The Lone Blonde

Back in Action: Peace Corps

2010-09-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Nominated for Service.

This is pretty much all they tell me...

Going to Africa for 27 months of service.

Will be working in Urban and Regional Planning.

Leaving Early August 2011.

Possibilities of Countries...

1. Cape Verde

Why: They request Spanish Speakers to Learn Portuguese

Why Not: They don't send people in August historically

2. Mozambique

Why: They request Spanish Speakers to Learn Portuguese

Why Not: They have no Urban Planning Volunteers

3. Namabia

Why: They leave in August

Why Not: They do not have any Urban Planning Volunteers
4. Cameroon
Why: They have Urban Planning Volunteers
Why Not: They don't leave in August.

5. Uganda

Why: They Leave in August and have Urban and Regional Planning Volunteers

Why Not: Have not really found one, other then it was suggest that I was requested for my site to have Spanish knowledge, I am not sure why this would be important in Uganda or anywhere in Africa? Though I have heard via a little bird (or something like that) that the local languages area easier to learn after having learned spanish because they have similar pronunciation.

Entonces, after realizing that my Spanish will really not get my anywhere in Africa?

I still have...

NO IDEA WHERE I AM GOING! Not to mention, I will not find out until after I clear my dental, medical, and legal clearance from the Peace Corps, and well also graduate from college with a legitimate degree! But where ever it is the LONE BLONDE IS BACK, and once again will still be reppin the Blonde Population this time on an entirely new continent of Africa (it was bound to happen).

Next Steps: Graduate College, One last HORRAH in Europe, and then AFRICA (Im going to get my own hut! Just what every college graduate needs!)

“Volunteers who go to South America come back to the States politically active, volunteers who go to Southeast Asia return spiritually aware and curious, and volunteers who go to Africa?-They come back laughing.”

Paper for Class

2010-06-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

Though I have been really busy in the past humm 10 months and have not really made an entry on my blog, I was asked to write a paper for school on taking Panama's Public Transit, and I thought I would post it on here. Maybe it will inspire me to write more about Panama.

El Diablo Rojo:

The Way to see the City in Style

Panama is famous for a few things such as the Panama Canal, the Bridge of the Americas, the large towering skyscrapers of Panama City and the colorfully creative public transportation. Titled creatively to install a tad bit of fear in the eyes of weary travelers and even locals El Diablo Rojo, is really the real way to see the metropolitan area of Panama City in style.

It’s impossible to walk out the door in Panama and not see one of these crazy monstrosities making enough noise to make your ears bleed. The loud and whimsical honks, followed by the even louder paintings on the sides of the busses, and then finally loudest driver’s assistants who shout the direction of the bus at you. Cinco de Mayo! Via Espana! Transismica! TERMINAL! They head in every which direction with no true set route around the city of Panama.

Not owning a car, having a broken bike, and not being able to pay for taxis on a daily basis, the bus is really my only option around the city of Panama. They are confusing and don’t run on any real time table. I can wait anywhere from thirty seconds to fifty minutes before a bus rolls in front of the closest stop to my house, at any point in time of the day. From my house to the Terminal there are four different routes even if you get on the same bus, the inefficiency of the fact that you never know which route you could end up on is evident.

For my first few months in Panama I never really chose to branch out of the COOP SACA bus line, which runs from my house to the terminal and back. But due to some adventurous ideas and a class assignment, I decided to learn how to take the bus to my favorite place, Multiplaza Mall. My group and I started out leaving from the Terminal and taking the Via Espana bus towards the city. Knowing where Via Espana was, we thought it was a good idea to take a bus in a direction that we knew relatively where we were going and if we got into any trouble we could exit the bus and know where we were.

Upon getting on the bus they ask only some for the twenty-five cent payment. Not to mention it is not posted anywhere that it is even twenty-five cents to ride the bus it’s just like an unwritten rule that everyone seems to know. The bus was empty when we hopped on at the terminal, and even empty as we left. The first stop being Plaza Cinco De Mayo, which is known as the other transportation center in the city was a very efficient ride pretty much a straight shot from the terminal to the Plaza.

Here plenty of people arrived on the bus decorated with stickers of names all around and even some of the old relics of the American school bus that it once was. Pom-Poms were on the driver’s steering wheels and the window was sounded by multiple feather boas. Not to mention the Sticker of General Noriega that hung in the window of the crazy bus. Music blasted from peoples cell phones a real mix of traditional Panamanian and American rap, made the ride all more interesting.

The bus then made its way towards Via Espana, the major reason for the inefficiency of the ride was accounted for in the inefficiency of the roads in Panama. Many roads are only one direction and really make no sense geographically, which made for a super windy ride that really left me lost. In the end we ended up at Calle 50, at the wonderfully famous city establishment Casa Del Helado, which happens to be one of my favorite places in the city! And only two blocks away from Multiplaza.

People just hop on and hop off, screaming PARADA! There are no real official stops or entrances once you get to the inner city. What always startle me when riding the bus is the people selling things. The bus seller of this particular ride was a man selling books to teach English. Saying that English was the future of the world and that people were going to need to know English to get ahead in life. Not to mention this triggered a wave of people around us asking us if we spoke English, wishing to practice their English with a series of awkward questions.

Overall the experience of riding Panama’s infamous transportation is always an adventure. You never really know what you will see, what you will overhear, and what you will be asked. Though one thing is certain you will be treated like family, riders in Panama are truly some of the friendliest public transportation goers and really strengthen my true adoration to a country I now can consider my second home.

San Blas Island Paradise

2009-09-13T21:22:00.001-07:00

This weekend, like I said before we went off to the islands of San Blas this weekend.

It really interesting because Panama is such a diverse mix of everything. Old and new, traditional and incredibly modern, the society is so diverse in the same day you can see someone in a Chanel dress and then see someone wearing banana leaves and rope, or a skirt made of seed beads (picked off the trees… the real ones, not the girl scout camp variety). What is crazy is that it is totally normal for those people to be walking down the same street not even in two different sides of the country.

Our trip to San Blas started out at 4:20 am on September 11… EARLY. But my roommates and I had prepared! We decided it would be a great idea not even to go to sleep!

If you did not know Panama City is relatively famous for its elaborate parties. This has always been true. Ever since it was realized that Panama City was the shortest land bridge between the Atlantic and Pacific (which was a long time ago… before the founding of the United States), Panama City has been the place for a good party. Why, you wonder? Why, not!? Its really because people would spend days or even weeks crossing the land bridge, though Panama is not that big, it is hard terrain to conquer in a few days. Not to mention they would have been eaten alive by bugs. So when they got to Panama City they would celebrate! I am sure there dancing would probably involve itching all the bug bites that they acquired on their feet and sipping on the nationalized beer as they clawed away at their skin some more, but party time it was and still is. We had been invited to a local club as VIPs and we spent the night dancing and enjoying Panama City.

Our Flight... After we landed at the "HUGE" Playa Chico Airport.

We did not walk into the door till, lets just say late, took a “nap” grabbed our stuff and walked out the door. Maybe not the smartest idea to stay up all night partying and then walk out the door to get on a plane the big enough for Barbie (not Ken though, he would have to stay behind). The flight to San Blas is around 30 minutes, maybe a few more, maybe a few less, depends how lost your pilot gets attempting to navigate through the rain forest, or how in depth he wants to read into the Panama Times before he realizes his autopilot is taking him further away from Playa Chico. Our Pilot finished the paper that morning, so it took about 45. When you are landing in Playa Chico what starts to happen is all of a sudden (in an unpressurized Barbie Dream Plane, with about 12 people on it) you are not you know going down on a slow slope… no you are crashing into the jungle. SWOOOOOPPPPPP the plane just starts going down and in the back of the plane, early in the morning, with people who have been up all night (also on Sept. 11, not the best omen), you are swooping down VERY QUICKLY into the deep rainforest… ummm well that’s all I have to say, I hope you get the idea. We did not crash. We landed on a runway about the size of the drive way at my house as the pilot SLAMS on the breaks, throws open the window as we are greeted by an armed guard, who is now reading the newspaper that the pilot just finished. IT WAS FOR SURE WORTH IT. On the other side of the drive way that planes land on was the bluest water I have ever seen on the Caribbean Sea which was littered with small palm tree filled islands and perfect sandy beaches, just calling our names.

Our Island Homes

The people who were working on the island we were going to be staying on greeted us and lead us straight to a boat, because we were right on the water. We were taken to an island which was full of BIG beach shacks/Cabañas/ Villas, which were literally on the water. I was rooming with two freshman girls and in our shack when you looked between the cracks in the floorboards you would see the waves crashing under you and if you looked hard enough starfish and sea urchins were sitting on the rocks of the crystal clear water. The entire villa had a big wrap around deck with a bigger side right on the water with two hammocks (where I spent most of my time). PARIDISE! We spent Friday in awe of the fact that this was a typical Friday at FSU Panama, and laughing and all the people in America who were probably all in class or working on a lab on a Friday morning.

After we all took a nap from being up all night long, mine was for sure spent swinging on the hammock over the water (I even found a rope somewhere on the island and affixed it to the railing on the porch so I could just pull a little on the rope and I could swing for hours). The island owners took us off to another island, which had one of the most perfect beaches. White sand, light blue colored sea, and deep water, made it a perfect place to just float (I am buoyant, this is true but the water is the perfect level of salt for being able to just float you don’t have to do anything to stay above the water) and be content with life. It’s amazing to be in a place where there is almost NO ONE for miles. The sea leaves you thinking that the world is a much bigger place, and in Kuna Yala there is no exception.

After the beach we went back to our island, which FSU had more or less rented out for the entire weekend, we were the only ones there (which is a good thing, always ask if there is going to be a group of college students checked into wherever you want to go on vacation, if I was on vacation and I ran into the group I am living with, I probably would have well committed an action that is not legal). We are a rowdy bunch, but we all have a pretty good time! Our lunch, which consisted of what we were told, was Barracuda? I am not sure, I don’t really know my fish, but I was told that you are not really supposed to eat Barracuda? But it was one of the best fish I have eaten (mainly because it did not taste very fishy and there were no bones). Followed by a nap swinging in my hammock. PARISIDE!

One of the Local Islands, there is only one house located on it.

After everyone in the group fell asleep in random places all over the island the locals were going to take us on a trip to the river, and into the rainforest for some swimming. We started off on the boats to what we thought was going to be you know a 20 minute boat ride… over an hour later we are cursing through the most beautiful jungle in what looks like a scene from a movie. One part Jurassic Park, one part Anaconda, and one part Disney Jungle Cruise and you have it! I was sitting with a freshman boy and these GIANT BIRDS that keep flying over us mesmerized us both. I was joking around and saying there were defiantly dinosaur birds, pterodactyls maybe. We both agreed that they were of prehistoric origin. By the end of the boat ride the two of us were pretty clearly convinced that either a dinosaur or a killer snake was going to jump out of the dark green forest. We were to the point of making bets about who it was going to grab. The Kuna (local Indian tribe, the people who own the land of Kuna Yala) guide who was with us was tell us that this area is completely uninhabited. The Panama government forbids anyone to live in the jungle or hunt in the jungle. The only thing that may be taken from there is plant ingredients that are used by the Kuna to make natural medicines, or for recreational purposes. It was a pretty clear adventure. In the end we did not see any dinosaurs (well the HUGE BIRDS were a bit of their own species, I will admit they could have been Pelicans but pterodactyls are way cooler).

It felt like we had been on San Blas for days when we had only been there for a few hours. We woke up the next day and more or less did the same thing all over again. Went to visit the beach… took in some swimming. The only issue with the beach we visited was that it was COVERED in sand mites, or gnat type bugs that ATE YOU ALIVE! Right now as I am typing this I am STILL itching my legs and will probably have a scar or two from the fact that even anti-itch does not make the sting go away. So sure it is paradise but really the truth is paradise does have a downfall or two.

The Kuna Village

The area of Kuna Yala or San Blas, which ever one you prefer is governed by the Kuna Indian tribe. The Kunas’ are a different Indian tribe I am not really sure what they really do or if they just kind of live? Not really sure. We went for a visit to the main city of the Kunas (which happened to be across the “street” really a very large blue lagoon to our resort/island). I have noticed over several conversations with the people that I have met in Panama that the Kuna’s are a big member of their population (more or less east of Panama City is almost all Kuna) that they are not really considered to be statesmen or members of Panamanian Society. I am not really sure what the overall feelings about the Indians in the area are but it is odd and for sure different. Through much of the tribe is isolated on the islands and the only real way to get out of the area is to fly which to them is not cheap, so it’s a very different life and a very different world. During our visit to their main city it was like nothing I had been to before. The palm thatch houses with bamboo sides are the main style of living with random hammocks and gardens over the little city. The area it probably not more then the size of three football fields, maybe even less. But it is said that around 3,000 people are all living there. And in the population breakdown most of those 3,000 people are children. The kids in the village were seeping from the cracks, they were EVERYWHERE. They kept showing up waving, asking us silly Spanish questions they were everywhere! I don’t think I have ever seen so many children in one concentrated area ever. The only other location where I think I could find this many children would be one of the bigger elementary schools in a very dense area. Even so they normally break up the children. It was not an easy place to visit. Many of these children we could clearly identify as having mental disabilities, or health issues, or even lack of exposure to many things, which is not something easy to deal with when you are coming from a world where you have access to everything. But the Kuna people do not want help, they don’t want to be bothered by the outside world, they don’t believe in vaccines or modern medicine, they believe in what they have for hundreds of years and they stand to these beliefs. Which as a society that pretty much lives off the government’s money it is very brave of them. There clothes are town and most people are not wearing shoes, the old women are trying to sell traditional handicrafts and if you want to take a picture with anyone on the island you have to give everyone in your picture one dollar, unless if someone is dancing in the picture then you have to fork over three dollars for every dancer.

On the tour of the community the local guide who worked on the island we were staying on was telling us in Spanish what exactly went on in the community, due to the fact that a few of us don’t really have the Spanish skills necessary to know what is going on (I am NOT the only one) our RA (resident assistant, dorm advisor guy) who was with us on the trip, took it in his own hands to translate. I will put it out there right now, I have been in a few situations were translators were necessary and normally they will take every word and pick it apart and translate the sentence exactly how it should be. Our RA decided to tell his own story. The Kuna guide would talk for about five minutes and our RA would go, “in the village the kids go to school.” Then the Kuna villager was telling us about how you can be in charge of the Kuna society, so like the requirements to be the Kuna President. Our RA decides he is going to translate once again with statements like, “the guy pretty much has to be a baller to be president, he has to know a shitload about the culture he has to f-ing know what everything means and shit, and he has to have the hottest Kuna wife.” The Kuna man stood there nodding his head agreeing with everything our RA was going on about… great moment in the botching of Kuna history. The Kuna Village really survives on the fact that people really want to come and visit their island paradise. So I guess it is a good thing we went and enjoyed our time there.

Our last night on the island we spent chilling on the beach and watching the picture perfect stars because we were no where near any city with almost no lights to block the night sky. It was a great trip. I spent the rest of the night in the hammock listening to the ocean before I had to get up at the crack of dawn to catch a flight back to Panama City. I cannot wait to go back and the glory of being here for three semesters is the fact that I get to go two more times. I am sure my hammock will be right there waiting for me when I return.

Chilling in my Hammock

Overall I think this is number two on the best places I have ever been. Number one stands pretty strong at Kovalam Beach in Kerala, India. Due to the fact that it is the same idea… but they believe in daily massages and have the best bananas in the entire world. And Banana Pancakes. Also huge waves, though the sea is not as blue or as clear as the Caribbean but to each their own. It was a great time and if you are ever in Panama you catch a flight from Albrook Aeroporte to Playa Chico for 90 dollars and you are in Paradise in about 20-40 minutes depending on how good the newspaper is that morning.

Happenings in Panama

2009-09-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

A View of Panama

The Bridge of The Americas... which as according to the United States (which is one of the few states that believe the there is a difference between North and South America)... is the legal divide between North and South America, this picture was taken on the South America side

A picture of my school building, or some building that is near my school. But if you look closly you can see a silver like bridge. That is the Panama Canal. Its right there. I watch the boats in class.

Sorry, it’s been a little bit, but may I remind you that I am actually in school here in Panama, so it may be a bit depending on what I am doing. But I am having a blast in the country of Panama that is for sure (and yes I am also getting my studying in on the side).

There are some things that I feel I have yet to describe about this lovely country. Panama is different from most places I have ever been the days are different the life is different. But different is good, great actually. I have been told numerous times “if you need something done in life… Panama is not the place for you. But if you want to learn how to live life then Panama is where you will find it.” It’s only slightly perfect when you think of it, but its imperfection breads a very enjoyable time.

I was speaking with a friend from school, who is a local and we were discussing before we all went out one Sunday night the ideas of different world cities. Her take was that New York was one of the liveliest cities and that it never sleeps. Which sure is true, but try to find a nice place in NYC that is open twenty-four hours, impossible. She complained about Panama City being empty at night among other things. My argument is that Panama City is on the liveliest cities I have ever been to! In Panama City the skyline is littered with tall towers that are mostly residences and some business, and the lights are normally off at night. In NYC the lights never go out because people are always up working. In Panama City the lights are out because people are off living. Not to mention there are PLENTY of fine places open twenty-four hours. How could you not go wrong!

I have been a few other places since coming to Panama. The entire ground one evening went off to a Cultural dance and dinner presentation. Like a dinner show type event, the Panamanians showed off some cultural dances. Most of them were pretty much what you would think for Latin and South America, big flowing skirts on the woman and fast moving feet for the men, with a girl chasing after a guy and a guy chasing over a girl and everyone going all together crazy. Along with some wedding dances that involved elaborate jewelry. Only one dance really stood out from all of the traditional and local flavor, which was a dance which was on men in which the men dressed up in the HUGE demon head dress type things. It reminded me on one of the Chinese Dragon customs that you see around Chinese New Year. They were huge and they were scary! If I was under the age of five I would have been in tears. The beast jumped around the dancing stage and called on something, which I did not really understand because my Spanish is still a little shaky (though people are very impressed about the strides I have made to attempt to get better!).

Our group also took an adventure trip to a cave. Which is something I have always wanted to do! There is a museum, which ironically happens to be a UF, that my mother used to take my brother and I to as kids. There was a cave exhibit in which there was a mock up cavern, which some UF students once explored. Since I was about five I have wanted to do something similar. The cave was way out in a village north of the city in the rainforest. The cave opened like most other caves with a huge rock hole. Though before we went in they had a big lecture about how we will be in water that is probably over our heads and there will be snakes, bats, killer spiders, other assorted insects that can probably kill you. LOVLEY! PERFECT! Getting this lectured at before I walk into a cave to someone who happens to be along deathly afraid of fish… not the best plan. Most of the time I was more freaked out than able to enjoy what could have been a better adventure. The entire cave was obviously rock bottom, which had little to no traction and then you would all of a sudden end up in eight feet of water. It was supposed to be a fun Sunday adventure, more like a circus parade in the case of our group. Due to the fact we have a mix of age groups and a diverse mix of people it turned out to be a very interesting time. I have done it once; I almost killed myself numerous times. I am not going again.

Panama is an isthmus, which means nothing to most people but to a select group of students it means you are always on the water. Or the beach is only a matter of minutes away, or so one would think. Last Saturday we decided to take a little adventure to la playa. It was a disaster… more or less I am never going to EVER listen to guys EVER when they claim to know where they are going. A quick walk to the beach turned into a five mile hike up and over through the deep rainforest, across a river through a stream over a mountain up a tree, to find a road to find a path that would eventually lead us to the water, and maybe to a beach. I am not exaggerating. We only ended up spending about an hour at the beach, before we made the two and a half hour hike back in the opposite direction.

Last weekend may have been a mess, but this weekend we are taking a school field trip to what I have only been described to as Paradise. The cartoon version of Paradise, the idea most of the world is familiar with, happens to be white sand beaches, huge palm trees, hammocks and overall uninhabited land surrounded by a huge blue ocean. That idea came from San Blas or Kuna Yala. Where FSU is taking us this weekend. We are flying out (on a plane…) from Panama City at some ungodly hour (we don’t even plan on sleeping the night before it is so early!). We are going to snorkel, and lay on a beach for two days. I don’t think life could get much better?

Until then I am going to watch the boats go by in the canal and possibly take in a class or two? As always more to come.

Through the Rainforest

2009-08-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures taken by my awesome room mate, Elizabet. This was our trip to the rain forest. We rafted down the river and hiked to a water fall.

Panama!

2009-08-24T13:17:00.001-07:00

Alright so at some point in time I swore I WOULD write about Europe, and Panama. Well I ran out of time to ever write anything about my excellent summer!

Quick Summer Recap:
Went to Europe to work at the Girl Scout camp.
- I was first in Ansbach, Germany at the very unsafe and scary base.
- I got to travel to Munich to meet up with my friend Anna and stay at THE TENT.
- I had an amazing forth of July, at a festival dedicated to this guy who looks like uncle Sam, who went from Germany to Alaska, found a manatee and then rode it back to Bad Windshiem Germany
- The finished up Germany with a group of CRAZY Brownies (the youngest girl scout group)
- Visited Paris for five days with four girls from work and meet up with Julie (another friend from India). Got to take part in the Bastille Day festivities, including seeing the president of France, an also fireworks at the Eiffel Tower.
- Took a very long train ride to Italy, and landed in Pisa to see the Tower of Pisa, which yes is leaning and is major tourist destination.
- In Italy, we were givin twelve hours off and we wanted to go to Africa (which was almost possible except there were no flights on the day we wished to go… which was very sad) So instead we went to go jump off of cliffs! Wahoo! In a place called Cinque Terre, meaning the Five Lands. Cinque Terre is what you would imagine Italy to look like, beautiful blue water with hug cliffs and cities built around them. It was so nice, I went back a 2nd time when I had two days in Italy before I had to catch a flight to London to go home!

So two weeks after I found myself once again on a plane, jet setting off to Panama City, Panama. I am here to go to school for a year. For twelve months I will attend Florida State University-Panama. And upon my return I will receive in-state tuition in Panama, and hopefully be fluent in Spanish (Good trade off, I can only hope!).

I am living in an area of Panama called Clayton. Its an old American Army Base, and pretty much looks like most places I have ever lived. I am living in old enlisted housing (though our AC works better then the kids in officers housing, which is nice due to the fact that it is around 90 everyday and does not really cool down at night). I have five girls in my house and there should be a 6th we are still waiting on her to come… if she ever does? There is a Mango tree in our front yard, which in interesting along with iguanas hiding all around. The whole place is located across the street from the Panama Canal, and we can see the boats go through the locks, if we were allowed to sit on the roofs. Clayton is about 10 or so minutes away from the City. But only about 10 minutes away from Albrook, where the bus terminal and the biggest mall in Panama is located.

Overall, Panama is beautiful. It’s a big city and ten minutes away from the city is a huge rainforest. On Sunday we had the chance (all the international program students) to go on a trip to the Chagares River. We canoed up the river and then tubed back down the river and then stopped to hike into the rainforest to a waterfall. After the hike, we then canoed to the Embedra Indian village, which is more or less a tourist destination, set up by the government. It had the same idea as Old World Wisconsin in my mind. People dress up, cook, and put on a show. It was a little touristy for my taste, but still an interesting experience.

Today I started classes, with Spanish. I have learned though I have not even been here a week that I NEED to learn Spanish. I was told by many people that I would not have to know Spanish to get by in Panama, which yes may be true. But to get by without being charged a fortune by people trying to take advantage of me, would be worth the time and effort I am going to need to spend learning Spanish. Other classes I am taking would be Politics of Latin America, Math, Bio for the Non-Major (which I heard was really a pain because the professor is a crazy person), and Conflict and Security. It should be a fun time!

Well I have to get to class before the rain comes…

On the Road Again... Just Can't Wait to be on the Road Again...

2009-05-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

I just got back from spending a week in Washington... and Now I am back to Wisconsin and already getting ready to leave yet again.

The time around Europe is what is one the menu. Five Countries, a few cities, and some wandering in between (not to mention a job... yes, I (theloneblonde) am leaving my lovely country to work abroad because there are no jobs in said lovely country).

I am in the process of packing it all up. Though this time instead of three lime green suitcases and a bargained fake tommey "hillfinger" blue thing that is missing a wheel. I am with a backpack and a small green carry on (which currently only contains marshmallows and a lifeguard towel). Imagine that... the serious over packer who is prepared for everything from a minor spine to nuclear fall out with a backpack, for over two months! (crazy talk, I know).

BYOM (Bring you Own Marshmallows) and let the Adventure begin!

Though I will not be a loneblonde in Europe, due to the fact that essentially a long long time ago my relatives got on the boat coming from a mix of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Germany. But at the same time i am still theloneblonde.

So bring on the sit-upons and trade in the rock and roll for camp songs gather round the fire (without marshmallows) and toast to adventure.

Talk to you again soon.

To tide you over... I thought this article was intersting!

http://www.worldhum.com/features/eric-weiner/travel-that-counts-or-my-passport-is-better-stamped-than-yours-20090526/?cmpid=05282009__trv18

Back At It... The Adventure Thing

2009-04-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

Who Knows if anyone will actually read this, but we will see.

I am back. Back at that entire Adventure thing that is.

With India almost a year behind me I am taking up yet another adventure. For those of you who like to know what is going on in my life, and like to read what I have to share about whatever thoughts on life I may have well then you should be happy to know I have a very long adventure ahead of me.

The last year in itself has been an interesting journey (of Transformation, all pun intended to the worst class I have ever taken) , of all the things that I do not really enjoy in life;

Things I have done since India:

1. Graduated High School (Big Accomplishment)

2. Went to College (Seton Hall University)

3. Realized I made a Big Mistake in picking a prison not an Academic Institution

3.5. 2009! New Years!

4. Tried to Make the Best of it (Fail) BUT got a job in Europe for the Summer

5. Applied to Transfer (Choices: Ohio State, UW-Madison, Florida State, Trinity DC)

6. Got into every school I applied to (again... and had to make a decision)

7. Went down to Florida State, Everything is free and the Weather is amazing

8. Made a decision (Florida State, and praying to the gods of good schools that its the best idea)

9. Applied for the Panama Program at Florida State University Panama (The Republic of Panama, not Panama City, FL) And Got in :)

10. Bought a Ticket to Europe and Panama

(11. Left Seton Hall in the Dust ) (This is slightly preemptive, I will be out of here May 6)

So that's the plan. To Leave Seton Hall in the Dust. I only hope that I made the right choice this time around. I mean it came with some hardships and some definite crying to the parents and complaining to the world and ranting and raving about what a mistake I made, but I am hoping this is not only my chance to correct what in the WORLD was i thinking when i picked to come to school in New Jersey (yes, the rumors are true, this is for the most part the rubbish bin of America, and yes, they do wear their big hair like that).

I do have to mention that it was not ALL bad. I did have some good times, making fun of Jersey. Some Great times, (on the mock trial team) representing Jersey. And I will take away some very memorable moments, that will always go unprecedented because this was Jersey.

Back to the Plan.

The Plan: Three Months, Five Countries, One Brand New Passport.

June 3 (Exactly One Year after coming home from India, give or take 23 minutes or something like that)
Leave for United Kingdom and meet up with Childhood friend Laura or Ipod, who it just so happens applied to work at the same summer camp as I even though we have NOT seen each other since we were 9 and live very separate lives (meaning we did not talk much) over a very big ocean (the Atlantic, to solve any confusion)

June 5
Fly to Germany, to begin working at Camp Lachenwald. Other then the name which I am not even sure how to say, I am working there doing who know what for very little pay for the next part of the summer. Hopefully I will find some time to try and find my German Friends, or a Canadian one.

July 16
Transfer over to Italy and work at Campeggio Bosco Ridente for the second half of the summer
Maybe a stopover in Rome, to meet up with Lauren (yes, a ghost from India's Past!) to Explore the Eternal City!!!
A dream come true after taking up a Minor in Classics (worthless but fun, for anyone going to college someday or again, classics professors are always the most exciting, dead languages bring out the best in some).

August 5
I have to come home sometime, but its only a stop off in the grand scheme of things
Originally I was going to be coming home Auguest 17, and I would have had 30 so hours before I had to pack it up and leave for my next adventure, which would have been, just the way I would have liked it, but slighly finicial irresponsible.

August 19
Leave for Panama.
Ciudad De Panama. Ciudad de Saber. Simpre
Me Espanol es muy Mal. Simpre

Another year of Great Adventure Awaits.
I only hope you can follow me on a real Journey.
One that does not take place in Suburbia Hell.
This One takes place in the Real World.

- The Lone Blonde

The End is close, and I am near, but really ALL i see in my eyes is fear

2008-05-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

Well, truly this is the end. I packed up all my things today, everything that I plan to take home. This is it, its over. A year of my life gone, a year of my life taken, and well one question was:
Was it all worth it?

ANSWER: YES, a million times over. The hard work, the frustration, the highs the lows, the good times and the smell and the sweat, was more then worth it.

So I am done, this was my year, i am guessing I will have more stories when I return and MAYBE a blog post right before I leave, maybe it will be about my trip (just a hint).

But I have to go home to the land of Reality soon, and well truly I am dreading it. I know everything will be the same when I get back (except i don't have a room any more :( ....) but well, its been a long year for me and I have seen a lot. Everything will be unchanged when i return and thats really one of my biggest fears. This all works out in my mind, if it just seams like mindless babble to you.

There are things i am exited for but one thing I have learned this year is to make no expecations because you are not going to get what you think, thats India for you. Its always the exact opposite of what you believe it will be. So thats all, thats finale.

<3 The Lone Blonde

I will make sure that you read the rest of my thoughts soon.

The End is Near… But Still A million miles away.

2008-05-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Alright Alright i may have lied a bit, yeah i got to it though, the end of the tirp....

Rishikesh:

Alright the Ganga (or Ganges) is the Holy River in India. It starts up in the Himalayas and then goes on for a long time, to this area where they cremate dead people and throw their ashes (float their ashes) down the river. Which is well a bit strange, but culture, don’t worry we were at the origin of the river and so no dead people (more or less). So we were staying at a camp in the old girl scout platform tents, except these platform tents had indoor plumbing and well carpets and beds that were really nice. So not really your Girl Scout camping experience. We spent a lot of time chilling at base camp, to recover from the rafting runs. Our first day rafting we went only about 17 km, because the next day we were going to do 33 km, which was amazing. Interestingly enough it took us the same amount of time to do 17 as it did for us to do 33, which was a little wild, fast passed action adventure time! Being up in the Himalayas it’s an amazing atmosphere, it is colder then the desert, the water is beautiful and the mountains are amazing. There are a ton of monkeys also, but the wildlife is besides the point. The Ganges as a swimming river, has a fast current, and well whitewater rapids. Also the Ganges is FREEZEING! It comes right off the mountains and it’s so cold, you go into shock when you get in, but then the adrenaline kicks in when you are sucked into the current or the rapids. So rafting was amazing, really indescribable in words. One story for you, on the 2^nd day we were following where they let the water out of the dam which means the water levels were a little bit higher and then the rapids were a little bit bigger, so we were just starting on the 2^nd half of the course, also the course that we had done the day before. In a rapid that was named the golf course in the first 20 seconds of the rapid, I got taken out by a wave and over the side I went! Now this rapid is one of the biggest in the Ganga, it is not a joke, it is huge, and also it is long. So my paddle and I went for a bit of a ride, down this rapid, quite the swimming challenge. When I fell out I was blasted about ten feet down then I had to ride the rapid to the end to be picked up by the rescue boat. It was well to say the least really really fun, but at the same time a little freaky, but I got enough holy water up my nose to make all my sins go away. Whoops, I was the only one to fall out of the boat, so I got the good story. Also a few good laughs because we hit the rapid, we hit the wave, and then Heather was gone.

So I have well like me think 15 days, left in India. This to me is just impossible! It seams to me like only just yesterday, I was sitting at home in Wisconsin not believing I would be in India for a year. Now I am doing just the opposite sitting in India and not believing I will be going home! But lets not dwell on that too much, it makes me sad inside (I will save it for the end of this blog entry).

So things that have happened lately in the life of Heather:

I changed host families

I am no longer staying off baner road, though that means nothing to you. I now live on MG RD! Which is pretty much main street. The centre of town, its where all the good shopping is, it is where well life in Pune is. Its pretty grand! But well with this comes noise, and riots, and well everything, protest, wedding parades, camels, I saw an elephant the other day too. It’s a little wild. And it’s a bit of a hike my new house, I live on the 5^th floor and there is no lift. Well also its been a little crazy because of the political elections going on, and this is the main road, so more or less, political frenzy! Daily protest and marches from all hours of the day! Its fun, and it’s a very different way of life, not to mention I love my new host family, it’s a very nice change from the end.

Serious shopping and some packing (more of the first): I don’t want to talk about this it is a sore subject in both my parents wallets and my bags.

Events:

European Film Fest: Well the EU threw a film fest, and we were always never on time for the movies, but for the last two days of the fest we could all go, and see the movies, it was great! Well it would have been great… But, the passes had all disappeared and we were told that we would be allowed in and for the movies that others had gone to the passes were not checked. So we go, and we are trying to get in and there are these guards at the gate who are awful! They more or less beat us if we tried to break in, which we did… So we fought and argued and yelled (it was similar to the event in Agra, I yelled at people for mistreatment). So finally we argued our way in, kind of. And so the man in charge finally comes and tells us that the “White People” could enter but the Indians who were fighting with us, “the Brown People,” were his words, were not allowed to enter, talk about a blow. Imagine, telling your headstrong teenagers of today this in a western country, not possible, people would just flip. Its like a blow to the chest when this happens to you because you know what it is like on both ends to get the special treatment, and to be discriminated against. We left. The next night to fight it, we tracked down two passes, and dropped one of the passes out of a window so we could get a third person in, fight the system.

May Queen Ball:

My host father is on the board of Pune Club, which is more or less the Country Club of Ozaukee, and he put together this event called the May Queen Ball. A beauty pageant essentially and well turns out two of the Pune Exchange kids were entered in it! It was great, to watch two of the exchange kids more or less compete it was great! One girl from Belgium made it to the final five, but did not win, she should have.

Going away parties seam to be in fashion these days because of well everyone leaving. Today the 2^nd girl went home, the first was from Michigan and the 2^nd was Stephanie from Indiana. Followed by more and more and more, and well then me.

I will say I am off to the Himalayas in a few days, going to go climb a mountain! It’s with Rotary, so we really have no idea what the plan is or what we are doing and every time we ask they tell us, it all depends on the weather. We might go to China (I don’t think so though, they will find some excuse to lock us in the hotel room or in a tent…).

Events in India:

Jaipur bombings, remember i went to Jaipur the Pink city, as mentioned in my last entry and well it was bombed, and most of the things i saw are not partially gone, they will never be the same again when i saw them, one thing which i mentioned was the Hawa Mahel, it was bombed, along with the amazing shopping markets, bombed, gone. What is very odd the think that just a month ago i was there, shopping and seeing the sites, well hope my mother did not read this last little thing because well i think she may flip a little bit.

Well more later about my leaving: My thoughts and feelings on this year…

North Tour!

2008-04-26T05:22:00.000-07:00

North Tour, North Tour, North TOUR!

Not the same effect as MAGIC SHOW MAGIC SHOW MAGIC SHOW (great words yelled by yours truly in Jaipur).

So my North Tour was not as eventful as the whole South Tour in an Exchangers minds but I defiantly saw some cool places, learned some cool stories, and well was hot hot hot! (Normal temp, was around 40+ c not f for the American crowd and no I cannot convert…. I have been here too long… wiki it…). So let me continue, North Tour, around three weeks of pure bliss of traveling around India, seeing the sites, and of coarse the most cliché thing in India, the famous or infamous which ever way you look at life (half full of half empty kind of deal), THE TAJ MAHAL! (more on this latter…).

So we left Pune and traveled to Mumbai then from Mumbai we went to Jodhpur and there begin the first part of the adventure!

Jodhpur- The Blue City

My observations of this city were a bit well different from other places I have traveled to in India. It was first of all, HOT, bring the more or les beginning of a desert that is Rajasthan, there was sand and not dirt and it was sweltering, also it seamed to be in the middle of NO WHERE (little did I know… as always more to come…). Also it was strange that this being India (a really really population dense crowded country), No One was around! Another cool thing, which in the end just seamed like just one more, was that where ever you went in the city the HUGE fort on the hill/cliff top was looming around (don’t worry there are plenty of pictures…).

Places visited:

Umaid Bhawan: palace for the Marajas (kings, or Royalty of the city). Now divided into three parts, a museum, a 7 star hotel owned by the Taj hotels, and one of the Royal living quarters of the Jodhpur Royals.

Note: The city of Jodhpur has today an active Royalty, that govern the area, like a real prince and king and all that good stuff (more to come).

Market of Jodhpur: The best part about the North in my mind, and well in my parent’s wallet, was the amazing shopping! Geared towards tourist (because not many people really lived here), shopping shopping and more shopping, to your hearts content! Also bargain bargain bargain! Like a true American! This city is famous for mojories (Indian Elf Shoes) and tye and dye (yes, lke scout camp, they claim they invented it, not too sure about the claim it does look a little bit different and also less hippie-stoner-esq).

Meherangarh Fort- high on a chiseled out cliff built into a hill is this HUGE fort (they call it a fort, we would call it a palace sounded by military). Millions of rooms (literally a million rooms) every room carved into rock, with vast views of the blue city (it is called this because he Royals asked the people if you were a Hindu to paint your house blue, and well the town is more or less all Hindu, so there is a lot of blue houses, the Royals still ask people to do it today as a sign of respect). All the rooms had various uses and royal matters, the normal ones like court, armory, carriage rooms, waiting rooms, sitting rooms, and drawing rooms, and then more unusual ones like “pleasure” rooms (there were 40 pleasure rooms, I did not ask?).

Note: like I said the Royal family still is active and real in Jodhpur and well on the way in, in comes a Jeep followed by another Jeep into the fort when we are waiting to collect our audio tour, and then after the jeep come an armed jeep, and we are like, this is mean we had to walk a half a km up a huge hill to get into this crazy palace, and in comes people in Jeeps, then in comes a big car and the car stops and the palace like freezes for a minute, everyone stops and looks at this car, an armed guard gets out of the car and gets back in, with enough time to get a look of the cute guy in the car, who 20 seconds later we were told was the prince of Jodhpur (an eligible bachelor). He gives Prince Harry a run. J

Monkey Gardens: a garden that was INFESTED with monkeys, there were EVERYWHERE! It was crazy! We did not go for the monkeys though, we went for the cenotaphs (places like the great pyramids where they were erected for people who died and now there are no people buried there). The place is an Indian Heritage site but sadly it is not well kept, but still real neat. They look like temples but they are not that’s about it. Also on the same site was a high fort were the heads of the army could go to and watch the real fort from the north most vulnerable side to watch for invaders and such. Also there was a temple under the high fort so they could pray to ward off invaders. The temple was well a big cave like thing and PITCH BLACK, which was somewhat funny because I did not have a torch and just walked right in, not stopping to think that this could be like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom… Don’t worry no snakes or rats that I saw, well it was pitch black?

As for the people we figured out by the second night in the city that they only came out at night and well were complete night owls! They came out when the sun came down and went in when the sun came up. For two reasons, the first being it was hotter then hell outside, and the second being that it was a festival going on that they celebrated at night.

Moving on to the Next city!

Jaisalmer- The Gold City

(If anyone has seen that awful American Teen Movie, EuroTrip, when they go to the city called Cran-sal-mare is pronounced similar to that and well it was a joke of ours and we laughed about it).

Observations- This is the real middle of NO WHERE! This is TRUE desert, sand is everywhere, you have to wear sunglasses or more or less you cannot open your eyes, it is so hot, you feel like your skin is melting, not very plesent. Not to mention we had to take a non-ac train the “5 hours” which turned out to be more like 7 and felt like three days to the middle of NO WHERE, because we got stuck in a sand storm the train was halted for ages! And well being non-ac you either keep your windows open cover your self in cloth and get sand in your everything or else you close your windows and die a very painful hot sweating death. No to pleasant, never want to do this again… Not to mention the train was infested with cockroaches there were hundreds of them they were everywhere! I pulled out my bag and they were crawling all over in the masses (when I opened my backpack they were crawling out of pockets I did not even know existed!). Gross… So back to Jaisalmer, the city originally was a trading city that was a bridge from Europe (more like Turkey) to Arabia to India way back when. Then when partition came along and Pakistan was created that whole idea was shut down, along with modernization of trading routes (camels became obsolete too). Now the city has very strong military ties, and being one big military base, because of its close proximity to Pakistan. But its other use as a city is a Tourist Trap, the people who were crazy enough to stay in this city after it was placed into India are into tourism and tourism only, what else do you do in the middle of a desert (cheat white people! Of course!). Also in this city just like the last way on a big hill in a HUGE Fort (a common theme, among these cities). To get around in this city we got to have big cars (suvs) because a bus does not really drive well in the sands along with suvs are way cooler (better ac) and altogether are just fun! Driving around in a big SUV caravan makes you feel important. As for the gold city, it is called that because EVERYTHING is made out of sandstone, which mixes with the sunlight to be gold in color, making you wish the tint on your sunglasses was darker.

Places visited:

Havalies: The mansions built for the wives of the Royals of the city. They are all large in size and built around a general roman like theme. They were many stories and built for many people, specifically the king would have many wives and the wives would have ladies in waiting and euchnichs (gay servants). They would have closed off exteriors but big open courtyards on the insides.

Note: this city had royals, now they listen to the Royals of Jodhpur.

Market- Having already filled up my suitcase in the first city… Well I took this chance to once again go serious shopping. This city is bargainers paradise you can beg and plead and well live by the four As-Argue, Antagonize, Annoy, Agree. The big thing there was really for us, PANTS, in India there is AliBaba pants, they are well um pants, and I will show pictures because they are well different but way cool! This market really struck me as a really traditional Indian Market or what a westerner would perceive with big colorful awnings, and crazy sellers of everything from mystery cookies to huge idols, and of course very colorful pants. If you need a better mental picture, just like Aladdin and the market in the Disney Film, I would put money on it that the film makers based the markets of the fictional city on the ones in Jaisalmer.

The Fort- Another big fort, this one was less of a palace (the other one was about the same size but all belonged to the Royals versus this one that was only a little palce and more of one huge city on a big rock. Most of the population lives in the fort, it has built up sandstone homes and hotels, shops and living quarters, and is also completely falling apart! The reason given for the fact that it is detonating like a slow bomb rocks, were falling on our heads is because of water usage, the palace was made for people to hike 20 km to find water. Now with water found underground the resource is always there, which is great, but causing the place to look like it was hit by an earthquake. So walking through the fort you get to see many things there are over 12 hotels, tons of shopping, and a ton of restaurants (two which made us crack up, one was called free Tibet, the other was killed Killa). In the temple we went to the

Jain Temples- temples for Jains (religion of India, they don’t believe in killing anything ever, they are full veg and don’t eat off the land (don’t eat things that grow underground), I am going to guess it is the next major odd religion cult in California). Where they have crazy carvings all made from one slab of stone, which it is just beautiful and WILD! You see stories and just about everything carved into this stone, I have pictures, but it does not make any sense in words.

Main Museum and the Palace part of the fort- Showed the palace and with a tour guide in your ears (audio guides described in India…). Show cased the living quarters and some of the court rooms where locals brought the Royals things (like chickens), No pleasure rooms this time, I figure the Royals in Jodhpur have enough for the Royals of Jaisalmer to share. Also I learned of some of the crazy romance stories about the Royals long ago. They are SCREWED UP! Such as this princess who was trying to find a husband went for a walk one day following the moon which lead her into the desert yet she kept walking and she came to a camp and this lake in the middle of the desert and there staying was the prince of a serious rival and he was preparing to invade the city, so she hooks up with him and goes back in the morning, and this goes on for a long time, months, when her father is preparing because he knows this kingdom will invade and the prince is holding off the troops, so one day the princess wants to bring her sister to show off “her man.” Btu she does not want her father to know, so she dress her up like a man, and goes to him, and she and her sister are just lying in his bed, and he comes in, and flips and is like “what are you doing in bed with another man!” So he refuses to every see her again and he gives orders to battle, so he sends his men to go and fight her kingdom and she goes back and then decides it is pointless so she wanders through the desert, and pretty much dies, and then he finds out during battle after the prince has pretty much killed off everyone that it really was her sister, and his princess is wandering through the desert he kills her father and he wanders through the desert and dies trying to find her. HOW ROMANTIC!? Not really… But that is what I learned.

Along with the practice of Saathi. Saathi is when women in well a long time ago when there husband died would put on their wedding dress and throw themselves into their dead husbands funeral pyare, to die (burn alive) with their husband. This happened and this happened quite often, well I mean people die. It was honor and the only way to get to heaven for a women, in my mind this is AWFUL! First of all your husband died, and now you have to jump on him ( a dead man) and burn yourself alive! You were not to scream because this could bring shame, so you were to quietly burn alive, fun fun fun! When this happened with kings, many times out of ten he would have more then one wife (anywhere between two and 365 (one for everyday of the year… as said by the tour guide in my ear) on average very rare would a king have one and sometimes he would have more then 365). So the wives would have to follow their lovers other lovers into the fire, which is indescribable uggh… That’s all I got. There was also another practice called Adjoher which was a mass saathi. This is before all the men went off to battle (the battles where they were 98% sure that they would not come home) they would build a big fire and all the women would walk into it for their husband. In Jaisalmer this happened 2.5 times. The half time was a little bit different but in my mind worse then a traditional adjoher. The story goes the king declared that everyone was going to battle tomorrow, and that everyone was going to die, so the wives have to go. So the king ordered all the men to slit their wives throats, so they could leave. Lovely! Enough history back to the sites!

Back to the Fort- The fort also had shopping and if the last bazaar was not movie enough for you this one was crazy, it had little allies and stall selling all the stuff you would want to find in India, which is all crap! It was junk junk junk! (I sound like my mother…) Alright but the shop keepers were the ones going, Madam come see my shop, it was very very stereotypical India, and they all sound like Abpoo from the Simpson’s. A SERIOUIS TOURIST TRAP! They would overcharge for everything! And overcharge really is an understatement! Needless to say we really did not shop here.

One this about Jaisalmer that was really amazing was the architecture of the place. I know I mentioned that it is the Gold City for the use of sandstone, but sandstone in Jaisalmer is so elaborately carved, its amazing! They do a thing called “Netting” which is where the sandstone is so thin (yet very strong and standing still the same after hundreds of years), it is carved into such intricate designs that it is about the same thickness as mosquito netting (for the scouts and campers, you know what I am talking about! Imagine peacocks, eagles, chuckras, and overall elaborate designs being carved into rock mosquito netting, it is amazing!).

More Cenotaphs! Not to fun, well the ride out (about 25 minutes going about 120-140 kmph this is fun!) was nice and ac-ized! But well being outside in the 110 f desert heat at 12pm was not to fun! Hot Hot Heat! These Cenotaphs though were the most fascinating of all the cenotaphs because they clearly showed the ideas of an era long gone. Such as they would show a man on a horse and then a wife next to the horse, and then they would show on another block to the side 7 more wives, I am guessing we know who he liked better, unless it was his mother. But it showed the effects of saathi because the dates of death would be printed and when 17 people all die on the same day well they died for a reason, so saathi!

That night we were going to ride about two hours out into the middle of the desert, towards the Pakistan Boarder (Border Patrol Time! T hey do do border patrol on camel back sometimes I was told). On the way we stopped at more Jain Temples like the ones in the fort these temples were the first temples in the world to use Mixed Media to build them, they used the sandstone and then they integrated marble into the temple designs, it looked a little awkward.

Desert Camel Safari! Or One big Photo Opt!

So we went on a camel safari! It was in the desert! It was hot! I took lots of pictures! We went to the sand dunes and did stupid things, like made sand angles (due to the missing of snow season), we rolled down HUGE sand dunes, we put sand in people’s pants. We did get to ride camels into the desert, properly this time vs. camel carts. My camel was name Arjun, as told to us by our camel leader. Our tour guides camel was named Michael Jackson… I don’t know what to say to that.

On the last day in Jaisalmer we were supposed to go visit the Indo-Pak border, but because of political issues and recent bombings we could not get there, which was quite sad.

Jaipur-The Pink City!

Magic Show Time! So we arrive in Jaipur and we are staying in this resort and traditional handicraft village for the state of Rajasthan. In the evenings we got to wander around and ride the “Big Wheel” (man powered Ferris wheel!). And watch a magic show. The magic show joke comes from me having to wake up a room of six sleeping people, by really loudly screaming magic show, it was a very heather moment, that should have gotten on film because American’s funniest home videos would have given me way more then a million dollars. This hotel also had some very interesting guest, some Indians on a honeymoon, about 7 gagallizion ants, 11 bamallizion flies, and well Norbert and Roberto the FIRE BREATHING DRAGONS (giant lizards) that lived happily in my bathroom. But enough complaining, other then them fire breathing dragons are scary!

Jaipur is Pink because of well the whole place is colored in this salmon color, the color of the royals of this city. So it is really erally salmon and uniform, something that you don’t seein many Indian cities. It was just like the main drag of Meqon, Port Washington Road, all Uniform but well this city has just a few more million become and Mequon really has not even reached 500,000 yet, so not really the same.

Places visited-

City palace- A palace that the royals still occupy, they are not as important as the Jodhpur Royals and don’t have a hott prince, so yeah. The palace you did not get to see much, they were some exhibits on textiles that were used; you would look at the cloths and really see both orient and Russian influences which would lead to some pretty funky fashions. A bunch of hookahs were show cased (which they would drink opium tea and do hookah for celebrations among the Royals). A huge armory with wepons pouring out in every which way, it was nuts, because they was no organization of anything! It was huge, and it was hot, so I did not stay to see the infiltration on my last name all over the walls (hehe). There were carpets under lock and key, and my guess was because they were flying carpets! That is the only reason you would keep carpets locked up, because they can fly! (Really I think it was because someone famous stepped on it, but that is just talk they really went flying on it over the Taj Mahel and were serenaded by a beggar! Also there was a painting that was over 300 years old that looked just like the monsters in the book Where the Wild Things Are, so that was funky. But one of the main things at the City palace are the giant silver vases that the once royal would carry with him on trips and long journeys and they were full of water from the holy river, the Ganaga. He would only bathe and drink this water, and if he was even offered something else I cannot remember if they were put to death or he was just really offended, whatever off with his head anyways. They are the biggest silver objects in the world still today.

Hawa Mahal- The Palace of Wings

This palace was made by a king for his Queens and Ladies to watch the processions on the main street (because the Queens and Ladies were not allowed outside). Has millions of little windows that all used to be colored stained glass so the Queens could see out, and then a black sheet would be draped behind then Queens and she would stand between the black sheet and then colored glass and viola the first tinted windows. Today the stained glass has all been taken, and in only one window is there ever any evidence that this is what went on. Also the place has no stairs, all ramps and the kings and Queens because there fashion was so heavy were rolled around on chairs. This palace is called the palace of wing because it has no foundations. The king wanted a flying palace, A palace on water, and a palace in the sky, and well we saw all three.

Amber Fort- Outside the city past the palace in the water, there is the Amber fort, more or less looks like every other fort we have seen and you can only learn so much about their royals. By this time it was getting redundant. So here you were supposed to be able to ride elephants, but it was Ram’s birthday! Ram is a Hindu God, and in Jaipur a big Ram temple is located a top the Amber Fort. So no elephants. Just people, were everywhere! I have never seen a line with so many people in it, I would guess a few thousand were in line to see Ram’s Temple and give him offerings. It was crazy, and more or less a bad memory, because it was also hot, and huge, and a lot of walking in mass crowds.

Shopping- More shopping, this is more or less the last shoppers stop on our tour; the guys were starting to get pissed. This was the biggest shopping street yet, seriously for the tourist but with the persuasion skills and plenty of time on our hands, all we got was great deals! On everything from purses, scarves, turbans, more purses, bags, puppets, and jewelry galore! It was fun, and I defiantly broke the bank, and ended up buying a new bag as an edition to my suitcase. But we made some amazing arguing to get bargains. We have movies, it was just a hoot sometimes.

On to the most anticipated cliché city in India!

Agra- The worst city in India.

Agra is the worst city in India, it has a million people, it smells like poop (because all the sewers are open), it was not created to have so many visitors, the people are jerks, and well it sucks, never come to Agra, skip the Taj there are plenty of cooler places out there. DO NOT COME TO AGRA EVER! Let me repeat this for effect. DO NOT COME TO AGRA EVER! It is a shitty city. We did stay in a semi-nice hotel, we liked the hotel (except for the food, but McDs was across the street). So we were here the shortest amount of time possible, to see the Taj and leave. That’s what we did. We came at around 1pm and stayed at the hotel and then went to the mall across the street (oh I have a story, but hold on just a sec), and then the next morning we woke up and went to the Taj at 5am, and we left by one the next day, 24 hours.

Places Visited-

CCD-

India’s version of Starbucks, Café Coffee Day, it is a shitty version of Starbucks really and is just total shit, and expensive at that. We have all been there a million and one times in out respective cities so we knew what to order, and when we got the bill it was quite high but because Lauren was paying we just well ignored it. So a little bit latter when all of us met up, Ana and Laura (two German girls) were complaining how this guy at CCD tried to charge them over rs100 more! So I turn to Ellie and Lauren and I am like I know why our bill was so High, I am going to go get my money back. So I take Ana (who can be the nicest person you know, but she has the amazing ability to share the living daylights out of someone, possibly because she is about 6’2), So Ana and I proceed up to CCD followed by Lauren. And as soon as the guy sees us three storming the CCD he immediately looks like he is going to pee himself. Ana and I just let into him about overcharging foreigners and how this is racial discrimination and how he should never think differently about people who look funny to him. Because we all live in India, and frequent CCD this is going down, as a very bad event. The guys name was Rajendra, and we made him call his boss, who would not get him phone. But still the guy was nuts and we got our money back, the whole thing ended with me screaming at him to call his mother to tell her what he has been doing to the white kids. That was my Agra experience.

The TAJ MAHEL!

Cliché cliché cliché cliché cliché

Essentially the Taj Mahel is the most cliché Indian experience. End of Story. It is a big place where dead people are buried. It is questioned how much the guy really loved his wife and loved himself way more. Its pretty, it’s big and yes it is real. It is really photogenic, it attracts a million and one foreigners.

IT IS INDIA

I can get really philosophical and let you all into my mind, but well oh only for a few seconds. The place is uber photogenic, but at the same time it is one big well lie, I guess. It attracts people from all over the world, and it is just overrated. All the jewels and everything, it does not look any different from the big elaborate buildings, and what really ruins it, is that people think this is India. India is not yoga, meditation, hippies, and the Taj Mahel, India is not George Harrison running around in the 1970s (or whenever the Beatles were in India, not too sure on the dates and my fact checker is sleeping, also more on this latter). India is not a paradise for washed up 30 something corporate droids to come and find themselves. You won’t find anything in yourself that you cannot find else where in India, India has no lights where people can magically go, WOW, this is who I am. No! No! No! People do bathe here (generally more then once a day too), they all wear normal clothes (ok sari’s are a bit like Togas, but they are still clothes!). Nameste is just a word that means Hello, or Greetings. It has no peaceful meaning; really it is quite an un-peaceful word to think about it

(Because India is not a very peaceful country). So all you hippies or people who think it means something cool, like “all

The world’s children piss peace” or something crazy like that, IT MEANS HELLO! GET OVER IT!

India is a country, a big country with over a billion people. One billion people, almost none of them united, or unified in any way. They are crazy they don’t start dancing in the street, they are living their lives, when the crazy foreigners come here and are trying to find a little piece of themselves among one billion people that are trying to live their lives in a country that is really hard to live in! You are chasing the wrong dreams! You are cliché and the Taj Mahel is the coming point of Indian Lies. It is big and it is beautiful, and most of all it is real. But it is not India. It is a rip off. They charge Indian’s rs. 20 (50 cents) to get into the place to see what all the foreigners rave about; it cost a foreigner rs. 750 ($18.75). I am not good at math but I do that is NO RIGHT, also racial discrimination, its unmoral in so many ways, it makes me want to Puke. I saw it, I wore a sari, I looked at the other Amerian tourist who must have forgotten to put on pants that morning (because skirts are NOT THAT SHORT!). It somewhat ruined the whole thing for me. Taj Mahal is a cliché for something that does not exist, that’s my take.

Getting out of Agra (thank god!).

Took a bus to Delhi, and as soon as you reach Delhi you get to meet up with a very good friend of the people of Delhi! Delhi Traffic! Where it takes over an hour to drive 1.5 km! Wahoo! Three hours for about 5 km! What a fun way to spend your time! Not to mention it could only get worse, because the next day was the Olympic torch race, which means security security security! This would be the closet that the Olympic torch would get to Tibet; Delhi is not that far from Tibet. This means PROTEST TIME. So Delhi as a city is big, it is fairly metro, it has a metro, it has the worst traffic I have ever seen. It is daunting and a bit scary, not sure why anyone would ever want to live there.

Things seen:

From Afar on a Bus: Parliament, The Presidents Estate (which is about 1000 times the size of the White House), India Gate, a few other places, and a giant Hanuman (the monkey god in Hinduism).

Actually got to get out and look around:

A famous mosque, the largest in Asia (outside of the Middle East, obviously). It was really pretty, and had swarms of these flesh eating birds, something funky was going on there, so who knows. They had this huge pillar that you could climb up and see amazing views of the city, it was quite a hike up and not worth how much they charged you but the city views were really amazing.

Gandhi’s Memorial In Delhi, where Gandhi’s eternal flame is going strong since his death in the 1940s. Very similar to JFK, though I would not compare the two.

Lotus Temple- This was one of the things I really wanted to see in India. I find it more fascinating then the Taj Mahel. It really is beautiful. It is a temple for the Baha’I faith, which is a very odd religion. They believe in embracing all religions and meditating on what you believe is right and moral. Also that religion should never cause fights or problems in the world. It was created by a former Islamic and it is really fascinating. They has a lotus, a giant lotus, which inside is a meditation hall, which is just fascinating I believe the 2^nd or 3^rd most visited religious place in the world, after Mecca and the Vatican. It has a very similar style to the Old New York PanAm terminal at JFK Airport in NYC. It is just amazing. I don’t have much more to say about this.

We went to a mall after this to stay out of the ways of the riots, because well Delhi was just NUTS. There were only about 14000 protesters, from all over the world. But the number that astounded me was the number of security personal, it was just crazy! 21,000 armed security members were patrolling the area of Delhi where the torch was going to be, to make sure that the torch (which should be a sign of peace around the world) would not be unlighted. It was a little crazy, just a tad, if you could fathom this, because even being there it was very hard to believe.

Bye Delhi, HELLO COFA Land and the best part of the TRIP!

We left Delhi to take a bus to Rishikesh. The Beatles put this city on the map when they came to India. They meditated at one of the many ashram’s in Rishikesh, which is on the Ganga (the Holy River). They were reported to have written the White Album in Rishikesh, along with other songs, which were found in the Magical Mystery Bus (or is it tour?), and well other hits.

We did not go here for meditation or to be Holy or anything like that, though some of the exchangers needed their sins washed away, which we all ended up doing. We came here for one reason and one reason only, TO RAFT! Two days white water rafting down the Ganga. Best time of my life.

Come back in two days for more Info, well thinking that you got through all of this, i know it is a lot, but you now know everything, whoot whoot!

I am still Alive!

2008-04-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hey! I am still alive, and everything is going great Not much has been going on, but i have been in Pune only. But now it is time! Time for the North Tour! Wahoo! The Tour where i get to see Yes, as you all think you cannot leave India without seeing it, THE TAJ MAHAL!

If you wanted to know what i have been doing. There is only one thing i have any comment on or else it has been boring boring boring in Pune.

HOLI

Holi is the celebration of the beginning of summer with color, and water! So I of corse got together with the locals, and had a blast! By getting dirtier then i ever have before. You throw colored powder (which dyes you completely my hair is still red!). So it was pretty cool, but then we went out to a "official" celebration and rain dance, which was wild. It more or less turned into one HUGE Mud brawl. I was COVERED in Mud, everywhere! I have never been dirtier in my life, i was totally red and orange and then covered in Mud from head to toe! It was caked all over my body! It took well one long shower to get it all off, but a major highlight of my year!

So this is what i am up to for the next few day! My North Tour, I will tell you all about it when i get back!

NORTH INDIAN SPLENDOUR

Places covered: Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jaipur, Agra, Fatehpur sikri, Delhi, Haridwar, Rishikesh.

Day 1(7^th April): PUNE TO JODHPUR

Leave from Pune for Mumbai and board the train to Jodhpur.

Dy 2(8^th April): JODHPUR

Arrival in Jodhpur. Arrival and transfer to hotel. Local sightseeing. Places like Meherangarh Fort, Umad Bhavan Palace. Overnight in Jodhpur

Day 3 (9^th April): JODHPUR

At Jodhpur. Local sightseeing. Places like Jaswant Thada, Clock tower and colourful markets. Overnight in Jodhpur.

Day 4 (10^th April): JODHPUR TO JAISALMER

Leave from Jodhpur for Jaisalmer by train.After arriving in Jaisalmer go for local sightseeing. Havelis like Patwon- ki – haveli, sakim singh- ki- haveli etc and Gadi sagar lake. Overnight in hotel in Jaisalmer.

Day 5(11^th April): JAISALMER

Local sightseeing. We will go to Sam Sand dunes, Fossil National Park near Pakistan Border, Camel safaris and watch local folk dances. Overnight stay at Jaisalmer.

Day 6(12^th April): JAISALMER

Morning free for shopping. Post lunch leave for Jaipur. Overnight on train.

Day 7(13^th April):: JAIPUR

Arrival in Jaipur. Transfer to the hotel and local sightseeing. Places like Hawa Mahal, Jaigarh Fort , and Nahargarh . Overnight in Jaipur..

Day 8(14^th April):: JAIPUR

At Jaipur. Visit Amber Fort on elephant back in the morning and in the evening visit colourful bazaars and enjoy shopping of ethnic silver jewellery, handicrafts, Mojaris etc Overnight in Jaipur.

Day 9(15^th April):: AGRA

Leave for Agra by road. Enroute visit. Fatehpur Sikhri. Overnight in Agra.

Day 10(16^th April):: AGRA

In Agra – Taj Mahal, Agra fort, Akbar’s Mausoleum. Leave for Delhi by road.Overnight at Delhi.

Day11(17^th April): : DELHI

Local sightseeing. Places: India Gate, Red Fort or Lal Quila, Lotus temple, Jama Masjid etc.Also drive past the Rashtrapathi Bhawan. Government Secretariat buildings. Overnight in Delhi.

Day 12(18^th April) : RISHIKESH

Leave for Rishikesh. Visit Haridwar, Har-ki-pauri, Chamunda Devi temple by ropeway enroute. Evening at leisure on the sand bars of the Ganga. Overnight at Rishikesh.

DAY 13 (19^th April): RISHIKESH

Spend the whole day rafting. Evening at Lakshman Jhula and attend the puja of the holy ganga in the evening. Overnight at Rishikesh.

DAY 14 (20^th April): RISHIKESH

Morning departure for white water rafting on the Ganga. Arrival at the camp-site for lunch. Evening at leisure- camp-fire/ barbeque! Overnight at Rishikesh.

DAY 15 (21^st April): DELHI TO PUNE

Early morning departure for Delhi and board the train to Pune

DAY 16 (22^nd April): PUNE

Arrival in Pune.

Pictures!

2008-03-15T04:49:00.000-07:00

To see More South Tour Pictures Check Out: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/hshilt

Pictures from The Desert!

2008-03-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

Check this out... All 249 Pictures from the Desert and also a Rotary Event right before I went to the Desert! Have Fun

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/hshilt

The Rest of The South Tour, and Rann Ustav: The Disaster in the Desert

2008-02-27T12:57:00.000-08:00

Let me go on! I swore to myself I would spread the wise words that I learned on my trip, well really not so wise, but if we did say something wise I will inform you!

So after the Rotary Conference we headed back to Hyderabad! One of the major benefits of Hyderabad was that the exchange students from Hyderabad were going to be joining us on our adventure! The City of Hyderabad is really really big! There is a lot of land, and just from seeing some of it and then hearing about the rest, land wise I think it is around double the size of Pune, but just a few more people (two million more, which sounds really funny, but well in India that is nothing!). So Josh (from Canada), Emma (from USA), and Manny (from Belgium), joined us, and that is it for the city of Hyderabad.

Our first official tours stop! Golkanda Fort and Palace

The Fort and Palace were built for some Muslim rulers a long time ago, don’t really remember how long but probably in the ball park of around 1000 years! The fort itself is really lovely! Huge wall fortress and just sprawling passages and hidden paths and odd amenities (such as whisper walls, where you can talk to people by talking into the wall, along with Clapping Chambers, which people would clap in and that would signal other people to clap so someone would send some kind of messenger to get the message, I would imagine it would be an elephant, but that is my imagination it tends to run wild, and so I am guessing it was slave labor and a 9 year old kid running up and down the hill). At the palace we got to see a lights show (the first of many, this one though was defiantly the coolest, well if I could pay attention long enough to understand what was going on). So this lights show told the history of everything that the palace went though, it was really interesting, but I did not get a word of it! Not because it was in another language, actually it was in English narrated by the best Indian orator out there, but it was just it was really hard to understand and then follow! It was not created for people who need to see images or be able to read along! But it was really neat to see the art of it all! The palace was just amazing when they added all the lights to light it up at night! Brilliant!

After that it was Ari’s (from Mexico) Birthday! So we went to our first hotel, and were very surprised by the very nice accommodations! It was nice; because we got an AC that my room mates and I (Lauren, Eli, and me) set to 16 c, and turned the room into an ice box… hehe. So it was a party that night, cake and ice cream we had a good beginning to our trip!

The next day we went to several famous Hyderabad place!

The World’s Largest Private Collection Museum: A big museum that is owned all by one man. Don’t remember the name of it, it sounded like a mix of Japanese and Muslim. I like museums, but this one really had nothing of major importance in it. The three famous exhibits were a big Musical Clock; it was an oversized coo-koo clock with dancing people, not a big deal. Then two no name artist statues, one was called Rebecca, it was an Italian statue of a veiled women. Then another which I think was Spanish and it was a traditional man, looking all proud and then on the back of him there is a women hunched over, it was very Indian if you ask me even though it was from Spain. There was nothing of note.

Sudhara Cars Museum: It took us about 17 minutes flat to see the entire thing. It was a bunch of rooms that had wacky moving what looked like parade cars like moving floats and cameras and odd bikes and things, also the worlds largest working bike, it was pretty big. The most famous thing there was a moving condom (yes, a moving condom) that was used for the creation of world aids day and Nelson Mandela drove it, something like that, I have pictures. In the end a few kids got lost and ended up in the studio of Mr. Sadhara himself, and well he was making a new care to look like a stiletto and a purse, for that perfect date. We ended up getting to met him, he was a very odd man.

Snow World: Well what can I say about this, the name really says it all! Snow World. They created artificial snow and let Indians who have never seen snow loose! Which in my mind there really need to be some rules? I walk in and all of a sudden I was HIT, I WAS DOWN! And well I wanted to hurt the Indian that did that! Obviously they did not learn ANY snow rules! You don’t just beam someone in the head with a snow ball, when you have no idea who they are! But it was pretty fun, reminded me of home! The room is one big fridge, and well I did not find it to be very cold, I was surprised! The other kids did not find it cold either and we were walking around without mittens and hoods up. Everyone, even people who we did not know would come up to us and ask us if we were cold, and we would just look at them and probably pretend not to speak English.

Laser Lights Show (2): Well we went to Lumbini Park, which was as we were later told the sight of the huge bombings in India in August. To see a laser light and water show. It would have been better under many conditions. It told the history of the city to some very catchy tunes (Hyderabad: Our City!) displayed on a huge water screen, told the same story as the fort, but with pictures so I understood! Also made for number two of the lights shows!

Birla Temple: The Birla family is one of the big families in India. They own A LOT of stuff, such as this brilliant white marble temple! They also own things like my cell phone company, a cement company, a building company, and have holdings all over India (not really a fan). But the temple is on a hill that looks over the old city, it is huge and made of pure white marble, and actually kept really clean versus many other temples which are not kept up.

Boat Ride (1) and Giant Buddha: We took a boat to the middle of a lake to see a Giant Buddha, self explanatory.

Char Minahar (not spelled right at all): This big famous structure that has four pillars (char) and it is what the old part of the city is built around. Around it there are a bunch of bazaars, which mean shopping! Hyderabad is famous for bangles and pearls! I got Pearls, I am obsessed.

Next Stop! Hyderabad to Bangalore (by nicer train, it had AC) then Bus to Mysore (going through Mangalore (we did not stop, I just like the name, it makes me giggle).

Mysore!

Palace: Mysore is famous for its palace. There is just a big palace really built in the middle of no where! When it was built really it must have been amazing! I would have loved to have seen it new. It was built in 1904, so 104 years ago, and it mirrors the styles of old Europen palace, and it does not compare to palaces like Windsor, because it is sadly not well up kept. The real shocker about the entire palace is that it was built for $110,000, about $4 million today. Well this place is huge, and really elaborate! But really think about it a house for four million in the USA… what would it look like. I am thinking you could get a house on like lakeshore drive in Chicago for around four million, that would be about the size of well a townhouse. In Wisconsin you could also get a house on the lake that would be a mansion, but in India you can have a PALACE! AN ENTIRE PALCE, for FOUR MILLION DOLLARS! Alright I am not over the shock, and if I have the chance to go back in time and tell my ancestors to do something, I am bringing them yellow fever vaccines and sending them to India to build me a palace!

We did have a nice tour, and learned some strange facts, about the palace, which is still lived in. Our tour guide was an old Muslim man, who had a crazy accent, very traditional Indian, and almost impossible to understand. The funniest part was that people would randomly come up and join our tour and he would get really angry with them, and ask them for the money that the tour cost, or ask them if they even spoke English. Because we were a tour full of white kids the villagers who were visiting the palace would try and join our group, pretty much to stare at the white kids, and both our palace tour guide and our trip tour guide would tell them “you came here to see the palace; not the white kids.” The palace also is home to about 7 temples and a museum. There is more to the palace that is situated all over the city of Mysore, such as two guest houses (one that is modeled after what our guide claimed to be the white house, but I think it looked more like a mini-capitol building). There were a few other buildings that all belong to the palace, not really sure what all they were used for.

Mysore Zoo: The oldest, and possibly the biggest zoo in India. It has the only gorilla, and home to an exhibit on squirrels. Ellie, Lauren and I, camped out at the coke station for the most part of the time spent there. We decided to become our own exhibit involuntarily, by sitting down for an hour and a half we became a zoo exhibit. People came by and poked and prodded at us, and abused us in Hindi. Indian Boys would come by and try to talk to us, we would pretend to speak a mix of French, Latin, and Spanish. They would yell at us in Hindi, and then we would proudly announce that we spoke Hindi, I have never seen someone run away as fast as that moment. We also could not get out of their fast enough.

Musical Gardens: Gardens build bellow a dam, famous for musical fountains. The musical fountains were really well indescribably stupid, and all the Indians were in awe! It was more of two streams of water coming out with a Bollywood song that was famous ten years ago blasting for five minutes, when all the foreign were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. We took a vote and decided that under special circumstances it would probably have been much better.

Giant Bull Temple: On a hill in the middle of no where, there was a giant bull, that doubled as a temple to the giant bull god (I think, not to sure?).

Temples: We were off to a few temples outside the city; they looked all the same as al the rest of the temples, in India. Elaborate Carved Roofs, a lot of cows wandering around outside, really dirty, and monkeys trying to steal your things.

Bird Sanctuary: There was a big river where all of the migratory birds in India land up. Much like the Midwest an the Canada goose, except these birds are much bigger and much prettier then the stupid Canada goose. We boarded the real Jungle Cruise to see them, it was pretty wild, you would get out farther and you would see a ton of birds, there were thousands of big bird sized birds! And then the occasional crocodile would sneak up on the boat, or a tree of bats would be rustled. It was a really neat experience.

OOTY: A town as creepy as it sounds.

We took the bus from Mysore up to Ooty, it was a pretty wild drive, winding around mountains, hills, tea gardens, 1000 foot drops, and almost crashing into elephants. On the way to Ooty we passed through a national park that is home to tigers, elephants, and barking deer. You would be staring out the window and all of a sudden there would be an elephant running at the bus, which was cool. At one point we stopped in the middle of the hills only to find out that an accident that happened three days ago from a truck running off the cliff getting cleaned up, it was one of those moments where you were glad that this was not you. As we went up the mountains to Ooty, you could feel it getting colder, it turns out Ooty is a cold place. Ooty was the coldest I have been in India, which is sad. It was about 10 c, the entire time we were there, and I was freezing my butt off! It was so cold! I had on two sweaters, a scarf, and normally shorts under pants, to try and stay warm, it was so cold.

What was seen in Ooty:

Tea: All the tea you want, Tea Factory, Tea Gardens, Tea Plantations, Tea Shops, Tea Stalls, Tea Tasting Places, Tea, Tea, and more Tea.

Wax Museum: Had Indian people in it.

Thread Garden: A garden of fake flowers made out of embroidery floss…someone had way to much time on their hands.

Mountains: The highest point in South India, along with some other mountains, that all seamed to look like things such as “Sleeping Beauty,” “Lambs Point,” and “Dolphin Nose.”

Dam: Go figure we went on a boat ride

Botanical Gardens: We were too cold to go into them and ended up in the nice heated Café Coffee Day. Also there apparently no flowers in bloom, so it was a waste of time.

The oddest part about Ooty, was that we found it to be the strangest place we have ever been. It’s a hill station, that people go to in the summer, and it is more of the off season where we were visiting, and it was down right creepy. We were staying at this hotel that was huge, and we were the only guest at. It was a very touristy city, but there were no tourist other then us. It always seamed like something was oddly wrong and was really errie.

Leaving Ooty instead of winding down the mountains in a bus we took a “toy train.” Which really meant a train that was packed like clown car, stuffing ten people into a little tiny carriage and taking them down the mountains, which is downright mean. Not to mention there was no AC or fans, and going down the mountains means it was progressively getting hotter. The train was full of really loud Indians, which was odd because we were convinced we were the only ones in Ooty for a long time. These Indians liked to hoot and holler, and sing. By the end of the train ride, well lets just say murder would have been justified.

After the “toy train,” we had to catch a train from Combatiore to Trivandium. We ended up arriving in Combatiore a bit early and we planed to wait in the waiting room, but because India is such a lovely place, when you want to commit murder the waiting room was closed, and we had to wait on the tracks. This is and was and will always be a personal hell. Waiting on the tracks of an Indian train station is one of the worst experiences ever. You really cannot be in a worse place. It is hell. First of all there are beggars and stray dogs, not to mention performing beggars who do odd things, there are transvestites and eunuchs, there are dead things, and there are chai sellers. Village people come up and stare at you, creepy people come up to you and start talking to you in a language that you have never heard of, you are accosted by nut jobs, you luggage is almost stolen by robbers. You are surrounded by rats and bids, the stench of feces and urine mixed with chlorine is so overwhelming that you want to pass out and die altogether. We were there for three hours, it was not cool.

Kanayakumari: The End of India.

This is it, the end of India, the end of the world as old folk lore states. It is the southern most tip of India, and home to well the end of India. This begins the better part of our trip because we began to chill out and stop the super hectic tourist regimen for the laid back times of communist Kerela, and a hotel with a pool. Not to mention it was crazy staying here because of the weather, it was a big change from going from Ooty which was about 10 c to Kanayakumari which was 45 c. (for all of you who cannot convert, 10 c is around 50 f and 45 c is about 110 f).

What did we see in Kanayakumari:

Rock Memorials: A big temple that signifies the end of India. You can see where the three bodies of water meet (the Bay of Bengal, The Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea). There is a meditation room where you meditate to “OM.” You take a boat to the memorials and there are many tourist and school groups. We had fun fending off people trying to take pictures of us. There is also a new memorial island build dedicated to an Indian poet.

Gandhi Memorial: When Gandhi was cremated his ashes were rested here. And the memorial came afterwards. It was completely untouched but should have been destroyed in the big south Asian tsunami a few years back.

Fort: Sea fort look out build in the late 1600s, now no one visits the fort, but we had a chance to go visit it. It was just a big stone structure. But it had a big court with walls that looked out onto the sea, and we ended up sitting on the walls of the fort watching the sea for about two hours. It was beautiful, it was so calm and quite, it was just a great place to sit and think. It seamed to be untouched and just perfect. We all could have sat there all night long, but they kicked us out and made us go home.

Topless Temple: Not sure of the real name of the temple, but I nicknamed it the topless temple, because men are not allowed to wear shits inside the temple. The temple is for the creation of the Hindu Trinity, which is the combination of three gods. Also this particular temple is famous for musical pillars. These huge stone pillars could churn out musical notes, our song chosen to play: Eye of the Tiger. We had a good laugh at this temple.

Kovalam: Paradise

Welcome to Paradise. This was the best stop on our trip. Kovalam is a city in the state of Kerela that is famous for its Aryuvedic remedies and beaches. We stayed at an amazing private beach resort, and we all had our own private bungalows built into a hill side overlooking the beach. It is possibly one of the most beautiful places in the world. During the night the sea turned into a fishing city, and the sea would light up with fishing boats in the dark like a city on water. It was amazing. Our hotel was also an Aryuvedic medicine treatment facility, which means massages or Indian oily body rubdowns. The massage was really amazing the rooms were at the top of the hill and looked on to the sea, paradise. The only major problem and also why we got the hotel for a good rate is there is a temple right next door and it was their biggest festival going on. For this festival they played loud music and well crazy festival celebrations were clearly audible at all hours of the day, meaning from four in the morning to 2 am, you begin to turn it out after a while, because the area is really too perfect to let any crazy Indian celebrations ruin paradise.

Trivandrium:

We took a quick day trip to go see an Old Palace. The Palace was over 200 years old and owned at one point by someone who loved weapons, it began to get really ridiculous. The palace itself was a bit crazy, it had over 80 rooms and was created with a model of ancient Rome. Of the 80 rooms none of the rooms were the same, every room was a different size and shape and had different boarders and carvings.

Allapy House Boat:

Sadly we had to leave Paradise for to board a House Boat, to cruise down the Kerela back waters. The house boat was a blast! We cruised all day and then docked for the night, we had a chance to go swimming, but were not warned about how disgusting the water was going to be. The water turned out to be gross! It was really murky, with a lot of dirt which got mixed up and ended up sticking to you. That night we spent the night under the stars, until we got kicked into the ac cabins. It was amazing.

Cochin or Kochi: The Last stop on our trip.

This is where we were told would have the best shopping on the trip, and we were to hold out. It had the worst shopping and we were all kicking ourselves that we did not shop before on our other tour stops.

Last Hurrah of site seeing:

Katakalai Dancing: The traditional dance of Kerela, it has mad amounts of costuming and makeup and still only open to men.

Chinese Fishing Nets: A southern Indian way of fishing, that looks really pretty at sunset.

Oldest Church in India: Dirty and falling apart

Jew Street: Expensive Shopping

Old Dutch Palace: It only cost two rupees to go inside and famous for its hidden passages ways that hide old art work that was only for the owners to see. The old art work is painted on the walls and is of the gods. But the catch is the gods are engaging in well pornographic acts, we were not warned and had to do a double take, and it was a “what, this is INIDIA!” moment, quiet a shocker.

Elephant Baths: There is an elephant sanctuary where on certin days the elephants are all called down and locals give the elephants baths in the river. We got to get up close and personal (though we could not wash the elephants) with the baby elephants and watch them getting baths and playing in the water.

Well all in all the south tour was amazing, and hopefully the north tour will be just as fun as the south tour turned out to be. We ended up finding out in Cochin that after our return to Pune we had been invited up to Gujarat a north state to go to Rann Ustav, a desert celebration by the government, so that would be my next adventure.

Back in Pune

Well after being back in Pune for about two days, the riots began. When I was away it turned out some nutty politian originally from Pune, said that all Malawaids (northerns) should get the hell out of Maharashtra, and that is not a good thing to say, because the Malawaids are now days pretty much everyone, also the most influential people in the area. Because of this the media ended up calling for the nut jobs arrest and they did end up arresting him, but not without serious problems. Namely RIOTS. The riots got to be really crazy. All over Pune, the transportation was either stoned and some bombed (no one was killed, just seriously injured), stores were taken out. It is crazy the amount of damage the riots ended up doing on the city. The riots were the people for the arrest of the nut job and then the people rioting for what he said rioting against each other. The city instated emergency curfews and shut off the city by turning off the power and water, it got to be really quite crazy. It is a good thing we were leaving in a few days. Being in Pune just seamed like another tour stop, it was very strange because you knew you where just going to pack up and leave again, which is more or less going to be the rest of my time in India.

Gujarat Days and Desert Nights

So the Rotary was invited by the Government of Gujarat to take all the Rotary students up to the desert for free. And we found out many things, as all economics principals go there is no such thing as a free lunch well there is no such think as a free trip. First of all we had to pay for the train, which we ended up opting for the cheep route non-ac 2^nd class. Which means packed trains with tons of people. It was more crowed then normal, because of the riots thousands of people are fleeing the cities and going back to the north (it is said that over 350,000 people have fled Pune and Nashik, to go north because of violence). So the trains were packed! What people do on 2^nd class trains is they only get one birth and stuff their entire family into it, so two adults and three kids are all in one bed, and then your birth almost always almost gets taken by some crazy Indian mother who wants their eldest child to sleep, then you have to fight her off, which is not fun. So we go to a city called Buhj about 24 hours later. It was nice after the capitol city of Gujarat we more or less had the train to ourselves, except for this one Italian girl who was on her was to spiritual enlightenment in India (I am going to have an entire blog entry about spiritual enlightenment in India, coming soon, more or less it will be a long rant about how crazy it is, and what a bad name it gives for other cultures). So Buhj, other then having a funny name, it is in the middle of NO WHERE! There is nothing around and well it is a very traditional Indian city in the middle of no where. The Government put us up in a crack house hotel (one step above Shantidoot), where most of the hotel was falling apart, and well was reeking asbestos from the walls, and open air was a nice description, also said to be the nicest hotel in town! We all had a nice laugh, when they took us to our rooms and lead us to this room that was well very much open to nature and the slums that the hotel faced, and then they at least took us to a room with four walls. We did get one English TV channel and we did find a nice fruit market with cheep street pineapple, so all was well. The next morning all the kids from the other Indian Exchange districts came to meet up with us, which was really exciting, and made the whole trip worth it! Seeing all of our friends from the Nashik and Nagpur district along with meeting the kids who ended up in Gujarat, was definitely fun. Later on they put us on AC busses and took us into the desert! Well first we became show ponies, for the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The took us to this park which found the bones of a blue whale in a excavation and they glued the bones together and they brought us for the pooja, and for us to meet the chief minister of Gujarat (really see, we are not that important to meet him). We ended up waiting around for about three hours in the hot desert for him to come and then we had to wait for his security men to come and search the area, and then for his security to set up and then for the media to come, and then he finally came and then they had us yell the equivalent of “Viva India, long Live Gujarat” (which turned out to be something we really should not have been supporting, more one this in a sec.), and then that was about 4 minutes worth of him being there and he got back in his motorcade and left!

So as for the Chief Minister of Gujarat, we were recently updated as to who he is, and what he has done. He was reelected in October and he really should not have been reelected. He said some bad things and then ended up creating some riots over his reelections calling for the killings of Muslims in the state of Gujarat, and the people of Gujarat killed thousands of Muslims under his words, and also his military took violence against them too, then he in turn blamed the violence on the Muslims, saying they caused all the problem and he would not let this happen, so he, himself, killed three Muslims blaming them for all the violence. Today he is comparted to Hitler, and is not a very good person. The statement they were having us yell, turned out to more or less be his call, and similer to “Hail” for Hitler, really no one told us, it was not cool.

Back to the desert. After the whale fiasco, the took us to the opening ceremony of the Rann Ustav (the program we were going to). This was a carnival like parade and they had a few speeches by the Chief Minister and his henchmen, along with a parade of local school children and various dance troupes and things. It was pretty cool. My favorite performance was the boarder guard orchestra. These boarder guards that played rock music when dancing around on a tank, looking as if they were drunk (but that would be impossible because Gujarat is a dry state). The parade went on for hours, we ended up ditching out to find dinner (who knew that dinner would be more of less the last meal of our trip, yeah they did not really feed us). After that we made our way to “Tant City” meaning Tent City, they just spelled it wrong everywhere! So we finally made it to tent city, which was truly the desert, the sand was everywhere, and it was all you could see. It was amazing because the moonlight would reflect off the sand and it would light up the desert even in the middle of the night. Our tents turned out to be more like five star hotel tents then tent camping. There were nice! The cots were the most amazing and comphy cots even. We even had western toilets and running (but very dirty) water, right inside the tent, no need to hike it to communal toilets or water stations! You only had to share the tent with on other person, and the tent was huge! Big military style tents, with a whole table and bathroom, with mirror and vanity, it was luxury camping.

So after waking up for a very nice night in Tant City, we took off to a day of winding around in the desert. We found out one thing for sure that day, there is one thing most diffidently more unorganized then the Rotary of India, The Government of India. Though this entire trip was kind of sketchy and we were pretty sure they were going to take us to Pakistan to chill with Osama Kaka (meaning Osama Uncle, if you don’t get the joke, just laugh it is really funny for the India Exchange Kids). So we went through the desert all day long, we spent around ten hours on a bus going through the desert, we made one stop, where an armed guard hiked us up to the top of a hill and goes Pakistan five km. We just looked at him like he was crazy, until we realized that’s where he was probably going to take us next and sell us into white kid slavery or something. So relizeing there is only so much sand one can take, you really begin to see mirages in the desert. When you are really hugery, and well in the desert for a very long time you begin to see things, which are very strange. Mirages are not for the faint, because you really see strange things, whether it be water or skyscrapers, everyone seams to see very different things. But it is very turn you see strange things where you are lost in the desert.

Full Moon White Sands Night.

This is what everyone came for. The full moon night, India has this tradition of worshiping full moons. So we first met up on camel carts to race on camel carts out into the white sands desert. Which could possibly be the biggest disaster since well coming to India. It was ridiculous. The white sands desert is really a semi-dried up salt fields. So it is all salt, and looks just like snow and ice. Like you are on a big frozen lake, but sweating because it is so hot. One of the major pluses was the most beautiful sunset over the sand dunes, before I made it to the salt dunes. So the salt dunes like ice on a lake have points where they are not as thick as other parts of the ice. And under the salt is black clay. So you would find sink holes in the salt and you would fall though. IT WAS A DISASTER! It is similar to quicksand, you would fall in and sink, sometimes as far up to your knees you would fall into the salt clay, it was horrible! It ruined everything, clothes, shoes, and it hurt really bad! The salt was sharp and caused you to cut open your feet, and then the salt would burn your cuts! It was a total disaster! Then on top of it the security for the chief minister was crazy! The armed military officers were everywhere! I have lived on military bases most of my life and I have ever seen this many armed guards for anything! It was ridiculous! There was also no food for us to eat, they made kitchere (which is GROSS!!!!!!). And did not let us eat until the chief minister was delivered his food, let us say we all skipped dinner. Quote of the Night: We were making doughnuts in the salt because we were so hungry, and Fredrick going, “I’d eat that one, Oh! I’d defiantly eat that one, does that one have sprinkles?” We had to catch camel carts back, and well it was a disaster.

The next day, the last day, we went to a bird less bird sanctuary, and when we asked where the birds where they told us the vultures were coming in a few hours… that’s when we decided it was time to go back to Pune.

A Whole New Found Respect, For A Country That I Currently Call Home

2008-02-16T09:31:00.000-08:00

I am ALIVE! Well really I am back from the best adventure of my life. As all my lovely readers know I was on my South India Backpacking Tour. South India Spice Tour! Was what the t-shirt said (it is pretty sweet, made me fell like I was in a rock band… but instead of rocking out on stage every night we attempted to dance Bangera and Rock Out to Out School Indian Music... much like Party Boy on an old Mtv show… I am sure some of you know who and what I am talking about).

As you all have probably seen my schedule, and wondered if it actually went like that well surprise! Surprise! It did, and it was amazing! Amazing!! AMAZING!!! If you have not gotten it was an AMAZING ADVENTURE, yet I guess you will just have to read my tales!

Our first leg of the trip we were to go to our Rotary Conference and this is where the Rotary skimped out, and thank god it was not an indication of the rest of our trip! We left Pune in the middle of the afternoon in the hottest day I could remember since well since monsoon season! Being stuck at the really hot train station in Pune, which is always like Times Square on New Years Eve, was quite the delight! Also the Rotary surprised us with Guess What! (No No, not first class accommodations, this is Rotary we are guessing about here), they gave us Second Class Seating! Non-AC, Windows Open, DIRTY, seating… Ok Ok, it is really not Second Class, it was Sleeper Class, which big whoop is one step up from Second Class.

Indian Trains are real Indian Experiences.

Apparently there is a new movie about in the US, about riding trains in India, Something like Darjeeling Express…? It has Owen Wilson and one of them Brody (the one with the big nose) characters? Well have not seen it, but if it portrays Indian Trains as shitty well then it is 100% correct! If not, well then there is no point in watching that movie because it is a complete hoax!

Back to the trains, Cars are called Bogies (height on the BO part not to be mistaken with snot). And there are many bogies, and in a bogie there are compartments, there is a few compartments like 11 or 12 per Bogie. In a compartment it is all open and divided by an aisle, there are no curtains or doors or any amenities like such. In the compartments there are three tiers, when you make them. There is a bottom tier that is like a bench, and then the bench back folds up into a second tier and then the third tier is right on top of the bogie about a foot from the ceiling. So there are six “beds” that form like a 3 way bunk bed to sleep on, and then on the other side of the aisle there are two seats which form into a bed and then a bed above the two seats. So all together in each compartment eight people “sleep,” or in my case lie on a really dirty bed hoping I don’t walk off the train with a really weird disease or lice. I carried around Lysol wipes with me and would wipe down the train beds, normally with some weird stares not only from the Indians but from my fellow exchange students too! The strangest part about being on NonAc trains is the very very odd people you meet and see. People will just come and sit down next to you, they wont speak a word of English or the language you are currently speaking in (German and French or the United States Language of Speed English).

I have several personal favorites:

Chai Men: Tea Sellers that make the strangest noises in the entire world! You really cannot help but to try and imitate them! Lauren (from MI, USA) was the worst! One would come by yelling their “CH-HAI! Ch-Ha!” and right after they would be out of the compartment she would start to imitate them! Generally this eccentric skill would backfire and they would turn around and be like “CHAI!? KYA?!” and give you this super creepy smile, but Lauren to avoid this would conk her head out and pretend to be asleep! Essentially trying to blame her imitations on us! Funny, but harsh.

Transvestites: Enough Said

The Ticket Guy: He normally is really confused and likes to ask a bunch of questions, such as why I have a guys name and a women’s ticket? Do I look like a man, I don’t think so! Also he always looks really out of place in like a nice suit and tie, he ask for tickets and like to hassle people, it is not cool.

The Seat Stealers: People like to trade your seats off and not tell you, it is like winning in a poker game, that’s how much luck you need to win at getting to your seat without a hassle!

So the train is an interesting experience, as I mentioned open windows, which is interesting because they make you close your windows, what’s the point right! Well apparently little boys like to throw rocking into the train in attempt to stone people inside the train! Lovely! Our Rotary guy told us it was a national pastime! LOVELY!

A story I really should not share… but I am going to. If you do not believe in rule breaking (I don’t break the rules but sometimes my friends do) then skip this part. So before we left a few of us were making bets about who would get in trouble the soonest and our bet would be two Germans and at the Rotary Conference so in the first 48 hours. Well we were right about the German part, but we seriously under estimated the hours it would take. On the train we were and the Germans smoke and they stepped outside and joined a group of Indian smokers, just for a quick minute. Well those quick minutes ended up getting them arrested, go figure white kid luck and stupidity! They were just standing their and as the story goes they ended up running into the police, who drag them back on the train to demand their arrest (really their bribe). So they are yelling and there are around 7 police in our compartment, yelling at our poor Rotary guy. Well the end of the story and the bottom line is that they payed off the cops and no one got arrested, well this time.

So we got to Hyderabad in one piece, thank god! And headed out to our Rotary Conference, at the Ramoji Film Studio! We reached Hyderabad at around five in the morning. It was odd because the train just stopped and kicked us all out, well we did have a wake up call by our Rotary Guy at around 4, we wanted to kill him, many of you know waking a teenager up at four in the morning is not something you want to do, I give him major points. This was the furthest I had ever been away from my house in India, I was in South India, and really it made all the difference! Just looking at the train station I knew I was not in Pune anymore! The train station itself was a marvelous wonder! It looked straight out of the movie Aladdin and the country Turkey (if you mixed the two together, you would have the station). It had a serious Muslim influence in not only architecture but writing, all the signs were not only in Hindi, English and the local language Telagau, but also Arabic. Very different from the English dominated Pune. You could tell by the train station itself that Hyderabad was a cleaner city, and had less beggars then Pune. It was really different, in a really good way!

We then drove the 45 or so minutes to Ramoji Film Studio. This place is supposed to be like the Indian equalivent to Disney World, it was really not sure what to totally expect though. We arrived at Hotel Sahera, The Econ hotel! Go Figure, The Foreign Kids get the SHAFT! It sucked! Well, ok, ok, the pillows were nice and the showers (though they were communal and you had to walk down an open hallway to get to them) were pretty close to amazing (water pressure! Hot Hot Hot Water! Ahahah!). But they tried to cram 14 of us into a room! It would have been ok if it was just us foreign kids and dance Didi and Auntie (our dance teacher, and Mallory’s Host Mother, who is pretty cool), but no they threw in some mystery Rotary Old Ladies! You know the type old ladies with blue hair, and all had matching sarrees! They all loved to sing the whiney old Hindi and Maharti nasal songs, and laugh about the fact that a rival purple saree wearing women’s husband’s trousers were missing a button and were not properly stitched at the bottom. Ooo dear is all I could say to that, I did voice my complaints, but well it was only for one night, one very interesting night.

After checking into the shack hotel, we went and found our actual rotary conference location! They stuck us all on to busses, and drove us around circle drives with huge fountains (mock ups of famous London and Rome locations, not very good representations, but Hindi Movies generally suck, still cool though!), through large elaborate gardens and past five star hotels (the hotels the Rotary members were staying at, when us foreign kids get the shaft!). It was really awesome! Our actually conference was in Studio Eight, on the back lots. It was cool, being inside a real film studio, reminded me of the airplane hanger that I had my dance recitals in when I was little (I know I am a real military brat).

At the Rotary conference, I have talked about this before, but we had our cultural presentation, which was more or less our dance. We had been practicing this damn dance three or four times a week since December! And we had pretty customs and everything and so that is what we spent the day doing, getting ready for our Dance. It took us around three hours maybe a bit more to get ready (an hour getting ready and then around three hours of waiting around! Because the rotary is late for everything!). Also it was decided that morning that they needed someone to introduce all the Rotary presentations, and so Peekay turned to Johnny and Johnny turned to me, and was like Heather will do it. So I ended up taking an Indian speech and translating it into English and presenting it. The Dragon lady (the dance Nazi, the lady whose house dance practice was at), told me she would torture me in her hospital if I did not speak slowly. I ended up sounding like a NPR speaker on ADD medicine, because I talked so slowly. All in all out dance went over great! We were quite surprised! I did not beam Elli, like in the dress rehearsal. Also in the dress rehearsal I spinned and my glasses ended up flying off my head and hitting some high up Rotary guy in the arm… not good, not good. They also showed a movie, one of the IYE members had made, showing all of our pictures and short clips of what we had done this year so far (most of them were mine! I was like I TOOK THAT PICTURE! And I got no credit for it!). In the end Monga (Googlely Eyes) was told to announce us all, but well he could not, because he refuses to learn our names and he passed the mic over to the Dragon Lady, to announce us all. We were all lined up on stage and Stephanie (Stevie) and I were next to each other and as the Dragon Lady skips over Stevie and me! Which she just spent twenty minutes yelling at me about talking too fast, I knew she knew my name! When Stevie and I stepped up to be announced she skipped both of us! Stevie and I were beyond upset! It was not cool at all! So afterwards Stevie and I decide to do the American Teenager thing, go up to her back stage and for the hundredth time introduce ourselves! So we go up to her and Stevie and I hold out our hands, and introduce ourselves. She just looked at us like we were crazy. But she turned to us and snarled I know who you are, and walked away… As Stevie yelled, but you seamed to have forgotten them on stage we just thought we would remind you. I know we are bad, but really it was the American Teenager thing to do.

That night was the big dinner event, which was held in the courtyards surrounding one of the really big fountains, this one I think was based off of a fountain in Russia, something like that. The area was perfect for a big dinner; it had formal tables in a big real grass field. Being silly exchange students, not having seen real grass for around six months we turned down our table for the grass. It was like we were five again! We kicked off our shoes and ran through the grass playing tag and doing cartwheels. There was an orchestra and a Dj too, so we danced the night away in our little group of exchange kids!

We also ran into a considerable amount of White people! There was a group exchange (young professionals foreign work related exchange) group from the USA, who just arrived in India and they were going to be living in Pune for a month, after the conference. We got to talking to them, and they had already had a true Indian experience! They had already been offended by the Dragon Lady! You cannot come to India and not be offended by the Dragon Lady, it is a true Indian experience! They were all paraded around on stage (just like we were) to announce what they were doing in India. She did not forget there names, well they at least got to announce their own names, but she called them all ugly. What happened is they got up to be greeted by last year’s outbound group exchange group. And she and her husband proudly say into the microphone “WOW! Look at all the people, now at least we can say that the people India sends out are always more beautiful then the people India gets stuck with!” Gotta Love the Dragon Lady!

The dinner went on late into the night, and it got pretty crazy. That is really all I am going to say. I will add in the fact that all Rotary members in India are crazy.

The next day (yes, I am only on day two…) was Republic Day in India! One of the most dangerous days in India, it just so happens that last year in the city we happened to be just outside of 17 people died on republic day because of violence. It was interesting though because there were Indian flags everywhere! So this day was to be spent exploring! We got to go on a tour of the film studios and also go to the Disney part of the place. So for this tour, other then loseing Stevie and Eli (because they wanted ice cream… really I wanted ice cream and found the ice cream place they just followed my little ideas, because I came back with ice cream for breakfast… hehe). So we got to go on this tour, and they made all the Rotary people stand in separate lines, which was normal. So we get on this tour, and our guide starts yapping away (we were not able to understand a word she said! India really does produce some of the worst orators!). But after a few minutes of going around the park at hyper speed, we realized that we were really going too fast. It turned out they were giving the Rotary people the “abstract” (as my father would say) tour. They skipped over everything, did not let us stop, and I ended up taking a bunch o pictures from just outside of the bus, boring! Ok well they did make one stop. We stopped at these mock caves, which were the mock ups of these carved caves in north India. All of us exchange students were winding around these poorly lit caverns, and we see something in all white, well being really really smart, I don’t know who started it but we all were like “WHAT IS THAT!” And we then started touching it, I think I grabbed the top part of it… we could not decide if it was fake or real. All of a sudden the thing starts to yell at us in Hindi, and well scarred the pants off us! It was a person! So the totally non-scary mock caves turned into haunted caves in a matter of two minutes, it was not cool. At the end of the tour, we stopped at the Rotary Backlots! Well that is not where we wanted to be! We wanted to be where the “rides” were! So as good kids, we staged a civil protest! We refused to get off the bus! We stayed put, we did not move, we kicked and screamed when they tried to throw us off the bus, and we in the end prevailed! They took us to the “rides.” It was interesting and different form any amusement park I have ever been to before. Really the rides were created for about five year olds, but never the less we rode them all. Their premier ride is called Ramoji Tower. It looks like the old glass bank building in Grafton (really ugly). But this ride is crazy! You go through this building and get into an “elevator” (can anyone say Tower of Terror?) well it is really a simulator and you simulate and earthquake and well you see a bunch of people die! And it tells you in the end that you survived but your loved ones are dead! It is morbid! And well I was just thinking that something like this would never make it in the US! Amusement parks make you happy! Not everyone you came to the park with today is now dead! What is this!

Well that is all you get for now! I will get to more of the trip soon! I swear just thought you would like a little taste!

I had the time of my life! It was amazing!!!!

Where in the World is Heeter!

2008-01-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

MY SOUTH INDIA TRIP

Day One: Hyderabad for Rotary Confrance... at Ramoji Film City

Day Two and Three: Sites in Hyderabad

Day Three: Arrive in Bangalore, go to Mysore (by bus) Site Seeing in Mysore

Day Four: Site seeing in Mysore

Day Five: Reach Ooty (on the way go to Bandipur/Mudmalai Forest) Site Seeing in Ooty

Day Six: Site Seeing around Ooty

Day Seven: Morning Trek in Ooty, leave for Coimbatore by "toy train" down the hills, proceed to Kanyakumari

Day Eight: Arrive at Trivendram and go onto Kanyakaumari, site seeing in Kanyakaumari

Day Nine: Site seeing in Kanyakaumari

Day Ten: Reach Kovalum Beach by morning, Spend rest of day on Beach!

Day Eleven: Site Seeing around Trivendrum, stay night in Kovalum

Day Twelve: Travel to Alleppy to board a House Boat, back water river cruise, spend the night in the house boat.

Day Thirteen: Travel to Cochin, site seeing in Cochin

Day Fourteen: Site Seeing in Cochin Forest along with Elephant Orphanage, Watch Kathakali Dance Show (a famous dance from Karla) have a Kerali Body Massage

Day Fifteen: Travel to Panvel (a city south of Bombay)

Day Sixteen: Reach Panvel mid-afternoon and go back to Pune by Bus

Bolded are the Cities I am going to. Also the places you can google, to figure out where I am going!

I think it will be a great time! I cannot wait! We are also taking on three more students who are staying in Hyderabad to join out tour, two girls and a boy. New Exchangers are always fun! I will take lots of pictures, to send your way!

Pune, Pune, Pune! Pictures from the city!

2008-01-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

Well I am leaving in a few days, and I thought I would post a few more pictures before I take off to explore India! I am going to the South! I promise I will get on before I leave and slave around and type out all the places I am going, maybe one you have heard of! Bangalore Home of ALL THE CALL CENTERES! haha! So I will be seeing some really amazing things and just the land and cultural differences I am really excited for! And for all of you, like my mother, who are always wondering when I am going to see the Taj Mahel, sorry to disappoint you not on this trip! Taj is in the north (Agra). But to tide you all over here are some pictures of good ole' Pune fun!

Pune, Pune, Pune!

A view of the entire city from a hilltop, just outside of town. It really goes on FOREVER!

Dance Pictures!
These are the dance outfits we have to wear for our forced Rotary Dance, I will admit after HATING it, I have learned to like it, only just a little, and well This is heather and dancing, not sure if it will end well??? And yes we do get to keep the outfits! I do not currently have a picture of me in one (well that is a lie, but i look really bad in the picture thanks to Ellie making up for all the bad pictures i have of her...)

One of our favorite hang-outs in Pune. I like the picture... And I am wearing cool pants...

Burger King...
India Style...?
Never eaten here, possibly because their is normally a cow standing right in front of it? Sketch...? Maybe Just a Little!
Once again, note the cool pants!

Pune City-An Artist View

2008-01-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

My mother was bugging me the other day that she did not see enough of India! So I decided to show you a little of what i see everyday! It is a very artistic approach to things, possibly because most of the pictures I took from the inside of a moving rickshaw but that's what makes it cool! Take a look and Enjoy!

My City

The corner of when my society meets the "real world." The cement on the left is where they are widening the roads. This is during the time of the day when the road is probably the least crowded.

Here I am waiting in a rickshaw at University Circle. Across the circle is Pune, University, one of the oldest and most famous Universities of India, also named "The Oxford of the East," people claim it is a good school, for some reason I just don't believe them. The guy with the orange scarf things, is selling shamis, he will sell you one and wipe off your windows and car with it and then give it to you used, they actually work quite well!

A Bus, A Bus Stop.
The Buses here are pretty crazy.
They Stop for Nothing, except Cows.

The Inside and Outside of a Rickshaw.
Open Air. Like a Convertible, but a rickshaw!

Christmas, Nagpur, and MY SCHOOL TRANSCRIPTS!

2008-01-09T10:12:00.001-08:00

THIS IS MY SCHOOL TRANSCRIPT! I AM VERY PROUD OF IT!

This is the very sad Christmas Tree, That was made by Lauren, David, and I, at my house in Pune, before Christmas!

Christmas Morning! At Adia's House before we opened up our Christmas presents! Note the Oranges in the bags! Nagpur is famous for oranges, and they are really good! Also the Hawaiian Punch, the official American Christmas drink!

The New Years Party!

A little less West Side Story, A Little More Bollywood: Stories and More from my Nagpur Adventure! A Little Pune too!

2008-01-09T10:08:00.000-08:00

Well I am back from Nagpur, actually I have been back for around a week. It was well… different (the universal exchange student word that can mean just about what ever you want it to).

I am glad I got assigned to Pune I can tell you that. I did a lot of walking and I did learn how to eat rice properly with my hands (we don’t really do that in Pune). Yes, in India I guess I have never mentioned this; we eat food with our hands. I told this to my mother (as she told me her story about eating Indian food in London, and I laughed my head off), and she was appalled! We eat everything with our hands, or at least culture dictates us to, my host family is more into the western idea of using a spoon or fork.

After my original blog (I know it was really misspelled I did not have enough time for spell check or reading it over for that matter and it was a bit on the poor side. But at least you id hear from me!). I did witness some very fun things! First of all I have some New Years Stories!

New Years in Nagpur! Ringing in 2008, the Indian Way (LATE!)

My friends and I in Nagpur along with some of their Indian friends got tickets to the biggest party (family party at like a country club no not a Rave or anything like that) in Nagpur. It would be really cool we were told! Which it was, we all ha a great time dancing the night away! We were told by our Indian Friends who escorted us that this is the one day of the year (New Years Eve) where girls can dress up with well Western Ideals (meaning not wear a lot of cloths). And so most of us did just that… Chloe was a bit more dressed then the rest of us, and in the end nothing really mattered. So we go and it turns out everyone was in Saris, it did not help that Indians thought it was freezing outside, and the party was being held outside, lets just say we were a little underdressed. So we get their and their was dancing and fun party things (like housie (the Indian idea of Bingo, a bit stranger then bingo, but it works). We danced until midnight, and I thought it was really strange how they were not at all counting down the minutes till midnight, they did have a dj and an emcee, but they would never tell you the countdown! And when my watch stuck midnight, the dancing and partying was still in full swing (my watch is about five minutes fast, but only five minutes). THEY FINALLY DID A COUNTDOWN WHEN MY WATCH READ 00:17!!!!!! So we rang in New Years around 12 minute LATE!!!!! I could not believe it! But that really truly is India for you! Ringing in the New Year LATE!

A Little Less West Side Story, A Little More Bollywood

Alright this little adventure of mine is not for the light at heart, nor people who do not enjoy violence, this serves as a warning. When I was in Nagpur, we met up with some friends of the Nagpur IYE Students. The same ones who escorted us to the New Years Eve Party. Yes, they are Indian guys, which does not sound that bad to the western thinkers but as I sit in India I would be freaking out! Because as teenagers in India girls are NOT friends with guys unless there is a marriage prospect going on (I know weird right!). So New Years Day, we were hanging out with them at Mr. Beans (a local coffee house). And one of the boys points to another boy across the room, and tell us “We are going to beat him up.” We thought he was more or less joking, Indians, unlike us Americans, are generally not very violent in terms of fighting (not a statement on terrorism or other things I am talking about teenagers, they would not inherently hit someone or slap people like American teenagers do). So we laughed it off. As soon as the guy starts to leave, so do our friends, they follow him out for a confrontation. So as very nosey and curious Americans we follow them outside too. We see a small confrontation in Hindi, and we call over one of the other boys to translate what was going on, or interpret depending on which aspect you were looking at. So they begin talking and then more guys show up, and they pull out their mobiles. And about 3 minutes latter, the crowed of five guys has doubled and in five minutes the crowed of 10 has tripled. It was getting pretty crazy, they were blocked the road with all their bikes. So the original two were still talking. As our interpreter was telling us, one of the boys in the other group, had five of his friends and beaten up one of the boys in the other group. (We shall call them group A (the guys I like) and group b (the ones who beat up my friend the first time)). So Group A boys were beginning to line up and then all of a sudden they were agreeing on rules, you got ten punches and only two boys could be in the middle at a time. They even like choreographed dance moves to go into the fight, and then it began, it was not like an American lets beat the shit out of each other until we both turn to pulp. It was graceful, at the same time like watching a bollywood movie, funny as hell. In the end my Group A “won” as if you could say that. They lined up all the guys on the traffic median, and Group B, had to touch all of Group A’s feet (a sign of ultimate respect). There is more though, afterwards a “rougher” crowed showed up, and started beaten on Group A. So then Group A retaliated! They got on their bikes and rode to the police! Apparently they got the police involved and turns out they paid like rs. 500 (12.50 USD), to get the mystery Group Z boys beaten up by the police! Gotta Love India!

Tarre Zamine Par; Lets Beat Up Your Kid

In Nagpur I went to go see the latest Bollywood Flick, Tarre Zamine Par, or as I would like to call it, a comment on the shitty education system and parenting concepts of Indians like lets beat your kid! The movie in the end redeems itself, and has Aamair Khan in it (one of the more gorgeous guys in the world!). But what the general story is of this kid who probably has ADD and is dyslexic. So he cannot learn in the rigorous Indian school system, which is making them memorize mindless facts starting in the first grade. This poor kid cannot do it, he cannot read because no one will help him and he is dyslexic and he cannot figure out math because he I too busy making up stories about how number 7 can beat up number 3 in a fight (it is a great scene, the art director of the film is amazing!). So he ends up in school after school, also he gets kicked out of class or school all the time. One scene displays him getting kicked out and wandering around Bombay for a day, the scene work in the film is brilliant, it really shows Bombay’s highs and lows! But the kid when he does wrong and fails gets beaten, by both his parents, his neighbors, and his teachers. It is so wrong; the abuse of this poor kid is awful! In the end he ends up at a boarding school and ONE teacher recognizes his problem, which is just the fact he is dyslexic (speaking of dyslexic, that is a really hard word to spell, but autocorrect gets it every time). There are a good number of people in the world who have this problem and this is how they deal with it in India, it goes unrecognized by so many, and then when a kid cannot learn to read properly they just beat him and call him retarded! I was very sickened by the movie, and if the US ever showed this, half the audience would be so shocked they would not know what to do, and the other half would be on the phone with child services!

Now I am back to the Pune Life!

It is somewhat nice to be back. With my friends, with civilization, and with pizza. The bus ride back was pretty awful! I was in the last seat before the back, I had a stand alone “women’s seat” so I did not have some creepy Indian male sitting next to me. BUT behind me was a bed for the tour operator to sleep in and therefore my seat did not recline! I was so upset! It was awful! Then half way through the trip when the tour operator was sleeping all of a sudden this DRITY, HARIY, BLACK foot finds its way into my lap! It was so gross! At the same time my friend Eli (ok, ok, her real name is Eleanor, and I use Eli as Ellie, deal with it), called me and gave me a few suggestions of what to do with the foot that was in my lap, first was paint his toe nails, the second was pick off his toe hairs one by one, both equally painful, but I opted for option three, smothering it in hand sanitizer and then smashing it with my water bottle every time it moved, and IT STILL DID NOT MOVE! So I opted for the worst case scenario option, make a scene! Someone who was associated with the bus company came to the back of the bus, and I was like “foot! Foot!” and he not only woke the sleeping man up, but slapped him!

Now I am just chilling in Pune. I did accomplish something major though! I am very excited to announce that I finally received my school papers! After my term (semester) ended in December, I started going into the office of my college and requesting my transcripts for the first term. I begged everyday for weeks for them! And Jan. 8, I FINALLY RECIVED THEM! It is a very excited detail of my life in India, because I got something accomplished! I immediately sent them into my school back in the USA. And well being a cheap American, I do have a funny story about the shipping. At DHL if you are sending your paper work to a University you get 50% off on shipping. Well Homestead High School is not exactly a University (though students coming out of it think University is easy). So I convinced the DHL people, that there is a Homestead University. They checked their USA University register and could not come up with a Homestead University, and so I was like it is a small school, in Mequon, Wisconsin. It took a bit, but I convinced them and got 50% off on two day shipping (which is still an arm and a leg for two pieces of paper!). BUT this is my official transcript of my schooling here in India! I am putting in the picture of my transcript, go figure this is India and English is not really their forte, check out the document!

Today I saved 288 Lives.

2008-01-06T04:38:00.001-08:00

Well today did not start so good. Last night my wallet was stollen. (BUT it has since been recovered). Though a friend called me up and asked if i wanted to help with some community service, which of corse I am in for, UNLESS it is picking mustard weed (which is not very prevalent in Pune, India (or at least not to my knowledge). So today after the monthly Rotary meeting we went to an area of town and with the help of two local Rotarians distributed over 288 doses of Polio Vaccine!

Polio Plus, is the Rotary program to eradicated polio worldwide, and they are doing amazing at except in India, where it is still highly needed. We got hats and jumped right in to giving kids from 0 to 5 two drops that will save their lives from polio forever. It was pretty cool. Today we saved over 288 kids from polio.

Was that a Monkey! WOW!

2007-12-30T04:18:00.000-08:00

Well here in Nagpur, India. Monkey sitieings are pretty common, and for the American Blonde this is very amusieing! Yesterday i was walking with Chloe, my friend from Wisconsin, down the road to the main part of town, and on the way A HUGE MONKEY! jumps right in front of us! It was HUGE, about the size of Geoffrey around two years ago (5 foot somthing, and 100 pounds!). I was so amazed and imideatally shouted MONKEY! and i know it is rude but pointed right at it! It was just so cool, and as for the pointing bit i am sure a monkey would love to be noticed! But i ended up pointing right at this maid who was walking down the street and the monkey was behind her, and so i shouted BANDER (the hindi word for monkey) and she was so confused, i felt a bit sorry, but still seeing a monkey on a mid afternoon walk is pretty sweet. It is somewhat like a midwesterner spoting a deer on the drive to school. Which is no big deal to a local. But if an Indian spoted a deer on a drive home they would react the same way as me seeing a monkey. Hypothetically if you came to India and saw a deer and well good ole Bambi saw you in the driver seat and hit you, well this would not be a good thing. Just as if you saw a monkey attack your car and it accidentally died in USA. Well if you hit a deer in India, you would end up in a three year jail sentance making tea cozies for rich families to give relatives for the next halmark holiday! It is pretty crazy, that is all I have to say.

So I am In Nagpur, India. A city about 700km (i think?) away from where i stay in Pune. Nagpur is several things for sure. It is much smaller, Much quiter, and MUCH MORE TRADITIONAL! There are no Mcdonalds in sight, along with no pizza places, and very few places that serve meat. People live the way that Pune did 10 years ago. Slowly and with no reguard for just about anyting (such as monkies) It took me around 17 hours on a bus to get here. Bus was not so bad, i thought it would be much worse with all the government bus experinces i have with the Rotary traveling. Not only did this bus have push back seats, it gave you blankets and pillows and had AC! Which was a big treat! I did not have to stick my head out the window for the whole ride or sit next to some creepy Indian guy asking me four hundred times which country i hail from. It was quite nice, they even showed Om Shanti Om, which would be about the 15 time in the past two months i have seen that film, and i still love it!

New Observations of a New City.
There are almost no white people here. Which is diffrent Pune has the tourist aspect to it so we have the westernized side with white people. Here there are only the five exchange students, who everyone knows. It is very strange and also a bit nervy. Because you will be walking across the street and everyone from Grandma in her car to Mr. Thinks he is a God because he has made it to 22 and not yet married, will stare right at you and normally swerve to almost hit you but then realize they are going to hit a white person and back off. Or you just get an amazing array of catcalls, which is annoying.

Power is scace. Power goes out often and almost everyday. Power which is genareted half way between Nagpur and Mumbai if there is a shortage (which is almost always) will always get sent to either Mumbai or Pune, not Nagpur. Generators are everywhere, but often fail, and are noisy!

Internet is done at internet cafes, that is where i am chilling now. Going to an internet cafe is one of the few things that the Nagpur kids have to do for fun. Internet cafes can be a diffrent experince I was in one for the first time in Nagpur and i sit down get a computer and the guy next to me was laughing up a storm and then yelling into his mobile. And the nutty Indian girls next to me where transcribeing their text books.

Students in Nagpur care much more about school. Julia one of the girls here joined a football club (soccar) for girls. She played one game and got really pumped, and then was asking the girls on the team for practices, they told here something that Americans would flat out laugh at. "Well we have exams coming up, so there probally will not be anymore for a time." "When are Exams," Julia asked. "Starting Feb. 26 and then through March." We have had a couple of students claim the study over 20 hours a day. Which i find rediclious (i will after my medical wonders of India blog entry, write an education of India blog, lets just say India and Education, makes me laugh these days when they brag they have the best education in the world). Why should anyone study for 20 hours, I will never know, but apperentally it is not the key to sucess, in my own personal openion. It is the path to a mental house and an early marriage.

Real Rickshaws are way sweet! I have been rideing around in real rickshaws, when i convince everyone else that they are cool! Real Rickshaws are the bicycle man powered rickshaws, they take forever and the seats are normally pretty small, so you can bearly squeeze two american girls (though we have all lost weight, we are still not very tiny) into the tiny seat. We did squeeze three into on, on Christmas Eve, it was very amuseing!

Christmas!
Yes we did have Christmas! All the exchnage students gathered at Adia (from Minnestoa)'s house. We had an early morning present opening party, and shopped for gifts the day before, Chrsitmas Eve. We spent both days dipping in sweat cuz it was around 95 outside! We made pancakes for Chloes family Christmas morning, and convinced her host father that Hawaian Punch is a christmas drink. (hehe) Her host mother on the other hand took one look and the pancakes and said she was fasting....

Well that is all for now, i have more Nagpur Stories (specifically one about Pasta Salad...) But my internet time is up and the power will probally go out in about 10 minutes anyways!

Best New Years Wishes to Everyone!

It is Winter and It is HOT!

2007-12-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

The other day some friends of mine went to a friends farm house outside the city, it was 34 c, which for all of you who cannot convert it is hot!!!!!!!!

So this is us splashing around in David's pool... We like to claim that it was a USA vs. Europe Game, The USA used their resources wisely in WON! in the splash war!

Yes this is what we call Winter in India!

Happy New Year

2007-12-23T02:53:00.001-08:00

Well it is almost New Years and I am Off To Nagpur! So i am afraid i will not be around for my witty comebacks of the Indian Sort. I did get very sad the other day without have a Christmas Tree and went to the store and bought green paper and cut one out and hung it in my host family's living room. The Gold Star was made out of a left over Trident wrapper...hehe. There is really no Christmas in India, because it not having that many Christians. So for all of y'all that thought the whole place would have lights and santa well i am sorry to dispeal this myth. At one of the malls though there is a Santa in a little house, funny thing is he is totally Indian! Or else he just spent too much time on the beach in the off season!

Marry Christmas and Happy Holidays
Happy New Year too!!!
Mrs. Heeter Hilton
(that is who my bus ticket is addressed to, I have no idea who this is, or why they are going to Nagpur? But i have their bus ticket, and if they don't claim it before 5:45 Indian Time, then i regret to inform them that I am using your ticket!)

Ask and You Shall Receive (Someday)

2007-12-15T05:08:00.000-08:00

Eli's Host Grandfather,"Dada," He thinks my name is Svetlana Heetehrskaya from US? No. UK? No. Ukraine? Yes! I dont know why this is? But I think Eli told him that?

You may win this time Mr. Naud, but that is only because the Nondenominational Winter Solstice stakes are way toooo high and Eli really needs some new pants :)

(For everyone else reading this, if it makes no sense, just disregard it)

Holi HeeterPoti!

2007-12-12T10:56:00.000-08:00

Well I turned EIGHTEEN, this weekend! And your 18^th Birthday is a bit milestone in ones life, you become an adult! Or in India, I became of marriageable age (they don’t say you become an adult when you are a girl in India, they tell you, “you are now of marriageable age”). So whatever the choice, I am now legal! I can vote! I can do other things, as well as, play bingo at the casinos, in Wisconsin! (But I think I will reserve that pleasure to the people who actually live in Wisconsin currently or maybe when I get back? Maybe?). So my friends and I wanted to make my birthday last, I mean I only turn 18 once! Along with this weekend being a good friend of everyone here in the city of Pune last weekend in the city. We are very sad to say, that a Pune kid is going home back to their native land of Canada, she will be sincerely missed (There will be more about this in a latter blog entry). So my friends and I created a HOLIDAY!

So that is what HOLI HEETERPATI, is! Holi is the celebration of spring (which this year falls on March 10) it is a big DEAL, and I cannot wait to go for it! Then also Ganpati is the celebration of Lord Ganesh (as previously described). So we created our own personal deity, Heeterpati. The Heeter comes from what EVERYONE calls me. Heeter, or Heater, sometimes Heyider (which is actually a Muslim boys name). Quick story, someone was calling my name (my real one), “Heather, Heather!” and well I did not respond, I don’t even respond to my own name anymore! So Heeterpati, is the celebration of the goddess of Heeter (myself).

Holi Heeterpati began at midnight on Friday night. Friday night some of my friends in the city went out for a super fun night on the town! We started out at dinner we went to one of the five (or four maybe, I am not sure, but it is clean and nice so I guess we can say 4.5) star hotels in Pune. There is a really good noodle restaurant in the Hotel which is not half bad, so dinner was there. The hotel is connected to the movie theater called E-Square (that has no relevance, but I decided you as a reader should know that, because I have probably talked about E-Square before and well it doubles as a movie theater, shopping mall, book store, gelato shop, five star restaurant, health club, and jazz club). At dinner, I was with Chelsea, Lauren, Anna, and David.

Following dinner we were going to meet up with a bunch of the other exchange students for deserts. So we left the restaurant and being six of us we were figuring we were going to need two rickshaws because you can only put three people legally in a rickshaw. So we ask a few and it is really annoying to get a rickshaw at night, because there are less rickshaws and the drivers think they are about equivalent to god at night because they think they can charge you an arm and a leg, to go anywhere! They think there is this thing called “Night Charge” it is this unwritten annoying rickshaw law, that they can price gauge at nighttime. So we find a rickshaw that has offered to take all of us, and well we cram six people into this rickshaw! Four of us were in the back and David was in the front of the rickshaw with the driver in the drivers seat, originally he did not give us a figure and he started changing his mind he said four hundred, and then we are like 100 and then he said 300 and we said 50 and he said 200 and we are like screw this and we get in. But David being in the drivers seat thought he would be funny and ask to drive (which yes we know is against Rotary rules, but well driving a rickshaw is a once in a life time chance, and he did not really get to drive it he just held the wheel, but still he was in the drivers seat!) All of a sudden the rickshaw driver starts doing this weird swerving thing and we are like what is going on! And we suddenly see that there are police near by! And having six people in a rickshaw especially late at night is well really illegal! So we are being pursued by the police in the rickshaw at starts taking crazy turns and avoiding stop lights by taking left hand turns on red (which are not really legal, but everyone does them). So essentially we were running from the police in the rickshaw! It was quite fun, and David being very inquisitive, started asking the rickshaw driver questions, and we found out some really interesting things. He spoke ok English which is good for a rickshaw driver. He said he made around Rs. 400 a day (around 10 USD, and also means that he makes Rs. 12,000 (USD 300) a month, and Rs. 144,000 a year, which is 3600 USD), and that he has driven a few of us before. That night we went to MG Road for desert and meeting up with the other exchange students, and then we were going to go dancing.

We first went to one place to wait for the exchange students, and then went to the dancing and desert place to meet everyone else. We were joined by Johnny, Morty, Xia, and Charlotte, we also ran into some of out Indian friends. The place is a local hang out for teenagers because it offers nice deserts and has a small dance floor (which no one dances on it just plays good music) but with us being exchange students we always dance! We celebrated my birthday at midnight with everyone singing me happy birthday, and then we went to Anna’s house who lives very close to MG road.

The next morning I woke up really early to go see Om Shanti Om, with Eli. Eli and I have both now seen this movie three times each. Om Shanti Om, is the newest Hindi Flick out, and it is amazing! It is a great movie! It has everything you would want in a movie, a good guy, great music, and a great story full of action, adventure, and fun!

It is actually the top most grossing Hindi Film of ALL TIMES, and so we decided to see it a few more times since then, just to give it even more money! I am brining back copies to the US, because everyone should see this movie! (I will bring the subtitle version)

Then the movie being three hours long! We realized that right after the movie that we had an hour to get to our first exam of exams! We were about 40 minutes away on the other side of town, so we jumped in a rickshaw and picked up Stephanie on the way to go take the English exam!

The English, but sadly we were early, but Eli was with us, and well Eli does not go to our school. But she is with us and we walking in decide that we are going to claim she goes to our school. So Eli became Elenorea Urtenskritinmurphbooophel (Something along those lines with some added umlauts), a short term exchange student from Finland. But the English exam which we figured would take us about ten minutes, being that we are native speakers ended up being about ten pages worth of brutal torture of an English Exam! It took us around an hour! But after that, we were all starving enough to spend rs. 2000 on a great lunch at Polka Dots (our favorite hang out for amazing food! Also rs. 2000 is 50 American and we had six hungry girls with us!) So after that I went and joined up with Mallory and Jen, who were at the local coffee house, which has amazing Watermelon Mojittos (Which in this case a Mojittos is a very fancy word for icee). After that we went home, for a few minutes and had time for Jen to smear chocolate cake ALL OVER MY FACE (see the picture!) even up my nose, I was blowing cake out of my nose for like an hour! Then Mallory, Jen and I went to go see yet another movie!

We saw The Messengers, which sucks. It was about this family who moves into a hunted house, which has dead people buried under it, STUPID. Therefore, it was also really funny to Americans who have seen this gag a million an one times, not to mention Jen is the queen at laughing at the wrong time! It was great fun, because Jen and I would laugh really loudly in this full theater at something that would be American humor, and then five seconds latter everyone else would start laughing hysterically, after about the second time we realized they were laughing at us… hehehe

So the next day was spent lazing around on Sunday. The exact idea of a lazy Sunday, except for the early morning Rotary Meeting. It was bad, that is my story, if you want to hear about, my major issues with the Indian Rotary, email me, I will be more then happy to share and tell stories.

Then came Monday! On Monday we rented a driver and a big car and decided we were going to Bombay! Wahoooo! We wanted REAL HAMBURGERS! Yes, that is one of the only reasons we went to Bombay, to get real Hamburgers! We started out at 7am, and drove all the way to Bombay! The driver did not really speak any English and was getting really annoyed with our radio ADD, so he ended up taking us to the airport? We really have no idea why he took us to the airport, but it lead us about two hours out of our way. So we finally got to the Bombay Gate around 12:30, and Eli had helped us meet up with the Exchange Students who live in Bombay. One of them lives about ten minutes away from the Bombay Gate, which is SO COOL! I wish I lived there!

On the mini-trip to Bombay came Eli, Lauren, Chelsea, David, and Me. Lauren and Chelsea the first time we went to Bombay got a very bad opinion of the city. And this trip changed everyone’s opinion of the city. The Bombay kids took us to a café called Leopold’s for lunch. Joining us was Awo from USA (Minnesota) and then a girl from Germany. We talked about being in different cities, along with the other exchange students. It is wild how they live in the metropolis of Bombay, they are lucky and unlucky in some respects. We also once again proved the theory about the fact that the Exchange Students from Pune, are the closest bonded Exchange Students. After lunch we met the driver again for an hour car ride to go find shopping, on Linking Street. The street has great bargin and is amazing for haggleing! There is some little ally ways that Awo and the German Girl were winding us through, but right as we were in one that faces walls and not any natural light, the power went off! It was pitch black, and we could not see anything! Talk about freaky! But never fear my cell phone has an attached LED light, so I ended up finding my way out, but still, it was freaky! After that we left the Exchange Students, to go to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. We were instructed that we had to be home by ten pm sharp, so we had to be out of dinner by 7. We arrived at Hard Rock, after finding the place, which was behind a mill in a town behind the lots in the back, it is quite hidden. We arrived and we were the only ones there! The food was like food for the soul that is missing America! Real Hamburgers! Real Potato Skins, WITH BACON! Real Nachos (well almost, but it was not 19 tortilla chips arranged on a plate with not real nacho cheese)! REAL Chicken Fingers! Oh it was heavenly! But then the very smart David who was memorizing the menu, decided to look up where all the Hard Rock Cafes are in the world. And what he found out was startling! They are opening one in Pune (the city I live in!) In a few weeks! Really it was supposed to be open in the fall of 2007, but who knows when it will open now? But still there is hope!

After we finished dinner we began to head home. I really love the city of Bombay. It is just amazing. It is a city not really for the tourist but for the people who live there. It is not really a place to visit, because no one would be able to understand. It is not a place you go to for fun, there are fun things to do, but you have to know about them. Bombay is a city to explore. I could spend days, weeks, maybe every years exploring what the city has to offer. It is a real metropolis. It is for business and also what business is when it is not on Wall Street. It combines everything you love about all the cities you have been to and then everything thing you hate you should multiply the effect by 550 and then you have Bombay. It is in the wrong place for a city, it has terrible weather, and it has more pollution then you know what to do with. The homeless are in masses, Slums run for miles and miles. It is dirty, and gross, but at the same time, it has more beauty then your average city. It displays things that a community should, real libraries that you can check out books from, real universities, commuter trains, and crowds of people. It has buildings and organizations, for everything. It is full of what you are looking for; you can find anything in Bombay. It is an amazing city, which I really could be madly in love with!

Some things about Bombay that I would like the world to know in my observations.

One:

It has amazing shopping

Two:

It “strickly” observes traffic regulations (wear your seat belts!)

Three:

You can find beef, but you cannot find Mexican food

Four:

The poverty is overwhelming.

Five:

The Grand Amounts of Public Toilets!

This really is one of the most amazing things about Bombay is the Public Works. They have an incredible number of Public Shower Houses and Bathrooms. They are everywhere! Most of them are pay toilets, but you can also shower in them. You can even buy a membership to most of them if you frequent the place. They are everywhere. I was under the impression before I came to India, that bath houses and public toilets were only around for tourist spottings and were completely gone since the Roman Times! But truly they are a concept that I find fascinating, and intriguing.

We finally made it home after getting lost in the Dharvi Area of Bombay, Dharvi is a slum area, and also what some of us in the car found to be the cleanest area of Mumbai, it had clean streets and well paved roads, and was also supposed to be apart of the biggest slum in Asia, I think we were in the tourist section or something, because we could not really have been inside Dharvi?

That was Holi HeeterPoti! It was a great holiday; You should all have celebrated it!

More coming soon, I have not really been up to anything lately.... But since HeeterPoti, one of the original schemers of HeeterPoti, has left the building (or the country) and flown home to Canada, otherwise Exams are finally over and just like last time more stories about their incorrectness more or my incorrectness and stance on Rocks. And coming shortly my medical expose on Indian Medicine! (which is normally like go out and lick a tree!)

Happy Birthday Heeter!

2007-12-12T08:50:00.000-08:00

Jen Smearing Cake all over my face, on my birthday!

Lauren and I enjoying Cake! Me talking on the phone with some Rotary guy about our trip to Bombay!

Eating a REAL BEEF HAMBURGER!!!! At Hard Rock Cafe in Bombay!

Eli, Chelsea, and David Being silly after devouring plates full of amazing Americanized food!

Outside Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai! After learning that one is Pune is opening up in about a week, but still it was amazing and sooo worth it!

Divali RYLA Thanksgiving, I know creative I am!

2007-11-25T09:48:00.000-08:00

Well apon our return it was the begging of the Divali season!

Divali is like the celebration of a few things, lights (fireworks), the goddess Laxmi (wealth) along with the Hindu New Year! Which is pretty cool! And normally turns out to be world war three in India.

Fireworks go off everywhere! The main day was the ninth and well I spent most of the time with my host mother’s side of the family. We had a meal on the day before, and the pooja food for Divali is rice, ghee and sugar. Which is I have to admit gross. New Years eve, was celebrated by watching cricket at my host grandma’s house. And I think I finally got it! What really got it for me, was my host grandma really explained it (more in actions and hand movements and things, because she does not speak much/any English). But I finally got it! I cannot really explain it to you, but I know the basics, enough to like be able to watch a match and understand. That night was once again India vs. Pakistan, and sadly India LOST! But really it was a good thing because my host mom and I had to go home and we only had the moped, and if they had won, there would have been some like nutso people lighting off their Divali firecrackers a day early!

Divili day was spent once again with my host mom’s family. We went over to my host grandma’s place and then went home and had a family pooja, for the goddess. And then met up with my host mother’s family again for a dinner. We ate outside, which was well in my mind NUTS! It was like world war three! We had fire crackers going off 360 degrees around us! They were coming from every angle, even right above my head. The noise was crazy! There were several points in time where I had to resist the urge to jump for cover under the dinner table to hide because I thought the sky was falling!

One of the best parts of Divali was the I got to wear a Saree! It was cool. It was red. I did not get any pictures, I will now have to wear one again.

After Divali day, my entire host mothers family was going on a Divali vacation to this place called, Ananda Valley, it is an eco-friendly farm. They have a web site; you can Google it if you want to see pictures.

Ananda Valley

I don’t even know what to say about this place. It is about 90 kms out of town. It is in a valley and it goes back to my never ending Disney analogy, it reminded me of living in “The Land” at Epcot. But much worse, and smelly. It was hot, but my host family thought it was freezing! It is a working farm, and I learned some interesting things. But the number one thing he was trying to encourage was not really environmentalism. It was the development of India, from third word conditions to modernization. Because face it, if India was more modern it would be much more environmentally friendly! The US often gets blamed for all the global warming hooha, but really India should be the ones that the world should blame. They have more cows then the state of Wisconsin, and the fact they don’t eat them, so they are wasteful. (That was bad, but I miss beef sometimes.) Also not to mention they still use leaded gas, diesel, and drive huge cars. So people should not whine in the US, they should yell at India. I don’t blame India though they are still developing and well global warming hooha… I am not going to go there. But the number one action the owner said that Indians should do is buy a dish washer and stop using yellow lighting; these measures would save a ton of power and a ton of water! Which in the US we have been doing both of those things for years!

But we stayed in little condo type things, and with my host family’s whole family. It was pretty nice. Other then the fact they got us up really early in the morning to hike huge hills! The food was al fried and sometimes I wanted to die. One cool thing was that my cousin (who is 18, and plays cricket on one of the Pune teams) decided he was going to teach me how to bat in cricket. It was awesome! And not to mention I was not half bad at it! It is a mix between kick ball, soft ball, and golf. I am not good at any of those but I was whacking SIXES! (Which is like a home run, but you can hit more then one at a time, don’t ask it works). Sometimes I really felt bad for my host family, because sometimes when I don’t know what to say, I just stop talking all together! I think I may have said like 15 words the whole time I was there, which I know is not good, but really I had to idea what to say! But half the time they were not speaking in English, but Gujarati, a language I know a total of three words in. We spent a lot of time playing Charades and Housie (mixed up bingo). I won rs.15 in housie! I came back and had to pack right away because the next morning I was leaving for RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) Conference.

RYLA

I called PeeKay the night before because I had a question about the bus. I wanted to know if it had AC? And PeeKay answered, “HEATER, What do you need AC for, it IS FREEZING OUTSIDE!” The next morning it was the freezing cold temperature of around 25 Celsius, Oh How Cold! I still want AC. Not to mention we were taking a public government bus. Government Busses are quite the experience. And if I was not forced to take them, they are something I would never in my dreams take. They are awful! They are normally not clean, and my favorite was there was puke on the window on the way home. They normally smell and they attract the common people of India. You can have a very strange verity of people to Indians who are middle class, to low class, to hitchhikers, to maids. If I had come to India any other time or way, I would never have taken a government bus. Nashik is around six hours by government bus, my host father can make it in three in his car he goes about once every two weeks. So that tells you a bit about the government busses, they drive at a great speed of around 40 kmph. WAHOOO when they get up to 60 kmph.

We made it to Nashik, and we are to meet up with some other kids to go to the RYLA, which was hosted at the Orchid International School (google it). We got there after a crazy jam packed bus ride from the city of Nashik, and it was beautiful! No hotel Shantidoot repeat, the conditions were amazing! We had nice beds, the pillows did not smell like curry, and showers that even had hot water! It was great! Very few bugs too! It was really nice we got to see some of the other Rotary Students in India. The students from Jalgaon and Nashik were also there. I knew a few of them from the plane ride over along with the Grand Rapids Conference, and it was awesome to see some of them again! For the most part I had fun! But one thing bad did happen to me.

So we got there and I was sooo thirsty! It was really hot out (yes, it is winter, I was burning up!) So I asked PeeKay, “Peekay, is the water good?” And he goes “Yes! It is India the water is good, Heater.” So I drank around a gallon of it, and started to feel really ill about 20 minutes later. So I lost all appetite and well it was all down hill after that, I will spear you all the details. But I got quite sick! I spent a good amount of time in bed, being sick. That is ok, I very much persisted to try and attempt to attend all the lectures and things.

On the first night thought many of the Rotary students were turned off from the whole RYLA experience because of the first guest speaker. HE WAS AWEFUL! We wanted to hurt him pretty bad, and if he was staying on campus, I would not have been surprised if he was linched by the Germans. He was first an awful speaker, on many occasions I want to go up to the people giving a bad speech and be like, you speech sucks, I will teach you how to give a better speech! But not only was he awful, but he was offensive! He was talking about how India is the only country with culture, which is somewhat understandable, sometime they tent to be very nationalistic, but then he starts insulting country by country of all the countries the IYEs are from saying we have No Culture, this is why we came to India, it was not that bad at first, because we can take that, But it gets so much worse! He continues with calling all teenagers “Robots” and “heatless” because we have computers and cell phones. None of us can speak, hear, talk, or communicate properly because of this. They should call us the “heatless” generation because we don’t care and we don’t care about anything but, partying, and friends. He goes on with, you are all awful people because you don’t listen to people, and you do what you want, you will never be revolutionaries. Then Julia and I were really sick of hearing his crap, and his insults, that we decided because he took long pauses that we were going to start clapping on one of the long pause. We told about three other people, and well he took a long pause and we started clapping, and almost everyone, even the other Rotarians who were on stage started applauding… Then the speaker was like I AM NOT DONE, out plan kind of backfired on us, because they he launches into this speech about how you can clap if you like what I said or if you want me to stop. At this point in time, Julia and I are crying, because of our bad behavior. But well he made the speech five minutes longer because of this it was sad. After this it was still 20 minutes long! He spoke on how our generation commits more suicides, because we are all stupid, we were so offended. He also told all the German students, that Hitler was the best revolutionary of all times, among a few other things about Hitler…

A note on Hitler: India like worships him to an extent. We have no clue why! It is strange. I have not yet been to a book stores where I cannot find Mein Komph (That is not spelled right but you know Hitler’s book he wrote in jail, that in English is my struggle) displayed. The Germans are always have culture shock about this, many people will be like I loved Hitler. No one here really knows his real actions, but they are all in love with him, for some very very odd reason. But really my personal favorite display of Hitler’s book is at the book store that is inside the movie theater, it is Hitler’s books right next to The Diary of Anne Frank, smart…

Well after the offensive speech we played some games. And as usual, I like to play silly games! Especially the leadership games, because I normally led them I never got to play them myself! I always knew the tricks and things, so it was exiting!

The game, was as always, to volunteer for something that you have no idea what you are getting your self into. The whole game thing was being lead by this participant who won the leader of RYLA award the year before. She was loud but not very well spoken, but at the same time, trying to lead her peers, which I know is hard! So I volunteered to go up! I got up there and they handed us a blank piece of paper, and in my silly mode that I was in, because of my love of leadership conferences (I know I am a geek) well my friend (Jen, she is from Canada) was also up on the little stage, and we like to goof around. So as a joke when they gave me a blank piece of paper, I was joking with Jen who was seprated from me by an Indian girl. I said “Jen do you know what you can do with a blank piece of paper?” I made it in this really dorky accent and tried to sound like philosophical or something. Jen is like “YES!” And I continue with my dorky-ness and say, “You can write down you hopes and dreams, and feelings!” I was joking obviously and Jen eps up the charade with going on with my hopes and dreams blank paper rant. But then the Indian girl turns to me and in a very inaudible tone turns to me and goes “Can you stop talking please, I am trying to learn.” I was somewhat astounded? First of all the girl in charge was still picking people from the audience and trying to track down more pens for the people on stage. So we were not doing anything. But this began to bother me a bit. I was shocked, to an extent. Because this girl was not having ANY FUN! I understand that this is a leadership conference, and most of the Indian students were getting out of school to attend this, or cutting into their Divali vacations, but at the same time we were playing a game! I don’t know still what to think of this. But I was disturbed, and it set an interesting tone for the few days, that many of the Indian teens were not what I am used to dealing with, they don’t like to have fun, or I guess unlike me try to learn and not goof off. Well I still don’t know what to think of it. After finding out we had to write down five sentences about a ship that was ours.

Mine was along the lines as follows:

My ship is named the Heater.

It is very lovely and maroon.

It carries the penguins, to the northern hemisphere.

It once carried the dinosaurs.

Too bad that it sank during the Roman Times; I wish I could have been on its last voyage!

That’s not it exactly but we can pretend. So here is for the catch, you had to read the little poem, five sentence, as reading ship as hip… Well that is silly, I only wrote ship once, so mine was not that stupid sounding. And I have no fears of public speaking at all, I really don’t care. I also opted when it was my turn to not us the microphone (I hate microphones, I really do). I read mine allowed, and to the very last day I had people complementing me on the fact that I read about “my hip” so well. It was somewhat funny.

So in between combating my water bourn illiness, and beginning for bottled water. We were forced into attending some lectures. Really it went a little bit differently. Somehow I got elected the leader of the floor? Maybe it was because I answered the evening phone call from the RYLA chairman, who had called the floor to tell us to be quite, and also to say an evening prayer so we are to sleep better.

(Sometimes I don’t understand this, there are many religions in India and well I know in the US if you told a kid to pray before sleeping well that would be a lawsuit, but even in India land of a million and one religions you can still tell kids to say prayers and it is known that all the students are of diverse faith backgrounds is quite an interesting statement, and well I don’t know what that says for India and the US).

But it may have also been to the fact I was always late, and always was asking for bottled water, and they knew I was “Hedar,” I really prefer “Heater” and the whole time I was there I was telling people that was my name. I have gotten quite accustomed to being called “heater,” I was completely startled when someone called me by my real name and pronounced it right so startled that I did not respond the first time I heard it, or the second, or the third…

Or maybe it was because I was the motivator, and was always getting yelled at for the other foreigners sleeping habits. Eg. They all like to sleep in and I was always trying to drag them to the lectures and things. But well it normally never worked. But I was always getting yelled at out of their absence, they would be like “Where are your friends! Go get them! Hedar, where did you leave them??” I always got a kick out of when they asked me where I left them, like they were in my purse or something?

I was also known for carrying everything around in my purse. I had a huge bag, and I had everything from bug repellent, to my ipod, to two books, to bandaids and everything in between like anti-itch cream for when you did not wear the bug repellent. I was always getting asked for things out of my blissful bag abyss.

Many of the lectures were lecturing the Indian students, on like western thinking. Which of corse they did not say flat out, but that is what we all found our selves discovering! Things would be like, give people hugs, or express your feelings, or value other things in life, or even it is ok to be friends with guys. It was well what I found to be really boring, not only because the speakers were no very good at giving speeches, and well I still don’t really get Indian humor, and also they were lecturing on ideas that I have been brought up with! Western thinking, forward progressive thinking, free speech and free thoughts. I did not really understand at first, and was pretty much board to tears thinking that “why is he telling us this, I learned this when I was around five!” But then I started to be more observant and realized that this is like new material for the Indian students. Many of the them were in their school modes on the hanging on to every word that the lecturer said and taking intent notes. Some would give us hand outs, and others would tell us not to take notes and yet the Indian students would be moved by some of the western thoughts that they would almost write out the whole speech. Back to the whole learning thing, on of the speakers said to write down the phrase “You can’t have maturity without mind set.” And I was sitting among some friends near some Indian Girls, and well I did not write down this phrase, because I thought it was dumb. Of course you cannot have maturity without mind set! Well the girl who was near me turned to me and goes “Why are you not writing that down!” And flips out on me. I am like “I don’t feel the need,” she continues with “but he told you! You have to!” So I then write it down because she found it so vulgarly offensive that I did not write down this phrase. This reminded me of well a dirty movie, which you should never see, called Van Wilder, Van’s assistant is an Indian Exchange student, Taj, and Van is always telling Taj to write things down which Taj always does, no matter how stupid they are. But many of the Indian students listen to the speakers like droids, taking notes that they will never use, like there will be a quiz at the end of this. When they really should be taking everything the speaker says to heart, mind and body. It really is a different way of thinking.

On that note one of the speakers had us perform an exercise about values, which turned into a big culture shock to me. I knew I would have moments like these when I knew I was not in Kansas (well I guess Wisconsin, and the United States, more likely, I don’t think I have ever even been to Kansas, you get the point). Well I sat down with a group of two Indian girls and my friend Ari (from Mexico). And we had pre-made list of what we value in life. On the list which we had to choose from were like, freedom, family, spirituality, helping the poor, adventure, companionship, making the world a better place. Things like that. Well my list was along the lines of Freedom, Adventure, Excitement, Service, things that Heather “heater” would put. But with the Indian girls, their values were so drastically different! They first asked how should they concider this, if they were to be married or not? And so I am like you are as you are now, I figure. And then they are like well our first priority is marriage. Marriage is out next step in life, early marriage I would prefer to to be, one of the girls speaks up. They both look about thirteen but like they have trouble guesses my age, they were probably about 17 or 18, same as myself, and they are the same girls who are intently taking notes in the front. So I am like what about Education, because I am figuring they value that to with their attitudes. And they are like marriage comes first, then they said family and spirituality, then helping the poor. I was astounded! I was like you have such a life to live, and your number one priority is marriage! I could not believe this! These were smart girls, and they would rather forgo their education and give up their lives to have dinner on the table by eight. I really don’t understand their way of thinking, I know it is culture but I don’t want to go as far to say that is so wrong, but really I have no idea how anyone can think that! Indian teenage girls have the same thoughts that American women had during well the late 1940s to 1950s; all they want to do is to get married. This is why many times it is a challenge to make friends with Indian girls, because the ones your age are getting married or they are not mature enough to get married yet and therefore think that they can act like they are five years old till their family marries them off, which is a very harsh and culturally unrespectful truth. I don’t understand. I guess in my western thinking ways I value my freedom more then anything. Another thing that was high on their list (the two Indian girls who were very different, but had the same list, really one was always like mine is the same as hers and would point to her friend, and that is all she would say), was helping the poor. Which I was somewhat stunned, India does try and help the poor (well they o somewhat but their population is like the Romans where you are either rich or poor there is such a small middle class that it does not matter much plus no one pays their taxes), but what the poor have to realize is the poor have to help India. India is stuck is this third world state because of the poor, and well it is not going anywhere. But what I really wanted to know, and I tried to get it out of them, is this really what they thought. Do you really want to get married this young, are you really going to help the poor (so many Indians want to help the poor or say they want to help the poor but on the inside they are so disgusted by their own countries people, it is just society that is telling them they should, but no one really does want to help), do you really want your family to make all your decisions. Or is that what you culture and society is saying to you? I wanted to know the answer really badly, and both girls got somewhat offended at even the suggesting of this. I don’t understand! It is hard for me to come to terms with this, and when I have been brought up with the harsh western ideas, such as only you are in charge of your own life, and you are free to believe what you want. Your family is to accept what you think and who you are, you are allowed to rebel!

Another lecture was about, well to tell you the truth I don’t remember what lecture it was but I remember the statements that were said. The speaker was going on about problems in today’s teenagers in India, and the audience was just taken so aback by his comments they were all shocked! This speaker was older, and well to us the older they were the more offensive they seamed to be. This speaker was going on how you should not give into temptation and evils or something. And he went on about how teens today don’t listen to their families. Then teens today have problems with drugs, alcohol, and sex. And some of my exchange friends, burst out laughing at this statement. We all wanted to see his evidence of this, other then a very very few rebellious males, which normally have watched too much Mtv and are from one of three cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune) or are not from India. Indian teenagers obey their parents, and don’t really do anything that their parents don’t accept. Such as the case of being a vegetarian, if your parents are veg, then you are veg. The only people I knew who have switched are ones that have been to other countries, or ones that their parents made the decision for them. I know if you are a parent you are like “man I like that system.” But your kid as soon as they are exposed to freedoms, well they will go a little wild, but at least at this point they will be married.

This is not so much the truth in Pune. Because most people from Pune, are from abroad. Therefore Pune is a culturally diverse city, but other cities, like Nasik are not so much. It is very hard for anyone who has had exposure to western culture to understand this way of thinking. I have a very hard time coming to terms with their thoughts and mind states. Even if I don’t rebel much, to the extent of sex, drugs, and alcohol, I still know that my rebelling is something along the lines of moving to India. Even actions I have taken in my life sharing my story with the Indian teens they are like “you can do that in America!” Then it will turn into a clear giggle fest, but “Yes, I can go shopping at two in the morning in America.” (Wal-Mart, open 24 hours, greatest light night venture ever, if this is my mother reading this, I NEVER DID THAT). But my ignorance was not only one-sided, many of the Indian teenagers would not associate with us “westerners or friends from abroad” because of our thoughts. And also because we are kind of crazy. It was sad, we would try to assimilate but we would always find our selves on the opposite sides of whatever situation weather it be lunch tables or the dance floor (yes, we had a dance one night). They would be very clearly intimated by our crazy singing and dancing without music, or just the fact that we talk really really fast (more as in I talk really really fast). I have no idea what to do half the time, it is so unclear to me. I learned more then ever that Indian culture and western culture are clearly so drastically far apart that you really have to agree to disagree.

Well back to the RYLA adventure. The location was the Orchid International School. (Google it for some good snaps, it is like orchid education something). It is a beautiful area, and well somewhat in the “jungle,” as we were told. It is sounded by foothills, which are more of mountains, to a Midwesterner. And it had a very interesting amount of security. We had security guards around every corner. I was not to sure what they were for. The school was fully enclosed in grounds with fences and barbed wire. There was a valley and a village bellow and to the side, but like a very poor Indian village, what a big threat? They barely have running water! I did not understand the need for such serious security. Also a bunch of Rotary kids (well I guess we can get a little crazy sometimes) and Indian teenagers, what a scare! (I am being sarcastic). So I was unsure of the need for the guards to have loaded rifles and a sniper!? So they are going to shoot you or beat you up if you were found not following one of the rules? I had no idea? But I decided to ask PeeKay, who gave Stephanie an answer one of the days we were there. And according to him, we were in the jungle as evidenced by the foothills, and sometimes terrorist climb over the foothills and they need to be shot. So that is why all of the guards (around 12 of them) had loaded pistols. And there was a sniper on the roof? I felt safe at least, except for when the sniper guy left his post to go watch the cricket match, because you know if their really was a terrorist he would be watching the cricket match too.

Even with the eminent danger of the foothills, they arranged a trekking venture for everyone to climb to the top of one of the mountains. Well many of us did not have proper footwear (flip flops only), and then on top of it I was pretty sick. So we began hiking we started in this village, and many of the villagers were running up to us, which was weird. Then we begin climbing, I was not to sure how long I would make it, and well I did not make it very far before I had to sit down. So Ari and I were sitting and everyone got ahead of us, and then some kids ended up going back down, and Ari and I decided to go on, but then we had to sit like every twenty minutes, because I was feeling so poorly. Then Ari and I could not find the way up, we started to watch these two Indian women doing their laundry on an almost dried up waterfall. I don’t think they were too happy with us watching them. But we attempted to continue on but there was not a clear path and we would loose the path and end up either on a cliff, a ledge, or in a “jungle” which forbid us from going on. We ended up going back down, and because of my sickness, I ended up practically passing out when we got back to where the kids who had gone back down were resting. When I got some strength, the others told me they had been playing with the village kids, and were taking movies and pictures with them along with singing songs. It was really cute! The village kids loved to have their picture taken along with they loved to see the picture on the digital camera. I really wondered if this was this amazing technology they had never seen, because this was a very removed village. It was interesting, and I have some cute pictures! Along with some movies (I will try and figure out how to post the movies, soon!).

We also in Nasik had a talent show. And well it was funny! I enjoyed it, even though it started two hours late, and none of “my friends” were there and I got yelled at like five times to go get them, and to the extent of the fact I was in my Pjs and I was like I AM NOT MOVING, I feel really bad, don’t talk to me, mood. I some how volunteered myself to be in the talent show. I don’t really remember why in the world I did this or when I did this, but I guess I did? So I devised a plan! Heather “Heater” always has a plan (haha). But I decided I would teach them all the toilet game! If you are one of my YLC friends or a good girl scout, you should know this game! My friend Amerih (I am really sorry I butchered that) taught it to me and my fellow YLC friends a few years back and it has been maybe my favorite game since! If you don’t know it what happens is I get to make up a little story, I like doing that, and then I pick five volunteers, who have no idea what they are getting their selves into! So I picked five kids sent them out, and then they went outside, and so I tell the audience what was really going on! They are going to come back and sit on a chair, and they are going to be “using the toilet.” Yeah I know I am mean, but it is funny. So they came back in doing things like, one kid was Donald duck, one kid was dancing, one was blasting off into space, one was riding a roller coaster, and Jen who knew the whole thing but we made her volunteer because she does nutty things she broke up with her boyfriend. The roller coaster girl was the best! She comes on, and almost ruined it, by going this is a dramatization of a roller coaster, but she was like screaming her head off, and then at the end went “oh I am so relived!” She was great. There was some time though, in between when they were all outside and when they would come in, and well I had to do something, so I taught them the moose song. I decided I could not make a bigger idiot of myself anyway because I was wearing my ducky pants, which have a big rip in the butt from my dog and I know everyone saw my underwear already, so well the moose song is pretty humiliating and I went all out… It was fun though, I enjoy making people laugh. Which at first they did not get it, they were all like this is weird. But in the end kids were falling off their chairs. When Jen got on the chair and started crying, and screaming “Why does this hurt so bad!” that’s when a lot of kids lost it.

The last lecture was one that was very interesting, and I really enjoyed and the only one that does not blend together with all the others. This young guy gets up, when I first saw him, first I thought he was a girl, and then I thought he was around 15. He had long hair and was in jeans, but when he started to speak, I realized he was probably around 25. But at the same time I realized how smart of him to come in jeans and a t-shirt, we all felt much more comfortable with him, then any of the other speakers. He spoke on a few things but the number one thing he spoke on was the economy, in a very teenage friendly way. He explained the divisions between the rich and the poor in India. He explained how the poor system works in India, he explained the slums and why they exist. He explained why people in India don’t pay their taxes; he explained so many things to me, about India and their third world status. He also shared some stories of how some Indians and internationals have tried to change India, and for that matter the world. Such as examples of mass produced cheap limbs and eye surgery for the poor. How if Indian business catered to the poor so they can pay for it, it is a genius idea but so few do. Because it is true in India that there are around I think it is like 16 poor people (when I say poor I mean really poor, living on less then 50 cents a day poor) per every moderately wealthy one. It may even be more, I am not sure of the statistics, but they are very shocking. Also how important big stores like grocery stores and mega marts are to the Indian economy. Also why the rising of the rupee is killing the Indian economy. What he said was really startling, and made me think that I really want to do something worth wild when I am here in India (I have some ideas but I am not sure if India is ready for them?)

In the end because RYLA is the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, there was some awards to be given out. They gave out four. Which were as follows; Best effort as a leader, and Best Performance as a leader Two were to go Indian students, and two were to go to Exchange students. And I guess embarrassing myself and getting yelled at to wake up “my friends” really paid off because I ended up wining the Best Performance as a Leader. I found it really funny how I spent half the time sick and the other half the time being ill, that I still had managed time I be a leader. That was cool. I like wining leadership awards.

So we ended up going home after that, back on the government bus to Pune. In the middle of the night. I will brag that I had the best seat on the bus (other then the puke stains and the smell that were on my window) but I had the very front seat and I had to sit with my suitcase which I put on the bar that separated the ledge from the stairs and pushed my suitcase into the bar and put my feet up on the suit case, it was great!

Well this week has been pretty fun, Happy Thanksgiving for everyone!

Monday was Lauren’s Birthday, she turned 17! But sadly the night before she got food poisoning, which is no good! So we ended up going out in the afternoon, for lunch, and then to a movie. We saw Stardust, which is really cute, and you should see it, but really don’t let your little kids watch it. Then we came back to my house and ordered Pizza and watched movies. It was fun.

Wednesday (the day before thanksgiving) was spent shopping with friends, because we were shopping for thanksgiving dinner! Mallory, Jen, Eli and I, threw Thanksgiving dinner for all the exchange students, on Thursday night. It was a blast preparing, because we really had no idea what to do! We did have a turkey for all of you who did not think we would have on, but we did not have an oven… So we started preparing food like homemade salsa, pasta salad, stuffing croutons, carrots, and potatoes, the night before. We started at around 7 and went to bed around 1 then the next morning we got up around 9 and started around 10 and did not stop till well 7. It was fun and crazy at the same time! We got the biggest turkey in India, which was a whole 4kgs (8 pounds)! I know how big that is, HAHA! We also had around 12 pounds of potatoes. And in India they only get those little tiny potatoes, which are really small, which we ended up attempting to peal them all. Also we had a ton of fresh carrots, which no wonder Americans buy carrots pre-cleaned; they are a pain and a half! Well ingenious of us we decided to throw Thanksgiving on the real date, a Thursday. Thursday as it always is, is the day that they cut the power. Almost always there is a power shortage on Thursdays. And this Thursday we not at all an exception, we had no power when we woke up and well it came on for about twenty minutes but then it would go off, that happened twice, and it was defiantly not reliable. So we had no power and were to cook Thanksgiving dinner, lovely! It was all going as planed, except we had no idea how we were going to cook the Turkey! We had planed to cook the turkey in the toaster oven, yes in a toaster oven I am not kidding, but this was clearly not going to happen. Eli and I left on an adventure around 3, where we were going to go get Tandoori Chicken, to make up for the lack of Turkey and also the not sure if we would have turkey. So we try the first place and it is closed, we were sad, then we are like what are we going to do, and Jen calls us to tell us she wants a meat thermometer. So Eli and I set off for another side of town in hopes of both things. So we try the one lifestyle stores that may have it, and realized that why in the world would it have a meat thermometer in a country that is almost all vegetarian! And also all the tandoori places were closed. So we set off to yet another part of town, where we had no idea what we would find. On our way there though we got a message from Jen. Who told us something that was a bit startling, on two account. First they shut off the water, so not only did we not have any power but we had no water, and the second was that there were riots in the city and so to be very careful and to come back quickly. It turns out some Hindu-Muslim riots had broken out in the city, but we figured sticking to the main roads it would be ok. Until we finally found chicken and got in a rickshaw to take us home, well we had no idea where the rickshaw would take us. Eli and I ended up going right though a very interesting part of town, where the Muslim population is quite high. And all of a sudden we are passing through a ton of water, and see enough police officers to fill many cricket fields. It was interesting, we then realized that we were probably passing through the outskirts of the riots.

It is hard sometimes, not to be a bit freaked out. Really think about it, I am living where the water and power being shut off happens often and riots break out, it is not safe, yet at the same time I am not fazed by it anymore. I know it happen and I know how to move on and switch what I am doing.

Back to Thanksgiving dinner. We got back and well almost everything was done! Other then my potatoes which I was going to fry because I cannot eat the mashed ones, I had cut them earlier and they had sorta dried out in the time I was gone, but thankfully they turned out pretty ok! The funniest part was I had about three pounds worth and I fried them all in a bowl the size of a cereal bowl, I worked with what I had. They turkey was cooked in a make shit oven. What Jen had done was gotten a giant pot and filled it with like water and then another with sand and then had the turkey, or something like that not really sure how it worked, but it did! And we had turkey and stuffing, and mashed potatoes (and fried), and homemade salsa, and pasta salad, and tandoori chicken, and carrots and peas, and some other things (no pie though). It was great fun. We ate on Mallory’s roof terrace, which is always fun. In the moonlight we ate and sang, and some of us had the grand idea to act out the pilgrims and indians in a skit, I was Plymouth rock, and the turkey! What was also fun was in India they never really get enough of their fireworks, which you could see from Mallory’s roof from all over the city. But as I looked out, you could also be mistaking what are called crowed fire (which are like fire works they set off during riots by the police) where the riots were to have been taking place.

Sometimes I forget how close I am to bombs and riots everyday. In the past few days there have been several bombings in Delhi, the capitol, which is still far away, but at the same time I am a bit bothered. Not about the bombing but at the fact that Indians don’t care and also they don’t report these types of news stories, I get my news from the embassy newsletter, that I get when there are bombings, and also when I decide to log into CNN or FOX for good news updates. Newspapers and news sources don’t really report these things. I mean they will sometimes have a little filler but really, this is big news, and when you turn on the breaking news Indian news channels you get the breaking news of some guy who can pick up dumbbells with his teeth. I found it really crazy when Pakistan and Buttho began feuding I found out from my friend in Argentina, who asked what was going on! I had no idea! Pakistan is now a dictatorship and the former prime minister is marching in INDIA! For peace or freedom and I had no idea! When the riots broke out, I found out from Jen who found out from Mallory’s mother who found out from someone who had run into them. The recent bombings in Delhi I found out from the embassy email that said to be careful because violence is becoming more prominent in India, especially over foreigners. Don’t be worried for me, I am not for myself, but truly I find it wild how no one really cares! I don’t want to compare India to America but at the same time if their were 7 bomb blast in Washington DC and you lived in Milwaukee, it is the same concept, except the cities are a little bit bigger, and there are a few more people.

Well that is my observations for the current time period. My 18^th birthday is in a week! I am not sure what I will be doing for it, but lets say I will be having fun I hope! I will also be registering to vote! I am excited for it, but at the same time, I am thinking to myself, I AM GOING TO BE EIGHTEEN! AHAHAHA!!!!! What happened to me! I think sometime in the near future I am going to write you a little about Indian health facts and myths! That will be a very fun thing for ya’ll to look forward

ABCs with the Village Kids

2007-11-24T13:03:00.000-08:00

In the village we hung out in, in Nasik, we came across some villages kids and this is their ABCs, it is cute!

From Bombay to Goa! Picture Time!

2007-11-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

On a boat cruise in the Bombay Harbor, The India gate and the Old and New Taj Hotels are behind me!

Glorious Scenes from Hotel Shantidoot, In Bombay! I am on the phone with my mom in USA telling her if this place is any worse, some mystery charges may end up on my credit card bill!

In the fort in Goa, I thought we were going to the beach? So i left my towel and swim suit on!

St. Francis Xavier you can literally see his body, if you look close! I do have a better picture where i zoomed but i thought i would spare you!

Me on Miramar Beach in Goa!

From Bombay to Goa!

2007-11-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

It all started on a cold morning, yes, I used the word cold and it was cold for India. It was around 75! (Yes, I do consider that cold now days). Chloe and I got up around 5:30 (this was possibly the earliest I had ever gotten up since I have no idea, last years forensics season maybe?) to take showers and met the bus about 4km away at Domino's. So as usual we were running late, with a very early morning phone call from Lauren going “WHERE ARE YOU!” when we still had not let home. But all in all it is India and it runs on the time of India (a concept we have now deemed to call “Indian Time” (I know very creative!) and turns out we were twenty minutes early! So we find ourselves watching for the bus “with push back seats!” Before it arrived we were calling around to the students to find out about the “push back seats” and they claimed they were decent… to say the least. With on finding out that the bus was HOT PINK, and the push bad seats wore out there fun… Other travelers were found on the bus, namely cockroaches, it was infested by the giant bugs.

BOMBAY!

You have to understand a few things about Bombay, it is a real Metropolis, it is a living breathing definition of one. It has everything from the huge divide from the haves and the have nots to the massive slums (some extending over 20km by 20km). It is am amazing city for business and modern enterprise, and it is not really a city for tourist. The main attraction in Bombay would have to be the Gateway to India. Which is a huge Arch way that is in the harbor. It is one of the most famous places in India. It was modeled after one of the old arches in Rome (I believe the Arch of Constantine) Right behind it is the Taj Hotel, it was the first five star hotel in India, and next to it is the New Taj, which is just a larger bigger version. Well we first saw this in Bombay. Then took a boat cruise around the harbor, which was hot. In Bombay it is always hot, partially from the great amounts of pollution it makes the city hotter then what it should be. The city also has a perpetual haze over it… I am sure you all know LA does , but I have now seen both and Bombay is awful! The haze is like fog that is always there, you can barely see in some parts him.

So some quick Highlights!

The Nehru Planetarium- saw a star show, the highlight was that there was AC!

The Hanging Gardens- We stopped we did not see them, HIGHLIGHT, there was a nice breeze in the bus (I wish I would get to go back and see them)

Some Temple for Ganpati- Interesting… It was wild to see how some very devote people worship at this temple, they would throw themselves at the ground (sort of at the feet of the idols) and like roll around on the ground. Also they had mass vats of Ganpati Prasad it was wild looking… I skipped out

A ZOO- I have no pictures because you had to pay rs. 20 (50 cents!) to bring you camera in! But the starving animals in really tiny cages are not really my thing, Highlight Eli getting shat on… And the hippos they were pretty cool and they were also being sponsored by the Rotary! Who knew the Rotary has Hippo exchanges to!

Well otherwise, we spent some time at the BEST HOTEL IN BOMBAY!!!

KIDDING VERY VERY VERY KIDDING!

HOTEL SHANTIDOOT!

Oooo dear, I don’t even know where to start. The Hotel is apparently to be nice? But we get into the room, and well we burst out into major laughter it is the shittiest place on earth! We apparently got kicked out of the nice rooms in the place because well they messed up our reservations and hum we ended up in the economy rooms. Which was a disaster. First of all when walking to our room, we have like a balcony that learned over into a shopping area into like a court yard, which smelled like a mix of human feces and dead fish mixed with a ton of garbage all stewed together in the heat, yummy! So we try to break into out room, which they told us was “open” and then we realize there is actually no lock, and no key, so it is ALWAYS “open” it has a tv, which is smashed in the back (I don’t think it would work) and then two chairs with wholes in them. Then four beds (which are in two sets pushed together). We are all at this point because we have spent a million hours on the nonAC bus wanting a shower, and we go to the bathroom and there is NO SHOWER! There is a bucket, which has a little bit of dirty water in it… (I don’t know if it was really water). Then the potty still had poop in it. Even though it was wrapped in one of those “Sanitized for your Health” bands around it! So the beds sucked, they were made of straw I believe! And the sheets as of all shitty hotels were full of mystery stains. Not to mention the pillows when you picked them up must have been made of lead, and weighed over 15 kgs (30 pounds), and they smelled like some serious curry! GROSS! So we were supposed to have AC, and we decided in the end that the AC was the fact out window had what looked like bullet holes in it! Or else someone smashed it open with their hands? It was really bad, to say the least. I called my mom up to be like, if you see any mystery charges on my credit card bill, I may have to get out of here, but she laughed at me, and is like “Heather you are in a third world country…?”

But overall on this rotary trip I will comment, I was not that happy, not only because of Shantidoot, but many things were not that greatly handled. Such as there were a lot of places in Bombay we did not get to see, like VT (the really famous train station in Bombay, which is really pretty). Also Elephanta Island (I REALLY WANTED TO GO HERE!) So I hope to go back, and see these places during my trip. Because we only spent two days here and in those two days we spent over 25 hours on the bus!

So off to Goa!

The trip took us 21 hours!!! On the awful bus! Which had wholes in the bottom and you could see the road under you, lovely! We did stop at a temple on the way, which we ont really know if it was out of the way, but I think it was. This temple though we stopped at right before it was the worship time, and it was very beautiful, one of the nicest I had been to in India. It had really nice gardens, and the temple part was gorgeous! When we finally got to the state line between Marashrtra and Goa, we were stopped by the police for around 3 hours because of some bad bus papers, which was aweful!

Highlights!

We stayed right on the beach, and the Arabian Sea is amazing! It was warm with great sandy beaches and salty waves!

Downfall,

Beach sellers!!!!!!! (see more later)

Churches!

We went to two churches in Old Goa; Goa belonged to Portugal till the 1960s. This part of India was the last state to gain its Independence.

One of the Churches houses the body of St. Xavier who was responsible for Christianizing Asia a long time ago. So normally when someone’s body is there it is like in a crypt well not St. Xavier. Not only is he not in a crypt he is displayed about 30 feet off the ground in like this big elaborate alter type thing in a glass (see through) coffin. Yes, You can see EVERYTHING, I zoomed in you can check out the picture (I will add it!) The other church was nicknamed the white church because when Old Goa was not the capital of Goa anymore they white washed the church it once was to be rumored to have beautiful artwork but not anymore. It is white, still pretty, but very white. One fun thing was when we were there at the churches which are across the street from each other they were filming a documentary and so we were on the set of this documentary and got to see it being filmed. Another funny thing was when we were inside the church they were having a mass and at the mass the only people present were foreigners.

Temples!

We went to three temples in Goa, one was to the temple for musicians and many musicians go to this temple because it is the most famous in Goa (Dad- Ravi Shanker apparently goes there!) All seamed to look very similar in ways. They would have a big tower and then a worship idol. In the idol hall there would be a bunch of mismatched chandeliers all hanging from the ceiling, which was weird and looked cool, but pictures are not allowed. Sometimes it would be a drag to get off the bus and out in to the hot sun to see yet the same thing but really I remember every time my parents dragging me to shrine after shrine when I was younger in Japan, pretty much the same thing, yet I think my parents only dragged me to like three shrines but still I was like 7 and everything is worse then but same concept I would always be one of the first off the bus to see the next one!

A Fort!

Cool Fort! We thought we were going to the beach so none of us bothered to change when we got off the bus, I am in my swim suit and towel (got some weird looks, but it is somewhat acceptable in Goa). The fort is where a bunch of Bollywood movies are filled and sooo many famous scenes are filled in it, it is pretty cool. Also very historical, cant really tell you the history though (I did take pictures of the signs so maybe I could figure it out one day).

So more on beaches, The beaches are amazing!

The funniest part about the beaches was the fact that there are cows on the beaches! You cant avoid the cows in India they just sort of hang out on the beach!

Not that bad on the crowds and sandy and overall just perfect. The water is warm and they are just so nice (making sure you stay in the water). Almost no one would swim in the sea and if they did they would be in full clothing or sometimes men would get down to shorts and some their underwear (gross, it was actually illegal for women should not see that as the beach guards said). But women do not swim, and if they get in the water they will go in clothing it is not proper for them to wear swimming suits, you will often see women wading in the water in heavy saris!, so western girls in swimming suits were the hot item to get pictures with on the beach. It was almost awful people would come up to us all the time and be like can I take you picture with you! We normally were like fine, and did not smile… But this time we were not the only white kids around because Goa attracts the white crowd, so it would happen to other people and we would laugh. I always wonder when people show these pictures to other people, they will be like “These are some white people we met on the beach in Goa!” what in the world? Really? So there are always white people in Goa.

The major problem with the beaches is beach sellers! There are EVERYWHERE!!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I have two stories that are both pretty funny, my first is about Mallory and I

We were visiting this beach that was really rocky and we had been site seeing all day (we went to a beach in the morning and then to a temple and fort and not to mention we were tired from site seeing the day before when we went to some temples some churches and then lovers point (this high point where you can see a ton of the coast of Goa) and I was lying on my towel face down sleeping. I was almost completely out, but at my feet Mallory was sitting writing out post cards and hear someone coming and looks up, bad idea! One of the beach sellers was running down and comes and sits down, ON MY FEET! I move them and go back to sleep. She starts talking to Mallory and all of a sudden like 5 minutes latter, I hear the lady asking “Is this your friend?” And Mallory is like “YES, HEATHER!” I sit up and She is like, “Your friend is White as a Chicken!” “Your name is Heater, I am going to Platt (braid) your hair!” I am like uggh and sleepy and she just called me a chicken! and she grabs my head and starts platting (braiding) my hair! I am like AHAHAH STOP and she goes this one is for free! She gives me this platt in the middle of my head it was pretty bad and she starts showing Mallory her jewelry. Then turns back to me and goes so “Heater how old are you?” I say “18” She turns to Mallory and si like “She looks 13!” I am thinking Great you have just insulted me by calling me a chicken and then she calls me 13, and she thinks I am going to buy things from her, I went back to sleep.

The next day and last day on the beach Eli one of my life heros, has a serious problem with getting attacked/accosted by the beggars/beach sellers on the beach.

So Eli, Mallory, Chloe, and I were walking on the beach for a last beach strol on out lovely Colva beach (the beach we were staying on). We ran into PeeKay, who wanted to take some pictures with us in them, like IYE 3130 (Meaning International Youth Exchange District 3130 Pune India) and also pictures with us and the cute cows that were ever present on the beach. So it began with Eli stepping foot and she was sounded! On all sides they were a battle front with little Indian ladies with everything from silver chum chums (anklets with annoying bells) to towels to peanuts to sarongs. So the first lady had this pink and green sparkly sarong and I sorta liked it and well the lady was begging Eli to buy it (that was a bit of an understatement she was throwing it at her). Name your price she was saying and Eli was like Rs 75. And she was like NO 500! And Eli is like I really dont want it! So the entire time we were talking pictures with PeeKay (which with PeeKay it was like an hour… he had to make sure every grain of sand was in place). The beggar was yelling prices at Eli! She would be like I will give you a good price! Rs. 450, 350, 300… Eli is like Rs. 75! And the lady was like NO! And kept naming prices, then this little boy with Peanuts came, and was like “NUT, NUT, NUT, NUT, WHITE LIKE NUT!” and we are like “go away we are trying to take pictures!” Not to mention a ton of Indians were taking out pictures too, which is really annoying sometimes! Really what are they going to do with my picture! So the persistent peanut boy we decided to yell at him in Hindi! “Mea peanut alergiiee keay hai” over and over again, meaning “I is allergic to peanuts,” I don’t really know how to properly conjugate my verbs yet but it normally gets the job done… So we keep yelling this at him, we may even have a movie I am not to sure? But going on, We now are being sounded it was like an attack on all four sides! They began to close in to the point where we have five, and then seven, and then little girls all tying to sell us things, we all really wanted to scream! But more we wanted to scream at Eli, because they were all selling things to her! So the sarong lady was still there are she was down to around 150… And Eli is like 75! And so PeeKay being done with the pictures disappears, and we try to start walking down the beach away from the beggars, we also have the intention of filling up 7up bottles with sand so we can ship some home. Fresh sand from Goa! (see more on this later under shipping things home). So we are walking and the Eli finally gets so fed up with them, she tells the sarong lady who is declaring she has to feed her 7 children, which one is a baby, so she has to make money! Eli finaly goes “I will give you rs.75 to get the sarong and also for you to keep all the beggars AWAY from me!” This deal at this point was the deal of the century! So we give her the rs. 75 which she has agreed to, and she for about three minutes keeps all the beggars at bay. She would send them all away if they came up to us, when we were filling up the 7up bottles with sand. So then, after that she leaves! And all the beggars SWARM US! And so, the lady walking away, Eli gets almost knocked over by the beggars which have swarmed, and Eli is yelling in the sand “YOU PROMISED, YOU PROMISED, YOU PROMISED!!!!” At the top of her lungs, and she turns around and smiles! IT WAS SO AWFUL, then she starts laughing! After that they like to put things on you so you cant get them off so you have to buy them, it got pretty bad, a little girl, once went when she was showing us her silver charms, she asked for our price, and Mallory goes “Five Rupees!” because sometimes it is fun to offend them when you want them to go away (but really it does not work). This little girl who is selling things goes to Mallory “Your Killing me! You are to kill me!” Mallory goes to her “Well you look like you are still alive to me!” And she responds “No after this, I go into the sea, and I drown, I will drowie (she tried to mix die and drown, it did not work).” So that is the tale is the beach beggars.

Other things I did in Goa:

Went Parasailing, the Rotary took us. It was pretty sweet, and well cheap.

Rode around on the Bus, fun fun… I hated that bus.

When coming back I added up the numbers, and realized I spent over 50 hours! On the bus! It was pretty bad! Also on the way back this was odd, but I asked later and found out why, we were stopped 3 times on the way out of the state of Goa, by the police officers. They would stop the bus for around ten minutes and walk on and stare at us, touch some of out stuff one guy asked to look through my purse (which I have nothing to hide and there was nothing in it). He would touch the luggage racks and things, we really wondered what he would be looking for? I asked my host parents when we got back about it, and they said they were searching for illegal alcohol. Because in Goa, there is no alcohol taxes and so some people try and smuggle a lot into other states, which is illegal. But really they would never look in the boot of the bus, where the luggage was, because it was illegal go figure, I really don’t get the efforts of India sometimes.

Camel and Moonlight Milk!

2007-10-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

Me on a camel, how cool is that!!!
(I did not actually ride the camel it was a pure photo op)

Mallory and I "drinking" the Moon Light Milk! Yummy!
(More of me pretending.... yet another Photo Op! But the pain and look on my face is just from the smell! It was really gross!)

I thought ya'll would like this, Chloe and I at McDonald's In India!

The McDonald's Menu! You can look, there is NO BEEF, (Where's the Beef, my friend? I think that was wendy's) And the thing like a Big Mac, is in the Middle is it chicken, and well my brother's friend who is quite the eater, bet me rs. 500 if i could eat it without, spending the next hour on the toilet well lets just say after that story i am not going to eat one...

Some Rangulli art! I did some of it (the part that looks bad) the picture is not that great, it was from my phone, but i got it onto the computer, and now you can see my pretty art work! More or less my brilliant photography that makes it look much cooler!!!

Full Moon Brings Good Fun and Excitement!

2007-10-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

Well today was the full moon fest! Which turned into the Rotary members dragging us off to the middle of nowhere (Bungaon) and then making us look really stupid, but having fun in our own respects!

So tonight was the largest moon night, where the moon is closest to the earth. In many Asian cultures (like Indian and Chinese) this is a big celebration. For India it is when the moon is closest it is auspicious…from what I gathered. Some of the traditions include warming milk by moonlight, which when the milk is warmed by moonlight and when masala (spices) are added then it becomes very lucky and good for you to drink. (I am just telling it like it is… well how they told me, so yeah I don’t get that either). So you are to drink hot milk that has spices in it…. Yummy! (You can check out the pictures…)

We also played a bunch of games, such as Musical Chairs, and because of a lack of a sound system it turned in to the Rotary members beating on pots and pans with a spoon and yelling at us to “RUN!” and well it did get a bit violent, when the Europeans started to dominate! In Europe, they must practice for these types of party games, because they also killed in the Three-Legged Race! And then celebrated with their dominance, by getting into a water fight…? All in all we had fun, and then the Rotary came up with a very screwed up version of Hot Aloo (Hot Potato) where it was mixed with Truth or Dare, and when you ended up with the aloo you had to do truth or dare with the Rotary members asking us dumb questions… All in all it was a very silly evening, which geared us up for the FINALE of spiced milk drinking….

In a description I would give: Spiced Milk, smells Indian with a creamy whole milk tinge… then it when you drink well rather eat, you have to chew it and then you normally end up with something crunchy… It sometimes has a nutty tinge (because they will boil large nuts in with the milk and let it simmer). It is not stainable because that would be sacrilegious, and then the Indians drink it down in the gallons. For us exchange students it is like a death sentence, it is boiling hot milk, that is full of pretty much chili powder and nuts that is super chunky…. If that is not the grossest thing you have ever heard of well then look at the pictures. It was sick! And most of us would try to drink it down and it would end up coming straight back out, hopefully through the mouth and well if you are unlucky through your nose… YUCK! (And also thanks to my convinced allergy to milk, even though most people think I am nuts, well I got out of drinking it…. )

We have also been informed a bit about of upcoming trip to Bombay and to Goa. We are leaving Pune at SIX AM!!!!!!!! On Sunday morning! Then we are driving up to Bombay (which is around a two hour drive, but it will probably turn into around three hours, it is like driving from Chicago to Milwaukee, it can be the easiest drive in the world, and it can also be the worst). In Bombay we will be seeing the India Gate, and then the Hanging Gardens, among other things like the VT (which is now a train station and one of the most famous pieces of architecture that was erected by the British) We may be going on a boat ride to the Elephanta Island and Caves (but maybe not… I would really love to see them, but knowing the Rotary well this may not happen). Then we are going to spend the night at a hotel in Bombay (it is three stars; and according to our Rotary Guy- “Super Super Deluxe” haha) The next day we will be doing more sightseeing and some shopping, then at around six that evening we will be leaving for Goa. Goa is I think a ten hour drive, it is clear across the state of Mahershtra (that is spelled wrong?) and we are staying in South Goa on top of it, so it may be even further (I really don’t know). Our mode of transportation: is at least a private bus. Our favorite from our Rotary guy who was explaining the trip goes we will be taking a “Super Nice Super Deluxe Bus.” My life hero Elli took the time to ask “does it have air conditioning?” Our Rotary Guys answer: “No, but it does have push back seats!” So apparently push back seats make up for the entire lack of other amenities! We make jokes quite often about the fact we are in the dark about what we are going to be doing on the trip, by going, “But on the bus we will be having push back seats! Push Back Seats make everything amazing!” Then in Goa we will be seeing some of the sites, and I believe we will be going to some churches and a temple, and maybe taking a back water cruse of the backwaters of Goa (which could have the potential to be cool). We also have the chance to go to the beach; our “Resort” is on Colva Beach. (Or at least within “Walking Distance”) And we have a pool apparently. Colva beach is quite famous and according to my host mom one of the most famous in Goa (but then Goa is very famous for its beaches on the Arabian Sea). It is also famous for water sports like parasailingJ. This trip has a great possibility to have a very fun time! So I will tell you how it goes when I get back!

In other India news, this week has been great fun! My friend Chloe is still visiting and has been invited to come on our trip to Bombay and Goa, which as stated will hopefully be a blast! We have been going to all the places in Pune, that she has been deprived of. Our latest adventure was Indian McDonalds! Which is pretty much always an adventure. We also in a gathering of American minds realized we missed Mexican food, specifically good Mexican food. So we took a little visit to the imports grocery store to buy Doritos, and well we did find them… But they were NOT CHEAP! For rs. 210, (which is about $7.25) you can have your very own bag! We bought Taco ones, yes I know that is absolutely mad what we paid, but well we were really desperate! We also decided to go with our chips, we would attempt to make fresh homemade SALSA! We figured it could not be that hard, and well all you really need is tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime, salt and pepper, and we through in some green onion for good measure. It turned out really good as par first test and then we stuck it in the fridge to wait for it to be cold. And we also tried to explain to my host mom what salsa is. We are like it is used as like a sauce, and then sauce to them is ketchup… So we then tell her it is like a pickle (which is this Indian stuff, and sadly no it is not pickles and has nothing to do with cucumber) and she is like so it has mangos in it? And we are like no, so then we are like it is like a salad but you don’t eat it plain, and well all in all she tried it and loved it, but then decided she wanted to make her own tortilla chips, which I guess just don’t work… (we are going to try that another day). But as Lauren tried to pull out the salsa from the fridge, well it decided to become animated and throw it self at Lauren and come crashing all over the floor and all over the kitchen, and about every direction! So we only had about one bite of our attempted taste of home and that bite was worth all the hour we argued over the recipe and the 20 minutes it took us to make it.

Then I know how much you love to hear my stories, but today I went to the local salon with my friend Chloe because spa treatments are really cheap, I paid a remarkable 75 rs. (around 1.80) to get my legs waxed, and then another 15 to get my eyebrows threaded! (Threading is where they use sewing thread to pull out the hairs on your eye brows, it can not hurt at all and then on the other hand can be uber painful! Today it was not that bad surprisingly!) But Chloe and I are gearing up to go to Bombay and Goa, early Sunday morning! (As you can tell I am SOOO EXCITED FOR THIS TRIP!!!) And then we are doing laundry!!! Fun fun! Yes, just so you know I have a real washing machine, but I do have to air dry my clothes… which it is warm out and relatively not humid so it works. Tonight Chloe and I were invited to my host grandmothers house, and she had a professional Dosa maker over, and we ate our weight in yummy dosa's and uddipalmn (that is not spelled right) and so that was fun!

Well I will keep you updated about my trip!!!

India George Goes Global!

2007-10-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

I have always had that secret yearning to be Indiana Jones but really I am no where close to being the adventurous Harrison Ford as I am to my other dream of marrying the crown Prince Of Wales (Preferably HRH Harry, he has always been the cuter one). But I believe India bring me closer to this realization (not marrying the Prince of Wales bit, sadly he is already engaged) But just the part of India in INDIAana Jones. And the other fact that I like to engage in many adventurous actions, that Disney would never approve of!

Going back to my Disney analogies, I am still convinced Disney often visits India to come up with new ways of running Disney World. This is my current theory which is sorta off topic but I am going to add it in “If the Romans Had invented Disney World then modern day Indian would be it, you even get nice looking togas!”

Going on, my true Indiana Jones moments the other day involved temples.

So I am going to call my Adventure:

India George and The Adventure of the Midnight Temple Party!

(I am thinking of Something along the lines of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom… But there really was no major doom about it, in fact I felt quite safe if you keep on reading)

So the other night my host family was just sitting down to dinner (early for ONCE) at around 2230 (for all of you who don’t follow my military time obsession (which in essence is just to confuse people when you ask them the time) that is 10:30 pm). So we were talking about this festival that is currently going on, Novartri (which I still do now know how to spell). And near my house there is this big temple that is very famous during this celebration (the temple is the half way point between my house and school so I virtually pass it every time I go to school).

So at this temple my host parents were telling me that during the fest there is like a carnival inside it? But every time I went by there were SO MANY PEOPLE, I would never get to see inside of it. Well my host dad was talking about how he had not been in around 15 years and then my host mom was going on about how nice it was back then, and then there is always my host brother, Pratik, who is like why in the world would anyone want to go to that (he likes to denounce anything religious).

Then we continued the dinner talk to my host dad visiting the police commissioner’s office to make sure I was not living in Pune illegally (which is illegal, but quite easy to do). So after that was cleared he was meeting with his friend who is like the vice police commissioner. So he was telling my host dad that after this he was going to be in charge of the security of the carnival at the temple tonight so he should go down to it.

So well all in all after that big long story of our dinner table conversations my host dad declares we are going to the temple. Which at this point in time it is around 2300 (11pm for you who do not want to do the math or don’t have it memorized). So my host mom is like well I have to get ready!

So we end up leaving around midnight to go to this temple. I know very little about the fest so they updated me on the quick ride there. I have only seen the temple from very afar, but it being midnight it was not supposed to be that crowded, but back to the Disney analogies it was as crowded at Disney on New Years Eve. And there were still a billion people there (well maybe not a billion maybe just a few lakh (Indian Counting, I have no idea still how they count but it like instead of million and thousand they say lakh and croe; don’t ask because I don’t know? But they done go straight to million and thousand they are like one hundred thousand and then like some weird numbers? They confuse me?).

So my host family (just my host parents really) meet up with my host father friend who gives us the “fast pass” to the temple, and he leads us in the out, more or less. But we go to by pass the lines that went out through the streets, literally the line even at midnight would be about a 6 hour wait.

The lines were set up for the common people and they lead through the streets and then they also lead through many other things such as the temple gates. In the lines you will see many interesting things they try to keep you occupied in line, such as in the general entrance there are like pictures and things on the walls that tell the stories of the gods, and then they have speakers that have noises and things along with rules and instructions on how to spend you time and how to perform a proper offering and things. The people who wait in lines for the hours many times will bring large offerings, along with the line splits half way up for male and female lines.

The temple is built way up on a hill and you have to go up a lot of stairs to get into the temple, which I mean a lot I mean about a km worth of stairs, (and in my case both stairs and stares, I would often get the weird alien looks from many who would be like why is this lone blonde girl running up the stairs.)

So we finally make it to the top of the “fast pass” line and it reminded me a lot of the Disney ride, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, line for the ride at Disneyland (alright I know you are now all sick of hearing me equate Disney and India, but really this is what runs through my head all the time, and my friends here are always really sick of hearing me say it too!)

So we have to take of our shoes and leave them at the front before entering. Many of the commoners don’t even wear shoes when going because of the fact they can easily get taken or there is no real place for them to put their shoes.

So we get in the real line now (just like the “fast pass” line always ends up meeting the real line) And we touch the feet of the lion who protects the goddess with our right hand and then we “pray” quickly to the goddess. Which was very wild, next to the goddess would be police officers that would usher everyone in and out, they were very nice to me, they even laughed at me when I had my moment of silence for the goddess but for the common people they would literally pull the hair or the ears or just push them and shove them around to the common people, which I found nuts!

Imagine going to like church or something and going to meet the priest/minister/spiritual guide and there was a police officers yelling at you going YOUR TIME UP! Or like MOVE NOW! I don’t know how I feel about that? But that is what they do, in part for the security concerns and things but still!

Another wild thing that I noticed after the accent of the stairs and stares was that this was all being recorded, the people praying and making offerings in turn would be taped and they were displaying this up on big screens digitally down the hill at the entrance! Until they believed it became a security concern and they would turn them off.

You hear me talking about security a lot and well this is something I am very interested in, you know me, always interested in weird things. But security is sort of a weird passion and what I am going to study in university so it is always something I take note of, especially if it could be a terrorist target. So this temple is more then a terrorist target, during the festival this temple is one of the number one security concerns in India, and the security is amazing! It is actually high tech in the Indian terms. In the common lane there are numerous security check points where they check everything from offerings (the coconuts) to sari’s. There are metal detectors and the presences of hundreds of police officers, as I said there where ones guarding the idols and there were ones guarding everything, there were food stalls and there were officers guarding where they made the food, really it was quite mad!

The rest of the fest I am sure you would love to know about! Well shopping was a big part of it! And as a precaution of going into a big cowed I left my wallet at home!!! No one told me there would be a bangle shop with over 1,000!!!! Different types of bangles to chose from! (Look at the picture and that was barely half of the shop!!!!) Other cool Indian things were present, little handicrafts and of course shoes galore! All at bargain prices! It reminded me a lot of when I was little and went to shrine sales in Japan with my family. Well my host dad decided he was going to get my name printed on rice! Which he was very amused by the process and got them to show us how they did it! It was kinda hard for me to watch because I did not know what I was looking at (I also had left my glasses at home…. But don’t worry I could see somewhat clearly to give you this detailed description of what was going on). But another problem with me being in India, is that my name does not translate very well… and well the guy sorta spelled my name wrong, which I did not notice till I had attached it to my house keys later the next day; Heathar (whoops!) (I also have not had the heart to tell my host dad either…. But it is ok! I am the only person in India who has that name anyway, and also the only person in India that can say my name for that fact…)

What else is at a fair other then good shopping and things like that… Well cotton candy and a ferris wheel of course!!!! And even in India this is included! I got to have Cotton Candy, which as translated in Hindi is called Old Lady Hair…? And ride “The Big Wheel.” Much different from the Disney experience (more of the Roman Disney experience). My host mom was going to come with me, and THEN she saw how fast it really went and she was like um no way… SO I got on it, with a very young Indian girl (she was like 5 or six, and we rode The Big Wheel for a little while, I really got my host dad’s 10 rupees out of it, because the ride was around 15 minutes long!) First of all a few differences should be stated, when they are loading The Big Wheel, two guys literally pull on it on the sides to get it to come around, and then there is a guy in the middle who goes around like a hamster in a hamster wheel to help the wheel spin in a circle, Then when they finally have the thing loaded the guy in the middle comes down and hooks The Big Wheel up to the mechanical system which is super powerful, and well I don’t know if it was the fact that I had not been on any rides in a bit, or the fact that I have not been on or in anything that goes faster then like 30 kmph, but I swear this things was like going 100 kmph!!!!! It would whip you around in a circle; enough to make the little Indian girl with me scream her head off!!! It was nuts! But then when it is all over they start the pulling by hand method again and the guy climbs into the middle to be able to turn it around in a circle!

Well back to my security fetish. On the way out leaving my host dad stopped to talk to his friend who was running the nightly security and he gave my host dad in super fast Hindi the low down on what all was happening at the fair/temple/festival. As my host mother and I tuned out the Hindi, I began to really observe the lines and the people, and find many things very interesting. Especially the hordes of boys and men coming in with strings of coconut offerings and piles of coconuts. They shot little incantations and cheers for the goddess of the festival, and it is all very interesting to watch. It is hard to describe their enthusiasm for the goddess! They have such a passion it is indescribable! My best way to describe it would be to say something along the line of they are like cheering for their favorite sports team that has finally made it to the World Series after all of their life of wait for it to happen.

I also got a good look at the goddess, which I had seen briefly when I was in the temple, but I was now watching other make offerings on the big screens and pray to her. She is like a normal goddess, but she seams to flaunt her women qualities, and most notably has very large bosoms, big lips, along with long flowing hair, and a thin waist line, she is in a sitting posse which I guess would bring out those features, but at the same time, she is like a Barbie. I look at it and it looks just so political incorrect, because she features no features of the traditional Indian women, even if she does fight off evil demons, she displays none of the characteristics of the modern women. I guess I am just too much of a feminist, to notice these things and think those ideas. But also I find it very intrusting how this festival is women centered but the goddess is obviously been male dominated by flaunting the sensual women’s features.

Another thing about the festival of Navratri in general. Many times floats and street carts that carry the goddess will be carried and worshiped in all different areas of town, similar to Ganesh festival, but even though the festival is for women, there is very little women’s participation. Many of the people coming to the temple are men and boys coming to make the offerings and when there is dancing for the goddess, for one of the festivals celebrating WOMEN, the dancing is almost always men ONLY. Which I find sad, the women are being celebrated; yet they are not allowed to celebrate? Sometimes you will see a women taking part in the festivities, but many Indians will tell you, “oh she is a whore.” Which I find wrong, and terrible all in one! I believe women should be able to celebrate any way they want! But I may be completely wrong, this is just my personal observations, about the supresment of women in India.

Upon leaving the festival I witnessed something that frequently happens, but because of the high security at the temple it did not go unnoticed. I saw a guy pitch a women’s butt, which often happens, and we are told as exchange students of that happens to you ignore it and walk quickly away from the scene. But the guy who did it, did it right next to a policewomen. Which may be the worst decision he has ever made. The policewoman walked straight up to him, and kicks him in an area that would make him fall right to the ground, and then she grabs him by the ear and begins to drag him to the police station that was around 3 meters away. The man regains some balance and tries to get up and when he does, he was inside an archway and the policewomen pulls him up by his ear and starts slapping him (not like girly slapping, no I am talking hard core slapping, as in looks like Bollywood movie BUT real! This guy was in pain…) Until she kicks him again to drag him by the ear the final meter, and once he gets him inside the police tent, she begins to beat him up… My host father had at this point, noticed that this was going on, and takes me inside the police tent to watch. He wanted me to know what would happen if I ever reported harassment to the police. The policewoman was joined by a fellow police officer and they continue to beat the living out of this guy. They start with slapping and then move on to punching and then pretty much a full on beating. I was just as appalled as you should be right now reading thease words, that were exactly what went on. My host dad and I walked out, and he was laughing, and well I was not sure what to do, laugh at the guy who was getting the pulp beat out of him or to be appalled to shocking status! I chose a mixture of both. As I left the tent, I could already notice the onset of two very nice black eyes on the guy who was getting beat up, they already looked even better then Geoffrey’s from last years wrestling season. When walking back to the car you could still hear the guy being batted around the tent, and the sounds of flesh on flesh beating. My host dad turned to me and then stated I should never be afraid in India, because if you are even in a situation, tell the police and well it will be worse then that, he told me, much worse then what is happening. Lest can I say, I have no fear in India, at least of the strange men….

After that shock….. What have I been up to!!!

Many things, one of my good friends from USA is visiting! All the way from USA, well not really she is living in Nagpur this year, a city about 24 hours away from Pune. She came originally for just a few days, and met with all my IYE friends and also with our IYE trip planner, PeeKay, and he invited her on our up coming trip! We are going to Bombay and Goa, leaving on Saturday, and for a week we are going to be exploring the areas. Goa is whole different state, and it will be the second state I get to visit in India! I am so excited for the trip, and I think it will be a really great adventure and a great experience to really see India!

With Chloe being in town, I have been taking her to the little Pune things, that we have to offer, like good shopping and American like treats (like KFC). I have been working on my Christmas shopping a bit early, because by the time I FINALLY! get my package I want to send home in the mail it will arrive by Christmas! So that is always a fun thing Christmas shopping before Halloween! I know I am now going to make some people feel really rushed, that someone has already started Christmas shopping before they have even had a chance to think about the fact Halloween is like in a week, and they don’t even know when their town is letting people go around door to door begging for root cannels!

I have also been pretty diligently taking Hindi lessons! I am very excited to say, I know CHOTA Hindi! Tum Hindi bolta ho? I really love my Hindi lessons, and I am beginning to understand people and throw Hindi into every day life, Bahot Acha! Chalo! Well maybe I am not that great at it, and I will be no where near fluent when I return, but the thrill of learning a new language and then being able to understand what the people who are trying to speak in another language around you are saying, is a good thrill!

As any good high school senior I am also trying to fill out college applications, which I guess is somewhat easier abroad, because my mother is not freaking out over my shoulder, and then I don’t have friends who are also doing the same to compare to. Well I take that back, I do have two friends who are applying next year to American colleges, but I am the one who is ahead of them! And I am the one who is saying I am almost done, and not the one who is freaking out because all of my friends would be done… My personal deadline for all of my applications in November 11, it has always seamed like a good day to me, and Veterans Day too.

2007-10-22T07:14:00.000-07:00

Chloe, Stephanie, and I all dressed up in Indian Wear before another Dandiya!

The Bangle Shop at a local Temple for a festival

Lauren and Chloe pretending to be models at the local Pyramids (A Store Like Sears)

Sid, attempting to eat a bug, and Chloe and I laughing! Or Just having fun with friends in India!

Dandiya Pictures

2007-10-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

Me in a Kagria, it is what you wear to the traditional Garbas and Dandiyias

Elenor and I attempting to Dance at the Dandiyia, and looking really goofy doing so

Me in My Kagria with my Dandiya's

Marilia (Brazil) and I, pretending to be Ninjas!!!

The Exchange Students at Mocha or normal Hangout! From Left: Chelsea (Canada), Mallory (USA), Lauren (USA), Stephanie(USA), Eleanor (USA)

Don't Give Exchange Students Sticks They WILL Whack People!

2007-10-15T04:17:00.000-07:00

Well out went Ganesh Fest. and in comes a new Fest, as always in the very happening and vibrant India! Right now is Noveteri (I have no idea how to spell it so, I am going to spell it various ways and probably get it all wrong, who knows?) In this holiday, there are nine nights of celebrating a goddess (don't ask me which one, but a goddess) All I know is that during this it is a sort of celebration of women and womanhood (hence you are praying to a goddess and not a god) and at the same time men are suposed to worship the women, and bow down to the ground they walk on (i only wish my brothers would embrace this holiday....) Also in this holiday, you are to Dance a lot, because apparently this is one thing women really like to do. There are a few types of dancing the first which at the beginning of the week there is Dandiya and towards the end of the week there is Garba. Two ways to throughly make a fool of myself and pretty much the entire white race.

Garba: which i have yet to experience is a dance where you dance in what ever way you would like, but to only three or four specific dance "moves" and you have several partners and you play patty cake games, in a nutshell! It is a mix between line dancing and hand jiving...

Dandiya: A dance where once again you can do whatever you want but only a few things are expected, but all you have to do is dance to the beat and beat your sticks together to the beat, and to get really snazzy, you can whack your sticks with someone elses to make even more noise and then dance around in circles... My description was one i really like, "It is like Whack-a-Mole, and Ninja fighting all in one!"

My first Dandiya: The Rotary took us to their Dandiya celebration and introduced us. Many Dandiyas are like competitions, and this one was not an exception to the rule. First there was a live band, which switched up between Classical Hindi Dandiya music and well American Rap... along with Hindi Musicals and Big Band Swing in between. It was a very diverse mix?! To say the least... But there was a practice session in which the really good people taught us white kids how to dance the Dandiya (and everyone else just laughed at us.... we are used to it). Then they opened up the floor for a real practice session (45 minutes). After this non-stop dancing, they opened up the competition rounds. Which reminded me of those old 40s-60s Dance shows, like American Bandstand, because there were roaming judges and apperentally if you began to dance poorly they would kick you off the floor (unless you where white, then they would just point and laugh). So us exchangers were pretty much really bad at it, and spent more time whacking each other with the dandiyas then actually hitting our partners sticks, and then bursting out laughing! The Indians took great pleasue in helping us try to dance, but normally it was just a big failure! That was that night, it was really a blast and all in all in the end i had a very awkward evening of trying to put two feet together and dance....

A note on the Dandiya sticks: they are normally decorated unless you pick them up at the event in that case they are going to be bamboo sticks that hurt when you get hit with them and make lots of noise when you hit them together.... But they get really nifty with them, such as i saw people who had sticks that glowed in the dark, and made great noises when you banged them together or had pretty lights that when you banged them together they made noises and lite up all at the same time!!! But my personal favorite is the fact that currently at McDonald's in India, when you buy a meal, you get a free set of decorated Dandiyas (they will probably break if you give them to any IYE kids... but still, no my little pony plastic figurine you get pretty decorated Dandiya sticks!!! How cool is that! haha)

As for me, i have a GREAT few weeks coming up!!! My friend Chloe from Racine who is living in Nagpur this year is coming to visit me in Pune, and we plan to have great fun! We are hoping to do a little site seeing in between serious shopping and meat consuming!!!! After Chloe leaves the Rotary is taking us on a trip to go to Goa and Bombay! Which is bound to be loads of fun!!! After my return is Divali and then during Divali break (which begins Nov. 3-Dec.3) I am going to go visit Chloe in Nagpur!!!! I can't wait for my adventures to begin, i will keep you all on the home front Posted!

Let's Ganesh it Up!

2007-10-02T08:11:00.001-07:00

Well lately in India it has been a pretty wild ride, for the past ten days it has been Ganesh Festival. Ganesh Fest started on the 15 of Sept. and well ended with a big big bang on the 25! Ganesh fest is a big thing in Maharashtra and an even bigger thing in Pune. Pune is famous for its celebrations of Ganpati (Lord Ganesh), and it was evidenced all over the city. In the beginning little Ganesh stands would pop up all over the city, with a ton of really pretty hand painted idols, and then the idol stands were transformed into gigantic idol party spots (for as much sense as that makes).

The Family Traditions

Ganesh is big with every family in Pune. Every family (well family as a whole not like family in a house; extended family) will have a Ganesh in the relatives house, and for my family it was at my host mothers oldest mama’s house (mothers eldest brother on the mothers side). Our family Ganpati was decorated elaborately with CDs and colorful lights and things that made noise and bananas and rangouli art! (Rangouli is speeded sand art, it is made in really elaborate designs, flowers and religious symbols. It is totally Indian and I don’t think I spelled it right). As for rangouli they let me have my hand at it, as with most art forms I was miserable! You have to take this pile of colored sand in your hand and squeeze with your thumb and forefinger to control the sand and draw with it, and lets just say even with the stencil I ruined it L . The celebrations are always long, and you have to eat loads of different foods and take prasaid. (Prasaid is prayer food, when you like talk to a god or a lord you must take food, and it is normally in my mind as religiously wrong as this sounds, but it is all really gross, Such as milk that has been sitting out for 24 hours and when you eat it, you have to chew it and it taste like lemon, yummy J ) So with this you sing a few songs and clap out of rhythm, and well you eat. Lord Ganesh’s favorite food was this pyramid shaped sweet. It is made from rice flower and water, stuffed with a mix of coconut and jaguri ( I don’t know what this is, it turns the coconut brown, and is a I would call an acquired taste). Then you fold it up systematically and you steam the ball to cook it. When it is cooked you drench the ball in sweetened coconut milk. Well all I can say is it is an acquired taste… So Ganesh in the family home depends on your status, as it was explained to me. Ganesh in a Brahman family can stay for either one and a half days or five days, it would not stay for the full ten days of the festival. In my family it stayed for five days. Then Ganesh left, sad. But Ganesh when it leaves your family you have to submerse it in water. What we all found funny was that leading up to Ganesh Fest, we would see signs and advertisements all over the city, most notably at the movie theater during intermission in movies. That all Ganesh’s must be made out of Natural Clay and not plaster of paris, because plaster of paris ruins the water ways when you are to put Ganesh in the water (normally in Pune, into the river).

Ganesh in the city

All over the city, Ganesh was scene for ten days. Ganesh was everywhere! You could drive for about five kilometers and you could see Ganesh in about 23 forms (which was an average). My friends and I even made a game out of it, we would play the Ganesh Game, which was a mix of the slug bug game and my family (in the USA)’s yellow car game. For every Ganesh you saw you would yell Ganesh and get points, and the points you would receive would depend on how elaborate the Ganesh was and how big it was, along with how many people were gathered around it. There was no real standard to the game and who knows who won, but it was a good way to judge the wild and crazy Ganesh’s all over the city. The city really goes all out for Ganesh Fest, everything gets decorated, the city is draped in cloth and lights are strung, it is somewhat similar to Christmas in the decorating since and also comparing Ganesh idols to nativity scenes, but really it can be better compared to Disney world. I called my parents back home and I tried to describe the scenes to my dad. This is what I got. Pune during Ganesh fest with my experience is like a trip to Disney World. First of all most of my transportation is in a rickshaw, which is a ride in itself. Then on top of it, especially at night, it turns into a wild ride. There will be lines and crowds of people, like lines, and also at the same time around every corner a new surprise and something to see. Ganesh is not the only thing you would see in the city, scenes from the holy books would be built in the masses, made with animatronics and moving people, and flashing lights and music. Like a ride at Disney world would be, but in this case you don’t have as much insurance sounding, you have only paid 1/90^th the cost for this ride, and well there is a good possibility you will be grabbed or you will get hit by a bus. My favorite in the city was the giant gorilla that sang hindi songs off of laxmi road, and you would only know of this if you knew where you were going, or in our case were extremely lost on the way home one night. In the beginning it started off very small, you would see a few street parties and a bit of colored lights, and you would hear drumming lightly in the windows all night long, but as the ten days went on, the drumming got louder the parties and noises got crazier and the week always got funner!

The beginning of the Fest- Finding the Last of the Purple Sparkly Ganesh’s

With the exchange students we find it super fun to take part in local customs and embrace the culture. Also there is really nothing else to do so embracing the local culture is something we do all the time. And for the first day of the fest, we got a very late start, but we decided we wanted to buy (really Chelsea, my fellow exchanger from Canada) a Purple and Sparkly Ganesh. She was very specific in this demand, and all week we had our eye out for one, and when we never found one it was decided that we just need a Ganesh, so we spent all day looking high and low for one. Little did we know, until that evening we read in the paper it was inauspicious to buy a Ganesh when the fest had already begun, so we looked, and finally in front of her house we found a very cute one that was pink and with a trunk that had flowers painted on in, and it was somewhat cute so we bought it! That was our adventure, and it was around 200 rupees, which we were probably overcharged being foreigners but well I guess they don’t really have a return policy on street bought idols.

More traditions

Well they are always coming up with new things to tell me, every day I will hear a new part of the story about Ganesh, such as his chosen mode of transportation is a rat. Yes, an elephant rides a rat, in Hindu stories all the gods met and chose there modes of transportation and Ganesh got stuck with a rat, which is both a good and sad thing. Another thing that happens is Ganesh is visited by the sisters, two sisters who are sister in laws come to the house. There is no real connection between Ganesh and the sisters, many think that Ganesh had like mortal lovers who were married sisters and they visit him but that is not true. So there are these sisters that have no real connection that you are to invite into your home and offer them offerings of sweets and other things you would offer to your sisters. The real story I have been told is that because when the daughter leaves the home of her father, she very rarely returns to her father’s home, so the sisters symbolize them coming back. And as par tradition the daughter is supposed to come back to her father’s house when the sisters are invited over. I know what some of you may be thinking, the sisters are real like you let two strange girls into your home, no that is not so. The sisters are like big dolls that get dressed up in Indian traditional clothing, and my favorite is they have giant and elaborate nose rings they wear! I got the chance to go visit my host father’s childhood friend who invited us for pooja to greet the sisters. Generally, in a pooja for a god you make a large fanfare but for the sisters it is more personal, and you don’t have to make a big fuss because it is like they are back home, which should not be a big event. The set up at the home of my host fathers childhood friend was a really neat a elaborately made, it was similar to what the Japanese Dolls (Henamatsuri (that is so spell wrong) dolls are presented) A large step offerings on many levels and then lavish gifts and at the top the dolls.

(Please Note: I am no expert in Hindu anything, I really don’t know the traditions that well and they are bring passed to me by word of mouth, I do not claim to have everything factual, and I know some things are not 100% fact, please don’t positively take my word, these are only my experiences, and it may not be 100% politically correct, so if any offences are taken, I apologize)

Pune Fest and Many Wild Rotary Rock and Roll Misadventures!

In Pune along with Ganesh fest, it is also Pune Fest, it states a few days after Ganesh Fest begins and it houses the official Pune Ganpati. Well the Rotary, being all amazing and all, got up special passes to see the Pune Festival festivities. But before that the Rotary told us on the first day of Ganesh fest that we would be meeting to do something, and so we meet them and as always they are an hour late, and so we take off expecting to do something Ganesh-y. Well no! They take us out into the middle of no where! And they tell us to climb this HUGE HILL! (at 8 in the morning, in the super hot sun!) We were like, why! And they were not talking!!! So we climb the hill, and we get half way up the barren hill and they are like, we are going to plant trees? We are like what where is Ganesh, and they are like, well he comes latter, so going on. We get to the top of this high hill and then they take us down this little path going, hey go down there, and it is really steep, then to make a joke they are like “roll down the hill guys!” I remember one of the IYE students going, “No Way PeeKay, though if it was not made of giant rocks I would roll,” sadly that comment was the highlight of the day. So we end up “planting trees” really the media took pictures of us holding garden hoes and watering cans “planting trees.” The trees were already in holes pre-dug out and as soon as the garden hoe touched the dirt some Indian guy came over, who belonged to what we believe was a landscaping company to fill in the hole and plant the trees. Really it was quite amusing and the Rotary just wanted us to smile for a camera and pretend to take part in hard labour. Back to Pune Fest, as a treat after “planting” some trees, the rotary attained passes for us to go to the Pune Fest. Which no one would tell us what it was and we only learned about this all day event well the day before, and they are once again meet us at so and so place a million miles away from where you are really going, and you are going to wait around for an hour anyways, but the only thing you have to do is WEAR YOUR ROTARY BLAZER, because 3000 people are going to be there? That is all they ever tell us, such as if we ask, where are we going? They will go somewhere in India, and if you ask again they will be like no, you will ask too many question if I tell you. India really teaches you how to take surprises and stop asking so many questions. (I can only imagine Geoffrey, my little brother back in the USA, here in India, he would NEVER last, he would die or else he would give all the Rotary people heart attacks because of all the questions he would ask! Note to Geoffrey: if you are going to come to India, you better start practicing not asking so many questions, you might kill someone) So we all meet up get on a crappy bus and they trek us over to Nehu Stadium, which is the largest cricket stadium in town, and also has an indoor amphitheater connected to it. So we pass up the regular gates to enter the Pune fest, and then we pass up the VIP gate to enter the Pune fest and then we come to the last gate to enter the Pune Fest. It is not really disclosed and you have to know where you are going, it is not really labeled and down a dark ally way (that is smelly and has a trash can full of rotting garbage in it, and probably men peeing and things that no one really likes about India but we deal with them). So it is like the press, and festival gate it says. So we in out large group following some guy who is like our press guy, that is what the Rotary guy told us and we also asked if it was legal because he looked about 15, so we go through these big gates and as always in India the gate is being guarded by some guys with big guns and a large sticks. Well they don’t even look twice at us and let us in, but I waiting for the stragglers at the end of the group, namely my IYE friends who are always lost, I noticed some Indian guy try to jump into our group, and well the guys who did not even notice us enter immediately noticed the Indian guy. Well I never thought of India as a violet country, look at Gandhi and his non violence, but they began to beat this guy down!!! I could not believe it, and I am not joking, it was pretty wild. They probably did not hurt him and he was entering a restricted area but it really shows what a preference they have to white people (see latter on in this section and in ballet section for more about this). Well we walk in and we are really not sure what is going on and then all of a sudden we are being surrounded by a bunch of traditionally dressed Indian women! They are cueing us up and first putting a wreath of daffodils around our neck, and then there are about five blessing us, from bending to touch our feet, to putting red stuff on our forehead, to throwing rice at us and then putting more flowers in our hair, then taking a candle and swirling it around in our faces so the smoke goes in your face and chanting to us (it is a blessing and you may be thinking what that sounds awful, but no it is really cool, have you ever had someone like pray directly at you it is kind of uplifting). They then put official Pune Festival Scarf around our necks in addition to the flowers (it is really cool!!!! I heart my Pune Fest Scarf!!!) Then they sent us to our seat, which were really close… They Point out we are right next to a sign, and around the third row, which was amazing seats!!! The Sign read V.V.I.P, Yes I am a V.V.I.P, how cool is that, not just a V.I.P, a V.V.I.P, hehe, how many people can say that!!! We sat up with a few other foreign guest, and some ambassadors, and some famous people, how cool is that, we are just normal exchange students, but really they loved us! It was beyond AMAZINGLY COOL!!!! We were at the opening of the Pune Fest, and at the opening, it is somewhat similar, or at least I compared it to, the Olympics opening ceremony, minus all the parades of countries just one country, India! It stated out with a dramatic representation of the birth of Lord Ganesh, and this really famous dance troupe put it on. The dance was about 15 minutes long, and they started out saying, in their shortest presentation ever this Indian Dance troupe will dramatically birth Lord Ganesh, really quite funny, I am laughing. So then they put on Marati play, the favorite play of Marti play goers, in the play there were over 113 people, complete with horses and a parade and drummers, and everything, it was crazy!!! Then they presented the official Pune Ganesh! It was not huge and it was pretty normal sized, but quite amazingly they had like pyrotechnics going off and load noises and smoke to show off the Ganesh. They invited all the famous people, who had been invited to come and have a pooja with the Official Pune Ganesh. The famous people included, some Bollywood actress, and a Hindi soap opera star, and the ambassador of Germany. Originally the President of India (the new woman president of India) was supposed to present Ganesh, but at the last minute she cancelled (sad I know, and if she knew I was going to be there I bet she would have changed her mind, but I did not find out till the day before!!! Just kidding). For the grand finale they had another very famous dance troupe portray and act out/dance and sing to, 50 years through Marati Cinema, complete with some of the original actors I believe. It was amazingly done!!! And possibly one of the best dance performance I had ever been to, just the energy of the music swept the room and made everyone want to get up and dance (some did, namely the German students, who are a little nuts). In the end it was just an amazing celebration, and though we arrived around three and did not leave till well after 11 pm, it really was an amazing experience for all the IYE students (with the exception of a lone sulky French girl, who wanted to ruin it for everyone). When we finally got through with the whole ceremony, the rotary once again made us wait around, and they are like well if you want to go meet the other people go ahead, they were specifically referring to the famous people, and we did just that, they got all excited we were living in Pune, and they were very excited we were studying in Pune. Then when they left, people came to meet us, like the media and other important people, it really makes you feel like a celebrity sometimes, people were asking to take pictures with us, and people were asking for our names and autographs, and what is weird is we are just really average kids who just happen to be from the other side of the world, that is it. We are in no ways special, I mean we are special in our own like Mr. Rodgers way, but really we are just kids who live and study in Pune India. If finally go so nuts, that the security team (really the rotary guys and some guy with a stick) was like beating them off to stop them from taking our pictures. After waiting around and when we finally got home! We got passes to be in the V.V.I.P. Section for the rest of the Pune Fest, along with a VIP parking pass!

The rest of Pune Fest, and the never beginning ballet

I ended up going to Pune fest two more times, once for a ballet which was called The Cloud Messenger, and it was preformed by one of the most famous Indian Ballerinas of all times. She was really good, but she was not the lead. The lead was this guy who really mad the play for me, he was really scary looking with so much eye make-up and our seats were so close we could see him in detail; he also did this thing with his eye brows that made you want to whack him on the head! It was really creepy! As for getting to the Pune Fest that night that was the bigger adventure! It was a Friday night and we had decided to go to the ballet and the Rotary had told us we needed to have an adult come with us, except they did not give us an extra pass, they claimed they did but it was really for the night before, crazy Rotary people, but we all adore them! So we called the Rotary Guy, and he was so excited to be invited out with the “famous” exchange students, he also likes to make fun of us, and well we all get a kick out of at, at least the kids from the American continent, I don’t know about the Europeans? So we were to meet him there at a quarter to 8 the ballet was to begin at 8:30, as it stated on the time table. So we don’t leave my house until around 7:15 and Chelsea realized she forgot her pass to we have to go to her house and pick it up, so at around 7:30 we finally get all our passes and we are still about a 45 minute ride across town! And it was a Friday night and traffic was sooo bad! But we found this rickshaw that the driver was willing to take us for 100 rs. And we had to get there so we agreed! We originally thought he was overcharging us but it turned out to be a deal! It would have been well over 125 rs. for the ride because of traffic in the end. But the driver was mad nuts, and he liked to practice his English on us, which is something that is very rare in a rickshaw diver, we talked about cell phone providers and he then turned into our own personal tour guide of Pune, teaching us about the road names and some sites along with Lord Ganesh. Because it being one of the big nights in Ganesh Fest, we saw a ton of them, this is the night I would equate with a Disney world ride, it was crazy, not to mention the driver was right out of a Disney Movie, he would take off his shoes and lung his legs into the road to get cars to stop and he would dart in font of them, he would also we thought he was at least, he would take Ganpati’s name is vain and then when we would pass the next Ganpati he would apologize to him, quite possibly the best rickshaw ride ever!!! Then when we finally made it to Pune Fest grounds it was around 8:15 and the Rotary Guy just got there, which was fine and he thought he was early, but no we were just late, he was excited that he thought he was early so we let him shine in the glory. So we walk in and we take seats on the side, (the Rotary guy stopped to talk to someone, as he always does because he talks to everyone!) they did not even ask for our passes, and all of a sudden we are like sounded by the greeters they are like don’t sit there please move, so they moved us to the center in the third row, which was awesome! Then when the Rotary guy finally met us inside he is like “wow, it was hard to get in, they checked my pass around five times!” I was like ok PeeKay, but really the treatment you get is indescribable! So at this time it was right when the ballet was to begin! We were so excited, we were taking bets (in oreos, which we had bought before because we knew we would be starved throughout the performance, yea we are teenage girls and we love to eat our oreos!) on what sort of shoes the ballet performers would wear. PeeKay also decided to tell us the main story of the Cloud Messenger, because it is the most famous and well like Marti ballet. The cloud messenger is about a guy who sends messages through the clouds, except it took him around 25 minutes for him to finally tell us that. The ballet which was to begin at 8:30 did not even think about beginning till 9:30 and then who knows what happened, they opened and closed the curtains and then it finally began at 9:45, go figure nothing in India is on time. So really, the story is about a man who loves his wife so much he angers the gods or the ruler of the area I am not to sure, and then he gets banished for either ten years or ten months another thing that was not too clear. So because of a lack of pidgins in the mountains (where the husband was banished to) he asks the clouds to send a message to his beloved wife, he sends the message in a dance and with his uber creepy eye brows. After the ballet, PeeKay took us home, and as always they are concerned with the fact they think we never eat he took us out to his favorite college hang out (please note, PeeKay is anciently old, and this place really was pretty hip for being open for over maybe 40 odd years, and being cool 40 odd years ago). We finally got home around 12:30, and I told my host parents I was going to be home around 11 at the latest, and well once again India is never on time.

The Great Hindi Laugh Fest and WORLD CUP (TWENTY20) CHAMPS!

I found myself at Pune Fest once more before it finally wrapped up, my host parents convinced me in a very odd decision of mine to go to see a bunch of comics, at the Great Hindi Laugh Fest. Well bad decision I know maybe ONE word in Hindi, I am trying to learn Marti (which I know about 15 words in!, also Gujarati, which I realized the other day I actually understand a good amount of, I just have no idea how to speak any of it). Also this was the night of the cricket world cup finals, in the finals was:

INDIA!!!!!!! VS. PAKISTAN!!!!!! What a match up, if you ask me!!!!!! It was crazy, and India WON! In quite the nail biter, I know pretty much nothing about cricket, but the country of India LOVES IT!!! And the city was going nut, well the whole country was going nuts! People started running through the streets and shooting off fire crackers as soon as the announcements were made that India had won! My neighbors, and my host parents, and well everyone I know was screaming and jumping up and down, it was crazy! So one of the only reasons I agreed to go to the Hindi Laugh Fest was because I wanted to see all the crazy people celebrating in the streets because the celebrations are always super fun to watch, and really it was quite a treat, people were running and shouting for India everywhere, signing songs and waving flags, So people ever had taken the orange flags which were all over the city for Ganesh Fest, and waved them, people were out on motor bikes screaming India rocks and things like that, it was a great adventure, but then came the Hindi Laugh Fest… I have never been more confessed in my life! It really sucks when everyone around you is laughing at some of the best comics in the nation, some are even crying because of how funny they were! And then you are sitting there, board out of your mind and your head is killing you because you are trying with ever brain cell you have to try to connect the few words you do and the few English words they throw in to understand, something, anything! All in all, it was not funny, it hurt my head… And not to mention I was the only white person in the place, and have you ever had the feeling that everyone is watching you, well I had that ALL NIGHT LONG, four hours worth of lets watch the girl in the audience that has no idea what is going on, at one point, I was pretty convinced one of the comics was picking on me!!! I was so confused, and my host family was like oh it is nothing dear, and I am like never again, not until I learn some more Hindi!!!

My Hero: Elli Naud

Well I have to tell you, I have a new life hero… One of the exchange students has taken over my spot on the crazy crazy things that happen to me, she really takes the cake, she has amazing misfortune, which we don’t call misfortune anymore, it is hysterical luck! Elli, has had the worst things happen to her, like on my trip to Ukraine (if you know the stories you know) Well she may top it and we still about 10 more months here! First Elli and some of the other exchange students were in a Rickshaw in camp (the centre of town) and all off a sudden they hear screeching breaks and their rickshaws darts forward, THEY WERE HIT!!! They were expecting some car to come by, but no, and then it hits them again, it turns out they were hit by a bus! And the rickshaw driver just laughed! Well that is only the beginning, Elli like any exchange student to India decided to get her nose pierced, and so she went out to buy a piece of gold, and so then they take the gold outside and all of a sudden her sister leads her down this dark ally and she finds what we believe to this day, a homeless bum, jabs the gold through her nose and volia it is pierced, by a homeless man! Then Elli was trying to pay a rickshaw in a shady area of town (near her house) and the rickshaw dude (or walla) was trying to tell her he did not have change for rs. 100, and so she did not understand and was trying to pay him with rs. 100 bill, and so she was holding it out to him, and up walks this women in a sari, but she describes this women as well she was really hairy, and then she thinks o wait that is not a women that is a man, wait it is a transvestite! So when she realizes this she was too late and the transvestite had run off with her rs. 100!!!!! Then to top it off, we were all at mocha after an exchange student meeting, and we were just walking up the two stairs it takes to get to the non-smoking ac room, and she all of a sudden trips, and so we think nothing of it we are all klutzy. But as we sit down she goes “OMG, MY FOOT IS GUSHING BLOOD!” there was blood everywhere! So Nurse Lauren (really just another exchange student who is calm around blood) tried to fix her up and we did all the little first aid-y things but it was still bleeding everywhere, and well Elli was laughing at her hysterical misfortune, at one point she turns to Lauren and ask her “could you go over to the stairs for me, Lauren, I think I still see a piece of my toe over there, and I am really serious…” So Elli finished off hanging out with us at Mocha and that night she ended up at the hospital because of her foot! So they told her she need a Tetanus shot, so she holds out her arm and is like ok just give it to me, except they shook their heads and they motion for the fact that it was not going to be given in her arm… I will end it at that, and the fact that Elli is my hero, and supplies us with endless stories and laugher at her hysterical luck in life.

Exams: a Quick and Painless Situation (not…)

Well it is exam time, I am at the quarter mark in school, and well exams are as school is, quite the adventure. It also makes me want to kill everyone that I come in contact with after I get so frustrated with at the school (don’t worry this is not a threat, I really would never do that, I would probably break down in hysterics and then pay someone off if it ever got that bad). So on the first day of exams we realized the school, which hates us half the time, never gave us our roll numbers, and we had to take the exam in 45 minutes, plenty of time to go to the office and look them up, right? Wrong! We hike it to the fifth floor and well they are like, we can’t help you, so we hike it to the third floor (which is really the first floor, but the first floor begins on the third floor, explain that one?) and they in the office are having tea, so they are refusing to help us. After some explaining and protesting, and after they had their tea (not to mention it was not tea time, lunch is at one and tea is normally around 4 or 5, and it was 2:30?) We finally obtained out roll numbers! And so we made it to our first exam, which was economics, well the economics class is really hard, partially because the teacher is well I would use a word that starts with a b but that would not be very good student or Rotary exchange student of me so I will just say she is a tough teacher… So we expected the exam to be as hard as the teacher, but we could not be more wrong! I will admit I don’t even own the Economics book, and I still don’t know how I did, but it may have been one of the easiest exams I have ever taken! (I have read some of the econ. book, I borrowed Lauren’s book to read hers about 4 hours before the exam). The questions were along the lines of, how do you suggest we control population in India, easy!!!! It is nice when you understand Indian Economics, it is a very different outlook then what I have learned in my other economics classes, and I find it fascinating! It is a different outlook, in the sense India is still a developing nation, and you have the fact their population is just exploding, and they are just becoming modernized, vs. the fact I have lived in a developed nation for the greater parts of my life, it is absolutely fascinating! The first exam was on a Saturday and I did not end up taking another exam till the next Friday, they don’t really produce the exam schedule and I would have to call people to find out if we even had an exam, and normally I would not know what exam it would be. So I ended up taking French (and very clearly learned I have no learned anything in French, but only needed three questions correct to pass the exam, my fingers are crossed!!!), and Environmental Sciences (a class I was not even aware I was taking, and apparently it never meets, and the one time it did meet because they just found a teacher for it was on a Saturday at six, no wonder I did not even know about it). The Environmental Sciences exam was by far the greatest form of amusement I have ever experienced! The questions on the exam, were so, well the only word I can come up with is; wrong?! My favorite was:

What is the Driving force of the Planet?

WATER
FIRE
GOD

I don’t think I laughed so hard, well silently or else I could have been whacked by the test proctor and her meter stick… But really, I had to answer God, it was the only one that really made any truthful sense, but there is obviously no separation of church and state in India, and really, this is science? Also who does not want to say they answered god on an science exam test question, haha, I still find this funny! Other questions on the exam were “explain how Indian festivals have some environmental significance”, I am like what! I am just an exchange student I know like three festivals, I know Ganesh Fest, Divali, and Holi? So I named them all and told them to take pity on me because I am not from this country, and I am trying really hard to learn as much as I can. I also wrote about how in Ganesh fest there is a significant environmental impact, which was so not the question, but hopefully it works? I also have taken Political Science, and tomorrow I will be taking Psychology. As for passing them all, I really hope I do!!! I really don’t know what I will do if I don’t?

The Final hours of Ganesh

Well Ganesh fest ended after ten days, and it ends with a big bang! A big enough bang for my family to leave the city and spend the day outside the city. There is a huge parade of all the Ganesh Idols that are located all over the city, and there is a ton of dancing in the streets, Pune goes all out and almost everyone from all over goes out for it, all 8 million, minus my family and the Rotary people, who claimed it was too dangerous for us to go out. So we stayed home and watched the amazing looking party on the TV. It is sort of like watching the ball drop in Times Square in New York City. You know it happens and you watch it every year and wish you were there, but because of the crowds and suspected danger, you would never in a million years go…It is like that. The next morning (really mid afternoon) we went out to camp to go shopping (it was still a holiday for school and exam purposes). So there were still floats and people celebrating over 12 hours latter! There were still Ganesh Idol floats going down the city roads, and still music blaring and still people dancing in the broad day light, so we did get to say we saw some of it, just not in the masses, we saw that on TV.

Indian Oddities

Many things in India are strange, such as they use the word Felicitate, as in to honor someone, except they say it like facilitate, it is funny, I still sometimes don’t get the accents and words will sound really differently they what they really are. Our favorite is the pronunciation one of our favorite hangouts; it is a cute little teenage cult restaurant, called Polka Dots. Almost all the local teens hang out there and it is somewhat expensive, but it has really good food and they serve meat! We normally go and spend too much money, ordering the same thing every time, they now know us and our order. We tip pretty well, and in India tipping is not necessary so they really like us. Back to the point, the locals all pronounce it “Pull - Cud – Outs.” The first time I heard this is thought the place was called Pull Cut Outs, I thought it was going to be a sandwich place that served like cold cuts, but no, they just say it like that. When I found out it was really Polka Dots, I said it like I would say it, and they are like “No, that is not it…” I am like Ok, so we have taken accustomed to calling it that, but every time we do it cracks us all up! The exchange students also have collections of strange misspellings, such as we found a sewing kit in a hotel room in Satara that was called a Swing Kit, the same hotel also had signs all over to The Dinning Room, hehe, sometimes foreigners don’t really get a total and full grasp of English, and it gets funnier every time, I am still waiting for “Farters Day” signs, but well I guess I have a few months before they may pop up all over the city.

The Upcoming events of my Indian Life

Today marks the beginning of October, and this weeks holiday is Gandhi’s Birthday! Which today was celebrated was some people taking a vow of silence, and hopefully, the police choosing not to beat anyone today. Also a rally and match or protest was held in Pune today, called “Horn Ok No” where a bunch of students marched from one side of the city to one of the big colleges, protesting the unnecessary use of horns by drivers in India, I wish I would have gone!!! But it was at like 7 in the morning L October also marking the beginning of the October heat, the rainy/monsoon season is finally over, but October is one of the hottest months in India, today it was blazing! And the rest of the month is supposed to get even hotter, which sucks. Then comes the winter around mid November, and it may actually get cold in December. Though I laugh at this fact the record cold in the city in the past few years was around 45, and they all froze! Ha, they should got to Wisconsin in the middle of the -30!!! Also after the monsoon season Indian Wedding Season begins! I cannot wait to go to one! I saw the first of the invitations for the wedding season lying on the kitchen table yesterday, and it could be pretty exciting! I don’t really have any big Rotary events coming up, The Rotary was going to plan a trip to go to a wildlife park in the middle of India, but there was not enough group interest, and the European’s thought it was too expensive (and they have a better exchange rate then us! It was not that bad at all to go on a 7 day tiger watching/elephant riding safari!!!!). So now I may have some family trips in the near future, my family may go to Dubai for a few days (which is am sooo excited for, knowing me, you probably know that I have always wanted to go here!!! I am jealous of myself for even hearing the idea that I may get to go to Dubai!!!). I also may decide to take a trip over to Nagpur, to go visit my good friend Chloe (who is an exchange student in India from Wisconsin and my district back in USA). Chloe may also come visit me for a few days, and I am excited to get to show her my city, which I have learned to love so much! Also I am hoping to rescue some exchange students who are stuck in Jalgon so they can also come and experience Pune in all its glory!

That’s all for now, I am having a great time here in India, as always I apologize for not posting that often I try to shot for twice a month, so keep checking every once in a while, I also am sorry I don’t have any pictures, I am working on that, but it takes time, and it has taken me about three days to just type out this blog entry! Also sorry for all the countless spelling and grammar mistakes, I did not check over this very well, deal with it, and if you have any questions feel free to email me!

Some Picrues from Satara

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Me at one of the Dams in Satara, this Dam was the first Dam and was a "Natural" Dam

Me and one of the countless waterfalls we got to see on the trip to Satara

Our Safari Car Crew, From Left Lauren (USA), Xia (Belgium), Me (USA), Charlotte (Belgium), Chelsea (Canada), not pictured Pauline (France).