jet lag log:

8.8.08: Went to bed at 10:12 pm

8.9.08: Woke up at 1:27 pm
Went to bed at 12:30-ish am

8.10.08: Woke up at 6:20 am

I told everyone I was arriving at 11:30 pm and you know what? I was 12 hours off. That would probably explain why things were getting brighter, not darker, in the plane as we were getting closer to California. It's quite pathetic- I didn't realize my miscalculation until 5 minutes prior to landing when the pilot announced the local time. When I was traveling to New Zealand and India, I wasn't hit too hard by jet lag but due to my miscalculation, I ended up sleeping at the wrong times on the plane which doesn't help matters right now. I still can't believe my first night back I slept for about about 15 hours straight! Hopefully I won't pass out at today's barbecue or anything...

Yesterday would've been a good day to take pics of the goodies I bought since I rounded them all up in a pile to show my parents. I'll try to get some pictures when I have the time...

0 hours to go!

We should be leaving for the airport soon. I'm all packed and ready to go so right now I'm just getting my last hit of internet usage while everyone else is getting ready. Thankfully, despite all my mountains of stuff, my 2 suitcases are below the 32 kg weight limit. [Whew!] Now at least I won't be paying a penalty for overweight luggage although I will be paying a fee for my third piece of luggage. The fee is hefty (it was 117 NZD back in Auckland), but it'll still be cheaper than shipping a huge, heavy package in the mail via the Indian post or UPS. Plus, assuming none of my luggage is lost, I'll be able to have all my stuff with me as opposed to waiting for it to arrive in the mail.

If there's anything interesting, I'll try to keep ya posted when I get to Hong Kong.

Erica's not-so-impressive-nor-comprehensive Bollywood playlist

I was going to wait and buy some of my favorite Bollywood songs off of iTunes when I got back to the US, but then I realized that I wanted to show my family what I've been listening to so I started buying some music over here. Here's a list of what I bought so far, what I might buy later, and some of the songs I've been hearing lately:

FYI, pretty much all the songs I bought are mellow, ballads-y songs:

Tum Se Hi from the film, 'Jab We Met', which I saw a while ago back in the US

Tu Bole Main Boloon, which was played a lot in the 'Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na' trailers

'Pyaar Ke Liye' which is the only song that interested me when I saw 'Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic'

'Kal Ho Naa Ho' from the film of the same name, which I haven't seen yet, but I want to.

I also bought 'Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi', Nazrein Milaana', and 'Kahin To Hogi Ho', all also from 'Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na'.

Don't ask me what the song titles mean; I know only several words in Hindi and that's about it!

I'm also thinking of buying a couple songs from the films, 'Haal-e-dil', 'Om Shanti Om', 'Kismat Konnection, and a couple by Swathi's all-time favorite singer, Atif Aslam.

Songs that I don't plan on buying but do find infectious and therefore may eventually buy one or two for the memories anyway are:

'Bachna Ae Haseeno'

'Paapu Can't Dance'

'Bas Ek King'

I feel too rushed to bother finding their respective videos on youtube to link- I gotta start packing all my stuff!

Only several hours left!

Noooo! Things are coming to an end, fast! Today I dropped by Yeshwantpur where I'd been volunteering for the Dream School Foundation to say good-bye and sort of tie up any loose ends. Going there for the last time was just another reminder of how soon I'm leaving so it was sort of sad. I blogged about doing a notebook drive earlier and I think I told some of you that my regular volunteer work consisted of compiling case studies of the students and this was all done through Dream School.

I'd never really done volunteer work before this with the exception of helping out at my mom's school or the occasional church shindig, so it was really cool to be able to see a foundation in action and how it's changing the lives of the people it aims to help. The students I've met have been so well-mannered, polite and sweet. Compiling the case studies allowed me to get to know them a little bit and it was cool to hear their ambitions. The first day I came in, they all greeted me, introduced themselves and bombarded me with questions about myself and the US!

Few individuals make a big enough impact to change the whole world, but seeing how Dream School has really helped its students shows that everyone can do something to contribute within their community and impact someone's world. The Dream School Foundation helped its students to get into schools that they wouldn't have been able to afford to attend otherwise and also helps supplement their education with an after-school program so they're getting some great opportunities to get an education through the foundation. I got to meet some great, bright students with a lot of potential and I hope I was able to contribute in my volunteer work with them.

_____

I'm trying to make the most of my last several hours in India by wearing my favorite churidar today and some moments ago, I was parked in front of the TV so I could blog and get my last doses of Bollywood music videos before I have to go off to take on the enormous task of packing. In the last couple days, I've had to climb over my things to get to my bed since I've had all my stuff out in piles in the middle of the room. Swathi's scolding me to pack instead of blog but I wanted to get some blogging in while I'm still in India before I get down to business...

3 days and counting

Last night we all went out to a local place known for having really good masala dosas. We'd gone there once before when Swathi's and my stay in India was nearly halfway over and this time, we tried to savor everything as we knew it would be our last time coming here, especially for me. The masala dosas here are the best I've had since the outside is crispy and buttery, and both the batter and filling have a mild flavor to them. Other dosas I've had would have a lot of cilantro in the potato filling and the batter for the outside of the dosa would have a slightly sour taste to it so I wasn't crazy about them or anything until I tasted other versions of them.

The first time I ate at the local dosa place, I was still struggling to tear chapatis, dosas, naan and the like using only one hand so I just used both hands to eat. This time around, it was sort of a bittersweet milestone that I was able to eat the dosa using only my right mehendi-covered hand. I was proud of myself for the progress I made, yet also a bit sad that this was the last time I might ever get to eat dosas there and it was as if I could feel the end coming near. The pictures I took of my dosa don't quite capture the crispy, buttery outside and tasty filling, but at least you guys will have a better idea of what a dosa is. I'd describe it as an Indian crepe:





I feel like today I also hit another milestone when I got dressed up in my best and favorite new salwar-kameez with a bindi to match to visit Swathi's grandparents, whom we last visited a couple weeks after we first arrived to India. When we last visited them, I didn't have any Indian clothing so I just wore some plain brown pants and what I considered to be my 'best' shirt out of what I brought while Swathi wore a nice churidar. In this visit I was so flattered when Swathi's grandmother said that I looked more beautiful in my traditional Indian outfit than when I had last visited them! I felt like at least on the outside someone could notice a change in me.

This morning I used my Indian cellphone to talk to my parents since the departure date is right around the corner and while it was good that they brought it to my attention that I'd probably need to make a declaration to customs upon my returning to the US, it also made me feel weird. I decided a while back that I want to wear a churidar when I fly back, so for one thing, I felt awkward as I pictured myself in Indian garb at the American customs counter trying to clear up my purchases with an intimidating officer who was oblivious to the amazing summer I just had and would just think that I've complicated things for him with all the purchases I made. While Bangalore has been like home to me for the last 2 months, perhaps it had finally hit me that despite that and whatever in me that had changed, I was still American and I would be returning to the country where I held my citizenship. A part of me is nervous that by leaving India, I'll lose whatever Indian-ness I've gained; as if it will shed itself bit by bit as I get closer to the US and finally disappear when I have to step through customs. I feel caught between two places- India feels like home for me right now but obviously, 2 months here doesn't make me completely Indian and I wouldn't identify as Indian, yet the US doesn't feel like home for me either. I imagine that after all that has happened, I'll have to somehow 'put on' all my old American-ness like an old jacket that might not fit me the same way- not that I completely shed my nationality while I was here, but the US definitely doesn't have the same meaning for me somehow.

unlucky Fridays

It seems like the last couple Fridays that Swathi, her relatives and I try to go out and do something we’re really looking forward to, it doesn’t pan out:

We were going to go to Fun World but the park and surrounding businesses due to riots in the area. Earlier that day people had thrown pork at a mosque and as we were driving through, there were still riot police, crowds, burn marks in the concrete and broken windows. At least we ended up going to see Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, though.

When we finally got around to going out to Commercial Street for some serious shopping, that was the day of the bombings in Bangalore so that, in addition to the rain, cut our day short. This time around, we couldn't just go see a movie since even the cinemas were closed as having large crowds in one place would be kind of dangerous. At least that day I got to make a stop at a nice clothing store where I got some tops and salwar-kameez sets and last week I finished getting my dose of shopping on Commercial Street.

Last Friday didn’t seem to favor us, either. It was considered an inauspicious day on account of the solar eclipse so many local businesses were closed and there were few people out in the streets. Even the family driver didn’t want to eat his lunch while the eclipse was occurring, although it was so cloudy that day that I couldn’t tell when it was happening, anyway. At least on the way to an uncle’s house there was little traffic since the eclipse had just happened. Later that night we went out to see Kismat Konnection, but all the theaters we tried weren’t showing it anymore- our only options were the latest Mummy film or ‘Ugly Aur Pagli’ which didn’t get rave reviews. Sure, the eclipse didn’t have anything to do with our failed attempt this time, but we thought it was cruel irony that while ‘kismat’ means ‘destiny’ or ‘fate’, going out to see this movie on such an inauspicious day just wasn’t working out for us!

7.31 shopping tally

Location: Commercial Street
Total: approximately 7,500 rupees

12 large blue bangles: 20 Rs
-These are a gift for someone, and the last of the gift bangles I had to shop for. It's almost kind of sad that my shopping list is getting shorter and shorter as it signifies the end to come.
blue embroidered skirt: 950 Rs
-There was this exhibition of some sort at an outlet-type place and although the skirt is a bit long for my tastes, I couldn't pass it up since I hadn't bought any skirts in India yet. It's a cotton skirt with a printed leaf pattern and hand-embroidered sequins. There's also some gold sequins on the hem of the skirt, which makes it hard to decide if I should hem it to make it a more flattering length as I'd probably have to lose the sequined border. : /
dark blue, silk top: 660 Rs
-For the price, it was a sweet deal, considering the top is pure silk. It also doesn't hurt that it's a fabulously rich shade of blue with a subtle floral pattern all over it. The neckline is wide with a silver border, which is pretty nice, too. I almost didn't buy this top since I wanted it more fitted at the waist but gave in when I thought of later adding ties to the sides of the top so it can be tied back. I was also wary of buying a silk top since it means you can't just throw it in the wash, but the idealistic side of me figured I might need to dress up for something so I should have it on hand to wear with some skinny jeans and heels.
2 churidars (gifts), 1 salwar-kameez, 2 embroidered tops: app. 4,200 Rs
-I don't feel too badly about the price tag, considering I got a lot of bang for my buck (or, in this case, rupee) and 2 of the outfits were gifts, anyway. These items almost don't count since I bought them earlier, but today I picked them up since I had my own items altered. I was wary of having such baggy pants as they might make me look shorter and fatter, but they actually look okay. The top is an iridescent purple-green with a really nicely embroidered neckline (and I'm quite picky about embroidery and patterns), a matching green and purple chiffon-ish dupatta and green salwaar pants. One of the tops I bought is a nice yellow and the other is a blue top with polka dots on it. I actually saw the blue top the first time I shopped at Commercial Street nearly 2 months ago and at first, I decided against buying it. When I did change my mind, someone else was already looking at it! I considered it gone so it was amazing to be reunited with it the last time I went to that store.
5 magazines (Seventeen India, Marie Claire India, People India, Cine Blitz, Film Fare): 225 Rs
-I've been wanting to buy an issue of Seventeen India every since I realized there was an Indian edition of Seventeen and as for the other magazines, I'd bought them before and the new issues were already out. I'm trying to savor these and consider them my last dosage of Indian magazines unless I see some new ones at the airport on the way back to the US.
blue, pashmina/silk wrap: 1,500 Rs
-There's a cool, handy Indian crafts emporium on M.G. Road called Cauvery that sells all sorts of things from carved wooden items, brass items, shawls, silver jewelry, saris, bags, silk ties and even some tops and the products' quality is supervised by the government so it's more reliable than buying some of these things from other stores. Anyway, when Swathi told me there's a craftier version of Cauvery featuring northern items, especially pashmina shawls, I wanted to check it out and we actually found one on Commercial Street. I almost splurged and bought a second shawl that was a bright shade of purple, but fate intervened and all the purple ones in stock had a defect in the way they were dyed! So, I made myself content with just buying one royal blue wrap which will actually go well with my silk top.

I wish I had done a tally for all of my shopping outings, but it's a bit late to back track now since I probably can't remember which items went with which outing. Later though, I would like to do a post with a grand total tally though, complete with pictures and descriptions of EVERYTHING I bought and a grand tally of how much I spent (but perhaps not necessarily with the price of every item!).

falling off the foreigner radar... well, for a wee bit.

Once my churidars finally arrived from the dressmaker, I finally gave in and started wearing full Indian outfits on my own accord. You see, on this whole trip, I've only worn a salwar-kameez (tunic-type top, dupatta [shawl] and baggy pants) or churidar (same kind of top and dupatta, but with fitted pants) when Swathi does, since I felt that walking around in Indian dress while Swathi wore Western clothes would make me look like a foreigner that was trying too hard, or something. Plus, I couldn't figure out if wearing a churidar or salwar-kameez would just make me stick out more than I already do- people here stare at me or do a double take on a daily basis and I don't know if it's because I just look different or because my foreign-ness is practically written on my forehead. I wasn't sure if I'd blend in a bit better by wearing a churidar or it would just bring more attention to the fact that I'm not Indian.

Swathi doesn't wear her salwar-kameez(es?) very much though, so I figured that with 2 weeks left in India, I should just wear the Indian clothes I bought since I've been so excited about them and there would be fewer opportunities to get some wear out of them in the US, anyway. The day after my churidars finally arrived, I wore one of them and packed another for the trip to Mysore. I ended up wearing those two a lot more than I expected since the rain and mud more than dirtied the only other pair of pants that I brought, leaving only my churi pants to wear.

I felt kind of awkward the first day I wore my churidar since I wasn't used to constantly adjusting the dupatta on my small, sloping shoulders or it would get caught on something since I had yet to learn to keep tabs on it. I also felt a little self-conscious just because some people noted my change in attire, but other than that, I felt regal with a dupatta resting on my shoulders in the moments it was behaving itself.

We saw and did some cool things on our trip to the Nagarahole National Park and Mysore, but one of the highlights had to be when I actually passed for Indian, which I took as the best compliment. Back in New Zealand, an Indian someone raised my hopes when he said that I could probably pass for Tibetan, Nepalese or Northeastern due to my features and complexion and therefore, perhaps be able to blend in a bit. I've always wanted to achieve blending in and shedding my foreign-ness somewhere as it would seem to be a good indication of my immersion in another culture, so it was kind of disappointing when nearly everyone I'd met asked me if, or assumed that I was from China. I wasn't expecting anything different when we went out to see a palace in Mysore and I thought I'd be pushing my luck if we tried to buy a regular 20 rupee admission ticket for myself instead of the 100 rupee ticket for non-Indians. We decided to play it safe since if a palace employee tried to talk to me in Kannada I'd surely be outed. When we went in to redeem the tickets, the admissions person looked a bit confused and spoke in Kannada to one of my hosts. He pointed to me and moments later, Swathi explained that the ticket taker was initially confused as to who the foreign admission was for! I thought that even though I was wearing a churidar and I had a red powder bindi on my forehead from the day's earlier visit to a Hindu temple, I probably still looked like a foreigner. I admit, it probably helped that I was traveling with a group of Indian people, but nonetheless, I was quite excited that for once I flew under the radar and finally passed as Indian, even at least for a moment.

1 week and (reluctantly) counting

Swathi and I have been counting down the days and it’s been a bit scary now that the number of our days left here has reached single-digit status. I’ll admit that with the departure date approaching closer and closer, I’ve been allowing myself to think more about all the things I want to do when I get back and I’m a bit excited but for the most part, I’m still apprehensive about coming back. I’ve become accustomed to being here so not only will I miss India when I’m back in the US, but being back might take some getting used to.

Perhaps it was strange of me to have dreamt of one day suffering from the second-hand culture shock one experiences when he/she comes back to his/her native country after having spent a long period of time overseas, but when I’d read articles written by people who went through it, I wished it was me. I wanted to be someone who had spent so much time in another country and been so acclimated to the culture and environment that when it became home and when I’d come back, home might not exactly be home. Now that it might actually happen, it’s cool that it would mean that I was immersed deeply enough in another culture, yet at the same time, it might not be as fun and as glamorous as I cracked it up to be in my daydreams. I imagine it might be like how you might think missing 2 weeks of school from being sick sounds like fun, but when it does happen, it’s actually not as fun as you thought it would be. Over the weekend my hosts and I spent a lot of time on the road and being able to spend so much time taking in the everyday Indian sights from my window just made me think about how I would miss it all. When I think about all the things I loved here, I get frustrated that I won’t get to enjoy them when I get back, like Indianized Chinese food, Bollywood’s omnipresence, the old, dirty, city streets and how I haven’t seen the same sari or salwar-kameez out in public.

Aside from the second-hand culture shock though, I also always wanted to able to stay in a country long enough for the culture to ingrain itself in me and my identity and I’m pretty sure I’ve achieved that. I really hoped this trip would test me, challenge me and change me for the better somehow and although I can’t really say if I’ve become a completely different person until I actually come back, I know my tastes have changed a bit. I hope I can get some paneer butter masala and roti, some gobi manchuri and chapattis or some chicken biriyani somewhere instead of my usual Thai or Chinese take out or be able to find some Indian magazines at an Indian grocery store so I won’t be completely cut off from what’s going on in Bollywood. Hopefully I’ll come back a more patient, mature cultured and aware person, though.

Ugh, Swathi just mentioned that a week from now, we’ll be at the airport! I can’t believe everything is finally coming to an end. Now some of our visits to Swathi’s relatives have been our last so we’ve been saying our final good-byes. As I’ve found more and more of the things I’ve been looking for, my shopping list has shortened considerably. Sometimes I wonder if subconsciously, I’ve been adding to my to-do list as an attempt for things to somehow never end. I finished the case studies for my volunteer work so a lot of my days have been about hanging out and killing time. In a feeble attempt to avoid paying an overweight penalty for my baggage, I’ve tried to be more generous in using my lotions, shampoo and the like so I can throw some things away when I leave or at least leave some space and weight for all the things I’ve bought. Halfway through the trip I thought to myself that I wouldn’t need to look for another suitcase and do a mock pack-up to make sure that everything would fit for a while but now the time has come to do just that! My room is now strewn with waffle makers, saris, bangles, bags, other souvenirs and magazines to the point that I’ve had to make piles in the middle of the room because the space between my bed and the wall could no longer hold my shopping stash which just sort of reflects all the history of what’s already happened and signals the inevitable end to my trip.

Leave it to Erica to blog about bombs and chocolate in one post.

I haven't followed the news closely so I didn't know all the facts, but today there were some bombings in the city. They happened sometime in the afternoon and I didn't become aware of them until one of my hosts was talking to a waiter at the restaurant at which we were having lunch. We had been putting off going to Commercial Street for shopping all week until now, but the bombings and the rainy weather forced us to cut our day a bit short. Throughout the day, some other bombings happened as well so Swathi got a bit nervous since we didn't know when the bombings would stop or who was doing them and why. We wanted to avoid the rainy weather by going to a mall to shop, but the malls were closed on account of the bombings and the movie theaters were, too. I got all my news on the bombings from wikipedia when I got home since I couldn't understand the Kannada updates on the radio. If you look at the map on wikipedia I'm staying very close to Malleshwaram.

Swathi kept saying that the gloomy, rainy weather made things seem especially ominous today. Not only were things closed today, but the streets were a little less crowded. It could have been due to the weather too, but I'm sure the bombings also kept some people at home, too. Swathi's grandfather even called us to say that we should come home which we did, after making one last stop at a store to buy some more churidars. On the way back, the traffic was pretty clogged, especially in the main streets so we had to take some of the narrower back roads to get home. As of right now, we don't know who is responsible for the bombings. Some of us wonder if it had to do with an incident that happened a couple weeks ago where there was a riot after some people threw some pork at a mosque. That day, we were actually planning on going to Fun World but it and some of the other places were closed due to the riots. When we drove by, there were still crowds and riot police and down one of the streets, I could see that one of the buildings had some of its windows broken. There were even black blots on the streets where people had set some fires. At least tomorrow we're all leaving town for a road trip to Mysore and some forest place. I'll be back Tuesday and I'll try to blog some more, provided the wifi/electricity decides to be nice.

In lighter news, Swathi's brother ordered some chocolate cake by accident (from the name he thought he was ordering a fancy chocolate drink) so I had no choice but to help him, despite having stuffed myself with Indianised Chinese food, mushroom manchuri and the strawberry shake I'd ordered for myself:


Chocolate cake (with sprinkles and chocolate chips embedded in it), vanilla and chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup and of course, an enormous dollop of whip cream- mm! I actually ate so much this afternoon that I wasn't even hungry for dinner, 4-5 hours later. Nevertheless, I forced myself to have a bit of rice, leftover chicken fried rice and a small scoop of veggies. Now I've got to pack up for tomorrow's trip since we're theoretically leaving the house at 7 am in a 14-person bus.

a day in the life of a... I don't know, lady of leisure?

Things are usually kind of quiet when we're spending our weekends down at the farm, but the other day was pretty cool. Well, it got off to a gross start, but after that, things got a lot better. It was kind of one of those mornings where you get up and debate if you should shower because you're still kind of decent and it's not like you're up to much that day anyway (or, am I the only person that does that?) so I just walked around outside in my pajamas. Of course, as luck, fate or whatever you want to call it would have it, I was just admiring the trees lining the dirt path when I felt something on my head. At first, I thought nothing of it and thought it was only some water when I ran my fingers through my hair. I couldn't be sure, but when I ran my fingers through my hair again there was no mistaking that a bird pooped on my head! On. My. Head. Some would say I stormed into the house, but I would call it 'walking with urgency'. I even let out a scream as I went up the stairs (with urgency) as I was just so disgusted to have bird crap entwined in my hair and on my hand. Some people thought I was mad about something when they heard me screaming and I could hear them laughing when they found out what really happened as I was about to shower. The morning's events gave me no choice but to shower after that!

After I was all nice and clean, the day improved considerably, starting with the large, wooden swing being moved outside. It's really cool to be able to swing indoors (it feels fairy tale-ish or like something in a movie), but one can't swing very far because of the furniture and the people passing behind it. That afternoon I ended up sitting on that swing for what felt like hours. I guess since everything was so peaceful time seemed to pass by so slowly that I had no idea how long I was actually on that swing. I hadn't gone out much on the farm so sitting on that swing was the perfect way for me to enjoy the peaceful outdoors and burn some calories. It almost seemed too perfect that I could watch some butterflies hovering near the flowers and things seemed so tranquil. I kept thinking about how the color palette of the surroundings couldn't help but be burned in mind- the green trees, the reddish earth and the cloudy blue sky. Having a big swing all to myself with the breeze in my hair and no agenda to worry about made me feel like such a princess. It was sort of surreal to be thinking, 'Do I keep swinging or shall I play with the puppies a bit? Perhaps I should go inside and have some tea. No, I just stay out here..' I tried to savor it all because I don't know when I'll get to have another day like that!

Every now and then, Swathi and I have tried to make something or have non-Indian food of some sort for a bit of variety. We've had some pizza (including the Chik 'n' Spicy from Pizza Hut which was quite good) and made French toast with cinnamon from the farm, wee slices of bread (the bread slices are smaller here which makes them much cuter) and big chunks of sugar sprinkled on top since we don't have any maple syrup on hand. There's also been the occasional dose of vegetable masala ramen noodles which have also been pretty good. After intervals of sitting on the swing and giving tummy rubs to the puppies, I got to mooch some fries that Swathi made. For some reason, I thought that frying French fries required batter so I was somewhat surprised to learn that one can make fries by literally just putting some chopped potatoes in hot oil. Aside from some salt (because fried stuff and salt are a great combination), we seasoned the fries with some chili powder which was the bee's knees. It wasn't too spicy; it was just right. I would've taken pictures, but the lighting at the house wasn't all that great and I was too hungry and impatient to bother whipping out my camera before eating the fries.

A huge swing, playing with puppies and french fries... doesn't that sound like a good day?

I'm going to blog more, really!

I know, I know, it's been a heinously long time since I've last blogged, and believe me, I feel badly about not blogging all the things I've wanted to tell you guys. I even have a list going of posts I want to do and I've had a couple false starts in getting back on the wagon. If it's any excuse, the electricity in the city has been going on and off and even when the power comes back on, it doesn't necessarily mean internet access because the store that provides our wifi may not have any electricity. Today the wifi was working for a few fleeting moments and right now the signal has been decent. So, hang in there. If all goes well, I may just inundate you guys with lots posts. : )

New roomies/wifi= : )

I learned the hard way that one shouldn't leave his/her mosquito net down during the day:

Long story short, it was quite creepy to find a gecko in my bed and to say that I was freaking out was an understatement. Swathi can second that. : /

I also learned the hard way that there aren't just resident geckos in the farm:

These ones I don't mind so much, as long as they stay on the other side of the screen...

~

We finally have wifi over here so after about a month of not being able to use the internet on my laptop, it's like I've almost forgotten all the things I wanted to do once I had wifi. It was easy to remember that I wanted to go to iTunes though, since I wanted to see if I could find any of the Bollywood songs that I've been hearing so much of lately. When I got to the iTunes homepage and looked at the top 10 downloads, I hadn't heard of any of the songs! I looked at the top 100 as well and most of the songs are unfamiliar, which although it might sound strange, it quite excites me that I've been missing out on a lot of American pop culture and the like. I guess the wifi might change that a bit since I'll be dawdling around online more, but I've always wanted to be so far away from the US and gone for so long that when I come back, everything seems so new and foreign- the new TV shows, references to the latest celebrity gossip, the music videos, songs on the radio, etc. It's a weird desire, but I've always wanted to be left out of the loop like that. Well, I have a lot of little daydreams involving my going overseas like having multiple kinds of currency in my wallet, but that's another story. Anyway, I actually wanted escape American pop culture and its omnipresence because I got a bit tired of it and I wanted to have some fun getting into other cultures, and although it would be nearly impossible to escape American pop culture completely, at least here I've been able to get away from some of it to some degree. I'll willingly overlook the many Coke/Pepsi ads since it's been pretty fun as I'm starting to recognize the big names in Bollywood. I couldn't help but be proud of myself when I was able to recognize Krrish references in the film "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic" and on the back of a bag of KurKure chips. When I first came to India, I could only begin to recognize faces here in the commericials, ads and pictures here and there but now I don't get Aamir Khan, Saif Khan, Imran Khan and Salman Khan and I no longer refer to Abishek Bachchan as "Aishwarya Rai (Bachchan)'s husband", who by the way, I used to get mixed up with his father's name, Amitabh.

Now that there's wifi,I can upload pictures directly from my laptop (and not a flash drive) and I'll be able to sign on to AIM. This should mean more blogging, but eh, we'll see.

snack stash/new INDIAN phone (!)

Yesterday Swathi and I went to Fresh, where we stocked up for our snack stashes. I'm quite excited about this last overhaul on snacks because I found some good ones that I wanted to try and some old favorites, too.

Starting from the top:
Masala-flavored Top Ramen: I tried this stuff and I loved it! Swathi and I both bought a family pack- one to keep in the city and one to bring with us to the farm. Luckily you can get this in the US too, because I'll probably want to get that once I come back.
Pringles: They were 33 rupess and I didn't want to get a big canister since I'd feel guilty eating so many chips, so this was perfect. Sadly, I bought them 24 hours ago and it's already empty! The crunchy, salty, potato-y goodness was just too much to resist. Plus, perhaps there was something about the fact that these were from the US that made it more attractive- the American Idol logo on the seal and the Spanish/English must have reminded me of my snacking back in the US, or something.
Kurkure: These remind me a lot of Cheetos in terms of the shape and puffed corn, but with some sort of mildly spicy, chilli-ish flavor instead. I tried them at someone's house and couldn't stop eating them!
Monaco: Swathi pronounces it 'mo-NA-co' but I can't help but pronounce it like the country. Amir Khan (sp?) advertises these in commercials so I wanted to try them. I know, I'm quite gullible and I must be an advertiser's dream.
Galaxy Bar: I was going to buy a Munch bar from Nestle (like KitKat, but I like this better), but when I saw the Galaxy bar (my absolute favorite), I had to snatch that one up, even though Munch bars are 2 rupees, or something. I can't find Galaxy bars in the US so it's just one more reason to like life in India.
Marie biscuits: I think I've seen this brand in the US, but I haven't seen it for a while. I tried these while visiting someone and they're surprisingly creamy for a cracker-biscuit thing.
Ritz (with cheese filling): I know we have the smaller versions in the US, but I'd never, ever seen full size Ritz with the cheesy filling so I got these. They probably won't taste any different, but I think I just got a bit excited.



I've had these items in my snack stash for a while:

I'm not sure bio security would have let me bring in dried fruit into New Zealand, so I had to buy some there and then bring it to India. At least they'd be fresher that way.

I thought the Monaco packaging was interesting just because it mentioned Eid (as in the Muslim holiday [Eid al Fitr?], right?) and monsoon season- two things not often mentioned in the US.


Before I went to India, someone in New Zealand told me that I'd find red and green dots on a lot of the food products to indicate whether they're vegetarian friendly:


~

In the non-food realm, I got an Indian cell phone! Well, it doesn't look Indian like Swathi's cellphone; there aren't Hindi letters on the buttons like hers. I wanted a phone with Hindi on it so I could feel special and have a cool souvenir when I come back to the US, but on all the packages you can't tell which phones will have Hindi on the buttons. Or, so the saleslady said... Plus, I wanted to pick a model I could use in Asia and the US, so supposedly this is a tri-band phone. I got slightly pricey phone since I hope to use it more in the future and although I don't care much for phones, I can't help but be excited about having a new phone:

We had to put the SIM card in Swathi's name since non-Indian nationals have to give proof of their temporary address in India, which I didn't have. It was quite cruel, considering we lived literally across the street from the mobile phone store. Anyway, after running around to get passport photos and a xerox of my passport and visa, Swathi just filled in her info so I could get the SIM card. She says that she's pretty sure I won't become a criminal in the 3-month span that my card is active, so it's probably okay to have the card in her name. : )

(not really) Cinderella, pt. 2

Last night was the reception, and it felt like it was quite a production to get into my sari. Swathi's grandmother did everything for me, since she was the only one around who knew how to put on a sari properly. With me being so short and the sari being so long and wide, there was a ridiculous amount of excess fabric to tuck in, but once I was tucked, pleated and wrapped, I felt like a pleasantly odd mix of a Star Wars character, a Barbie and a regal princess since it's not every day that I'm encased in copious layers of silk. My first several moments of walking around in a sari just made Swathi laugh since she said I waddled around like a pregnant woman (all that excess fabric was tucked in front of my stomach), but afterwards, I was determined not to walk around so awkwardly since I would already look different from everyone else at the reception so I would like to think that I was able to walk more normally after I got over the awkwardness.

While we were waiting to take pictures with the bride and groom, Swathi and I just had a commentary going on all the women's saris and salwaar kameez(es?). There were so many different colors, although Swathi says I have 'old lady' taste in saris since I tend to go for the more modest colors. I like bright colors, but I still have a US-mentality in terms of bright colors where I'm afraid that colors that are too bright would come off as tacky, but here in India I see women walking around in orange, tennis-ball green, everything else under the sun!

Anyway, after posing for photos (I have no photos of my own, but at least I'll end up in someone's wedding album now), we went down to the banquet hall. We got to have our meal on a huge palm leaf, and it sort of reminded me of Chinese banquets where there are several courses in small portions of each. I ate with my hands, despite someone bringing me a spoon (I didn't ask for one!), and I think I held my own in that arena. There was a large variety so I ate more than I expected, since I was afraid that I wouldn't like most of the food. I wish I could say which were my favoritesm but I don't know any of the names! Afterwards, there was some vanilla ice cream which was a bit too sweet, but I liked it since it was cold.

We went home after the food, and a very tired Swathi and I quickly took some pictures of each other in our best clothes at home before we went to sleep since we didn't have time before we left. We didn't really have the energy to get creative, but at least I have some photos of myself in a sari to send back home. : )

Kind of like Cinderella, but not really.

We picked up my sari and blouse from the tailor and got a petticoat today, which was cutting it close if we choose to go to tomorrow's reception or Friday's wedding ceremony. I was almost going to wait on trying on my blouse, but when I did at Swathi's persistence, we found out that the blouse was extremely tiny! We started freaking out since I'd probably need the blouse tomorrow and there's literally nothing else I can wear to an event like a wedding reception. Fortunately, before we stormed back to the tailors to demand an explanation, Swathi's grandmother told us that the blouses are always made small so that you have to let out some seams. There were four seams on each side, and I ended up having to let out 3 of the 4 seams on each side. I wish there was more to let out, but had I taken out the last seam, the blouse would've fallen apart! The blouse was quite fitted, but Swathi assured me that it's how they're supposed to be, so I just left it at that.
I felt like Cinderella as I sat on the floor of our room, letting out the seams with a little needle and huge kitchen scissors and sewing up the petticoat with some olive-green thread (we only had khaki and olive green thread on hand but either way, the petticoat won't be visible), getting ready for tomorrow's event, although there were no glass slippers, magic carriages or anything of that sort. Still, I was so glad that I hadn't started on my sewing work any later (or it would've been rushed) and I've been sewing since kindergarten, so this was a snap.
Here's a picture of the seams I let out on the blouse. You can see the holes where the seams used to be:

This is the petticoat, before I cut off several inches and tacked up the edges. It's a simple, draw-string cotton skirt that I have to wear under the sari:

jumbly bumbly mess

It seems like there are a lot of little errands to do, yet no time to do them. I still need to get a petticoat for my sari and pick up my blouse, but I need to get to an ATM first since I only have the equivalent of about 2-3 USD in my sad little wallet. I also need to mail some letters I wrote about a week ago, but despite the fact that it costs 30-ish cents to mail a letter to the US, I don't even have enough money to buy the amount of stamps I need/want.

Also, I've just been really off on the date and time lately. I never seem to know what the date is, or I've been mixing them up. I wrote in all my letters (which some of you will be receiving who knows when) that I still have 7 weeks here, yet Swathi and I realized today that it's actually about 5 weeks left which makes sense. Somehow in my mind, I knew today was day #32 or so, which meant that we were approaching the halfway mark, yet we were at week #3/11. Maybe India does strange things to my brain.

I know the time difference between here and California, yet I actually jumped out of bed to sign up for my classes online about 24 hours too early. Since my volunteer work is in the afternoon, I don't need to wake up early but I got out of bed and busted into the kitchen since my appointment would have already started several hours ago and found that somehow, my appointment hadn't started yet! I was almost going to make a call to my registrar to ask why I couldn't sign up but then I realized that since we're 12.5 hours ahead, it was still the previous day over in California. I still don't know how I managed to miscalculate my appointment time here!

oh, what a day

This was typed up on Sunday on Word while at the farm and even though it's been a couple days since then, I was too lazy to edit it so there wouldn't be any continuity issues. So, you'll get it as is:

I probably should've blogged when were still in the city since the dial-up here on the farm doesn't always let me to go Blogger, but Saturday was crazy, so that in combination with waking up at 5 am that day and not having a restful night's sleep didn't seem to make for good blogging conditions. In a nutshell, I got to join a group on Saturday that was bringing notebooks to kids in schools in a remote area.

In government-funded schools, the students get their uniforms and textbooks from the government but not notebooks, so the NGO I'm volunteering through was able to buy 20,000 notebooks with the help of a software company. The guys crammed 8,000 notebooks (in huge, 100-lb bundles) onto our hired bus and we drove out of the city to some small schools in the villages, It was quite surreal for me to be in a bus with huge parcels of notebooks in the aisles (thus forcing all of us to climb over said notebooks to get to our seats) and an Indian radio station blaring on the speakers as we were driving out into the countryside.

I didn't know what to expect, so I wanted to pack lightly and worried that bringing my camera would be cumbersome to carry and to touristy of me to be snapping picture Some of the volunteers took pictures of the children and of all the sights, so now I'm bummed that I didn't bring my camera because it was all a really amazing experience to remember. If I do get to do it again, I'll definitely bring my camera. I only brought my wallet and my lunch, which I actually didn't need because we stopped for food a couple times. I learned the hard way that chutney has powdered nuts in it. but luckily my nut allergy isn't serious or life-threatening so I was fine. I also got some horrible nausea from the bus ride because it got pretty bumpy out in the country with the dirt roads. I was so afraid I'd end up throwing up out of one of the windows and not only grossing people out, but perhaps being known as that one American volunteer who couldn't hold her lunch. I started sitting at the front of the bus which made my nausea disappear, though. Hopefully no one got annoyed that I hogged the front seat since I noticed that everyone else was changing seats after every stop.

We made stops at various schools in the area to give out different kinds of notebooks to different grades (or standards, as I think they're called), such as notebooks with gridded pages for the younger students or more lined notebooks per student if they're older. Sometimes we'd drop off people so we could cover more ground by splitting up and we were sort of pressed for time because not only did we leave late, but Saturdays are half-days at the schools so we had to get to the schools before the students were dismissed and some schools had arranged to have a longer day so that they could wait for us.

For one of the schools, the road through the village was too narrow for the bus to pass through so we took the notebooks and walked the rest of the way to the school. Luckily it wasn't a long way off, but I didn't mind the walk because we got to see the houses lining the dirt path. At least one of the schools we went to consisted of a single room for all the grades together with no lights or anything to circulate the air inside. It was surreal to see such a school since those are the kinds of schools I'd only heard about but I got to actually see one.

It was a pleasant surprise to see how much a smile on my end would make the other kids laugh and smile. I feel like a lot of the children came up to me or looked at me in curiosity because I was obviously a foreigner, but once I smiled and greeted them, they would giggle with their friends, smile, and wave back. At one school, a crowd of children came up to me and I chatted with them a little bit, partially hoping that it would take my mind off my nausea. Everyone would ask me what my name was, and where I was from, I tried to ask as many students as possible what their names were too, although some of the other students would just watch me and it's been nearly impossible to learn all these unfamiliar Indian names!

At one of the schools where it was a single room, there was one group of little girls where we'd keep exchanging smiles and waves with each other and later they followed me and the other volunteers when we went to visit the nursery school right across the dirt road. despite the language barrier, it felt like we could connect and it was fun to make faces at them to make them laugh as they watched us through the doorway and the window. I saw so many faces that day but I think I'll always remember that short-haired girl and her friends.

We ended our distribution at a girls' hostel, where we were served rice and sambar and where I finally ate with no utensils. People's stares don't bother me, but I felt like such a foreigner when it came time to rinsing our hands before we ate (people were watching me as it was obvious I didn't know what I was doing) and when I first dug into my food with my right hand. Afterwards, I got to talk to some of the girls and one of the girls pinched my cheeks and told me I looked like a doll after I had told her how old I was (yet we were nearly the same height)! They were quite cute and sweet, and I think we were both amused by each other.

Yesterday was kind of crazy and I wasn't running on a lot of sleep, but it was so amazing to go out and try something like this. Ever since this trip was planned, I fantasized about being able to do something where I'd make people smile and come home tired and dirty after a long day's work. This was just the sort of thing I wanted to experience, and I got to see another part of India in the process. There might be another notebook drive sometime, so if I can make it, I'll try to bring my camera the next time!

[edit]: Miraculously, someone did email me pictures, right out of the blue when I hadn't even asked. I was so happy to receive them in my inbox last night and I feel weird about posting pictures with people in them on my blog so you'll probably get to see them when I get back!

powder and goopy stuff

The other night some of my hosts and I made some rounds giving out mangoes to a few relatives and I got to try to apply my first bindi. Our first and last families to host us would bring out a little metal tray with a cup of red powder in it and I guess you're supposed to dip a finger in and skillfully poke your forehead. We also got some jasmine flowers to put in our hair, which also excited me since I've seen lots of Indian women walking around wearing them. The flowers were small, white and fragrant, so it was fun for me to smell like fresh flowers. But, back to what I meant to blog about, which is the bindi itself. It's actually much trickier than it sounds. Both times I had trouble getting the powder onto my finger tip, since I either had no powder, or way too much. I'd dip my finger in the cup, scrape my fingertip against the edge when I had a crooked, thick chunk of powder that would surely look disastrous if I tried to apply it and then see that I would then have no powder whatsoever on my finger. Swathi helped me the first time by guiding my decently powdered finger to my forehead so it wouldn't look sad and crooked, although I still fretted if it was symmetrical or too light/dark. The second time, my host seemed to pity my scraping/dipping dance and finally just did it for me, giving me the large, obvious pat of a bindi that I was hoping for. I took a picture of myself before I washed it off when I got home, so if you're my facebook friend you can definitely expect to see it soon.

I finally started to eat food with my right hand, people do in India, so I'm proud of myself. All of these consecutive occasions were just out of necessity, since the people feeding me just didn't give me any utensils. I do admit though, I was later offered a spoon/fork in said occasions, but by then the damage was done and I was already eating, anyway. One of the families we visited last night served me a chapati with a sweet paste (I forgot the name of this dish) and since the chapati was soft, it was easy to tear with one hand, unlike the stiff, fresh-off-the-stove ones I previously struggled with. The filling had a crumbly consistency, so it sort of fell apart, but I would still say I did a decent job. The last two times were today when I had some idli (or is it dhosas?) with some chutney (which I found out the hard way that it had nuts in it) and then some rice and sambar. The former wasn't too bad, but the latter made me a bit nervous since the rice mixed with sambar looked like tricky business. I've seen Indian people expertly mix their rice with yogurt or whatever sauce they're using like pros; it's like a second nature to them. They just know how to manipulate the rice to get it to the right consistency and then form it in their fingers to eat in one fell swoop. Despite my fears, I think I was able to manage in a way that didn't get me on the radar unless one was watching me carefully and I don't think I came off as much of a sloppy foreigner as I feared. I managed to feed myself, and no one got hurt.

Today was an awesome day, but my arms hurt and there's a Kannada movie playing in the other room and watermelon on the table with my name on it so that will have to wait for tomorrow.

Here are a few of my favorite things:

Now that I have the flash drive at my disposal, here's a picture of the change I have in my wallet:



It's one lovely, international mess! A dream come true, if I may say so myself. There are coins in there from the US, Hong Kong, New Zealand and perhaps there should be some from India.

Also, I took some pictures of the things I've been stashing and snacking on over here. I not only like how they taste, but their prices, too!

Some Ritz-type crackers, 15 rupees:


Some cookies, 7 rupees each:

EDIT!

edit: I've added a few pictures to better illustrate some of my posts, now that I've gotten off my bum and put some of the pictures from my laptop onto a handy flash drive.

My first Bollywood film experience in India!

Here at the farm house we get a TV channel that shows all movie trailers and all or nearly all of the music videos that play on another channel come from a Bollywood movie so after all that Bollywood exposure, I've been aching to go out to a real Indian movie theater for an authentic Bollywood experience. All the other Bollywood films I'd seen were in my living room, but I wanted to go to a theater where there'd be a real intermission in the film and you can hear the audience since I'd heard that the audience might be more vocal or reactive in India.

On Saturday, Swathi's relatives took us out to see Sarkar Raj, the latest Aishwarya Rai film which also features her new husband and her father-in-law,. The movie theater we went to was old, but in a somewhat grand way, with large staircases and ramps leading up to the balcony seating and an usher. Unlike American movie theaters, there's assigned seating and your ticket price depends on whether you sit in the balcony or below. since we sat in the balcony, I think our tickets were 70 rupees each, or less than 2 USD.

It was surprising to see so many people using their cellphones during the movie, but with the movie playing so loudly, it didn't really matter unless you were sitting right next to that person. Unlike in the US, the audience whistles when the hero comes on, although with the movie being in Hindi without any subtitles,I wasn't sure who the hero was! I initially thought that someone was just whistling to their lost friend so they could find their seat!

During the intermission, Swathi cleared up a few things where I had a sneaking suspicion about this or that. Since there normally isn't much PDA in Bollywood films, I wasn't even sure if two certain characters were married or siblings since I obviously couldn't understand the dialogue between them and the way they interacted with each other was sort of on the platonic side.

Since I couldn't follow the film as well as everyone else in the theater, the ending dort of surprised me and seemed kind of sudden,. Swathi was a bit disappointed with the film because of certain parts of the plot but I guess I liked the film- it was cool to see some of the big Bollywood stars on-screen, in the country in which they're so famous, and there was a lot of action in this film. Since this one was obviously a serious action film, there was an intense soundtrack but no choreographed dances and cheesy songs like in the other films I'd seen before. Hopefully, our next film, Thoda.. [something- something -] Magic (sorry, these names are hard to remember when you don't speak Hindi), which comes out in a couple of weeks should satisfy my Bollywood craving. It has one of the actors from my favorite Bollywood film, Dil Chata Hai, who plays some guy who alongside an angel, takes in 4 orphans. It looks happy and cute with some romance, so I'm looking forward to it!

Sari shopping!

Sorry for the lack of updates; the dial-up connection hasn't been cooperative with me today. : /

Anyway, we're gong to a wedding later on this month and since I don't know when else I'll get to wear a sari in this life, I told Swathi that I wanted to wear one to the wedding. At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted a nice cotton sari with a slight shimmer, of a silk one since silk would require dry-cleaning and I'm lazy when it comes to that stuff. But, when Swathi told me that silk is typically worn at weddings, it definitely made my fiber dilemma much easier!

Swathi rolls her eyes when I say it, but I would like to think that I didn't find my sari; my sari found me! We (as in Swathi, her aunt and I) went to a nice silk place on Friday and at first, it was a little intimidating to have salespeople bringing out piles of saris to me as we sat at a marble counter since my shopping experiences usually don't involve salespeoples waiting on me while I try to make decisions. Once I got over the initial nervousness, it was really amazing to see the infinite combinations of shimmers, colors, patterns, beading and embroidery. The colors were so vibrant and whether they were one color or iridescent, they had a nice, subtle shimmer from the silk. It's mind-boggling to see countless stacks of folded silk saris lining the walls, neatly stacked on shelves, one after another, after another. I at least know that I wanted a green, blue or purple sari, so that narrowed things down slightly.

I felt self-conscious 'trying on' saris in the store since I initially felt silly when the salesman tossed the large, folded piece of silk on one of my small shoulders from across the counter as I awkwardly stared at myself in the mirror and part of my awkwardness also stemmed from the fact that wearing a sari suddenly became more real to me. I also just felt a little self-conscious as i couldn't help but wonder if the salesmen and the other customers in the store could sense how awkward i felt and looked since I have no experience with saris.

It was tempting to go with a traditional combination of a deep green with a crimson border since it not only looked good on me, but somewhere in my optimistic mind I thought that wearing such a sari would make me blend in a little more and not look like such an obvious, grinning foreigner. I ended up going with a bright aqua one with a mellow, mustard border. Well, I called it yellow, but Swathi's aunt corrected me and said it was mustard. She would know more than me about that:



When I first saw it, I was really attracted to how the two colors contrasted each other but I thought that with my complexion, the mustard would just wash me out, as yellows usually do. I almost passed on this sari completely, but I kept coming back to it because I really liked how the colors popped. When I actually had the sari on my shoulder in the mirror, I was surprised that the blue and the yellow brightened my skin. We all thought that the yellow wouldn't be flattering, so I think we were all pleasantly surprised. I feel like this sari was made for me since Swathi's aunt said that this shade of yellow typically doesn't flatter Indian complexions, but it looked good on me. Swathi's grandmother commented that my sari looked a little old-fashioned with the minimal patterns, but I think that as well as my special yellow make it unique and reflect my personality. With it being different, I think this sari will make me stand out, but in a good way: highlighting and flattering what makes me look different from everyone else.

The other day we dropped off my sari at a tailor to have the blouse made. Since I'm new to the whole sari experience, I didn't know that a sari usually comes with matching fabric so the blouse can be custom-made for the wearer and that you can have the tailor tie the ends of the woven silk into fringe. A blouse usually takes 2-3 weeks to be made, so with the wedding we're going to being on the 26th, Swathi was sneaky and told the tailors the wedding was on the 24th. Since the blouse is silk, it will require a lining and the total cost is typically 100 rupees, or approximately 2.50 USD. We still need to buy a petticoat for the sari, but other than that, I'll be ready to take on my first Indian wedding!

Catch-up... maybe too much catch-up.

Don't worry, I'm still here. No, I haven't been involved in some freak sari accident (although that does sound interesting); it's more like my blog absence is due to busyness and a lack of internet access from my laptop. There's one laptop in the house that has internet access, but I always feel weird spending what I would consider a lot of time on the communal computer as I'm afraid of hogging it, so I've only been using that computer to write brief emails to my parents to assure them that I'm alive and well.

I gave up on waiting for getting some internet access to my laptop so I could upload pictures and spend as much time as I needed on my entries without worrying about hogging the family laptop so here's what I wrote on Word so I could paste it on my blog to post when I had the chance. The next 3 entries are posted in reverse chronological order, going down from oldest to most recent:

Estoy aqui' en Begnaluru

6.7.08

Only a couple days have passed yet there's so much I want to post. The more I wait to post more on New Zealand, the more it feels like it'll be awkward or too late to post pictures or write about it. I don't know when I'll be able to have internet access from my laptop, so I think uploading scenic pictures of New Zealand will have to wait. Perhaps I'll just have to have the longest blog entry in history in August when I post an obscenely humongous number of pictures of my entire 11-week trip. I know I've said this was 10 weeks, but I've actually counted the number of weeks in my planner and it's 11. Anyway though, the pictures will have to wait but hopefully these entries made it to my blog in a decent amount of time if I've been able to get my hands on a USB flash drive or something.

Being in Bangalore already makes me miss New Zealand a bit, especially since Bangalore is quite noisy and the traffic is chaotic to say the least. It's not that I don't like that, but I guess it makes me think of how green and peaceful it was in New Zealand and how a lot of times we'd be the only car on the road.

I think it was a bad idea to wait until I come back to take my driving test because I think I've become a little more accustomed to the traffic being on the left side of the road and everyone here changes lanes without signaling and sometimes there could be 4 cars crammed side-by-side on a 3-lane road. Everyone whizzes past one another really closely, and despite the insanity, I have yet to see an accident or injured pedestrian.

So far the hardest part of adjusting to my stay in India has been the food. Oh, and I think the sporadic water supply will eventually get to me as it's somewhat inconvenient when I try to wash up in the morning but I have barely a dribble of water coming from the faucet. But, back to the food: it's not that it's bad food; I'm just still adjusting to eating a lot of unfamiliar things for nearly every meal and I'm still getting accustomed to the flurry of unfamiliar spices and flavors. I was so afraid that I'd absolutely hate everything, but actually in New Zealand, there were quite a few Indian dishes that I enjoyed so that was a good transition. My diet has been primarily vegetarian which is something I've always wanted to try and don't mind so that's been kind of cool. For the times that I do go a little hungry, I have a stash of dried cranberries and apricots from New Zealand (NZ's biosecurity would not have permitted me to bring those into the country from the US but fortunately, India does not have any sort of biosecurity) as well as some crackers and Oreos from an Indian grocery store.

Monsters under my bed, on the floor, on the window, on the walls, in the house.

When I think about how much I enjoy being in nature I often wonder why I don't live closer to it since I love seeing trees, flowers and escaping the sights and sounds of the city. But, tonight's huge spider and resident lizards reminded me of my limits and why exactly, I probably can't ever be completely one with nature.

I used to find it ridiculous when in songs someone would say that they "couldn't make it through the night" but now I find myself tempted to curl up into the fetal position and saying just that. I'm in the Indian countryside staying a couple days in a farmhouse and now that it's night, I'm terrified. I'm not wearing my glasses because I don't want to see any creepy crawlies of any sort and I'm afraid to peek under my bed because I really could find something staring back at me. Even though my laptop needs to be charged (and I keep forgetting that my charger is the one thing that won't fit into my adaptor), I have some music on and I'm charging my ipod so I can fall asleep to some music. It's calming to hear the crickets chirping outside, but whenever I hear a slight stirring or brushing sound, my imagination goes wild. Earlier I heard a small sound and it made my heart jump so I had to put on the music. Oh yeah, and the power is a bit erratic out here so I do have a night light with me as well. Not that I'd want to see what's in the dark. I have a room to myself, but am I really alone?!


6.8.08



I've sort of jumped around here but now is not the time to be playing catch-up! Even just getting from the Auckland airport to the Bangalore one is another story in itself, so I'll get back to you on that when it's daylight and I'm not shivering in my boots. I hope tomorrow when I'm not showering out of a pail I won't have a lizard/spider/cockroach/check other to keep me company...

A very long post about 2 3 very different things

6.9.08

Okay, so I did make it through the night. I was so exhausted last night that once I fell asleep, I slept through the whole night, although that's happened every night I've been here since so much has been going on. Initially, it was hard to take those 3 steps across the room to shut off the light, but after I sprang back to my bed in complete darkness and untangled myself from the mosquito nets that I leapt into, the night silence was a bit calming. My ears were listening for any sounds of scurrying, but I actually just heard the trees in the wind, some crickets and a few motorcycles passing through on the road nearby.

Despite my city-girl paranoia, I do enjoy being out here in the countryside. This morning I was staring out of my bed, enclosed in mosquito net trying to savor my disbelief of waking up in a farmhouse in India. I still find this all surreal sometimes, and I try to enjoy it since these are the moments I've writing about in my journals, dreaming of when I'd get to wake up halfway around the world, in another room, in another house with the sun shining through the window. Ten, five, even two years ago, I had no idea I'd get to be here. I remember being in the third grade or so, being fascinated with India from the pictures and footage I'd seen of the Taj Mahal, old buildings and colorful markets but being a little discouraged when people would tell me that I wouldn't like India because it was a dirty place. I know I definitely would not have liked or been able to handle being in India had I gone any time before this, but I'm glad I'm here now.

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I guess I've also allowed myself to be a bit negligent with this blog just because there's been so much to tell and I don't know where to begin. As promised though, I'll tell you that the flight from Auckland to Bangalore was a bit hectic. I don't know why Swathi and I seem to have bad luck with all of our flights already, but when we showed up to the Auckland airport we found out that our flight from Hong Kong to Bangalore was cancelled because the part of the airport in Bangalore that was supposed to receive that flight was still under construction and our supposed flight wouldn't be starting up until July. We were supposed to have been notified of the changes [ahembadtravelagentahem] so we could have our airfare rebooked earlier so we ended up running from the end of the security and customs checkpoint to the gate because it took so long for everything to be rebooked. At least we didn't have to pay for any of these changes; we were originally booked for a Mumbai flight automatically when the changes happened but there were no flights from Mumbai to Bangalore so we had to stop in Delhi instead (which prolonged our travel time by half a day and is farther than Mumbai) and then fly to Bangalore.

With flights I tend to only think of the origin and the destination and I think I've kind of forgotten about the places I pass in between point A to point B. On the Auckland-Hong Kong flight I didn't realize that we'd be flying over West Papua on the way over so it was quite exciting when I saw it on the map on my seat monitor. I already had a 2-seat row to myself (it wasn't a full flight) so it was cool to have the window to myself and see the view below. It sort of felt like something out of a movie since it was sort of surreal to be able to look out the window and see West Papua below. Instead of grids of buildings and houses, all I could see was trees and a long, winding river. The Kombai and Mek live in West Papua (you know, from my favorite shows, Living With the Kombai and Living With the Mek?), so it was really amazing to fly over the country over what might have been relatively untouched land and wonder if there were people living amongst those trees.

Despite the inconveniences, it was an opportunity for me to at least get a glimpse of Delhi (from the airport, that is) that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Things were a bit hectic since the security and check-in procedures are a bit different and one of Swathi's suitcases didn't arrive since it had to be put on a later flight (probably because our rebooking forced us to check-in about an hour before our flight departed back in Auckland). I bought a cheese sandwich for 60 rupees from a guy who didn't seem to enjoy his job very much (or perhaps his bad mood was on account of it being 5 am) before we went to the gate and it was kind of bland, so I didn't finish it. Swathi had some sort of veggie puff so when we got to the gate we were quite disappointed to find that there was a McDonald's there. I normally don't care much for McDonald's and I probably eat it only a handful of times a year, but the French fries and the McChicken sandwich seemed particularly enticing after that crust-less Swiss cheese and mayo sandwich. I felt bad that I didn't finish my sandwich so I ended up not getting my McD's fix. Swathi and I just sort of stared at the menu debating back and forth if we should give in and get an order of fries until we had to board our shuttle.

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I normally don't read the newspaper back in California, unless you count Sudoku and Dear Abby, but here I've been much more interested in the current events. I've always wanted to just watch the local TV and read local newspapers in another country because I'm interested in how other people live their day-to-day lives, so I'm curious to see what they read and see from their couches. I even just like to see the different commercials and products in other countries so sure enough, I've been getting my fill here.

I'd heard there were marriage classifieds in Indian newspapers, but when I saw a classifieds section lying on the coffee table, I was doubtful I'd actually see it. Of course, I had to check it out for myself and there actually was a marriage section in the back, which was quite interesting to read. They're probably like those dating classifieds back in the US where people might put their salary if they earn a lot, height and age, although I'm can't remember if any of the listings gave any mention of personality traits. People put their professional qualifications and if they were in the US, they mentioned that too. There were different sub-sections for people based on caste and religion, like Brahmin or Christian. A lot of people had their graduate degree, and some of the ads were put by the parents to find someone for their son/daughter.

It's been interesting to just read the local stories and also the entertainment section, so I can satisfy my growing fascination with Bollywood. I've been able to recognize a few faces here and there in the paper or on TV now, but I haven't really learned any new names yet. Just like in the US, there's gossip over who's with who and the like but one of the reasons why Bollywood fascinates me is that it's a much more accepted practice for an actor to not do any vocal work for the songs in the films to the point that it's expected that the cast members did not do their own singing for a film. Perhaps it just seems like it's a more accepted practice because Bollywood films typically have songs while Hollywood films rarely have the characters breaking into song and the Bollywood soundtracks get more promotion with music videos while few films do that here in the US these days. What surprised me though, was seeing an awards ceremony on TV where the performers were actors who were lip-synching to songs. There's plenty of lip-synching that goes on in the US, but not only were these actors on stage lip-synching to songs that they didn't sing, but everyone is aware of it! That sort of thing just wouldn't fly in the US, so it was just really surprising to see it on TV...
*Keep in mind that I am no Bollywood expert; these are my own humble observations drawn from the little Bollywood exposure that I have gotten thus far.

So, how do you say good-bye the Kiwi way, anyway?

I'll be driven out to Auckland to the airport in 30 minutes or so. I got up early this morning because I thought I still had a lot of packing to do, but I didn't so now I'm just enjoying my last bit of toast. As mentioned earlier, we're stopping off in Auckland to pick up those penguin waffle makers before going to the airport. We're picking them up from the queenb warehouse but the site didn't have the product's weight and measurements (and I only realized that too late to ask the woman I'd been in correspondence with) so I don't know how big/small they'll be and if they will/won't fit in my suitcase. So, I'm a bit nervous about that. Well, that and if all of the waffle makers get crushed to bits in my suitcase despite my best attempts to surround them with soft items for protection. Worst comes to worst, I'll have to leave them with my NZ hosts to ship to the US and pay them back for the shipping costs but I hope it won't have to come to that because it's really expensive to ship. Since I didn't have the dimensions of the boxes, it was hard to get an accurate estimate (plus, I had to put in the estimated measurements in mm) but my shot-in-the-dark estimates were a bit pricey since it would be for each item and that was just the economy shipping (10-25 days). We shall see, folks.

Last night we went out to dinner at a friend of my hosts' and on the way back I tried as hard as I could to savor a look at the night sky. It was pitch black outside and with the view of the sky being so open and unobstructed, it was perfect to see all those stars. There were big ones, small ones, twinkling ones (and I'm not sure I've ever seen a twinkling star!) and some sort of streak in the sky. Okay, maybe it was a strange cloud; I'm no astronomy expert, but who knows when I'll get to see so many stars and a sky like that?!

I'm a little less sick now (I mentioned I had a cold a couple days ago, right?) since I now only have the remains of a lingering cough but I'm not excited about flying like that. The recycled plane air full of germs, the dryness of the air that could make me cough like crazy, being in such close proximity to a whole bunch of people- ugh! Plus, I hope my fellow passengers won't be annoyed by my incessant coughing.

Later I'll try to post pictures of New Zealand. It seems to be a fitting way to conclude the New Zealand segment of my trip. My hosts kept asking me if I'd consider coming back to New Zealand and I definitely would. I'll get back to that thought later, though- I think we need to leave soon and I still need to finish my toast...

(second to) last day in Aotearoa

Theoretically today should be spent packing but so far no packing has really been done yet. I have though, gone to a Pak n' Save and while paying for my Kleenex and dried fruit (I like to snack a lot so I want to stock up on a few for India), I excitedly realized that I have 3 different kinds of currency in my wallet. Well, actually 4, since I always keep a Canadian $5 bill in my wallet, but it's been there for about a year so to me it doesn't really count. Anyway, it's small things like that that I've always dreamt of experiencing overseas. Looking back on past journal entries, I'd write about how badly I wanted to go overseas and do this and that. A couple days ago I tried to savor walking down Queen Street in downtown Auckland because it was exciting and surreal that I was finally there. Auckland didn't dazzle me as much as San Francisco does, but knowing that I'd written in my journals just months ago about going to other places made me excited to be there.

It's near the end of fall over here but today I'm wearing shorts in the house because all my pants are filthy and in the laundry right now. My brown pants are all sandy from the sand dunes, my jeans are dirty and slight muddy from hiking and all that other stuff and my the hem of my pajama pants are kind of dirty because they drag on the ground. Hopefully my jeans will be done before we go out to dinner; it's getting a bit cool now...

Swathi's already started packing so I feel like I should get started, too. I haven't bought as much as I thought I would so at least I shouldn't have to worry too much about space as I usually do. A lot of the new items are flat, so that's no problem. I will though, have to make room for 3 penguin waffle irons. Oh yeah, I should've mentioned that I did indeed secure 4 Woodles penguin waffle irons today. I've been in contact with someone from a New Zealand shopping site so I'll be able to pick up 4 on my way to the airport in Auckland. I don't know how big the packaging is and I hope I can pack them securely enough so they won't be damaged in transit. I might try to ship them home from India when I get there.

Dead Animal Tally and other, less morbid things

The other day must have been a record for the number of dead animals Swathi and I saw. We went to 90-Mile Beach and I guess with the high and low-tide a lot of animals get swept onto the beach and stranded so they die there. The variety was kind of interesting, so here's a run-down of all the wildlife we saw that day:
-Various possums on the road: Numerous. We've seen a lot of possums pasted on the road but today we actually saw a bird picking at one.
-Fish: Numerous. It was interesting; when we first got onto the beach you could see fish skeletons embedded in the sand like they'd decayed and been there for a while. They were in various stages of decay but some were there much longer than the others. There was a whole bunch of fish only on the first stretch of the beach and then you didn't see any at all.
-Puffer fish: At least 5. I've never seen a live puffer fish in nature, so it was quite another thing to get to a stretch of beach where you could see numerous dead puffer fish. Our hosts were even generous enough to drive right up to one so we could get a better look.
-Seal(?): 1. This may be the biggest dead animal I've ever seen in real life. We saw a large, white and black mass on the beach and I knew it couldn't be a large piece of driftwood this time. I think it was a seal, but from its decay, it's really hard to say since I'm no expert. Whatever it was, the nature-challenged part of me wondered why it couldn't use its flippers to scurry back to sea.
-Seagull(?): 1. I put a question mark because I can't be sure. There were lots of clumps of seaweed on the beach and one of them had a white, feathery mass tangled in it so perhaps it's safe to assume it's a seagull.
Pictures would definitely illustrate this post better, but I didn't take any because I thought that would be kind of strange and morbid. Although, I do kind of regret not taking a picture of the puffer fish. I think if I got down to the ground I could've gotten an interesting picture of its peeled back lips and empty eyes.

Anyway, I've still been having a good time here in New Zealand. The land is so open and sometimes everywhere you look, you're surrounded by green pastures. I don't know if it's the openness, but the clouds here seem to be lower to the ground. It's almost magical! Also, with nothing to obscure the sky (where we are most buildings are 1 story and some areas have just a house here and there) and the lack of lights at night (no lights on the freeways, most businesses close at 6-ish), you can see so many stars at night it's crazy! The last couple nights when we've had to drive home in the evenings I keep looking up at the sky in disbelief at how many stars I can see. I definitely can't get that back home because all the lights drown out most of the stars. With all this nature around, sometimes it feels like you're away from the rest of the world and it's quite nice.

As an update on how I've been doing in completing my shopping list from a previous post, today I'll be continuing my quest for those penguin waffle makers. Since I don't listen to the Flight of the Conchords' latest album a lot, I decided not to get their previous two when I was in Auckland yesterday. I haven't seen any Olympics stuff and I checked out a few appliance stores/departments but to no avail. I just got back from a store that sells Sunbeam appliances but they stopped selling the waffle makers a while ago. So close, yet so far!