Patience

Today I woke up around 7:00 p.m. and tried to sleep longer, but, as you may guess, it is so hot here in the morning that I wake up sweating and therefore cannot fall back to sleep. At around nine o'clock I got to skype with my family! Even my sister's best friend Abby was there! I was really happy that I got to talk with all of them, it definitely helps to have a support system at home when I am attempting something so different and sometimes overwhelming.
My host mother had to go into her office today to work, and so I was left alone with Pati (my host mother's mother) who doesn't speak any English. I spent those few hours watching the only American movies my host family had on my laptop (The Wedding Planner and Pirates of the Caribbean). When Mahesh got home from work, and Surya from school, the three of us went to the Vidhya Niketan school to fill out my application and paperwork (this time the principal was there!) and so we waited for a little while outside the office. One of the lessons that I've learned while being here is to be patient. For, as my wise liaison Sara Marvin once said "You cannot control India. India controls you." I've found that this statement is incredibly true- and an example of it was today when we had been waiting outside the office for about ten minutes, the Owner of the school arrived, and then we had to wait another ten minutes for her to have tea, before being called in a few minutes later. Patience is key here. Some things are very easy to get here while others are very difficult. I've learned to be very patient over the last few days before I begin school because I don't have too much on my mind right now (although I have a feeling that all of that will change when I begin school tomorrow)!
After discussing a few things with the Principal and Owner, it was decided that I could begin school tomorrow! - but we have to go back tomorrow to fill out the application. I'm excited to go to school and see what it's like. I've heard a few things that make me a little nervous; one being that I am taking three of the hardest sciences, and two, that the teachers will sometimes teach in half-Tamil, half-English. The principal seems to think that I'll do fine though!
After finishing up there, we went to a store where I got two pairs of shoes for my uniform (a black pair, and a white pair for sports). It seems funny to me that the schools have uniforms all the way down to socks and shoes- it's so different from what I'm used to!
After that we went to a sweet shop. Sweet shops are very different from the U.S. First off, none of the sweets are at all similar to those that I am familiar with- they are sweets, but they are not very sweet!! I had a mango juice called "Slice" which was very good, and then I found something with a recognizable name, but NOT a recognizable package! A Kit-Kat!
After buying the sweets, we went home and I went to the gym for a while. When I came back, I showered and was then invited by Mitu (the elder little girl next door) to come and watch her practice the dance that she's learning! It was fun to watch- I think that I will join her class next week, and I'm excited because it looks fun! I'm glad that the two little girls are finally warming up to me, it is nice that they will talk to me now instead of just smiling shyly and running away!

Beaten Up By Shopping

This morning I woke up early as usual (since I've been here I haven't been able to sleep for more than seven hours a night) around 7:00 a.m. I went out into the living room and my host mother asked me if I was hungry- I told her yes, and that I would like to have the cereal that I had gotten at the Nilgiri store a few days ago. After serving myself the cereal, my host mother handed me a cup filled with hot milk- I looked at it confused and she asked "you like your cereal with milk?" I nodded and she walked away. Well, I thought, I might as well try it. The hot milk made the cereal warm and soft, and it tasted a lot like oatmeal, which was OK with me!
After breakfast I got onto my computer to see if I could catch my family online, and after a little while I got lucky! I was soooooo glad that I got to talk with them! When I started out going after this goal of mine, I thought it would be easy to be away from home, but, the truth is that you don't realize how much you love what you had until you've lost it. I wanted so badly to get out of little Ashland, and I've been here only a full week and I'm already missing the peacefulness of that beautiful little town.
Surya's friend Piriryanga then came over to go shopping with me Mahesh and Pratheeba, and so I got ready to go- only to be told that we weren't leaving for a few hours......When we did finally go, it was definitely a new experience. Shopping in India is nothing like back home- first of all, there are hundreds of people in every store (like black friday almost!), and there are only a few sizes to choose from. Once you've found a size that works, an employee will show you a few styles of the same size so that you can choose. Once you've chosen, you give the things you want to the employee and they give you a receipt. You then go to a counter and pay for the things and they stamp your receipt, and then you finally go to another counter where behind there are shelves full of bags with numbers on them. You hand one of the employees your stamped receipt, and then they will hand you back your bag of clothes. I guess that the strategy of all of this may be good because it definitely kept people a little separated.
We shopped for about two hours, and I go a few Kurtas (knee-length shirts), a few longer shirts, and a pair of pants. The pants here are very Alladin style- they float out all over the place!
When everyone started to get hungry around 3:00 p.m. we decided to stop shopping and go to lunch. We were in a store with a few story's, and so we had to go down a few flights of stairs. Now, all of the flooring here is marble, and it is QUITE a bit dusty, so, when my shoe slipped on the stair, I took quite a tumble down on my back. Luckily I went feet first, or my few bruises could have been worse! It was so embarrassing! Already everyone stares at me all the time, and when that hapened I'm sure I turned bright red and the rest of the people in the store turned to stare at the klutzy American!
After lunch we ran a few errands for Mahesh and then returned home so that Pratheeba could pack up her things. Their bus to take them back home to Chennai cam at 7:45 p.m., and so Mahesh and I took Piriyanga home and then dropped the couple off at the bus station.
I am now getting ready for bed- it's 9:00 p.m. and my host family is having dinner, a meal that I am MUCH too tired and full for.
My camera died last night so I won't be able to upload any recent pictures any time soon, but I am searching for a converter that won't blow up all of my electronics! I hope everyone is well!

Kissed by an Elephant

Today my host family, Pratipa and Santosh visited a few of the many temples in Coimbatore. We had lunch at a hotel where I had fried rice and a mango milkshake (what I know as a mango lassi is actually called a milkshake here. Lassi's are drinks that contain curds). After lunch we drove for a little while to a temple called The Patteeswarar Temple. This temple was under construction to maintain it's 2,000 year old existence, but luckily we could still go inside most of the rooms. In this temple is where I got to watch my first big religious ceremony, and also where I was kissed on the head by an elephant. When we first walked into the temple, my hot father asked me "Madi, how many elephants have you seen before in your life?" I told him that I had seen a few, and then I saw an elephant not ten feet from me! His long tusk was slightly painted with lines with ash from the religious burning for the Gods, and he was HUGE! My host brother Surya handed me a coin and told me to give it to the elephant, and so I placed it inside it's trunk and the elephant started trying to touch me with it's trunk- I was confused and so I moved backwards, and then I saw another woman give the elephant a coin and realized what I was supposed to do. I took out another coin and handed it to the elephant, bowing my head as it gently "kissed" the top of my head (as a blessing).
The religious ceremonies here are very interesting, I got to watch a few and participate in a few also. What happens is there is a statue of a God or Goddess (the Patteeswarar Temple is a temple for Shiva) and there are a few religious men who work at the temple. People who come to watch stand around a fenced off area and observe or pray as the men cover the statue with flowers (gifts from the audience) and use fire in a bowl to circle around the front of the statue's head a few times, all while chanting a mantra and ringing a bell.
After spending some time in the first temple, we drove for a while through fields and fields covered completely with palm trees and banana trees. As we drove, the sun was setting in the distance over the Nilgiri Hills, and as it was getting darker, Pratipa pointed out some lights in the distance on one of the hills- another temple, the one we were headed for. When we got to the foot of the hills, there was a street filled with vendors and so we stopped to have a coconut. I've never had the chance to drink coconut milk strait from the husk, and neither have I ever eaten soft coconut from the inside, and it was a very odd sensation. The milk is almost like drinking water with some dust added to it, and the meat of it tasted the same and the the texture of raw fish. Of course, I was offered the biggest coconut, and when I couldn't finish it all, I had to have my host brother help me out a bit!
The temple that was settled in the Nilgiri's was called The Murugan Temple, and no surprise it is a temple to worship Murugan, the son of Shiva who was a brave warrior. We went again to one of the ceremonies, and this time I bought a lotus flower as an offering- we got to sit down inside the gate during this ceremony, and it was performed in the same way. When these ceremonies are finished, the religious men will walk out inside the gate with the bowl that held the flame. Each person will place a small amount of money on the plate, and then the man will give you a pinch of ash from the burnings in your hand. You then transfer the ash from your right hand to your left and using your index finger, rub a bit of the ash onto the center of your forehead. When the ceremony was over at the second temple, we started to get up and a man came over and put a lei made of jazmine flowers into my hand. I asked Pratipa what it was for, and she smiled and said "it is a flower from earlier in the day- one that Marugan has already blessed! It is good luck, they only give a few out at random and they are said to be auspicious. Well then, that's two things that have signaled good luck for me in the past few days, the lizard climbing up my leg, and now the lei too!
We finished off the evening with dinner at another restaurant, and for the first time I got to eat off of a BANANA LEAF!!! I had been excitedly waiting for the moment to happen since I found out that it is common to eat from the giant leaves!
Now it is 11:00 p.m. exactly, and the family is going to finish off the day with a few card games!

Corny Music That Triggered Homesickness :(

Yesterday was yet another day for many new things (I suspect a lot of my time here will be filled with that)! My host mother, brother and I went shopping at a store here in Coimbatore called "Nilgiri's" for some "American style" foods that I can eat (my host mother seems to think I'm starving myself because she always wants me to eat during the day!) for snacks throughout the day. We got all types of things including pancakes, maple syrup, nutella, orange juice and oatmeal! I think that I'm going to make pancakes for my family and their guests this morning!
In the morning yesterday my host father and I went out to pick up his niece and his niece's new husband (their names are Pratipa and Santo) that will be staying with us for a few days. They are a newly married couple, and they both are very nice!
Suya, Mahesh and I also visited a museum yesterday that is all about a man who (basically) founded Coimbatore. The museum was a HUGE room filled with glass cases that were bursting with all of this guy's collections! I swear, this guy collected everything! He liked to collect every model made of many different electronics including cameras, copy machines, record players, etc.
Last night the family went out with some friends to celebrate Surya's going away (he's going on exchange to Phylomath, Oregon). There were several of the same families who were at Mahesh's sister's house, and then a few of Surya's friends and their families. The restaurant was located in a hotel (probably one of the nicest buildings in Coimbatore) and was a buffet style. I tried a litlle of everything and had my first taste of some spicy food (my host mother has been really careful not to burn my mouth yet)! It was a fun night (that went REALLY late and had me falling over into my food) of new faces, newer faces, brand new faces, a constant buzz of Tamil chatter (with the occasional English thrown in for me) and corny American music being played over and over again (songs including Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, and Barbie Girl) that were making me a bit homesick!

A Day of Many Firsts

Yesterday was my first full day here in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. I woke up around 6:15 a.m. (unfortunately because of jet-lag I haven't been sleeping through the entire night) and had what my host mother (Mahesh) calls "milk," but it is really heated milk with sugar and a chocolate powder, so basically hot chocolate that tastes a little different.
After my milk, my host father (Prabak) and I went to the gym here at the apartments. It is small, but it has a treadmill and a few weight machines. The thing about going to the gym here is that it has to be early in the morning or at night because of the heat. The heat here is not THAT overwhelming, but the intense humidity definitely makes it hard to cope with at certain times of the day.
I then showered in my host family's shower for the first time. The showers in India are quite a bit different than those in the USA- there is no separation or screen between where the toilet is and where the shower is, and so everything gets wet. You also have to turn on the water heater for three or four minutes before you can take a shower with any heat. Showers here are called "baths" and if someone is going to take a shower, they say "I'm going to bathe." (see pictures of the shower on my facebook page)
After that, Mahesh, Prabak and I had a breakfast of idli's and a tomatoe mixture with spices (that I can't remember the name of). Idli is eaten very often for any meal, it is basically rice, water, and something else grinded together to form a paste that is shaped into a disc. They don't taste like much by themselves, but they are used to dip into any other sauce which will give them taste.
Prabak then left for work, and Mahesh and I had a few hours to ourselves to chat, work, and read. Mahesh works for a Sweedish cosmetics company called "Oriflame" and she is the manager of the office here in Coimbatore, so her phone rings a lot.
When Surya (my host brother) got home from school, the three of us took a trip to the Vidhya Niketan school that I will be attending in order to talk with the principal and fill out admission forms. Unfortunately when we got there, the principal was gone for the day, so Mahesh took Surya and I to a restaurant where I got a "Vegetarian Burger." It was actually really good, and it was even a bit spicy! After eating, we went to a bangle shop (there were SOOOOO many bangles!) and Mahesh bought some for me and for Surya's friend Piriyanga as a gift from her sister (whose house we were going to for dinner). After making that purchase we walked a little ways to a shop where Mahesh insisted on buying me an Indian skirt. There were a few patterns to choose from, and I ended up getting one with a black, brown, blue, orange pattern of elephants, camels, and other things. The skirts here are tied around the waist (the waist as in the smallest part of your waist) and are worn under a long shirt.
We then came back to the apartment to pick up the two little girls and their mother who live next door to come to Mahesh's sister's house. Mahesh's sister was having many people over for a puja, which is basically a celebration of well-being in the Tamil month that we are in. In this Tamil month, fridays are auspicious and so the puja is done on a friday. Many of my host family's relatives came, and also a few of their friends including Piriyanga and Praveen who are Surya's best friends. We spent a lot of the night talking together, and then we ate dinner and left. It was fun talking with all of the kids and their parents, here in India the families are a lot closer than in the USA. The children are not really friends with anyone who is not a friend of the parent, and any outings that the kids want to go on is USUALLY accompanied by their parents (the kids are allowed to go buy themselves, but the families prefer to stay together a lot of the time). I also got to see (or rather hear) my first Indian fireworks! They are really not anything like those is the US- they are not pretty in the slightest, but rather as loud as possible. The older cousins lit off a few different kinds of "bombs" that sounded like gunshots that just got louder and louder (my ears hurt for a little while after that. Praveen even told me that there is one "bomb" that's vibrations can be felt over thirty feet away!

p.s. Dad- yes! I saw my first cow in the road on the way to Mahesh's sister's house. I've also seen a lot of dogs, goats, and chickens!

I'm in India!

I am officially (and very tiredly) in India! My flights were incredibly long- I flew from Portland to Minneapolis/St. Paul (a four hour flight), then literally sprinted to my next gate and boarded for Amsterdam (a seven and a half hour flight), had a three hour layover, boarded another plane to Mumbai (a nine and a half hour flight). The first two I didn't sleep at all- the third I slept through almost completely, a good thing since there was no in-flight entertainment and I was seated behind five screaming children!
When I arrived in Mumbai, I left the two other Rotary girls with a Mr. Ganesham (he works for my host father) and he took me to a hotel near the other airport that I would be flying out of the next morning. Since the hours here in India are opposite from in the U.S., I didn't exactly sleep very much- not to mention the fact that I was alone and scared shitless about what I was attempting to do.
I flew to my host city for the year, Coimbatore, this morning. A perfect two hour length flight. When I arrived at the airport, my host parents, and some of the Rotary members from my club had come to meet me with flowers, and we spent a few minutes taking pictures before I went off with my host mother and father.
I absolutely love the apartment that I'm living in. Every inch of this place smells like Jazmine. Because I'm grimy from traveling and the water has been out (therefore I haven't showered), I haven't had the courage to venture outside in the courtyard, or walk around a bit to check it out. I plan on doing that first thing in the morning- after showering.
India is everything I expected- plus about ten trillion pounds more! It is very hectic, and there is a constant buzz of people and traffic no matter where you are. There are animals in the streets, and there really are no traffic rules. Cars go whichever way they want, honking at smaller traffic to get out of the way because, after all, the biggest vehicle will always win!

Counting Down Days!

As June slowly comes to an end, my date of departure slides closer and closer. I am scheduled to leave around the 15th of July - less than three weeks away! The reality of everything I'm about to do hit me in a way this morning when I dropped my best friend off at the Medford Airport at 5:30 AM. My friend was one of the people who had a big part in my inspiration for this experience, because, while we were in eighth grade, her and her family of five left to sail around French Polynesia for a year. During that time, our friendship remained. We kept in touch through email and blog, and I even got to talk with her on the phone at one point while she was in Tahiti!
This morning, my friend flew off again to visit Tahiti for the summer, and we had to say goodbye. It was hard, but, I'm guessing that it was in a way special because it was my first (and one of the most important) goodbye.
When Savannah walked through the security gate this morning, I was hit with a blast of reality. I realized that this EXACT moment was not long awaiting in my future as I waved goodbye and blew her a kiss.
Some might be worried that our friendship could go a different way during the year while I'm gone, however, I am not worried in the slightest. Savannah and I have been best friends since we were about three years old, and she is my oldest and closest friend. The two of us know eachother extremely well, and especially because we've been away from eachother for a year before, I truely do believe that our friendship will prosper for years to come.