I'll Be Home for Christmas...

I'm ending my journey back where I began it - in Peter Donuts Coffee with Manali. I will go from here to Mumbai, to London, to Dallas, to Birmingham, and then drive to Tuscaloosa. Its pretty surreal that its actually happening. It was hard saying goodbye to friends and family back home before I left, but its much stranger saying goodbye to people that I may never have the chance to meet up with ever gain.

The past week has been such whirlwind with the Christmas concert, getting everything in place for the new Volunteer Coordinator at Deep Griha, and the many goodbyes. The Christmas concert was a lot of fun. The kids were so cute and enthusiastic, and it definitely didn't matter that they were still confused about a lot of the words. I was just happy they were having fun with it, and love that they continue to yell "ZHJINGLE BELLS" despite my attempts at getting them to softly sing "Jingle Bells." I also think the kids our school are much nicer than most American kids I have ever known, myself included. We passed out candy to the kids, telling them they could each have one piece of each kind we were giving out. I expected them (as I would expect most elementary school age kids) to lie about how many pieces they had received in order to get more, but they were so honest. Every kid I asked, "Have you had the red candy?" who had a piece showed me their wrapper, not asking for more. I don't know what they do differently here to get kids to do that, but I was so impressed.

I was also incredibly impressed by the gift given to me by the students in the 6th standard class. They are the smallest class and the oldest (ages 11 and 12). They gave me a gift at the concert that they said I had to open in front of them after the concert was over. I brought the gift to their classroom afterwards, and it was a giant card they made with a fold out Christmas tree inside, along with a picture of Santa they had drawn. On the back was attached a hand-made enveloped filled with mango candy. One of the girls in the class instructed me, "When you go back to America, you taste American candy, and then tell me which one is better!"While I may prefer American chocolate to Indian candy, it certainly doesn't come with the same heart as the hard mango-flavored Indian candy.

I feel so overflowed with generosity from everyone I've been around over the past week. Along with the kids, I've had two amazing going away dinners over the past two nights. The French teacher I've been working with at school, Delphi, invited me and several other volunteers over to her house for a meal on Friday night. We were treated to delicious French food she has brought to Pune - wine, cheese, fancy scotch, a beef stew (I know, beef!), and chocolate mousse. It was a wonderful departure from Indian food, which I'm sure I will miss too.

Last night was my last night in Pune, and Priyanka hosted a small gathering at her house for me and Golshan's departure. It was just the three of us and MK, and was a lovely final evening in Pune. We sat around eating chicken tikka masala, naan, and cake, and it was such a relaxing last night in town.

I'm so grateful for all of the friends I have made in this city, and the kindness everyone has shown me. India can be an incredibly frustrating place to live, but it also has some of the best people I have ever met. I've made friends here who make me want to be a better a person, who have gone out of their way to make me feel at home. While I'm excited to go home, I know I will miss all of the people I have met on this adventure.

By the way, Merry Christmas!

Down to the Wire

Well, I'm beginning my last week in India today, which is pretty strange to say. Usually when things like this come to an end, people always say, "the time went by so fast! I can't believe its over!" I don't think that's exactly the way I feel about my duration of time here. Its been both inch worm slow and remarkably fast at times. Its kind of like I've been in a time warp for the past four months.

I think the weather has also has something to do with that. When I arrived it was summer in the U.S., and until the past week it has continued to feel like summer in India. Only now would I classify the temperature here as "almost fall." Still warm in the day, but fairly chilly at night. Returning home will be somewhat of a weather shock. At least I live in the South.

Last week I traveled to Goa, which was a wonderfully relaxing holiday. Well, eventually. The first night of my stay was the first time I've gotten sick in India, which is kind of incredible considering how long I've been here. Not quite sure what did it - probably some vegetables rinsed in tap water - but let's just say I don't think I'll be able to handle seafood curry for a long time. After feeling a bit better from stomach situation, Manali and I completed 10 kilometers of the Goa Half Marathon! We meant to do the whole thing...but with my stomach still recovering, and Manali having an oblique sprain, we decided it was best to call it quits after 10k. I didn't complete a half marathon in India, but I'd rather both of us remain injury free.

After two days with Manali and her family, I went to South Goa to meet up with my friend and sorority sister, Meera! It was crazy getting to spend time in Goa with two friends that I went to college with. Its such a small world. Meera and I and three of her friends from her program in Udaipur spent the rest of our time doing nothing but relaxing on the beach, and watching all the Russians go by. I kid you not, there are so many Russians in Goa. I've been told there's a Russian mafia connection in Goa. There were menus and signs written in Russian, and even Russian announcements made in the airport. The airport staff was really confused when I told them I was flying to Pune and not Moscow.

Example of one of the many beach shacks in Goa targeted at Russians:

It was really wonderful getting to see Meera, and compare both of our experiences volunteering in India. I get so inspired talking to her and volunteers. There are so many more things I would like to do and see in India, but I have no idea when that will be.

The Christmas concert with the kids at school will be my last accomplishment in India, happening this Friday! I'm crossing my fingers that the students just partially remember the lyrics and dance moves. I didn't realize until now what a difficult song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is to learn, especially with English as a second language. For those of you who think its a simple Christmas song, think again. And explaining things like reindeer, sleighs,  and even snow, is also tricky in a country with none of those things.

That's it for now. One more week until America!

Happy Holidays - India Style

One of the most interesting things about living in Pune is what an international city it is. Maybe I should have guessed that in a city of 5 million people it would be home to many foreigner as well, but I didn’t. Going out I’ve met so many other people from around the world interning, working, and volunteering here. My thanksgiving in Pune may not have anywhere close to traditional, but it was really cool getting to celebrate with people from all around the world. Our group had representatives from India, Canada, England, and America. We went out to dinner at a restaurant in Pune called Tertullia, and I found the most Thanksgiving-ish dish I could: herb-roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, and a piece of apple pie for dessert. I was pretty happy with the spread.

Not only does Pune make me feel more connected around the world, but it has also shown me how small the world really is. I went to a wedding last night that proved this more than anything else. The bride, Kristina, is from my hometown, and her parents know my aunt and uncle, and have even been to my house in Tuscaloosa. One of the girls in the bridal party also happens to be really good friends with a girl I went to high school with in Birmingham. Hearing so many Southern accents in India was one of the most awesome and bizarre things I’ve experienced here so far.

In other news, teaching Christmas songs to kids with limited English (and me with even less Marathi) is much harder than expected. 5^th and 6^th standard are pretty quick learners, but every grade lower than that has been much more challenging. We decided to stick with dance moves instead of singing with the Pre-Primary kids. I never knew I would come to India and be a choreographer. Fortunately I have another volunteer, Golshan from Canada, helping me come up with moves, so I don’t feel like as much of a goof dancing around the volunteer house in our free time.

I know its blurry, but here is a picture from my Indian Thanksgiving.

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!

November, done differently.

Only in India do I get 3 giant mosquito bites on my arm in late November - while sitting in my room, on the second floor of my house, with all doors and windows closed. I'm not going to talk about the mosquito anymore, it just happened as I sat down to write and I needed to complain about it.

Life is getting to that weird stage of being pretty used to my environment, but also missing home more as the holidays approach. I was attending a kids event hosted by another organization in Pune today, and they had Christmas music playing. Its a little early for Christmas music in America, and I'm guessing even more so in India. This other organization is run mostly by Westerners, so having Christmas music playing wasn't too shocking, just a bit homesick-inducing. Not to mention, the flood of Facebook pictures I've seen from the Justin Timberlake concert in Memphis.

Despite my moaning about home though, I know that this is really a once in a lifetime experience, and everything that I'm missing in America right now will be made up for in the future (hopefully with a hometown JT performance included). I'm getting the chance to travel around the country, and learn about the ins and out of working with an Indian NGO - which is an often frustrating, painful, and rewarding experience.The next project I'm trying to work on is organizing a kids Christmas concert at the Deep Griha Academy. This feels a little ambitious, as the kids often seem pretty tone deaf/rhythm-challenged every time we do music lessons. They're sweet, funny, wonderful kids, but singing on any sort of key is pretty challenging. I don't expect miracles (but maybe a Christmas miracle?), but hopefully we can get a few simple songs down!

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently traveled to Kerala for my Diwali holiday. I now understand why they call it "God's Own Country." I think the views in Munnar may haven been some of the most beautiful I've even seen. There are rolling hills of tea plantations everywhere, which one driver referred to as a "green carpet," - a pretty accurate description. There were wonderful hiking trails near our home stay, which was about 20 kilometers outside of the city. It was so nice to be away from traffic and pollution for a few days! In Kochi I had the freshest seafood of my life - really, no joke. We bought king fish, shrimp, and squid from fisherman who caught the fish that day, and then proceeded to grill it right there for us. It was awesome. Along with that, some other highlights from the trip include an elephant ride, a hike into the Periyar Tiger Reserve, a tea factory tour, an ayurvedic massage (which I actually wouldn't recommend if you're used to/expecting anything remotely like a Western massage....it was kind of strange experience), and finally ending with an incredibly relaxing evening on a houseboat in Allepey.

Since all of the pictures from that trip are now on Facebook, I'm just going to conclude with a picture from today's event with the kids from our daycare. These are a few of the kids, their teacher, and a camel. These kids are rowdy, mischievous, and super adorable.

Diwali, Caves, and More!

I guess its been awhile since I've updated. The last few weeks have been pretty action packed, so there hasn't been very much down time recently!

Work however has been a bit slower since everyone has mostly been wrapping things up in preparation for DIWALI. We have a week and a day off for Diwali, which is crazy to me. Its like Christmas, but bigger. I'll be celebrating at my friend Priyanka's house on Sunday, which is the actual Diwali day. Over the past week there have been plenty of fireworks going off though. Kind of like it was during Ganesh festival, but even more so. This morning at 6:00AM, I was woken up to what sounded like a bomb going off next door. No bombs, just insanely loud fire works. And by fireworks, I don't really mean pretty, fourth of July, light up the sky fireworks, but super loud street popper fireworks. I haven't actually seen any of them, I've just heard all of them.

Last weekend I traveled to the city of Aurangabad with my friends Eve and Kim. We went there to see the nearby Ellora and Ajanta caves. This was actually the most amazing thing I've seen in India so far. The Ajanta caves have these Buddhist carvings and paintings in them, with the earliest ones dating to the 2nd Century B.C.E. I think that's the oldest piece of history I've ever seen in my life. The Ellora caves include some Buddhist caves, but are more known for the Hindu and Jain caves. The main Hindu cave you see when you enter the the cave area has the most elaborate carvings, and the cave space is huge too! The carvings and statues are incredibly detailed. Here's an example:

While the Ellora caves were much more intricate in their detail, I think I may have been more blown away by the Ajanta caves. Most of them are very similar - a dark space with a Buddha in the back, some with paintings on the walls, some with pillars in the caves - but something about it was more appealing to me. You can't take pictures with flash in the caves in order to preserve the paintings on the wall, so everything is lit with very low lights. Here's a sleeping Buddha:

The only thing that was not enjoyable about our weekend trip was the amount of harassment we received from vendors trying to hawk their souvenirs on us. I didn't even ask this one guy about the small statues he was trying to sell, but he bargained the statue from 250 rupees down to 50. The conversation went something like this:

"Madam! Statue, 250!"
 "Sorry, not interested."
"Ok, 200."
"I don't want a statue."
"Ok fine fine, 150"
"Really, I'm not looking for a statue."
"Ok Madam, 50 Rupees!"

Despite the fact that 50 rupees is than a dollar, I actually wasn't trying to buy a Buddha figurine, especially not from someone who is harassing me by bargaining for me. In the bus station the next day, I tried a new tactic - pretending like I don't know English. "No habla English" seems to confuse people, so some of them stopped talking to me after that.

While this kind of thing is annoying in the moment, I am sympathetic to the fact that someone must come from a level of poverty unknown to me in order to harass people like that. Its hard to see that at the time of these instances though. All I can think or feel in the moment is something like "Uggghhhhh I miss America," which makes me sound insensitive, but its hard to get beyond that feeling in the middle running away from someone who won't stop hawking their trinkets on you.

I'll be out of town for about 10 days beginning Monday. After spending Diwali with Priyanka, she and I are traveling to Kerala to meet up with Kim and Eve to travel around the state. Indians refer to Kerala as "God's Own Country," so I guess it must be good! I'll update again after my return.

And just because they're cute, here is a mommy and baby monkey snuggling at the Ellora caves.

In a Word...

If I was to describe India in one word right now, I think it would be this one: enthusiastic. Every festival, sport, or just any activity I've seen here is done with so much more enthusiasm than in the U.S. (as long as its after 10:00AM - not much happens here before that time).

Over the weekend I saw a bit of the Navratri festival that recently ended. Navratri is nine day celebration of the goddess Durga and her victory over evil in a battle that lasted nine nights. That's about all the Hindu mythology I'm going to get into right now, but there's more to that story. So, for nine nights there is dancing that happens all over the city. They perform this type of dance called dandiya, where everyone has two sticks and hits them against other people's sticks to symbolize her battle. I may have hit someone in the face with one of my sticks on accident. Whoops! What impressed me the most about this festival was how excited everyone was about doing this dance. For hours people do this dance hitting sticks together, all while dressed in gorgeous saris and sweating up a storm. Even the guys get really into it, and have no fear of looking ridiculous. Some people do this every night, for nine whole nights. That's a lot of dedication.

I also went to a cricket match over the weekend! India was playing against Australia, and it was quite a long match. Since this game was 50 overs instead of 20 (you'll have to look up the rules of cricket...I'm not going to be able to explain it very well since I learned about four days ago), the game lasted for 7 and a half hours. I left early, but most people stayed for THE ENTIRE GAME. It was actually a really fun sport to watch, but 7 and a half hours is a really long time to be doing anything. And cricket fans in India are the most excited fans I've ever seen. Sorry SEC football, Indian cricket may have your enthusiasm beat. They cheer for anything and everything that happens in the game;  even when the other team did something well they cheered. That's some impressive sportsmanship. Australia won the match, despite my best cheering for India. I had several people ask me if I was cheering for Australia - assuming my whiteness meant I was an Aussie - but since I've been living here for almost two months now I'm definitely much more tied to India!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the festival and from the cricket match:

 

 It kind of looks like everyone is just waving sticks in the air in this picture, but its a bit more organized than that. 

                                        Check out the hill in the background of the stadium.

Speaking of Australia, the volunteer house I'm in has recently become so much more fun with the addition of two Australian volunteers, Eve and Kim, along with four French ladies, and and a British lady as well. Its a very full house! The three of us have several upcoming trips planned, so I'm really excited to see some more of India with my Aussie buddies.

That's it for now. Namaste!

Conversations & Observations

This is the strangest and most entertaining conversation I've had in India so far. This occurred at the mini-mart next to office, while purchasing my afternoon Thums-Up soda (not a typo - there's just no b).

Cashier: "Which country are you from?"

      Me: "I'm from the USA"

Cashier: "Oh.....you know about Monica Lewinsky?"

      Me: "Uh, yeah, I know about her."

Cashier: "Yeah, she is BEAUTIFUL."

My first thought was, this is the last thing I expect someone to think of first when hearing "USA." My second thought was, who's first thought about Monica Lewinsky is "BEAUTIFUL!"? No joke, he said this with the utmost seriousness.

Cashier: "She had the affair with Bush, right?"

      Me: "Nope, that was Bill Clinton. And that was about fifteen years ago."

Cashier: "Oh really? That long ago? And I thought it was Bush."

This is my diplomatic accomplishment - preserving the good name of George W. Bush. Who, as it turns out, many Indians seem to admire anyway. Fun fact. 

Here's another conversation I've had many times over with the kids at school and at the orphanage, and it always goes in this order.

Kid: "What's you name?"

Me: "Elizabeth"

Kid: "How old are you?"

Me: "23"

Kid: "Are you married?"

Well, the answer to that is no. The first time I was asked this my reaction was more of a "Haha are you kidding, nooooo!" Since then I've gotten more used to the fact that I could very easily have been married for several years now if I had grown up here, and maybe even delivered a child or two, so its definitely not a strange question to ask.

I don't have too much more to update on right now. I think I'm (slowly) getting more settled and used to life here. I love going out to school on Fridays and working with the kids there. Its by far the best day of my week.

Last week I went to this great hill in Pune called Parvati Hill, which has five temples around the hill, along with the Peshwa Museum. The museum holds artifacts from the Maratha Empire of 1675 -1818, whose leaders were called Peshwas. Some brief Indian history for you! Funny story from our trip to that museum. I've seen plenty of people peeing on the side of the road in India at this point, but until going to this museum I hadn't seen anyone taking a public indoor leak. Some little girl decided she was going to make the floor her toilet, and her parents seemed to have no concern whatsoever about it. They just let it happen, and walked away, leaving a little pee pond for visitors to step around. Hygiene is much less of a concern here.

Here are some pictures from that excursion, and from school.

 That's all for now!

Ch-ch-ch-changes (turn and face the strain....)

Nothing this past week has been quite as…lively, I suppose, as the mouse incident. I am totally okay with that.

This past week I’ve mostly been trying to get used to the fact that this is where I am living, and will be living, for the next few months. As of this Thursday, I’ll have been in India for a total of one month. This month has been going by both fast and slowly. Work feels like it has gone by fast. It doesn’t feel like I’ve already been with Deep Griha for three weeks. I think getting used to a new environment though, and not feeling like a total tourist (which may or may not ever happen here) takes much longer. So, here are some of the things I’m trying to work on, to get better at living in India. 

1. Patience

Nothing happens quickly here. Traveling, meeting up with people, restaurant service, getting a reply about anything…it all just takes a. lot. longer. Convenience isn’t really a concept here, for the most part. They say patience is a virtue, so I’m working on it.

2. Not being so Type A.

Prior to traveling to India, I didn’t think of myself this way. I knew I was a planner but I also liked to think of myself as “chill, go-with-the-flow” kind of girl. WRONG. In America, maybe I am (or maybe I’m just delusional). I like to do lists, knowing what my schedule is going to be for the day, having meetings planned ahead of time,  etc. These were all things that were easy to do in the U.S. Things just don’t function like that here. Time is relative. There are lots of impromptu meetings and events. Life is much more spontaneous. Once again, I’m working on it. 

3. Getting used to the developing world 

            Parts of Pune are very developed. In some parts, while they seem “developed” or in the process of becoming so, you still see things that you would never see in the U.S. Things that are still there, but less overtly so. This past Friday, for example, I went to Pune’s red light area for the first time for a Deep Griha program. Some of our staff performed a street play about HIV, and many volunteers passed out informational pamphlets on HIV transmission and proper condom use. This was the first time in my life I had knowingly seen women living in this situation. Obviously these are things I know exist. I came here to volunteer knowing about the problems in this country. But seeing it is much different. I wouldn’t call it shocking. (Side note, people keep asking me if I’m “shocked” by life here, like I’m going to see something and suddenly get hit with a stun gun.) I think I would call it soul-rattling.

            People asking for money is a very common occurrence. Usually after saying no a few times its not a big deal. Today however, I actually ran away from a lady asking me for money. There’s this lady in Koregon Park who always carries a baby around with her, and my friend Golnaz pointed her out to me one time and told me how she always has a different baby with her when asking for money. Lo and behold, there she was today, with a different baby. After saying no about 10 times, and being followed for about a block I was feeling pretty uncomfortable (despite it being daylight and there being plenty of people out). The only thing I knew to do was run. She tried to grab my arm as I began to run to the nearest rickshaw, but I think running away caused enough of a scene that she decided to go somewhere else. Running may have a bit of an overkill, but I really don’t like having people follow me, and I wasn’t about to pepper spray a baby (yes….I carry pepper spray.)

On a lighter note, I also joined a running club! It’s the only way I’ve found to get in long distances safely, and its been a cool way to meet some new people. Been hankering for those endorphins.

I don’t have too many pictures as of late. But here is one of the many parades that went by my neighborhood on the final day of Ganesh festival this past Wednesday, along with a lake I went to with some volunteers yesterday, and some men chilling with their chai outside of my office. 

        

                                       

            

             

 

The Mouse Incident

This past Wednesday, I had what may have been the strangest, grossest, and most embarrassing experience of my life. Involving a mouse.

       I was at a nice bar in Pune called Swig to celebrate the birthday of another volunteer, Lara. I was sitting at a booth (INSIDE, mind you) with several other volunteers, talking about how exciting it was to be in a place with air-conditioning.
       While sitting down, enjoying the luxury of A/C, I feel something scamper across my sandal-clad feet. Just as I jerk my left foot away from this thing, I start to feel it crawling up inside my flared jeans onto my ankle. As you can imagine,  I freak out and cause a major scene. I jumped up out of the booth, screaming, running around the table trying to shake what I've just realized is a mouse out of my pants. I'm also aware that the ENTIRE BAR is staring at me. By the time a manager comes over to me, the mouse has attached itself to my inner knee, and I can feel its tiny nasty horrible little mouse body on my skin.
        I frantically tell the manager, "There's a mouse in my pants and I don't know what to do!" Somehow I manage to let go of my leg that I've been clinging to out of fear that the mouse is going to make its way up further, and the manager scuttles the mouse out of my jeans and it runs away. I'm left standing in shock, realizing that about 20 pairs of eyes are all staring at the girl who just jumped around a screamed for approximately 30 seconds. I decide I don't want to be indoors in the vicinity of the beast, so I go outside and sit on a beanbag.
        You'd think the weirdness of the evening would end here, with me chilling outside with my free mouse attack beer. I then look at my foot and realize I'm bleeding. At first I thought it was blood from the mouse, which really grossed me out, but then noticed a cut on my foot. A manager suggested I get a tetanus vaccine, since I couldn't remember when I had my last one. I'm guessing the cut happened at some point when I jumped out my seat. I was freaking out so much I didn't even notice at the time. Turns out, this bar just so happens to have a doctor on call. They call him in, and I then receive a tetanus shot outside of the bar. What can I say, got me a free shot at the bar! Buh-dum-da!
       But really, WHO ON EARTH HAS A MOUSE CRAWL UP THEIR PANTS? EVEN IN INDIA? This is what happens when I travel to foreign countries.

       Onto a lighter note, Ganesh fest is still going on. It ends this Wednesday with the procession of the Ganpatis to their immersion in the river. I'm also off work on Wednesday for that. India really knows how to celebrate, and seems pretty okay with taking lots of holidays. I dig it. I walked around my neighborhood recently and got to see all of statues lit up at night, and several people let me take part in the ritual and eat some modak (this sweet treat that Ganesh is fond of). Here's some pictures of Ganpatis and me in my neighborhood:

Don't have any pictures from the mouse incident though. I was told by one of the other volunteers that my interaction with the mouse might be good luck. Since we're in the season of Ganesh, who is often depicted with a mouse at his side, it might be good fortune that one wanted to be so close to me. We'll see.

Ok, where do I begin to talk about my past week in India? I feel like lots of things have happened, so I'm going to do my best to go over some recent events, without things getting too drawn out.

Last Saturday I moved into the Deep Griha Cultural Centre - the house for its international volunteers. Everything seems pretty nice here so far, other than the fact that I'm currently the only international volunteer living here. There's staff members here all the time, so its very safe, but for the first few days it was a lot of me time after work. That's probably some karma coming my way for constantly being around people all of high school and college, living in a dorm setting for eight years of my life. But lately I've been hanging out more with the local volunteers, and becoming more comfortable traveling by rickshaw, so life is getting a bit more social.

I started work on Monday with my job as volunteer coordinator, which mostly entails answering a lot of emails from upcoming local and international volunteers. I'm also compiling a Deep Griha alumni database - throwback to working at the Rhodes Alumni Office! Aside from that as my primary role, I'm also getting involved with one of Deep Griha's projects called Wake Up Pune - its HIV education and outreach initiative. India has an ever increasing number of people living with HIV, especially in the state of Maharashtra. Not only that, but the stigma against people living with HIV is also really intense.

Some of the Deep Griha field workers took me to see the slum area near our office on Tadiwala Road (that's where the picture of me with bike lady came from). It was certainly eye opening to see that. Here are some pictures from that excursion.

I also got to see the school that Deep Griha runs on Friday called City of Knowledge. Its a great place with a lot of really excited kids, and its also nice that its about an hour away from the city. You forget that there are quiet places in the world after being here for awhile.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the 10 day Ganesh festival! Ganesh is a pretty big deal in Pune, and throughout the state of Maharashtra. Tomorrow Ganesh arrives, and after 10 days the statues of him are immersed in the river. People have been setting up for the festival throughout the past week that I've been here, and its supposed to be one of the craziest and most crowded days of the year at popular sites. If this picture from my visit to Laxmi Road today is any indication of what it will be like, I'm sure it will be wall to wall people:

Oh, and there are stalls selling Ganesh statues everywhere. Really, everywhere. Like this.

Last point of interest, I visited this famous fort called Shaniwar Wada in Pune today. Because I'm lazy, I'm going to quote you the Wikipedia description of it:

"Shaniwarwada ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a palace fort in the city of Pune in Maharashtra, India. Built in 1746,^[1] it was the seat of the Peshwa rulers of the Maratha Empire until 1818 when the Peshwas surrendered to the British. The fort itself was largely destroyed in 1828 by an unexplained fire, but the surviving structures are now maintained as a tourist site." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaniwar_Wada)

And here's a picture of the grounds taken from the front wall of the fort:

That's it for now. 

Namaste!

Real update to come soon. For now, here's a picture of myself and a friend I made in the Tadiwala Road slum area near my office.

Hello again,

I've spent the past few days exploring Pune with Manali, and learning new things about India. I'm really into lists, so don't be surprised if they appear frequently in this blog. So, here are things I have learned thus far about India:

1. Showers don't come with curtains. Its cool. They just don't.
2. Bartering with rickshaw drivers is a fine art (and by that, I only mean I've seen it done - not that I have acquired the skill yet).
3. Lots of clothing stores have tailors on site, who alter for free. American retailers - please consider this. Its a godsend to short people.
4. There are malls with food courts here. Who knew? Even the froyo trend has made its way here. I tried rose flavored froyo at a store in the Phoenix Mall. It was weird, but kinda great.
5. Deodorant doesn't come in sticks. There are sprays, which kind of makes me feel like a middle school boy rocking some axe, but its better than being smelly.
6. Cows really do hang out in the street.

I'm sure this will be a list that continues with my time here.

Yesterday we also toured the Aga Khan Palace here in Pune, where Mahatma Gandhi and his wife Kasturba were held from 1942 to 1944. Its also where Kasturba died. That palace grounds include a peaceful garden which houses a memorial with each of their ashes.

Now you get to see lots of pictures. 

Last thought for the day, I may gain about 20 pounds while I'm here. Almost all of my meals have included rice, naan, lots of spicy meat and vegetables, and yogurt. And its all delicious. Speaking of yogurt, here is my last fun fact.

7. Yogurt goes with everything. I'm not talking Yoplait fruit on the bottom, just plain unsweetened yogurt. Seems strange at first, bu it does a good job of cutting down the spice if its too hot to handle.

That's all for now. Tomorrow morning I move into the Cultural Centre of Deep Griha, and then begin work on Monday.

Namaste,

-Elizabeth

Hello again!

After 2 days of traveling, and 2 days in Mumbai, I've decided it might be time to post again. I don't want to give too much of play-by-play of the days' events, so I'll just provide some highlights from my experience traveling here and the little bit I've gotten to see of Mumbai.

Namely -the man sitting next to me on the flight from London to Mumbai.

I sat next to a very chatty Indian man who does business in the U.S. and was flying back home. Despite his chattiness, my American ears only understood about 60% of what he was saying. What I did understand however made for a very interesting plane ride. I'll just provide a snip it of quotes from the ride. 

        Me: "What's your name?"
        Man: (Something I didn't understand).
         Me: "Can you say that again?"
        Man: "Don't worry about it, just call me Kumar."

Ok, thanks for the confidence Kumar.

     Kumar also told me I just travel to a holistic hospital in Kerala that can cure any ailment I have. I'll keep that in mind if I accidentally drink some water.

      Kumar: "You know you just ordered the Indian breakfast, right?"
           Me: "Yeah, I thought I should give it a try."
      Kumar: "Ok...good luck with that."

Again, thanks for the confidence.

Since arriving, I've spent much of my time sleeping in Manali's aunt's wonderful apartment, recovering from some extreme jet lag. When I haven't been sleeping, these are some of the things I've seen:

This insane view of Mumbai from her aunt's new apartment 

Statue of Ganesh in the small Jagdeeshwara Temple

I know its a bit dark, but the Mumbai skyline at night

That's it for now. Tomorrow morning we head to Pune!

Hello friends & family, and whoever else may happen to read this,

As many of you know (or may not) I'm about to leave the country for 6 months to live in Pune, India. I'll be working as the Volunteer Coordinator for the non-profit organization Deep Griha Society - you can check out their website to learn more about it at deepgriha.org.

I'm leaving tomorrow evening, traveling from Atlanta, to London, to Mumbai, to be picked up by my wonderful friend Manali to go to Pune, where I will spend time with her family for a week before moving into the Deep Griha Cultural Centre on August 31st (coincidentally, my b-day). SO that's 3 hours in a car to ATL, 8 on a plane to London, 9 to Mumbai, and approximately 3 more in the car to Pune. That a lot of hours traveling. Basically, it may be awhile before I provide updates on my upcoming Indian adventures, as I'm sure I'll be recovering from some intense jet lag.

I'm excited, anxious, nervous, but the adventure begins tomorrow!

Namaste,

-Elizabeth