South Tour Pictures Part One (Golkunda Fort, Hydrabad)

My friend, Nisha Khan, and I.  Nisha is from Onterio, Canada. This is the only picture not from my camera, our friend, Amanda, took this. One of the other students (Franzi from Germany) made a CD with a mix of the best of everyone's pictures from the whole tour and gave them to us for Christmas so now I have around 3,000 pictures from the tour alone.

The whole group plus random Indians in the background. That's one of the problems with being a foreigner here, everyone tries to get in your pictures and EVERYONE wants a picture of you. Sometimes people ask but most of the time, they try to be sneaky and try to get a picture without you noticing. This gets VERY old after awhile.

First row, left to right: Dascha (Oregon, born in Russia), Nisha (Onterio, Canada)
Second row, left to right: Sebastian (Colombia), Hannah (Germany), Me, Franzi (Germany), Aafreen (India), Serenity (Florida, born in Korea), Olivia (Michigan)
Back row, left to right: Chris Yoder (Illinois), Amanda (Washington state), Nikolas (Germany), Jordan (Oregon), Sabrina (Austria), Jakob (Germany), Brii (Onterio), Anais (France), Michelle (Germany)

Merry Christmas (Exchange Student Style)

I just returned this morning from a week in Nagpur where most of the other exchange students on the South Tour were from. We arrived the 23rd and spent that day and the next learning a practicing dances for their district conference. Because we only had 2 days to learn, the students from my district only did one dance. It was a Bengali traditional folk dance. Christmas eve we went to a Christmas party at a country club as the guests of one of the student's parents. From there we attended a midnight mass at a nearby church which was a really special and emotional thing for a lot of people. That night, we slept at the house of their counselor and stayed up late discussing our various Christmas traditions. This may have been my favorite part of the night because for me that's what a big part of being an exchange student is about, sharing cultures. On Christmas day, after a quick change we met once again to go to the conference an hour outside of the city. On the bus ride over we exchanged secret santa gifts that we had drawn at the end out the tour. All the gifts were placed under a little "christmas tree" potted plant that we brought on the bus. Some people also brought small things for the whole group like sweets, CDs of photos from the tour, or, I brought a collection of silly bands...
The rest of the day was spent hanging out and preparing for that night's performance. Some of the dances that the other students did were amazing. The exchange student show is an annual favorite at the function I guess and it's often said that the foreigners know the dances better than some Indians.
Below is a link to one of 3 newspaper articles about us and out practices. There were also 2 news television broadcasts.

http://www.ehitavada.com/site.home/paper_type/13/date/2010-12-25/page_no/8

The 26th, we also returned to the conference. The rest of our time was spent just hanging out. I had a great trip and everything but it was also nice to return home today to my family and everything.

In some ways Christmas wasn't as hard, missing home-wise, but in other ways it was harder. I didn't expect to have any kind of christmas and as long as I didn't think about home and our traditions, which I didn't really, it was fine. However, when several of your close friends are missing home, it's easy to follow suit and think about what you're missing. But when I stopped to reflect on the fun I was having, the people I was with, were I was, and everything it all amounted to much more positive feelings than I could have possibly had negative. I hope that made sense.

I still promise for South Tour pictures but it's time for me to go to bed,

Another Family

Blogging has not been on my mind in the past few days.
 As soon as I returned from the tour I had to switch gears and unpack everything just to repack it again. This time though, I had to pack EVERYTHING since I switched families on Sunday. It seems like all my stuff has multiplied since the last time I moved.
My new host family is not far from the previous one. They live in a relatively unpolluted and diverse colony ( I was told many times that people of all religions and castes live together and get along). There are also a fair number of animals who come because there is a very small wooded area. This morning when I was walking to the bus there was a flock of wild peacocks in the road. That's another great thing about my new location, the junior section for my school is at the end of the road and all the buses start and finish their rounds here. I don't have to leave until 8 in the morning when one of the buses returns to drop off kids for the junior school.
My new family consists of my mother and father who are both doctors and my 20 year old host sister. We live on the third floor of the apartment building in a two-bedroom flat. My host aunt, uncle, and cousin who's 15 live below us. I think the family owns the whole building. Everyone is very nice, VERY nice. When I first arrived my cousin and I spent a couple hours walking around and I met some of the other girls (mostly younger) and people who live in the colony.
I'm sure I'll think of more to say later but for now I have homework and other things I need to do. I also promise to put pictures from the tour up as soon as possible but there is no wireless internet here so I have to transfer them from my laptop to my sister's.

Home Again...

I returned to Indore on Friday morning while it might be great to be back and living a regular routine I miss being on tour very much. I had an AMAZING time, that's an understatement but I don't know how else to put it (hope the caps lock helped).
There were 18 students, mostly from Germany or Canada and the US. From start to finish, the trip went far to quickly. We started in Nagpur where a lot of the students are living and took a night bus ride from there. Most other nights were spent at hotel except for a few that we spent rocking on the bunks of trains.
 From the get go, we were busy every day visiting dozens of temples and other sights and monuments. We spent a few days simply relaxing on beaches or strolling through markets bargaining for souvenirs and gifts. Mostly though, it was a wake up at 7 and non-stop doing things until dinner time even is those things were sitting on a bus for a few hours watching India roll by.
ONe of my favorite days came towards the end of the middle of the trip (if that makes sense). We started the day in warm and balmy Mysore but by the end of the day our bus had climbed thousands of feet into the mountains in a hill station city call Ooty. The drive was breathtaking in a way I had never experienced before. We drove high above the valley we had come from winding on dangerous switchbacks, a sign at each hairpin bend reminding drivers how many people had died there previous years. The scenes were stunning though, lush, unbroken green of the wildlife preserve spread out in the valley below. Trees and bushes clung to the rocked mountain side and above us craggy peaks soared into the clouds. The vegetation at the bottom could only have been described as tropical but at we ascended, it began to resemble the forests at home or in the Pacific Northwest. Both the small villages we passed and the city of Ooty itself were much like what I expect to find if I ever make it to the small mountainside villages in South America. Terraces covered the hills growing the areas produce as well as thousands of pounds of tea to be exported.
 The hotel we stayed in had a magnificent view of the town below, it was built terraced into the side of the mountain with the wall facing out made all out of glass. The whole time we were there a cloud layer surrounded the mountains and valleys making us feel like we were in our own world up there that we had driven to.
Another of my favorite places we stayed was Goa, though it was a favorite for a whole different set or reasons. Goa is THE vacation destination to go to in India, it's a major beach town. We got to spend long relaxing hours on the beaches. Another night we spent in a houseboat in the backwaters of Allappy where we passed single homes on lone islands and Indians rowing by in small homemade canoes. It was another extremely relaxing night, we listened to music, danced, swam, and watched one of the best sunsets ever!
I wish I could go on to describe every temple, every beach, every moment of tour but that would be beyond my and the computers capabilities. I plan on posting pictures as soon as I can but if you're my friend on facebook you can see both my pictures and the hundreds that my friends have posted.

Going Away

This is probably going to be my last post for about a month.
On Sunday all the exchange student in this district and many others throughout India are starting on a 25 day tour of the south of India.
We go to Nagpur, Hyrdrabad, Channai, Mahabalipuram, Kanchipuram, Bangalore, Hassan, Shravanbalgola, Balur, Halbid, Mysore, Ooty, Polachi, Munnar, Thakkadi, Allappy (backwaters), trivandrum, Kovalam, Kanyakumari, Cochin, Goa, Mumbai, and back home again.
It will be a big and busy trip! I still have a lot to do to get ready!
I'm looking forward to meeting the other exchange students from lots of different countries and who are staying all over India. We can compare different experiences!
I haven't been doing much in this past week except school and homework. It was kind of nice to have a routine back after the hectic holidays.
If I have time and internet access at some point on the tour I will try to post a quick update but I don't know if that will happen! Don't fear, I haven't abandoned my attempts to keep a blog going...

Home Sweet Home

Mostly because my mom's been begging me to, I'm these are pictures of my room and home.

My room (bed, wardrobe, desk, the door leads the the bathroom).

My bed, beanbag chair.

Another view...

From in front of the wardrobe.

The garden in front, between the house and the wall.

Tuffy!

The living room, my host father and grandmother watching TV. The windows behind the couch are stained glass and look into the computer/ sitting room.

HAPPY DIWALI!

Yesterday was the official day of Diwali.
Wednesday marked the start of the festival which is technically a 5 day festival but the middle day (yesterday) is THE DIWALI. Wednesday evening, we dresses in traditional clothing and preformed puja (a type of prayer ceremony in front of the temple in our house) and set lit diya in important places all around the house to show the god where to come and bless. After dinner we went out shopping for silver and gold. It is traditional that ever household buy something, it can be anything, silver or gold on the first day of Diwali, all the jewelry shops were packed with people. We also stopped at a huge market area that had been set up where there were dozens of stall selling every imaginable variety of fire works.
Thursday night, after puja, Shruti, my host dad, and I set of some of the fireworks we had bought. After dinner, we all drove around the city stopping at sweet shops looking for the best one to buy from. Driving around the city at night during Diwali is really cool. All of the shops and home are fully decked out in lights and decoration. The mall front are covered in strings of lights. Our own house has hundreds of lights string all  over the outside. People set of crackers and fireworks in the streets and run around with sparklers, which may not be the safest thing, it gives the whole city a very festive mood.
Last night, I dressed in a borrowed silk sari, we had a longer puja and put more diya than previous night out. In each room, my host mother had painted a small design on the floor to place the diya in the center of. I was going to take a picture of the one in my room but the maid mopped the floor before I could this morning. We ate a large, traditional dinner, sitting on the floor and then set of the rest of the fireworks we had bought. The fireworks started before it was even dark out and had not stopped by 1 in the morning when I went to bed. This morning, people were still setting them off despite the lack of darkness. Out my window, I could see them both near and far, we could also hear many more than we could see. The rest of the night, we ate traditional, homemade snacks and visited neighbors, as well as welcomed visitors into our home. My host parents received at least a dozen phone calls from family whole live in other cities.
Today, the day after Diwali, my host parents are out visiting family members and paying their respects. Shruti and I are at home relaxing.

Our house all lit up for Diwali, my room is window behind the colored lights.

The electric diya lights along the wall outside our house.

My house.

Baba, a servant/ guard, and tuffy, the dog, in the gateway of our house.

The garden lights.

Rangoli, colored sand designs, are made everyday out in front of the house.

A real diya sitting in the wall by the gate, they were placed all over the house to show the god where to enter to bless a place like next to doors, windows, and on balconies. 

Shruti with a sparkler in her brand-new Diwali kurti that she designed. 

The garden, swing, and "christmas tree" all lit up.

My Diwali sari (she colors don't show too well).

Deep Cleaning

The festival Diwali is coming up (I had mistakenly said that the previous nine day festival was Diwali, it wasn't) so we have no school this week. When explained to me, people have said that Diwali is like our Christmas, but it seems to me to be more like a Christmas and New Years eve spread over 5 consistent days with as much energy and celebration on the first as on the last. Large amounts of fireworks are used, strings of lights are hung, and the little "diya" lamps are put all over the house so that the god knows where to come to bless.
For Diwali, every house had to be cleaned. When I say cleaned, I mean CLEANED! Today all of the cushions were taken off of the couches, the couches moved and turned upside down, all pillow and couch covers were removed, every drawer and shelf was emptied and cleaned, every corner swept and dusted, a hose was even run into to house and the floors were flooded and washed. I wish I had taken pictures.... The usual maids, the driver, and another man all spent the day in the house helping clean. There was no surface left unwashed. Even the chairs in the garden were scrubbed down. It was the most intense cleaning I have ever seen in my life. This cleaning happens every year for the festival. In some houses, they even repaint or bleach the houses, it's the busiest time of year for painters. My host mother told me that wherever you go, leading up to Diwali, you will see people cleaning and painting.
Diwali is also a time to buy many new things. So far, my host family has gotten both a new cell phone, and a new landline, some towels, a few clothing items, and many other things. On Diwali, it's custom to wear brand new clothing so we will be clothes shopping this week too. This year, Diwali is on the 5th of November.

Posts With Pictures

This is just a list of the posts that have pictures incase you missed them. Usually, if I add pictures, I end up adding them to an old post and I realize that people don't always look back on old ones. So the titles of posts with pictures from the beginning:
-Days 4 and 5
-Festival, Day 6
-Sat and Sun (I added pictures)
-Pictures
-Monsoon Season
-More Pictures
-New Family
-Factory Visit
-The Village
-Links
-Wedding Jewels and Hindu Temples
-Bhopal
-Happy Navaratri
-Dance Pictures
-Clothing

FOOD

I've had a request (Nonny...) to discuss the food I eat in India. This is a HUGE topic to cover but I'll do my best...
Before school every morning, my host mother cooks breakfast. I always have a glass of cold milk, sometimes with chocolate power in it. There are several things we most commonly eat for breakfast: toast and apples, corn flakes (one of the only cold cereals you can get here), oatmeal, we also have a traditional Indian breakfast that's very popular in this area of the country called pooha. Pooha is a rice-like grain that is cooked with seasoning and potatoes, it's a little heavier than what you would normally eat for breakfast in the U.S. but still very tasty. Sometimes pooha is also served with jelebie, a sweet.
If I don't have school and I'm up by 8ish, when my host parents have tea then I join them for some chai and "biscuits" (almost like cookies but not so sweet.)
I'm not going to lie and say I love any of the school food...
After second period we have snack which can consist of many things, there is always something to drink, luke-warm milk with flavoring, very strong juice, luke-warm tomato soup, or another milk dish with noodle type things in them. Then to eat there's chinese noodles, pasta, bread and jam or a potato based filling, and sometimes other traditional snacks that I don't know the name of...
I prefer the lunch to snack but I still usually eat very little. With both meals at school, you have to always eat everything that's on the plate at your place plus, if there's something not already on your plate when you arrive, you have to take some of that. One of the problems with the school food is that they have to dish out hundreds of plates of food before the bell is rung for lunch so when we take our seats, the food is far from being warm. I've learned a lot of the tricks from my classmates about how to avoid eating food you dislike but it's not always possible.
Lunch is always daal (sort of like a soup...) or something similar (I don't really know what qualifies as daal and not daal), "subsie" (not spelled right) which basically means vegetables and can be anything but at school it usually mostly potato, and rice or roti ( a flat bread).  As a side note, I've noticed that here, potato is considered a vegetable and the main on at that, but at home, it's a starch and not on the same nutrition level as vegetables.
As I said, I usually have the minimal amount possible during the school lunch, so does Shruti (my host sister). When we get home, we are served a real lunch. I usually have roti, daal, and subsie. In some ways, it sounds similar to what is served at school except that the roti is made fresh and is still warm, at is the rest of the food, and the flavoring is much better. Roti, chapati, parata, are some of the many, very similar flat breads that are eaten at meals.
Dinner is eaten anytime between 7 and 10 depending on the day and when people are hungry. Again, we eat more roti  or rice and vegetables as well as some kind of daal. The portions are bigger though. I sometimes have curd with the vegetable too or with a little sugar added after dinner.
The food I eat on a regular basis is different from all of the traditional dishes of which I don't know most of their names. In the house, we eat those dishes on some festivals or when at a party. After meals, many people like to have breath fresheners which is usually fennel, or other natural digestion aids.
My favorite vegetable is lady finger's which several of the other exchange students don't like but I do. My favorite dish so far, it a paneer dish that Shruti makes. Paneer is made from the milk that curdles when you add lemon and then compressed. Like tofu, it tends to take on a little of the flavor of whatever you cook it in. Speaking of tofu, I have eaten meat only twice since being here. Both times is was the same chicken dish at the same restaurant. It's advised not to eat fish anywhere except for in the coast and most other meat except for mutton are against a religion. Muslims don'r eat pork meat and Hindus are either vegetarian or don't eat any beef. The vegetarianism also translates to egg so many baked goods don't have egg. Ritu Grover, the coordinator eats chicken and egg, so I've had eggs for breakfast when staying at her house. The no egg diet makes it hard for me because I want to cook my host family something American but I have a hard time thinking of something I can cook that had not meat or egg and I can find all the ingredients here.
One of the common questions I get is "Veg or non-veg." When I tell people I'm non-veg at home, they all want to know what kind of meat I like best.
I honestly don't really miss meat and I'm trying to decide if I want to go back to eating it when I get home. I might also just cut out red meat.
Occasionally, I eat pizza, pastas, ice cream, and McDonald's food (vegetarian McDonald's). Usually I only eat these if I'm out with friends, traveling, or it's a special occasion like a birthday party.
It took me a little bit to get used to eating with my hands. The most difficult, it learning how to eat liquidy foods with a piece of roti. When eating utensils are used, it is usually a spoon. In fact, they give us both a spoon and fork when we have rice at school, but my friends told me that the fork is supposed to only be used to help push the food onto the spoon.
 A person should always eat with their right hand and handle the serving utensils with their left if they have to. You always should wash your hands after eating with them and wash them before handling anything in the kitchen. My host mother insists in seeing everyone fed or served before she'll sit down to her own dinner which means that her meal times are extremely dependent on the family.
Indian table manners would NOT cut it in the U.S. besides eating with hands, people snort, cough, burp, fart, whatever at the table, at least in the house, in public it's not so bad. However, no matter where you are, some people eat REALLY loudly with their mouths wide open, talking, chewing as loudly as possible, slurping, and smacking their lips. Unfortunately, my obsessive pet peeve is people chewing loudly but I swear after having to live through a year of this in India I will NEVER complain about someone chewing loudly again. Some people I can barely stand to be in the room with when eating and have to leave as soon as possible to keep from loosing it...
The food in India is AMAZING, as I hoped it would be. Sometimes it can get really spicy but I'm getting more used to it and my host family doesn't really eat super spicy food anyways. All food though, is very flavorful whether it be salty, spicy, sweet, or any of the other hundreds of seasonings that there are.

One More Festival

Yesterday was another festival. This one is only celebrated by married women, it's especially popular in the Punjabi caste. All of the married women at school were wearing nice saris and many of the had mehendi (henna) on their hands. Wives fasted all day yesterday and in the evening they did pooja and prayed for their husband's health, happiness, longevity, prosperity, and faithfulness. At one of the hotels in town, thousands of women got together and spent two hours praying. When the moon was out and clearly visible, a ceremony was preformed. For the ceremony, you have to face a certain direction even if it means standing in the street. After that, they could have dinner. Some people have really big family gatherings at night.
Shruti and I went to visit her old apartment building for dinner. We saw their old apartment and then had dinner with the couple across the hall. Shruti grew up with them living across the hall and she would go across and visit them as soon as she could walk, they are like her second parents. They were really nice and the wife was so excited to meet me.

Yesterday, on the bus, I talked to a kid on the school bus who asked me what country I was from. When I I told him I was from the U.S. he told me his sister went to college there, at a school in a really small school on the Canadian border called Dartmouth. I told him that was basically where I lived. The other younger kids on the bus were confused because they thought I was from Boston since when I explain where I'm from, I usually say "My state is Vermont, it's sort of near Boston." I wish I had a map of America that I could carry around in my pocket to show people where I'm actually from. I could also show people where other places they ask about are in relation to where I live. Some people assume that places like California are near to me even though I try to explain that I'm all the way on the other coast and that the Canada border it REALLY long, all the way across the top of the country.

Rotary, Rotary, Rotary

This weekend was very busy. Saturday after school, we went to one last garba. It was a big celebration for all of the Rotary clubs in the city. An even t like this really gives you a perspective for the size of the Rotary community in the city. There were vendors, food, dress contests, female club members and the wives of club members from each club had prepared dances and competed. There was also open garba when everyone got a chance to dance. The night lasted very late but was very fun!
Sunday, was the official District Governor's visit to my the club that my host father it president of. We had her and a few other important people over for breakfast where Shruti, Lata, and I severed and ate separately. We didn't interact with the Rotarians much until the evening when we went to the District Governor meeting. Many Rotarians were there and again, the evening went very late, almost later than the dance. It was a very busy weekend but I had a fun especially because I got to dress up in Indian clothes all weekend. I wore a sari on Saturday and Sunday night I wore one of my salwar suits.
I have school all six days this week but it's the last week before Diwali break which I am really looking forward to. It's supposed to be a very big festival.

Clothing

India is such a beautiful and vibrant country. The people have an ancient and colorful culture which is, perhaps, most obviously displayed through clothing.
Traditional Indian clothing varies from greatly across the country but almost everywhere, you'll find people wearing vibrant colors. On the streets of Indore, the city where I live, one will always find a medley of both  the colorful "traditionals" and "westerns." On the most part, the grown and married women wear saris, kurtis, or salwar suits. From what I've seen, younger women and girls tend to lean towards wearing "westerns" but there are still many younger people who wear the traditional clothing as well. Jeans and t-shirts are very common, so is a combination of traditional and western, jeans with a short kurti on top. Most of my friends and host sisters have told me they much prefer westerns. One of my past host sister's looked at me like I was crazy when I said I wanted to buy lots of traditionals. When girls wear westerns they aren't like those that we wear at home, pants or skirts should be a respectable length (skirts usually go only a little above the knee at the shortest) and shirts usually don't show shoulders or too much chest. During festivals, you see many more girls in traditionals, especially when there is a major public event involved. The only time I've seen a girl wearing shorts is around the hose and even then, the shorts are fairly long by our standards.
For things like birthday parties, girls often dress up in "one pieces" (dresses) it doesn't seen so common for a casual dress to be worn during the day.
Most men and boys seem to wear westerns more than traditionals. It's certainly more common, on the street to see males in pants and t-shirts or button downs. I have seen many, many playboy t-shirts on young men too. Most of the men I've met who wear traditonals regularly are much older, in both of my host families the grandfathers wear traditionals on a regular basis. Again, during special events of major holidays, you'll see many more men wearing kurtis or other traditionals but the percentage is still lower than the women wearing them.
Clothing to school is a totally different story, forget lots of bright colors. All schools below college have uniforms. At my school, we have jeans and a white polo t-shirt for boys and girls can wear that or a denim top and white bottom salwar suit. Other schools vary, at some the boys have to wear slacks and button downs and ties. Girl's uniforms differ more, there are salwar suits, pleated skirts and blouses, pleated dresses and blouses, and sometimes for younger girls a sailor style dress. On the way to school in the morning, I try to memorize which school has which uniforms because once you know that, you can tell what school anyone goes to. Schools also have very specific rule like, girls have to have their hair up preferably in braids, no nail polish, no dangle earring, no jewelry etc.
Traditional clothing is my favorite. For the nine days festival, I got to wear and see some spectacular patterns and clothing! The jewelry isn't so bad either....
People ask me what traditional clothes in the US look like and I usually say that we don't have them. I guess I could describe native american clothing, or colonial clothing but that's not the same. I am almost jealous of these people who still wear the same style clothing that they have been wearing for hundreds of years. I wish we had a cultural heritage that old that was still so alive. Plus the clothing here is just gorgeous.

The pictures I'm adding are what I could find in way of examples for the clothing. Some of the pictures might be ones I've used before, there are also probably good examples of traditional wear in other posts too.

At the garba on the night of Sebastian's birthday. Jordan (left) is wearing his kurti with jeans. I'm wearing a sari. Sebastian is wearing his "kurti pajamas," a traditional way for men to wear kurtis (the exchange student boys have a hard time getting used to wearing the close fitting pants). Hannah (right) is wearing lehenga.

Very often, women wear traditional clothing out while men tend to wear western clothes.

This night I was wearing lehenga and the others in this picture are all wearing saris.

One of my kurtis. A kurti is usually worn with leggings or jeans and a scarf called a "stole" or "dupatta."

This night I was wearing a salwar suit which is a kurti top with loose baggy pants and a scarf. The salwars are probably the most comfortable pants I have ever worn!

Sebastian's birthday. My host sister was wearing a sari. A sari has three parts: a blouse which can be long or short and the sleeve sizes vary, a plane colored petty-coat skirt on the bottom, and then a very big piece of cloth that is wrapped around and tuck into the skirt and the draped of the shoulder. A lehenga also has three parts: a blouse the same as with a sari, a long skirt that is patterned and usually matches the blouse, and a piece of fabric smaller than with a sari that is tucked in a little to the skirt draped of the opposite side shoulder and then pinned in front. In the first picture, you can see how Hannah's lehenga is set up.

We are each wearing a different style of traditional dress.

The baggy pants of a salwar suit are VERY comfortable!

An example of a school uniform, this was a school in Bhopal.

Another traditional outfit for men here modeled by this little boy. 

Happy Dussehra

The night after Sebastian's birthday, there wasn’t dance but instead, a group of singers came and preformed and people danced to the music a little. For dinner, we went to the India equivalent of a baby shower. It was a HUGE function held in honor of a newborn baby boy. The mother and father sat on a stage receiving gifts and congratulations while a sister took care of the baby. There were hundreds of people there and it was a big, grand catered event. We wore our traditional clothing. 

After that we stopped by the dance area and listened to a few songs. A few of my friends were there and we danced some. There were hundred of marigolds that people grabbed handfuls of and pulled the petals off then through in the air or at people while they were dancing. I also received large handfuls thrown into my hair upon arrival (teach the foreigner the traditions the hard way... : )...). It was very cool to step back and see the group of people dancing in a storm of yellow rain. It was another one of those instances that I wished I’d had my camera. 

Friday was the last night of dance so it went pretty late. The little kids got all dressed up and did a costumed contest, there were also some small skits or songs to go with some of the contuses. The kids dressed up as everything from and ping-pong player and Beckham to Kishna and Rama.

Saturday after school we were able to just relax. Shruti had some friends over. There was a ceremony and some unofficial dancing but we didn't go. I could see and hear the music out my room window until late at night.

Saturday was the last day of Navaratri but Sunday was a whole new festival. Last night we celebrated Dussehra which is a holiday when evil is dispelled by the burning of idols of the ten headed devil, Ravana. All of the city both small and massive statues were built and burned all over the city and fireworks are were set off all evening. We went to see a massive one burnt down, it was in an area where thousands of people gathered. They started with fireworks and sparklers sort of sporadically set off. Approaching the climax though, the fireworks became more of a show worthy of the Fourth of July. The major event was the lighting of the idol. It was lit by a firework shot into it’s stomach and a few sparklers in it’s feet. The materials soon caught on fire and as the idol began to burn, hundreds more fireworks hidden inside the construction were set off. Seconds after it was lit, we could feel the heat from where we were, sitting on the roof of a third floor building way across the street. The construction it's self was probably taller than the building we were on. It was spectacular, really loud, and pretty awe-inspiring. In the neck of the giant Ravana there was a whole, huge box of fireworks which took several minutes to finish off.

Today (Monday) was a state holiday but my school decided to have a working day instead. We were one of the only schools to be in session today. On the way to school, I saw only one other school's bus when we usually see dozens of different schools picking up their students.

Just adding a note that I was mis-informed, the festival that ended on Saturday was not Diwali, someone had told me it was (I'm not saying who) so I wrote it wrongly on here. The festivals that just happened were only a taste of what Diwali (one of the most popular Hindu festivals) will be like.

Dance Pictures

Last night before going to dance we had a bunch of people over for dinner. They were all Rotary or exchange related people. It was Sebastian, from Colombia's birthday so we had a cake and passed around chocolate. We were taught some of the birthday traditions that I had not known. For example, you should always try to leave one candle burning because that represents your life. They also taught us the extra verses to "Happy Birthday." We learned the proper way to cut and feed others the cakes.
 We all went over to the dance area and Hannah and I danced while the boys watched. We were all in traditional clothing and people took lots of pictures with us. When open garba came, the boys were very hesitant to dace but they did anyways. I had a great night last night but again, it was very late.
Tonight's dance is just open garba all night so I my host mother says  I should not go so I can give my ankle a rest. We may go for a little bit because there will be some singing and so we can socialize.

The "diya" dance with the small ceramic candles (the ones I'm using are electric). I'm in the center and my host sister is just behind me.

My friend Shweta with her "dundee," the sticks we use for the garba dances.

My host sister and I in the center of the hard packed dance area. 

My host mother, Lata, and sister, Shruti.

My friend, Deepa, receiving her prize for that evening's "Best Dance Style."  She's a very good dancer. 

My friend, the old woman who is really everyone's friends. She comes every night to the practices and actual dances but rarely daces. She helped me fix my sari one night and is always ready with a smile.

Again, not very good at taking my own picture. This is as I was getting ready last night.

Several of my friends preformed a special dance last night, They had to dance with those pots on their heads which was no easy feat (I tried one time). They were all really nervous but did super well. 

This is a picture of me dancing that Sebastian took last night. 

Dancing Fever!

I love dancing! We’re out until after 11 every night and it’s going to keep getting later every night as the festival progresses. All the late nights make for some difficult school mornings but it’s totally worth it! Tonight will be the fourth night of Diwali. 

Each night, we’ve dressed up and saris or lehenga, lots of jewelry, and do our hair. I wear borrowed clothes from my host family. Unfortunately, I have to wear the same top every night because it’s the only one of theirs that fits my chest. Indian women, in general tend to be smaller busted.

A little after 8:30, the ceremony opens with chanting, singing and prayers in front of the idol and shrine set up on a little stage. The actual praying starts hours before the dancing, we can hear it amplified on speakers from our house. 
To open the ceremony, everyone takes turns doing pooja which is taking this plate of candles, incense, and other things and moving it in a circle in front of the idol (I feel like I’m not explaining it well, it’s difficult without the correct terms). Then, after announcements we dance. 
People of all ages come to watch and participate. 

Each night we do several of the choreographed dances. There is also best dancer of the night and best dresser contests. Last night, I won the best dancer award. I think, mostly because I’m a foreigner and they are really excited to have someone who wants to learn the traditional dances from them, and they were just being nice. Some little kids also do pop dances as solos or in pairs that they have put together themselves. They’re pretty good and really fun to watch. 

Saturday was my friend’s birthday. She’s one of the best dancers in the group and is also has assisted in teaching and putting together all the dances we do. She was really dressed up and preformed an incredible solo dance. Some of the older women waved money over her head as a blessing. One of them was this one really old woman who comes to every practice and night, she’s really sweet. She danced a little with the birthday girl. On birthdays, it’s customary to shake hands with the person whose birthday it is rather than give them a hug or something (I’ve noticed that hugging is not as common as at home.) Shaking hand is very common, usually as a congratulations. 

My favorite part of the night always comes at the very end when we have open garba and everyone dances in smaller groups and comes up with steps as they go. My friends help me follow their moves. It’s difficult because I’ve never even really seen some of these dances while these girls have grown up watching and dancing them. It's still a lot of fun, even though we're all very tired by the end of the night, the energy is very high. Last night, some of the boys (mostly middle school aged) decided to copy the girls moves, during open garba (it was very entertaining.) 
This festival has been beneficial in so many ways for me. Not only have a learned some traditional dances, but it's all been in Hindi which was helped my language comprehension a lot (many of the women don't speak much English either), I have gotten to know the women and other girls in the neighborhood and made some friends. Plus, it's lots of fun and I always sleep well at night!

      Anyone who even slightly enjoys dancing would love this festival, I wish it lasted longer than just nine days!

HAPPY NAVARATRI!

Today (Friday) is the first day of Navaratri, which means "nine day festival" which is exactly what it is. During the next nine days we will go to the dance area set up in the middle of the colony dressed up in traditional clothing and dance at 8 o’clock until sometime around 11. Tonight, all the dancers are wearing red sarees. I have a borrowed one from my host family. My host mother helped me put it on. There is lots of wrapping and folding and pinning involved. I’m also wearing some very nice looking faux jewels and red and gold bangles. 

Hopefully I’ll be able to do all the dances but on Wednesday, during basketball, I twisted my ankle really badly. I have weak ankles so it’s not that big of a deal for me but everyone else was really worried. My mom made me stay home from school yesterday because she didn’t want me hobbling around the school. That also means, of course that I had to miss dance practice yesterday and the day before. I also couldn’t go to a friend’s birthday party on Wednesday. 

Back to Diwali... during the festival the house is also cleaned and decorative oil lamps are put out to lead Rama home. I don’t know every detail of the traditions and I think many of them are no longer followed in today’s modern society. But I have noticed that, as according to tradition, firecrackers are a very important and popular part of the festival. At some point, it is traditional for brothers to go visit their sisters and follow some kind of ceremony there. I have heard that giving out sweets are is also very popular. I read too that Diwali is often that start of a new financial year for businesses. My last host mother told me that the time to go shopping is always during festivals because that’s when people have their sales. 

I will try to take many pictures tonight and in the following days.

My host sister, Shruti, and I ready for dancing! 

Posing to show off our saris. The color theme was red.

Movies Create Stereotypes

Just had my first day back at school after a four day weekend...
The four day weekend was unexpected but a nice surprise. Schools and other public places all over the state were closed on Thursday because of a decision the court was making. It was a precautionary measure in order to keep peace between religions. Nothing happened at all but people were mostly out of the streets by 2 and it was an unusually quiet night. There's been a dispute of a place where a mosque is built. It is also the supposed birth place of a Hindu god. Thousands of years ago there was a Hindu temple there at one point it was replaced with a mosque by Muslim invaders. For an extremely long time, the Islamic population had been worshiping there. Hindu's have been demanding that they be able to put a temple there now as it's maybe the birth place of a god and they were there first. The court decided on Thursday who the land belonged to and who could worship there. The decision was supposed to be made a week previously but the decision was postponed to this past week. Saturday was also the holiday celebrating Gandhi so there was no school then.
I've been reading the international page in the paper everyday to see what is said about the US and other countries. Almost articles directly about the US are from the Washington Post. There was one the other day though from Islamabad reporting on American interaction there. It's also interesting to see what is reported on, which of the Washington Post's articles are used. I have a feeling that they use any international article they can that involves India. Right now though, the news is mostly filled up with the Commonwealth Games which are taking place here. It's a really big deal and most of every section of the paper has something about them.
Saturday night my host father took my host mother and I to the movies. We saw Anjaana Anjaani which was about a man and a woman living in New York City during the stock market crash. The movie starts with them meeting as they both attempt to commit suicide (the man had worked for an insurance agency). The rest of their movie is their adventures together. They also travel to San Francisco and Las Vegas. Though the duo is Indian and the movie has in Hindi it was easy to tell where the Indian idea of Americans come from (the other day when show my friend, Hannah, and I a VERY small and backless top that's meant to be worm over another shirt my host mom said, "But in America they were stuff like this without anything under it all the time" I laughed and explained that, no we don't actually dress like that her response was that everyone thinks that's the way Americans dress though). From the red necks to the club goers the movie had many extreme stereo types of America. According to the movie, we wear skimpy clothes, party a lot, have very little family values, and can be very crude. Very much like the Hollywood depiction of Americans actually. It was cool to watch the movie and say "I've been there!" when looking at the Golden Gate and all the buildings in Vegas. It was a very fun movie but I don't think my host father was too impresses. My host sister liked it though.
On the way home my host father said, "That's not what the US is like at all is it?" and we had discussion about the Indian perceptions on America but the truths in the movie as well. For example, it's not that we don't have family values it's just that we express them in a different way than the people here. For example, when we get married or leave home for school and work we don't stay as close to home as possible.
It was really interesting to see the Indian version of NYC though.

Dancing

Today is the fourth day that Shruti (my host sister), Lata (my host mom), and I will go to dance practice in in the center of the colony we live in. The dace is a Garba dance for women that we are going to dance for an up coming festival. We dance in a circle, the steps remind me of western folk dance. Each step is punctuated with clapping sticks together. We learned the step initially using our hands and but after the first practice, we each have two sticks that are about a foot long and can easily be held in our hands. I'm very excited for when we actually preform the dance because I get to wear a traditional Indian costume!
I want to film one of the practices, or better, the actual dance.

The lighting was really hard for my camera to deal with so I only got a few pictures actually worth keeping and even most of those were not very good.
This dance is one only for the teenage girls as the steps involve more jumping and bending than the older women are capable of. 

This dance is done with "diya" (I can spell it in Hindi but not English) which are small clay oil candles that are lit during Diwali. We do not actually do the dance with lit ones although it would be very cool the oil and flames could spill too easily. The teenagers and girls are in the middle. 

I've had school for the past two days, but very little classes because lots of people are still doing follow up things for the exams. Yesterday, I had only one class all day and that was first thing in the morning. Today was a little better, I had a good bit of free time though.
The Indian school system is very intense! Yesterday, the other kids in my class got back their English Literature exams yesterday and the highest grade was and 80, which is really good! The exams was a collection of questions from throughout the semester that the students had all already been given the answers to. The exam was to answer the given questions word for word as they had been answered before. They also had to write an essay that the English teacher had previously dictated to the class, again word for word. It's not really my kind of leaning system. No one here dictates to learning styles. There is no learning how to learn things, just lots of memorization. It's very much a different kind of learning system!

Bhopal

I spent the last week in the capital city of M.P., Bhopal.

I wish I could have stayed there for the rest of the year! It seemed much nicer than Indore. The city felt cleaner, and had more greenery, there was less chaos. Overall, Bhopal was a beautiful city. 

All six of the exchange students were hosted my Amanda's host parents. Amanda's family is Sikh, there were two kids, a boy of 11(Karan) and a girl of 7 (Jeannie). The parent Johnny and Minnie were really cool, especially Minnie who Amanda considers like an older sister. 

The three girls shared Amanda's room and the boys got to stay in a guest house. 

We did so much in a week that I can't keep the days straight!

The bus ride from Indore to Bhopal takes a little less than three hours, just enough time to sleep well, if you're not looking at the scenery. 

We went to the movies, out to dinner with the family, and just with the exchange students. We went to two Rotary meetings that revolved around food of course. One of the Rotary clubs also took us out to lunch one day. Another invited to visit a local school. At the school we attended an assembly that was unlike any I've ever seen, the students did exercises, stood at attention, and at ease, saluted, sang the national anthem all on the command of an 11th grader with a microphone. Then they sat and selected students read the news, poems, and sang songs. Then, for our benefit, there was a dance and we got up on stage and asked questions. After a breakfast put on by the school, we went with 4 of the 11th graders to some of the local sites. We started with an ancient temple that was constructed in one night. Next we walked to a Jain temple, and from there we went to ancient caves where people had done cave drawings. We also white people for the first time! There was a group of Russian tourists at the place where we stopped for lunch. 

Bhopal is known as the city of lakes, there are two big lakes in the city. One evening we went on a boat ride to an island for the sunset. It was really beautiful.

During the week we also visited the zoo, and history of man in Indore museum/ park, and an other historical museum. 

We stayed up late talking a lot and joking around. I like all of the exchange students but it was really nice to have another American girl around. The three Americans have what you could call an American sense of humor, and we get some of the same inside jokes. 

We also did a lot of shopping. Friday, there was supposed to be a curfew because of a court decision that was supposed to be made that was predicted to cause turmoil. The court's only decision though was to post pone the decision for seven more years. It was nice though, because we had planned on spending the morning shopping but instead we got to spend the whole day! The boys got bored really quickly but I had lots of fun. We went to two of the main markets in Bhopal. We started with Old City Market which is a typical old market with all the vendors and little shops with bargaining and a totally maze of streets. It's a good thing we had Minnie with us to lead the way and fix the prices. We bought fabric from one vendor, leggings from another, shoes, scarves, and jewelry were all from separate shops. We also went to New Market to get the scarves. Our final stop was a boutique to get measured and fit for our Kurtis. They were done by Saturday when we left!
There were some places in Bhopal that reminded me to the Kite Runner because the sky was filled with kite and we passed tons of shops selling them! At one of the Rotary meetings the was a balcony that looked out on an area where there was hundreds of kites we watched as two boys chased one of the fallen kites down.
There was so much that I'm sure in a little bit I'll think of something else to add...
As much as I liked Bhopal I also enjoy being back in Indore in my own family and home.

The pictures below are very much not in order! (sorry)

A statue of Buddha whose face was carved off by invaders.

Part of the old Buddhist monastery (imagine living in one of those tiny, plain rooms!) Next to it is an old man made pond.

A gate way to one of the stupas at the Buddhist temple. 

Sunset on the lake.

The cave where we saw the cave drawings.

Many of the cave drawing looked very similar to the ones you see in the US except the depicted different animals, like this elephant for example.

Sunset on the lake.

The Jain temple.

This temple was built in one night thousands of years ago on the request of a king. We said they had to stop building no matter where they were and the temple has remained that way for centuries.

A white tiger at the zoo.

Amanda looking out the window of a traditional Rajasthani hut.

A typical Rajasthani house.