at the gardens!

A Rainy Vacation

I'm in Ooty right now with Rianna in our hotel room, trying to warm up after a morning going around the city in the cold rain and thick white fog. After staying up late into the night talking, we got up this morning and went out to breakfast at a nice hotel where I had an omelet and A LOT of tea! I really love the tea here. It's so sweet because it's made using milk instead of water, and especially in a climate like Ooty where it is cold and rainy it's a great way to warm up.
After breakfast we drove out to the lake and went on a boat ride. Rianna's host father (who is also the Youth Exchange Counselor for the Rotary club), another rotarian, Rianna and I all had a good time on the water, and Rianna and I couldn't help but laugh when her host dad borrowed one of her scarfs to wrap around his head and the other Rotarian came out wearing a pink jacket! When we got off the boats, we went on a short train ride on the Mini Train. We went along the side of the lake for a little while before turning back with a little jolt of the cars.
After finishing up down by the water, we started to walk back up towards the car where the two aunty's' were sitting to keep warm, but decided to go on a horseback ride! It was honestly a little scary...we both mounted up and a man walked the horses up a steep hill to the road and let go of the rains...at first I was really nervous, but my horse and Rianna's just followed one another, and apart from the one time when mine decided to cross the road in front of a bus it was a lot of fun and smiles!
We all piled into the car and took the two aunty's' to a spot where they wanted to do a bit of shopping, and the four of us left continued on up to the highest peak in the Nilgiri Hills- it was a telescope house at the very top! We drove for about ten minutes up narrow, windy streets through a thick cloud of white mist that had settled in among the trees around us. We reached the top and three of us (our group got smaller as everyone got colder!) walked a short way to the look out. Although we couldn't see any of the views, it was a really cool place, and it was a lot of fun when a big group of people insisted REALLY excitedly that Rianna and I take a photo with them! I guess the two of us MIGHT just be the only two blond Americans in all of South India...we definitely got a lot of attention from everyone since we were together!

Jason Mraz Acapella

Yesterday in the morning I spent some time taking a nice rest after my five solid days of travel. I had a lot to catch up on, not only on my blog but in my journal and emails too. Sowbe came over for a few minutes in the morning to copy the photos I had taken on the Kerala trip, but other than that it was a quiet morning. My host mother's mother is here for a few days to visit again. She was visiting a temple in Tiripur (?) and was coming back this way. She got up early to make breakfast for my host mother and I (my host father is in Delhi on business), but she didn't eat with us. Instead, she sat at the table and read and chanted from a book- my host mother told me that she wouldn't eat until she had finished this puja.
In the afternoon, my host mother and I went to Nirmala Women's College for an intercollegiate competition- Ahalya (who I stayed with in Chennai) had gone to this college and her mother is a professor there so we were invited to attend. When we first arrived, we got some snack foods that were available for our lunch and walked around the campus a little bit. There were SO many college kids there, both boys and girls, because of the competition. I definitely was stared at quite a bit...after we had eaten a bit, we went to the auditorium where there was a dance competition happening! I was expecting some group dancing- just average because they're not professional, but boy was I shocked! Not only were ALL of the dance groups AMAZING but the costumes and props were absolutely awesome! They were such good dancers, and the music was all really good too. I couldn't help but dance a little bit in my chair for some of the songs....
We had to leave around 6:30 p.m. to get to a Rotary meeting, so we said good bye to Ahalya's mother and left. We got to the meeting around 6:45 p.m. and....no one at all was there...we waited for a while until people started arriving, but the meeting didn't start until 8:00 p.m.! It was a formal meeting with speakers and the there was a small program afterwards where some of the kids that were there showed off some of their talents. Rianna (the girl from New York) and I decided to do something, maybe sing? We went to the back and listened to a few songs on my ipod, trying to choose one that we could sing and ended up choosing "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz! We sang acapalla, so I don't know exactly how it sounded, but everyone clapped hard at the end! (Who knows though! It could have been because we're foreigners!)