Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Heading South
Sorry for the delay of my blog, but now that my time is winding down days just fly by. Today I am leaving for my south India tour to get a taste of south India. Below are a bunch of random pictures from the last month or so, and I would have put them on a web albumn to see all of them, but my computer doesn't allow me to do that. When I get back hopefully I will have time to fill everyone in on the latest haps, but for now pictures wil lhave to do. Saturday was playing colors for HOli, and the night before was holi puja. Please comment on my blog to say hi, and what you have all been up to! If there aren't any comments I don't know is anyone is reading it, and I want to hear about you! Just let me know you are still alive and kicking, and I will be happy! Also currently my mail doesn't get through for whatever reason so please, the best way to reach me now is by email or commenting! Happy Easter everyone!! Also Happy early April Fools DAy!
random pics
Holi Puja
after holi my hair is now pink because I couldn't get the color out scroll down and you will understand why!
Throwing water on people is quite common and very fun.
Most of the little kids have squirt guns and stay pretty color free as they run around shooting people. Maya's host mother was squirting us in her kitchen for a while, but then we reminded her that it was in the house.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Mehndi Madness
Until yesterday I didn’t really know what you did at mehndi during marriages besides what I had seen while watching a movie called Monsoon Wedding before I had left for India. In the movie mehndi included an all woman gathering who were singing, clapping, and enjoying together while applying mehndi, or henna. I was surprised to find out that this was pretty accurate in its portrayal of the whole mehndi scene. The marriage was for the son of one of the Rotarians in my club, and the marriage is to take place in a couple days after all of the beginning festivities.
The whole mehndi took place in the neighborhood of one of my friends, and I just met up with my friend and her mom before heading to mehndi. When we were walking there I realized I didin’t really know what to expect, but as we approached the house I saw the brightly colored canopy set up around the yard of the house and the huge group of ladies sitting on chairs and covered mattresses on the ground holding there hands about their heads. Of course they weren’t being caught for some great crime, but no one in their right mind would want to smudge their mehndi!
Mehndi is supposed to bring blessings, luck, joy, and beauty for those who wear it, and it a fun and special day for some Indian weddings. In the case of my Mehandi party there were only women having mehndi done, but there are certain cultures in India that have both the bride and groom have mehndi applied. Personally I really think this is a time to get all the women away from the men for a good old fashioned gossip fest.
Before starting to have our own mehndi put on by one of the many mehndi artists available we went to say hello to all of the aunties and our other friends who were there. When one of my friends got started she had both hands held hostage as two different girls applied mehndi on the palm and up both sides the arm to the elbow. The mehndi girls are really fast at their artwork, and they just made their artwork seem like a dance between their mehndi cones and their fingers. I was the last of my friends to get mehndi done because I wanted to watch so when I was getting mine done I had a little audience of my own.
I really like getting mehndi done because it is like carrying a nonpermanent work of art on your arm. Also has such a neat feel as they are putting it on, rhythmically making the strokes, leaving a type of cold wetness to sit and harden, becoming really itching for the next five hours. There were about ten girls there applying mehndi, and although lots of women were present the girls just whipped through one woman after another. One funny thing was watching women trying to move their bags around, answer their cell phones, and move their hair out of their face when they can’t use their hands and feet are taboo. I must say they can be very creative, and it was hilarious watching people use their armpits, elbows, a finger, or their neighbor to accomplish these simple tasks.
Even though getting it put on is really fun the best part is sitting and waiting for the mehndi to dry with all of the ladies. Right after I finished my mehndi one of the older ladies in the group brought out her song book and started a group of ladies singing up a storm. They weren’t really songs that I knew, but it was really fun to listen. Just picture a bunch of ladies in their 60’s holding their hands up and grooving as they sing at the top of their lungs in hindi. By this time all of the chairs were full, and the multiple mattresses laid out were full of different groups of ladies showing off and admiring the hands of one another. Pretty soon the snacks came out, and like any good Indian would our host spent a huge amount of energy making people keep filling their plates and cups.
After the whole mehndi extravaganza I waited at my friends house for my mehndi to dry, and gradually picked all the henna off. My host mother warned me not to let water touch it before tomorrow to allow the color to darken (the darker the color the more your future will love you), but then she started to make me peel garlic. Of all the things she could make me do in the kitchen this is a task that leaves the hands sticky and smelly, and instead of washing it off with water I tried lemon juice which is supposed to help darken it also.
Part of the fun mehndi day included a dance/entertainment program complete with food, and dancing for everyone afterwards. Watching the dance program was fun, but I really loved the dancing afterwards. The whole neighborhood of teenage girls and a couple of my other friends and I all got up on stage working on our dance moves to the latest bollywood songs. Nowadays I am pretty much in love with bollywood songs and spend a lot of time humming the tunes or singing in the kitchen with my host mother.
Luckily for me when I woke up the next day my mehndi was super dark!
The whole mehndi took place in the neighborhood of one of my friends, and I just met up with my friend and her mom before heading to mehndi. When we were walking there I realized I didin’t really know what to expect, but as we approached the house I saw the brightly colored canopy set up around the yard of the house and the huge group of ladies sitting on chairs and covered mattresses on the ground holding there hands about their heads. Of course they weren’t being caught for some great crime, but no one in their right mind would want to smudge their mehndi!
Mehndi is supposed to bring blessings, luck, joy, and beauty for those who wear it, and it a fun and special day for some Indian weddings. In the case of my Mehandi party there were only women having mehndi done, but there are certain cultures in India that have both the bride and groom have mehndi applied. Personally I really think this is a time to get all the women away from the men for a good old fashioned gossip fest.
Before starting to have our own mehndi put on by one of the many mehndi artists available we went to say hello to all of the aunties and our other friends who were there. When one of my friends got started she had both hands held hostage as two different girls applied mehndi on the palm and up both sides the arm to the elbow. The mehndi girls are really fast at their artwork, and they just made their artwork seem like a dance between their mehndi cones and their fingers. I was the last of my friends to get mehndi done because I wanted to watch so when I was getting mine done I had a little audience of my own.
I really like getting mehndi done because it is like carrying a nonpermanent work of art on your arm. Also has such a neat feel as they are putting it on, rhythmically making the strokes, leaving a type of cold wetness to sit and harden, becoming really itching for the next five hours. There were about ten girls there applying mehndi, and although lots of women were present the girls just whipped through one woman after another. One funny thing was watching women trying to move their bags around, answer their cell phones, and move their hair out of their face when they can’t use their hands and feet are taboo. I must say they can be very creative, and it was hilarious watching people use their armpits, elbows, a finger, or their neighbor to accomplish these simple tasks.
Even though getting it put on is really fun the best part is sitting and waiting for the mehndi to dry with all of the ladies. Right after I finished my mehndi one of the older ladies in the group brought out her song book and started a group of ladies singing up a storm. They weren’t really songs that I knew, but it was really fun to listen. Just picture a bunch of ladies in their 60’s holding their hands up and grooving as they sing at the top of their lungs in hindi. By this time all of the chairs were full, and the multiple mattresses laid out were full of different groups of ladies showing off and admiring the hands of one another. Pretty soon the snacks came out, and like any good Indian would our host spent a huge amount of energy making people keep filling their plates and cups.
After the whole mehndi extravaganza I waited at my friends house for my mehndi to dry, and gradually picked all the henna off. My host mother warned me not to let water touch it before tomorrow to allow the color to darken (the darker the color the more your future will love you), but then she started to make me peel garlic. Of all the things she could make me do in the kitchen this is a task that leaves the hands sticky and smelly, and instead of washing it off with water I tried lemon juice which is supposed to help darken it also.
Part of the fun mehndi day included a dance/entertainment program complete with food, and dancing for everyone afterwards. Watching the dance program was fun, but I really loved the dancing afterwards. The whole neighborhood of teenage girls and a couple of my other friends and I all got up on stage working on our dance moves to the latest bollywood songs. Nowadays I am pretty much in love with bollywood songs and spend a lot of time humming the tunes or singing in the kitchen with my host mother.
Luckily for me when I woke up the next day my mehndi was super dark!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Kutch
After my trip I was ready for another one, and lucky for me by the time I returned from Pirotan Island I was already on the train to Kutch (or atleast it felt like that) in northern Gujarat. On the train I spent one cold sleepless night curled up on my berth until slowly everyone realized no one was sleeping and everyone started to share berths, and eventually all 14 of us ended up just sitting in one to keep warm. At 8:00 am we arrived to meet another district from Maharasthra, and then when we reached our lunch place one other youth exchange group making a grand total of 53 exchange students.
The first part of the day consisted of freshening up, and doing a little exploring around Bhuj we took a bus to a rotary park where we saw Chief Minister Modi inaugurate a life size whale statue where a whale bone had been found. Later we saw a dance parade around a lake, followed by dinner, and then a two hour bus ride to our tent village. We didn’t arrive till early the next morning, but when we did we pretty much just crashed. The next morning we got up see the highest peak looking over the white salty desert that was met by a emerald blue of sea. Basically I had never seen anything like it before, and I didn’t quite know what to make of it. On the way back from our sightseeing we received a flat tire and spent an hour or so waiting to have it fixed. When we finally returned back we had about a half hour to freshen up before we headed off to our moonlight safari.
Our moonlight safari ended up consisting of a camel cart ride to the salt, and then a music/dance program by moonlight while we waited for dinner. The salty desert really looked like fresh snowfall that was calling my name to go skiing on it. Of course that would have totally ruined my skis, but it was still fun to think about it. By this time everyone had already taken their shoes off, tried the salt that was actually produced in the area, and fallen through the salty to the mud layer several times. Lucky for us the moon was really full that night, and although most of us didn’t see much of the entertainment program you couldn’t miss the moon.
After our evening program we then took a camel cart back to the bus before going back to our tent village. Myself and a couple other people decided to walk back and enjoy the evening, and we almost beat the bus back. That night it was really fun because in the exchanger area everyone pretty much had free reign of everyone else’s tents, and people would just follow the voices and join you. In one of my friend’s tents a large wild cat walked in and scared her half to death, and another one of my guy friends walked in and “saved her.” As the night progressed we enjoyed retelling the story, making it more ridiculous each time.
The final day we mainly did a bunch of sightseeing going to a bird sanctuary, fossil farm, and a village before taking the bus back to Bhuj. My favorite stop was the artisan village which had old vegetable paint murals in most of the rooms, and a pitch black tunnel that went around their temple. Once we returned to Bhuj we did a little shopping, went to a rotary meeting, and got back on the train for a 12 hour ride home. Sadly several kids in my district have already gone home for a various of reasons, and each time we say goodbye we don’t know if it will be for the last time or we will be lucky enough to see each other again. That is one of the bittersweet parts about being an exchange student; you make a ton of amazing friends all over the world, but then you want to go visit all of them soon, and at all corners of the world (at all price ranges).
The first part of the day consisted of freshening up, and doing a little exploring around Bhuj we took a bus to a rotary park where we saw Chief Minister Modi inaugurate a life size whale statue where a whale bone had been found. Later we saw a dance parade around a lake, followed by dinner, and then a two hour bus ride to our tent village. We didn’t arrive till early the next morning, but when we did we pretty much just crashed. The next morning we got up see the highest peak looking over the white salty desert that was met by a emerald blue of sea. Basically I had never seen anything like it before, and I didn’t quite know what to make of it. On the way back from our sightseeing we received a flat tire and spent an hour or so waiting to have it fixed. When we finally returned back we had about a half hour to freshen up before we headed off to our moonlight safari.
Our moonlight safari ended up consisting of a camel cart ride to the salt, and then a music/dance program by moonlight while we waited for dinner. The salty desert really looked like fresh snowfall that was calling my name to go skiing on it. Of course that would have totally ruined my skis, but it was still fun to think about it. By this time everyone had already taken their shoes off, tried the salt that was actually produced in the area, and fallen through the salty to the mud layer several times. Lucky for us the moon was really full that night, and although most of us didn’t see much of the entertainment program you couldn’t miss the moon.
After our evening program we then took a camel cart back to the bus before going back to our tent village. Myself and a couple other people decided to walk back and enjoy the evening, and we almost beat the bus back. That night it was really fun because in the exchanger area everyone pretty much had free reign of everyone else’s tents, and people would just follow the voices and join you. In one of my friend’s tents a large wild cat walked in and scared her half to death, and another one of my guy friends walked in and “saved her.” As the night progressed we enjoyed retelling the story, making it more ridiculous each time.
The final day we mainly did a bunch of sightseeing going to a bird sanctuary, fossil farm, and a village before taking the bus back to Bhuj. My favorite stop was the artisan village which had old vegetable paint murals in most of the rooms, and a pitch black tunnel that went around their temple. Once we returned to Bhuj we did a little shopping, went to a rotary meeting, and got back on the train for a 12 hour ride home. Sadly several kids in my district have already gone home for a various of reasons, and each time we say goodbye we don’t know if it will be for the last time or we will be lucky enough to see each other again. That is one of the bittersweet parts about being an exchange student; you make a ton of amazing friends all over the world, but then you want to go visit all of them soon, and at all corners of the world (at all price ranges).
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