So i've been flying through the book Eat, Pray, Love after just starting it about a week ago... well maybe I started it a few days ago... can't remember. No wait, yea about a week ago, started it on tuesday. Anyway, I am totally in love with this book!! Just started the India section yesterday, I so wish I could take a year off and travel like Elizabeth. I am now totally inspired to do something like that, however I would have to find a way to take my cat with me, because I just don't think that I could leave my little daisy for a whole year!!!
Does anyone know of a way that I could fund my trip?? any backers?? anyone? anyone?? I truly admire people who can just pick up and take off on these world adventures and not have any cares in the world, they just kind of go with the flow. Picking up odd jobs here and there to help fund their trips along the way. Does anyone know how I might acheive this new dream?? to just kind of backpack through?? I think I am way too much of a planner to ever do such a thing. While yes, to some extent I can certainly just go with the flow, however I also like to have a plan of some sort, to know where I am going, and I far too much enjoy the process of researching places before I go to them to see what all there is around the area and close by to make sure I see all that I can while I am there!! oyy veyy... I think I just answered my own question.... I do not think I can be one of those backpackers who live care free.... what a shame...
As you can clearly see by the vast difference in tone with this particular entry, nothing of any sort has occurred today.... it rained heavily almost all day long, which wiped out my plan for venturing out and exploring. Now you might say "its just rain!" however, rain here is much different, when it rains it also quickly floods and the streets become lakes. There are no drainage systems like we have back home, so the streets quickly become lakes and therefore you could find a canoe of some kind and row through it, but then become stuck when it stops or drive and get stuck.... sooooooo i did nothing all day, and was extremely bored. I am trying to not finish my book too fast because I am enjoying reading it too much to just be done with it already. So I am pacing myself.
Back to traveling, so I want to go to Bali as my next adventure, either Bali or Spain. I would like to do as Elizabeth did and go to Spain to improve my spanish, I love speaking it, but it is a tad rusty. And I want to learn other languages as well, not sure what, perhaps French... and I also would like to travel along the mediterranean and soak up the sun and eat lots and lots of incredible mediterranean food, my absolute fav!!!!! after being in India, I have affirmed that I really actually do not like Indian food, I am not a fan of spicy food as I in fact like to actually be able to taste my food, not ruin my taste buds so that the rest of the meal is extremely hot and tasteless. I do enjoy naan.... and an okra dish that I had, and then happily replicated myself!! those are about the only two things I do like.
Anywayzzzzzzzzzz so now that I have totally rambled away (I hope I was at least mildly entertaining today) I am going to go make my makeshift bed aka sofa and read until I fall asleep. Then dream away about traveling the world and eating scrumdidlyumtious food!!!
Ciao!!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Rishikesh is a GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my goodness guys, I am so freaking excited!!!!! as well as totally freaked out hahah I finally found a train that was available and reasonably priced (for India standards) to go to Rishikesh!!!! ohhh this just makes me so happy and it will be at the end of my trip, so I will come home totally relaxed and serene! (I hope). Rishikesh, for those who don't know, is the most famous destination for Yogi's. It is where the Beatles took their spiritual journey in 1968 when they studied with Maharishi Mahes. So yes that is the main reason I want to go, but also I want to learn how to meditate, and fully relax. I will be staying at a nice hotel which offers yoga twice daily, morning and evening as well as meditation classes and massages etc.... I also plan to do some nature walks and perhaps even a Jungle Safari!! (farrari safari maybe?? Lol only my cousins, Lars and Hannah will get that one). Ohhhhh goodness am I just jumping for joy right now!!!
I will be leaving on this journey bright and early Tuesday morning and will return late Thursday night. I am a bit nervous about the journey getting there, hoping I can make my way ok. I will take the train from New Delhi (ugghhhh!!!) to Haridwar. Then I have to take the local bus from Haridwar to Rishikesh. Then I have to find a taxi from there and go a couple Kilometers to Ram Jhula. Then will have to walk across the bridge to the hotel... PHEW!!! I will for certain be gripping my handy language book which Val gave me (thank you val!!!!!!!!) to help me with the necessary phrases. I know enough already but just in case!
Anywho, as you can clearly see, I am like super super happy right now. I feel like such a big girl for arranging all of this myself! hahaha mainly because it really wasn't that easy to do. It is definitely rather difficult trying to arrange a trip in a country which you are not familiar with, not knowing where things are in proximity to one another and making sure you understand everything ok so that you don't end up somewhere not remotely close to where you wanted to be and are then stuck. Know what I mean??
So on a slightly less frantic note, I am meeting up with Anita this evening to have coffee or tea and chit chat, so that is going to be nice. I believe now I am going to walk over to Choko'la (my new fav cafe) and read for a bit... I had attempted an outing earlier but when I went to get cash all of the ATM's were down... that is something I am finding happens frequently here are various power outages. At least a couple times a day the power goes out for anywhere from a minute to 15 minutes. Not entirely sure why this happens, but Karen (Jim's wife) told me that what also happens is the link from American credit cards or debit cards to here sometimes goes down so you can't get cash out.... which is slightly annoying. I was on my way to go to Khan market to go find a tailor to get my dress made for Jessica's wedding!! :-) oh well I shall try this outing again tomorrow. Gives me something to do for tomorrow. I am also slightly sad, Raj left last night to move on to the rest of his travels in India. So now, it is just me, the last one of the group left in Delhi. However, Raj and I were talking about trying to get a reunion trip pulled together with everyone sometime next summer. IVHQ may have let us all down, but the one positive thing out of this whole thing was that we all got to meet each other and become great friends which hopefully will last a long time! and we are all over the world, so whenever we travel we will have someone to stay with! Very cool indeed.
Ok, well so long! hope everyone has a great day!
I will be leaving on this journey bright and early Tuesday morning and will return late Thursday night. I am a bit nervous about the journey getting there, hoping I can make my way ok. I will take the train from New Delhi (ugghhhh!!!) to Haridwar. Then I have to take the local bus from Haridwar to Rishikesh. Then I have to find a taxi from there and go a couple Kilometers to Ram Jhula. Then will have to walk across the bridge to the hotel... PHEW!!! I will for certain be gripping my handy language book which Val gave me (thank you val!!!!!!!!) to help me with the necessary phrases. I know enough already but just in case!
Anywho, as you can clearly see, I am like super super happy right now. I feel like such a big girl for arranging all of this myself! hahaha mainly because it really wasn't that easy to do. It is definitely rather difficult trying to arrange a trip in a country which you are not familiar with, not knowing where things are in proximity to one another and making sure you understand everything ok so that you don't end up somewhere not remotely close to where you wanted to be and are then stuck. Know what I mean??
So on a slightly less frantic note, I am meeting up with Anita this evening to have coffee or tea and chit chat, so that is going to be nice. I believe now I am going to walk over to Choko'la (my new fav cafe) and read for a bit... I had attempted an outing earlier but when I went to get cash all of the ATM's were down... that is something I am finding happens frequently here are various power outages. At least a couple times a day the power goes out for anywhere from a minute to 15 minutes. Not entirely sure why this happens, but Karen (Jim's wife) told me that what also happens is the link from American credit cards or debit cards to here sometimes goes down so you can't get cash out.... which is slightly annoying. I was on my way to go to Khan market to go find a tailor to get my dress made for Jessica's wedding!! :-) oh well I shall try this outing again tomorrow. Gives me something to do for tomorrow. I am also slightly sad, Raj left last night to move on to the rest of his travels in India. So now, it is just me, the last one of the group left in Delhi. However, Raj and I were talking about trying to get a reunion trip pulled together with everyone sometime next summer. IVHQ may have let us all down, but the one positive thing out of this whole thing was that we all got to meet each other and become great friends which hopefully will last a long time! and we are all over the world, so whenever we travel we will have someone to stay with! Very cool indeed.
Ok, well so long! hope everyone has a great day!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Lodi Garden
Well, yesterday started out in a bit of a pissy mood after having done nothing at all for the past few days. So finally I said to myself, ENOUGH!! then promptly hailed a rick and jetted off towards Lodi Garden. What a treat!! It was like stepping into another world! It was spotlessly clean, "dust bins" aka trash cans everywhere with signs saying "please keep park clean and use bins" as well as signs saying "no spitting, using the bathroom, littering, use of narcotics or alcohol is permitted in park" (or something like that) meanwhile I thought to myself, see?? so easy to do!! why not just implement the same rules everywhere else!! India could look gorgeous! The Garden stretched out for miles, trails winding all over the place, green grassy lawns, beautiful flowers, old tombs to walk through, the water areas could have been cleaned a bit as they smelled like stagnant water. But over all it was so pleasant. There were families having picnics, playing tag, playing....frisbee?? Lol Jim had just made the comment the previous day when I asked about Lodi Garden that if they had frisbee here, they would be playing frisbee. Well they do! Then scattered througout the park were couples tucked away in corners canoodling (which surprised me because I had been told that public displays of affection were forbidden here!!) but I as an American thought it was rather cute.
It was starting to sprinkle a bit and wearing a white shirt, I did not want to get caught in a monsoon... so I left the Garden and started walking towards Khan Market. I passed by this gorgeous looking restaurant right next to Lodi Garden, it was called Lodi Garden Restaurant. You walk in and whoa how cool!! it was very asian looking, with bamboo, rocks, very zen looking. Outside they had some tables as well as these little cabanas with sheer white cloth draped on them with benches and pillows for couples to sit on and get fed in!!! I took pictures no worries :-) Then I went inside the restaurant and the ambiance was soooo awesome! I desperately wanted to eat there and relax... but it was definitely one of those places that would have to be like a special occasion... so maybe I'll go right before I leave or something. I did however order a mango smoothie and sat there a little while and read. It was very nice to just get away and enjoy some nice quiet time. After that I continued on towards Khan Market. On my way there I passed quite a few NGO's but of course, it being Sunday, no one was there. Boo!! Finally I got to Khan market and just about everything was closed :-( a few things were still open, so I wandered around window shopping, then started feeling a bit sick, so I hailed another rick and headed home.
Once I got home.... the evil grimlins of the dreaded "Travelers D" flooded my stomach.... NO FUN!!!!!!!!! Raj had been dealing with this for the past three days and I kept making fun of him for having eaten street food.... karma?? Anyway, I spent the evening doubled over in pain with my stomach cramping while intermittently running to the bathroom. However, me being a smart girl I took my medication that my Dr. gave me before I left as a "just in case" thing. Thank God!! It's helpful having your physician be from India. I somehow managed to fall asleep around 9pm, kept waking up throughout the night in pain but over the course of the night, the lovely Cipro worked its magic. Now, please tell me why boys are such stubborn babies when it comes to them being sick?? Raj apparently had the same medication but waited until last night to take it??? He said he wanted to read up on it before he took it... I'm thinking "dude?! you couldn't have done that like 3 days ago and saved yourself some intense agony??" anyway, I am very glad I did not wait that long to take it, with that kind of pain??! are you kidding me?! ahhh boys.... how they mystify me.
So this morning I am so far so good!! I am however, being a smart girl (again) and heading over to the store while I am feeling well enough (just in case!) and stocking up on some coconut water, orange juice, soup and crackers. Trying to stand long enough to make just plain pasta was quite a struggle, had to keep running to my room to lay down, then run back to make sure to not over cook it.
Let's hope I keep feeling good!!!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Slumdog Millionaire
So last night we watched Slumdog Millionaire... well actually it was more like re-watching it since we'd both already seen it. But we had wanted to re-watch it now that we both have spent a few weeks living in India and seeing first hand what we had either heard about or seen in movies. Well.... it was so surreal to watch the movie again only this time it was like watching our day to day lives in India!!! That movie really did portray the real India. While riding around in the ricks we have street children coming up to us trying to sell us things, or women carrying babies trying to get food or money, really young kids coming up doing the hand to the mouth motion meaning "food". When we were on the train back from Amritsar, as I told you in an earlier post, we saw two little kids who were just like Jamal and Salim. The scene where the awful guy comes and takes the kids away to his own little camp where he blinds them and sends them out to be blind singers.... well we thank god didnt see that part in real life, but the scene where he tell the kids to sing for him as he sits and gets fed food, well that exact thing happened at the orphanage... so that part was really creepy. In any case, after the movie i went to my room and had to read for a bit because I just felt really.... sad I suppose.
For those of you reading who think I am really judgmental of my time here, you have to understand that I very much have a love/hate relationship with India. On one hand there are many things that I do like about India, for example their spirituality, the textiles.... perhaps a few more things too. But on the other hand there is just a lot that makes me really frustrated, in the sense that I can see exactly what needs to be done to try and fix what seem like such simple problems, but I can't!! For those of you that know me well, you know how much of an organizer and planner I am so perhaps you now may have a little more insight into where my various "judgemental" statements are coming from. They are not so much judgements but more frustrations at: "ok here is the problem, and there is a very very simple way to fix that problem, which in turn will have a domino effect on other problems and soon, hopefully things will start to turn around and make India a healthier place!!!!" I talked to Jim about this stuff, and he said "well its the issue of India being such an overpopulated place, there are billions of people crammed together, with a Government that doesn't quite know how to utilize their resources. Whereas the states realized that they should bring on board an Architect to help with urban planning.... India hasn't done that yet..." well he didn't say it in those exact words but thats the basic gyst of what he said. But I totally see what he is saying, so man! maybe Amanda could come to India to start helping out!! then Lars could come and work on the water system, I could do the organizing and planning, Anne could work on the vegetable farming, dad you could start working with the builders and teach them to use modern day tools, mom you could help with teaching dyslexics, jaydee could work with anne on the whole vegetable farming... making sure they are safe etc... hannah and amos could work with the kids.... man we could really turn India around!! Meraa pariwaar (my family), helping India!!
Anyway, I'm not in the best of moods today.... I've been extremely bored the past few days, Raj has been sick so he's been sleeping, while I haven't really had much to do. I've seen all that I want to see in New Delhi, and believe it or not I have found it rather difficult to find any yoga studios!!! how can that be!? this is India, birth place of yoga!! I have called a few of the volunteer organizations and they are all full with volunteers. I have a few more people on my list to call, but have to wait till tomorrow since today is sunday and I doubt they will be in their office.
That's all for today
For those of you reading who think I am really judgmental of my time here, you have to understand that I very much have a love/hate relationship with India. On one hand there are many things that I do like about India, for example their spirituality, the textiles.... perhaps a few more things too. But on the other hand there is just a lot that makes me really frustrated, in the sense that I can see exactly what needs to be done to try and fix what seem like such simple problems, but I can't!! For those of you that know me well, you know how much of an organizer and planner I am so perhaps you now may have a little more insight into where my various "judgemental" statements are coming from. They are not so much judgements but more frustrations at: "ok here is the problem, and there is a very very simple way to fix that problem, which in turn will have a domino effect on other problems and soon, hopefully things will start to turn around and make India a healthier place!!!!" I talked to Jim about this stuff, and he said "well its the issue of India being such an overpopulated place, there are billions of people crammed together, with a Government that doesn't quite know how to utilize their resources. Whereas the states realized that they should bring on board an Architect to help with urban planning.... India hasn't done that yet..." well he didn't say it in those exact words but thats the basic gyst of what he said. But I totally see what he is saying, so man! maybe Amanda could come to India to start helping out!! then Lars could come and work on the water system, I could do the organizing and planning, Anne could work on the vegetable farming, dad you could start working with the builders and teach them to use modern day tools, mom you could help with teaching dyslexics, jaydee could work with anne on the whole vegetable farming... making sure they are safe etc... hannah and amos could work with the kids.... man we could really turn India around!! Meraa pariwaar (my family), helping India!!
Anyway, I'm not in the best of moods today.... I've been extremely bored the past few days, Raj has been sick so he's been sleeping, while I haven't really had much to do. I've seen all that I want to see in New Delhi, and believe it or not I have found it rather difficult to find any yoga studios!!! how can that be!? this is India, birth place of yoga!! I have called a few of the volunteer organizations and they are all full with volunteers. I have a few more people on my list to call, but have to wait till tomorrow since today is sunday and I doubt they will be in their office.
That's all for today
Friday, July 23, 2010
Things I have learned, observed etc.. so far
During my time here, I have encountered soooo many things that have taken me by complete surprise, or found interesting, or just plain observations. So I figured I would share them with you all.
1) Trash cans do not exist anywhere, when I ask for a trash can to throw something away, they point to the ground
2) The pollution here is like nothing I have ever seen before, to give you an idea: When I blow my nose, black stuff comes out, also I have developed a smokers cough... more so on days when we have been out and about on a rickshaw a lot
3) Stray dogs are like the equivalent of squirrels at home, as in they are everywhere!
4) People seem to have no sense of public decency, they spit everywhere as well as spit their chewing stuff (it isnt tobacco but something like it) everywhere without taking a look to see if they may be spitting on someone....
5) People go to the bathroom everywhere... and I do mean everywhere... while walking I have learned to always look at the ground, since you never know when you may come across a big mound of poo (and you are never sure if it is cow poo, dog poo, or human poo)
6) They love to stare... like really stare, so I have learned to just stare right back :-) They then quickly look away
7) I love bartering at the markets, I have become rather good at standing firm until I get the price I want. I was even told by a shop owner "you are very strong woman" ... why thank you! haha
8) Patience: I have learned to be much more patient, everything here takes an excessively long time. Raj and I have named it "India time". It's interesting though that it is not consistent, somethings are very fast, while others take a very long time, there seems to be no real medium.
9) Carrying the following with you everywhere you go: Toilet paper, wetwipes, antibacterial gel, clorox wipes, vicks vaporub and a towl or bandana to wipe sweat
10) Accept the fact that you will sweat through your clothes everyday, so sweat marks... hah! who cares! everyone has them! and two showers a day (one in the morning and one in the evening) are fabulous, especially using only cold water! so refreshing!
11) There are no such things as traffic laws here, it is a big ass free for all on the streets, no one stops for pedestrians, there are no walk lights, you have to take a deep breath and step out in the street and put your hand out and hope to god they actually stop. Traffic lines mean nothing, in fact they go over the middle lines into on coming traffic to go around cars. And horns.... dear god they are like the vuvuzelas at the world cup!
12) Sidewalks don't really exist. Everyone walks in the streets, there are sidewalks in some places, but only a handful are actually usable, and even if they are they stop and start, so really just walking in the street is easiest, though ya gotta be watching for crazy drivers as well as poo on the ground
13) Sikh's are awesome
14) You bond very quickly with people you just meet when travelling alone, specifically because of everyone being in the same boat but also because of conversations about one's bowel movements and how its all working on a day to day basis Lol
15) I have become a big fan of Amir Khan (a Bollywood actor) as I have been watching a lot of Indian movies the past few nights.
16) With as crazy as they drive here, I am truly shocked and amazed that I have yet to see an accident occur. They weave in and out of one another, drive head on towards one another, cars drive in every which direction, cutting each other off in roundabouts..... but not one accident. It's kind of like a choreographed dance or something
17) The popular brand of men's clothing appears to be that of "Playboy" hahah I have seen guys wearing shirts that say playboy on them with the playboy bunny logo... very strange
,
18) Everyone here is an entrepreneur. From street vendors, to selling stuff at traffic lights, to little shops, to selling things on trains or performing on trains... you see all kinds of little businesses of some sort
19) When negotiating prices: be firm and keep you sunglasses on and never look them straight in the face... this somehow makes quite a difference. And if they give you a high price, immediately say "nahin nahin" and walk away, its amazing how durastically they will lower the price.
20) Drag queens do exist in India, they dress up in Sarees, but definately not as much makeup as back home Lol!!
That's all I can think of right now, I will be sure to post some more as I discover them
1) Trash cans do not exist anywhere, when I ask for a trash can to throw something away, they point to the ground
2) The pollution here is like nothing I have ever seen before, to give you an idea: When I blow my nose, black stuff comes out, also I have developed a smokers cough... more so on days when we have been out and about on a rickshaw a lot
3) Stray dogs are like the equivalent of squirrels at home, as in they are everywhere!
4) People seem to have no sense of public decency, they spit everywhere as well as spit their chewing stuff (it isnt tobacco but something like it) everywhere without taking a look to see if they may be spitting on someone....
5) People go to the bathroom everywhere... and I do mean everywhere... while walking I have learned to always look at the ground, since you never know when you may come across a big mound of poo (and you are never sure if it is cow poo, dog poo, or human poo)
6) They love to stare... like really stare, so I have learned to just stare right back :-) They then quickly look away
7) I love bartering at the markets, I have become rather good at standing firm until I get the price I want. I was even told by a shop owner "you are very strong woman" ... why thank you! haha
8) Patience: I have learned to be much more patient, everything here takes an excessively long time. Raj and I have named it "India time". It's interesting though that it is not consistent, somethings are very fast, while others take a very long time, there seems to be no real medium.
9) Carrying the following with you everywhere you go: Toilet paper, wetwipes, antibacterial gel, clorox wipes, vicks vaporub and a towl or bandana to wipe sweat
10) Accept the fact that you will sweat through your clothes everyday, so sweat marks... hah! who cares! everyone has them! and two showers a day (one in the morning and one in the evening) are fabulous, especially using only cold water! so refreshing!
11) There are no such things as traffic laws here, it is a big ass free for all on the streets, no one stops for pedestrians, there are no walk lights, you have to take a deep breath and step out in the street and put your hand out and hope to god they actually stop. Traffic lines mean nothing, in fact they go over the middle lines into on coming traffic to go around cars. And horns.... dear god they are like the vuvuzelas at the world cup!
12) Sidewalks don't really exist. Everyone walks in the streets, there are sidewalks in some places, but only a handful are actually usable, and even if they are they stop and start, so really just walking in the street is easiest, though ya gotta be watching for crazy drivers as well as poo on the ground
13) Sikh's are awesome
14) You bond very quickly with people you just meet when travelling alone, specifically because of everyone being in the same boat but also because of conversations about one's bowel movements and how its all working on a day to day basis Lol
15) I have become a big fan of Amir Khan (a Bollywood actor) as I have been watching a lot of Indian movies the past few nights.
16) With as crazy as they drive here, I am truly shocked and amazed that I have yet to see an accident occur. They weave in and out of one another, drive head on towards one another, cars drive in every which direction, cutting each other off in roundabouts..... but not one accident. It's kind of like a choreographed dance or something
17) The popular brand of men's clothing appears to be that of "Playboy" hahah I have seen guys wearing shirts that say playboy on them with the playboy bunny logo... very strange
,
18) Everyone here is an entrepreneur. From street vendors, to selling stuff at traffic lights, to little shops, to selling things on trains or performing on trains... you see all kinds of little businesses of some sort
19) When negotiating prices: be firm and keep you sunglasses on and never look them straight in the face... this somehow makes quite a difference. And if they give you a high price, immediately say "nahin nahin" and walk away, its amazing how durastically they will lower the price.
20) Drag queens do exist in India, they dress up in Sarees, but definately not as much makeup as back home Lol!!
That's all I can think of right now, I will be sure to post some more as I discover them
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Amritsar - Part II
Wagah - The India/Pakistan Border Ceremony
After we left the Golden Temple we found a place to grab something to eat, then found a taxi that could take us to the India/Border evening ceremonies. We got thohere, to the border and strolled in to the sounds of fantastic Indian music... which by the way, I cannot stand the old stuff, but the newer stuff, more Punjabi style I do like. Punjabi style music is much more rhythmical and has some great sounds (think Bend it Like Beckham, the wedding scene at the end). So we walk in, and go through quite a few security checks, and since we are foreigners we got to go the VIP seating area! So we sit down and notice our area is predominantly white Lol. People are taking turns running down the street carrying the Indian flag, then a dance party... well a female dance party breaks out in the middle of the street... no boys were allowed, HAH! So of course I had to jump up and run down there and join in!!! duhhhh! so I join in and immediately am surrounded by young Indian girls and women teaching me the Indian dance moves. The ceremony then begins, we all sit down and it certainly is nothing I have ever seen before... first of all the Border Patrols way of marching is absolutely hysterical!!!!!!!! oh my goodness!! they just look so overly dramatic, their legs kick up to their hats and they howl, for a very long extended period of time. They then open the gates between India and Pakistan and all line up on either side and then begin to simultaneously lower the flags. I took an awesome picture of the flags being lowered which I really like
We then left and headed back towards the taxi and waited for the rest of the people who had also been in our taxi. While waiting, this guy who ran the little outdoor cafe came over and started asking me all kinds of questions, then asked if he could take a picture with me, so I agreed, but he like grabbed me really close and put his hand on my stomach, which made me extremely uncomfortable so then I was like "ok great! bye!" and quickly walked back over to where Raj was sitting, the guy followed me and then asked "is this your friend?" so I quickly replied "oh no! this is my husband!" and instantaneously the guy backed off and left me alone. GENIUS!! This then became my safety net, one of the pirks to traveling with a male is that in uncomfortable situations, they can save your butt!!
We headed back towards our hotel, got some dinner then totally crashed, it was a long day!
The Journey back to New Delhi
The next day we got the train back to New Delhi. We were totally prepared this time for a late train, overcroweded mass chaos... to our surprise, the train was there waiting when we got there. We hopped right on, everyone was calm, sitting in their seats, everything was clean... SWEET!! So we found our seats and sat down, then the train took off. There were Sikh's all over the place and they immediately started talking to us, offerring us food, etc.. The Sikh's are just such a sweet, loving and kind culture I discovered while being in Amritsar. They also are a very clean culture. In comparison with the rest of India, Amritsar had very little trash on the streets, which meant hardly any fly's!! That is one thing that is just so gross here are the massive amounts of fly's everywhere!!!!!!!!! I can't even begin to describe it, you just have to be here to really know what I am talking about. Its like you are constantly walking through a cloud of fly's, so being in Amritsar was an extremely nice break. The train ride back was soooo much better then the ride to Amristar. It was still very long, but much more calm, had nice conversations with people, they kept offerring their food to us etc...
Also, there were all kinds of entertainers on the train, including 2 little slum kids who were such clowns!! They were so adorable and totally and completely were like the kids in Slumdog Millionaire. I have to re-watch that movie now that I have seen a lot of what was depicted in the movie. At one point we both got up from sitting as our butts started going numb from the hard seats. So we were standing at the back of the train where the slum kids were hanging out. They started doing all of these flips on the train and hanging out of the car (they keep the doors open and people tend to just sit on the steps as we are flying by at like.... what feels like 200 mph!!! My god this freaked me out, I felt like such a mom wanting to pull the kids back in, but alas I knew that these kids do this kind of stuff all the time... but still, it freaked me out!! I really wanted to take a picture of these guys, but knew as soon as I'd ask, they'd probably say "10 rupees!" so I didnt. Towards the end of the train ride it was late and the kids were trying to sleep in the back, it broke my heart because they were huddled together, with their arms and hands inside their shirts trying to get warm, I didnt have any clothing to give them but I did have my soda, which I'd had maybe one sip of, so I gave that to them and Raj gave them some biscuits, they gratefully grabbed both with wide eyes and were very thankful. By the time we got off the train they were both cuddled up to each other passed out. It's just so heart breaking to see kids that young totally on their own.
We got back to Jim's house, had a snack then passed out. The trip was amazing, and so nice to see such a different culture then what I have been seeing so far. There was still tons of pollution and dirt but at least they are making an effort to put a few trash cans around the town, I hope they keep adding to that!!! It just amazes me when I have some trash and go up to someone to ask where a trash can is, that they point to the ground!! I of course shake my head and say "oh no no no no!!" and walk away and just put whatever it is I had wanted to throw away in my pocket or bag. I'd rather save it then add to the trash that is EVERYWHERE!
So that is my grand story! My pictures are up on Facebook
Namaste
After we left the Golden Temple we found a place to grab something to eat, then found a taxi that could take us to the India/Border evening ceremonies. We got thohere, to the border and strolled in to the sounds of fantastic Indian music... which by the way, I cannot stand the old stuff, but the newer stuff, more Punjabi style I do like. Punjabi style music is much more rhythmical and has some great sounds (think Bend it Like Beckham, the wedding scene at the end). So we walk in, and go through quite a few security checks, and since we are foreigners we got to go the VIP seating area! So we sit down and notice our area is predominantly white Lol. People are taking turns running down the street carrying the Indian flag, then a dance party... well a female dance party breaks out in the middle of the street... no boys were allowed, HAH! So of course I had to jump up and run down there and join in!!! duhhhh! so I join in and immediately am surrounded by young Indian girls and women teaching me the Indian dance moves. The ceremony then begins, we all sit down and it certainly is nothing I have ever seen before... first of all the Border Patrols way of marching is absolutely hysterical!!!!!!!! oh my goodness!! they just look so overly dramatic, their legs kick up to their hats and they howl, for a very long extended period of time. They then open the gates between India and Pakistan and all line up on either side and then begin to simultaneously lower the flags. I took an awesome picture of the flags being lowered which I really like
We then left and headed back towards the taxi and waited for the rest of the people who had also been in our taxi. While waiting, this guy who ran the little outdoor cafe came over and started asking me all kinds of questions, then asked if he could take a picture with me, so I agreed, but he like grabbed me really close and put his hand on my stomach, which made me extremely uncomfortable so then I was like "ok great! bye!" and quickly walked back over to where Raj was sitting, the guy followed me and then asked "is this your friend?" so I quickly replied "oh no! this is my husband!" and instantaneously the guy backed off and left me alone. GENIUS!! This then became my safety net, one of the pirks to traveling with a male is that in uncomfortable situations, they can save your butt!!
We headed back towards our hotel, got some dinner then totally crashed, it was a long day!
The Journey back to New Delhi
The next day we got the train back to New Delhi. We were totally prepared this time for a late train, overcroweded mass chaos... to our surprise, the train was there waiting when we got there. We hopped right on, everyone was calm, sitting in their seats, everything was clean... SWEET!! So we found our seats and sat down, then the train took off. There were Sikh's all over the place and they immediately started talking to us, offerring us food, etc.. The Sikh's are just such a sweet, loving and kind culture I discovered while being in Amritsar. They also are a very clean culture. In comparison with the rest of India, Amritsar had very little trash on the streets, which meant hardly any fly's!! That is one thing that is just so gross here are the massive amounts of fly's everywhere!!!!!!!!! I can't even begin to describe it, you just have to be here to really know what I am talking about. Its like you are constantly walking through a cloud of fly's, so being in Amritsar was an extremely nice break. The train ride back was soooo much better then the ride to Amristar. It was still very long, but much more calm, had nice conversations with people, they kept offerring their food to us etc...
Also, there were all kinds of entertainers on the train, including 2 little slum kids who were such clowns!! They were so adorable and totally and completely were like the kids in Slumdog Millionaire. I have to re-watch that movie now that I have seen a lot of what was depicted in the movie. At one point we both got up from sitting as our butts started going numb from the hard seats. So we were standing at the back of the train where the slum kids were hanging out. They started doing all of these flips on the train and hanging out of the car (they keep the doors open and people tend to just sit on the steps as we are flying by at like.... what feels like 200 mph!!! My god this freaked me out, I felt like such a mom wanting to pull the kids back in, but alas I knew that these kids do this kind of stuff all the time... but still, it freaked me out!! I really wanted to take a picture of these guys, but knew as soon as I'd ask, they'd probably say "10 rupees!" so I didnt. Towards the end of the train ride it was late and the kids were trying to sleep in the back, it broke my heart because they were huddled together, with their arms and hands inside their shirts trying to get warm, I didnt have any clothing to give them but I did have my soda, which I'd had maybe one sip of, so I gave that to them and Raj gave them some biscuits, they gratefully grabbed both with wide eyes and were very thankful. By the time we got off the train they were both cuddled up to each other passed out. It's just so heart breaking to see kids that young totally on their own.
We got back to Jim's house, had a snack then passed out. The trip was amazing, and so nice to see such a different culture then what I have been seeing so far. There was still tons of pollution and dirt but at least they are making an effort to put a few trash cans around the town, I hope they keep adding to that!!! It just amazes me when I have some trash and go up to someone to ask where a trash can is, that they point to the ground!! I of course shake my head and say "oh no no no no!!" and walk away and just put whatever it is I had wanted to throw away in my pocket or bag. I'd rather save it then add to the trash that is EVERYWHERE!
So that is my grand story! My pictures are up on Facebook
Namaste
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Amritsar - Part I
Well hello there everyone!! It's been a few days as I have been in Amritsar, this is going to be a long blog entry since I have so much to tell!!! But no worries, it is all very exciting stuff, and to make it easier to read, I shall divide it up into sections with titles and everything! I'm so nice, I know :-)~ hahaha
The Wizard of Oz - Journey to Amritsar
So, Raj, my most excellent new travel partner, and I set off in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday to head towards Amritsar to see the Golden Temple. We took a rickshaw there and were amazed to actually see the streets of New Delhi totally empty!! Certainly a first since my 2 1/2 weeks of being here (which by the way, it is so crazy to think I have only been here for 2 1/2 weeks, it totally feels like I have been here for at least a month by now). As we travelled through the lovely smog (note sarcasm) we then entered into monkey land!! hahah and no I am so not kidding, it was the craziest thing, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE!!! all over the sidewalks, the streets, sitting on fences..... it was hilarious, cute and also a bit frightening since we were in the rickshaw which has no doors or windows, so they could have jumped in at any moment. But where did all these monkeys come from?? They totally disappear during the rest of the day. Anyway, so we made it through monkey land alive, phew! Then our next mission.... combating the flys and beggers while waiting for our train. By this time is was about 6:30, our train was to arrive at 6:40, we waited... it was already about 70 degrees out and extremely humid, swarms of flys everywhere, people staring (i honestly just felt like screaming out "YES I AM WHITE AND I AM A WOMAN! GET OVER IT!! but I resisted) beggers constantly coming up to us... 7:30 rolls around, still no train and no announcement as to whether it was actually coming. While both my frustrations as well as Raj's began running out, 8:00 rolls around then finally an announcement that our train was approaching, thank god! The train rolls in, WOOHOO!! little did we know what we were about to experience........ COMPLETE AND TOTAL MASS CHAOS!! Literally, before the train was even at a complete stop people were running for the train, pushing theirselves into the train cars, while the people who were still on the train were trying to get off. We locked arms and had to make like a football line up or something like that and pushed our way through, while people were pushing in every which direction, luggage falling off the luggage racks, people screaming in Hindi, I'm trying to make sure I have my bag and that I'm not going to get pick pocketed.... oh my god!! I have never in my life seen such total and complete madness!! Absolutely no order or politeness about anything. We find our seats and there is a family of like 6 sitting there totally unashamed that they had hijacked everyone's seats who had actually payed for a seat. They start screaming at us as if we are in the wrong.... well thankfully a guy who was making sure his mom got on the train ok came on and stuck up for us and got them all to get up and move, he told us "you have to be forceful, otherwise they will take full advantage of you" we were very gracious and promised to look after his mother and make sure she got off at the correct stop. Oh he was also a Sikh (more on that to come). So finally in our seats (after I wipped out my handy dandy clorox bleach wipes to clean off all the gross food that the family had so nicely left behind on the seats) we set off on our 7 hour train ride to Amritsar. It was hot, smelly and since there were no windows, only bars, by the time we got to Amritsar we were totally covered in pollution and dirt.... awesome. But we were just so excited to actually be there that at that point we were over smelling like crap and wanted food ASAP!
The Golden Temple and discovering a new appreciation for Sikh's
We found a place to sit down, which was air conditioned, got a nice cold drink and a bite to eat. Feeling much more rejuvinated after our long hot journey we set out to find a place to stay. We originally were planning to stay at the Golden Temple itself, but after hearing that we'd have to sleep on the floor (when we were previously told they had beds) and we had no sleeping bags or anything with us, we decided to find a cheap place to crash. A girl we met in the coffee shop had told us about a place we could stay for only 700 Rs. a night with A/C and even cheaper without A/C.... so we went with the no A/C (they had a ceiling fan) and it was 400 Rs. a night!! which split in 2.... thats like $4 a night! granted it wasn't all to glamerous, but it had a bed, a bathroom and was walking distance to the golden temple... when you're traveling on a budget, you learn to adapt rather quickly and luxory isn't really in the forefront of your mind. Anyway! so we dropped out stuff, gave ourselves a quick wetwipe bath (my new most favorite thing EVER!) and headed right on over to the Golden Temple!!! I was actually quite excited to have to use a scarf to cover my head.... not really sure why, but it just felt really cool to be in such a spiritual place and to honor their religion like that. We got there, had to drop our shoes off then as we walked into the temple they had these little rivers that you had to walk through to cleanse your feet. We walked through and there it was, in all of its golden glory, surrounded by holy water. There was a constant surround sound of Punjabi music playing along with prayers, people immediately kneeling down and touching their forheads to the ground.... oh my god... the overwhelming beauty of it all was just so unbelievable. Everything was so pure and clean!!! unlike all of the other places I had seen during orientation week. This by far outbeats the Taj Mahal!! Then within about 5 minutes of having walked in, this woman comes up to me and she is holding a baby, she points to her baby then starts to hand me her baby! I was like "umm.... uhhh Raj?! what is she saying??" she then tells him that she wants to take a picture of me holding her son. What?! I of course knod and take her son, smile, she excitedly takes a picture... unfortunatly I had just been taking video of everything so Raj didn't take a picture :-( booo but anyway this whole being a white girl thing in a foreign country is so bizarre to me! I see so many other white tourists around and have yet to see anyone running up to them to shake their hand or give them a hug or ask to take their picture... Lol who knows. So we continue to walk around, and just take everything in. Raj's family is of the Sikh religion so the experience was just that much cooler since he is also American (and the first one in his family to come to India!) and he is basically discovering his roots. He says he does the prayers at home with his family but it is much more westernized. We then headed over to the kitchen hall where they serve meals 24/7!! and for free!! (yet another clever way of staying on budget! while also taking in the whole experience). We sit down on the ground and get served Chai while waiting to be led into the hall. As we sit there this little girl runs up to me and shakes my hand, then asks me in Hindi what my name is, I respond (yay I'm learning!) then she proceeds to ask me all these other questions, which I'm then like "oh god too fast!" she basically wanted to learn all about me, where I'm from, if I'm married etc.... hahah then she brought over her 2 sisters and their grandma and were so excited to talk to us, then they asked if I had a camera because they wanted to take a picture, although it was on my camera so they wouldn't actually get it, but none the less they basically took my camera hostage for a good 10 minutes snapping away and were so intrigued by the fact that you could take a picture and then immediately see what it looked like. It was so adorable! and extremely amusing just watching them and how fascinated they were by it all. Finally we get led into the hall and again sit on the floor and then down the line they come with these huge buckets of food and drop it onto your plate... they absolutely have this whole operation down pat, a very well oiled machine they have going on there (this excited me greatly to see such a well put together operation). We ate our food, which was really quite good! then went on our way to go walk around a bit more and wait for it to get dark enough to see the Golden Temple all lit up at night time. Just sitting there and watching everyone walk around, praying etc... it truly was just such a fantastic sight to see. I just felt so honored to be able to be there witnessing this spiritual place with this amazing temple which really is like the most amazing work of art I have ever seen.
The next day we got up and made our way back to the temple but this time it was to go inside the actual temple. I was amazed at how quickly the line went, I think we were in line for maybe 30 minutes. We got inside and.... oh how I wish I could have been able to take pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to sound like a broken record here but.... oh my god!!!! I just... really like no words.... the intricate art work and detail of this inside of this temple was out of this freaking WORLD!!! I can't even explain it!! Everyone just needs to go take a trip and see this place! There were guru's in every corner of the temple sitting in front of this massive book which was like a bible but like 20 times the size of it, then there were a few guys who were playing the drums and one guy chanting... or praying... or maybe just singing... not sure what but it was in Punjabi and sounded beautiful. I'm also pretty sure that my mouth did not close the entire time I was in there, Lol I was just in pure amazement of the incredible detail of every single inch of the temple, not one space was left untouched. And also to think that this temple is... how old?? no really I actually never did find the answer to that.. but pretty sure its like super duper old and it is still in pristine condition!! whereas most old temples such as that are cracked, tarnished, rusted, mildewed and falling apart... but this one still looks brand new!
...... to be continued in part 2
The Wizard of Oz - Journey to Amritsar
So, Raj, my most excellent new travel partner, and I set off in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday to head towards Amritsar to see the Golden Temple. We took a rickshaw there and were amazed to actually see the streets of New Delhi totally empty!! Certainly a first since my 2 1/2 weeks of being here (which by the way, it is so crazy to think I have only been here for 2 1/2 weeks, it totally feels like I have been here for at least a month by now). As we travelled through the lovely smog (note sarcasm) we then entered into monkey land!! hahah and no I am so not kidding, it was the craziest thing, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE!!! all over the sidewalks, the streets, sitting on fences..... it was hilarious, cute and also a bit frightening since we were in the rickshaw which has no doors or windows, so they could have jumped in at any moment. But where did all these monkeys come from?? They totally disappear during the rest of the day. Anyway, so we made it through monkey land alive, phew! Then our next mission.... combating the flys and beggers while waiting for our train. By this time is was about 6:30, our train was to arrive at 6:40, we waited... it was already about 70 degrees out and extremely humid, swarms of flys everywhere, people staring (i honestly just felt like screaming out "YES I AM WHITE AND I AM A WOMAN! GET OVER IT!! but I resisted) beggers constantly coming up to us... 7:30 rolls around, still no train and no announcement as to whether it was actually coming. While both my frustrations as well as Raj's began running out, 8:00 rolls around then finally an announcement that our train was approaching, thank god! The train rolls in, WOOHOO!! little did we know what we were about to experience........ COMPLETE AND TOTAL MASS CHAOS!! Literally, before the train was even at a complete stop people were running for the train, pushing theirselves into the train cars, while the people who were still on the train were trying to get off. We locked arms and had to make like a football line up or something like that and pushed our way through, while people were pushing in every which direction, luggage falling off the luggage racks, people screaming in Hindi, I'm trying to make sure I have my bag and that I'm not going to get pick pocketed.... oh my god!! I have never in my life seen such total and complete madness!! Absolutely no order or politeness about anything. We find our seats and there is a family of like 6 sitting there totally unashamed that they had hijacked everyone's seats who had actually payed for a seat. They start screaming at us as if we are in the wrong.... well thankfully a guy who was making sure his mom got on the train ok came on and stuck up for us and got them all to get up and move, he told us "you have to be forceful, otherwise they will take full advantage of you" we were very gracious and promised to look after his mother and make sure she got off at the correct stop. Oh he was also a Sikh (more on that to come). So finally in our seats (after I wipped out my handy dandy clorox bleach wipes to clean off all the gross food that the family had so nicely left behind on the seats) we set off on our 7 hour train ride to Amritsar. It was hot, smelly and since there were no windows, only bars, by the time we got to Amritsar we were totally covered in pollution and dirt.... awesome. But we were just so excited to actually be there that at that point we were over smelling like crap and wanted food ASAP!
The Golden Temple and discovering a new appreciation for Sikh's
We found a place to sit down, which was air conditioned, got a nice cold drink and a bite to eat. Feeling much more rejuvinated after our long hot journey we set out to find a place to stay. We originally were planning to stay at the Golden Temple itself, but after hearing that we'd have to sleep on the floor (when we were previously told they had beds) and we had no sleeping bags or anything with us, we decided to find a cheap place to crash. A girl we met in the coffee shop had told us about a place we could stay for only 700 Rs. a night with A/C and even cheaper without A/C.... so we went with the no A/C (they had a ceiling fan) and it was 400 Rs. a night!! which split in 2.... thats like $4 a night! granted it wasn't all to glamerous, but it had a bed, a bathroom and was walking distance to the golden temple... when you're traveling on a budget, you learn to adapt rather quickly and luxory isn't really in the forefront of your mind. Anyway! so we dropped out stuff, gave ourselves a quick wetwipe bath (my new most favorite thing EVER!) and headed right on over to the Golden Temple!!! I was actually quite excited to have to use a scarf to cover my head.... not really sure why, but it just felt really cool to be in such a spiritual place and to honor their religion like that. We got there, had to drop our shoes off then as we walked into the temple they had these little rivers that you had to walk through to cleanse your feet. We walked through and there it was, in all of its golden glory, surrounded by holy water. There was a constant surround sound of Punjabi music playing along with prayers, people immediately kneeling down and touching their forheads to the ground.... oh my god... the overwhelming beauty of it all was just so unbelievable. Everything was so pure and clean!!! unlike all of the other places I had seen during orientation week. This by far outbeats the Taj Mahal!! Then within about 5 minutes of having walked in, this woman comes up to me and she is holding a baby, she points to her baby then starts to hand me her baby! I was like "umm.... uhhh Raj?! what is she saying??" she then tells him that she wants to take a picture of me holding her son. What?! I of course knod and take her son, smile, she excitedly takes a picture... unfortunatly I had just been taking video of everything so Raj didn't take a picture :-( booo but anyway this whole being a white girl thing in a foreign country is so bizarre to me! I see so many other white tourists around and have yet to see anyone running up to them to shake their hand or give them a hug or ask to take their picture... Lol who knows. So we continue to walk around, and just take everything in. Raj's family is of the Sikh religion so the experience was just that much cooler since he is also American (and the first one in his family to come to India!) and he is basically discovering his roots. He says he does the prayers at home with his family but it is much more westernized. We then headed over to the kitchen hall where they serve meals 24/7!! and for free!! (yet another clever way of staying on budget! while also taking in the whole experience). We sit down on the ground and get served Chai while waiting to be led into the hall. As we sit there this little girl runs up to me and shakes my hand, then asks me in Hindi what my name is, I respond (yay I'm learning!) then she proceeds to ask me all these other questions, which I'm then like "oh god too fast!" she basically wanted to learn all about me, where I'm from, if I'm married etc.... hahah then she brought over her 2 sisters and their grandma and were so excited to talk to us, then they asked if I had a camera because they wanted to take a picture, although it was on my camera so they wouldn't actually get it, but none the less they basically took my camera hostage for a good 10 minutes snapping away and were so intrigued by the fact that you could take a picture and then immediately see what it looked like. It was so adorable! and extremely amusing just watching them and how fascinated they were by it all. Finally we get led into the hall and again sit on the floor and then down the line they come with these huge buckets of food and drop it onto your plate... they absolutely have this whole operation down pat, a very well oiled machine they have going on there (this excited me greatly to see such a well put together operation). We ate our food, which was really quite good! then went on our way to go walk around a bit more and wait for it to get dark enough to see the Golden Temple all lit up at night time. Just sitting there and watching everyone walk around, praying etc... it truly was just such a fantastic sight to see. I just felt so honored to be able to be there witnessing this spiritual place with this amazing temple which really is like the most amazing work of art I have ever seen.
The next day we got up and made our way back to the temple but this time it was to go inside the actual temple. I was amazed at how quickly the line went, I think we were in line for maybe 30 minutes. We got inside and.... oh how I wish I could have been able to take pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to sound like a broken record here but.... oh my god!!!! I just... really like no words.... the intricate art work and detail of this inside of this temple was out of this freaking WORLD!!! I can't even explain it!! Everyone just needs to go take a trip and see this place! There were guru's in every corner of the temple sitting in front of this massive book which was like a bible but like 20 times the size of it, then there were a few guys who were playing the drums and one guy chanting... or praying... or maybe just singing... not sure what but it was in Punjabi and sounded beautiful. I'm also pretty sure that my mouth did not close the entire time I was in there, Lol I was just in pure amazement of the incredible detail of every single inch of the temple, not one space was left untouched. And also to think that this temple is... how old?? no really I actually never did find the answer to that.. but pretty sure its like super duper old and it is still in pristine condition!! whereas most old temples such as that are cracked, tarnished, rusted, mildewed and falling apart... but this one still looks brand new!
...... to be continued in part 2
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Chandni Chowk and more IVHQ headaches
So.... it has been a few days since I last wrote, and I am sure you are all wondering what in the world is going on!! Well to begin, I want to add in what I forgot to add in last blog entry. In my title I mentioned "Celebrity Status" and I totally forgot to mention that part!! It's rather amusing and quite flattering Lol, so while at the Taj Mahal groups of guys (and some girls) kept coming up to me as well as the group I was with and asking if they could take a picture with me or all of us. At one point, it literally was about every 5 or 10 minutes that they would come up to us, or if they weren't coming up to us they were standing near by staring and trying to work up the courage to ask us. It very much gave us all a glimpse into what it would be like to be a celebrity with paparazzi and fans following our every move.
Anyway, so moving onto the present time, so yesterday Alice, Sam and Nicola took off for Thailand to go and work at the volunteer project which Alice was previously working with before coming to India. It sounded like quite a neat program and is free! but I decided to stay here, plus couldnt afford another plane ticket. So it is now just Richard, Catalin, Raj, and I who are here. Raj and I braved the mass crowds at Chondni Chowk Market/Bazaar today, and were quite successful in barganing for various gifts to bring home :-) and no I am not saying what I got because then it wouldnt be a surprise!! Lol I actually bargained myself for one item and was quite proud of myself, the rest I left up to Raj since he speaks fluent Hindi (very very helpful!!) So then we came back to Jim's, I made dinner (well part of it, it was an addition to the many leftovers we had in the fridge). Then we checked our e-mails to see if there were perhaps any good news reply's from IVHQ about this whole mess of a situation. Wishful thinking....
In the past couple days emails have been flying back and forth between our whole group and IVHQ and it has turned into the biggest case of "nuh uhhhh!!! ya huh!!!!!". So not amusing, at all. Basically, they are saying they cannot refund our money because they have paid each of our programs in full.... well here's the thing. They also keep saying "if you would like to switch to another program we can certainly assist you with that." But wait... didn't you guys already pay our programs in full?? So, if you cant refund us our money because you have already paid them... then with what money exactly are you going to use to put us into a different program?? Also they told us that they don't like to give us our placements until we arrive so that they can meet us and figure out what the best placement will be.... ok well first of all, we didnt get our placements until like the day of our departure to them... plus! they never actually gave me an exact placement, it kept changing up until I made the executive decision to go with Nicola to her placement. So where exactly did my money go??
AHHHH!!!! This whole situation is so completely frustrating and agonizing. The responses that we keep getting back from IVHQ keep beating around the bush and dodging our points or questions. They keep telling us "well we like to always tell people that volunteering in New Delhi (which actually none of our placements were in New Delhi, in fact that were very far away from there) during the summertime is hard because of the heat and not having any A/C" ................ No one, not once, ever made any type of complaint regarding the heat or lack of A/C!! Who cares!! yes it is really really hot, but I have no qualms with taking 2 showers a day, in fact I rather enjoy taking a nice refreshing cold shower in the evening to cool off, its quite soothing. Yes it is uncomfortable at times, but that in no way has ever been an issue, I was quite aware of what I was coming into weather wise when I signed up. RAWR!! Ok, sorry guys, I am going to stop venting now, but I... well actually all of us just get so angry when we talk about this because we all feel like we were taken advantage of or have had the wool pullen over our eyes or something...
So, tomorrow I am making my many phone calls to the various organizations that Jim and his wife have graciously provided me with (total god sends they are!!!) and hopefully I'll be able to set up some lunch dates or something like that for next week. This weekend I am going with my new travel buddy Raj to Punjab to go see the Golden Temple. So excited!! I think we are going to end up staying at the Golden Temple (which is a Sikh temple) as all Sikh temples provide free food as well as free lodging! It will be quite an experience for sure! But I am excited, and have no idea what to expect. I will of course update when I get back since I highly doubt they have internet.
That's all for now, cross your fingers everyone for all of us that we get some type of supportive news or positive news from IVHQ. I am just hoping for some type of compromised resolution out of all of this.
Namaste
Anyway, so moving onto the present time, so yesterday Alice, Sam and Nicola took off for Thailand to go and work at the volunteer project which Alice was previously working with before coming to India. It sounded like quite a neat program and is free! but I decided to stay here, plus couldnt afford another plane ticket. So it is now just Richard, Catalin, Raj, and I who are here. Raj and I braved the mass crowds at Chondni Chowk Market/Bazaar today, and were quite successful in barganing for various gifts to bring home :-) and no I am not saying what I got because then it wouldnt be a surprise!! Lol I actually bargained myself for one item and was quite proud of myself, the rest I left up to Raj since he speaks fluent Hindi (very very helpful!!) So then we came back to Jim's, I made dinner (well part of it, it was an addition to the many leftovers we had in the fridge). Then we checked our e-mails to see if there were perhaps any good news reply's from IVHQ about this whole mess of a situation. Wishful thinking....
In the past couple days emails have been flying back and forth between our whole group and IVHQ and it has turned into the biggest case of "nuh uhhhh!!! ya huh!!!!!". So not amusing, at all. Basically, they are saying they cannot refund our money because they have paid each of our programs in full.... well here's the thing. They also keep saying "if you would like to switch to another program we can certainly assist you with that." But wait... didn't you guys already pay our programs in full?? So, if you cant refund us our money because you have already paid them... then with what money exactly are you going to use to put us into a different program?? Also they told us that they don't like to give us our placements until we arrive so that they can meet us and figure out what the best placement will be.... ok well first of all, we didnt get our placements until like the day of our departure to them... plus! they never actually gave me an exact placement, it kept changing up until I made the executive decision to go with Nicola to her placement. So where exactly did my money go??
AHHHH!!!! This whole situation is so completely frustrating and agonizing. The responses that we keep getting back from IVHQ keep beating around the bush and dodging our points or questions. They keep telling us "well we like to always tell people that volunteering in New Delhi (which actually none of our placements were in New Delhi, in fact that were very far away from there) during the summertime is hard because of the heat and not having any A/C" ................ No one, not once, ever made any type of complaint regarding the heat or lack of A/C!! Who cares!! yes it is really really hot, but I have no qualms with taking 2 showers a day, in fact I rather enjoy taking a nice refreshing cold shower in the evening to cool off, its quite soothing. Yes it is uncomfortable at times, but that in no way has ever been an issue, I was quite aware of what I was coming into weather wise when I signed up. RAWR!! Ok, sorry guys, I am going to stop venting now, but I... well actually all of us just get so angry when we talk about this because we all feel like we were taken advantage of or have had the wool pullen over our eyes or something...
So, tomorrow I am making my many phone calls to the various organizations that Jim and his wife have graciously provided me with (total god sends they are!!!) and hopefully I'll be able to set up some lunch dates or something like that for next week. This weekend I am going with my new travel buddy Raj to Punjab to go see the Golden Temple. So excited!! I think we are going to end up staying at the Golden Temple (which is a Sikh temple) as all Sikh temples provide free food as well as free lodging! It will be quite an experience for sure! But I am excited, and have no idea what to expect. I will of course update when I get back since I highly doubt they have internet.
That's all for now, cross your fingers everyone for all of us that we get some type of supportive news or positive news from IVHQ. I am just hoping for some type of compromised resolution out of all of this.
Namaste
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Taj Mahal, celebrity status then...... ohhh emmm geeee
To start off with, "ohh emm geee" for those of who aren't hip to the lingo is a spelled out version of "OMG" which stands for "oh my god". Ok, now that we are clear on that, onto the good stuff.
So here are some pictures of the Taj Mahal of course.
Sunday morning we all got up around 5:00am, got all of our stuff together and headed off to Agra to go and see the Taj Mahal. Most of us slept in the car or listened to music on our ipods.
Notice everyone wearing ipods... i thought it was kinda funny
We finally got to the Taj Mahal after about 4 hours, we had to get onto a battery powered bus and get taken closer to the Taj then walk the rest of the way. They are doing this now to try and lessen the amount of pollution around the the Taj to try and preserve the color. It apparently used to be a pure milky white color as opposed to now where it is a slightly yellow color from all of the polution. While its a great start, they have a long way to go before pollution is anywhere near eliminated in India. I'll talk more on that later. Anyway, so we walk towards the Taj and are again bombarded by street vendors trying to sell us snow globes with the Taj in them or picture books or this and that, all small trinkets which non of us had any interest in, but my god they are persistent!!!! I just kept looking forward and walking and not paying attention to them and eventually they lost interest. Then we walk into the first part, we get a little story from our guide then continue on. Oh also, Sunday was a big celebration so entrance was free (woohoo!!!) but that also meant that the entire world was there (booo). So there were musicians playing everywhere which sounded pretty cool and the actual tombs inside the Taj were open. We walked through the passage way and BOOM!! There was the Taj Mahal!! such an amazing and surreal sight. After all these years of seeing pictures, to actually be standing right there in front of it was just like.... WOW! No other words can really describe it.
Pretty amazing huh?!
So then we actually walked in and it was shear madness!!! but we managed to get a group shot then a couple of me
So here are some pictures of the Taj Mahal of course.So, now onto after we left.
We left Agra and headed back to where the program coordinators house was in Faridabad. We got there around 7pm then had to wait for our various taxi's to come pick us up to take us to our placement. I was supposed to go to an orphanage that was near a hospital where I'd be working with the children on health related issues. Sam and Alice's taxi (aka rickshaw) came and got them then it was Nicola and I left waiting for another 30 minutes. Then Nicola's taxi came, she got her stuff and headed out, as I was sitting there my stomach started doing flips and I started thinking in my head "oh my god, I can't do this! I can't go by myself into some place where I don't know anyone.... everyone is at least paired up with someone else from orientation week, Sam & Alice, Megan and Jeni, and Nicola is going to meet Richard..." So I jumped up and ran out of the door just in time to catch Nicola as she was about to leave, and I yelled out "ok wait! I'm coming with you!!" I grabbed my stuff and jumped in the taxi and felt remarcably better. We headed towards our placement in our little rickshaw, It took about 30 minutes to get there, as we went from paved streets to dirt roads to then feeling like we were suddenly on a motorcross sport course with bumps and divets in the road, getting bumped around all over the place. We finally arrived to our placement, in the middle of nowhere, in a place basically a step above being called the slums. Back home it would have been called the projects area. We walked in, there was a sweet looking family with 5 kids, and only 2 bedrooms, and there were already 3 other volunteers there, plus the two of us who just arrived.... can you do the math in this equation?? The bathroom.... well there was no toilet seat, just a toilet, no shower, just a spout and a bucket.... mind you we had also just spent all day in 105 degree weather in Agra, so my clothes were somewhat dry now from sweating through them and had, had high hopes for taking a shower once I got to what I was imagining would be like our orientation week house. From all of the wonderous information we had gotten about our "volunteer house". Oh the LIES IVHQ has told us. There was no volunteer house, instead it was a bunch of volunteers, in a "house" which had a family already living in it. The area around it was not what we might consider to be so safe. So, after trying to contain my freak out inside my head, along with the tears that wanted to come flooding out. We socialized a bit with the other volunteers. Finally Catalin, one of the volunteers who had been there for a week, said that he hated it there, he hadn't been out of the area for the whole week he was there and he had tried everything he could to leave. So I burst out, "oh thank god, thats exactly how I am feeling right now, I don't think I can stay here". So we talked a bit more, then finally headed off to "bed". When I say bed, really I mean a plank board with a sheet over it. Awful. I managed to finally fall asleep. Then at about 2am my phone kept ringing, finally after about the 7th time calling, I answered, it was Alice calling from her and Sam's placement. They were leaving their place in the morning, cuz their place was even worse. They were staying at an orphanage that was about 60 kilometeres away from Delhi, and absolutely nothing else near them. There was another volunteer who had been there for 8 days already who was so thankful to have other people there to help save him. The guy who ran the place walked around with a gun, and a chain of bullets around his chest, he also had a machine gun in his room. There were rats and mice all over the place along with slaves........... need I say more? So the next morning we arranged for a taxi to come pick up me, richard, nicola and catalin, Lauren was the only one who wanted to stay for some reason. I called Jim and told him what happened and asked if we could all come and congregate at his place till we figured out what to do. He of course said yes, so we all waited around until about 2pm when the taxi came to our rescue. Sam, Alice and Raj also got a taxi and went to the YMCA near by and then came over to Jim's to have a pow-wow. We all sat around and just talked about how crazy this all has been and how we need to contact IVHQ to get our money back. We all then decided to go get a drink to wipe off the stress, which actually turned more into hanging out in Richards lavish 5 star hotel room (ahh richard and his posh lifestyle living Lol) then later nicola and I headed back to Jim's house to crawl into our real beds and drift off to a real and comfortable sleep!!! I woke up this morning around 11 then nicola came blearly eyed out of her room around noon. We both definitely had the same expression on, which was that of an actual rested one.
So now.... I am going to contact another family friend who lives here who has done work with other charities and will know of some safe legit volunteer work that I can do for the remainder of my time here. For now I am going to be crashing here at Jim's house until I figure out what all is going on. But, just know, I am safe!! and I am so incredibly glad that I had my friends here with me and that we all went through that experience together and not alone. Another incredible life experience for the books for sure!
Hugs and Kisses everyone
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Laundry day
So today I made the voyage to Vasant Vihar, where Jim lives, to do my laundry. The taxi cab driver got a bit lost, but eventually I got here. I put my load of whites in (and I am thanking god that I decided to separate the two) then that finished and I hung them up to dry under the fan. Then I put my load of colors in.... well I stupidly forgot that I had my Indian dyed scarf in there, which is yellow.... now ordinarily that would not have mattered since I always wash on cold. Well... cold and hot waters here apparently don't really matter, while I had the machine on cold, because the water barrells are kept on the roof tops in a black plastic container, the water got quite hot, therefore the machine water was quite hot, so you can see where I am going with this.... so now most of my light colored clothing is dyed an oh so lovely shade of pale yellow, which makes everything look dirty and dingy... I suppose that will in the long run of while I am here play to my favor. However there is one shirt in there that I am rather annoyed about getting dyed :-( boooo!!!
So I am now passing my time by updating here, while waiting for my clothes to air dry.
Tonight we are all going to go see a Bollywood movie, no idea which one, I suppose we will decide when we get there? Then tomorrow is the big day, we are going to go see the Taj Mahal!! Quite exciting! Then we will pack up our stuff and head out to our placement projects.
I will be living in Faridabad, New Delhi and will be working in an orphanage teaching healthy habits to the kids. I was originally going to be placed in a hospital, but I really didn't want to do that since I have had that type of internship thing before. Plus, that just isn't my main point of interest, so I really wouldn't be getting the most out of my time here if I did that. And! hopefully oh dear god hopefully, the beds at where we will be staying will be far more comfortable then the one's we have been sleeping on this week. We might as well be sleeping on boards... the mattress's barely provide any cushion, so I literally have bruises on either side of my hips from the beds and I wake up each morning with quite a stiff back.
Anyway, aside from all of that, I am very excited to see how this will all turn out, and what the area that we will be living in will be like. I am also excited to be able to be a bit more free from how we have been this past week. It kind of feels like we have been stuck in this one little area therefore not really able to see much else. Perhaps we could have gone and explored a bit more on our non sightseeing days, but it sort of felt as though we couldn't really. Not really knowing the area very well. It would have been nice to maybe have a day where we split up into our groups of where we are going to be living, and had a tour guide show us around the area. So hopefully some of the other volunteers who are going to be in the same area as I will join me in exploring the area a bit, since I am still a bit nervous to venture out on my own.
That's all I got for now, Namaste everyone
So I am now passing my time by updating here, while waiting for my clothes to air dry.
Tonight we are all going to go see a Bollywood movie, no idea which one, I suppose we will decide when we get there? Then tomorrow is the big day, we are going to go see the Taj Mahal!! Quite exciting! Then we will pack up our stuff and head out to our placement projects.
I will be living in Faridabad, New Delhi and will be working in an orphanage teaching healthy habits to the kids. I was originally going to be placed in a hospital, but I really didn't want to do that since I have had that type of internship thing before. Plus, that just isn't my main point of interest, so I really wouldn't be getting the most out of my time here if I did that. And! hopefully oh dear god hopefully, the beds at where we will be staying will be far more comfortable then the one's we have been sleeping on this week. We might as well be sleeping on boards... the mattress's barely provide any cushion, so I literally have bruises on either side of my hips from the beds and I wake up each morning with quite a stiff back.
Anyway, aside from all of that, I am very excited to see how this will all turn out, and what the area that we will be living in will be like. I am also excited to be able to be a bit more free from how we have been this past week. It kind of feels like we have been stuck in this one little area therefore not really able to see much else. Perhaps we could have gone and explored a bit more on our non sightseeing days, but it sort of felt as though we couldn't really. Not really knowing the area very well. It would have been nice to maybe have a day where we split up into our groups of where we are going to be living, and had a tour guide show us around the area. So hopefully some of the other volunteers who are going to be in the same area as I will join me in exploring the area a bit, since I am still a bit nervous to venture out on my own.
That's all I got for now, Namaste everyone
Friday, July 9, 2010
A wee bit of homesickness
Today was a downtime day, which I am rather glad we had since I am feeling a bit sick. We began today with a short language lesson and then a few people went off to a Hindu Temple, while the rest of us stayed back and took it easy, reading, sleeping etc...
Towards the end of yesterday I had started feeling a bit sick to my stomach, then today I had a bit of headache, and slightly nauseous. Since I am only drinking bottled water as well as brushing my teeth with bottled water I am assuming that this must be due to the heat or the food. So since I am feeling a bit sick today, it has also made me a bit homesick :-( first day though of feeling homesick so that's a plus! since it has been 6 days since I got here. We were watching some "pimp my ride" show (a show where they take an old beaten up car and fix it all up to be a really decked out car) which was called "West Coast Customs" and the American accents and the lingo and well just the show in general really made me miss home. I honestly never thought I would ever say that about home, but there it is, I said it, I actually miss America!
Today was unbelievably hot and I only just went outside at 9pm to go to the market to get some more water. I have found that most of my money is going towards bottles of water, at least they have recycling here!! We only have ceiling fans in the apartment and normally it stays fairly cool when sitting under the fans, but today no matter where you were sitting it was just uncomfortable. I am determined to find myself one of those portable battery operated fans that i can walk around with and have it blowing in my face.
Tomorrow I am going over to Jim's house to do laundry, and while waiting for it to dry perhaps tour around that area of town. I am assuming he has air conditioning, so that will also be really nice to have. A lot of the stores around here do have air conditioning and it's always sooo lovely once you walk inside, I find myself often browsing around a little bit longer just to stay inside where its cool.
Anyways, I am going to sign off now and go lay down and see if I can trick my body into thinking that in fact it actually really cold in my room!! HAH! cross your fingers that this mind trick works guys :-)
Subha Raatri :-)
Towards the end of yesterday I had started feeling a bit sick to my stomach, then today I had a bit of headache, and slightly nauseous. Since I am only drinking bottled water as well as brushing my teeth with bottled water I am assuming that this must be due to the heat or the food. So since I am feeling a bit sick today, it has also made me a bit homesick :-( first day though of feeling homesick so that's a plus! since it has been 6 days since I got here. We were watching some "pimp my ride" show (a show where they take an old beaten up car and fix it all up to be a really decked out car) which was called "West Coast Customs" and the American accents and the lingo and well just the show in general really made me miss home. I honestly never thought I would ever say that about home, but there it is, I said it, I actually miss America!
Today was unbelievably hot and I only just went outside at 9pm to go to the market to get some more water. I have found that most of my money is going towards bottles of water, at least they have recycling here!! We only have ceiling fans in the apartment and normally it stays fairly cool when sitting under the fans, but today no matter where you were sitting it was just uncomfortable. I am determined to find myself one of those portable battery operated fans that i can walk around with and have it blowing in my face.
Tomorrow I am going over to Jim's house to do laundry, and while waiting for it to dry perhaps tour around that area of town. I am assuming he has air conditioning, so that will also be really nice to have. A lot of the stores around here do have air conditioning and it's always sooo lovely once you walk inside, I find myself often browsing around a little bit longer just to stay inside where its cool.
Anyways, I am going to sign off now and go lay down and see if I can trick my body into thinking that in fact it actually really cold in my room!! HAH! cross your fingers that this mind trick works guys :-)
Subha Raatri :-)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Sightseeing and major learning curves
Sorry about not posting yesterday, but after sightseeing all day long then 3 hours spent stuck in traffic, I was exhausted and passed out early.
So to update; yesterday we went sightseeing around New Delhi, we Visited Qutub Minar, Lotus Bahai Temple, and Humayun's Tomb. All very cool, though the most adventurous part of both yesterday and today was driving through traffic in India!! Oh.My.God.!!!!! If you all think traffic in DC or Virginia is bad...... well let me tell you.... traffic at home is walk in the park and tame as hell compared to traffic in India!! holy Jesus, I honestly was fearing for my life driving through it. First of all, as I mentioned before, the lines on the streets are a mere suggestion, which is highly ignored, in fact most of the streets just don't have lines at all. Secondly, they absolutely LOVE the car horns, I can't even figure out what they are honking at half the time. It kind of reminds me of the movie Little Miss Sunshine when their car horn got stuck and just kept on going.
Anyway, moving onto today. Today we visited the India Gate... which was less then impressive since it was under construction.. also as soon as we got out of the car we were bombarded by vendors and people selling the most ridiculous things... sunglasses, little weird fuzzy animal purses, then a lady forcing henna on all of us ladies... finally we got fed up with all of the hustling that we decided to leave and made a mad dash back to the car and hauled it out of there. We then went onto the Red Fort, then the Jama Mosque (which all of us ladies had to put on full dress robes to be totally covered... which was sooo hot since we were all already soaked with sweat given the heat and humidity) then we were taken to a local outdoor bazaar. We ended the day with going to Ghandi's Memorial, where he was actually cremated. It was a nice day, though extremely hot and humid as well as very smelly.
So... a bit about the smell... now I knew that India would be a bit of a culture shock with the hygiene... but it is quite a different thing when actually confronted with it. When we stepped out of the car at the Red Fort, a few of us sort of gagged at the smell, I had to cover my nose with my scarf... a rather strong odor of every bodily fluid possible mixed with body odor, trash and pollution... I can't even describe the overwhelming power of it. Walking through the streets, there is shit in the middle of them, trash everywhere, and the puddles... well you aren't really sure if it's water or something else... Then, people are forcing their items they are trying to sell onto you while you are just trying to keep up with everyone in the group. I certainly don't want to come off as though I am complaining, but you have to understand that it is more just a big culture shock that you can't really prepare for until you are actually faced with it.
Moving onto this evening, we got back much earlier than yesterday, hardly any traffic!! and when I say hardly any traffic that would be the equivalent to lots of traffic back in DC and VA. So we got home and decided that we were up for going out to eat as opposed to the same meals we have been having every night. So we left and got a "taxi" aka Rickshaw (my first time on one... and oh lord quite an experience!!! given how insane regular traffic is... try being in something with no sides and feels like it could tip over at any moment). Then we went to the very modern mall!! which I hate to say.. I was actually quite happy and comforted to be in. After today, and the major in your face culture shock it was nice to be in a place that felt like home. So I got some pasta, while the others got McDonalds then we went to a mexican restaurant to get a few drinks. Quite a sight to see the wait staff dressed up like cowboys Lol so then we left to make our curfew... yes I did just say curfew... I feel like I am in high school again well all of us do (even though some of us only just graduated from high school!! those being Sam and Alice Lol).
Oh so another thing, we are all sitting around chatting and I had forgotten about another thing that happened today. While at one of the sights today it was so bizarre how a lot of the Indian men kept following us and taking pictures. I found it a bit annoying considering they didn't ask to take our pictures. Quite a few times they came up to me and stood right in front of me taking my picture, even one time it was totally in my face... now I know it is because we are all white, and I was wearing a tank top (which is apparently very provocative... I still can't quite grasp that concept) but still a few of us took pictures of the locals but before taking their pictures, we asked them if it was ok.
So, it now having been 5 days of living in India and learning the culture, I am finding new things everyday that are huge learning curves to adjust to.
So... as our driver from yesterday and today would say to us as we got back in the car after seeing a temple or tomb, "happy happy happy??" and we would respond "Khusi Khusi!!" (which means happy in Hindi)
So to update; yesterday we went sightseeing around New Delhi, we Visited Qutub Minar, Lotus Bahai Temple, and Humayun's Tomb. All very cool, though the most adventurous part of both yesterday and today was driving through traffic in India!! Oh.My.God.!!!!! If you all think traffic in DC or Virginia is bad...... well let me tell you.... traffic at home is walk in the park and tame as hell compared to traffic in India!! holy Jesus, I honestly was fearing for my life driving through it. First of all, as I mentioned before, the lines on the streets are a mere suggestion, which is highly ignored, in fact most of the streets just don't have lines at all. Secondly, they absolutely LOVE the car horns, I can't even figure out what they are honking at half the time. It kind of reminds me of the movie Little Miss Sunshine when their car horn got stuck and just kept on going.
Anyway, moving onto today. Today we visited the India Gate... which was less then impressive since it was under construction.. also as soon as we got out of the car we were bombarded by vendors and people selling the most ridiculous things... sunglasses, little weird fuzzy animal purses, then a lady forcing henna on all of us ladies... finally we got fed up with all of the hustling that we decided to leave and made a mad dash back to the car and hauled it out of there. We then went onto the Red Fort, then the Jama Mosque (which all of us ladies had to put on full dress robes to be totally covered... which was sooo hot since we were all already soaked with sweat given the heat and humidity) then we were taken to a local outdoor bazaar. We ended the day with going to Ghandi's Memorial, where he was actually cremated. It was a nice day, though extremely hot and humid as well as very smelly.
So... a bit about the smell... now I knew that India would be a bit of a culture shock with the hygiene... but it is quite a different thing when actually confronted with it. When we stepped out of the car at the Red Fort, a few of us sort of gagged at the smell, I had to cover my nose with my scarf... a rather strong odor of every bodily fluid possible mixed with body odor, trash and pollution... I can't even describe the overwhelming power of it. Walking through the streets, there is shit in the middle of them, trash everywhere, and the puddles... well you aren't really sure if it's water or something else... Then, people are forcing their items they are trying to sell onto you while you are just trying to keep up with everyone in the group. I certainly don't want to come off as though I am complaining, but you have to understand that it is more just a big culture shock that you can't really prepare for until you are actually faced with it.
Moving onto this evening, we got back much earlier than yesterday, hardly any traffic!! and when I say hardly any traffic that would be the equivalent to lots of traffic back in DC and VA. So we got home and decided that we were up for going out to eat as opposed to the same meals we have been having every night. So we left and got a "taxi" aka Rickshaw (my first time on one... and oh lord quite an experience!!! given how insane regular traffic is... try being in something with no sides and feels like it could tip over at any moment). Then we went to the very modern mall!! which I hate to say.. I was actually quite happy and comforted to be in. After today, and the major in your face culture shock it was nice to be in a place that felt like home. So I got some pasta, while the others got McDonalds then we went to a mexican restaurant to get a few drinks. Quite a sight to see the wait staff dressed up like cowboys Lol so then we left to make our curfew... yes I did just say curfew... I feel like I am in high school again well all of us do (even though some of us only just graduated from high school!! those being Sam and Alice Lol).
Oh so another thing, we are all sitting around chatting and I had forgotten about another thing that happened today. While at one of the sights today it was so bizarre how a lot of the Indian men kept following us and taking pictures. I found it a bit annoying considering they didn't ask to take our pictures. Quite a few times they came up to me and stood right in front of me taking my picture, even one time it was totally in my face... now I know it is because we are all white, and I was wearing a tank top (which is apparently very provocative... I still can't quite grasp that concept) but still a few of us took pictures of the locals but before taking their pictures, we asked them if it was ok.
So, it now having been 5 days of living in India and learning the culture, I am finding new things everyday that are huge learning curves to adjust to.
So... as our driver from yesterday and today would say to us as we got back in the car after seeing a temple or tomb, "happy happy happy??" and we would respond "Khusi Khusi!!" (which means happy in Hindi)
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Prince and Princess for a day.... plus a snake charmer
Today was a panic inducing, educational then relaxing day... you're probably wondering how that is possible. Well let me elaborate here.
Today began with a few of us going down the street to grab a coffee to wake us up. Since Lolita (our cook) did not make the wonderful homemade chaai (btw.. that is the true spelling of Chai) that she did yesterday. Anywho, so after 20 minutes of trying to get the correct order of coffee, we headed back towards the house so that we could begin our language lesson. As we were headed home, we passed a guy who looked as if he was selling something to someone in a car, as we passed we saw that it was a snake he was holding!! I immediate began booking it passed the car, as I DETEST reptiles. So I then looked behind me to make sure that the others were still behind me, and then I noticed another guy holding a snake and he was quite quickly following us and calling out to us, so we picked up our pace, as did the snake charmer... he continued to follow us saying things to us that we did not understand. We finally got to our gated community and lost the gross snake charmer. Let me tell you... snake charmers are sooooo NOT charming. Still gives me the heeby jeebies.
We got back to the apartment and then began our fun language lesson!! Today we learned pronouns, adjectives, verbs, food, and then practiced having conversations. Very cool indeed!! It's quite fun learning a new language. Perhaps we will even get to use some of it tomorrow when we go into New Delhi to go sightseeing :-) Oh and it's rather funny the way Hindi is structured, if Hindi were to be translated literally into english it would sound like Yoda speak. Hindi is structured like this: Subj+Obj+Verb whereas English is structured Subj+Verb+Obj. So... in Hindi I would say: Mai Erin Hù which if translated literally into English would be: I Erin am. I find that amusing at least.
So after our language lesson we had lunch, hung out for a bit then my new gay boyfriend Richard and I went to the spa to get pampered. We totally got treated like a Prince and Princess!!! We got manicures and pedicures at the same time... as in we were sitting in the pedicure chair getting our pedicures while another guy worked on our hands! Rather an interesting change that all of the nail people were men. Anyway, this was by far the most elaborate mani/pedi I have ever had. We got salt scrubs on hands, arms, legs, and feet, then some type of a honey massage then they did a pressure point therapy on hands and feet. Then we both got massages, which ended in getting totally stretched out which felt sooo lovely. Now if I were to get this type of spa treatment in the US it would probably cost something like... $300 or maybe more. Well, be prepared to be super jealous... all of that cost $68!!!!!!!! Which is amazing, and makes me so happy, if only I could get $40 one hour massages like that in the states... my back would be so very very happy.
So needless to say I am now extremely relaxed and feeling like a princess :-) dinner is being made and smells amazing, and everyone is chatting away or reading or napping. A rather nice end to a very panicky start to my day.
Hope everyone has a lovely day!!
Namaste <3
Today began with a few of us going down the street to grab a coffee to wake us up. Since Lolita (our cook) did not make the wonderful homemade chaai (btw.. that is the true spelling of Chai) that she did yesterday. Anywho, so after 20 minutes of trying to get the correct order of coffee, we headed back towards the house so that we could begin our language lesson. As we were headed home, we passed a guy who looked as if he was selling something to someone in a car, as we passed we saw that it was a snake he was holding!! I immediate began booking it passed the car, as I DETEST reptiles. So I then looked behind me to make sure that the others were still behind me, and then I noticed another guy holding a snake and he was quite quickly following us and calling out to us, so we picked up our pace, as did the snake charmer... he continued to follow us saying things to us that we did not understand. We finally got to our gated community and lost the gross snake charmer. Let me tell you... snake charmers are sooooo NOT charming. Still gives me the heeby jeebies.
We got back to the apartment and then began our fun language lesson!! Today we learned pronouns, adjectives, verbs, food, and then practiced having conversations. Very cool indeed!! It's quite fun learning a new language. Perhaps we will even get to use some of it tomorrow when we go into New Delhi to go sightseeing :-) Oh and it's rather funny the way Hindi is structured, if Hindi were to be translated literally into english it would sound like Yoda speak. Hindi is structured like this: Subj+Obj+Verb whereas English is structured Subj+Verb+Obj. So... in Hindi I would say: Mai Erin Hù which if translated literally into English would be: I Erin am. I find that amusing at least.
So after our language lesson we had lunch, hung out for a bit then my new gay boyfriend Richard and I went to the spa to get pampered. We totally got treated like a Prince and Princess!!! We got manicures and pedicures at the same time... as in we were sitting in the pedicure chair getting our pedicures while another guy worked on our hands! Rather an interesting change that all of the nail people were men. Anyway, this was by far the most elaborate mani/pedi I have ever had. We got salt scrubs on hands, arms, legs, and feet, then some type of a honey massage then they did a pressure point therapy on hands and feet. Then we both got massages, which ended in getting totally stretched out which felt sooo lovely. Now if I were to get this type of spa treatment in the US it would probably cost something like... $300 or maybe more. Well, be prepared to be super jealous... all of that cost $68!!!!!!!! Which is amazing, and makes me so happy, if only I could get $40 one hour massages like that in the states... my back would be so very very happy.
So needless to say I am now extremely relaxed and feeling like a princess :-) dinner is being made and smells amazing, and everyone is chatting away or reading or napping. A rather nice end to a very panicky start to my day.
Hope everyone has a lovely day!!
Namaste <3
Monday, July 5, 2010
Learning new terminology
Namaste everyone! It is interesting to be around a mix of people from all over the globe and see the differences in terminology. We have all come to this amusing realization while having conversations... although usually I am the person going "wait... what?? your hanging out for a coffee?" Well in New Zealand "hanging out" means to crave or desire something. There are many other amusing differences between our cultures which comes out every day, very cool indeed.
Today two more girls arrived, one from Australia and one from Scotland. Such a diverse house!! Today was a lot of just sitting around, rather boring, we had our introduction to India, got the history of India then a quick language lesson of greetings. However, I wasn't feeling too well, rather nauseous... not sure why maybe it was the food or just getting used to it being so hot and humid all the time and no air conditioning. I am feeling much better now though thank god.
Not a whole lot to say about today since it was fairly low key. Tomorrow we have another language lesson, then we get to go explore and maybe take in a Bollywood movie. I keep pushing to take a dance class, but that may have to wait until we move from here into Delhi to our post. Also, tomorrow a few of us are going to get pampered :-) we found a lovely spa near us and with how cheap everything is.... we are soooo getting massages and pedicures!! after having been in transit for 3 days and with how nasty the streets are and that we walk everywhere.... our feet need some TLC as well. My left shoulder right now is pinching and I have no idea why, so I am very much looking forward to getting pampered at a really nice spa for insanely cheap price.
Oh oh... so something that is also interesting is seeing all of these Indian TV shows, for example right now Indian Idol is on and wow..... oh so different! Also, the Indian soap operas are hysterical, granted so are American ones, just very different, hard to explain.
So that is all for today
Subha Raatri :-) (aka Good Night)
Today two more girls arrived, one from Australia and one from Scotland. Such a diverse house!! Today was a lot of just sitting around, rather boring, we had our introduction to India, got the history of India then a quick language lesson of greetings. However, I wasn't feeling too well, rather nauseous... not sure why maybe it was the food or just getting used to it being so hot and humid all the time and no air conditioning. I am feeling much better now though thank god.
Not a whole lot to say about today since it was fairly low key. Tomorrow we have another language lesson, then we get to go explore and maybe take in a Bollywood movie. I keep pushing to take a dance class, but that may have to wait until we move from here into Delhi to our post. Also, tomorrow a few of us are going to get pampered :-) we found a lovely spa near us and with how cheap everything is.... we are soooo getting massages and pedicures!! after having been in transit for 3 days and with how nasty the streets are and that we walk everywhere.... our feet need some TLC as well. My left shoulder right now is pinching and I have no idea why, so I am very much looking forward to getting pampered at a really nice spa for insanely cheap price.
Oh oh... so something that is also interesting is seeing all of these Indian TV shows, for example right now Indian Idol is on and wow..... oh so different! Also, the Indian soap operas are hysterical, granted so are American ones, just very different, hard to explain.
So that is all for today
Subha Raatri :-) (aka Good Night)
Sunday, July 4, 2010
First day in New Delhi
Well folks, I have arrived safely and have experienced my first day in New Delhi. I am already having such a blast! It truly does feel like I am living in the movie La Berge Espanole (The Spanish Apartment)... its a foreign film about a guy who is studying abroad and is living in an apartment with people from all over the place. I arrived this morning with two guys, Sam and Richard from London, then got to the apartment we are staying in where there were two people already there, Alice from Quebec Canada and Catalin (a guy) from Romania. Then later 2 girls arrived; Lauren from Australia and Megan from New Zealand. Quite a mix!!
So, the drive from the airport was rather adventurous.... the lines that divide the traffic from the different directions seem to be only mere suggestions, people don't run across the street to get to the other side, instead they seem to act as though they were taking a leisurely stroll through the park. Also, there are cows, donkeys and dogs walking down the street.
So after Sam, Richard and I arrived at the apartment and met everyone else, we decided to go explore and get toilet paper and water. Richard said that he had a rather odd experience at the airport when faced with the non toilet, toilet... aka a hole in the ground, no toilet paper but instead a hose to rinse off. GROSS! I am very pleased to say I have yet to encounter this, and pray to god that I don't.
We then found a place to eat, then moved over to a place to have a couple drinks and chit chat. As we started home, we discovered that evening is when millions of flying ants come out with a vengeance!! I am not kidding around, literally they were covering the ground and swarming through the air.... so, night time is definitely not the best time for a stroll.
Tomorrow we begin our Hindi language class, and not quite sure what all else is planned. Some more exploring for sure, just not sure where. I also am still not fully sure about what I am doing with my programme, Ananta (our program coordinator) also seems to not be fully sure, so I am hoping this gets resolved soon in one way or another.
That is all for now, I am beyond exhausted and I am hoping that I will be able to finally sleep tonight!!! I basically have not slept since about Friday.
xoxo
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Day at Wimbledon
Well.... I landed this morning in London (6:30am) and of course was not able to sleep on the plane.... so as the Brits would say "I'm bloody nackard!!" I went through customs and headed out towards Betsy's house. I got there looking like a zombie, chatted with Betsy and had a mini tour of the apartment, well had a tour of Chloe's room given of course by little Chloe (who has the most adorable British accent!!) then contemplated as to whether I should take a nap or push on and head over to Wimbledon... I chose the second option, my excitement about going there was just too much to contain. So I soldiered on and got myself over to Wimbledon!! and oh how exciting it was to be there :-) I of course had to take part in the traditions, so I had a Pims and got some strawberries and cream (minus the cream) then I strolled over with my drink and fruit and sat down at court #6 which was right next to court #5 where there was a match going on, however since I had gotten there fairly early non of the professionals were playing yet. None the less, it was an experience of which I thouroughly enjoyed! I had sat down next to an older lady who had the programme information with all of the matches being played etc... So I asked her who was playing over at court #5, she attempted saying the names but couldn't then said "oh I am so sorry, I think I drank my Pims too fast... is there alcohol in that??" I laughed and said, well yes there is, but it tastes like iced tea so it's easy to drink quickly... it was rather amusing. Anyway we then struck up a conversation, turns out she is from South Africa and is a nurse (so of course we immediately bonded over that), but has been living in the England for the past five years while she tours around Europe. She casually said "I think I may be ready to go back home now, I've seen just about everything I've wanted to see... though I may go to South America since I've never been." Meanwhile I was thinking to myself... uhhh wish I could do that!!!
Anyway, as it hit about 1:00pm I began hitting a wall, and decided I should start heading back to the house so I could take a nap. As I was winding my way back towards the gate I passed by the Tennis Club, where only the players, special people and press are allowed, and I saw Serena!! and her dad, but by the time I got my camera out, on, and ready to shoot she had just about gone inside... so the picture mainly shows her dad and I think maybe a sliver of her hat, but at least I know it's her hat! hahah
So, once I got back to the house I attempted to take a nap, it ended up being more like a half sleep nap, but still felt good to lie down, as many of you have said, at some point I will just be so tired of traveling that I'll just want to have arrived and be done with the flying.... you are all indeed right on point with that. I am so ready to just be there!!! I am also hoping that the stupid food service does not leave out my meal this time!! The flight crew had my order on the list, but somehow it did not make it onto the plane... but I was quite impressed with how they worked with me and managed to find me a meal that was vegetarian and had no dairy. 5 stars to the Virgin Atlantic crew!!!
So that is all for now, I depart tonight for New Delhi at 10pm so maybe I will try again at the napping.
Anyway, as it hit about 1:00pm I began hitting a wall, and decided I should start heading back to the house so I could take a nap. As I was winding my way back towards the gate I passed by the Tennis Club, where only the players, special people and press are allowed, and I saw Serena!! and her dad, but by the time I got my camera out, on, and ready to shoot she had just about gone inside... so the picture mainly shows her dad and I think maybe a sliver of her hat, but at least I know it's her hat! hahah
So, once I got back to the house I attempted to take a nap, it ended up being more like a half sleep nap, but still felt good to lie down, as many of you have said, at some point I will just be so tired of traveling that I'll just want to have arrived and be done with the flying.... you are all indeed right on point with that. I am so ready to just be there!!! I am also hoping that the stupid food service does not leave out my meal this time!! The flight crew had my order on the list, but somehow it did not make it onto the plane... but I was quite impressed with how they worked with me and managed to find me a meal that was vegetarian and had no dairy. 5 stars to the Virgin Atlantic crew!!!
So that is all for now, I depart tonight for New Delhi at 10pm so maybe I will try again at the napping.
Friday, July 2, 2010
And the Journey Begins...
Well folks, the time has finally come!!! Today is the day I depart on my five week journey through India. I am a bundle of emotions; excitement, curiosity, nervousness... and many other emotions, which I can't fully describe.
I began today with a nice 2 mile sprint interval run followed by 40 minutes of stretching yoga. I felt this was necessary to get myself all stretched out for my two day journey.
In preparing for my departure, I have been all over the place with nerves and anxiety about what is to come, so I have decided to take things step by step. To begin with I am super super excited to be able to go to Wimbledon tomorrow!!! (July 3rd) how very cool that my layover is long enough for me to be able to see Betsy (my cousin) Chloe and baby Nina! (her daughters) as well as go see Wimbledon and perhaps also squeeze in a nap on a horizontal surface as opposed to the lovely vertical airplane seats.
The next step would be my arrival in New Delhi. Millions of questions are swirling through my head, but I am doing my best to keep them quiet and simply go with the flow and enjoy each and every moment.
So... here we go.... I am trying my best to detach calmly from my little one, Daisy, I know Val will take spectacular care of her which is very comforting, but I still can't help but be sad. So I did the mommy thing and printed out pictures of her to bring with me :-) I know I know laugh all you want guys, but she is my big furball of love!! Lol I mean wouldn't you miss this face??
Yea... that's what I thought!! haha
Anyway, so lots of love to everyone!! and I will write tomorrow to update on how awesome Wimbledon was!! and maybe post pictures of the girls :-)
Ciao!! or wait no..... Namaste!!
I began today with a nice 2 mile sprint interval run followed by 40 minutes of stretching yoga. I felt this was necessary to get myself all stretched out for my two day journey.
In preparing for my departure, I have been all over the place with nerves and anxiety about what is to come, so I have decided to take things step by step. To begin with I am super super excited to be able to go to Wimbledon tomorrow!!! (July 3rd) how very cool that my layover is long enough for me to be able to see Betsy (my cousin) Chloe and baby Nina! (her daughters) as well as go see Wimbledon and perhaps also squeeze in a nap on a horizontal surface as opposed to the lovely vertical airplane seats.
The next step would be my arrival in New Delhi. Millions of questions are swirling through my head, but I am doing my best to keep them quiet and simply go with the flow and enjoy each and every moment.
So... here we go.... I am trying my best to detach calmly from my little one, Daisy, I know Val will take spectacular care of her which is very comforting, but I still can't help but be sad. So I did the mommy thing and printed out pictures of her to bring with me :-) I know I know laugh all you want guys, but she is my big furball of love!! Lol I mean wouldn't you miss this face??
Yea... that's what I thought!! haha
Anyway, so lots of love to everyone!! and I will write tomorrow to update on how awesome Wimbledon was!! and maybe post pictures of the girls :-)
Ciao!! or wait no..... Namaste!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)