Pictures

A blog will be coming in the next few days Indian time (so about a week) but here are some pictures to wet your appetite.
First is of a snake charmer in Jaipur, next is me with a nice water palace in the background, followed by a good assortment of (not so typical) street animals in Jaipur, next is the biggest sundial in the world in Jaipur it is accurate to within a few seconds, lastly is a palace in Jaipur.

North Trip Photos

Here are some more photos from the North Trip.
First is a typical street in Jaisalmer, next is shadows of the camels and the moon raising in the desert, followed by me jumping off one of the sand dunes, fourth is a cannon at the fort in Jodhpur (note blue city), and lastly is the blue city sprawling beneath the fort in Jodhpur.

North Trip

Pictures are of the Child Beer, an amazing ceiling design at the Jain temple, pillars at the Jain temple, one of a few lakes in Udaipur, and a temple in Udaipur.
Also check out my Facebook photos if you can there are a lot more. I will be adding more to the blog though.
I would like to say making a Facebook group to guilt me into writing my blog didn’t work but it did to a degree although I had already started writing a blog. Here it is anyway.
Ok so I haven’t written for a while but I have been busy. So this blog will tell about what I did before the North trip (briefly), and what the North trip was like (amazing).
Now I will zip through what I did a month prior to the North Trip. I was inaugurated as a guest member of the Rotaract club affiliated with my Rotary club, I went to a MS walk (which was only about 300m and then speeches) then I saw a circus. I have stopped yoga for the time being but I will start doing it in my house as I have learned a lot. On my way to yoga in November I had to walk by like 10 Garbage trucks every morning so that sucked. I saw another Hindi movie but still haven’t seen enough. Went to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), which was great. It was a full weekend of activities with groups, and they split up all the exchange students so we were forced to make friends with the Indian youth. My team was very friendly and allowed me to open up more than I would even in Canada. I did a dance on the stage with 2 others in front of like 250 ppl to a Hindi song and I also preformed a Hindi song it was insane. I would never do that stuff in Canada. The activities included teamwork and individual activities, such as valley crossing, a marble game, rappelling, flying fox, water games, yoga, maze games, feet tied together game, rope bridge, imaginary river, milk crates, rifle shooting, jumbering, speaking training, tennis ball, and listening. I never realized how hard listening is, most people don’t actually listen, especially me and the person conducting this session really proved that. I also have been volunteering a couple times a week at a NGO which uplifts slum children through education. Then there was the terrorist attacks mentioned in the last post. I also sent a package and some post card home.

Now the North Trip. First we took an overnight train journey to Udaipur which is in Rajasthan. Rajasthan is a state in the North West part of India. Udaipur was a very nice city it is called the lake city as there are a couple lakes within the city. Part of the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed at the lake palace in Udaipur which is a, you guessed it, palace on a lake. Throughout the trip we did mostly the touristy stuff so there were lots foreigners but you can’t call them noisy foreigners because everywhere here is so noisy that you can’t complain about the tourists. This being said there is a lack of tourism throughout India because of the terrorist attacks so the places we went were not too overwhelming. For the entire trip we took a small bus around, which looked like a van. We spent way too much time in the bus but as others said before I remember mostly the stuff I saw not the bus rides. So in Udaipur we saw a nice Hindu temple, the city palace (which still has a royal family living there), and a garden with over 700 fountains. The next day we drove to Jodhpur which is another city in Rajasthan. The thing that amazes me about India is how every city has so many people, you come to a city expecting a population of maybe 50,000 and it has 500,000 people. I went to a city in Maharashtra that I had never heard of and it had 2 million people. Just something that is a little different from Canada where such a city would be one of the biggest in the country. On the drive to Jodhpur we stopped for a couple hours in Ranakpur to see the most amazing temples around. The temples were Jain temples you may remember the Jain religion which I mentioned in a previous post. The Jain’s can’t kill anything you are normally not allowed to wear your leather belt into the temples but this one was a big tourist hot spot. No words (or even pictures for that matter) could ever do justice to how amazing the temple was. It had 1,444 marble pillars each of which were carved differently. The ceiling also had amazing designs which often used different layers for effect. There were too many amazing things about this temple to start naming a few but I will try. There was a huge basement where they would hide the gods during the Mogul attacks; there are two 108kg bells which were not ringing when we went but can be heard a very long distance away, the temple construction started in 1446 and took more than 50 years to complete, and the temple was nominated as one of the final 77 new wonders of the world. Every time I turned around I was amazed again. Although I could never describe how awesome the temple was I hope you get the idea. We drove to Jodhpur and stayed the night there. In the morning we visited the palace in Jodhpur which again still has the royal family living there but it has also been converted to a hotel. We visited the museum there which was interesting but also boring. It gave us an idea how the royal family actually lives from playing polo to sipping on French wine they have a pretty good life. After visiting the palace we drove to Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer is a really cool place it is right in the desert like 80 km from Pakistan and has some really cool sights, sounds and smells. The sights we saw include a water tank surrounded by important buildings and temples, the Golden Fort which is the only fort in India which still has village people living there, and the city sprawling at the base of the fort. Other notable sights that we saw which were funny were the couple shops that were advertizing ‘CHILD BEER’ not chilled beer, also some little girl who did an insane tightrope act, and all the camels which walked through the streets with ease. The sounds included people trying to get our attention so they could show us crap we don’t need, shrieks after jumping into the ice cold swimming pool at the hotel, and complaints after receiving the sub par meal at the hotel restaurant. Smells were mostly bad but not always from the seemingly endless supply of cow dung to the fresh aroma from the German bakery which we had lunch at. The afternoon we arrived in Jaisalmer we went for a swim and also visited a silversmith and saw how they make the jewelry. The day we visited the Golden fort and Jaisalmer city we also went for a one day camel safari which was incredible. So we left Jaisalmer in the afternoon and took the bus for an hour to the Thar desert in the far western part of India like 50km away from the Pakistan border. We were so close to Pakistan that every couple of hours you would hear and often see an Indian Air Force fighter jet patrolling the border. I think the Air Force patrol was more for show but the relations between India and Pakistan are not the best right now and it was really weird actually seeing the effects of that. So we took the bus to the desert and immediately went on a camel ride for about an hour we rode to some very nice sand dunes and stopped. During the halt we all played in the sand for an hour or more, it was so much fun. Jumping off and running down the sand dunes. We then watched the picture perfect sunset together and rode back. It was an amazing experience. When we got back to the camp we had a surprisingly good meal and watched a cultural dance/music program put on by 5 village people who lived a 5km walk away from the camp. In the evening there was also a campfire. The desert gets pretty cold at night actually and I had to put on my tuque. The next day we woke up early and I had a hot shower then watched the sunrise. The next day we drove much of the day but when we went back to Jodhpur and visited a pretty cool fort known as Menrangarh Fort. It had never been captured and was really interesting in general. Information was given on how the royal people spent time, to the design of the fortress, to the history behind it and finally to how prevalent opium was used with the royal family. Also from the fortress you could see one of the marvels of Indian architecture known as the Blue City where all the houses which were owned by Brahmans (which is a caste of Hindus) were painted blue on the walls which faced the fortress. Also, being modern times, many houses which weren’t owned by Brahmans were painted too so it gave a really amazing effect looking down on this blue city. In the evening we got time for shopping and came back to the hotel for dinner and sleeping. The food throughout the trip was very good generally as it was at hotels for breakfast and dinner. The next day we drove to Jaipur. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and was a pretty cool city although it was pretty busy. Like many Indian cities there is a new city and an old city the old Jaipur is known as the pink city as most of the city, including the surrounding walls, are painted a pinkish orange colour. There are many theories for the pink colour some say it goes back to the architect of the city who was devoted to Lord Shiva (a Hindu god) whose favorite colour was the 'terra cotta' colour which is there at present, and another theory is that the city was painted to welcome the British king Edward VII as pink is the traditional colour of hospitality. Jaipur was the first city in India to enjoy rigorous town planning and it shows in the wide straight avenues that divide the city into nine sectors which reflect the nine divisions of the universe according to the Indian horoscope. We stayed two nights in Jaipur at a nice hotel. The first afternoon we arrived and then went to an ethnic theme park called ‘Chokhi Dhani’ for the evening festivities. There were lots of cool things there like what people normally associate with India if they don’t know how advanced the country actually is. For example there was an elephant ride, mendhi (the brown designs on girl’s hands and my bicep), magicians, traditional dance, a contortionist, and a head massage. The head massage was kinda painful, the elephant ride was ok but the guy hurt the elephant and the whole atmosphere was great. We also ate a traditional dinner there which many people didn’t like but I didn’t mind it. The next day we did the sightseeing of Jaipur. We first saw Amber fort which was interesting even after seeing so many forts. It had a few palaces in the fort one of which was covered in mirrors and coloured glass another of which was cooled by the presence of marble walls and channels which water flowed through. Royal people sure knew how to live and it is genius what the people could do so long ago with such little technology to make their lives more comfortable. Also in Jaipur we saw Jantar Mantar a medieval observatory, it was absolutely amazing how the solar and lunar measuring devices were and still are so accurate. One Sundial, which happens to be the largest in the world, was accurate to within 5 seconds. Your watch may be wrong but this sundial isn’t. There were also some other crazy other lunar measuring devices and some devices which apparently measure how hot the summer will be and when the monsoon will arrive. I didn’t understand most of what the guide explained but whatever it was very interesting. We chose not to go to the city palace as we had already been to a few palaces which were apparently very similar. This palace did have the two largest silver objects in the world though and we missed those but whatevs. The silver objects were massive urns (760lbs each) which held water from the Ganges so the king had a constant supply of Ganges water to drink. We went back to the hotel in the afternoon and had some time for shopping. I went with another German exchange student and some guy talked nonsense to us for at least ½ an hour and wasted a bunch of our time by taking us to his overpriced silver shop. It was a terrible time. We came back to the hotel by bicycle rickshaw for an amazing dinner and bed.
I have gone a long time on this post but still have more to cover so I will post this followed by pictures and in the next few days I will continue with the North Trip and beyond. I still have to describe the Taj Mahal, Delhi, and river rafting on the Ganges so stay tuned.
Also Mom, please don’t give me such big guilt trips about not posting so often I am having the time of my life.

Family Switch and Terrorism

The Pictures are of the Trident-Oberoi (the big tower and the little tower just to the right) after the attacks with broken windows, my new host parents (host dad standing)and I in Pune with my host mom's parents and another relative (who is actually from Vancouver), the Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai, me infrot of the Taj a couple months before the attacks, and CST a main railway terminus in south Bombay which was attacked by terrorists on the inside (800,000 people travel through this terminus every day).

Sorry it has been so long, my internet hasn’t been working for a couple weeks and I really have no desire to write this but here it is anyway. When I left you I had just been to Goa.
I had a few average days then I changed host families. My new family is great. They like a 15 minute walk away from my old house in a very large but old flat. They also have their own terrace and a dog. We live less than a 5 minute walk from Dadar station, the busiest station in Bombay. Dadar station has 1 million people pass through it every day, if you are near the door at Dadar station you will get pushed out with everyone else because chances are everyone within 3-4 meters of the door is getting out at Dadar. I had trouble sleeping the first couple nights with the trains but now I barely hear them even when I am awake. There is one not so good thing about the house though, there is a vegetable market around the building so it is always so busy and there are vegetables everywhere. I have to walk under a bridge on the way to the station and it smells so strong of coriander and peppers that your eyes squint and no matter how many times you have walked through there you start coughing. I do like the location and the family is great.
The family consists of my host dad Girish (who is the secretary of the Rotary club), my host mom Supriya, my host grandparents and my host dog. My host family is Maharashtran so they speak Marathi at home. They are Brahmites or Brahmans so they eat mostly vegetarian food but will prepare meat for me sometimes. Usually breakfast is North American style so I like that. Lunch is some sort of vegetable, chapatti bread, dal and a sweet. Dinner is much of the same. We eat dinner at eight which is early for Indians but I like eating at that time which is a little closer to my 6-7 Canada dinner time. My host dad works with Whirlpool bathroom accessories and supplies these products to consumers along with assembling them and doing other bathroom work. I don’t know many particulars about my host dad’s work but will find out.
I recently looked at the weather in Calgary and would like to let you know the weather here just so you can feel bad. Next few days are highs of about 35-33 and lows of about 24-22, the humidity is also crazy bad and it is sunny. I will tell you one thing though, I miss the cold. I miss scrapping ice off my car in the morning, waking up only to dread the first cold foot on hardwood, shoveling snow, skiing, and playing football with fingers you can’t even move. I miss the feeling.
Another feeling I miss is unwavering security of Canada. As you may have heard Bombay (my city) was the recent victim of a terrorist attack. I will let you know I was safe the whole time and never felt at risk but I definitely view the city in a different way now. Terrorists who had been training for 4 months in Pakistan and were told to go to Bombay to raise as much havoc as they could landed (by hijacked boat) on the 26th of November. They were armed with AK 47 rifles, hand guns, grenades, dry fruits and other provisions. Ten terrorists in groups of 2 attacked different locations all over south Bombay. They were targeting the rich and foreigners. Notable places that were attacked include: Leopold café, CST (a main railway terminus in South Bombay), Taj Hotel, Oberoi-Trident hotel, Nariman house and a few more places. There were hostage situations at 3 locations which proceeded for a maximum of 60 hours (at the Taj Hotel). In total about 200 people died including 26 foreigners and 14 police men. Nine of the ten terrorists were killed and the one who was captured has been questioned rigorously. There is no telling how many terrorists actually landed in Bombay and there are rumors that terrorists are still around. When I first walked out of the house after the attacks the first thing that struck me was the lack of energy in the people. Normally the city has so much energy it can not contain itself but when I walked out of the house I immediately noticed the lack of noise, the decreased speed of walking and the general somber mood. The country is not used to this kind of terrorism; they are used to the bomb blasts so dealing with this was an entirely different ball game. The government needed to bring in the National Security Guard commandos and even they had a hard time with the well trained terrorists. The situation ended but the Taj hotel will never be the same to me again and I will always view the city in a different way now. The attack was very well planned but could have been much worse. The terrorist claims that they meant this to be India’s 9/11 as they were to kill up to 5,000 people and blow up the Taj hotel. Thankfully they didn’t. Recent news has disclosed many other things about the attack including the training of the terrorists, which was very interesting, other explosives found, and lots of claims that the city was warned. The terrorists were trained to be able to stay up for a week with sleep deprivation training and they were also told to take human shields to a boat to take them out to sea where they would meet a getaway boat. If that didn’t work the ability to swim 15km out into sea was also included in their training. Can you believe that the terrorists believed that they would live through this whole ordeal? Explosives were found at the Taj in bags and yesterday a bag which was in the unclaimed baggage left but those who fled the railway terminus was also found to contain 8kgs of explosives. Like I said they are finding out more every day. The people here are essentially blaming the government for allowing this to happen and criticizing their response to the situation. That is probably enough news for you.
Now my story (which really isn’t all that interesting): I went to a volunteer organization in the afternoon from 2-6 and was home by 8. I ate dinner and was just reading at about 11 when an Indian friend called me and asked me where I was. I said I was home and he informed me of the terrorist attacks in south Bombay. I was shocked to the max you know that feeling when all the blood rushes to your head when you are stressed or get caught in a lie. That is what happened to me. I was fine after a minute and proceeded to watch the news till 2am phoning my mom in Canada during a break. The next morning I woke up at regular time and went to yoga, but there were only 15 people there of 50. I came home and watched news all day. I got a phone call from my districts IYE chairman and he said ‘where are you?’ I said ‘home’ and he said ‘good stay there.’ He had informed an exchange representative in Canada of the situation and just wanted to make sure I was fine. I spent much of the next couple days at home watching the news unfold before me especially with the hostage situations. The stories did get a little repetitive after a few hours though. My mom wanted me to phone every 12 hours or so to check up on me so I did that for a couple days. On the whole she handled the situation very well, or at least it sounded like that on the phone. Unfortunately 2 Canadians died in the attacks. My host family and I went to Pune on the third day of the attack which was a Friday. Pune is a city which is a 3 hour drive from Bombay. We woke up on the Saturday to find that the terrorists had been killed. We had already planned this holiday so it wasn’t like we were fleeing the city.
Some other stories of people I know. I have a few friends in south Bombay so they heard the gunshots/explosions and saw the fires. Also one exchange student went through CST (the railway terminus) a little more than an hour before the attack and the terrorist they captured alive said they planned to attack the station an hour earlier in rush hour. Another exchange student was in Leopold Café at a window seat, at the time of the terrorist attack but he was there 2 days earlier. As I said earlier I never really felt at risk but it does make me view the city differently, like when I see the places which were attacked and visualize what happened there you can never believe that this happened. I suppose if I really thought hard I might become worried but I am not really the thinking type. I often say I should just sit and think then after about a minute of thinking I realize something I would much rather be doing or something that needs to be done. This lack of thought can be beneficial though, such as when I don’t give a second thought to leave the house when someone else might convince themselves that it is too dangerous. Thankfully the city shares most of my feelings towards the situation and so it is pretty much back to normal now. People often talk about how you can not break the spirit of Bombay, for example after the 2006 train blasts everyone rode the train the very next day, and I am seeing that spirit first hand.
This was a life changing experience and aside from the obvious down points this will be a very good story to tell one day. Like at party, ‘so what you can bench press 300 lbs, I was in Mumbai during a terrorist attack.’ I am very glad I don’t have to go home but am worried about the India-Pakistan relationship and I really hope it does not intensify. That is my terrorism story, I know, not too interesting on my part, but it was really weird to live 10-15 kms away from attacks after I have been living in my little shell of security in Canada.

I am going up to North India on a Rotary organized trip starting on December 7th and extending till the 22nd. We will be in Rajasthan (cities include: Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jaipur), Agra, Delhi, and Haridwar. Notable things I will be seeing include: the Taj Mahal, jungle safari at tiger reserve, various famous temples, museums, a theme park, a cultural performance in the desert along with a camel ride, parliament buildings in New Delhi, river rafting on the Ganges River, and many other things.

One other thing I have to mention is I went to the Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai and had an amazing time listening to music, eating beef steak (which was amazing) and just savoring every moment.

This kind of went on much longer than intended. Next blog I will say what I’ve been up to but it won’t be for a few weeks unless I get an incredible urge to write. Hope you are well back home and getting prepared for Christmas or exams if you are a university student.

-Allen

Goa, Diwali and 4 months

The pics are me on the beach, the church which has St. Francis Xaviers body, some coconuts and a scooter, the temple, and me lighting fireworks.

Hello everyone,

This one will be a really long one so if you want to read it over a few days feel free.
Yesterday was my 4 month anniversary in India. I am sorry I don’t write very often but I, along with many other exchange students, feel that this is like a job which I don’t get paid for until many years from now when I look back and read the post. Then the feeling is priceless but right now it is a chore. This post will tell you what I’ve been up to while also exploring the festival Diwali and religion. At the end I will answer some questions.
Oh ya and I just figured out Sunday that I am moving host families on Friday.

I left you just before I went to Goa. Goa is a really nice place it is like the Hawaii of India. It was a Portuguese settlement till 1961 when they were finally kicked out but the Portuguese still left their mark in a major way in the form of religion and architecture. Goa is the party place of India and is where you go to relax on the beach. Some of the best beaches are Goa. Due to the Portuguese settlement there are many Christians in Goa it is very surprising to see all the crosses set up on the side of the road for a quick prayer and all the churches in a county which I expected to be predominantly Hindu. Although the population is generally Hindu most of the country is tolerant of other religions in particular Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis. This being said religion is the main cause for civil unrest in the country the most notable conflict is probably between the Muslims and the Hindus. Speaking of unrest, there where more serial blasts in India which killed 75 people and injured at least 300 more in a state called Assam. This area, which is close to Bangladesh, is generally not that stable but this was the most deadly blasts of the year. So far there have been blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Assam and a couple other small places since I got here. I only really know about the Hindu religion as my host family is Hindu so I’ll give you a brief overview.

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO READ ABOUT RELIGION SKIP THE NEXT COUPLE PARAGRAPHS

No one can be a Hindu except by birth but anyways there are over 800 million Hindus world wide. Hindus believe in a god called Brahman, but there are three manifestations of Brahman which symbolize three aspects of such. These include Brahma, who is the creator, Vishnu, who is the preserver and Shiva (my family’s god) who is the destroyer. There are also other gods and gurus they worship such as the elephant god Ganesha, the guru Sai Baba, the monkey god Hanuman, and others who come from the Hindu epics. There are two Hindu epics, like the bible in Christianity but they have very different stories and purposes for the readers. Hindus pray in temples which are everywhere and you must enter the temple without shoes. There are also the laws of Karma and Dharma. Dharma is the obligation to accept ones condition and perform the duties while Karma is the law of consequence or fate. Karma governs the cycle of rebirth in which individuals are reincarnated on earth according to past behavior. Hindu’s don’t eat beef or if they do it is not cooked in their kitchen and they are very liberal Hindu’s.

I don’t know much about Muslims other than they don’t eat pork and there is a god called Allah, maybe Meaghan can help me out. Buddhism started in India but a very small portion of the people are Buddhists (less than 1 %) so I don’t know much about it other than followers try to achieve enlightenment. Sikhism is a religion where the followers are very recognizable because they have uncut hair and wear a turban. The Sikhs see their religion as modern and practical as they do not fast but do stress qualities such as honesty and courage. Jains are a small religion but a powerful force. I have mentioned them before they refuse to eat any meat, eggs, potatoes, ginger, carrots or anything grown in the ground. They believe in the attainment of Nirvana in life. Parsis are one of the oldest religions in India but it did not develop in India. Parsis came to India as refugees from Persia and settled mainly in Bombay and Gujarat. Truth, goodness, and charity towards others govern their way of life. The Parsis adapted very quickly to the British ways and were often employed in British companies, therefore they are usually westernized and are generally wealthier than most.


Anyway back on topic Goa is a good place to relax (or how they say in Hindi araam se) so I did a lot of that. My host family has a lot of family in Goa so we did a lot of visiting and not a lot of spending time on the beach like I would have liked but it was still a very enjoyable trip and it was a good change of pace from the big city life.

In an attempt to reach Goa before the sun set we got up early in the morning on the 29th to take the 9 hour drive. But that was not ever going to happen, as like most other things in India it took a lot longer than expected for two reasons. The road we took was a very curvy road and our tire burst 4 hours in to the drive. So this 9 hour drive took more than 13 hours including stops. When the tire burst we had a spare but, due to Murphy’s law, not all the part to fix the tire so we waited around till someone got the parts from a nearby town and he didn’t bring the right part so he needed to go back and get the right part. I just waited around in the car. When we finally got to Goa, to the family’s house we were staying at, (Margao was the name of the town we stayed but I also saw Panjim, Barga beach and some other places) my host dad and I went out for a snack. I think I take after my Canada dad when traveling I always want to be doing something so just relaxing around is not really my cup o tea but maybe I will learn the beauty of relaxation in India. We defiantly did a lot of hanging around on this trip.

The next day was my mom’s birthday so, just like back in Canada, I sat in my room and thought about how much I love her all day…just kidding. She doesn’t make me do that but Happy Birthday anyway. This day I went with my host family for a walk around the town we were staying in and then had a nap. In the evening (after the sunset) I went to the beach with my host dad and had some beer and a special dish that was prepared for us. The sun had already set so the beach was dark but I could see how beautiful it would look in the day. Anyway back to the special dish, I found out on the drive home that the dish was frog legs which are banned in India but my host dad spoke the local language to the waiter and he hooked us up. He called it jumping chicken and I believed it was chicken when I was eating it. Keep this on the DL though because that restaurant could be in serious trouble if they are caught serving frog legs.

The next day was Halloween but they do not celebrate Halloween in India so it wasn’t actually Halloween. I did phone my mom in the morning, her birthday night our time and it cost me many rupees but not many Canadian dollars. Like $2.50 for a 9 minute call from out of station to international, not bad. They were very surprised because I didn’t warn my dad. On this day we checked out a couple resorts, which were nice, very similar to Mexico resorts but not as big. I then went with my host dad to do the regular routine with relaxing in a restaurant with a snack and a drink. This time one of my host dad’s friends came and he was an interesting character. He was a judge in Goa and he wore a wig I didn’t understand what he does now but he does know a little about astrology and palm reading so he read my palm. It was pretty cool, we also philosophized together. He was asking me unanswerable questions like why do we live? and what is happiness? When he read my palm he said I will have a very long life, I don’t like education but don’t give up on my studies, I make decisions with my heart, I am very kind hearted, I will face obstacles to reach my goals (who doesn’t?), I will have one boy and one girl child, I will become more spiritual later in life, I am unsure about my goals right now, and some stuff that wasn’t true like I am an artist. Although I know what I like in art I have no idea how to create it. He also says when he comes to Bombay next he will tell me what I was in the previous life and what I will be in the next life with the reincarnation and all, that would be cool to know.

The next day we went to a big temple that was pretty stellar and we also went to see a church where St. Francis Xavier’s body is kept. That was pretty cool. You couldn’t see the body or anything but it was interesting to see the church. We then did a family visiting extravaganza where we saw three families in fours hours in different parts of Goa. They all fed us something, boy howdy am I fat. I hope my next family doesn’t fees me so much, hint, hint, if you are reading this Supriya. I then saw a Bollywood movie called ‘Golmaal Returns’ it was not that great because it was a comedy and the jokes didn’t really make me laugh because I didn’t understand them.

The next day we saw the touristy side of Goa which I liked, so we went to the beach and had a tropical mocktail by the beach, along with some seafood. It was good. My host dad bought me a t shirt then we left for home. We didn’t actually make it all the way to Bombay because the drive was long and it was late so we stopped in Pune on the way home, and stayed with family.

When we got back the next couple days I just hung out. It is still holidays right now, this is truly like Christmas vacation for Indians. A couple times Red Bull representatives (who were foxy) gave us Red Bull, so I guess being a foreigner does have some benefits. I also went running a couple times last week, it felt good. I also saw Obama become elected as the next President of the USA so that was really great seeing his speech live. I will never forget that moment.

The next day I went to tabla (drum) classes but I am not sure when I will start the classes in full because I will be away much of December and stuff. The drums are like bongos but the two drums are different and you have to strike the drum perfectly to get a proper sound. The children in the class were all very young (10 or so) but could play really well, except for the one like 5 year old I was better than him. Is this what I have become comparing myself to a 5 year old?

The next day I was sitting watching the sun set on Marine Drive with a couple IYE friends and some really old guy was creeping us he had already talked to us before and wants to take us for a swim or something like that. We had to be pretty mean with him but I swear he is up to no good. I also have another RYLA in a couple weeks and we had the orientation there were so many rules for the RYLA. RYLA is a program designed to develop leaders of the future so there are activities and lectures and stuff and we are foreign so we go. There are so many rules for the RYLA but at the RYLA orientation there was an open bar so the Rotarians said that we should do all the drinking there so we don’t do it at RYLA so we obliged.

I wasn’t feeling too good the next day so I just hung around most of the day.

The next day I saw the new James Bond which was good but not quite as good as Casino Royale. Part was filmed in Siena, Italy where I had been a couple summers ago so that was cool to see on film.

Diwali is like Hindu Christmas. It is actually celebrating something to do with one of the epics like the return of Rama to his village after he completes his goal or something. It is the festival of light so people burst many crackers and they have lights (just like Christmas lights) to decorate the apartment. This is the main time to see family or go back to your village or travel with family. Schools and offices close and there are even Diwali office parties. The people are supposed to get up early for reasons unknown to me other than to wake me up from my beauty sleep with firecrackers. People give gifts and say Happy Diwali all the time during this 4 day festival. Any questions ask. I think it is technically celebrating the Hindu New year also, although the western calendar is used for business, the Hindu calendar is used for festivals. I really don’t know a lot about the festival but you do get special food and there are a few rituals (poojas) throughout the festival. That was actually the last festival for a while so no more crazy festivals for me till next year :( (2009)

NOW QUESTION TIME

Samantha: Did you eat at the German Bakery by OSHO?
-No unfortunately I didn’t but I know a German Exchange student who did. He said it was the only place where you can get a cold salad. If you have a salad here it is boiled so it is no longer a salad it is just veggies. I will go next time!

Dad: Have you been able to participate in any sports?
- I have played soccer a few times and went running three times but other than that I just walk tons every day.

Trevor: how is the cricket??
-The cricket is good but I haven’t really played much. Batting isn’t too hard but bowling is really tough. You need to buy all the special pads and stuff if you want to join an academy. It is on TV all the time and the people always talk about it.

Carlann: Have you had any other things happen to you that could have happened here in Calgary?
-I will get back to you on that one I haven’t really thought about it. Many of the clothes are the same which are for sale, especially for the boys. It is just so different in general though so I will think about it.

Mel: Is your host family observant? Of the fasting.
- No, my family is Hindu so they are not observant of the Ramadan fasting. They might have some other fasting thing I am unaware of though. I will get back to you. I really appreciate your comments and questions Past President Mel.

Lesley: What do they do for Christmas over there? Do they celebrate Christmas?
It seems like there is always a festival happening, does everyone just kind of know where to go and when or is there like... the Indian Festival Users Guide?
- I don’t think they do much for Christmas over here other than just get a little time off work. There are Christians so they celebrate it but it is not a huge festival. I think I will get together with the other exchange students to celebrate something. Everyone just knows when the festivals are basically but I got info on the internet and a book.

Aunty Rhesa: Are you still practicing and learning about yoga?
- Yes I still go to yoga every weekday morning if I can get up.

Aunty Wendy: nce it's hunting season, we have two deer carcasses hanging in the garage already. What would your host family think of that? Do they hunt anything there? Maybe gnu's? I dunno... Let me know what the great hunters are stalking out your way!!
- I don’t think they do a lot of hunting here, maybe in the south. My family is liberal but may be a little shocked by the carcasses. They don’t really hunt much here but I wouldn’t know as I am experiencing big city life. Maybe they hunt wild pigs, ducks or buffalo. I don’t know though I will ask.

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