Isha Yoga Center

I know India is supposed to be the birthplace of yoga, but I think that might be North India, at least more than the South. Here, I haven't even practiced it once, to my severe disappointment. My host family suggested I visit this place about an hour away, called Isha Yoga Center. It is located in the Nilgiris foothills and is a place of meditation, yoga, and pureness of the soul. Before entering the meditation dome, or Dhyanalingam, you must first do some exercises to make your mind more receptive. The first was to see a statue, which I honestly didn't really understand. We brought a basket of offerings, which included a coconut, some sweet, some special leaves, and other sacred things, into the cave-like area. There was a weapon that belonged to Lord Shiva, with bands tied around the center of it. The bands were mustard yellow, and signified marriage. I think you were supposed to have a long and happy marriage if you tied them.

Our next stop began with me removing all my clothing and slipping into a dress provided by the center to dip in a sacred pool. It was a large underground vault with a sphere of solidified mercury which they referred to as "Shivalingam". It was partly submerged in water which was the temperature of the Punchbowl in springtime. There were only a handful of ladies (ladies and gents have seperate timings) which were there with me, so it was easy to concentrate while touching the Shivalingam and shivering. Above was a beautiful mural painted on the ceiling of the Tamil people's history.

The dome-shaped meditation hall was dark and cave-like, lit only by oil lamps brought as offerings to the Dhyanalingam. There were 15-minute intervals during which you were supposed to meditate and maintain pin-drop silence. I got to sit in one of the little pockets along the side of the wall, so I was surrounded closely by three walls, the purpose of which was to feel the vibrations more effectively. Visiting Isha was definitely an enlighening experience which will stick with me for the rest of my life, and I am thankful for it. I am looking into their long-term classes for learning yoga and/or meditation.

Kattampaty

My Rotary club here has "adopted" a rural government school nearby Coimbatore to fund, and I was lucky enough to get to see it the other day! We drove an hour to the edge of my city, where we found the school which kids come to from at least twenty different rural villages nearby. My first glimpse of it was neat lines of about fourty students sitting on the dirt assembly area, writing on clipboards. I later found out that this was the tenth grade students who were taking extra special classes to prepare them for the board exam which every student takes in 10th and 12th. It's something like our ACTs, but they are literally tested on the entire textbook for each subject and the students have to answer exactly as the book says. 10th and 12th grade students rarely have time for anything for studying; Instead of going to art class or playing with friends they have to just sit at home and memorize the textbook so they do well and can pass into eleventh or college. I think most of these kids go home and help their families work, though.

While waiting for their morning class to be over, my host took me on a tour of the school and showed me the bathrooms they renovated for girls (boys just use the open air) and a drinking water station, which provides the children with safe, drinkable water. They had a special assembly for us, during which they recited some songs, the national anthem, and salutes. It was really.. bizzare to see the discipline of students even in first grade. They all came in very straight, organized lines, moving their arms in unison. There was no noise, and no slacking of any sort as they stood still for more than a half hour- so different from Aspen where we slouch into the dome eating and talking with no sence of discipline. I gave a small speech to the 350 students, teachers, and principle and was honored enough to raise the Indian flag. As we were leaving, all the students from the front part of the school crowded around me trying to shake my hand and talk to me. Some asked my name, my age, or where I was from, while others just looked at me. It was unnerving to be treated "like Queen Elizabeth," as my host put it.

The visit really inspired me to do some service, something I have been very adamant about since day one in India. Unfortunately, I need the permission and coordination of Rotary to do that and it hasn't happened yet. So to take matters into my own hands I am visiting the school again tomorrow to distribute sweets and pencils for Christmas. I know it's nothing big, but it makes me feel happy, and it will hopefully be a nice gesture to the children.

New Family

Two weeks ago I moved into a new family for a short period of time. They are a family of four active Rotarians and South Indian vegetarians, and as I discovered on my first morning, quite religious. They are Hindus, who have a religious practice which they follow for an hour and a half each and every morning. When I first heard this I thought, "Every day? What a waste of time!" But my host explained it as an hour and a half every day during which you see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil, which I thought was a great way of looking at it. They compared their Gods to children, which must be washed and fed every day, while listening to important mantras and chanting, some of which they sing along to.

The ritual begins by washing the previous day's decoration in water out of a copper bowl (everything is copper, because it is a metal which has cleansing powers). Then, he scrubs each of the four silver statues which represent Ganesha (the remover of obstacles), Shiva (the destroyer), a couple who I forget the name of, and one more of their family diety, the Goddess of Power. Then they are all bathed in milk which is considered very pure, and again rinsed with water. The cleansing process being over, they next move on to the decoration process, which begins with flower offerings and red and orange powder being put as a bindi on their forheads, hands and feet. From here commenses the personal prayers and sometimes prostration before the pooja area. It was a very... different lifestyle than what I have seen before, but so cool to be able to witness it.

South India Tour Part II

The group really wanted to go out to these two islands just off the coast of Kan Yakumari, so we stayed an extra day in order to be able to do that. The five minute ferry dropped us first at a temple on a small island. It was a place where a man named Swami had meditated for 30 days; I meditated there for an hour. It was really something, meditating in India finally! Then we ferried over to the next island two minutes away where there was a huge statue of Swami, I'm pretty sure. We climbed up the foreboding staircase with water dripping down unexpectedly out into the open air at the statue's feet. His big toe was larger than two of my feet put together. After being out in the sun all morning, we returned to the cool A/C of the bus with tons of Aloe lotion for our lobstered faces.

The bus headed for the next beach town of Tamil Nadu- Kovalam. It was a beautiful, and, above all, clean stretch of beach that was surprisingly uncrowded. I think this is due to the fact that many Indians have never learned to swim. I don't know why, but I think there are very few. Indeed, all the Indians in the water were staying where the water only covered mid-thigh, which was great because it left all the good body-surfing waves to us. After an unfortunate number of "nasal cleanses", I retired to shopping with Julia along the colorful stretch of beach. With a "Madam, please" here and a "looking is free" there, here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a "sister, good price for you only". Old McAnna had $80, and how she watched it go.  Every girl on the trip got these awesome pants that were like a skirt with the middle sown together. Two holes at either corner of the fabric triangle made room for your feet.

Next day we crossed the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border and headed for the backwaters, where we took a boat to our island hotel. Just a small island in a big river, and a 1.5 hour wait for your dinner. After the food I was the first to get a traditional Kerala massage, but I was sadly disappointed. It took place on a wooden table where this lady rubbed at least 1/2 kilo of coconut oil on me. Not BAD, but surprisingly dangerous as I found out when I was asked to roll onto my side and almost slipped off. Consequently, I had coconut oil in places it should never be (ears and belly button). After listening to one of the two boys' accounts of his massage, I am so contented with mine. He wasn't too psyched about the full naked man-to-man oil rubbing.

We visited a few other towns, but I don't remember their names or what we did so obviously they weren't of much consequence. The last two days were spent near Kochin. We woke up at 6 in the morning to drive an hour and go wash elephants in one of the backwaters, but to our severe disappointment, we arrived too late. We got to see the babies eating, though, which I thought was cool. They wrap their trunk around a bamboo branch and pull off all the leaves to eat. So we packed up, ate cucumber sandwiches, and headed off on another long drive to a waterfall. The last day of the trip we went to an old palace. The guide said that the palace was only in use for one year, and had just been re-opened after sixty-something years for tourists. The architecture was amazing-all the dragons, dancers, lotuses, and so many other designes carved into the ceilings was by itself stunning. And with that our trip ended and the three of us Coimbatorians headed back home.

South India Tour Part I

The trip began on November 17, a wonderful Wednesday. We three Coimbatorians- Julia from upstate New York, Oskar from Germany, and myself- took my first train ride to Bangalore to meet the other exchange students. They had gone to a zoo to see elephants and tigers and other Indian animals and so we didn't meet them until dinner. It was such a relief to meet other "inbounders". The next day we drove in a big bus to a place called Mysore, which is pretty close to Coimbatore. There we went to a bird sanctuary and, although it wasn't much, we saw crocodiles chilling on rocks and a bunch of white ibuses. Then we continued to our hotel before going to a lights and sound show later that evening. The show was about fifteen minutes of Hindi music with a fountain shooting up in different patterns out of a pool, illuminated by colored lights. It was pretty cool... I was impressed.

Next we went to Ooty which was about 40 degrees F, and freezing! We didn't do much there except see a waterfall on the drive and go shopping for a while in the night- only the first of the two-week shopping spree. 

On Friday we traveled back down the Nilgiris (meaning blue mountains) to our hometown of Coimbatore where we met Julia's Rotary club and had dinner with them after a long meeting. Julia and I went shopping. 

Saturday we spend almost completely in the bus, traveling to Madurai. This was one of my favorite places because our hotel was in the middle of the city and only a few blocks away from the famous Meenakshi Temple. It was a huge temple, with five entrances each made of an enormous..... tower of sculptures about eight stories high. It's difficult to describe, but it was so beautiful. Our group stood in the long line to enter the interior of the temple. I saw two camels for the first time... exciting! Inside was a beautiful pond and fountain in the very center under the open sky. The painted ceiling covered the dozens and dozens of God statues and symbols to pray to and gift. There was a painted elephant somewhere in the enormous space, and I got a goofy picture with it. It's trunk touched my head just as the pic was taken and I was a little freaked out. The group split up after this and migrated towards the more attractive tourist shops, or, in Julia and my case to the ice cream shop. 

Sunday was another long day in the bus. This time we traveled for another eight hours, more or less, to the southernmost tip of the subcontinent. It was a town named Kan Yakumari. The interesting name was explained to us by our tour guide: Kanya means virgin, and kumari means girl. It was named after a girl who was so in love with Lord Shiva she vowed never to marry or have any relation to a man unless it was Lord Shiva. Poor woman never got her dream. So they named a town after her, and wow it was so beautiful. We got there just as the torrential downpour started, so we weren't able to do our tour. The 18 of us tried to wait out the rivers that ran along the small streets, but after an hour we spotted a Baskin Robbins. What American would choose freezing in the rain over ice cream, even if we did get soaked up to our  knees from the whitewater flow. 

TBC... 

Tale From Before The Trip

My stomach had been hurting for a few days and I thought it was just some digestion problem until a doctor came over for dinner. He casually said that I could have some sort of worm or parasite in my stomach, no big deal. He was so shockingly calm about it saying how his family did a three-day course of some worm-killer every couple of months. Personally, I was freaked out by the thought of worms in my tummy, so I took the medicine and said bye bye to the nasty thing. 

But by no means was that the end of my bug trauma. The very next night i couldn't go to sleep so I was stretching, hoping to release some serotonin and my knee hurt more than it should, so I investigated. I removed my comfy sleeping pants and shook them; out fell a big black two-inch-long centipede (or something related). Aghhh the way it slithered back into my pillow with those pincers and legs totally gave me the creepy-crawlies. Completely freaked out at this point, I knew I would never go in that room again as long as it was possible the creep was in there so between itching and rubbing some Anti-bite stuff on my poor knee I spastically shook the bed covers and took apart the mattresses. I was hard-pressed not to scream at the top of my lungs. Finally after a half hour of building up the courage to search through my various bed parts (it was three in the morning by now) I found the little bugger and trapped it under three layers of tupperware and made sure it wasn't going anywhere before sleeping on the couch, still itching. This was three weeks ago and I am probably being melodramatic, but I still haven't gotten over it. Definitely a downfall of India... bugs. Thank God there aren't cockroaches in this house or I would totally lose it. 

Gone on a South India tour
Back in two weeks
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Ooty

I was worried at the beginning of our little trip to Ooty because it was pouring cyclone rain again and was worried about the possibilities of a dirt road. Luckily, the rain didn't last long and the road was nicely paved with beautiful scenery and monkeys on the railing waiting for food remnants to be thrown their way. I was fascinated by the exotic trees and mountain shapes out the window, but also very aware of speeding around the hairpin bends recklessly. We drove through a collection of towns called Coonoor, which was my first sighting of these amazing areas. The towns were composed of small houses painted all kinds of vibrant colors, and were nestled in the hills surrounded by agriculture. There were squares and rectangles of every kind of vegetable or tea you could think of, arranged in tiers flowing down the hills. It was quite spectacular to see so many shades of one color ranging from yellow to emerald to sage to brown and everything in between.

Our destination town, Ooty, was more of a city than I expected. It was spread over the tops of a few hills and stretched far far back on muddy potholed roads which of course we explored during our one day stay. The beginning of the winter season here was made very apparent in the high hills, and I almost froze with three layers and a blanket. This is the part where I regret not bringing at least a little fleece. I got a nice sweatshirt with PUMA written all across the chest, as did my little bro, and we became the Puma team (sometimes pronounced peuma). There's not much to tell about the city other than, like Coonoor, it was made of small very colorful houses and was surrounded on all sides by acres and acres of vegetable farms.

The drive back to Coimbatore gets first place for the most terrifying drives of my life. We left just as it was getting dark so we were driving down this windy road in the dark which shouldn't have happened in the first place. The longest stretch of straight road was about fifty feet, and we averaged 30 mph around hairpin bends and all. The oncoming buses and trucks were less of a problem compared to passing them on this road because the entire car had to be on the outer edge of the lane going the opposite direction and just pray that no one would come into that lane before you passed the bus. Everyone in India drives with their brights on at night, and Pa, the driver, had to wear sunglasses in order to reduce the glare. I also was wearing sunglasses and was still blinded by the oncoming bus' brights. The motorcycles were the craziest to be on that road I thought, because they just flew down passing everyone and were hard to see. Indeed, about halfway down we had to come to a sudden complete stop because two of the enormous busses were trying to pass each other on the thin road. Unfortunately the moto behind us didn't stop fast enough. After crashing into our car they ended up in the ditch on the side of the road. I was sure that we would slam into one of the brick walls or fall off the unprotected bridges, but thank God we made it down alive. My right hand made REAAAAL good friends with the "Oh shit" handle. I thought we were cool and daring speeding down Independence Pass at 50 mph, but now that seems like baby stuff. For those of you in the Roaring Fork Valley I guess it would be like the pass but with hairpin bends so close together you can't even hardly straighten your car, half blinded by the brights of buses and cars. All I can say is I'm happy it was a good road. Any potholes and we would have been through the roof in seconds.

The Festival of Lights

Deewali (pronounced Deevahlee and spelled any number of ways) has been THE thing I've been told to look forward to most since day one in India. It goes for roughly 10 days, depending on who you talk to, and is a time to celebrate with family and exchange sweets and chocolates and light fireworks. Each house has literally piles of boxes of sweets on their kitchen tables just waiting to be eaten. All workers get paid a bonus- usually of about one month's salary- and most go back to their villages and celebrate with their families for a few days. The whole country basically shuts down for that Thursday through Sunday.

We went to a few Diwali parties, and my favorite was last night where I lit a string of 5,000 crackers. We had a ton of fireworks which we have been setting off for 4 days- SO much fun! After each time my night vision is permanently damaged and my ear drums need at least 2 days to recover. The sweets have been the biggest problem because they have finally achieved what I promised myself wouldn't happen- the gaining of the Exchange Student 15. They are so yummy though!

Happy Halloween!

It all started when my mom suggested carving watermelons because I was missing my American Halloween. Lucky for me, pumpkins do exist in India, although buying them was an experience. The salespeople at the vegetable store we went to were absolutely dumbfounded on why any person in their right mind would buy an entire pumpkin, let alone four. They suggested we just buy a slice or two, but how could we carve a face on just a slice? So, we compromised with two pumpkins and one watermelon because my host mom was worried about wasting the fruit inside of four pumpkins; At least we'd be able to eat the watermelon inside. Still confused, the employees helped carry the fruit out to the car and sent us off with an unsure wave.

Next day, Halloween, the other American exchange student from New York came over and we set up outside the house. It must have been a strange sight because no one understood why we would want to cut open pumpkins, gut them, and personify them. It took a lot longer than I had originally planned, and although we had successful pumpkin-carving tools, it was trickier than I remembered it. Of course, being Indian pumpkins, we had to make them look as Indian as possible and give them big mustaches over the fangs. Success. When the two pumpkins were finished, we showed my host family what this American holiday was about, but they were convinced that it had to have some kind of superstition or meaning behind the act. Neither of us knew of any. In an attempt to please my host mom and not waste the pumpkin guts, I toasted the seeds and am making pumpkin pie tomorrow. Neither of my host parents have heard of pie and there is no such thing as a pie tin or crust in Coimbatore. With our 2' diameter oven, it will be quite the experiment.

The Wedding!

One of our neighbors got married today! On Wednesday I went over to her house with my host mom to get some Mehendi done. It's henna, but they put it all on the inside and outside of your hands. The bride got her feet and arms fully covered, and it looked absolutely amazing, but the poor thing had to sit there for 4 hours without moving. I couldn't even handle two with no hand use. I now can appreciate bears trying to open round door handles, it's not easy!

Friday was the actual wedding, and I was lucky enough to skip school for it. My host mom draped a sari for me, pinned it so it wouldn't fall down, and gave me some beautiful gold jewelry. After the hour and a half it took to get ready, we went to the wedding hall which was beautifully decorated with garlands of flowers and decorations. We were early for the ceremony so we ate breakfast and toured the small temple next door. I was actually on stage for some most of the ceremony, just watching from the sidelines. Before the bride arrives (she doesn't walk down the aisle), the groom walks off stage and pretends that he doesn't want to get married and remain a bachelor. The bride's parents will go after him and tempt him with gifts so he goes back inside. The coolest part, I thought, was at the beginning a large piece of fabric was held between the bride and groom and they each were holding a handful of dry rice. The first one to throw the rice on the other when the fabric was taken down would be the dominant one in the relationship. They all sat down for the bride and groom to each wash the feet of their parents and accepted their blessings.

The Indian version of a wedding ring is a gold chain which the bride wears as long as she is married and is never supposed to take off. Directly after this happened the entire audience threw a small handful of dry rice onto the couple. Vows are pretty similar, except of course they say them in Sanskrit. This wedding went on for about an hour, but there are some huge ones that last forever. It will be a 1-2 week celebration filled with food, dancing, functions, love, family, and laughter. I'm thinking about finding a nice Indian man when I'm older :)

Cultural Differences Lately

In Aspen, and I think for most of the United States, it is pretty normal for high schoolers to bring phones, ipods, and other electronics to school. I have realized here how much I have taken advantage of in the U.S. in that aspect. Today in class a boy was scolded for reading a "story book". Just a novel that he brought to school to read in his free time, not even during class. He wasn't disrupting anyone or -God forbid- disobeying any rules, but the teacher told him that he would be kicked out of the class if he brought a book to school again. This is happening while all the other students, including myself, were gossiping and making noise, which I would think would be worse than sitting quietly reading. In the U.S. teachers would be happy to find a kid reading during lunch rather than texting or on Facebook.

I have to bring a cell phone to school just in case my van that brings me home is late or for emergencies, and it is a true blessing sometimes. I would have slept over at the school at least six or seven days if I didn't bring the phone, because if the van comes, it is a minimum of 45 minutes late. But if any student sees the phone, I am toast. My first week here I didn't know any better so I called my host mom at the end of school to pick me up, and my whole class just dropped everything and stared. Then, they began freaking out, "You aren't allowed to bring cell phones, rah rah rah." They were seriously surprised and scared to see that someone disobeyed the rules, and at least three of them ran to tell a teacher. They are all so disciplined, which is the opposite of the high school I've known. Here it's an honor to get the "Disciplined" badge, and I can't help thinking that would be something tragically embarrassing in Aspen.

The Mall Experience

So far I have been avoiding anything and everything Western while in India, and do as I assumed the Indians do. Unfortunately, most of the Indians do as the Westerners do. It has been almost impossible to find any market-like shopping, instead we go to big department stores filled with three floors of neatly stacked tops. Today I grudgingly stepped foot inside a mall-in-progress. The parts which were finished reminded me of shopping in Cherry Creek, except no one was comfortable with the escalators. They stepped one foot onto the escalator with one firmly planted on the unmoving floor until their legs were substantially spread before completely transferring to the moving staircase. I figure it was many peoples' first or second time even seeing one, and was humorous for me to watch. It is becoming Diwali (pron. deevalee) season, a festival of lights in the first week in November, and so pretty much all of India is out shopping because everyone is supposed to get at least one new clothing item for this festival; there was hardly room to walk. The thing that bothered me most about the mall was all the staring. Over the past two months I have gotten fairly used to people staring at the tall, white American with blonde hair and blue eyes, seeing as it happens on an hourly basis. But due to the density of people in the shops it felt like I had a big neon sign pointing at me as well. It's unnerving  and suffocating to be that noticed by the surrounding populace. One of the salesmen actually asked my friend who I was with if he could have my bracelet or ring as a memento of meeting a foreigner. Just a few seconds later an older couple, very short and plump I might add, came up to me and my friend and spoke a language that neither of us understood. They stared and whispered to each other about two feet away from me. I took that as my cue to leave and I am not soon planning my return.

School Celebrations

For Navaratri week at school, we take off from all study and participate in fun competitions such as singing, dancing, essay and poem writing, etc. I am of course taking full participation in the competitions I am able to join, however events such as Tamil essay writing are not among them. On Thursday the competitions were of singing, dancing, and instrument playing. The first few were good to watch and my attention span was pretty good, but as it neared one and a half hours of sitting cross-legged on concrete, was beginning to seizure. The entire day was spent like this, and it was honestly amazing the discipline these kids had. They would just sit and watch and sometimes talk, especially when it neared those rare and short breaks, but they rarely moved.  They actually told each other to “sit properly” when one of them changed position, but it was mainly directed at me.

Friday was the same, but this time we sat for about 45 minutes cross-legged on concrete until it rained and we moved six entire grades to a hall where there literally wasn’t even enough room for us to sit cross-legged. We took turns letting them down and squeezing them against our chest. There weren’t any fans because it was outside and let me just say that being that close together in that heat was uncomfortable for anyone with any sense of personal space or a nose. THREE HOURS later we were released from the hall, or we would have been had we been able to walk. 

Navaratri

Living with this Gujarati family since Thursday and I am having a total blast with them! The fourth grader is a little tough when he's tired or excited, but other than that everything's great. We get all dressed up in Cholis- traditional Gujurati Navarathri dress- to go to the Gujarati Samaj where we dance from 9 or ten to midnight. It's not very long, but it is SO much fun! I meet all my new friends there and they will show me or remind me of some new steps when the music is slow so I can keep up when the pace quickens. My favorite is when the music gets fast and the movements get crazier, harder and way more fun and it's fantastic when I am actually able to follow(rare)! Of course this is the first time I have danced, outside of a party or the Belly Up, so I have a lot to learn and only three more nights to do it. Fortunately, I have found a willing teacher who also happens to be very cute and my age. ;) He's one of the better dancers there for sure and I can see the pure joy in his face doing what he loves with all of his best friends and family.

Gujaratis are a fairly small population in Coimbatore, so everyone knows everyone and it's like a big family. Everyone is someone's brother, sister, cousin, or a combination of those, whether they are actually related or not. After the dancing is over we go into the concession area and try out some new form of a popsicle. My favorite is this thing called a Kulfi. From what I understand its basically frozen condensed milk on a stick, but wow is it good! They have all varieties including Litchi and pistachio flavors. A trademark sign of the Gujus are a kind of flavored shaved ice like you would get at any fair in the U.S. but they put it on a stick and put this spice called Masala on it. Masala is hard to explain, but tastes salty and spicy. Not particularly the most delicious thing to the American taste buds, but could be if I get some new Indian ones. I feel I have experienced an entirely new way of life during this past week and I am so grateful and happy that I did. I knew festivals like this existed in India, but I had no idea just how great they were until now. I feel like everyone is so welcoming and friendly- people I have never seen in my life come up to me and start a conversation or offer to help me with the dancing.

I guess in Gujarat or in bigger cities they have this celebration until 6 in the morning and then go out for coffee and sleep all day then do it again. That would be fun to experience! Maybe next time around I can do that one.

9 Divine Nights

A Hindu holiday called Navaratri begins tomorrow. It is a Gujarati holiday (Gujarat is a state in Northern India) and celebrated all over the country by Gujaratis.  I have asked a few of my Gujarati friends exactly what it celebrates and none of them knew. They both said that they just eat and dance till four in the morning and aren't bothered with anything else. Wikipedia told us that it celebrates the Divine Mother at the beginning of autumn and spring. Beginning tomorrow I will be spending the next week and a half in a Gujarati's home and learning about their unique culture. Of course by the end of this I will be able to tell you anything and everything about this holiday. Gujaratis are known in India for their beautiful clothing with many mirrors and bright embroidery. I have bought one blue skirt and blouse, and I can not even begin to explain how much I am looking forward to dancing in it! Let me tell you that I am SO glad my cook's campaign for Anna to gain 15 pounds has not yet succeeded, because the Gujaratis like to show off their tummys. :)

Root Canaling

The art of dentistry in this wonderful country is almost identical to the Aspen dentist, minus about $900. I have been in and out of a local dental office for the last two weeks because of not one, but TWO root canals. I just finished my second one today, and I paid only $100 for both the procedures. I can definitely see why Americans opt to spend the same amount of money on the same operation, but get an entire trip to a new country out of it. My counterpart in Glenwood has to have this same operation, but they are charging her almost $1000. Cheers to NOT ripping clients off.

Chennai

The capital of my current state was a fun-filled shopping experience for the most part. Chennai is famous for it's great shops and, guided by my hosts, I took full advantage. Less interested in the multi-story fashion designer shops that my Indian friends seemed to love, I was more interested in the grungy Mint Street. It is located in the old part of Chennai (earlier named Madras) and somewhat difficult to find, even for people who have been living in the city for upwards of 25 years. The dirty narrow streets filled with cows, trash, and tiny little shops didn't much appeal to them, but I was in heaven. I loved every smell, every honk (well not every one), every small vegetable cart, and every street that was too small for anything wider than a bicycle rickshaw. We spent 3 or 4 hours looking in dozens of jewelry shops- both real and fake pieces- and later progressed down to clothing and material. I bought a saree that was so beautiful and different I couldn't live without; it is turquoise with gold, green, and red border and designs. I love it! It was more fun just to see the place than to buy anything, and I will never forget that experience.

On day 2 we visited a small temple built on the beach in the 7th century. It was standing perfectly well, but the carvings had been eroded away by the sand and sea air. There used to be seven other temples in that area, but they are all underwater now. In Chennai the weather is so hot that people usually don't go out of the house between one and five, but we were kind of stuck so we shopped around for another few hours before going to the next temple. When we got to this one, it had just closed but we got a private tour from a guy who was selling handicrafts nearby. It was great to see the place in the sunset without the crowd. The dozen or so goats walking around near the temple was crowd enough. The driver, who had come with us, liked talking to the goats by making some weird goat-like noise. After our little tour, we went to a restaurant where we were served with dosa (like a crepe made out of rice) that were HUGE! Picture to the right -->

The last day was the most exhausting. We woke up at five thirty to go to the 2d largest beach in the world, Marina Beach. After the slow beginning it was really an experience for me to run alongside the waves in bare feet and see exactly the kind of gross things that are littered on this large, very public beach. Full of trash, although there were trash cans and people cleaning the beach, random religious offerings, poor fishermen sleeping on the upper side, and worst of all it was used as a bathroom for dogs, monkeys, humans, you name it. I chose not to swim. As it was explained to me, the government has built nice housing for many of the homeless and people who live in slums, but they choose to live on the beach because here they can try to at least make a living via fishing. The afternoon was occupied by visiting a kind of outside museum which I forget the name of right now. It showed different housing styles for the different southern states of India, and it was interesting to see how different they were. There were little crafts at each place, like pottery, basket weaving, etc. At the entrance/exit there was a small area for people who had come from small villages to come sell their handicrafts. Some were the same old same old, but some of them were really original and impressive. In fact the first guy we came to made mats out of dried and treated banana leaves which he cut a design into and then inked over to make a picture. I can't explain it very well, but there is a picture. All of these artisans had either made the things themselves, or they were made by their close family. "Madam this was made by my mother last week".

Exhausted, my host mom's good friend who took me and I, boarded our flight back to Coimbatore. It was a very tiring and busy trip to Chennai, but I loved it. Next time I will wait until the winter months though, so I don't have to run to the A/C every half hour. The city itself was pretty similar to Coimbatore, but much larger and busier. I came back and immediately got many more offers to travel with families to other parts of India. So glad I am able to be here with all these wonderful people!

Day of Birth, 17 Years Later..

Differences of celebrating:

Cake- Everyone feeds the birthday boy/girl their cake, beginning with parents, then family, then friends. They also like to smear some of the cake on the special person's face. I got a really big smear across my cheek from this little boy who had been buzzing around me and 2 of my friends all night. 

School- Whosever birthday it is is allowed to wear colored dress to school as opposed to the usual uniform, and they are expected to hand out chocolates to everyone in their class and everyone who wishes you a happy birthday or "many more returns of the day". It is considered really rude, I think, to not give chocolates to everyone, so I brought PLENTY. However, I did not succeed in pleasing everyone because I would have needed a chocolate for the majority of the school. They were all so cute, shaking my hand and smiling. I was actually asked to visit a class of sixth or seventh grade so they could sing to me. I loved it!

Friends- the birthday girl  is supposed to treat all her friends to a dinner or outing. I was planning my outing of ice cream for Saturday, but I will be going to a different part of Coimbatore to meet one of my Uncle's nieces or something.

I think a lot of people like connecting with me through what they know about America. I went over to one of my friend's houses last night and her dad gave me this old movie of Colorado called Mackenna's Gold. He had actually gone out and bought it specifically for me, and was so excited about it! My Rotary counselor also gave me a CD of "Retro Essentials". Everyone is so sweet and thoughtful, and I got some beautiful Indian gifts as well. 

Everyone has been so sweet to me on my birthday, and I honestly felt so special! My host parents, aunties, uncles, and Rotarians have really gone out of their way to make sure I feel comfortable here and I appreciate it so much! 

A Night to Remember

Last night we got all dressed up for a local club (widely known here as a discoteque). It was Bike & Barrell's 5th anniversary and we went for the Hindi themed celebration. I wasn't sure what to expect from a discoteque's Hindi night with my host parents and all their friends, but it ended up being one of, if not the best night in India so far. The place, which had a large sign stating that they only admitted single women and couples, was located below a 5-star hotel and it was completely westernized. Actually it looked like it came straight out of Colorado; There was all this cowboy stuff and big metal signs in English on the walls. The floor of dance was in the corner and we started feeling the beats of Hindi techno as soon as we got there. Most of the songs were good, but the background beat definitely lacked variety, which didn't leave much room for coinciding creative movement. This didn't seem to bother one guy who was about 40. He bounced around and did some of the weirdest moves I have ever seen dancing. I don't even know how to explain some of the things this guy was doing, but it automatically made all of our group confident in our own dancing. He could probably give a certain Italian in our school (some of you know who I'm talking about) a run for his money on the dance floor. I have decided that, in my opinion, the best way of meeting new people and bonding is to go out and have a great time, and everything will just fall into place. I had a great time bonding with my host parents, their friends, other assorted Rotarians, and a small group of people my age that ended up being there last night. It was so different to dance in a group of people with ages varying from 16 to mid 40s, but I might even prefer it now.

Shopping

No school today because a little boy was hit by a school bus in Tamil Nadu, so certain schools around the state are striking by not opening. My host father says strikes like this happen 4-5 times in a year. Moment of silence for the boy.

In celebration of the 3-day weekend and pre-celebration of my birthday (which I am planning to spend in Chennai with my host mom's close friend), some friends took me shopping. I was expecting some shops like in Cambodia, but the only ones we entered were ridiculously nice. The first one was a 3-story building with thousands of clothing choices. I ended up buying a beautiful, surprisingly cheap, bright pink saree to wear on my birthday and some matching bangles. It was difficult to choose one because they were all so beautiful, but I figure I need to go slow if I'm gonna be here for another nine months. So excited with my choice, we walked around the street for a while window-shopping and finally went to eat. I will post pictures of my pink saree soon!

Ohh the driving

Thursday, my one month anniversary here, was kind of a crazy day. It started off normal- rode the bus from our little colony to the school with my 1-5th grade friends. One of them gave me a flower, which I put in my hair and wore all day. I walked from the street to my school of about 1,000 kids Prek-12th standard. Somewhere between my morning classes of physics, math, chemistry, and biology we had a short 15 minute P.T. class. (PT stands for playing time). Today we were racing 200 meters around the dirt field in which we had P.T. class. I am proud to say that, thanks to my active family and participation in sports, I came in second place in my class. At lunch we played volleyball and the girls were not quite up to our high school standard, so I ended up playing with the boys. Their intensity was intimidating, but I kept up and they at least didn't kick me out. It was so much fun playing a familiar game, and I successful day in sports, at least. Cultural note: boys and girls have separate staircases in the school.

My ride home was 1/2 an hour late, and the guy was the craziest driver I have ever encountered! He sped most of the way back on the wrong side of the road, barely missing busses and 2-wheelers, and stopping in the middle of the road so frequently I had to hold on with both hands to stay upright. About halfway back we stopped at another school for the first time to pick up some kids my age for once. It was cool to meet them, and we ended driving through a small slum to drop one of them at home. It was AMAZING and I honestly loved seeing the goats picking through piles of trash and things I don't even have words for. It was so amazingly different, and, even though the driver didn't slow down for pictures, my eyes were full of everything around me. His driving didn't slow from 30 the whole way through, except when he suddenly slowed to 2 mph for the frequent speed bumps then gunned it before stopping for the next one. I almost threw up. One of the girls ended up living right near me, and we are now best friends. She literally asked me within 30 minutes of meeting. Her dad is a frequent traveller and is an herbal doctor, and SO friendly, and what an experience their house was! It was covered with things from his travels and they have an entire bedroom and sideroom dedicated to all kinds of gods and saints and religions. I anticipate being at that house quite a bit.

Remembrance and Celebration

All week I have been feeling strangely patriotic and confused with September 11 coming up. It is just so.. weird that I am on the other side of the world and as far as I can tell no one really knows and cares about an event I think it's safe to say partially defines us as a country. But then I see it from their point of view and why would they? Something that happened nine years ago, close to as far as you can get from this place, and didn't directly affect them. I have spent the last few days thinking and remembering and respecting those who died in the Twin Towers, and what I saw of the speech Obama gave on September 10 was one of the only times I have been absolutely transfixed by the news. Then he moved to the new bill he wants passed about cutting taxes for companies who employ Americans instead of outsourcing, and I literally couldn't look away. Not being in the United States has made me much more interested in our country, probably because I'm looking at it from a completely different point of view now. 

September 11 for me was actually a day of celebration. From eight a.m. I was consumed with celebrating Ganesha's birthday. It began with an hour and a half-long sit  in front of a foot-tall idol of Ganesha for Pooja (prayer). It was very similar to the fire ceremony I did in Crestone for Ex Ed, except it was a holiday for the men to pray and participate much more than the women. I mostly just sat in the back taking the occasional picture or video. In the evening I (unnecessarily got all dressed up in gold jewelry and traditional Indian party clothes our family friends came over to pray at our altar and everyone loved their new Indian. 

We all went over to our close family friends' house who are the sweetest people and watched A Beautiful Life. I was astonished when one of the adults asked how Jews got chosen to go wherever they were going. They asked me to explain the background of the World War II movie, which struck a feeling in me similar to 9/11. Like, how could they not know everything about this? Maybe it's an American thing or because India wasn't involved in the war at all... just odd. Although, some seemed to know the basics of the war and actually quite a bit about it, I would like to thank World History class for coming in handy. 

CRAZY chemistry!

Chemistry class was the craziest for me so far, and I don't anticipate that changing. We were doing a titration experiment and needed to measure out 20 mL of Hydrochloric Acid in a pipette, which is a skinny glass container. My friend showed me how to do it: SUCK the ACID into the pipette with your MOUTH!! I was so surprised and a little freaked out when they all did it but it was like no big deal. Apparently that is illegal in the United States.. In the beginning of the class one boy got the acid in his mouth and ran out of the classroom after the teacher told him to gargle water like it was a daily happening not at all worth worrying about. That was just plain culture shock. Of course, it wouldn't be an experience if I didn't fully participate, so yes, I did suck hydrochloric acid into the pipette, but- thank God- I did it successfully. Didn't taste a drop.

All the difference in the world!

Classes were held last week on half-day Wednesday, and Thursday. The rest of the time was spent in bored chatter in our seats while the teachers finished the report cards (they just ended quarterly exams). My schedule varies day-to-day, but my classes are: English, Hindi, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math (pronounced Max), and Playing Time twice a week. They double various classes on various days of the week, so we have 8 45-minute periods every day. The kids stay in the same classroom while the teachers move, so we won't move from behind our little desks (35 students crammed into one room) for hours at a time. We even stay in the same classroom for lunch, eating with the same people. Not sure how I'm supposed to meet other people this way, but that's not a problem because I have quite a job remembering just my classmates' names.

The style of teaching is different because they primarily use the textbooks which are each about 150 pages and need to be carried to and from school every day. A total of 15 pounds; Pa was confused and surprised when I literally went into the bathroom with them to weigh them, but I considered it important blog research that just had to be done. Back to the teaching, the periods are really short so the teachers stand there yelling the whole time, flying through the material. I can't understand what they are saying both because of the accent and the echo, and then also the echo of the students' yelling. A teacher will say a sentence, then repeat it and pause so the students all yell the word she's looking for and she keeps going. There is no such thing as raising your hand, its just everyone shouting out. Luckily for me, I covered all the material in the last two years, so I can keep up with the classes. 

Kikani Higher Secondary School

First day of school Indian-style was last Monday, the sixth. Walking into the grounds, I was SO nervous because of the difference between me and the rest of the students, and I wasn't sure how my classmates and teachers would react to this new tall white girl with "golden hairs and bluish eyes". As I should have known, school started half an hour late, so Ma and I sat around waiting for the vice principal to come take charge of me. I expected some staring, but literally every student gave me some wierd look, whether it was a furtive side glance or a full on stop-and-gape (open-mouthed). This was mostly the littler kids- middle school and younger. The older ones seemed to hardly notice me.  At the weekly assembly, I was introduced as a new student from America to the entire school, and although it did nothing to deter the staring, it gave the students some newfound courage to come speak to me. All day I was followed around with the same questions: 

          Hi, what's your name? Where are you from? How long have you been here? What do your parents           do? What are their names? When's your birthday? Do you have any siblings? Names? Who are your favorite heroes (actors)? etc. 

Pretty sure there was an unwritten New Student Questionnaire that everyone knew about. These interrogations persisted throughout the week, and I am confident that if I gave my own Anna Questionnaire on Monday the majority would pass with flying colors. 

I have made a ton of new friends and they are all very sweet and welcoming, but it is RIDICULOUS how much they text! I thought I was bad, but coming here I find that my thumbs of fury are nothing. I will look at my phone and try to answer five new messages but before I can, I will probably get between two and three new ones, generally from the same people wondering why I didn't respond in t minus 5 seconds. There has been one time when I didn't look up from my phone for a solid ten or eleven minutes, and, from that time, I have vowed never to text again. If we were talking about something important or making plans it would be different, but the conversation is about trivial things that I can NOT see the point in asking, like what did I have for dinner. Regardless, I do have a good time with them and am glad to finally be in school with people my age. Progress!

Exploration #1

Yesterday my family and their friends took me on a trip! We drove about two hours through a neighboring city named Pollachi, and drove into the mountains. After changing into swim gear (shorts and a t-shirt) we followed the sound of joyful screaming to the place known as Monkey Falls. Water was cascading close to the big rock behind it and came away from the rock about person-distance from the ground. A perfect shower! And, boy, was it. There were probably forty people utilizing this wonderful place, men in whitey tidys, and women fully clothed in sarees and salwars.  Monkey business was a correct statement as we were preparing to vacate. One of them climbed onto a guys moto and thought it was his, defending it when the real rider tried to shoo him, then rifled through his pouch on the front. It was funny until one of them stole a whole bag of peanuts from our car door AS it was closing. Those things were very practiced, but Ma told me there are some places in India you can't even get out of the car or you'd be attacked by them.

Once we got out of there, we retraced our steps, or tracks, and went over to some friend of an uncle's friend's farm or something like that. I was picturing a big red farmhouse where the chickens were clucking and hay was stored, but it was actually a coconut plantation. We had seen dozens from the road ranging from a hundred trees to many thousand. This was relatively small, and we walked straight through it to the river, where we set up camp. It wasn't long until the owner came by and Pa and Uncle got along great with him. We ended up blowing the elephants off and stayed there to nap in the river. The owner was a great guy and wanted me to meet his children, so we went back to his house before returning home, with a quick stop for dinner at one of the most renowned restaurants in the city, Annapoorna. It was delicious (although I was still full from lunch) and I sampled some desert. Day successful.

Fun fact of the day: "Chai" in India directly translates to "tea". I came here thinking it was a specific type of tea, as in America, and I commented on not being able to find it here, and that's the knowledge I came out of the conversation with. I wonder if I'll be able to find our chai tea here because I miss it dearly. Tomorrow I will be spending the morning in an embroidery class, and I am so excited to be able to create the beautiful designs that I wear every day! I think if I like it I will end up making my own clothes by the time I leave here.... how great is that?!

Eating

Last night the family went out to eat with their group of close friends, and I tagged along. I feel kind of out of place because however sweet and friendly they all are, I usually have no idea what they are talking about! They switch from English to Tamil to some other language in the same sentence. It has evolved into a kind of game I have started to play: which words do you recognize? Their loud peels of laughter interrupt the conversation frequently. The high-spirited people here are a ton of fun to be with and watch. They are much like my mom's funny friends and I have a great time when I am with them. 

At the dinner one woman was saying to me how Indians are very nice, generous people and show their love via food. And man, is it true! I'm sure I have gained some pounds over the last week. All they want is for me to eat more and more and try this and try that. I eat four meals a day and have to lay down afterwards because my stomach is usually close to bursting. Don't see this as a complaint, though. Our cook, Lata, who is probably the most active in "Anna gains twenty pounds in the first month of India" campaign, makes some mean Dal and I have no trouble filling myself with her delicious creations. I am quickly becoming a vegetable person- it's hard not to be since they taste sooo good. I'm sure mom and dad will be excited that my diet now includes some colors. The only things I have decided against eating so far are: spiced pickles, very sour and eugh, and curd- also very sour. Once a woman told me to mix them and, literally unable to refuse, I gagged and immediately chased it with a sweet dessert. Not recommended. 

In restaurants, at home, at school, everywhere there is a different habit of water drinking. They have 2 metal cups and you waterfall it into your mouth without putting the cup to your lips. I have soaked many shirts this way, but it is a relatively easy skill to acquire. This way everyone can reduce their carbon footprint (not a very big concern down here) without spreading cooties.

Side note: I know almost all the letters in Hindi now and am beginning to write words. I love the look of the language, and it is fun to try to speak! I am learning how to read, write, and speak Hindi and I will also be learning the local language, Tamil. 

WonderKids Playschool

One week down, many more to go. I am not yet homesick (although my stomach is a little) and feel I have adapted pretty well so far.

 My host mother runs a playschool in the city, which is like preschool but for kids aged one and a half to three. They are taught basic things like how to go to the bathroom, eat, shake hands, talk, etc. The older ones are also taught colors, numbers, letters and so on in order to get into a good school. From what I am told, to get into most preschools the children have to be able to talk to the principal confidently and be able to recognize basic objects, shapes and colors. I would say in most schools in the U.S. preschoolers would not have to qualify to be admitted, am I right? Anyway, we took the school of about 200 kids on a field trip to a park today. I am finally making friends! We played on the swingset and I caught them coming down the slide. It was great fun. There are two little people who always run over to shake my hand and say "Hello Auntie" when they see me. I love it, they are all so cute! (Auntie is a term of endearment used for women who are old enough that  they really could be your aunt and is a loose term everyone uses.) 

Maybe my host mom is just bad, but in India time doesn't seem to be of the essence. If she said we will be out of the house by nine in the morning for an important meeting we would leave at ten fifteen and the meeting would start when we got there without anyone being irritated or needing to go to their next activity. I will have been waiting for an hour and she calls "come Anna" and we run off. "Come Anna" is probably the most frequent phrase I have heard in the last week. Mostly used by my new mom and best friend, it is used before crossing the street, while in the middle of the street, after stopping to talk to one of her friends, and on the way into the building or apartment. All in three minutes. It is my summoning call. 

Onam

Yesterday was a Kerralite (Kerrala is a neighboring state) festival called Onam. It celebrates the God Shiva I think, but I forget all the details. We visited a close neighbors house to eat a big lunch out of banana leaves, sitting on the floor cross-legged with a man instructing us on how to eat it. The food was delicious, and  I think the man was pleased with my hand-eating. The German exchange student sat next to me and was intent on using a spoon, but they wouldn't let him. I wore a white sari to honor the occasion and I felt like a princess because my host mom (who is wonderful) gave me a bunch of gold jewelry and bangles to wear. The sari didn't quite work because I was too clumsy to fix it, but i have many more opportunities. Still loving it!!

Cotton Mill

I just got back from touring my host father's cotton mill that he has owned for over 20 years. Inside the factory the process from rough cotton to yarn was taking place, and it was pretty cool, but different than Cambodian silk factories. The factory was mostly machinery with maybe 15 workers in the whole place. After attempting to pick anything up from the long conversation between my host father and another man who I think was the manager, we had a quick coffee in the office then left. 

Indian food is so delicious!! I have become a regular at hand eating, and can't wait to surprise everyone at home with it!  Another American exchange student and I watched an Indian movie called Three Idiots which was really funny. If anyone gets the urge, I recommend watching it.

First Impression

 After the fifteen hour flight that was spent in BUSINESS CLASS I was well-rested and ready for adventure.  Mumbai was much less scary and crazy than I had anticipated, and it closely resembled Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I was picked up and drove around trying to find my one night host mother's house for about half an hour in the rain. We stopped for directions many times and finally came to an apartment building that was heavily under construction. The one thing that was set up in the house of Mrs. Sheela Ben was the bed that I slept in. Her son and I stayed up until 3 in the morning talking about music, romance, pictures and most of all culture. Two things that stick out in hindsight of that night: they couldn't believe my pictures were of me because apparently it looked like I had lost a lot of weight, and the Rotary pin I gave to Mrs. Sheela Ben she tried to wear as an earring. Would have been a pretty bulky earring, but to each his own. They also gave me my first taste of Indian food which was heavy on the vegetables, but very good. And pretty spicy, but nothing I couldn't handle. When I arrived in Coimbatore my flight had been delayed 2 hours and turns out I was supposed to check my luggage into immigration back in Mumbai. Go figure. Up side: I will always remember to check my luggage in at my port of entry and SHOPPING! All of the people I have met so far have been very hospitable and nice, but also warned me of the dangers of Incredible India. Overall, the city is pretty dirty. The street is the trashcan and the outside of buildings are covered in dirt and pollution. But I love it. Thing I am looking forward to most- wearing a Sari.

The Beginning

I have recently found out that I will leave on August 15th for India! As I'm sure many of you know I will be calling Coimbatore "home" for 10 months. It is the second largest city in the state Tamil Nadu and has a population of about a million people. I have had contact with my first host family, and they sound like wonderful people! I will be attending the local Indian school there and hopefully will be able to participate in some activities. The two things I really have my heart set on about this trip are a) the month and a half long Northern India tour and b) administering Polio vaccinations. Looking forward to learning about such a unique and exciting culture!