Giant Vegetables and Super Slides

This weekend was a busy one. We took a school trip to Deva Sharif (I posted about it earlier) and unfortunately, were running late (as always). When we got there, the main shrine was closed, but we had a nice chat with the people at the shrine.

After the shrine, we went to a model village that was created by the Indian government - I think as a way of promoting cultural tourism. At the "village" there were plastic people doing everyday things of the village (like drawing water from a fake well), along side real people who were performing. Above is a picture of a woman creating music and some voices for a puppet show. The act was fun and raunchy, and I enjoyed it. The "village" itself was a little disturbing and it seemed ironic that we had to drive through many villages to get to the sanitized, clean "village" where we could wander around.

I think my favorite part of the village was a giant collection of vegetables made of plastic (picture below). Inside the vegetables were stairs leading up to a slide and the slide must have been the fastest slide in the world. It was almost like an amusement park ride.

On Sunday, I went shopping to pick up the last of my Christmas gifts. We went to the old city (called Chauk) and enjoyed looking at the old streets and buildings. Some of the buildings must be at least 150 years old. I also bargained with the street vendors. I love bargaining, I think its great language practice and pretty fun to see what kind of deal I can get. Sundays are busy shopping days (as you can see from the picture below of one of the main roads). I also find it quite enjoyable to wander in the crowd, to explore the alleys, and to see all the different things people buy.

Fairs and classes

Sorry about the long delay since my last post. Its been really cold here in the evenings (like 70 degrees) and this makes me want to hibernate. But in addition to going to school, I have been having some fun....

For the last 10 days, Lucknow has had a very big fair happening. I went twice, once with 3 girlfriends and once with my entire school. I had a great time, did some shopping, rode a (kind of terrifying) ride, and ate some "American style corn" - which is basically steamed corn with lots of spicy masala. I think I am addicted to the corn and the shopping might also be a problem. However, the one ride on the ferris wheel was more than enough to remind me that I don't have a ton of faith in how well things are constructed in India and the thought of riding another makes me mildly naucious.
At the fair they also had people exhibiting how different things are made. One of my favorites was the ladies making a chikkan sari. Chikkan is one of the crafts that Lucknow is famous for and it is very fine needle-point. I put a picture of the ladies making the sari below.















I've also been teaching at a school a few days a week. I am teaching children (between 9 and 11), conversational English. The students know very little English and i find the situation kind of ironic, because my Hindi is not very good, so I am never quite sure if they understand what I am saying or just mindlessly repeating what I say. However, they can all say perfectly "I am very pleased to meet you". Also, they seem to enjoy themselves and I enjoy it quite a bit, so overall, its a wonderful time. (Here is a picture of one of my classes.)

Lazy Days and Holidays

Well, last weekend Will came to Delhi for a much too short visit and we had a lovely time doing a lot of nothing. Mostly we had lazy days filled with conversations, walks, and food. The only real site I think we saw was Lodi Garden, a garden in the south of Delhi that has tombs of some rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. My favorite tomb is Sikander Lodi's, he was a ruler of India from 1489 - 1517, but there are also the tombs of Mubarak Shah (died, 1433) and Ibrahim Lodi (died 1526) in the garden. The garden also has a phenomenal maze of paths to wander around.

The other "cultural" thing that we did was look at the art in the India Habitat Centre. The Centre is a beautiful space in Delhi, beautifully designed with tall office buildings and large open spaces. We went there because located within the compound is a restaurant called the All American Diner that has a menu remarkably similar to Denny's in the US, but with more vegan options. We also went there because of the photography exhibit. The exhibit was in the office buildings lobbies's and was set up by Manas, Mental Health and Social Service, a non-profit organization committed to working for mental health awareness in India. Walking from lobby to lobby provided a nice time to contemplate the paintings, which were stylistically beautiful but slightly disturbing in their subject.

After Will's short visit, I returned to Lucknow and celebrated Thanksgiving with my friends in Lucknow. We had a wonderful potluck (I, again, made a very yummy vegan chocolate pie). My friends here are very sweet and even made me my own portion of the cornbread, stuffing, sticky date pudding, and mashed potatoes. It was an excellent meal and in the spirit of the holiday, I overstuffed myself.

My Ride to School and an Afternoon Fieldtrip

My room opens onto the street below. Last night I was up in the middle of the night because I've been a little sick this week with a fever and, therefore, sleeping lots and lots, but sometimes at weird hours. This morning I was awakened by one of the girls across the street yelling at someone (something?) to get out of the house. I felt compelled to get out of bed in order to see what was happening. It was the cow below. By the time I got my camera, the front door had been secured, but the cow's determination was pleasantly funny to me, so I thought I share.

Because I woke up late-ish this morning (about 7 am) I didn't go to yoga and just headed to school. This means that I take a picture-esqe route (instead of the boring one) and I thought I'd take pictures along the way. . . . Below is one of the small roads (gully in Hindi) that I take. In effect, I work through a maze of streets so that I don't have to take the highway (the site of my accident). As you can see, traffic lanes don't exist really anywhere, the streets are pretty narrow, and sometimes, in nice areas, the houses are beautifully painted. Because it is early in the morning, the street is extremely empty. In a few hours it'll be full of cars, bicycles, rickshaws, horse-drawn carts, and people walking.


There are also a couple of historical buildings that I pass along the way. This abandoned administration building's yard is where young boys often play cricket in the morning. In the background is construction on a new high-rise (probably of apartments. I am not sure if it is clear from this picture, but the scaffolding is made from bamboo tied together. I find this horribly terrifying and I have met men who have fallen because the bamboo scaffolding is of dubious sturdiness. It really makes me thankful that there are many jobs I will never try.)


In addition to sometimes crazy traffic, other things in Lucknow sometimes cause delays on the way to school. The below road was closed due to cows, and people just hanging out with the cows.
And below is my favorite. To be honest, I have no idea what the old remains are, but I do think they are beautiful (especially in the golden early morning sun) and always remind me that here I make a left turn. I also find it interesting that a few families live in and around this old architectural site. You can see them eating breakfast and preparing for the day in the bottom left of the photo.



Today school took us on a trip to the Residency, which is a huge complex of buildings that the British lived in before the first war for Independence in 1857. Lucknow was the center of this war and the fighting was fierce. The picture to the right is a picture of a cross built to remember those who died. In the museum, it said that over 20,000 Indian soldiers lost their lives. The Residency was besieged during this time and the building below shows the bullet holes and the cannon ball holes from the siege.













There is also a beautiful mosque that was part of the original Residency and that is still used by people as a site of prayer today. It is set up a series of stairs, but below there were these beautiful colonnade ruins that a friend took a picture of me in.

My first sari

Well, I've been needing to buy a sari, because adult women in Lucknow at nice functions like weddings, parties, dinners, and engagements wear saris. Often, I have been the only woman in the room that was not wearing a sari and while I usually feel horribly socially awkward anyway (with the limited language skills and general cultural confusion) the lack of a sari has been something that I've been meaning to rectify and had not until this week.

This week, I was invited to a very posh dinner get-together at a woman's home and knowing that it would be a big event with all the women in fancy saris, I set out to buy a sari. I went to a rather nice store where the prices are fixed (no bargaining) and the sales staff are very pleasant. They showed me a variety of saris and I was generally unable to tell what made a sari nice and had minor worries that the sari I would choose would not be nice enough or would be too fancy. There were two very nice Indian women also shopping in the store (one of whom grew up in Lucknow but now lives in Las Vegas) and after noticing my confusion, they graciously offered to help me pick out a sari. I am happy with what we chose. After buying the sari, the store kept the bulk of the material to hem the edges and put a netting so that the sari falls better. I took the material for the blouse to the tailor to make the blouse. After a few days, my entire sari was ready. After 3 different people helping me properly put on the sari, I wore it to the party. The gathering was nice and one lady, whom I much admire, complimented the sari on me, so I guess it worked out pretty well.

"It was a thumping"

said President Bush on 8/11/2006 in a news conference

I am so excited that the Democrats took both the House and Senate that I think I am going to microwave (no ovens in India) an Apple Pie tomorrow. Hooray for the American people!

(I've been excited about this since 5:30 am on November 10 when I woke up to hear the initial poll results.)

I hope now we develop a good way to get out of Iraq (I like McGovern and Polk's article in Harper's as a starting point, http://www.harpers.org/index.html), raise minimum wage, fix education, and well, my list goes on and on. . . but, it seems that many people in the US agree that the course we are following is leading to a horrible end for the American people and doing unimaginable damage to those living in other countries (especially Iraq and Afghanistan) and, now, we have decided to change our country's direction. CHEERS!

Happy Halloween

The Saturday after Halloween, my housemates and I threw a Halloween party. Everyone who lives in my house contributed a meal or labor and the result was a rocking good time. I made a pasta salad (which was good, but not terribly exciting) and a tofu-chocolate-peanut butter pie (that totally blew my mind - in fact, I am waiting for the next excuse to make such a rich and yummy dessert). We also had many other delicious delicious salads, hummus, and rotis. There was even a grill cooking chicken for the meat eaters.


We had the party on the roof of our house with inside space available for dancing. The night was beautiful. We danced to Bollywood songs, hip-hop, and 80s hits. Many of my roommates and some of our guests dressed up. Unfortunately, I just dressed as Andrea in the USA. This was due to laziness and because I bought a nice skirt when I was in Lebanon and wanted an excuse to wear it. Mostly our guests were from school, but a few other people who live in Lucknow came as well. This allowed me to meet (and re-meet) some nice Lucknowi people. Also, some of the people who work in our house came.

Beirut was Beautiful

So, we had a short vacation for school and I went to Beirut and visited Will. I had a wonderful time and it was so nice to spend time with him and take a break from Lucknow. The city was beautiful and reminded me a lot of European cities with beautiful buildings, narrow streets, and lovely cafes. I also saw two beautiful mosques in the downtown area - which was suprisingly alive with people eating in cafe verandas, children playing on bicycles, and window shoppers. (at the risk of sounding shallow) The shopping in Beirut was wonderful and it was nice to be somewhere that I could were jeans and a t-shirt without harassment.

Beirut is also a very old city and ancient records of its existence go back to the 14th century BC. One of the coolest things I think I have ever seen was the archeological sites that are located almost in the center of the downtown. Because the city has been building in the same area for so long, in this below picture (I think) one can see 4 stages of history. The first is the modern buildings built after the Civil War, the second is from a reconstruction ca. 1840, the third is from the late Medieval Period (1000 - 1700 A.D.), and the last from the Roman Hellenistic to Byzantine Period (300 B.C.- 600 A.D.). I find this overlapping of time periods in a relatively small space (and its existence in the present) to be quite fascinating.

Beirut also has the added luxury of being situated on the Mediterranean. The ocean was beautiful and the sunsets over it were spectacular sites. Every day, Will and I took a walk along the ocean, which had a nicely paved sidewalk and nice places to stop and grab a bite to eat or cup of (delicious) coffee. I left Beirut nicely overstuffed on baklava (a sweet), zatar bread (pita bread with spices and, if I was lucky, fresh vegetables), and good quality expresso.

Along with satisfying my food obsession, a walk along the Mediterranean allowed a view of some very awe-inspiring rock formations that arise out of water. With the perfect temperature (70s) and sunny days, I really felt as though I was on a relaxing holiday away from the chaos of Lucknow.

3 Days until Diwali!

Saturday is Diwali, which is like New Year's for Hindus and tonight we went to the (country) club that the family I live with belongs too. We wore our fanciest clothes (note that I still really need to buy a sari), watched fireworks, had a drink, ate good food, and danced. I ate some roti (grilled wheat flour) and dal (lentils). Its kind of hard to be a vegan in India, everyone who is a vegetarian here eats a lot of milk and cheese. We also had our pictures taken by the news, so we'll probably be in the paper, again....

(some of my roomates, the couple I live with, and me)

(the dance floor. I had to climb onto the DJ's stage to take a picture, but they didn't seem to mind.)

As you can see, it was a lot of fun

I Can't Believe It!!!!!!

I think this is the happiest day of the year!

The TIGERS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!

This has been my dream since I was 6 years old (the last time they won the world series)........

Festivals, Festivals, Everywhere a Festival!

Oh my, I think it has been much too long since my last post and I am feeling mildly guilty for neglecting the blog.

I am feeling much better after the accident and seem to be almost done with the never-ending cycle of doctors visits, which is good because going to the doctor takes an obscenely large amount of time, is not cheap, and is usually mildly frustrating. In addition to seeing a doctor for my accident injuries, I was simultaneously seeing a specialist about my tummy (which has been a little gerber - Urdu for chaotic). The first attempt at seeing a doctor was quite interesting because I had to go to his office (in a hospital) at 8 pm at night. But there are no appointments or lines in India, so what the scene at the office looked like was about 40 people crowded around a closed and locked door. Occasionally, the door would open a crack, the patient who had just seen the doctor would leave, and whoever could squeeze into the door next would then go to see the doctor. After waiting for about 2 hours, I left without having seen the doctor. Feeling mildly out-of-sorts, I stopped at a very nice temple on my way home that had music and food (sweets!) and general fun. This little stop greatly improved my spirits. The next day, I went to the doctor's home and saw him there.

That same weekend was full of Hindu festivals. One of these was the Durga Puja, which is an important holiday for Bengalis. While I am living pretty far from Bengal, there are some Bengalis living in Lucknow and different groups of people constructed statues of the goddess Durga and performed puja (including drumming and incense burning) in front of the shrines. People came and watched the festivities late into the evening. Specifically, the festival was celebrating Durga killing a demon, Mahishasur. Here is a picture of one of the Durga shrines:


The Monday of the Durga Puja was Dussehra, a special day that seems to be celebrated by most Hindus in Lucknow. On this day, they celebrate the god Rama killing the demon Ravana. This is usually done by making a statue of Ravana, putting firecrackers in it, and lighting him on fire. We did this on the roof of the house I live in and I really enjoyed the spectacle. The daughter of the house made the statue herself. And the firecrackers were both loud and shot crazily over the roof - so it was really exciting. Here is a picture of our Ravana before his demise:

A new addiction

Today is Goria's (the lady who cleans my room) son's birthday (or daughter's birthday, I am actually a little confused about if its her daughter's or son's birthday, but am too embarrassed to ask again....). In order to help in the celebration, on my way home from school, I stopped to by a stuffed animal and a box of sweets for her child. While I was there, the sweet shop wala convinced me that I absolutely needed a jalebi. I had never had a jalebi before, but I was horribly tempted by the flower-shaped, deep-fried dough that is soaked in cardamom infused sugar syrup. So I had one. It was just about the most delicious thing I have ever eaten - imagine an oilier and sweeter doughnut! yummmy!

Whirling Divas and Fancy Feet

So, in the spirit of being in Lucknow and as solace that I missed Shannon's wedding (*sob*), last evening I went to a Kathak dance performance at a cultural center in Lucknow. Kathak is one of the classical dance practices of India, and a certain type of Kathak, called Lucknow Gharana, actually was formulated in Lucknow. The dancers were accompanied by live musicians and singers.

The show started about 45 minutes late, which was about the same lateness as the play I say on Friday. (Unfortunately, I actually showed up on time for the dance - but not for the play. Or rare timeliness, however, did allow me and my friends to get pretty good seats....) After the initial round of speeches, the first part of the performance began. During this part a varying number of women (between one and six) and sometimes the one male member of the group danced on the stage. The dancing had a lot of twirling, fancy footwork, and complex hand gestures. Furthermore, the performance seemed to start slowly and then became faster and faster in tempo as the act proceeded. I believe the acts were telling stories, but I was so intent upon watching the dancers that I didn't pay enough attention to the words sung by the singers.

After the first part, there were more speeches and then a much too short intermission. I think the intermission was probably geared more for the men in the audience than the women, because the women had to wait until all the men had finished in the restroom before they could individually venture into the restroom. By the time we had our turn, the second half had started.

The second half of the performance, however, was well-worth the wait and rushed intermission. During this act, a single woman danced alone on the stage (but still accompanied by the live musicians). As opposed to the earlier focus on larger bodily movements, this woman was actually using her feet somewhat like a drum to make music and the effect was impressive. She had many bells wrapped around her ankles and she must have had something between her toes, because every time she stamped her foot, a sound like a drum beat was heard. In this way, she was able to actually create a beautiful and complex musical performance.

The dance was so beautiful and unique that as soon as I become better, I hope to learn Kathak. I can't wait to improve upon my uncoordinated and unrythmic side....

A lovely evening at the theatre

This week has been an eventful and unpleasant one and I am happy that it is over.

In order to celebrate the end of the week, I joined some of my fellow classmates for dinner and then an excursion to the cultural center in Lucknow to see a play. Dinner was lovely and I had a salad made of iceberg lettuce and sun-dried tomatoes (beggars can't be choosers, salads are harder to come by than just about anything here and very expensive) and part of a cheese-less pizza. The pizza was good and I especially enjoyed the olives (yumm, olives). The cheese-less part was a hassle, of course, but worked out in the end. I can only imagine how strange the waiters and cooks must think I am ....

The play was extremely interesting. Its title was Mirza Bagh and it was directed by Sabina Mehta Jaitly, a director from Delhi. The actors were extremely skilled and a pleasure to watch. The play was in both Hindi and English. This means sometimes the actors would speak in English, sometimes in Hindi. This switching of languages reflects how many people communicate in their daily lives. It also does wonders for the amount of the play that I actually comprehend. I think that because my brain could take a break and listen to English intermittently, it tended to grasp more of the Hindi that was being spoken. The plot revolved around a fading nawabi (royalty associated with the Mohgals) family. The children of the family had gathered at the ancestral home because their father was dying. Mostly, the plot didn't go anywhere and the play mostly reflected on the frailty of being, the flawed-ness of individuals, nostalgia and the changing world. I found it meditative and insightful on multiple levels - but a large part of this is probably because I really like stories that spend a lot of time on reflection by characters.

Also, the weather seems to have changed and it is now cooler in the evenings. Last night, after my delicious dinner and exciting entertainment, I sat on the roof of my house, enjoyed being cold, and watched the clouds float through the sky.

all roads lead somewhere, usually, even if its back to where you began

School has started again and I already feel busy with classes and shocked at how much work I have to do. Its great to be studying with the teachers again and the new students seem fantastic, but I do miss my summer friends horribly. With school, life is beginning to again fall into as normalized a routine as I have found (and really want) in India.

(This summer at school: some of the teachers and some of my summer housemates)

I've also begun taking yoga classes at a yoga center. I really enjoy these classes a lot and look forward to going there everyday. I have a personal yoga routine I work on for an hour and an instructor leads me through the process and corrects my posture/breathing. On Sundays, they have a meditation class that I went to for the first time today. It was interesting, but a little difficult to follow because the woman spoke only in Hindi. We've arranged for her to do a private meditation session in English this week. Hopefully after hearing it once in English I'll have an easier time translating and next Sunday I'll be able to understand the lesson better. I think the meditation session today was so peaceful that I dozed off for a bit - I hope I don't do that during the one-on-one session! In addition to the health and mind-clearing benefits of the yoga class, I enjoy it because I've been able to meet some women my age that live in Lucknow.

Not only is the yoga class an adventure, but the process of getting there has proven to be interesting. Today, I was late for the class because there was a traffic back-up because there were about 30 water buffalo being pulled down the street (by their mouths) by these small women. The water buffalo decided in the middle of the intersection that they did not really want to go where the women were going and this led to lots of general chaos and honking on an otherwise peaceful Sunday morning.

A few days before, I was going to the yoga institute and took a wrong turn. Now, I blame the reason for the wrong turn on the fact that all the intersections look alike and that all the roads meet back up again (not on the fact that I may be a little spacey and absent-minded). Also, I've never looked at a map of Lucknow, even though one hangs in the common room at my house, because I fear it will further confuse my percarious knowledge of the city. The result is that in my imagination, all the roads in Lucknow are giant maize of overlapping circles. This is reinforced by the fact that everytime I take a bicycle rickshaw (pictured at top), they take me on a route I've never seen before and arrive at a place I regularly go. So, having turned down the wrong road, I decided to continue along the wrong road, sure that it would eventually turn into the correct path. I noticed as I rode past a mysterious intersection that there were many many police officers in the middle of the road, but as clusters of policemen are not terribly uncommon, I rode right past them. After riding past them and noticing their frantic whistles, I stopped, but, they grew tired of listening to me speak Hindi and told me to continue without explaining the reason for the road block. About half a kilometer down the road, I saw the reason: Traffic was stopped going both ways on the road by the police and everyone was waiting. People had even come out of their houses to watch. Now, I could have turned around at this point and headed back the way I came, but I wanted to see what could possibly be coming. As I sat there (for about 10 minutes) I became increasingly excited. Was it a parade? Perhaps some elephants? the possibilities were endless and I needed to stay, especially because I love elephants. Eventually, a politician drove past and traffic upon the street resumed. Slightly disappointed and still dreaming of elephants, I continued along my road. Eventually, I returned to the intersection that I had made the wrong turn in (reinforcing the circle theory) and tried another road.

Home from vacation, with pictures!

Back Home in Lucknow! Its nice to be here, although I miss Will horribly. Organized classes will start tomorrow and I am excited about getting back into the routine. I am living in the same place as I was during the summer. Sadly, my roommate is gone, but there are many other students living in the house and they all seem to be great fun, so I am sure the year will not lack for companionship. When I left Lucknow, my neighbors were working day and night building something. When I returned yesterday, I found that they had built an ashram, complete with incense and music all day and for a part of the night. As long as the celebrations are not everyday, I think it will be an interesting addition to the neighborhood. Now I can sit on the roof, listen to music, and watch the moon. Not too bad. The other wonderful new addition is the wireless internet at the house I live in. Hooray! Now I can stay up too late (like now) updating the blog.

Ok, so this is not the monkee that broke into my hotel room in the mountains. It is not the monkee that ate my vegan cookie that I had been saving for months and it is not the monkee that I am sure jumped on my bed. But she is probably related to that bad monkee. In fact, they probably are, the shify eyes tipped me off.

I am starting to think that animals like to eat weird things. Monkees go straight to precious vegan cookies and cows eat anything. This cow lives in the mountains and likes to eat cardboard. Doesn't he look content? Isn't it interesting the cardboard is eaten before all the green stuff behind him? Goats seem even less descerning in their food consumption. Around my house in Lucknow there are a lot of political posters. Almost always the bottoms of these posters are torn off. I thought people did this because they disagreed with the political messages in them, but I was waiting for a rickshaw one day and noticed that it was actually the goats eating them from the walls.

But I didn't only see animals on my vacation. Although there are a lot of animals to see. I also saw a monument or 4. All in a day or two. The best part of the monuments is that some of them are surrounded by these lovely gardens that are quite cool compared to the heat of Delhi.


Outside of the city, we walked in the mountains or laid on the beach. The beaches of Goa were amazing and I hope to return to them one day. One could walk for miles along certain stretches and not run into people. In other areas, there were fisherman and we were able to watch them pull in their nets. Such hard work, all done manually. The men got out of the boats and pulled a rope and children sitting nearby would help. It was beautiful to watch at sunset.

In heaven in the south of India

Hi! Hope everyone is well. I miss home so much!

I am STILL on vacation, although tomorrow it ends. I ended up heading to Goa, in the south of India. Unfortunately as far as adventures go, there isn't so much happening. I am enjoying the blue ocean, sandy beaches, sunny days, and gorgeous sunsets and most of my days have consisted of swimming, sleeping in the sun, and watching the sunset. Extremely relaxing and I am so happy that I am here. This must be one of the most beautiful beach places I've ever visited. An added bonus is that the beaches are relatively empty. Its the off-season, so there are very few tourists. Also, this part of India is less densely populated than Lucknow. This means I can walk for hours along the beaches and only run into the occasional cow.

I begin school again on Monday and I will try, technology permitting, to post all of my pictures from my vacations then.

Monkeys, Monkeys Everywhere

Hello, hope all is well. Sorry, again, for the delayed writing. I've been on vacation and blissfully reading books and walking in mountains and ignoring modern things such as computers. Well, this is not really true. Since leaving for vacation, I have had my first hot shower since arriving in India and watched my first bit of T.V. (both amenities provided by the hotels I've stayed at). And I have come to the conclusion that I really like hot showers. A lot.

I first went up into the Himalayas and visited a hill station called Mussoorie. There, I stayed in a hotel that was once a home to a British colonial official. Because it is currently the off season (i.e. it rains very hard all the time), the hotel was quite affordable and very beautiful. One wall was made of windows that looked down into a valley. The windows were great, except they allowed a perfect entrance for the monkeys that decided that they liked to break into my hotel room. It seems like the monkeys would begin their day by running and playing on the tin roof of my hotel room. The men at the hotel would shoot at the monkeys and the monkeys would hide until I left for a walk or cup of coffee and then they would open closed windows and eat any food they found in my room. Thankfully, the hotel management were good enough to chase the monkeys out for me, as I am a little intimidated by them.

After spending some peaceful and fun-filled monkey days in Mussoorie, I headed to Rishikesh, which is Mecca to the hippies in the world, the place where the Beatles hung out with their guru, and near the beginning of the Ganga. My main reason for going was that I hoped there would be tofu there - and I was not disappointed. The River was beautiful and split the city in half. In order to get from one side of the river to the other, one needed to cross a footbridge. The bridge was fun, crowded, and afforded good views of the mountains and the fast moving river. It was also always full of monkeys. Before I had traveled to Rishikesh, a friend of mine told me that she had been mugged by the monkeys (they stole her grilled corn - a delicious food cooked on a fire and flavored with lime and spices, it is sold on every street in northern India right now and I think I am addicted). Thanks to her warning, I kept my food safely hidden when crossing the river and managed to avoid further monkey contact.

Now I am in Delhi, where they have supposedly have monkey problems
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4623890.stm
but I have only seen a few monkeys, always near the train station. I wonder if they ride the trains?

Fancy Hands and Last Days

Today *sob* is the last day of the summer language program and I am very sad that all of the wonderful people that I met this summer are returning to the States and leaving me....
Today, I am also leaving Lucknow and heading to Delhi. I'll stop there for a day or two and then head to the mountains in a valient attempt to escape the heat and find some quiet. I amvery excited.

Yesterday, my roommate (who is wonderful but is leaving *sob*) and I went to Hazrat Ganj (a shopping district in Lucknow) and got mendi. I took a picture and put it here for you to see. The man who did it was extremely fast and drew the designs in henna on my hands with a tool that looked like a cake decorator. Getting mendi on both hands cost less than a dollar. Amazing.
Afterwards, I couldn't touch anything for 5 hours. I didn't know about the extremely long waiting period after the design and thought it would only be an hour. This misunderstanding caused a little confusion, as I got the mendi just before dinner (which is at 8:30pm) and was quite hungry. My host-mom, being the nicest woman ever, actually fed my roommate and I dinner. We then sat and chatted until it was time to rub the henna off our hands. A very fun night.

she works hard for her money

Long time, no me

Hello, everyone, sorry that it has been so long since the last update. I had a little sickness, but not to worry, I am rapidly improving (due mostly to the attentive and patient care of my host family and the assortment of vitamins and delicious foods they regularly bring and, actually, I think I am becoming spoiled from all the attention). I’m now back to classes and looking forward to trying to make vegan muffins in a toaster oven this weekend – there are no ovens in India (or clothes dryers) – so wish me luck!
I haven’t done much of anything since I was ill, but the Saturday before last, I was able to visit a tomb of a Sufi saint just outside of the city limits of Lucknow. The saint’s name was Syed Haji Waris Ali Shah, and the shrine is called the Deva Sharif. The experience was fantastic. When we arrived, we had to walk down a crowded bazaar street to reach the shrine. Once inside the gate to the shrine, the space opened up and the crowds lessened. The contrast between the very crowded and noisy street and the calm of the shrine was very dramatic. The gate surrounds courtyard and in the center is a building in which the Sufi prophet was buried. Sufism is a branch of Islam that focuses on mystical methods of approaching God. Before the door of the shrine qawwali singers were sitting in front of the entrance. [As a side note, I have really come to appreciate qawwali music, the devotional music of Sufis, since I’ve come to Lucknow. At school, we’ve had two different qawwali groups visit and at the shrine in the graveyard near my house has qawwali every Thursday evening, an event I really enjoy attending, despite its slightly different setting. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is perhaps the most famous qawwali singer ever. This is a link if you’d like to hear/see what his music sounds like http://nusrat.info/category/videos/.] At the shrine, we were able to listen to qawwali both inside and outside of the tomb area and were given flower petals to toss on the gravesite. Outside of the shrine, a gentleman associated with the shrine told us the story of the saint, who traveled during the 19th century throughout India and Europe preaching about peace and teaching about the love of God. After this lecture, we were able to meet the head of the shrine. He gave us sweets and told us that the saint had ordered these sweets (i.e. that a devotee had brought them to the shrine) and they were unsure what event these sweets were for, but once we had arrived, they knew immediately that they were for us. This story made us feel like honored guests. The sweets were good, in the very sugary way that Indian treats are. When we were preparing to leave, the head of the shrine also gave us prayer clothes scented strongly with incense. The one I received is brown with gold-colored fringe. He said they would help bring us clarity if we prayed with the cloth over our heads and that if we asked God a question, the first thought that came to our minds would be the answer. Overall, the experience was enchanting and worth the 25 kilometer trip down the bumpy roads to get there (interestingly, the trip took over an hour - I guess cars don't go that fast here, although they seem to be fast when I am in them) . I’ve put a picture of my roommate and I in front of the shrine. As you can see, the shrine is quite beautiful and beautifully painted and maintained.
Next week, the summer part of the program ends (I can’t believe how time passes! it seems like its been forever and just a day). All of the students that I’ve met over the summer are leaving Lucknow, so I’ll miss the friends I’ve made. I am looking forward to the short break between the summer and year-long session, I hope to catch up on some sleep and reading as well as maybe see the mountains again. I’ll keep you updated (hopefully more frequently) on the adventure...

Laughing Monks and the Golden Temple

Hello, all, sorry about the late post, I returned safely from my trip to the north and then had computer/internet trouble for a few days, so alas, the post is late.

For the first leg of our journey, we headed to Delhi for two days of siteseeing and sleeping. I skipped out on a lot of the siteseeing, but I did visit the Taj Hotel (a very fancy hotel chain in India) where I ordered a salad (that cost more than I usually spend in a week in Lucknow) and was given 1 leaf of lettuce and a sliced tomato. Very dissappointing, but it was soon forgotten when I ate the food near our (much cheaper) hotel. We stayed a little outside of the main city in an area called the Tibetan Refugee colony and I had a really wonderful time staying in a little bit quieter part of the city. I put a picture of my and woman that I met there. As you can see, the area has a lot of small roads/foot trails that meet in squares with canopies to protect from the heat. And there are a lot of Tibetan monks (they are the men wearing the red outfits).

After our short visit in Delhi, we took a 12 hour bus ride to McCleod Ganj. This small hill station was absolutely fantastic. Being in the mountains the weather was quite cool and I was even able to take a few hikes around the village area. The mountains were spectacular, and supposedly one is able to see snow-capped peaks from where we stayed, but it rained often and the mountains obscured the view. McCleod Ganj is also home to the Tibetan Government in exile and has a wonderful monastary/temple complex. I really enjoyed visiting the temple complex. There monks filled the courtyard laughing and debating issues and inside the temple, they played music and chanted. The place truely seemed full of joy and the welcoming nature of the area was increased by the fact that no spaces of the temple were off-limits to visitors. In McCleod Ganj I was able to eat even more yummy Tibetan food and I think that I have developed an addiction to momos (steamed dumplings filled with veggies). I also really enjoyed meeting and talking with the refugees from Tibet living in the area. These conversation (like many things in India) put the world into a new perspective and I was fascinated to hear about thier 1-2 month journey over the Himalayas and that many of them are seperated from their friends and family.

After 5 peaceful days in the mountains, we headed to the plains of the Punjab and visited Amritsar. Amritsar was an exciting place to visit because there we were able to eat excellent punjabi food. We also were able to stay inside the visitor complex of the Golden Temple, which is a the most famous pilgramage site for Sikhs in India. The temple is in a beautiful courtyard made of marble and inside the courtyard is a pool of water. In the middle of the pool of water is the temple. The base of the temple is made of marble and inlaid with precious stones and the upper part is gold. The site is truly amazing and especially so at night when it is lit up and reflects in the pool of water. The most unfortanate aspects of Amritsar were the heat and the fact that most people spoke Punjabi and I had a hard time communicating....

After these wonderful adventures, we headed back to Lucknow. It is wonderful to be home and I am enjoying school immensly.

Culinary Arts and Impossibilities

While I was writing my post yesterday, I just couldn't really think of anything exciting that was happening to me, so I was having trouble writing. Now I am feeling my life is more adventerous and that I could share some stories about food in Lucknow. . . .

Pizza Hut: So I ate at Pizza Hut. I haven't eaten at any other American restaurant that I can recall, but I went to Pizza Hut with a friend from Lucknow who took me there and claimed that he thought it was the best restaurant in the world. I do think the pizza was significanly better than the pizza in Pizza Huts in the States, you can get a pizza spicey and full of fun veggies (most of the veggies I can't even identify). It was expensive (for India) but good. However, as everyone knows, I'm not so big on the cheese and asked the waiter (in my funny Urdu) if there could be no cheese on the pizza. He was immediately taken aback and insisted that this was "impossible" (using the English word impossible to add stress I think to the inconcievability of the request). As I continued to insist, more and more waiters arrived at the table to find out about this strange lady who wanted a pizza that was not a real pizza. "How can a person eat pizza without the cheese, the vegetables will tumble!" Finally, they were kind enough to accomodate my strange-ness and the waiters agreed to ask the cooks if they could make a pizza without cheese. All 5 of the waiters went to the kitchen and returned less than a minute later to inform me (in English) "Madame, it is possible." When my personal spicey veggie pizza minus cheese was delivered to the table, the whole staff and some restaurant patrons arrived to watch me take my first bite and ask how it was. I must say, it was quite delicious.

In addition to my pizza foray, mangos are in season in Lucknow. This means that you can buy 1 kg of mangos for about 40 cents. Not bad, although I am eating a ton of mangos. I never knew that there were so many types of mangos, some sweeter than candy and others so juicy that you just cut a little hole and suck on them. Amazing and wonderful. When I go to the vegetable market (called Sadar Bazaar - literally translated to President Market), I visit tons of vendors and always return to my home with some combination of mangos, guava, papaya, and bananas. The only fruit I remotely miss are berries, but the fun of the other fruits seems to keep this small lack managable. The vegetables are also fantastic and I buy the vegetables I eat daily. However, most of the vegetables I am unfamiliar with and occassionally I return home with a mystery vegetable that I need to ask others how to prepare. So far, though, everything has been great. The wife of one of my fellow students also lives in my home and she is teaching me to cook Indian food as well as helping me with the language associated with cooking. Maybe by the end of the year I will be a halfway decent Indian chef?

All is well with me

Hello, I hope all is well with everyone. I am doing pretty well. I am deeply saddened by the attacks in Bombay, but Lucknow is on the other side of the country, so no immediate effects are seen here.

The rains have finally begun in Lucknow and it is raining once or twice a day, almost everyday. The great part about the rains coming is that the weather seems to have cooled considerably (although I only know the temperature when Uncle Tom emails me). With cooler weather, I am sleeping better at night and enjoying my walks in the morning more and more. The downside to the rains is that everything seems to be a little damp and it sometimes gets a little humid.

School is going well and I am continuing to slowly improve my Urdu. Next week is the school break and I am going to head up to the hills (in search of a little cooler weather, the mountains, and maybe some fancy shawls). I am going with three other girls in my program, and we should have a lot of fun. I probably won't have internet access while I am gone, so expect the next update early the following week. It should be an interesting one, with fun adventures and pictures included!

A short update on daily life

I feel as though I am finally settling into a routine in Lucknow, and it is making my adjustment to living in India easier and easier. I am still constantly amazed at how long it takes me to accomplish the smallest errand and sometimes frustrated by the fact that buying a small item (a notebook or a pair of socks) takes me an entire afternoon, but I think that my time here will be very good for my patience and I am really beginning to appreciate and find joy in the process of doing things.

In addition to falling into a routine, I am also beginning to find a few activities that I enjoy participating in and meeting people outside of the school. My daily schedule (not horribly exciting) involves me waking around 5 am and walking either in a garden or a walking path. After that, I return home, shower and breakfast. I then go to classes at school from about 9 am until 1 pm. At 1 pm we eat (a very large, delicious, vegetarian) lunch, and then I study (either at school or home) until about 5. After that I make dinner, visit with some friends, and head to bed between 9 pm and 10 pm. I am really enjoying the morning times, especially the walks. The weather is a little cooler and the city a little quieter. This weekend, I am going to visit a few yoga studios to see it any seem like a place I'd like to practice yoga in the mornings. I tried to join a gym, but found that exercise in India is thought of differently than exercise in the United States and decided not to join. The biggest difference is that at the gyms in India, one is NOT ALLOWED to run for more than 5 minutes, because running for more than 5 minutes is considered detrimental to one's health. Its a little too hot to run outside and I have not seen any woman running in Lucknow, so as of now, I am sticking with the fast walks and hoping the yoga works out.

On the weekends, I am taking a little bit more time to explore the city (I've put some pictures I've taken around Lucknow in the blog). Lucknow has many historic areas (that I've read a lot about with my research) and I am really enjoying the site-seeing. There are also a few wonderful bazaars that I enjoy visiting. One is near my home and sells many vegetables and fruits. Another is a little farther and has many fine cloth stalls. It is amazing, but I have had a tailors make me a few very nice outfits for about $3 per outfit (pants, long shirt, and scarf). When I am tired of bargaining or the heat, I head to the mall. Its a little pricey, but it has a movie theater that is very comfortable. I've gone to see 2 Bollywood films - I think they must be good language practice and its a fun and relaxing break in the day. I have also had the opportunity to hear some live music and enjoy the cultural happenings of the city. Qawaali, the devotional music of the Sufis, is a type of music that really enjoy and that is performed in Urdu around Lucknow quite a bit.