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.