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.)