Let's Ganesh it Up!

Well lately in India it has been a pretty wild ride, for the past ten days it has been Ganesh Festival. Ganesh Fest started on the 15 of Sept. and well ended with a big big bang on the 25! Ganesh fest is a big thing in Maharashtra and an even bigger thing in Pune. Pune is famous for its celebrations of Ganpati (Lord Ganesh), and it was evidenced all over the city. In the beginning little Ganesh stands would pop up all over the city, with a ton of really pretty hand painted idols, and then the idol stands were transformed into gigantic idol party spots (for as much sense as that makes).

The Family Traditions

Ganesh is big with every family in Pune. Every family (well family as a whole not like family in a house; extended family) will have a Ganesh in the relatives house, and for my family it was at my host mothers oldest mama’s house (mothers eldest brother on the mothers side). Our family Ganpati was decorated elaborately with CDs and colorful lights and things that made noise and bananas and rangouli art! (Rangouli is speeded sand art, it is made in really elaborate designs, flowers and religious symbols. It is totally Indian and I don’t think I spelled it right). As for rangouli they let me have my hand at it, as with most art forms I was miserable! You have to take this pile of colored sand in your hand and squeeze with your thumb and forefinger to control the sand and draw with it, and lets just say even with the stencil I ruined it L . The celebrations are always long, and you have to eat loads of different foods and take prasaid. (Prasaid is prayer food, when you like talk to a god or a lord you must take food, and it is normally in my mind as religiously wrong as this sounds, but it is all really gross, Such as milk that has been sitting out for 24 hours and when you eat it, you have to chew it and it taste like lemon, yummy J ) So with this you sing a few songs and clap out of rhythm, and well you eat. Lord Ganesh’s favorite food was this pyramid shaped sweet. It is made from rice flower and water, stuffed with a mix of coconut and jaguri ( I don’t know what this is, it turns the coconut brown, and is a I would call an acquired taste). Then you fold it up systematically and you steam the ball to cook it. When it is cooked you drench the ball in sweetened coconut milk. Well all I can say is it is an acquired taste… So Ganesh in the family home depends on your status, as it was explained to me. Ganesh in a Brahman family can stay for either one and a half days or five days, it would not stay for the full ten days of the festival. In my family it stayed for five days. Then Ganesh left, sad. But Ganesh when it leaves your family you have to submerse it in water. What we all found funny was that leading up to Ganesh Fest, we would see signs and advertisements all over the city, most notably at the movie theater during intermission in movies. That all Ganesh’s must be made out of Natural Clay and not plaster of paris, because plaster of paris ruins the water ways when you are to put Ganesh in the water (normally in Pune, into the river).

Ganesh in the city

All over the city, Ganesh was scene for ten days. Ganesh was everywhere! You could drive for about five kilometers and you could see Ganesh in about 23 forms (which was an average). My friends and I even made a game out of it, we would play the Ganesh Game, which was a mix of the slug bug game and my family (in the USA)’s yellow car game. For every Ganesh you saw you would yell Ganesh and get points, and the points you would receive would depend on how elaborate the Ganesh was and how big it was, along with how many people were gathered around it. There was no real standard to the game and who knows who won, but it was a good way to judge the wild and crazy Ganesh’s all over the city. The city really goes all out for Ganesh Fest, everything gets decorated, the city is draped in cloth and lights are strung, it is somewhat similar to Christmas in the decorating since and also comparing Ganesh idols to nativity scenes, but really it can be better compared to Disney world. I called my parents back home and I tried to describe the scenes to my dad. This is what I got. Pune during Ganesh fest with my experience is like a trip to Disney World. First of all most of my transportation is in a rickshaw, which is a ride in itself. Then on top of it, especially at night, it turns into a wild ride. There will be lines and crowds of people, like lines, and also at the same time around every corner a new surprise and something to see. Ganesh is not the only thing you would see in the city, scenes from the holy books would be built in the masses, made with animatronics and moving people, and flashing lights and music. Like a ride at Disney world would be, but in this case you don’t have as much insurance sounding, you have only paid 1/90^th the cost for this ride, and well there is a good possibility you will be grabbed or you will get hit by a bus. My favorite in the city was the giant gorilla that sang hindi songs off of laxmi road, and you would only know of this if you knew where you were going, or in our case were extremely lost on the way home one night. In the beginning it started off very small, you would see a few street parties and a bit of colored lights, and you would hear drumming lightly in the windows all night long, but as the ten days went on, the drumming got louder the parties and noises got crazier and the week always got funner!

The beginning of the Fest- Finding the Last of the Purple Sparkly Ganesh’s

With the exchange students we find it super fun to take part in local customs and embrace the culture. Also there is really nothing else to do so embracing the local culture is something we do all the time. And for the first day of the fest, we got a very late start, but we decided we wanted to buy (really Chelsea, my fellow exchanger from Canada) a Purple and Sparkly Ganesh. She was very specific in this demand, and all week we had our eye out for one, and when we never found one it was decided that we just need a Ganesh, so we spent all day looking high and low for one. Little did we know, until that evening we read in the paper it was inauspicious to buy a Ganesh when the fest had already begun, so we looked, and finally in front of her house we found a very cute one that was pink and with a trunk that had flowers painted on in, and it was somewhat cute so we bought it! That was our adventure, and it was around 200 rupees, which we were probably overcharged being foreigners but well I guess they don’t really have a return policy on street bought idols.

More traditions

Well they are always coming up with new things to tell me, every day I will hear a new part of the story about Ganesh, such as his chosen mode of transportation is a rat. Yes, an elephant rides a rat, in Hindu stories all the gods met and chose there modes of transportation and Ganesh got stuck with a rat, which is both a good and sad thing. Another thing that happens is Ganesh is visited by the sisters, two sisters who are sister in laws come to the house. There is no real connection between Ganesh and the sisters, many think that Ganesh had like mortal lovers who were married sisters and they visit him but that is not true. So there are these sisters that have no real connection that you are to invite into your home and offer them offerings of sweets and other things you would offer to your sisters. The real story I have been told is that because when the daughter leaves the home of her father, she very rarely returns to her father’s home, so the sisters symbolize them coming back. And as par tradition the daughter is supposed to come back to her father’s house when the sisters are invited over. I know what some of you may be thinking, the sisters are real like you let two strange girls into your home, no that is not so. The sisters are like big dolls that get dressed up in Indian traditional clothing, and my favorite is they have giant and elaborate nose rings they wear! I got the chance to go visit my host father’s childhood friend who invited us for pooja to greet the sisters. Generally, in a pooja for a god you make a large fanfare but for the sisters it is more personal, and you don’t have to make a big fuss because it is like they are back home, which should not be a big event. The set up at the home of my host fathers childhood friend was a really neat a elaborately made, it was similar to what the Japanese Dolls (Henamatsuri (that is so spell wrong) dolls are presented) A large step offerings on many levels and then lavish gifts and at the top the dolls.

(Please Note: I am no expert in Hindu anything, I really don’t know the traditions that well and they are bring passed to me by word of mouth, I do not claim to have everything factual, and I know some things are not 100% fact, please don’t positively take my word, these are only my experiences, and it may not be 100% politically correct, so if any offences are taken, I apologize)

Pune Fest and Many Wild Rotary Rock and Roll Misadventures!

In Pune along with Ganesh fest, it is also Pune Fest, it states a few days after Ganesh Fest begins and it houses the official Pune Ganpati. Well the Rotary, being all amazing and all, got up special passes to see the Pune Festival festivities. But before that the Rotary told us on the first day of Ganesh fest that we would be meeting to do something, and so we meet them and as always they are an hour late, and so we take off expecting to do something Ganesh-y. Well no! They take us out into the middle of no where! And they tell us to climb this HUGE HILL! (at 8 in the morning, in the super hot sun!) We were like, why! And they were not talking!!! So we climb the hill, and we get half way up the barren hill and they are like, we are going to plant trees? We are like what where is Ganesh, and they are like, well he comes latter, so going on. We get to the top of this high hill and then they take us down this little path going, hey go down there, and it is really steep, then to make a joke they are like “roll down the hill guys!” I remember one of the IYE students going, “No Way PeeKay, though if it was not made of giant rocks I would roll,” sadly that comment was the highlight of the day. So we end up “planting trees” really the media took pictures of us holding garden hoes and watering cans “planting trees.” The trees were already in holes pre-dug out and as soon as the garden hoe touched the dirt some Indian guy came over, who belonged to what we believe was a landscaping company to fill in the hole and plant the trees. Really it was quite amusing and the Rotary just wanted us to smile for a camera and pretend to take part in hard labour. Back to Pune Fest, as a treat after “planting” some trees, the rotary attained passes for us to go to the Pune Fest. Which no one would tell us what it was and we only learned about this all day event well the day before, and they are once again meet us at so and so place a million miles away from where you are really going, and you are going to wait around for an hour anyways, but the only thing you have to do is WEAR YOUR ROTARY BLAZER, because 3000 people are going to be there? That is all they ever tell us, such as if we ask, where are we going? They will go somewhere in India, and if you ask again they will be like no, you will ask too many question if I tell you. India really teaches you how to take surprises and stop asking so many questions. (I can only imagine Geoffrey, my little brother back in the USA, here in India, he would NEVER last, he would die or else he would give all the Rotary people heart attacks because of all the questions he would ask! Note to Geoffrey: if you are going to come to India, you better start practicing not asking so many questions, you might kill someone) So we all meet up get on a crappy bus and they trek us over to Nehu Stadium, which is the largest cricket stadium in town, and also has an indoor amphitheater connected to it. So we pass up the regular gates to enter the Pune fest, and then we pass up the VIP gate to enter the Pune fest and then we come to the last gate to enter the Pune Fest. It is not really disclosed and you have to know where you are going, it is not really labeled and down a dark ally way (that is smelly and has a trash can full of rotting garbage in it, and probably men peeing and things that no one really likes about India but we deal with them). So it is like the press, and festival gate it says. So we in out large group following some guy who is like our press guy, that is what the Rotary guy told us and we also asked if it was legal because he looked about 15, so we go through these big gates and as always in India the gate is being guarded by some guys with big guns and a large sticks. Well they don’t even look twice at us and let us in, but I waiting for the stragglers at the end of the group, namely my IYE friends who are always lost, I noticed some Indian guy try to jump into our group, and well the guys who did not even notice us enter immediately noticed the Indian guy. Well I never thought of India as a violet country, look at Gandhi and his non violence, but they began to beat this guy down!!! I could not believe it, and I am not joking, it was pretty wild. They probably did not hurt him and he was entering a restricted area but it really shows what a preference they have to white people (see latter on in this section and in ballet section for more about this). Well we walk in and we are really not sure what is going on and then all of a sudden we are being surrounded by a bunch of traditionally dressed Indian women! They are cueing us up and first putting a wreath of daffodils around our neck, and then there are about five blessing us, from bending to touch our feet, to putting red stuff on our forehead, to throwing rice at us and then putting more flowers in our hair, then taking a candle and swirling it around in our faces so the smoke goes in your face and chanting to us (it is a blessing and you may be thinking what that sounds awful, but no it is really cool, have you ever had someone like pray directly at you it is kind of uplifting). They then put official Pune Festival Scarf around our necks in addition to the flowers (it is really cool!!!! I heart my Pune Fest Scarf!!!) Then they sent us to our seat, which were really close… They Point out we are right next to a sign, and around the third row, which was amazing seats!!! The Sign read V.V.I.P, Yes I am a V.V.I.P, how cool is that, not just a V.I.P, a V.V.I.P, hehe, how many people can say that!!! We sat up with a few other foreign guest, and some ambassadors, and some famous people, how cool is that, we are just normal exchange students, but really they loved us! It was beyond AMAZINGLY COOL!!!! We were at the opening of the Pune Fest, and at the opening, it is somewhat similar, or at least I compared it to, the Olympics opening ceremony, minus all the parades of countries just one country, India! It stated out with a dramatic representation of the birth of Lord Ganesh, and this really famous dance troupe put it on. The dance was about 15 minutes long, and they started out saying, in their shortest presentation ever this Indian Dance troupe will dramatically birth Lord Ganesh, really quite funny, I am laughing. So then they put on Marati play, the favorite play of Marti play goers, in the play there were over 113 people, complete with horses and a parade and drummers, and everything, it was crazy!!! Then they presented the official Pune Ganesh! It was not huge and it was pretty normal sized, but quite amazingly they had like pyrotechnics going off and load noises and smoke to show off the Ganesh. They invited all the famous people, who had been invited to come and have a pooja with the Official Pune Ganesh. The famous people included, some Bollywood actress, and a Hindi soap opera star, and the ambassador of Germany. Originally the President of India (the new woman president of India) was supposed to present Ganesh, but at the last minute she cancelled (sad I know, and if she knew I was going to be there I bet she would have changed her mind, but I did not find out till the day before!!! Just kidding). For the grand finale they had another very famous dance troupe portray and act out/dance and sing to, 50 years through Marati Cinema, complete with some of the original actors I believe. It was amazingly done!!! And possibly one of the best dance performance I had ever been to, just the energy of the music swept the room and made everyone want to get up and dance (some did, namely the German students, who are a little nuts). In the end it was just an amazing celebration, and though we arrived around three and did not leave till well after 11 pm, it really was an amazing experience for all the IYE students (with the exception of a lone sulky French girl, who wanted to ruin it for everyone). When we finally got through with the whole ceremony, the rotary once again made us wait around, and they are like well if you want to go meet the other people go ahead, they were specifically referring to the famous people, and we did just that, they got all excited we were living in Pune, and they were very excited we were studying in Pune. Then when they left, people came to meet us, like the media and other important people, it really makes you feel like a celebrity sometimes, people were asking to take pictures with us, and people were asking for our names and autographs, and what is weird is we are just really average kids who just happen to be from the other side of the world, that is it. We are in no ways special, I mean we are special in our own like Mr. Rodgers way, but really we are just kids who live and study in Pune India. If finally go so nuts, that the security team (really the rotary guys and some guy with a stick) was like beating them off to stop them from taking our pictures. After waiting around and when we finally got home! We got passes to be in the V.V.I.P. Section for the rest of the Pune Fest, along with a VIP parking pass!

The rest of Pune Fest, and the never beginning ballet

I ended up going to Pune fest two more times, once for a ballet which was called The Cloud Messenger, and it was preformed by one of the most famous Indian Ballerinas of all times. She was really good, but she was not the lead. The lead was this guy who really mad the play for me, he was really scary looking with so much eye make-up and our seats were so close we could see him in detail; he also did this thing with his eye brows that made you want to whack him on the head! It was really creepy! As for getting to the Pune Fest that night that was the bigger adventure! It was a Friday night and we had decided to go to the ballet and the Rotary had told us we needed to have an adult come with us, except they did not give us an extra pass, they claimed they did but it was really for the night before, crazy Rotary people, but we all adore them! So we called the Rotary Guy, and he was so excited to be invited out with the “famous” exchange students, he also likes to make fun of us, and well we all get a kick out of at, at least the kids from the American continent, I don’t know about the Europeans? So we were to meet him there at a quarter to 8 the ballet was to begin at 8:30, as it stated on the time table. So we don’t leave my house until around 7:15 and Chelsea realized she forgot her pass to we have to go to her house and pick it up, so at around 7:30 we finally get all our passes and we are still about a 45 minute ride across town! And it was a Friday night and traffic was sooo bad! But we found this rickshaw that the driver was willing to take us for 100 rs. And we had to get there so we agreed! We originally thought he was overcharging us but it turned out to be a deal! It would have been well over 125 rs. for the ride because of traffic in the end. But the driver was mad nuts, and he liked to practice his English on us, which is something that is very rare in a rickshaw diver, we talked about cell phone providers and he then turned into our own personal tour guide of Pune, teaching us about the road names and some sites along with Lord Ganesh. Because it being one of the big nights in Ganesh Fest, we saw a ton of them, this is the night I would equate with a Disney world ride, it was crazy, not to mention the driver was right out of a Disney Movie, he would take off his shoes and lung his legs into the road to get cars to stop and he would dart in font of them, he would also we thought he was at least, he would take Ganpati’s name is vain and then when we would pass the next Ganpati he would apologize to him, quite possibly the best rickshaw ride ever!!! Then when we finally made it to Pune Fest grounds it was around 8:15 and the Rotary Guy just got there, which was fine and he thought he was early, but no we were just late, he was excited that he thought he was early so we let him shine in the glory. So we walk in and we take seats on the side, (the Rotary guy stopped to talk to someone, as he always does because he talks to everyone!) they did not even ask for our passes, and all of a sudden we are like sounded by the greeters they are like don’t sit there please move, so they moved us to the center in the third row, which was awesome! Then when the Rotary guy finally met us inside he is like “wow, it was hard to get in, they checked my pass around five times!” I was like ok PeeKay, but really the treatment you get is indescribable! So at this time it was right when the ballet was to begin! We were so excited, we were taking bets (in oreos, which we had bought before because we knew we would be starved throughout the performance, yea we are teenage girls and we love to eat our oreos!) on what sort of shoes the ballet performers would wear. PeeKay also decided to tell us the main story of the Cloud Messenger, because it is the most famous and well like Marti ballet. The cloud messenger is about a guy who sends messages through the clouds, except it took him around 25 minutes for him to finally tell us that. The ballet which was to begin at 8:30 did not even think about beginning till 9:30 and then who knows what happened, they opened and closed the curtains and then it finally began at 9:45, go figure nothing in India is on time. So really, the story is about a man who loves his wife so much he angers the gods or the ruler of the area I am not to sure, and then he gets banished for either ten years or ten months another thing that was not too clear. So because of a lack of pidgins in the mountains (where the husband was banished to) he asks the clouds to send a message to his beloved wife, he sends the message in a dance and with his uber creepy eye brows. After the ballet, PeeKay took us home, and as always they are concerned with the fact they think we never eat he took us out to his favorite college hang out (please note, PeeKay is anciently old, and this place really was pretty hip for being open for over maybe 40 odd years, and being cool 40 odd years ago). We finally got home around 12:30, and I told my host parents I was going to be home around 11 at the latest, and well once again India is never on time.

The Great Hindi Laugh Fest and WORLD CUP (TWENTY20) CHAMPS!

I found myself at Pune Fest once more before it finally wrapped up, my host parents convinced me in a very odd decision of mine to go to see a bunch of comics, at the Great Hindi Laugh Fest. Well bad decision I know maybe ONE word in Hindi, I am trying to learn Marti (which I know about 15 words in!, also Gujarati, which I realized the other day I actually understand a good amount of, I just have no idea how to speak any of it). Also this was the night of the cricket world cup finals, in the finals was:

INDIA!!!!!!! VS. PAKISTAN!!!!!! What a match up, if you ask me!!!!!! It was crazy, and India WON! In quite the nail biter, I know pretty much nothing about cricket, but the country of India LOVES IT!!! And the city was going nut, well the whole country was going nuts! People started running through the streets and shooting off fire crackers as soon as the announcements were made that India had won! My neighbors, and my host parents, and well everyone I know was screaming and jumping up and down, it was crazy! So one of the only reasons I agreed to go to the Hindi Laugh Fest was because I wanted to see all the crazy people celebrating in the streets because the celebrations are always super fun to watch, and really it was quite a treat, people were running and shouting for India everywhere, signing songs and waving flags, So people ever had taken the orange flags which were all over the city for Ganesh Fest, and waved them, people were out on motor bikes screaming India rocks and things like that, it was a great adventure, but then came the Hindi Laugh Fest… I have never been more confessed in my life! It really sucks when everyone around you is laughing at some of the best comics in the nation, some are even crying because of how funny they were! And then you are sitting there, board out of your mind and your head is killing you because you are trying with ever brain cell you have to try to connect the few words you do and the few English words they throw in to understand, something, anything! All in all, it was not funny, it hurt my head… And not to mention I was the only white person in the place, and have you ever had the feeling that everyone is watching you, well I had that ALL NIGHT LONG, four hours worth of lets watch the girl in the audience that has no idea what is going on, at one point, I was pretty convinced one of the comics was picking on me!!! I was so confused, and my host family was like oh it is nothing dear, and I am like never again, not until I learn some more Hindi!!!

My Hero: Elli Naud

Well I have to tell you, I have a new life hero… One of the exchange students has taken over my spot on the crazy crazy things that happen to me, she really takes the cake, she has amazing misfortune, which we don’t call misfortune anymore, it is hysterical luck! Elli, has had the worst things happen to her, like on my trip to Ukraine (if you know the stories you know) Well she may top it and we still about 10 more months here! First Elli and some of the other exchange students were in a Rickshaw in camp (the centre of town) and all off a sudden they hear screeching breaks and their rickshaws darts forward, THEY WERE HIT!!! They were expecting some car to come by, but no, and then it hits them again, it turns out they were hit by a bus! And the rickshaw driver just laughed! Well that is only the beginning, Elli like any exchange student to India decided to get her nose pierced, and so she went out to buy a piece of gold, and so then they take the gold outside and all of a sudden her sister leads her down this dark ally and she finds what we believe to this day, a homeless bum, jabs the gold through her nose and volia it is pierced, by a homeless man! Then Elli was trying to pay a rickshaw in a shady area of town (near her house) and the rickshaw dude (or walla) was trying to tell her he did not have change for rs. 100, and so she did not understand and was trying to pay him with rs. 100 bill, and so she was holding it out to him, and up walks this women in a sari, but she describes this women as well she was really hairy, and then she thinks o wait that is not a women that is a man, wait it is a transvestite! So when she realizes this she was too late and the transvestite had run off with her rs. 100!!!!! Then to top it off, we were all at mocha after an exchange student meeting, and we were just walking up the two stairs it takes to get to the non-smoking ac room, and she all of a sudden trips, and so we think nothing of it we are all klutzy. But as we sit down she goes “OMG, MY FOOT IS GUSHING BLOOD!” there was blood everywhere! So Nurse Lauren (really just another exchange student who is calm around blood) tried to fix her up and we did all the little first aid-y things but it was still bleeding everywhere, and well Elli was laughing at her hysterical misfortune, at one point she turns to Lauren and ask her “could you go over to the stairs for me, Lauren, I think I still see a piece of my toe over there, and I am really serious…” So Elli finished off hanging out with us at Mocha and that night she ended up at the hospital because of her foot! So they told her she need a Tetanus shot, so she holds out her arm and is like ok just give it to me, except they shook their heads and they motion for the fact that it was not going to be given in her arm… I will end it at that, and the fact that Elli is my hero, and supplies us with endless stories and laugher at her hysterical luck in life.

Exams: a Quick and Painless Situation (not…)

Well it is exam time, I am at the quarter mark in school, and well exams are as school is, quite the adventure. It also makes me want to kill everyone that I come in contact with after I get so frustrated with at the school (don’t worry this is not a threat, I really would never do that, I would probably break down in hysterics and then pay someone off if it ever got that bad). So on the first day of exams we realized the school, which hates us half the time, never gave us our roll numbers, and we had to take the exam in 45 minutes, plenty of time to go to the office and look them up, right? Wrong! We hike it to the fifth floor and well they are like, we can’t help you, so we hike it to the third floor (which is really the first floor, but the first floor begins on the third floor, explain that one?) and they in the office are having tea, so they are refusing to help us. After some explaining and protesting, and after they had their tea (not to mention it was not tea time, lunch is at one and tea is normally around 4 or 5, and it was 2:30?) We finally obtained out roll numbers! And so we made it to our first exam, which was economics, well the economics class is really hard, partially because the teacher is well I would use a word that starts with a b but that would not be very good student or Rotary exchange student of me so I will just say she is a tough teacher… So we expected the exam to be as hard as the teacher, but we could not be more wrong! I will admit I don’t even own the Economics book, and I still don’t know how I did, but it may have been one of the easiest exams I have ever taken! (I have read some of the econ. book, I borrowed Lauren’s book to read hers about 4 hours before the exam). The questions were along the lines of, how do you suggest we control population in India, easy!!!! It is nice when you understand Indian Economics, it is a very different outlook then what I have learned in my other economics classes, and I find it fascinating! It is a different outlook, in the sense India is still a developing nation, and you have the fact their population is just exploding, and they are just becoming modernized, vs. the fact I have lived in a developed nation for the greater parts of my life, it is absolutely fascinating! The first exam was on a Saturday and I did not end up taking another exam till the next Friday, they don’t really produce the exam schedule and I would have to call people to find out if we even had an exam, and normally I would not know what exam it would be. So I ended up taking French (and very clearly learned I have no learned anything in French, but only needed three questions correct to pass the exam, my fingers are crossed!!!), and Environmental Sciences (a class I was not even aware I was taking, and apparently it never meets, and the one time it did meet because they just found a teacher for it was on a Saturday at six, no wonder I did not even know about it). The Environmental Sciences exam was by far the greatest form of amusement I have ever experienced! The questions on the exam, were so, well the only word I can come up with is; wrong?! My favorite was:

What is the Driving force of the Planet?

1. WATER
2. FIRE
3. GOD

I don’t think I laughed so hard, well silently or else I could have been whacked by the test proctor and her meter stick… But really, I had to answer God, it was the only one that really made any truthful sense, but there is obviously no separation of church and state in India, and really, this is science? Also who does not want to say they answered god on an science exam test question, haha, I still find this funny! Other questions on the exam were “explain how Indian festivals have some environmental significance”, I am like what! I am just an exchange student I know like three festivals, I know Ganesh Fest, Divali, and Holi? So I named them all and told them to take pity on me because I am not from this country, and I am trying really hard to learn as much as I can. I also wrote about how in Ganesh fest there is a significant environmental impact, which was so not the question, but hopefully it works? I also have taken Political Science, and tomorrow I will be taking Psychology. As for passing them all, I really hope I do!!! I really don’t know what I will do if I don’t?

The Final hours of Ganesh

Well Ganesh fest ended after ten days, and it ends with a big bang! A big enough bang for my family to leave the city and spend the day outside the city. There is a huge parade of all the Ganesh Idols that are located all over the city, and there is a ton of dancing in the streets, Pune goes all out and almost everyone from all over goes out for it, all 8 million, minus my family and the Rotary people, who claimed it was too dangerous for us to go out. So we stayed home and watched the amazing looking party on the TV. It is sort of like watching the ball drop in Times Square in New York City. You know it happens and you watch it every year and wish you were there, but because of the crowds and suspected danger, you would never in a million years go…It is like that. The next morning (really mid afternoon) we went out to camp to go shopping (it was still a holiday for school and exam purposes). So there were still floats and people celebrating over 12 hours latter! There were still Ganesh Idol floats going down the city roads, and still music blaring and still people dancing in the broad day light, so we did get to say we saw some of it, just not in the masses, we saw that on TV.

Indian Oddities

Many things in India are strange, such as they use the word Felicitate, as in to honor someone, except they say it like facilitate, it is funny, I still sometimes don’t get the accents and words will sound really differently they what they really are. Our favorite is the pronunciation one of our favorite hangouts; it is a cute little teenage cult restaurant, called Polka Dots. Almost all the local teens hang out there and it is somewhat expensive, but it has really good food and they serve meat! We normally go and spend too much money, ordering the same thing every time, they now know us and our order. We tip pretty well, and in India tipping is not necessary so they really like us. Back to the point, the locals all pronounce it “Pull - Cud – Outs.” The first time I heard this is thought the place was called Pull Cut Outs, I thought it was going to be a sandwich place that served like cold cuts, but no, they just say it like that. When I found out it was really Polka Dots, I said it like I would say it, and they are like “No, that is not it…” I am like Ok, so we have taken accustomed to calling it that, but every time we do it cracks us all up! The exchange students also have collections of strange misspellings, such as we found a sewing kit in a hotel room in Satara that was called a Swing Kit, the same hotel also had signs all over to The Dinning Room, hehe, sometimes foreigners don’t really get a total and full grasp of English, and it gets funnier every time, I am still waiting for “Farters Day” signs, but well I guess I have a few months before they may pop up all over the city.

The Upcoming events of my Indian Life

Today marks the beginning of October, and this weeks holiday is Gandhi’s Birthday! Which today was celebrated was some people taking a vow of silence, and hopefully, the police choosing not to beat anyone today. Also a rally and match or protest was held in Pune today, called “Horn Ok No” where a bunch of students marched from one side of the city to one of the big colleges, protesting the unnecessary use of horns by drivers in India, I wish I would have gone!!! But it was at like 7 in the morning L October also marking the beginning of the October heat, the rainy/monsoon season is finally over, but October is one of the hottest months in India, today it was blazing! And the rest of the month is supposed to get even hotter, which sucks. Then comes the winter around mid November, and it may actually get cold in December. Though I laugh at this fact the record cold in the city in the past few years was around 45, and they all froze! Ha, they should got to Wisconsin in the middle of the -30!!! Also after the monsoon season Indian Wedding Season begins! I cannot wait to go to one! I saw the first of the invitations for the wedding season lying on the kitchen table yesterday, and it could be pretty exciting! I don’t really have any big Rotary events coming up, The Rotary was going to plan a trip to go to a wildlife park in the middle of India, but there was not enough group interest, and the European’s thought it was too expensive (and they have a better exchange rate then us! It was not that bad at all to go on a 7 day tiger watching/elephant riding safari!!!!). So now I may have some family trips in the near future, my family may go to Dubai for a few days (which is am sooo excited for, knowing me, you probably know that I have always wanted to go here!!! I am jealous of myself for even hearing the idea that I may get to go to Dubai!!!). I also may decide to take a trip over to Nagpur, to go visit my good friend Chloe (who is an exchange student in India from Wisconsin and my district back in USA). Chloe may also come visit me for a few days, and I am excited to get to show her my city, which I have learned to love so much! Also I am hoping to rescue some exchange students who are stuck in Jalgon so they can also come and experience Pune in all its glory!

That’s all for now, I am having a great time here in India, as always I apologize for not posting that often I try to shot for twice a month, so keep checking every once in a while, I also am sorry I don’t have any pictures, I am working on that, but it takes time, and it has taken me about three days to just type out this blog entry! Also sorry for all the countless spelling and grammar mistakes, I did not check over this very well, deal with it, and if you have any questions feel free to email me!