Happy Birthday Mom

Pictures= Pooja, traditional dress, Haji Ali mosque, and Juhu beach at sunset.

Happy Birthday Mom. This blog entry is your gift so enjoy and just so you know I had to stay up till 2 am writing it when I will get up at 5:30 am tomorrow to go on vacation. So if the language is sloppy forgive me.

This blog is intended to answer some peoples questions, tell what I’ve been up to the last week or so and explore a little about the Hindu holiday Diwali.

First I will try to zip through what I’ve been up to. I left you on October 20th so I will pick it up from there. If you remember last blog I mentioned that extremists from a local political party prevented North Indians from writing the Railway exam. Well the a couple local courts didn’t really take well to that so on Tuesday the police apprehended the leader of this political party, which is called the MNS. So the extremists of the party didn’t really like to see their leader put on trial so they flocked to the streets in large numbers rioting. I had planned to go out that day but I was not allowed to go out for much of the day. Near where my second host family is there are many supporters of the MNS so there were riots there. What these riots entail are burning buses, breaking cabs/ rickshaws, and just generally disturbing the peace including fighting with riot control police. They are not really organized rather just going on power trips and breaking stuff. I watched some footage on the news about the riots and thought it would be pretty cool to be one of those police guys with the baton hitting everything that moves but it would not be so great being the guy getting hit or the rickshaw driver being beat up by the extremists. I was walking to my Hindi class that day which was the only thing I was allowed to go out for and four guys on two bikes drove by on my street and threw two large bricks at a cab which was parked on the side of the road while they were still moving. They really had terrible aim though and missed the cab from like 10 feet. It was weird because my area is one of the safest and quietest areas in Bombay. If I had been walking like 10 seconds faster I would have been right beside the cab when they threw the bricks and who knows what would have happened. The MNS leader had to spend a night in jail so more riots were expected the next day that never really happened but I did spend almost the whole day inside my house. The plan was to go to the water park that day too so it never happened. I forgot to mention that I went for a run a few days before and went out to meet some other exchangers and I walked by some beggars and one of the beggars threw a piece of dirt at me and was not happy.

The next day I went to an art gallery with a couple other exchangers and the Natural History society. The art gallery was decent and it changes artists pretty frequently so it’s not just a one time deal. Best part the gallery was free, I love free things. At the gallery we went into a room that only had like 3 modern art statues and it was a huge room so we thought there should be more so we made up art. What this means is we would go stand at a huge blank white wall with a “No Smoking” sign on it and analyze it as if it was art. Some Indians would look at us funny others would come see what we were checking out which was hilarious because we were actually looking at nothing. Just analyzing it like “you can really capture the artists emotion in the color of the sign” or this scuff mark on the wall is perfectly placed. I think it was one of the countless had to be there moments.

The next day was a birthday party but I was going out during the day too to meet a couple exchangers, (it is holiday time right now) on the way to the train station a bird shit on my nice birthday party shirt so I had to go change it. Anyways in India when a bird shits on you it is said to be good luck and I found that out. It was a really good day. Firstly we went to some Mosque that is on a man made island with a foot path out to the mosque. During high tide the foot path is submerged in water so you can’t get out there and it looks like the mosque is floating. We reached at low tide so took the foot path to the mosque and saw it. After that we went to a mall that sells all the fake Rolexs, Omega, etc… it was good. After that we were walking to the station and somebody I knew from Canada, named Steve Morie, phoned me. He is my dad’s friend’s son from Edmonton and he is traveling through India for 3 months on his own. So he phoned and we have met up twice over the past few days. He is just in Bombay for a few days before going to Rajasthan. So when he phoned we were just going to Juhu beach so he came also and saw Juhu at night which is crazy. Then the girl’s birthday party. We just went to a restaurant and had a good time together. We had an Indian Rotex guy with us who is Sikh and believe it or not another Sikh guy saw this and bought us 2 pitchers of beer. We got to talking and the guy who bought us beer was actually from Mississauga, Ontario. He is in town for eight months on diamond business. It was awesome.

The next night a few exchangers went to Marine Drive and there were fire works because it was 2 night before Diwali starts. There were crazy loud crackers and flares and everything too bad they are made by children. The fireworks are a little dangerous and the Indians operating them are crazy. They are dangerous because most of the fireworks are ground based so little pieces of debris fly everywhere. The vertical ones are pretty good and basic but some people complicate things by light the fire work then waiting till the last moment then throwing it towards the water while it explodes in the air. The reason why there are so many fireworks is because it is Diwali, another festival. But this one is big it is the new year according to the Hindu calendar and is the major holiday for vacationing or seeing your family. This is the festival of lights so there are firecrackers for the 4 day festival (Mon-Thurs) and a few days before and after. I will go more in depth into Diwali and include more information on religion in my next blog because I do not have the space in this one. Basically all you need to know is Diwali means bright lights, loud noises (which wake you up at 7am sometimes), family holiday, equivalent of Christmas, traditional dress for me, not traditional dress for Indians (so I was the only guy in traditional Indian dress the 3 Diwali functions I have dressed up for even though I am a foreigner), streets/houses decorated with lights, and religious rituals which are called poojas. You do something different at the separate poojas your family has, first one in our house I wore some hat (like the ice cream men from the 1960’s) and saw my reflection in water, then broke a fruit with my foot then tasted it. The second one I was just on cymbals the whole time making loud noises and trying to keep a beat with the chanting of my family.

On the Sunday I went with one of the Rotaract clubs sponsored by my Rotary Club, which is like Rotary for youth. So they have local projects that aid local people. This Sunday we went to a project that celebrated Diwali with mentally ill or orphaned children. It was a really great program we spent time with the kids doing arts and crafts and talking with them. It is kind of depressing when you analyze the children’s situation but that is all forgotten when you see the big smile on their face and realizing you put it there. It was also a little disheartening when I realized that a child who just learned to walk and from the smell just pooped their pants speaks better Hindi than me. That program was great and really put me in my place in the world, it made me step back and really look at how fortunate I am. In the evening there was another program which raised awareness about transgendered people, aids, and homosexuality. I don’t know how I was dragged into that one but I went anyway. The whole program was in Hindi so I didn’t understand much but the idea was good for the area. I am sorry if this sounds blunt but I didn’t like the program that much because my idea of a good time does not consist of a transvestite, a homosexual and a bisexual talk in a language I don’t understand for an hour and a half. That night I went with my family to a Diwali dinner with my family and a bunch of family friends, dressed in traditional wear and everything. I know I am not the person to be saying this so forgive me but I was ballin’ out of control.

As I said next post I will go more into Diwali and religion but now it is question time.

Yes Maeghan you had a question: “Do you find that people speak to you in English? And is there anything they don't have in India that you wouldn't have thought about?”
- Yes pretty much everybody speaks to me in English, I find it hard to learn the language because I am not totally immersed in it. Hindi the national language is not even the local language so I don’t even know if people on the trains are speaking the language I am learning unless I can pick out a word I know. There are way too many languages in India so you never know what to learn as per the location you are in. 29 languages have at least 1 million speakers, and newspapers are written in 90 languages all over India. The Indian people are really amazing when it comes to languages anyway like most people speak or understand at least 3 languages if they are educated. That is a long way to say yes people speak English to me. Not really anything you can’t get here apart from cold weather and clean public bathrooms but I already had thought about that. There are many imported food stores which sell you things you are used to at high prices, like the Europeans love getting Nutella here. Also there is no toilet paper is many bathrooms instead there is a spray hose. Indians think TP is not clean but soaking your butt is so that is a little different. I bring TP with me almost everywhere.

Callander: “Do you find that you are continually amazed by the people and culture but at the same time, longing for the efficiency and cleanliness of North America? It really is like being on a different planet, isn't it?”
- YES, especially the cleanliness part. There is so much diverse culture here stemming from the region or religions and I love the culture even such a big city has culture, and I’ve heard out of the city there is way more culture.

Many people asked about the tube video: I do feel some what refreshed after the process but I really just do it because it is so rad and is cool to tell people what I’ve done. The purpose they say is the friction in the nasal passage increases the blood flow to the area and in turn creates a more healthy nasal passage which is less likely to become infected. And no it is not a piece of red licorice but I am seriously considering going out to buy licorice now just for that purpose. I only had to do it a few times before I quit gagging but even now I still gag a little.

Aunty Linda: Will you be seeing the famous Taj Mahal?
- YES I will be seeing the Taj Mahal in mid December on the Rotary organized North India and Rajasthan trip.

Brad Duholke: 1) Do you ever feel unsafe during this journey?
2) have you experienced the Indian medical system yet? Any insights?
3) Do you think a trip like this is for everyone or only the bold?
Finally could a girl do this and could you have done this without a sponsor family?
- I have not really felt unsafe on the journey, India is actually a very safe place when it comes to crime on a large scale but does have quite a bit of petty crime. When I am walking around alone after dark is the only time I really have to keep a watch out. I have seen a couple of fights but I was in the house for the riots and apart from the brick throwing incident I was very safe. I do feel unsafe in the cars sometimes but that is just the cultural differences, it is part of the culture to dive the wrong way down a road or pull out in front of a speeding car in traffic to make a slow turn. The two most important parts of the car are the horn and the brake here. The hoards of people are, although overwhelming, reassuring of your safety. If India is not the country for you there are many other more safe European countries offered as choices.
I have not experienced the Indian medical system yet, I assume it is pretty good. If you want to know more ask Steve Morie who was a little sick. I have heard the system is relatively clean and efficient but I don’t intend to find out first hand. I heard that if you want medicine at a hospital you have to buy it from a pharmacy then the doctor will administer it.
I feel this exchange is for anyone who is up for a challenge and wants to have a great time becoming more mature and meeting new people in the process. Many people are content at home and I respect that but the world is waiting for you to see it. If you really want to learn a ton about another culture and even more about yourself the exchange is for you. Yes girls can definitely do this and world wide more girls than boys do the exchange. In my district in Canada there are about twice as many girls as boys abroad in 15 or 16 different countries (I think). I don’t really understand the sponsor family question but I can tell you how I began the exchange process. My father is a Rotarian but it is not a necessity nor very common to have the parent of a student abroad as a Rotarian in Canada. That is how I knew about the exchange process because my family has hosted students before. Otherwise you can contact the schools guidance counselor about the Rotary International Long Term student exchange or look up your Rotary International district and there is usually a web page dedicated to the international youth exchange (IYE) in the district. You can get info there. If you want to leave in summer 2009 then start planning fall 2008, there is a preliminary application, an interview, a full application and a few orientations you need to attend. You can tell them what country you want or what you want in a country but you won’t necessarily get that one. You leave for the exchange July or August and return about 11 months later. What the parents need to pay is the airline ticket, the insurance, trips in the country, vaccinations before you go to the country and spending money beyond what you get from the Rotary Club locally. This is the best thing I have decided to do in my life. Sorry if I bored the other student who read this blog but I really support the program.

Lauren: Just to clear it up.. .Is a eunic like a transvestite? Because I thought eunic's were just men who had their... parts.... removed... you know like a gelded horse. It's still a guy but just... less of one. You know?!? But is a Eunic different?!
- I am not actually sure what they are. People here call them eunuchs but they look more like transvestites or transgendered people to me. I thought a eunuch was like a gelded horse too and enjoyed that analogy but these ……. Dress up like women but I am not sure if the breasts are real due to taking female hormone pills or if they are just fake. I am really just baffled by the whole thing. From what I knew from before I think a eunuch has no parts but doesn’t necessarily dress like a woman, and a transgendered person dresses and acts like a woman but I am not sure if they have parts or not I would guess not (I think I don’t know from experience), and I think a transvestite is like a transgendered person who went to the extreme with hormone pills and no parts, I actually didn’t look this up so it is not legitimate at all but that is what I feel from what people call different people here. I know they call the thing that touched me a eunuch I just don’t know if it falls into the eunuch category I explained. What I would call what touched me is a transgendered person.

I have left some people questions for next blog as I am running out of time including questions from Dad, Trevor, Carlann, and Lesley. Remember to leave comments and I think this answering questions thing could also be reoccurring so leave comment or ask questions.
Have a Happy Diwali.

100 Days!

The pictures are of the Gateway of India and the Taj Hotel, followed by me in front of the 3 headed Shiva (god) bust at elephanta, then the durga pooja, and finally the Ravana that was burnt.

Not that I am counting but I just wanted to know so I went back to July 10th when I arrived and counted 100 days to today (October 17, 2008).

This blog will just tell what I have been up to and answer a few of the questions people leave as comments.

First my activities, I saw my first Hindi movie since the last blog; although I didn’t understand the dialogue I understood the story. It was called Kidnap and was about some billionaire’s daughter getting kidnapped then her dad is sent on a wild goose chase to find clues and such. I really didn’t have anything to compare it to so I enjoyed the movie but other people said it was bad so I guess it was bad. I don’t know if I have mentioned it but movies in India are a pretty sweet deal. You can get the ticket for about $2.40 and the popcorn and pop for $1.75. What would you expect at that price? While you get a sick theater where the seats recline (just the back so it’s not quite a lazy-boy but it’s comfy) and the seats are assigned on the ticket but you tell ticket guy before where you want to sit so you don’t have to wander around the theater scouting out the best seats only to have them stolen right before you go to sit. Anyways theaters are pretty ill here and they have to be, the average Indian sees way more movies per year (in theaters) than any Canadian I know and with Bollywood pumping out a new movie every week they have to see the movies fast.

On October 8th I had a good day although I was forced out of my comfort zone a few times. First I met up with a few exchange students and we went to the Elephanta caves which are some coves on an island 10km off the main island. You catch a boat from the gateway of India and take a 45 minute ride to the caves. Unfortunately they take advantage of tourists majorly there. For entry into the caves Indians pay 10Rs and foreigners pay 250Rs. No joke 25x what the Indians pay. That is only like $5.50 but still it is the principle. I guess it is a UNESCO world heritage site though. We also got to see the Gateway of India from the water which was pretty neat. Near the caves there were monkeys that were perfectly adapted to all the people there, they knew humans are afraid and took advantage of it. One Indian guy I saw was chased by a monkey and was forced to throw his bag containing a souvenir up in the air to distract the monkey.

The same day I went with my host family to a Durga Pooja it is some god with multiple arms that is a woman. What we did there was just offer gifts to the god and ate some food. I can’t believe how grand the idols of the gods are here it is insane.

On that same day I was invited to do this dancing thing. It is called Dandiya and it is like dancing with sticks that is sort of like line dancing but it looks like you are in combat with the other person with sticks. First I went to some big open area and there were many people dancing. This dancing is part of the festival navratri which means 9 nights roughly. What the festival entails is dancing for 9 nights, although I only danced for one night. What the dancing entails is swinging the stick with your left hand and contacting the other persons stick then with the right stick, then clapping the 2 sticks together and finally hitting both your sticks with the other persons 2 sticks and doing a spin. People said I was good but I know what I look like when dancing and it is not a pretty sight. After the big open space dancing with sticks a couple friends took me to a street dandiya dancing on one of their friend’s streets. I was already pretty tired so I asked not to dance but when the people there saw me I had to dance. This was a circle dandiya where after every round you change partners as there are 2 circles going around in opposite directions. The people who organized this event went crazy when they saw me and were like whistling and yelling “FROM CANADA” then everyone looked at me and cheered it was weird. When I was dancing it was like people forgot how to dance because they were like a deer in the headlights or they wanted to do something stupid to impress the foreigner. I was just about to leave and the organizers said no don’t leave and they called me up to the stage and said I was the chief guest. They made me make a speech and I gave out prizes, I got a rose and a sweet pen out of the deal so it was ok though. So I went from not wanting to dance to chief guest and dancing till my feet were red, actually my feet were red and I had to walk some of the way home without sandals. When you are out of your comfort zone that is what defines you as a person so this experience was good for me even if I didn’t think so at the time.

The next day was a holiday so I slept in a little but my room heats up way too much in the morning to sleep in too long. It is really way to hot these days I hear this is the worst part of the year. Yesterday was a high of like 37 C and low of 24 C; the low is still too hot. This day I went to the burning of a huge wooden person called Ravana. Ravana is the enemy in the Hindu epic poem the Ramayana and is a dude with 10 heads or something like that. So to show the defeat of Ravana they have a huge play then at the end they burn the Ravana and he has fire crackers and such everywhere, it was pretty impressive. What was more impressive was how man people were there. I still can’t get over how many people live here. After the burning of the Ravana there was a massive speech of a political party that is huge in Maharashtra, I did not stay for that because I went out for dinner with my host family and because politics can be dangerous here. There were bus loads of people going to hear the speech that were all very patriotic and extreme. That political party in insane, I don’t want to judge them too harshly but they think everyone in Bombay should be Maharashtran or at least be able to speak Marathi and they are particularly against the North Indians from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. I have heard of some of the things that the extremists do which include going up to cab drivers (who are generally from UP or Bihar) and asking them to speak Marathi if the cab drivers can’t then they will beat up the cab driver and the cab. Just yesterday extremist from the political party rioted at Railway examination centers where North Indians were taking examinations to work for the Railroad and prevented 6000 North Indians from taking the exam. They claimed inadequate representation of locals in the railroad industry as their justification for the riots. So there was just a speech, no riot, on the holiday but there was an insane police presence at the park where it was at. Like I said we went out for dinner that night, while we went out to the “suburbs” and while out there we locked the keys in the car so we needed to take the ½ hour dive back home in a cab and then take the other car to pick up the car with locked keys. Also the watchman at the building tried to pick our lock with a ruler which ended up breaking inside the gap between the window and door. I thought it was funny but others didn’t. Now we have half a ruler in our car door.

I will try to zip through the next few days because some people feel the blog is too long. I arranged volunteer work for myself at a NGO designed to uplift street children through sport and education, so I will probably start that pretty soon. There was a big Rotary meeting with the District Governor and I was to go there. I was out much of the day then I took a train to the closest station and proceeded to walk in the complete opposite direction of where I was supposed to be going. I ended up walking about 20 or more minutes in the wrong way and was just in the process of asking a cab driver where to go when the President’s wife pulled up in a cab and took me with her. It worked out well but I was still late. It is weird normally I would be worried about that stuff in Canada but here it is not that big of a deal. I know I will show up and guaranteed, even if you are an hour late, you won’t be the last one there. There was a birthday party for one of the exchange students I went to on the Saturday night. It was really fun. Next day I got up and did some volunteer work with a Rotaract club which entailed taking old people out who are in a Salvation Army old age home. So we gave them basics like toothpaste and soap then took them in a bus to a couple nice locations like a garden and a beach. It was weird because they all had western names like George and some had tattoos on their arms of crosses. I wanted to know their past but was unsure if they wanted to tell it because they may have been forced to change religions or names due to the Portuguese or British. It was good to see old people happy though. I played soccer the other day in the dirt. The next day I went to the planetarium and some art exhibits. In the last few days I also worked on Hindi, went to a travel museum, and went to a German movie (Sophie Scholl (spelling?)) with the Germans about some girl who was spreading information against Hitler and when she was caught and punished. It was in German with English sub titles but it was still powerful. Just a couple days ago I went to Bandra (nice shopping area). I didn’t buy anything but I had a memorable moment for the wrong reasons. I was in a Rickshaw and a eunuch came up and was asking for money then he/she saw us and was really weird. Of course I was closest to him/her so he/she was like I love you and touching my leg and stuff. It was terrible but where else could that happen other than Thailand I guess. Just a hint for the eunuch next time: if you want to be a girl try not to have facial hair. My host mom told me that if you are mean to them they may spit on you so I didn’t do anything but Jens was pretty angry at it. Also my host mom said that if you see a dead eunuch it is good luck. What is also weird is it is good luck to have a bird poop on your head. I find this funny what is good luck here would suck in Canada. Also in India you see people walking through the streets with a dead body sometimes (I’ve only seen 3) they are on a stretcher decorated with flowers and stuff, but if a eunuch dies then people just drag the eunuch standing up to their resting place. Like if you are helping someone off the sports field who just had a serious leg injury in both legs. I haven’t seen that and don’t think I will, the chances are low.

That is pretty much it for what I’ve been up to. The next post I will answer questions that people have posted in the comments section so if you want to ask a question you can this post.
Also I would like to wish my dad a Happy Birthday! Just so you know this is your gift, a blog entry.

Still loving every moment,
-Allen

Thank you for the comments

Just a little treat for everybody as I am happy that you commented.
If you didn't read the most recent entry scroll down.
The pictures on the last post were: a sunset on Marine Drive over the Arabian Sea, Chhatripati Shivaji Terminus (CST) a railway station on the central line, and Mahmadali road where we ate late at night where lots of Muslims go to break their fast after the sun sets.

No Time No desire but here it is

I keep procrastinating about blogging and not enough people are commenting but I have put it off too long.
This one will just be about what I have been up to lately.

This blog will date all the way back to September 20th when an exchange student from the USA left. It was his own wish to leave and I never figured out why but that is always a bad moment for any exchange student when another leaves. He was one of the only guys I could use my Canadian slang with and was a very likeable person.

On September 22nd I went to a birthday party of a girl who is in Roteract, which is like a Rotary for youth and they participate or arrange events that foster development mostly on a local level. So we went to Shivaji Park which is like a big open dirt field with some restaurants and such around it. She took us out for Frankie’s which are amazing, like the mix between a tortilla, a burrito, and a shwarma with great masala (spices). I actually figured out the other day that I gained some weight which isn’t great news because it is not muscle weight. Most of the weight I have gained is now hanging out in my belly, although I have only gained 2-3 Kg I feel very fat and should start exercising. I keep pulling my shirt up and looking at my belly and pulling at it. As you can imagine the party was not what you would happen at a 22 year olds party in Canada, we had Frankie’s then sat at Shivaji Park being pestered by beggars for about 10 minutes and were home by 10pm.

Lately we have been doing some touristy stuff as it is exam time and I don’t have to write the exams, so we have bought some tourist books and have seen some touristy things. The city doesn’t have all that much for tourists actually, it is more a city you have to experience rather than see. Some of the restaurants are the best in India and I feel the city is the most contradictory place ever as there is so much wealth but there is also so much poverty. You can see a beggar beside a Bentley (fancy car). The one museum we went to was not very good, some of the statues and such are decent, and the Chhatripati Shivaji Terminus (CST) has an amazing building but other than that we often times just sit on Marine Drive and watch the sun set over the Arabian Sea. Other things that we plan to do are go to the Planetarium, to a big mall, to a hill where you can see lots of Bombay, and to a water park. One thing that we did do that qualifies as a tourist attraction was go to this massive and famous market in south Bombay called Crawford Market. It was very crazy it was a vegetable and fruit market but also had many other types of food, clothes, electronics, bags, hookahs, and shoes in the surrounding area. It was kind of weird but amazing at the same time the there were also some weird things for sale like baby kittens in a box. I will go with an Indian guy next time so I can buy things without having a gypsy take advantage of me.

Speaking of parks last Friday 10 of the exchange students went to an amusement park, that is supposedly high tech but if that is high tech I would be very scared to go to the low tech park. The park had rides that you would expect at the Calgary Stampede fair grounds but it was still fun and great times. The security was not really an issue for me but this kind of park would never pass in Canada. For one there was a water ride that gave you these two loops of seatbelt material that you would just slide your respective arms through and it really didn’t restrain you in any way. There was nothing that clicked to guarantee your safety and you could easily slip out during the ride. As stated before the park was not extreme by any means but there were a few good rides (mostly the ones that got you dizzy) and it was fun. On the way to the park we had an adventure too the people we were supposed to be meeting were at the same station but a different part and we couldn’t find each other for a good 20 minutes. Then we were 6 and usually we have to take 2 Rickshaws (3 wheeled taxi) but the Rickshaw driver wanted extra money so all 6 of us piled into a rickshaw, which was an adventure. Obviously the rickshaw driver wanted way more than we ended up giving to him but we still ended up paying too much I think.

After our trip to Essel world I went to a 5 star hotel near the Airport with my host dad where the company my host uncle works for was signing an agreement to work together with a company from the UK. It was Ok but I felt really out of place with all the business men but what can you do. I was standing there in my sneakers and a short sleeved button up and men in suits were all around me. The food there was good too, as you would expect and there was an open bar.

Also in the past two weeks my host family took me to the road known as Mahmadali Road which was crazy. It is a food that has tons of restaurants and roadside joints that you can eat at and is typically where many Muslims go to break their fast in the evening as it was Ramadan so the Muslims can not eat during the daylight hours. The food was really good and we had some pretty weird things. Firstly we had amazing tandoori chicken, followed by excellent mutton in sauce, then liver, followed by goat brain. The brain was ok but it was really hard to get my head around what I was eating. For dessert we had a rice pudding and some really good really oily thing that was like a pancake deep fried but not crispy. As you can imagine (like anywhere else in Bombay) this place was packed it was on a road but no car even tried to go down the road as not even the people could walk comfortably. The food was amazing, the atmosphere electric and the experience was priceless, what more could I ask.

There are five German exchange students in Bombay and it was their national day on October 3rd so the German Consulate invited all the Germans registered including the exchange students to the most expensive hotel in Bombay and presumably the most expensive in India too. It is called the Taj Hotel and Palace and is where all the famous people who come here stay, John Lennon, the Queen etc... They got to eat German food and drink German beer which made me wish that Canada day could be changed to when I am still living here rather than July 1st.

Last Sunday I was taken out to the Cricket Club of India (CCI) by my second host parents (Jens’ host parents) where we played badminton, swam and had brunch it was a great time. It is here where I figured out I had gained weight. Something else about the club was how great the shower in the locker room was, some showers in India you don’t really know if water is falling on you or not because the water pressure isn’t great and most showers have a large bucket filled with water and a smaller bucket in it so you can pour water over your head, if that was not the case I would always have shampoo in my hair. The showers at houses are different than Canadian showers, you don’t really have a specific area for showering there is just a shower head sticking out of the middle of a wall in the bathroom and you just stand in the bathroom while everything around you gets soaked, it’s ok though because the bathroom is all tile and the is nothing that could really succumb to water damage. It is a little different though imagine just standing beside your toilet taking a shower. Back on topic, the shower at the CCI was amazing it was one of those ones that is directly above your head and the water pressure and temperature was perfection. I think Jens must have spent at least ½ an hour in the shower and I kinda wish I had too because the next day I was disappointed in the shower at my house.

After the CCI club was great because our (mine and Jens’) counselor took us our for a street food tour of Bombay. He really knows his food. First we went up to Juhu Beach and had Gola which is like ice shavings with really concentrated juice that you dip it in. We then hung out at Juhu a little and saw the weird things on the beach. I can’t believe what people are doing these days for money. There were these stalls that made you put on headphones then it told you your future and also like really cheap flying glowing discs. Also one of the funniest most bizarre things I’ve seen is when some boy was walking a monkey trying to sell “Monkey Dance” (I have no idea what this is) and the monkey he had on a leash snuck up a stole the ice cream a little girl (maybe 2 years old) was eating. The little girl was so surprised and her dad was very calm about the matter, usually when the monkey does something the person who owns it gets beaten up I’ve been told. But the monkey just sat there eating the ice cream like a human acting like he did nothing wrong. I was trying, unsuccessfully, to contain my laughter as this is so different but extraordinary at the same time. I guess I am amused easily if a monkey stealing ice cream makes my day but what ever. Oh ya the shower made my day too, I guess this was a pretty good day. After Juhu we went to Bandra (still north of where I live) and had tandoori fish and tandoori prawns, they were amazing and cheap. I am really grateful to have such a good counselor and host family that care for me. After that we went to a true roadside restaurant for more food, now this was an experience. When I say roadside I mean it, we were actually sitting on the road on stools with a metal table and newspaper as table cloth. The owner had to kick a stray dog so he could set the table down on the road, and if you think I’m kidding I’m not. We had some sausages of some sort, some butter chicken and liver. All these dishes were in great sauces, spiced well, and we ate them with bread. It was good and cheap and I would defiantly go back there just for the experience. As cheap I mean 5 cokes and 3 big dishes cost us $8.20 Canadian dollars or 340.00 Indian rupees. After that we got dessert at a bakery (cheese cake for me) and called it a night. It was really a very great day and I would love to do it again.

That is pretty much some of what I’ve been up to but I will inform you of a few other things too. I got my haircut on Wednesday that was pretty cool too, my choices of haircut were: short, medium or long, I went with the short. It wasn’t that bad of a haircut actually but the guy cut my prize winning sideburns without asking. The shape of the cut was pretty nice though and I can work with it a little. He also asked if I wanted a shave (straight razor of course) and a head massage but I declined. I now wish I had done both the shave and the head massage. I saw the guy ahead of me get a head massage and it looked cool but I had no idea of the price and may have been gyped. For the head massage the guy took a vibrating machine and put it on the back of his hand while he rubbed the head. I will definitely do that next time.

I also attended a Rotary function where we acknowledged senior citizens, and there was one guy who was 100 years old. It was interesting and the tea was good but I was kinda really bored so Anil and I left.

I think that is most of what I’ve been up to, I am trying to start drum classes soon and do some volunteer work but I have been saying that for the past month so I may actually show some initiative this week.

Always remember to comment because it really helps me out.

-Allen

Ganpati Take 2 and Differences

This post is intended to take you through the last few days of Ganpati and explore some differences between Canada and India. This post will be a short one because I am running out of things to talk about.

Firstly I would like to take you through some Ganpati happenings. On Sunday there was a huge celebration to mark the end of the Ganpati festival. The streets were filled with people and it was crazy I have attached a video to show how crazy it was. I went with Jens (German exchange), a Roteract girl and my club president to the mayors bungalow. It was cool because they were doing an eco friendly version of the immersion of the idols so the sea, which is already really dirty, does not become dirtier. At the mayors bungalow we hung out for a bit and watched a few eco friendly immersions then we were about to leave when we were asked to do an interview for a TV network so we did. I just said how I liked the idea of an eco friendly immersion and how much I enjoyed the festival. The interview was on a live feed so I didn’t get to see it on TV but the Roteract girl’s friend said she saw us. Then we were just about to leave again and a newspaper wanted to write an article about us so we waited around again answered a few questions then got a picture, the next day on the third page of a daily paper (that isn’t all that popular) the headline read: “Foreigners On Eco Friendly Bandwagon” and it had our picture. The only bad part is how terribly wrong they spelt my name. I am sure the other exchange students can relate when you can never pronounce or remember the names of people you meet and I figured out it goes both ways. Our ‘normal’ names are really weird to them. So they spelt Allen Fowlis: Alen Souulil, I told the lady how to spell it but she must have had terrible writing so the F looked like an S, instead of W she wrote UU, then li is right and I have no idea how she got the last letter as L maybe the S looked like an L too. So Jens and I are pretty much Bollywood all stars now...not. Speaking of which Bollywood has asked me a couple of times to be in an extra in their movies at Colaba (a touristy area) but I heard it was a scam and plus you can’t work for VISA purposes and Rotary purposes. Julien, a Belgian exchange student, thought Bollywood was a location like Hollywood (when it actually Bombay) so when some guy asked him if he wanted to go to Bollywood he went in to a long hilarious rant (with a French accent I might add) about how he was at Bollywood all last week and this morning and he didn’t like it so the guy asking was pretty unhappy but it was hilarious. I think you had to be there.

It was pretty cool but it was dark by the time we left so we didn’t get great pictures for the real celebration which was on the beach about 500m away. There were literally thousands and thousands of people streaming to the beach to immerse their idols or help immerse a big idol. The beach was packed with people for as long as you could see and the picture really doesn’t do this crazy experience justice. We took quite a few photos but not many of mine turned out great and I really wish I could have seen this in the daylight or at sunset. This is just one of 4 main immersion points and apparently the others are far busier. We went down to the beach and just saw what the whole thing was about there were just a lot of people, there wasn’t a lot going on but there were tons of people. Many of the huge idols which come to this beach were immersed the last day so it was really interesting to see the huge Ganpatis and the way they immerse them. How they do it, or what I’ve heard, is they send one guy out in a boat with a pretty big Ganpati and then the one person has to flip the boat by himself therefore submerging the Ganpati. It was very cool to see this but the pictures aren’t great. I did a lot of walking around that night and I didn’t feel so bad pulling out my camera as there were other Indians pulling out their cameras. Usually when I pull out my camera in the city people give me a dirty look like what are you doing and why are you doing it or maybe a how can I take advantage of this guy. Speaking of which a cab driver tried to get a lot of money out of us for a short ride he didn’t even know the way and he wanted 100Rs and the meter said 21Rs so we gave him the 21 and left. He was very unhappy. We figured out later that when it says something in Rs it is a code for a different amount and we actually gave him 5Rs less than what the amount was but he was trying to take advantage of us so he deserves it.

The rains have not stopped yet so I am pretty pissed about that because they suck. After that is autum and then ‘winter’. I hear October is hot as hell and so is May. Winter is not actually winter it never goes below freezing temperatures so it is like 20 and pleasant in the Winter but people still wear their sweaters. Maybe I will have a tan when I get back, probably not but maybe.

Oh ya, did you hear about the bomb Blasts in Delhi (India’s capital). There were 6 small bombs that were set off in crowded areas that killed at least 23 people and injured many more. 2 more bombs were found and defused. In today’s paper they say police have shot and killed one of the main guys behind the attack. Terrorists say Bombay is next but I hope not. There is prank calls every few days that really set the bomb squads off because they search the area supposedly under threat tirelessly to find nothing. One of the stations that was threatened was the one I get off at to go to college. Generally Bombay is very safe as it is India’s financial capital and is watched very closely so I am not too worried.

Yoga today was pretty weird because it was all about cleansing your body so the Sir tells you all these gross things that you should do everyday. Please if you are groosed out easily don’t read this sentence. He said you should put your middle finger up your but to the max and then move it around to clean it out. I was pretty grossed out but nothing is really considered gross here. For one passing gas is not really rude because he says if you let the gasses build up that is when you have problems so after meals lots of Indians burp and someone will just be sitting and then they will fart not trying to make it silent or anything. I kinda like it though because then I take that as permission that I can burp and fart around you. What was I saying again, oh ya for a different cleansing exercise they gave you this long rubber tube and you put it in your nose and breathe in then swallow and finally grab the tube at the back of your throat. It is like what you see on the discovery channel. Where you have a tube come in your nose and out your mouth and then you have to move it back and forth, needless to say I (along with most of the others) had watering eyes and were gagging all over the place. It was really cool though having something come in your nose and out your mouth and then move it back and forth. I will take a picture next time I do it.

I think I have run out of things to talk about but I do have a really killer story that didn’t happen to me but I will tell it anyway. Some Indian people act really weird when they see a white person who is living in Bombay doing everyday things. So there is this French exchange student called Simon and he is usually pretty bored in the morning so one day he decided to go for a run along Marine Drive (that is in south Bombay where he lives) and very close to my school. So he was running just listening to music minding his own business and he passed an Indian guy and the Indian guy went crazy. Simon was just running along and the Indian guy was running right beside him like running around him all excited. Just bobbing and weaving in an orbit around Simon. What I picture is as is like that old Kibbles and Bits dog food commercial where the big dog is saying “It better be kibbles and bits” and the little dog with way too much energy is like “I hope it’s kibbles and bits” jumping around all over the big dog. So Simon was understandably pretty tired of this after a minute or so, when the annoying guy passed a little too close in front of him, Simon stuck out his foot all casual like and tripped the guy, he didn’t just stumble like was expected but he rather did a huge dive with full extension, like Bobby Orr after scoring that hockey goal, and landed with a thud on the sidewalk. Simon was going to turn around and be like: what happened? But he just kept running. That would have been hilarious to see and I wish I would have but it still cracks me up when I think of it.

Here is just a little tidbit of info about some bad words and a misconception concerning such. One of the girls names is Laura and in Hindi Laura means dick so when ever she tells her name to anyone they do the old rotate head a little and open their eyes it’s pretty funny although I’ve only seen it a couple of times.

I think that is it for now.
Remember to comment because if you don’t I will be unhappy or may go on a hunger strike.
-Allen

Ganapati and Pune

Still can't figure out how to put the photos in the middle of the post so all are on top again. The first is a pretty nice Ganapati there was so much action in that room. The next is a really rich Ganapati that is all real gold. Next is me and a friend with that really rich Ganapati. After that is the immersion at night so the quality isn't that good, it gets much busier than this. Lastly is the procession for that really rich Ganapati on the streets.

This post is intended to inform you about my short trip to Pune and the Ganapati festival that is going on right now.

So on Wednesday last week the Ganapati festival started but let’s first rewind 1 day to the Tuesday. I finally got to have some physical activity on this day, apart from the marathon, that was a little more like a novelty, the trek and riding the trains every day. The later of which is probably the most physically and mentally taxing. I was invited to play soccer or football, as they and most of the rest of the world call it, with my counselor’s son, Tanay. It was really fun but so different from what I am used to. The Canadian fields are like heaven compared to what we played on. So first of all I don’t have any cleats yet so I have to wear Tanay’s old pair, and his jersey, which I really appreciate but they were like playing in clown shoes. We walk to Shivaji Park at 8:15pm, and it is dark out already. So we play in mostly dark, except one pitiful light, on a dirt pitch, with a flat ball, in extreme heat, with bags as goals, and it was so fun. The skill was actually surprisingly good and the people were very kind. I learned a few swear words while playing. It was so hot I was sweating like a hooker in church (thanks Neil) through the whole game and was dirty as the dirt we were playing on by the end, but it was still great fun. I was so tired by the end it was insane, I guess that’s what almost 2 months of hardly any exercise will do to you. The next 2 days I walked like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz because I was so stiff. Why this was relevant was because while we were playing some Ganesha idols were being brought to their houses via huge processions on the streets. So there was great music and what not.

You may be wondering what this Ganapati celebration is all about so here is the story. Lord Ganesha is the elephant god you may have seen a picture of and we celebrate his birthday. The terms Ganapati and Lord Ganesha are pretty interchangeable from what I’ve heard. The festival is actually pretty confusing but I will try to explain it. So some people, mostly Maharashtrans I think, have Lord Ganesha idols in their house and there are some big public idols on the street. The most common thing everybody yells out on the streets during this festival is “Ganapati Baapa” then you have to yell “Moriya!” It is as common as “Go Flames Go” on at a hockey game. Also I didn’t realize what festival meant back in Canada, we mostly have days (Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, Easter Day etc..) what it means here is the whole city is decked out with lights and everything. Another thing festival means is as soon as the sun sets there is a drum beat and firecrackers every few minutes, especially on immersion days (which I will go in to). Ok back on track now, if you have an idol in your house people come over to it and pray. On the Wednesday the festival started so there was no school and an Indian friend took me around to a few of his friend’s places and a few public Ganesha idols to pray. All together we went to 6 I think. Then I got home and my host family took me out to a few of their friend’s places to pray to their Ganesha idols. Then there was one where most people were related to us somehow so we stood in a room and clapped, chanted and preformed some other rituals to the Ganesha idol while a couple of hired drummers made a sick beat. At every single Ganapati you must take a sweet that they supply and eat it, I was so sick of these sweets by the end of the day thinking of them now sickens me. According to belief your family immerses the Ganesh idol in water on certain days. Most commonly the idols are submerged on the 1 & ½ day, the 3rd day, the 5th day, the 7th day, and the 10th day. Most of the house Ganapatis are immersed on the 1 & ½ day, 3rd or 5th day and the big public ones are usually later into the festival. The water which the idols are immersed into is most likely the sea, so you can imagine how dirty the water is the next day. There are other eco friendly options such as big pools supplied by the city or just pouring water over the idol in your house. The way in which the idols get to the sea is crazy, you have the idol on a little wooden cart and you wheel it to the sea, now that doesn’t sound that different. But it is they have hired bands that play ultra loud drums and horns, everybody involved in the procession is dancing, they let off really loud firecrackers and fireworks in the middle of the street and if that isn’t enough some guy always has coloured powder that he will throw on you. I actually wasn’t part of one of these processions yet but I think I will do one on the tenth day. I wasn’t part of one of these processions but I was part of a huge procession for one of the richest Ganapati’s in Bombay. There was gold and precious stones all over this Ganapati and it was at least 2 stories high. There were at least 200 probably closer to 250 people pulling huge ropes with the Ganapati attached it was like ancient Egypt or something. There wasn’t a lot of music or dancing but there were tons of people and it went on really late. On the route the Ganapati takes they give away free food and tea so it was great. There were thousands of people following this Ganapati. I don’t actually have the words to explain how crazy it was. There were garlands hanging from ropes in the middle of the street that would fall onto the Ganapati’s neck. I got home at 4am and slept most of the next day. The crazy thing was the Ganapati was not even at the sea yet when I got home; it would be submerged at 6 or 7 in the morning after travelling all night and removing all the precious stones and gold. The only thing I regret is not pulling the Ganapati, which would have been cool to say. I am sorry if this just seems like a jumble of information but that is really what it was. I wasn’t sure how to explain how different but amazing the experience was, and I am sure I failed in fully capturing the splendor and awe of the event. I hope I gave you a little idea of how much support this celebration receives every year from all the people and how the festival works to an extent.

So lets have a basic recap, I will give you the story of Günter the house Ganapati. The name is just for comedy sake no Ganapati is actually named Günter. So Günter is sitting in his house and people whom are known to his owners come over and pray to Günter. Günter’s owners give away sweets and food to anyone who comes over, then everyone makes small talk for a bit then they leave. Then more people come and pray, and eat. Then they perform some sort of ritual in front of Günter involving a big group of people, chanting, clapping, fire, and music. Günter is a 1 & ½ day Ganapati so after that many days Günter’s family takes him to the sea via a huge procession with music, dancing, firecrackers and colours. Then the family performs a short ritual on the beach and swims Günter out into the ocean. Günter is made of clay so he melts but it takes a while so there is bad pollution in the beaches. Well they actually have swimmers who take all the Ganapatis out deeper because many Indian people don’t know how to swim. That is the story of Günter.

There is also the story of Lord Ganesha that is very complicated and I don’t understand much of it so I will not tell you much but on a basic level: he has 2 mother’s one birth and one who brought him up. Also his father is Shiva, the destroyer, who my families god. Lord ganesha sits on a mouse this is supposed to represent being able to control your temptations or habits because a mouse is all greedy and Ganapati is sitting on him. Also there was another long story of how it is a mans body and some god took his head for some reason and then the first animal he encountered in the jungle he would get his head and it was an elephant hence elephant head. Others say that his father, Shiva, beheaded him and just replaced his head with that of an elephant. So that’s most of what I know.

This festival will go on till Sunday this week. It has been very fun but I wish I had celebrated a little more like joined one of those family processions or something.

Ok that’s enough about Ganapati. From the title there is a second part to this post. I got to travel out of Bombay to Pune this weekend to see Ganapati there. Pune is a very nice place. Instead of 19 million it only has 3 million so, compared to Bombay; it had more greenery and parks.

I really don’t know what to say about the trip apart from what we did. It was a relaxing trip so we just met up with family and ate great meals, saw this shopping area, went to a sports club, and just kinda saw the city. There are lots of reputable universities in Pune so there was an ethnically diverse crowd by Indian standards. There was also this one thing that interested me it was a meditation centre but it was also sort of like a cult, what you do is you give these people tons of money then you can go there and meditate, do yoga, get massages, and do other relaxing and enlightening things. I was so confused by this, what Anil (host dad) told me is that people sell off their lives in America, their home, possessions, everything, and just go live there. It was a very nice green campus but I had so many questions about it, I was so confused. What do they do all day? Don’t they get bored after a few years? Why do they all wear the same maroon robe, is it a cult or something? I was in awe at how people just wanted to find themselves rather than living the corporate created world that we all love.

Pune was mostly just visiting people and eating so there is not much to write about. Just that it was a nice place with a traffic problem. Oh wait one more thing, my host mom pointed out to me a typical Punari person and I was spotting them left and right after that. What she said was that they have a shrewd face, and green eyes. I don’t know if you have ever seen an Indian with deep green eyes but it is memorizing the people must have thought I was crazy staring at them. The shrewd face is pretty funny too like they just did something that was sneaky and no one noticed. I saw a whole family of them and almost laughed out loud.

The language is coming along slowly but surely, the sentence structure is a little different, the noun comes first then the verb like I went to the market is like I market went. Even one of the Indian guys I hang out with says that when I talk in Hindi it sounds like Russian to them. What makes things even tougher is that everyone here speaks english, because of the British influence they learn english at a very young age, english comes almost as natural as their native tongue. I asked an Indian guy if you need to translate things in your head from your language and he doesn't it just all comes natural. One other thing that make things difficult is how there are so many Indian langages being spoken everywhere, the national language is Hindi, the local language is Marathi, and my host father and grandfather speak Konkani, there is also a lot of Gujarati and Punjabi. In India 29 languages are spoken by over 1 million people. Way too many languages for me. I am sure I will start to pick it up if I work harder. That's my little struggle with languages.

Oh ya forgot to mention 2 months in India today. Happy Anniversary.


Ok I think I covered most of what I wanted to so I’m signing out for now.
Remember to leave comments they keep me going.
-Allen

Rant

I can't figure out the photos so all the photos are on top. First it the exchange students at the marathon, next is me on the trek and last is Michelle the stray dog.
This post is intended to rant about anything that comes to mind. So I will start with how the city never sleeps I never been to New York or Vegas but I can almost assure you that this city can beat those sleepless cities on the sleepless meter. So as I said in the previous post I had to catch a bus at 6am Indian Standard time on Friday to go to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards). So I wake up at 4:30am because the bus I have to catch departs from the burbs, not that are actually like Suburbs, they are like Calgary’s downtown further away from the city. So I get a ride to Dadar station from my host dad and the station is actually kind of busy, not Indian busy but like Canada busy. There are lots of people transporting vegetables and other consumer goods around and most of the seats on the train were taken. This is Dadar station though; it is the busiest station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway as it links the Western and Central rail lines. It is so busy one time I was on a fast train (a train which doesn’t stop at all stations) and at Dadar you alight from the left of the train I was standing next to the door at the right side of the train and was asked if I was getting off at Dadar. Probably 40 people went out of the door closest to me, and that is just one of 3 doors on the rail car and one of 9 rail cars. The crazy part was this was First Class not Rush hour I can’t believe what second class Rush hour would look like. Honestly everyone around me got off at Dadar, the standing area was empty until people got on. You must know what side your platform is on or you will not get off, unlike the C-Train where you can just get off when you arrive at the station and see the side which you must get off at. So I arrived in Borivali, for the 6am bus which didn’t leave until 7:00 or later and saw one of the weirdest things yet. I think there must be a temple around there because there were lots of people dressed in religious get ups. There were about 10 or so exchange students and Indian students waiting and a pack of naked men came walking by. This is the so weird as in India it is like don’t show any skin, especially if you are a girl, and about 20 naked men just walked by us. We just looked down, had a few chuckles and kicked a few stones then talked about it for a while. The bus took us to RYLA, which was a total flop for the exchange students. The first day we sat and listened to speech after speech. The theme was water and the reiterated concept was that water is used for drinking, washing and cooking. One of the exchange students brought a guitar so we just sat around and listened to that outside much of the time. The weirdest things happen when you are bored, one of the Belgian exchange students (who is hilarious) named one of the stray dogs in the area Michelle, like the French boy name Michelle. Every time he saw him he would yell he name and Michelle didn’t like the other stray dogs in the area so Michelle would growl and snap at them, so we all cheered for Michelle. Also Michelle chased around a female dog sometimes presumably trying to make babies. On Friday night the exchange students presented, and guess what we presented, we did the “Everybody loves Rotary Night Song”, the exchange students will know what it is. I just mentioned it and after a few changes we were ready. We just sang everybody loves Rotary Night in our different languages it was kinda bad but we felt they invited us to this so we should do something. On Saturday we drove around in a bus and they took us to show us people doing activities, we didn’t get to take part in the activities but we did see them being done. Like building a dam on a creek, digging a trench for water harvesting, and equipping a house with rainwater harvesting equipment. It was not very good because we didn’t do anything then they dropped us back to the main place where we sat around till the evening, where we sat around more. All the exchange students did eat record numbers of Parle G biscuits and drank lots of tea. On Sunday we just sat around and listened to more speeches then each group who did an activity presented. Then we left at around 5pm when we were supposed to leave at 2pm. We stayed with host families in a town near the area which RYLA was being held; my host family was very nice. The thing about India is that the people here are too nice, especially when it comes to food. I told my town host family a couple dishes I like and the next night they made them for me and I had already had dinner. So when you are a guest people just keep serving you more food, so you have to turn down food before you are full because people are just going to keep putting food on your plate even if you say you are full and it is rude to leave food on the plate. How it goes is like this:
Host: do you want more?
Me: no thanks
Host: are you sure?
Me: yes
Host: here do you want more chicken or more rice
Me: (action) confused face
Host: (action) places more chicken and rice on plate
Me: (action) eat
So I had way too much food that night. Also the town host family was Muslim so the lady needed to cover her head when eating and we ate while sitting on the ground. They were very nice people though, they had a boy my age and we played carom which is like pool where you flick little wood discs instead of shooting at balls.
Also during RYLA there was this sweet festival that I missed, that celebrates Krishna’s birthday. It is where people make massive human pyramids, you may have seen it on the discovery channel, where they make pyramids 10 stories high and try to break a pot filled with Curds, clarified butter, money, and milk. Many people are injured during this and I missed it, oh well just another reason to come back years from now. The festivals are going to start up pretty soon so I am psyched for that, first is the festival dedicated to the elephant god Ganesh so you celebrate and at the end you go and immerse clay idols of Ganesh into nearby bodies of water. I think that will be great.
On Saturday there were a few exchange students who got up early and participated in a marathon that benefitted an old age home and the 7 of us ran with our flags so it was pretty rad.
This Sunday Rotex took us on a trek up a mountain and there was a fort at the top. It was pretty awesome, the mountain was tall and we went all the way to the top so it was cool. There was also this flower that blooms once every 7 years and it was in bloom while we were hiking so that was neat. There were also a couple of caves with bats, a carving into stone of a monkey god and a cannon at the top. The hike took us most of the day and I was pooped by the end not to mentioned sun burned, hopefully it will turn into a tan. The view from the top was really great though, we were at the bottom about 3-4 hours ago. You had to be carful with the rocks and I slipped a couple of times once into a cactus.
Right now I am kind sick with a sore throat so today sucked majorly.
This post turned into a little more of my weekly activities.
Here is another rant: With the monsoon season coming to a close I thought I would write a little bit on the rains. So the most it rained during the monsoons season this year wasn’t record setting by any means but it was a lot of rain. It rained for the better part of 6 days once and the better part of 3 once. The rains suck; I wore a rain coat or had to bring a rain coat everywhere. The rains can fall in big drops, small drops, from the side, or just in a mist. Your upper body is fairly dry when you get home but the jeans you are wearing are about 10lbs and rub on your legs. The trains run for the most part during rain storms but may be a little slow. One time in a particularly harsh time I had to wade through rain puddles that were like 20cm deep on the way to my counselors place only to get there and find he wasn’t there. The roads near my counselors place aren’t that good so some of the intersections fill up with rain. Although rare the power has gone out a couple times and the tap water has not been available. There are not really speed limits on the roads here but the amount of traffic and the crappiness of the roads keep the speeds down. So the rains will end in about a week and after that it will be super hot. After that is winter which is about 20 degrees and apparently people wear their sweaters. Last year was the harshest winter yet, during extreme cold spells temperatures fell as low as 8 degrees oh no.
Also on a little bit of a weird note, none of the dogs or cats here have been sterilized so you can totally see all their junk, just a little different. I don’t know if I have mentioned but I read that Mumbai has 70,000 stray dogs and 20,000 pet dogs and even the pet dogs aren’t sterilized.
Any questions you can ask and remember to comment. Also check out the National Geographic picture of the day at the bottom of the page it is usually pretty cool.
Namaste
-Allen