Summaries of Three Important Days...

February 14th, Valentine's Day: I skyped all my stateside valentines, was lovey with all my foreign valentines,opened numerous cards,delivered numerous cards, and ate myself into a chocolate coma. Success.

My Valentines I made :)

February 18th, Pizza Party: Five hungry girls ordered 5 pizzas, 2 sides of bread sticks, 3 pops, 3 deserts, and 1 side of chicken. Three hours later we ended up with 6 pizzas, 4 sides of bread sticks, 6 pops, 6 deserts, and 1 side of chicken...? It's India, I suppose.

Me, Alessana, Amber, Sarah, Megan gorging.

February 19th, Rock Walk: Save the Rocks Foundation is a society that raises awareness to protect the million year-old rocks in Hyderabad. It took 4 hours to find the place, but the hike was amazing. I quite enjoyed being in the outdoors. It also decreased the guilt of my pizza gorge. :)

Megan and I climbed down under a rock to see the pool (supposedly drinking water) next to the Hindu temple :)

This may not look like much, but this was very hard to get to.

Awesommmmme!!!

Alisa in her element! :)

Two favorites.

   India has introduced me to a multitude of people. I know it's not nice to pick favorites, but I have two people whom I would like to tell you about...
  Yashoda is my yoga professor. She is the most beautiful women I have ever seen. She stands, moves, sits, and talks with grace I can only dream of achieving. As corny as this may sound, she radiates goodness. RADIATES IT. She has taught me so much about life and I have only known her for 2 months. A few weeks ago I went to a Hindu temple, which was having a music and dance festival. Yashoda is a professional dancer and was performing. I have NEVER seen anything so intriguing. There is nothing back in America I could ever compare it to. I didn't take my camera, so I am mooching off of my peers' pictures and recordings of the event. The following are links to videos of the dances. *Yashoda is in the purple*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=asbavEPTZx0
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOsL331r8S4&feature=related
    The whole experience was amazing. Today, Yashoda explained the place of the female dancer in the Hindu temples. Before colonial rule, Hindu Temples had two main people: a male priest and a female dancer, called the Devandasi. The Devandasi danced and sung to the gods throughout the day. When the British took over, they thought it was wrong for a woman to be dancing in a temple, so they banned it.  The Devandasis were then put out to the streets and due to the lack of another trade or option to marry, were forced into prostitution. The word Devandasi is sometimes meant as prostitute/prostitution now. Yashoda said she had 'personally experienced this [idea}'. Today, there is only one temple in the world that has temple dancers..... and I saw it. :)

Yashoda and I after her performance. (Photo by: Emily Winters)

   
   Bhavani is my Hindi professor. She is astonishing. She has a three year old daughter, named Tanvi, is the principle of the migrant school down the street (http://hcumigrantschool.wordpress.com/), teaches college courses from noon-5 pm, and partially lives in Tagore to take care of all of the international students. Tanvi is as adorable as her mother and a very spoiled little girl. She knows THREE languages. Bhavani told me she corrects her teacher at school! Again, she is three years old!!!!! She is the smartest child I have ever seen.

Tanvi

Showing off her henna, done by her mother.

Bhavani doing henna on my hand :)

   I'm not sure what Bhavani's family situation is, as she and Tanvi sometimes live in Tagore and sometimes in their apartment off campus. Sometimes in class, you can see Bhavani's tiredness in her face. She works so hard for so many people, all the time. She would do anything for anyone. I wish I could give her a vacation, she deserves it.
   I'm sure I will meet many more wonderful people here, but I am confident that these two women will have a lasting affect on how I live my life.

  

Realizations.

It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I don't have any excuses, other then I had so much free time I didn't know what to do with it all. I will try to get better at this blogging thing.

Exactly a week ago, I wrote in my personal journal that I am officially OUT of the 'honeymoon-stage' of studying abroad. This means that I have realized that I actually do live here and this is not just a flamboyant vacation, soon to end in the normality of Nebraska. I love the month February, but it has taken it's toll on me: my lungs (bronchitis), my relationship, my world-views, and my self-control (of my emotions). I've had bronchitis for about a week and a half, but I'm finally getting better. Thankfully, my mother and I thought it'd be a good idea to take antibiotics in case this happened. My relationship, with Billy, has been greatly tested, because, honestly, having your best friend on the opposite side of the world is very hard. My ideas of life in general have been tested multiple times this month due to the commonality of animal abuse, obscene poverty, wastefulness, religion, uneducated children, and especially money. My control over my emotions has been astonishing, considering how hypersensitive I am.

As a response to the last couple weeks, I have changed a little bit.
 As for the realization that I live here:
     Last Thursday, I went to a basketball tournament that the University was putting on. We had a team of boys competing in it so we went to cheer them on. During the girls' game, I voiced my disappointment of not signing up for a team. Suddenly, after changing into some sweats and some encouragement from my wonderful friends here, I found myself in the middle of the court trying to remember the faces of the girls on my team- that's right, I played basketball with girls I had never talked to, in front of an Indian crowd I knew would be watching my every move. It was pretty bad, as I haven't really played for about 5 years and many of the Indian girls had never played in their lives, but I ended up with a few points and a wicked injury on my ankle. We lost by 1 point and my foot hurt like no other, but I MADE INDIAN FRIENDS! :) It was absolutely horrifying to just go out on the court and play (I never would've done that a few months ago!), but I figured that if I'm in India, I might as well make it awesome, and that's what I did.

 As for my relationship:
   I realized that Billy is my best friend and our relationship is based on honesty. We had a few, good, honest arguments and then realized that if we wanted this to work overseas, we needed to try harder. So we are, and it's working :)

Valentine's Day Roses from Billy :)

 As for my world view changing:
   Simply put, cultures are very different. I choose to come to a place that would shock me, and it does everyday. I learn something everyday and experience things I never thought I would. Some things are horrible and I can't seem to understand them; some things are wonderful and I can't seem to understand them.I have accepted that I don't understand a lot.

 As for my realization that I need to control my emotions:
   I am a very emotional person. I always knew that back home, but now I REALLY know. There are a lot of things to be upset about in India, just as anywhere in the world. My yoga professor, Yashoda, said something that seems to have lodged itself into my brain: it is not selfish to not feel. In other words, turning down the emotions doesn't mean you are not compassionate and uncaring; it just means that you are in control of how much something effects you. I'm trying to teach myself this.

I really love India; I'm just not in 'la la land' aka vacation mode anymore.

4,000 Rupees

During the first week of living in Hyderabad, I did a lot of shopping. In the mall, I spent 4,000 rupees at Fab India, a boutique. This is roughly $80. I knew it was a lot, but I justified it by saying that I got a lot for my money and it was my 'splurge.'

Today, I found out that the migrant school down the street is hoping to take a field trip to the zoo, if they have enough funds. None of the students have ever seen a zoo. The cost for transportation, lunch, and admission for 40 students is 3,500 rupees. This is roughly $70.

How is it possible to 'justify' the way we live?

Chennai-Pondicherry Trip: Part III

Saturday, January 28, 2012
The day started out with a lovely breakfast at the Daily Bread, which very much resembled a Panera Bread. There I drank the prettiest latte of my life.

Absolutely fabulous.

Next, the beach. Totally amazing. We found a semi-secluded beach called Serenity. There were only about a dozen people there, other then ourselves, which allowed all the girls to wear or half wear our swimming suits. I could've spent all day there.

(Pictures taken by: Erin Mcconnana) Sand castle building!

(Picture taken by: Erin Mcconnaha)

ISA Family: Megan, me Ryan, Jamie, Amber, Kelly

More of the fam.

Ladies! Erin, Megan, Emily, Amber, me, Jamie, Kelly

We met some guys from Denmark at the beach who told us about this music festival in Auroville, so after some food and a shower we headed over there. We ended up in Solitude Farm, a completely self-sustainable place. I invite you to read about them! Here are some sites to check out: http://www.auroville.org/environment/agri_farms.htm#solitude  and http://solitudefarm.blogspot.in/ . Jamie pointed out that this is how everyone should be living- which I completely agree with.

Non-electric Ferris-wheel

Solitude

Rahul told us we had  to go to Don Giovanni's, the "best Italian food in India." It turns out that the best Italian food in India is run by a wonderful, plump man named Max, who is French. ha. It definitely was not amazing, but it was still pretty tasty :)

Sunday, January 29, 2012
 We decided that this could be our only chance to see the sun rise over the Indian Ocean/ Bay of Bengal, so a 4:45 AM alarm started the day.

Walking to Prominade Beach.

Sunrise.

We all did our own thing for our remaining hours in Pondicherry.

The Sunday Produce Market, nothing I've ever seen before.

Vegetables.

Fabric for sale in the Sunday Market.

Auroville Boutique= handmade paper= Alisa's heaven :)

Me under the state flag of Nebraska?

To explain the picture just above: When we went back to Chennai to catch our bus we found an American-style diner! Sparky's Diner had license plates, flags, postcards, everything from the states! :) It was what everyone needed for the end of our trip. We arrived back to Tagore just in time for breakfast the next day.

Chennai-Pondicherry Trip: Part II

Friday, January 27, 2012
 After a particularly long night in our fabulous hotel, I had the most amazing orange juice I have ever tasted. Anyone who has never had freshly squeezed orange juice is really missing out.

This is tiffin and idli (I think...) It was very yummy :)

Minute Maid now has some huge competition...

Our taxi picked us up after breakfast and we first stopped at a crocodile farm/sanctuary/thing. In my opinion, it was absolutely horrifying. They put 100's and 100's of crocs and alligators in an area about 50 yards squared. They did have a lot of different species, which was neat to see, but I was pretty freaked out by the conditions. While waiting for everyone to get to the car I was standing next to some calves. I was talking to them and when I looked away one of the rammed me in the side! haha. Yes, it could have been horrible, but I found it very amusing: the HOLIEST creature in India tried to take me out haha. (*Mom, please don't freak out). I wish I could have at least gotten a bruise to show off!
   Our next stop was Mamallpuram, a group of Hindu stone-carvings. Again, I wish I knew what exactly I was looking at, but it was still pretty cool.

I tried to be as cute as this kid.

But, instead I just stole his idea.

This is an excellent example of creepy men taking pictures of light-skinned women. Poor Kelly :(

After a long trek up to a temple: (front to back) Erin, Kelly, Amber, Ryan, Alaa, Emily

   Once we arrived in Pondicherry, we fell in love with our guest house: the Kailash Guest House.

(Picture taken by: Kelly) Amber and I ready to sleep forever on SOFT, clean beds.

Run by a family of devout Hindus, we experienced shrines, incense, and warm welcomes at this place.

Wow, I could have stayed forever in this place, it was so wonderful. By this time, everyone was very grumpy and hungry, so lunch and rest took our time until night. A group of us decided to try to find La' Coffee and Space, which was a hangout recommended in my Lonely Planet book. It was super fun but before we reached it we stumbled upon something magnificent: Lakshmi, the elephant who stands in front of a Hindu temple and blesses people. For those of you who know of the what-to-do-with-an-elephant-in-india-to-do-list, this is #1. I was blessed by an elephant...3 times haha. It was magical :)

Lakshmi and I

Chennai-Pondicherry Trip: Part I

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

(Photo taken by: Kelly O'Brien) I know, our excitement is outrageous

   At 7:30 pm, Ryan, Erin, Emily, Alaa, Kelly, Amber, Megan, Jamie, and I got on a semi-sleeper bus for a 14 hour ride to Chennai. We only stopped once... luckily it was at the 'Nice Restaurant'...there I encountered  the worst bathroom I have EVER experienced in my life. I will not elaborate... let's just say I will never EVER complain about an American gas-station bathroom again... EVER.


Thursday, January 26, 2012
The ride was alright and we arrived in Chennai about 8 AM. We walked to our hotel and spent a few hours resting there. So far, it was the worst hotel I've stayed at in India, but there were no bed bugs and it was relatively safe.
We got some brunch at a small restaurant down the street. I had an excellent egg doosa and some fabulous tea.

I love that the saucer and cup do not match :)

  Rahul had insisted that we get a guided tour of Chennai, so our guide and driver showed up at 1 pm. The woman, who told us to call her 'Rain' because 'it was easy for us to say' was quite intriguing. She was openly prejudice against Muslims, but had an interesting life story. She told a few of us at dinner that she had an arranged marriage that was based on her horoscope. The marriage consisted of a very abusive dowry and when her husband died (when their daughter was 2 years old) his brother said she could either pay for the funeral (roughly $10,000) or get out. So she left and took her daughter with her. Now, her 19 year old is in an Engineering College and setting sights on America. Her mother insists that she will get to choose her future husband. :)
   Anyways, the tour! First we went to St. Mary's Church, which is the oldest Angelican Church East of the Suez. Next was the St. Thomas Basilica. St. Thomas is buried underneath, and our guide said it's one of the top three churches to see in the world. Personally, my favorite part of it was the hollywood-like posters of Jesus' prophets:

St. John with a mullet.

St. James The Less

Pretty Impressive

The stained glass windows created this wonderful reflection on the marble floor- made me think of home.

Next was coffee. Most coffee here is not really coffee, it's more of this dissolvable mix that resembles the taste of week-old coffee. But wherever this tour lady took us was LEGIT! I had the best coffee I think in India. It was sooooo great and very much needed. 

In order to cool it, you pour it back and forth between the cup and the cup-bowl-thing. Pretty genius, I'd say.

(Photo taken by: Kelly O'Brien) Me bein' real excited for real coffee.

The Hindu Temple was next. Wow it was cool. I'm not even sure if I could ever explain it. But it was beautiful to see people in worship.

On the way to the beach we saw fruit and vegetable markets! They look as good as good ol' Nebraskan grown :)

A lot of gods. Whew.

Next was the beach! I had been looking forward to this moment since we arrived to the coast. I was wearing white pants... which didn't mix very well with running in the ocean as soon as I could, but I really don't even care. I was so excited to feel the waves, I'm sure everyone had quite a view haha.

(Photo taken by: Erin Mcconnaha) Me being really happy after a splash in the Bay of Bengal/ Indian Ocean

   
That night (mostly to get ourselves out of our hotel), a few of us and Alla's friends went to a huge mall. It was Republic Day, so even the mall was festive!

(Photo taken by: Kelly O'Brien) Me being touristy.