Ok so I dont have much time to write because I'm at an internet cafe adn my friends are leaving soon and this keyboard stinks so I'm just going to highlight somethings. First off, I'm going to be back in the U.S. in 10 days!! Whoa! I dont think I'm ready for that....I'm ready to see all of your lovely faces but not ready for everything else.
I'm in Darjeeling now-googleearth it-its awesome! ...and really cold actually...I may have to invest in a sweatervest :) Tomorrow we are going to go to Tiger Hills and we might see Mt.Everest if it's clear out-how crazy!?! Then on the 19th we shall go to Varanasi then Agra then Delhi before coming back to M-lore before the U.S.A.
Kolkata was awesome-an eye-oping experience for sure.
ok sooo now they are leaving so now I am too....
Monday, April 19, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
My Friday
Well I wasnt planning on blogging so quickly after just blogging but I feel like a lot happened today.
I started my day off by going to Vishwas and celebrating Felseys birthday with watermelon and a spicy treat with chutney on the side. This chutney had coconut, chili pepper and some other stuff too :) Then I was able to talk to one of the older men there who spoke really good English. He has 2 sons, one in Australia and one in Kuwait. So then I was sitting there in my pajama pants (which I recently found out that the pants that I wear every week to field placement are basically sweat pants or PJs. Thanks guys for telling me. hahaha ohh India) when Olinda, the director, asked me what I was doing. Well, I had been sitting on the couch talking and twidling my thumbs for a while and she had been watching me so I was a little confused at the situation. So I just mumbled something incoherent. This is when she invited me to a Hindu wedding...in 5 minutes. Hahaha so of course I went :)
At 12:30 we left for this Hindu wedding which was supposed to start at 12:20, so naturally we left at 12:30. IST time. Indian Standard Time also equals Indian Stretchable Time. We arrived and the bride actually came right up to us. I found out later this was interesting because Hindus usually just sit on the stage and don't interact with the guests right away. This bride was from a tribe but had become educated and was getting married. It was an arranged marriage. She is doing really well for herself and has gone through a lot of schooling. Her tribe used to be in the jungle a while ago but now they are integrating more with others and that's how she was educated. So then the actual ceremony was sometime in the past 5 days, it was apparently a 5 or so day celebration. So we got there and went up to the stage and sprinkled rice on each of their heads and then shook their hands to give them our congrats. Then of course, we got our picture taken with the bride and groom on stage. Sadly I did not get this picture but they had a professional photographer taking them....so I will forever be in their wedding album...in my PJS. the white girl who came to their wedding. :) But then we ate delicious food and left. We ended up only being there for maybe 50 minutes or so but it was really neat seeing all the colorful and sooo beautiful sarees.
Then I went back to Vishwas and I got to watch a guy climb a few coconut trees. The house across the street was having some of the coconuts taken down because they fall onto the house and cause a ruckus of sorts. I'm actually not entirely sure that is what was going on but that's my hypotesis. I tried asking some people and no answers were given. The people saw me creeping on them and offered me some mango though. sweeet!
After that fun thing I went home, tried to pack, failed, then returned to Vishwas for dinner. Annie and I went over and we ate with Olinda, Jacinta, Selina and this guy who is a law student in Mangalore. It was a nice little dinner with yet again, delicious food! yum! We had chicken with something curd-like on top, this rice dish with cashews and rasins in it, a curry made of dates and onions nad rasins and other stuff and we had homemade wine. Everyone makes their wine here.
Now its night time and I only have tomorrow until 7ish at night left here in this house...and guess who still has a loooot of packing to do? Hmmmm. Well, I shall sleep now and pack tomorrow. Then Bangalore here we cooooooooooooooome!
I started my day off by going to Vishwas and celebrating Felseys birthday with watermelon and a spicy treat with chutney on the side. This chutney had coconut, chili pepper and some other stuff too :) Then I was able to talk to one of the older men there who spoke really good English. He has 2 sons, one in Australia and one in Kuwait. So then I was sitting there in my pajama pants (which I recently found out that the pants that I wear every week to field placement are basically sweat pants or PJs. Thanks guys for telling me. hahaha ohh India) when Olinda, the director, asked me what I was doing. Well, I had been sitting on the couch talking and twidling my thumbs for a while and she had been watching me so I was a little confused at the situation. So I just mumbled something incoherent. This is when she invited me to a Hindu wedding...in 5 minutes. Hahaha so of course I went :)
At 12:30 we left for this Hindu wedding which was supposed to start at 12:20, so naturally we left at 12:30. IST time. Indian Standard Time also equals Indian Stretchable Time. We arrived and the bride actually came right up to us. I found out later this was interesting because Hindus usually just sit on the stage and don't interact with the guests right away. This bride was from a tribe but had become educated and was getting married. It was an arranged marriage. She is doing really well for herself and has gone through a lot of schooling. Her tribe used to be in the jungle a while ago but now they are integrating more with others and that's how she was educated. So then the actual ceremony was sometime in the past 5 days, it was apparently a 5 or so day celebration. So we got there and went up to the stage and sprinkled rice on each of their heads and then shook their hands to give them our congrats. Then of course, we got our picture taken with the bride and groom on stage. Sadly I did not get this picture but they had a professional photographer taking them....so I will forever be in their wedding album...in my PJS. the white girl who came to their wedding. :) But then we ate delicious food and left. We ended up only being there for maybe 50 minutes or so but it was really neat seeing all the colorful and sooo beautiful sarees.
Then I went back to Vishwas and I got to watch a guy climb a few coconut trees. The house across the street was having some of the coconuts taken down because they fall onto the house and cause a ruckus of sorts. I'm actually not entirely sure that is what was going on but that's my hypotesis. I tried asking some people and no answers were given. The people saw me creeping on them and offered me some mango though. sweeet!
After that fun thing I went home, tried to pack, failed, then returned to Vishwas for dinner. Annie and I went over and we ate with Olinda, Jacinta, Selina and this guy who is a law student in Mangalore. It was a nice little dinner with yet again, delicious food! yum! We had chicken with something curd-like on top, this rice dish with cashews and rasins in it, a curry made of dates and onions nad rasins and other stuff and we had homemade wine. Everyone makes their wine here.
Now its night time and I only have tomorrow until 7ish at night left here in this house...and guess who still has a loooot of packing to do? Hmmmm. Well, I shall sleep now and pack tomorrow. Then Bangalore here we cooooooooooooooome!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Recently in Mangalore....
Guess what happened today?!?! IT RAINED!!! It was the first time since I've gotten here and it was awesome!! There had been dark clouds for most of the day off and on and then we started hearing thunder around 6 pm....we checked outside and realized it was just the motorcycle shop next door. Bummer. Then about a half an hour later Mary, one of my roommates screams 'RAIN' at the top of her lungs and we all bolt outside and just soaked up the rain. It only lasted a few minutes but it was cooler rain than I expected.
I got back from Goa 2? days ago and it was fabulous :) Goa. A beautiful, very toursity part of India. It's kinda tourist season for the Indians right now and so there were plenty of them there. We were expecting to see a lot of white tourists there but alas, since it isn't really holiday time for the Americans/Europeans/Australians right now, we saw a few hippies but mostly just Indians. Saturday evening we all went to Easter Vigil mass at this outdoor church. It was huge and there were so many people there. It was a catholic service and it started at 11 pm. It was longer than I thought it would be...they let out around 2:30 am...but it was cool being there at night. The sky is always beautiful here so I loved that. They had a choir too and they used a keyboard to accompany us all. Haha it was great. Easter day we spent at the beach which was like out of a commercial. Ridiculous. However, since it was a BCA excursion, BCA pays (well they pay what we have already paid them) for everything except for any souveniors we want. So we decided to live it up. We all felt so pampered. We had food on the beach-with the sand under our feet-and I just got to sit there and read while soaking in the rays. Crazzzzy awesome! Ok so then Monday we went to 2 NGOS. One was called SCAN which stands for 'Stop Child Abuse Now'. They seem to be very proactive and are trying to bring a lot of awareness to Goa. They help adolescents mostly-some that are juvenile deliquents and some that are being abused. Then we went to an NGO that helps women who are being trafficked or were trafficked. They help get them out of the vicious cycle and back on their feet. They have a rehab center for them where they work and do laundry for big corporations. They looked like they were both doing a lot of good work. We ended the trip shopping for hippie clothes :) Hahahaha I plan on coming back dressed like hippie to the max! haha ohh yeah!
I finished my exams today too. We had one yesterday and 2 today....each 3 hours long...uggh. But they are done so I'm happy! Tomorrow I go to Vishwas all day and I think they're having a tea party for us. Then Saturday I go there in the morning and then at 7:45pm we all board the train for Bangalore for our last excursion. It's going to be crazy there, like always. We are visiting Mysore for a day, visiting a few NGOs one day and shopping another day. Then I embark on the trip up north until the end of April...I can't believe it's April already! So then I come back for one full day and then I'm leavin' on a jet plane :)
I got back from Goa 2? days ago and it was fabulous :) Goa. A beautiful, very toursity part of India. It's kinda tourist season for the Indians right now and so there were plenty of them there. We were expecting to see a lot of white tourists there but alas, since it isn't really holiday time for the Americans/Europeans/Australians right now, we saw a few hippies but mostly just Indians. Saturday evening we all went to Easter Vigil mass at this outdoor church. It was huge and there were so many people there. It was a catholic service and it started at 11 pm. It was longer than I thought it would be...they let out around 2:30 am...but it was cool being there at night. The sky is always beautiful here so I loved that. They had a choir too and they used a keyboard to accompany us all. Haha it was great. Easter day we spent at the beach which was like out of a commercial. Ridiculous. However, since it was a BCA excursion, BCA pays (well they pay what we have already paid them) for everything except for any souveniors we want. So we decided to live it up. We all felt so pampered. We had food on the beach-with the sand under our feet-and I just got to sit there and read while soaking in the rays. Crazzzzy awesome! Ok so then Monday we went to 2 NGOS. One was called SCAN which stands for 'Stop Child Abuse Now'. They seem to be very proactive and are trying to bring a lot of awareness to Goa. They help adolescents mostly-some that are juvenile deliquents and some that are being abused. Then we went to an NGO that helps women who are being trafficked or were trafficked. They help get them out of the vicious cycle and back on their feet. They have a rehab center for them where they work and do laundry for big corporations. They looked like they were both doing a lot of good work. We ended the trip shopping for hippie clothes :) Hahahaha I plan on coming back dressed like hippie to the max! haha ohh yeah!
I finished my exams today too. We had one yesterday and 2 today....each 3 hours long...uggh. But they are done so I'm happy! Tomorrow I go to Vishwas all day and I think they're having a tea party for us. Then Saturday I go there in the morning and then at 7:45pm we all board the train for Bangalore for our last excursion. It's going to be crazy there, like always. We are visiting Mysore for a day, visiting a few NGOs one day and shopping another day. Then I embark on the trip up north until the end of April...I can't believe it's April already! So then I come back for one full day and then I'm leavin' on a jet plane :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
