Last Friday we went to an artist colony and got some private lessons on dancing, puppeteering, sewing and horse riding haha.
We were divided into groups of four or so and thankfully I was in Ajay’s group and got to see him strut his stuff and do some girly moves. I absolutely love the dance moves here and vow that I will learn as many as I can before coming home. We went to see Billu Barber- the big film here now about Sha Ru Khan’s (biggest movie star in India) childhood friend who now works as a barber. Shara Khan (sp?) plays himself and the dance sequences that he is in don’t really relate to the movie itself, I feel they just needed an excuse to insert some crazy scenes, here’s one. Seeing a movie was so fun and just like watching a club and you want to dance in your seat-and we did. 
Thankfully, later that night we stumbled upon one of Jaipur’s discotheque and saw the “underground” alcohol scene. It looked just like a normal club back at home but the music was epic. They even had remixes from Billu Barber so our dreams were realized. ANYWAYS, here I am strutting my stuff on a horse and looking ridiculously thin, I swear I’m eating.Last weekend we headed to Rishikesh, yoga capital of the world and where the Beatles were believed to have written some of the White Album.
We got there via an overnight bus to Hardiwar about 10 hours away (5 northeast of Delhi) where we were supposed to catch an easy bus to Rishkesh. Of course things don’t work out like you think they will when you travel so…we ended up waking up to our bus crawling through the tiny streets, seemingly lost, in Hardiwar. Then we just came to a stop and people were getting off but no one speaking English made it a bit more confusing. Apparently in broken English and Hindi we put together that there were road blocks preventing us from getting to the town’s bus station and we were four km away. After ten hours in a kind of smelly bus, 7 of us and our luggage crammed into the smallest rickshaw ever and got to the bus station then to find that the bus drivers were on strike and we would have to take a taxi to Rishikesh. Enter Fatima. A middle aged Brazilian traveling on her own and desperate to get to Rishikesh no matter if it killed her. By this time, this is exactly how we felt. So two Ambassador taxi (adorable white 1950’s style cars 
with shag carpeted benches in the back) rides later, we were brought Laxshman Jula, literally a pedestrian bridge 
(yet includes scooters, cows and ice cream stealing monkeys, you know, typical). The town itself stretches between two bridges Ram and Laxshman and roads run up the side but you pretty much walk everywhere once there. After settling into our Ashram with Fatima who we invited to stay with us, we had a rather lengthy lunch and headed down to a riverside path with the goal of making it too a sunset ceremony 
on the water at Partham Niketan (also prolly spelled incorrectly). 
The scenery was absolutely stunning. I have not seen green or really clean water my whole time here, which was more wearing on my psyche than I thought.
Breathing clean air for the first time in awhile felt incredible not just for my lungs but my mood just seem so lifted. Ahhhh. Here are some pictures that might describe it better. They include a hike we did to a waterfall (read the sign), rafting with the best river guide ever and our favorite restaurant in the town where we ate every meal, Ganga Beach. The rafting was incredible, nothing too crazy, we didn’t flip and I got to jump off a 30 foot rock. So actually maybe a bit crazy. 
And we looked like American gladiators, which always means a good time.
We also had the most delicious two days of breakfasts!! There was a German bakery which had apple strudels, cinnamon rolls, chocolate croissants and this thing called a choko brocket (pastry infused with coconut and chocolate)….not sure any of those were German. They did have really good honey porridge though. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered porridge at a restaurant before or heard of it outside the story time world. I really miss baked goods. Not that I have a problem with everything being fried- and I will never choose baked Lays over regular- but deserts, like anytime I’ve travel, I tend to miss.
We had an amazing ice cream dish at the Ganga Beach called the Hail to the Queen, which was vanilla ice cream, warm bananas, chocolate sauce with crushed Parle-G cookies on top (sweet biscuits usually served with tea). Amber and I are on a hunt now for chocolate sauce. Also maple syrup. We are making a grand breakfast of French toast this upcoming weekend for our host family. Very curious to see what they think. We want to do hash browns and fruit salad but we’re wondering how much they will actually eat, seeing that the standard bfast is a mound of toast. I’ll let you know how it goes. Why do my blog entries give to much attention to food, MY GOSH! Oh well, tell grandpa I’m eating.
This past week nothing too exciting happened. I must confess to a new clothing addiction though which consumes many-a-afternoons. We basically go fabric shopping for about 60 Rs a meter and then make then into shirts, skirts or sketch “challenge dresses” for another 80 Rs.
We’ve done really well for ourselves and Anna even pulled off a halter dress with elastic. We go to our favorite shop which is owned by a husband-wife duo that has tons of fabric and then they talk us through what we want made. It’s a really fun way to practice Hindi and help with English. The family is so nice to us too and even invited us over before we leave for tea. It’s so old school and artsy all at the same time that I’m really going to miss it when I get home. We were thinking that once we get home we’re going to want to hit up Joann Fabrics and a good tailor when we want to go clothes shopping. I have a feeling Chicago Bears prints and neon kid’s patterns won’t do the trick. Sad.
This past weekend we stayed in Jaipur as it was really our last weekend to do so and I actually began to feel a bit sad and that time was going really quickly. Friday we spent a ton of time in Raja Park- tailoring, eating samosas and these things called Paneer kulchas (paneer paninis with special snack sauce…ohhh Indian snack sauce how I love you) and playing cricket
in the afternoon with the kids, Anna and Gamlesh. SO FUN. I love this game. So I thought it was that you were supposed to hit it hard and high but that is definetly not the point, you’re supposed to get it kind of on the ground and when playing with 20 year olds without 5 year olds in the way, it actually can get pretty intense and sweaty. Later that night we had EGGS for dinner. WOAH. I had nonchalantly asked about eggs earlier in the week, whether they ate them or not and if there were any places that served omletts or scrambled eggs, to which our dad responded there is an egg restaurant that serves only eggs. Excitement. We shall be checking that out this week. Anyways, we had eggs and it was really funny how when we told people the next day, they were happy for us too. It’s all about the little things.
with shag carpeted benches in the back) rides later, we were brought Laxshman Jula, literally a pedestrian bridge 
(yet includes scooters, cows and ice cream stealing monkeys, you know, typical). The town itself stretches between two bridges Ram and Laxshman and roads run up the side but you pretty much walk everywhere once there. After settling into our Ashram with Fatima who we invited to stay with us, we had a rather lengthy lunch and headed down to a riverside path with the goal of making it too a sunset ceremony 
on the water at Partham Niketan (also prolly spelled incorrectly). 
The scenery was absolutely stunning. I have not seen green or really clean water my whole time here, which was more wearing on my psyche than I thought.
Breathing clean air for the first time in awhile felt incredible not just for my lungs but my mood just seem so lifted. Ahhhh. Here are some pictures that might describe it better. They include a hike we did to a waterfall (read the sign), rafting with the best river guide ever and our favorite restaurant in the town where we ate every meal, Ganga Beach. The rafting was incredible, nothing too crazy, we didn’t flip and I got to jump off a 30 foot rock. So actually maybe a bit crazy. 
And we looked like American gladiators, which always means a good time.We also had the most delicious two days of breakfasts!! There was a German bakery which had apple strudels, cinnamon rolls, chocolate croissants and this thing called a choko brocket (pastry infused with coconut and chocolate)….not sure any of those were German. They did have really good honey porridge though. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered porridge at a restaurant before or heard of it outside the story time world. I really miss baked goods. Not that I have a problem with everything being fried- and I will never choose baked Lays over regular- but deserts, like anytime I’ve travel, I tend to miss.
We had an amazing ice cream dish at the Ganga Beach called the Hail to the Queen, which was vanilla ice cream, warm bananas, chocolate sauce with crushed Parle-G cookies on top (sweet biscuits usually served with tea). Amber and I are on a hunt now for chocolate sauce. Also maple syrup. We are making a grand breakfast of French toast this upcoming weekend for our host family. Very curious to see what they think. We want to do hash browns and fruit salad but we’re wondering how much they will actually eat, seeing that the standard bfast is a mound of toast. I’ll let you know how it goes. Why do my blog entries give to much attention to food, MY GOSH! Oh well, tell grandpa I’m eating.This past week nothing too exciting happened. I must confess to a new clothing addiction though which consumes many-a-afternoons. We basically go fabric shopping for about 60 Rs a meter and then make then into shirts, skirts or sketch “challenge dresses” for another 80 Rs.
We’ve done really well for ourselves and Anna even pulled off a halter dress with elastic. We go to our favorite shop which is owned by a husband-wife duo that has tons of fabric and then they talk us through what we want made. It’s a really fun way to practice Hindi and help with English. The family is so nice to us too and even invited us over before we leave for tea. It’s so old school and artsy all at the same time that I’m really going to miss it when I get home. We were thinking that once we get home we’re going to want to hit up Joann Fabrics and a good tailor when we want to go clothes shopping. I have a feeling Chicago Bears prints and neon kid’s patterns won’t do the trick. Sad.This past weekend we stayed in Jaipur as it was really our last weekend to do so and I actually began to feel a bit sad and that time was going really quickly. Friday we spent a ton of time in Raja Park- tailoring, eating samosas and these things called Paneer kulchas (paneer paninis with special snack sauce…ohhh Indian snack sauce how I love you) and playing cricket
in the afternoon with the kids, Anna and Gamlesh. SO FUN. I love this game. So I thought it was that you were supposed to hit it hard and high but that is definetly not the point, you’re supposed to get it kind of on the ground and when playing with 20 year olds without 5 year olds in the way, it actually can get pretty intense and sweaty. Later that night we had EGGS for dinner. WOAH. I had nonchalantly asked about eggs earlier in the week, whether they ate them or not and if there were any places that served omletts or scrambled eggs, to which our dad responded there is an egg restaurant that serves only eggs. Excitement. We shall be checking that out this week. Anyways, we had eggs and it was really funny how when we told people the next day, they were happy for us too. It’s all about the little things. Saturday we had class in order to take one more day off next week. It was a pretty wise decision since class consisted of watching a movie about a dyslexic boy who goes undiagnosed for far too long and then meets an art teacher that changes his life. Tar Zameen Par. After class and a zulu bar run, I was off in a rickshaw to an astrologer with Carolyn and Magy. To be honest, I wasn’t too impressed with my reading but I think it was good fun. My auspicious years for marriage are 26, 29 and 32. Indians really like to talk about marriage and auspicious things. I’m also supposedly having 2 girls and one boy or one of each. January 2010 is when something of mine enters something else and will bring me great joy for a long time because now things aren’t coming together as easily as they could be since I’m in an unfavorable house or something along those lines. He also nailed what studies I was in, literally geography/environmental studies and economics and said that I would have a knack for marketing. He said that travel keeps me fresh and to have it be part of my life and keep having it playing a large role so that I stay on my toes. He sees a very social and dynamic life for me and that I’ll live past 89!! So take it for what it’s worth, it was fun and us girls had fun. That night was Billu Barber and the Fireball (discotheque).
The next day we went to the Hanuman temple with our family and had a lunch with some family friends. After returning, I got a phone call from Katrina saying the piercing-wallah (add to anything to mean one who sells or does) was at her house and a piercing party was about to commence. Here’s Carolyn up at bat. I was last and got my third holes done and my ears don’t really hurt that badly. I think the old fashioned way of just pushing it through may be the best way to do it! I also like the story behind it of getting my ear pierced on a door step.This coming Sunday we are heading south to Goa for a 5 day weekend!! It’s known for its beaches and parties, but it also used to be a major Portuguese trading area and you can still see relics and Christian churches. I also want to head inland to see Hampi, the site of an ancient Hindu empire capital. For now we are gearing up for our oh so fun Hindi exam, yikes, and hosting a salon lady in our section of the house tomorrow. Some of the girls wanted to try threading and get pedicures since our feet are GROSS. I think it’s neat that she just comes over. I think my next entry will come sometime during the week and I’m going to include pictures of my school, Raja Park and the house.
I also found out where I will be doing my internship phase starting on March 14th for about a month and a half, once we get back from Goa: Gram Vikas Navyuvak Lapoira outside of Jaipur. Check out the drop down list on the left "NRM" for natural resource management, these are the programs I will be helping with!!Happy March! I can’t believe the time is going so fast!
Between your rafting and horseback riding, you'll have to lead an adventure trip when you return! Your time is going fast, but you are clearly maximizing its benefit by your enthusiastic engagement. The program you linked here looks very interesting! Which of the topics on the menu do you think you'll explore?
ReplyDeleteAlso I'm curious, in your travels you have mentioned some religious events and images - have you come across any mention of Kali or any images of her?