so we made it in to delhi yesterday, no hitches on a big spacious bus that finished up the "riding in style" MSID allowed. i'm staying in the YWCA here, way overpriced, but just for the night because they have safe/reliable luggage storage. or so i hope because i'm leaving my computer and all other breakables, so we'll see how they hold up for the last month. my first impressions of delhi when i first got to india are so different than now. I am actually having culture shock here, the sidewalks and big and walkable, the stores airconditioned with set prices, and a good majority of people are in western clothes. teenagers were out in groups last night, and i saw people on dates holding hands. its all very bizarre. we hit up some shopping around connaught place, basically the heart of delhi that divides old and new delhi, and had some dinner with the remainders of the MSID group at a south indian restaurant, banana leaf. today we got up, i had some toast and fried veggie delight for breakfast, and now teresa and i plan on hitting up the national museum and some mugal relics today. maybe hit up delhi night life tonight? we did find a pretty happening jazz bar yesterday, we'll see.
so bad news, my cell phone will now officially be in roaming for the rest of my time in india, which means jacked up call prices and it charges me for incoming calls, so family, keep me posted on e-mail and i'll try to check it whenever i can and keep you all updated.
i just wanted to let you all know i made it here safely and soundly, and i'm excited to the nth degree about getting this travelling show on the road right now.
miss you guys,
see you in a month,
loooove,
sarah
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
the hill station that saved my sanity and the end of MSID
Time is such a tricky thing. Sometimes minutes are hours but weeks are seconds here. I can't believe my program is over. I just finished my Hindi final, turned in my final internship report, and had a delicious lunch of unidentifiable vegetables that looked kind of like lemon pickles and unidentifiable dal with unidentifiable fried balls that tasted just like french onion soup. so it goes. it's been a weird few days, everyone is getting ready for very different upcoming weeks, some are going straight back to the US, some to Europe, others spending a few weeks in India. Everyone is frantically finalizing travel plans, housing and and jobs internships at home, and planning meet ups over the summer. Its exciting and bizarre, the idea of being finished, of traveling, of returning home. Its been kind of an emotional ride, only made more intense by the extreme heat and insomnia.
So Wednesday Dana and I hopped a train to Mt. Abu, the only hill station in Rajasthan, a cool oasis from the intense desert climate. We spent our days hiking, saw what are considered to be the world's most intricate marble carvings in a Jain temple, and eating crazy amounts of a berry that must have been a close relative to the blackberry, so good.
the Jains know whats up.
on one of our walks around the lake.
at our favorite restaurant. the mysore masala dosa rocked my life, and was animal product free to boot.
Dana and I on one of our day hikes.
After a pretty miserable/long train ride to Jaipur, we made to our hotel and had an amazing reunion with our friends including a feast of fresh pomegranate seeds. The last few days have been spent wrapping up all loose ends, packing, donating, bartering, trading, shopping, and trying to making sense of the last few months of our lives.
Saturday I leave for Delhi, then off for more adventures.
hope all of your own adventures are going well,
love,
sarah
So Wednesday Dana and I hopped a train to Mt. Abu, the only hill station in Rajasthan, a cool oasis from the intense desert climate. We spent our days hiking, saw what are considered to be the world's most intricate marble carvings in a Jain temple, and eating crazy amounts of a berry that must have been a close relative to the blackberry, so good.
the Jains know whats up.
on one of our walks around the lake.
at our favorite restaurant. the mysore masala dosa rocked my life, and was animal product free to boot.
Dana and I on one of our day hikes.
After a pretty miserable/long train ride to Jaipur, we made to our hotel and had an amazing reunion with our friends including a feast of fresh pomegranate seeds. The last few days have been spent wrapping up all loose ends, packing, donating, bartering, trading, shopping, and trying to making sense of the last few months of our lives.
Saturday I leave for Delhi, then off for more adventures.
hope all of your own adventures are going well,
love,
sarah
Monday, April 14, 2008
the untourist trail.
these last two days have pretty much rocked my life. yesterday dana, vaneja, this crazy animal lovin produce vendor, and i went out to the kaylana lake on the outskirts of town. he took us to probably one of the most amazing places i've ever been to, it was this cave temple/ashram/animal sanctuary (i even saw wild mongoose!)/ home for pundits. there were tiny caves to crawl in with temples inside, plus this huge amphitheater type area to worship Lord Shiva. it was the most amazing living space i've ever seen. check this out:
and then we took all our friends left over produce and hiked out to the monkey temple, where he literally hollered to the monkeys and they all came running, and we got to feed them right out of our hands. there were dozens of them.
after snacking on some grapes and oranges and chatting with the pundits of the monkey house, we went over to a part of the lake to feed the fish some chickpeas and parle g's, and hand lunch provided courtesy of the temple caretakers. mmm. oh yea, and i saw a tomb where a 200 year old man was buried alive, apparently thats your way to salvation when you've been hanging out on earth for 2 centuries.
followed by a paddleboat ride around the lake, and then back that evening for some fruit, sweets, and sugar cane juice purchasing:
today was a kerelan holiday, so we went over to vaneja's and had the most delicious of south indian dishes until i really thought i was going to pop. they were worried we wouldn't be able to eat all those curries and rice with our hands (because rice is rarely served with north indian dishes), but we definitely showed them how we can pack it away with our well practiced shoveling skills. we hung out with her family all day, how cute are they?
oh yes, i know how completely awkward this picture looks, but vaneja really wanted a picture of us with her family, she is such a sweetheart. don't let the no smiles fool you, indians never smile for pictures, because they were the warmest most adorable pair you could encounter.
and then we took all our friends left over produce and hiked out to the monkey temple, where he literally hollered to the monkeys and they all came running, and we got to feed them right out of our hands. there were dozens of them.
after snacking on some grapes and oranges and chatting with the pundits of the monkey house, we went over to a part of the lake to feed the fish some chickpeas and parle g's, and hand lunch provided courtesy of the temple caretakers. mmm. oh yea, and i saw a tomb where a 200 year old man was buried alive, apparently thats your way to salvation when you've been hanging out on earth for 2 centuries.
followed by a paddleboat ride around the lake, and then back that evening for some fruit, sweets, and sugar cane juice purchasing:
today was a kerelan holiday, so we went over to vaneja's and had the most delicious of south indian dishes until i really thought i was going to pop. they were worried we wouldn't be able to eat all those curries and rice with our hands (because rice is rarely served with north indian dishes), but we definitely showed them how we can pack it away with our well practiced shoveling skills. we hung out with her family all day, how cute are they?
oh yes, i know how completely awkward this picture looks, but vaneja really wanted a picture of us with her family, she is such a sweetheart. don't let the no smiles fool you, indians never smile for pictures, because they were the warmest most adorable pair you could encounter.
Friday, April 11, 2008
life before india.
last night was a lovely lovely night. dana and i had late night sweet craving, and using the things we could find in the guest house attempted to make cookies. the final result, full of crushed up chocolate cereal and leftover peanut butter and other random refrigerator things, grilled on the stove, were a nice substitute for peanutbutter chocolate chip hashbrowns. delicious. we also discovered our basement, and decided that the value of sleeping in a space 10 degrees cooler was worth the cost of sleeping in a creepy space full of boxes and old toilets. today we made an extremely frustrating trip to the train station, but after some help from an equally frustrated woman behind us, we got tickets to go to mt abu next wednesday, its a hill station, which equals beautiful greenery and cool temps and hikes and such, and i booked tickets for mumbai, which i had to push back a day due to full trains, so heres to spending my 21st birthday in a 2nd class sleeper! woo! oh yea, and the highlight of my night was a call from anna, and we had a long talk. things are hard when you are away from everything that is familiar for so long, even more so in anna's case than mine. it is important to know what you value in life, and its even more important to never take those things for granted, and make sure you show all those people and places and things that they are important to you. you only have so many minutes here, so why not spend them always making everything you love happier?
and you want to know what makes everyone happy?
Picture montages!
Here are some of my happiest days with my favorite people.
thanks for being my best friend for the last lifetime sister.
for realz.
and you too brother!
and you too dad and granpa!
ok, well i was going to add more pictures of the rest of the crew that make me happy like hot cocoa and snow days, but it looks like my internet is losing steam. so i'll write more soon.
and you want to know what makes everyone happy?
Picture montages!
Here are some of my happiest days with my favorite people.
thanks for being my best friend for the last lifetime sister.
for realz.
and you too brother!
and you too dad and granpa!
ok, well i was going to add more pictures of the rest of the crew that make me happy like hot cocoa and snow days, but it looks like my internet is losing steam. so i'll write more soon.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
poops and bugs and hives.
so i think i'm losing my mind a little bit. i came upon this conclusion after dana and i got into a rickshaw accident today, and i didn't flinch. weird? a little. it was kind of a slow mo accident, but there was definitely a rear view mirror of another rickshaw passing uncomfortably close to me inside of my rickshaw. then our driver decided it was a good idea to hit the guy again to make him stop so he could yell at him. hehehe. oh india. we just got back from a ridiculous 3 day journey to jaipur for our mid internship seminar, which consisted of 16 hours with 8 people in a jeep (my levels of patience and tolerance for the uncomfortable are now higher than they have ever been in my life i'm pretty sure), 9 hours of class, and a quick visit to manju ji to recover my journal which i thought was gone for sure (woo!). it was so good to see everyone again, and compare war stories and the intense drama/comedy that is working for indian NGO. i'm pretty sure i got fleas from the hotel (not joking), but i'm really not too worried about it, as i spent our night in the hotel together checking out the lice and ringworm the other girls had. (also not joking). not to mention the diarrhea and insomnia that have become more of a condition than a problem. oh yea, and dana is in a constant state of hives of which we can not figure out the cause. who knows, maybe its because we are using this as a shower:
so, things are pretty much hilarious in india right now. and i just read this, and it may sound like i'm upset, but this is completely not the case. my life is awesome and funny and dana and i are making big plans for the last weekend, which cannot be broadcast online at the moment, on top of the crazy adventures we've been having here, involving an assortment of hindi religious zealots, listening to some crazy tunes beat out by the unbelievably awesome kids from the school i'm working with
, drunk angry mumbaians, an australian woman who gets us pizza and illegal copies of my favorite movies, swedes who informed me of late night headphone techno dance parties on the beach in a town i will be traveling through, public transportation
listening to some amazingly talented traditional performers one of which played a waterjug like a madman, having lifetime movie/knitting parties with dana, and getting soaked by rogue water balloons just walking down the street
, and i'm making big plans for traveling in 2.5 weeks, and vaneja is having us over in a few days for a big south indian holiday at her house. woo talk about a run on sentence. oooh and did i mention that i found secret music i accidentally hid from myself on my computer, that i assumed had been lost in the crash of dec 2006? i like finding things that were lost more than getting new things 98% of the time.
oh and obligatory unflattering sari picture:
so, things are pretty much hilarious in india right now. and i just read this, and it may sound like i'm upset, but this is completely not the case. my life is awesome and funny and dana and i are making big plans for the last weekend, which cannot be broadcast online at the moment, on top of the crazy adventures we've been having here, involving an assortment of hindi religious zealots, listening to some crazy tunes beat out by the unbelievably awesome kids from the school i'm working with
, drunk angry mumbaians, an australian woman who gets us pizza and illegal copies of my favorite movies, swedes who informed me of late night headphone techno dance parties on the beach in a town i will be traveling through, public transportation
listening to some amazingly talented traditional performers one of which played a waterjug like a madman, having lifetime movie/knitting parties with dana, and getting soaked by rogue water balloons just walking down the street
, and i'm making big plans for traveling in 2.5 weeks, and vaneja is having us over in a few days for a big south indian holiday at her house. woo talk about a run on sentence. oooh and did i mention that i found secret music i accidentally hid from myself on my computer, that i assumed had been lost in the crash of dec 2006? i like finding things that were lost more than getting new things 98% of the time. oh and obligatory unflattering sari picture:
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