I open my eyes I try to see but I'm blinded by the white light

I guess i got really bad at updating this, but I'd rather spend time exploring than trying to get internet time, so there. ;)

I went to a Jewelry store the other day, one with a guard at the door who is there to decide whether or not you look like you should be allowed in. I was not dressed up, had this been the same kind of situation in the US I would probably have been refused entrance...I almost expected them to refuse me, but I'm white, and so even if I had gone in pajamas they would have let me in. I don't deserve the attention I get because of my skin color. I say it over and over, I'm just like everyone else, I just look funny.

This week I went two places with a woman who spoke no English. Seriously, none. The first trip we went to Kanyakumari which is the tip of India, Jhansi said i had to see it, but she didn't want to go so she sent me with a good friend of hers. At first, we didn't understand each other. at all. but by the end of the day we figured out how to communicate. We went to 3 memorials and on a boat. In line for the boat tickets I talked to two little girls who wanted to practice English. After the boat ride i took pictures with a man and his wife, and then with 2 children. I wasn't really sure what to do when some woman handed my her crying baby, but I took him and we took pictures.

The second trip was to a herbal waterfall. The buses weren't running like they were supposed to so we ended up sharing an auto with a couple who spoke a little English. They took me to the waterfall and we all talked for a while and then took pictures of each other (because thats what you do). And I talked to, well, everyone who knew any English and then we came back. The woman later made me promise to go to her house before I left, and said that I HAVE to come back to India next year.

I've also now been to two wedding receptions, one down the road, and one with Jhansi's family. We shook hands with the couple, took pictures, and ate. It isn't very often that you find yourself sitting in a dinning hall wearing a silk sari eating off a banana leaf with your hands. Definitely one of those "only in India" things.

On another note, the amount of "skin whitening" lotions and creams drives me nuts. White skin is not better. I am not better than anyone here because I have lighter skin, it doesn't make me richer or smarter, or anything, I'm exactly the same as everyone here, I am a person. Sometimes I just want to scream that at the top of my lungs. (The movie star type status is a little much for me sometimes) Last night a girl I was with goes "I don't want to go to America India is much better" I love it when people say that, because so often its, "but America must be better than India" I think they are all equal I love India and America the same amount, I am equally comfortable in both of them, though I do think India has more character... Also, Indian men need to stop watching American movies, it gives the wrong impression. Ok I'm done rambling about skin color and culture now...

I think its been to long I can't remember anything else right now. But I'll go through my pictures later and come up with some more stories. :)

Thank you India...

Well, I'm here, in Tirunelveli. It still feels like my second home. The journey here was an adventure but not too big of one. I don't have time to tell the story but here are some highlights:

Talking to strangers outside an airport
Not understanding the person who picked me up, and doing what he said without really knowing what was happening
Getting off at the right place
Getting on the right bus (this was harder than it sounds)
A fight
and giving directions to someone who spoke no English.

The day after I got here we went to Kodaikanal, which was more beautiful than I remembered, I climbed some mountains in flip flops and barefoot (after all it isn't a trip to India unless you climb a mountain in inappropriate footwear). We stayed in a really cute hotel/guesthouse, that was owned by my Indian Mom's nephew. It was pretty cold there (its up in mountains) which was a nice change but I'm actually kind of happy to be back in the heat.

They enjoy pointing out that I'm the only white girl in most of the places we go, and so when another white person appears they tell me and tell me that I should say Hi. And I've decided that I'm a tv series, so far we have white girl feeding a white horse, white girl on a bike, white girl eating and white girl sitting on a bench. Its actually just kind of fun. And sometimes I do forget that I'm not Indian and don't notice the staring.

I don't want to spend too much time on the computer so thats all I'm going to say for now. I'm being spoiled here, amazing food and people, I can't complain.

:)

Ra ra ah ah ah ah Roma Roma ma ma gaga oh la la la...

Today was the last dayof my study abroad program. We went to Lodi gardens and tombs in the morning followed by a visit to the national museum. Both placese were really neat and interesting. We also were our dreiver Ram a song to the tune of bad romance, what can I say we were all pretty tired. ;)

After that around noon. I was taken to some guy called mr kapoors office, where I followed a driver through some random door and up a dark flight of stairs. If I hadn't met the guy before I may have been terrified. But I knew somewhere at the top of those stairs was a mostly legit place. It turned out fine. I paid him. He gave me pop. It was all good.

And them the driver took me to my hotel. Which isn't too bad though I still wasn't comfortable leaving my room so I spent the day organizing emailing and tv watching. It turned being fine. But I was pretty nervous at first.

It was suprisingly difficult saying goodbye to everyone on the program. We all spent a LOT of time together. But tomorrow I'm heading back down south to spend some time with my ex host family. I'm not excited about the traveling part but she has quite a few things plannd so it should be fun.

We'll see I'm a little nervous about tomorrow but pretty positive a out thee rest. I come home in three weeks.

Today was a fairytale

Today we went the the Taj. (at 5:30am) It was gorgeous. And actually much much bigger than I imagined. Because we went so early it wasn't crowded at all. which made the whole experience better. I guess there isn't much else to say about it, just pictures to see. But It was very, very, cool and beautiful. The vendors were insane though, I actually walked into a few of them because they wouldn't get out of the way, but it was definitly worth it. And I actually enjoy the men who follow you around and take pictures that they print before you leave, you get some really amazing photos that way. All of the pictures we took look fake, I still don't really believe that we went.

After the Taj we came back to the hotel to get breakfast and pack and then we went to Agra fort. Which was another set of palaces but that was also very exciting to see, all of it is so pretty and everything hand carved. You can also see the Taj Mahal from the top of agra fort. :)

Then we went to see a demonstration of how the marble of the taj was carved, no wonder it to 22 years and 20,000 people to build it, it takes forever to do one piece.

Then we headed to Delhi, and the driver pointed out baby Taj, which is literally a smaller version of the Taj, and a really pretty tomb that we were supposed to stop at but couldn't because of a traffic jam. Now were in Delhi, in another hotel that has security guards and gates and checks for bombs every-time we enter. I understand why we are at such nice hotels- they are safer, and I'm ok with that. It was a busy day, with a ton of car time and I can't wait to sleep.

I remember we were driving driving in your car ...

Today we got up and drove to Jaipur, the drive was around 7 hours (like most of them end up being. Our hotel here is INSANE. They gave us champagne when we walked in, there was a man playing a drum and another playing some kind of snake charming something. Really its just uncomfortably nice. I keep reminding myself that we are helping keep the people working there employed because that is the only way I can handle staying in this place. Between all the Ma'ms and everyone doing EVERYTHING for me, its just not something I enjoy. I can open my own butter, thank you very much.

After the car ride, a few of us went to the pool, it wasn't nearly as nice as the last one, but it was still a pool and nothing feels better then a good pool stretch after a really long car ride.

Anyway, that was today, not too exciting, but the car rides are always interesting.

Today was our full day in Udaipur. Everything is very very different from South India. It was apparently 114 today, but not very humid. I LOVE the weather. We started the day by going to a temple, we happened to be there during thier prayer time. So there was singing and dancing it was really neat to see. Then we went to the city palace, which this time actually looked like a palane in europe (What I expect thejm too) It was 1/3 museum, 1/3 hotel, and 1/3 residence for the current royal family.
'
After the palace we headed to a miniature paintings school. Iw as acutally really disappointed in this because the art form was really neat but they were charging outragious prices to us and no one, even the director, knew where to start. I bought a small painting anyway, but I was hoping for something a little different. Then we came back to the hotel and went swimming, which was amazing in the heat.

We got stuck in the hotel because of a medical emergency, so some of us decided to go down to the end of the driveway to an ice cream store. It ended up being a wholesale ice cream store, run by a woman who spoke half in Hindi and half in English. THat was fun for me because I could understand her. Then we sprinted back up the drivway with melting ice cream and spent the rest of the night using the computers watching tv and eating ice cream.

It turned out to be ok that we couldn't leave the hotel.

Life in a Northern Town...

We started today ( a day filled with airports and airplanes) off with a visit to an elephant training center. A couple points about this, first Dan found the one that treated the animals the best and didn't beat them. Second I still probably would have avoided this one. The elephants were chained to trees even the adults I'm hoping it wasn't always like that for them but.... It was cool however that I got to walk up and touch an elephant. Both and adult and a baby. The baby elephant kept throwing around his food and playing, it was cute.

Then we went to the airport, had a small delay, and a half hour into the flight they called for a doctor but aside from that everything went smoothly. Thought the propellors for the plane were not contained they were just out in the open which was kind of creepy.

Now were in Udaipur. The weather is amazing! its hot, but dry. I love it. It was supposidly 111 today. I have no concept of temperature today so who knows what it actually was.

The hotel is AMAZING. They served us rosewater lemonade as the welcome dring. Its stone and spread out and you can see mountains from it. I can't wait to be able to post pictures. We went to the pool and are just staying in the hotel for the rest of the night. The only downside to the hotel is that water is 100rupees and food is 400 or more. THats the most expensive food and water has been yet.

Kerri, our other program director, is here. I think we're all looking forward to a little bit of change.

I'm on a boat.

Today we left the hotel by 9 to get to our boat by noon, it was a long ride. (On the way we stopped at a grocery store and I got mango corn flakes, but that is a different story). Once there we took a transfer boat to our house boat. It is really nice. We spent the day sitting on the deck, talking and watching the scenery of the back warters. When we docked for the night one of the crew members took us for a walk into a village. It was incredible. All the trees and animals and rice patties. I really don';t think I can describe how amazing it was. On the walk we saw water snakes, a giant goat, and a handful of king fishers. At dinner we had huge, no giant- GIANT prawns. I', pretty sure they were almost 12 inches long. And they were yummy.

We spent the rest of the night telling ghost stories and watching Alexander the almost but not quite great and snatcher (our lizards) eat bugs. When we headed to our room first, a half naked man had to turn on our AC. and second there was a huge cockroach in the bathroom. Now, I am not a huge fan of coackroaches, and I'm even less of a fan of showering with them, so I decided to try and catch it. First I used the large bathroom bucket but he found a way out of that, so then I used a notebook cover and a smaller bucket, he managed to squirm out of that too. so finally I put a cereal box under the folder which was under the small bucked ant I put all of that on top of the big bucket. Then I took that entire contraption into the hall , as soon as I walked out with it all the crew members wanted to know what was going on. I said "cockroach!" and they all started laughing then they took the contraption and did who knows what with the cockroach.

Today was definitly one of my favourite days so far. I really enjoyed the people and the crew on my boat, and the who boat ride for that matter (including the almost sunburn on my right arm). It's been a pretty amazing experience.