Divali RYLA Thanksgiving, I know creative I am!

Well apon our return it was the begging of the Divali season!

Divali is like the celebration of a few things, lights (fireworks), the goddess Laxmi (wealth) along with the Hindu New Year! Which is pretty cool! And normally turns out to be world war three in India.

Fireworks go off everywhere! The main day was the ninth and well I spent most of the time with my host mother’s side of the family. We had a meal on the day before, and the pooja food for Divali is rice, ghee and sugar. Which is I have to admit gross. New Years eve, was celebrated by watching cricket at my host grandma’s house. And I think I finally got it! What really got it for me, was my host grandma really explained it (more in actions and hand movements and things, because she does not speak much/any English). But I finally got it! I cannot really explain it to you, but I know the basics, enough to like be able to watch a match and understand. That night was once again India vs. Pakistan, and sadly India LOST! But really it was a good thing because my host mom and I had to go home and we only had the moped, and if they had won, there would have been some like nutso people lighting off their Divali firecrackers a day early!

Divili day was spent once again with my host mom’s family. We went over to my host grandma’s place and then went home and had a family pooja, for the goddess. And then met up with my host mother’s family again for a dinner. We ate outside, which was well in my mind NUTS! It was like world war three! We had fire crackers going off 360 degrees around us! They were coming from every angle, even right above my head. The noise was crazy! There were several points in time where I had to resist the urge to jump for cover under the dinner table to hide because I thought the sky was falling!

One of the best parts of Divali was the I got to wear a Saree! It was cool. It was red. I did not get any pictures, I will now have to wear one again.

After Divali day, my entire host mothers family was going on a Divali vacation to this place called, Ananda Valley, it is an eco-friendly farm. They have a web site; you can Google it if you want to see pictures.

Ananda Valley

I don’t even know what to say about this place. It is about 90 kms out of town. It is in a valley and it goes back to my never ending Disney analogy, it reminded me of living in “The Land” at Epcot. But much worse, and smelly. It was hot, but my host family thought it was freezing! It is a working farm, and I learned some interesting things. But the number one thing he was trying to encourage was not really environmentalism. It was the development of India, from third word conditions to modernization. Because face it, if India was more modern it would be much more environmentally friendly! The US often gets blamed for all the global warming hooha, but really India should be the ones that the world should blame. They have more cows then the state of Wisconsin, and the fact they don’t eat them, so they are wasteful. (That was bad, but I miss beef sometimes.) Also not to mention they still use leaded gas, diesel, and drive huge cars. So people should not whine in the US, they should yell at India. I don’t blame India though they are still developing and well global warming hooha… I am not going to go there. But the number one action the owner said that Indians should do is buy a dish washer and stop using yellow lighting; these measures would save a ton of power and a ton of water! Which in the US we have been doing both of those things for years!

But we stayed in little condo type things, and with my host family’s whole family. It was pretty nice. Other then the fact they got us up really early in the morning to hike huge hills! The food was al fried and sometimes I wanted to die. One cool thing was that my cousin (who is 18, and plays cricket on one of the Pune teams) decided he was going to teach me how to bat in cricket. It was awesome! And not to mention I was not half bad at it! It is a mix between kick ball, soft ball, and golf. I am not good at any of those but I was whacking SIXES! (Which is like a home run, but you can hit more then one at a time, don’t ask it works). Sometimes I really felt bad for my host family, because sometimes when I don’t know what to say, I just stop talking all together! I think I may have said like 15 words the whole time I was there, which I know is not good, but really I had to idea what to say! But half the time they were not speaking in English, but Gujarati, a language I know a total of three words in. We spent a lot of time playing Charades and Housie (mixed up bingo). I won rs.15 in housie! I came back and had to pack right away because the next morning I was leaving for RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) Conference.

RYLA

I called PeeKay the night before because I had a question about the bus. I wanted to know if it had AC? And PeeKay answered, “HEATER, What do you need AC for, it IS FREEZING OUTSIDE!” The next morning it was the freezing cold temperature of around 25 Celsius, Oh How Cold! I still want AC. Not to mention we were taking a public government bus. Government Busses are quite the experience. And if I was not forced to take them, they are something I would never in my dreams take. They are awful! They are normally not clean, and my favorite was there was puke on the window on the way home. They normally smell and they attract the common people of India. You can have a very strange verity of people to Indians who are middle class, to low class, to hitchhikers, to maids. If I had come to India any other time or way, I would never have taken a government bus. Nashik is around six hours by government bus, my host father can make it in three in his car he goes about once every two weeks. So that tells you a bit about the government busses, they drive at a great speed of around 40 kmph. WAHOOO when they get up to 60 kmph.

We made it to Nashik, and we are to meet up with some other kids to go to the RYLA, which was hosted at the Orchid International School (google it). We got there after a crazy jam packed bus ride from the city of Nashik, and it was beautiful! No hotel Shantidoot repeat, the conditions were amazing! We had nice beds, the pillows did not smell like curry, and showers that even had hot water! It was great! Very few bugs too! It was really nice we got to see some of the other Rotary Students in India. The students from Jalgaon and Nashik were also there. I knew a few of them from the plane ride over along with the Grand Rapids Conference, and it was awesome to see some of them again! For the most part I had fun! But one thing bad did happen to me.

So we got there and I was sooo thirsty! It was really hot out (yes, it is winter, I was burning up!) So I asked PeeKay, “Peekay, is the water good?” And he goes “Yes! It is India the water is good, Heater.” So I drank around a gallon of it, and started to feel really ill about 20 minutes later. So I lost all appetite and well it was all down hill after that, I will spear you all the details. But I got quite sick! I spent a good amount of time in bed, being sick. That is ok, I very much persisted to try and attempt to attend all the lectures and things.

On the first night thought many of the Rotary students were turned off from the whole RYLA experience because of the first guest speaker. HE WAS AWEFUL! We wanted to hurt him pretty bad, and if he was staying on campus, I would not have been surprised if he was linched by the Germans. He was first an awful speaker, on many occasions I want to go up to the people giving a bad speech and be like, you speech sucks, I will teach you how to give a better speech! But not only was he awful, but he was offensive! He was talking about how India is the only country with culture, which is somewhat understandable, sometime they tent to be very nationalistic, but then he starts insulting country by country of all the countries the IYEs are from saying we have No Culture, this is why we came to India, it was not that bad at first, because we can take that, But it gets so much worse! He continues with calling all teenagers “Robots” and “heatless” because we have computers and cell phones. None of us can speak, hear, talk, or communicate properly because of this. They should call us the “heatless” generation because we don’t care and we don’t care about anything but, partying, and friends. He goes on with, you are all awful people because you don’t listen to people, and you do what you want, you will never be revolutionaries. Then Julia and I were really sick of hearing his crap, and his insults, that we decided because he took long pauses that we were going to start clapping on one of the long pause. We told about three other people, and well he took a long pause and we started clapping, and almost everyone, even the other Rotarians who were on stage started applauding… Then the speaker was like I AM NOT DONE, out plan kind of backfired on us, because they he launches into this speech about how you can clap if you like what I said or if you want me to stop. At this point in time, Julia and I are crying, because of our bad behavior. But well he made the speech five minutes longer because of this it was sad. After this it was still 20 minutes long! He spoke on how our generation commits more suicides, because we are all stupid, we were so offended. He also told all the German students, that Hitler was the best revolutionary of all times, among a few other things about Hitler…

A note on Hitler: India like worships him to an extent. We have no clue why! It is strange. I have not yet been to a book stores where I cannot find Mein Komph (That is not spelled right but you know Hitler’s book he wrote in jail, that in English is my struggle) displayed. The Germans are always have culture shock about this, many people will be like I loved Hitler. No one here really knows his real actions, but they are all in love with him, for some very very odd reason. But really my personal favorite display of Hitler’s book is at the book store that is inside the movie theater, it is Hitler’s books right next to The Diary of Anne Frank, smart…

Well after the offensive speech we played some games. And as usual, I like to play silly games! Especially the leadership games, because I normally led them I never got to play them myself! I always knew the tricks and things, so it was exiting!

The game, was as always, to volunteer for something that you have no idea what you are getting your self into. The whole game thing was being lead by this participant who won the leader of RYLA award the year before. She was loud but not very well spoken, but at the same time, trying to lead her peers, which I know is hard! So I volunteered to go up! I got up there and they handed us a blank piece of paper, and in my silly mode that I was in, because of my love of leadership conferences (I know I am a geek) well my friend (Jen, she is from Canada) was also up on the little stage, and we like to goof around. So as a joke when they gave me a blank piece of paper, I was joking with Jen who was seprated from me by an Indian girl. I said “Jen do you know what you can do with a blank piece of paper?” I made it in this really dorky accent and tried to sound like philosophical or something. Jen is like “YES!” And I continue with my dorky-ness and say, “You can write down you hopes and dreams, and feelings!” I was joking obviously and Jen eps up the charade with going on with my hopes and dreams blank paper rant. But then the Indian girl turns to me and in a very inaudible tone turns to me and goes “Can you stop talking please, I am trying to learn.” I was somewhat astounded? First of all the girl in charge was still picking people from the audience and trying to track down more pens for the people on stage. So we were not doing anything. But this began to bother me a bit. I was shocked, to an extent. Because this girl was not having ANY FUN! I understand that this is a leadership conference, and most of the Indian students were getting out of school to attend this, or cutting into their Divali vacations, but at the same time we were playing a game! I don’t know still what to think of this. But I was disturbed, and it set an interesting tone for the few days, that many of the Indian teens were not what I am used to dealing with, they don’t like to have fun, or I guess unlike me try to learn and not goof off. Well I still don’t know what to think of it. After finding out we had to write down five sentences about a ship that was ours.

Mine was along the lines as follows:

My ship is named the Heater.

It is very lovely and maroon.

It carries the penguins, to the northern hemisphere.

It once carried the dinosaurs.

Too bad that it sank during the Roman Times; I wish I could have been on its last voyage!

That’s not it exactly but we can pretend. So here is for the catch, you had to read the little poem, five sentence, as reading ship as hip… Well that is silly, I only wrote ship once, so mine was not that stupid sounding. And I have no fears of public speaking at all, I really don’t care. I also opted when it was my turn to not us the microphone (I hate microphones, I really do). I read mine allowed, and to the very last day I had people complementing me on the fact that I read about “my hip” so well. It was somewhat funny.

So in between combating my water bourn illiness, and beginning for bottled water. We were forced into attending some lectures. Really it went a little bit differently. Somehow I got elected the leader of the floor? Maybe it was because I answered the evening phone call from the RYLA chairman, who had called the floor to tell us to be quite, and also to say an evening prayer so we are to sleep better.

(Sometimes I don’t understand this, there are many religions in India and well I know in the US if you told a kid to pray before sleeping well that would be a lawsuit, but even in India land of a million and one religions you can still tell kids to say prayers and it is known that all the students are of diverse faith backgrounds is quite an interesting statement, and well I don’t know what that says for India and the US).

But it may have also been to the fact I was always late, and always was asking for bottled water, and they knew I was “Hedar,” I really prefer “Heater” and the whole time I was there I was telling people that was my name. I have gotten quite accustomed to being called “heater,” I was completely startled when someone called me by my real name and pronounced it right so startled that I did not respond the first time I heard it, or the second, or the third…

Or maybe it was because I was the motivator, and was always getting yelled at for the other foreigners sleeping habits. Eg. They all like to sleep in and I was always trying to drag them to the lectures and things. But well it normally never worked. But I was always getting yelled at out of their absence, they would be like “Where are your friends! Go get them! Hedar, where did you leave them??” I always got a kick out of when they asked me where I left them, like they were in my purse or something?

I was also known for carrying everything around in my purse. I had a huge bag, and I had everything from bug repellent, to my ipod, to two books, to bandaids and everything in between like anti-itch cream for when you did not wear the bug repellent. I was always getting asked for things out of my blissful bag abyss.

Many of the lectures were lecturing the Indian students, on like western thinking. Which of corse they did not say flat out, but that is what we all found our selves discovering! Things would be like, give people hugs, or express your feelings, or value other things in life, or even it is ok to be friends with guys. It was well what I found to be really boring, not only because the speakers were no very good at giving speeches, and well I still don’t really get Indian humor, and also they were lecturing on ideas that I have been brought up with! Western thinking, forward progressive thinking, free speech and free thoughts. I did not really understand at first, and was pretty much board to tears thinking that “why is he telling us this, I learned this when I was around five!” But then I started to be more observant and realized that this is like new material for the Indian students. Many of the them were in their school modes on the hanging on to every word that the lecturer said and taking intent notes. Some would give us hand outs, and others would tell us not to take notes and yet the Indian students would be moved by some of the western thoughts that they would almost write out the whole speech. Back to the whole learning thing, on of the speakers said to write down the phrase “You can’t have maturity without mind set.” And I was sitting among some friends near some Indian Girls, and well I did not write down this phrase, because I thought it was dumb. Of course you cannot have maturity without mind set! Well the girl who was near me turned to me and goes “Why are you not writing that down!” And flips out on me. I am like “I don’t feel the need,” she continues with “but he told you! You have to!” So I then write it down because she found it so vulgarly offensive that I did not write down this phrase. This reminded me of well a dirty movie, which you should never see, called Van Wilder, Van’s assistant is an Indian Exchange student, Taj, and Van is always telling Taj to write things down which Taj always does, no matter how stupid they are. But many of the Indian students listen to the speakers like droids, taking notes that they will never use, like there will be a quiz at the end of this. When they really should be taking everything the speaker says to heart, mind and body. It really is a different way of thinking.

On that note one of the speakers had us perform an exercise about values, which turned into a big culture shock to me. I knew I would have moments like these when I knew I was not in Kansas (well I guess Wisconsin, and the United States, more likely, I don’t think I have ever even been to Kansas, you get the point). Well I sat down with a group of two Indian girls and my friend Ari (from Mexico). And we had pre-made list of what we value in life. On the list which we had to choose from were like, freedom, family, spirituality, helping the poor, adventure, companionship, making the world a better place. Things like that. Well my list was along the lines of Freedom, Adventure, Excitement, Service, things that Heather “heater” would put. But with the Indian girls, their values were so drastically different! They first asked how should they concider this, if they were to be married or not? And so I am like you are as you are now, I figure. And then they are like well our first priority is marriage. Marriage is out next step in life, early marriage I would prefer to to be, one of the girls speaks up. They both look about thirteen but like they have trouble guesses my age, they were probably about 17 or 18, same as myself, and they are the same girls who are intently taking notes in the front. So I am like what about Education, because I am figuring they value that to with their attitudes. And they are like marriage comes first, then they said family and spirituality, then helping the poor. I was astounded! I was like you have such a life to live, and your number one priority is marriage! I could not believe this! These were smart girls, and they would rather forgo their education and give up their lives to have dinner on the table by eight. I really don’t understand their way of thinking, I know it is culture but I don’t want to go as far to say that is so wrong, but really I have no idea how anyone can think that! Indian teenage girls have the same thoughts that American women had during well the late 1940s to 1950s; all they want to do is to get married. This is why many times it is a challenge to make friends with Indian girls, because the ones your age are getting married or they are not mature enough to get married yet and therefore think that they can act like they are five years old till their family marries them off, which is a very harsh and culturally unrespectful truth. I don’t understand. I guess in my western thinking ways I value my freedom more then anything. Another thing that was high on their list (the two Indian girls who were very different, but had the same list, really one was always like mine is the same as hers and would point to her friend, and that is all she would say), was helping the poor. Which I was somewhat stunned, India does try and help the poor (well they o somewhat but their population is like the Romans where you are either rich or poor there is such a small middle class that it does not matter much plus no one pays their taxes), but what the poor have to realize is the poor have to help India. India is stuck is this third world state because of the poor, and well it is not going anywhere. But what I really wanted to know, and I tried to get it out of them, is this really what they thought. Do you really want to get married this young, are you really going to help the poor (so many Indians want to help the poor or say they want to help the poor but on the inside they are so disgusted by their own countries people, it is just society that is telling them they should, but no one really does want to help), do you really want your family to make all your decisions. Or is that what you culture and society is saying to you? I wanted to know the answer really badly, and both girls got somewhat offended at even the suggesting of this. I don’t understand! It is hard for me to come to terms with this, and when I have been brought up with the harsh western ideas, such as only you are in charge of your own life, and you are free to believe what you want. Your family is to accept what you think and who you are, you are allowed to rebel!

Another lecture was about, well to tell you the truth I don’t remember what lecture it was but I remember the statements that were said. The speaker was going on about problems in today’s teenagers in India, and the audience was just taken so aback by his comments they were all shocked! This speaker was older, and well to us the older they were the more offensive they seamed to be. This speaker was going on how you should not give into temptation and evils or something. And he went on about how teens today don’t listen to their families. Then teens today have problems with drugs, alcohol, and sex. And some of my exchange friends, burst out laughing at this statement. We all wanted to see his evidence of this, other then a very very few rebellious males, which normally have watched too much Mtv and are from one of three cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune) or are not from India. Indian teenagers obey their parents, and don’t really do anything that their parents don’t accept. Such as the case of being a vegetarian, if your parents are veg, then you are veg. The only people I knew who have switched are ones that have been to other countries, or ones that their parents made the decision for them. I know if you are a parent you are like “man I like that system.” But your kid as soon as they are exposed to freedoms, well they will go a little wild, but at least at this point they will be married.

This is not so much the truth in Pune. Because most people from Pune, are from abroad. Therefore Pune is a culturally diverse city, but other cities, like Nasik are not so much. It is very hard for anyone who has had exposure to western culture to understand this way of thinking. I have a very hard time coming to terms with their thoughts and mind states. Even if I don’t rebel much, to the extent of sex, drugs, and alcohol, I still know that my rebelling is something along the lines of moving to India. Even actions I have taken in my life sharing my story with the Indian teens they are like “you can do that in America!” Then it will turn into a clear giggle fest, but “Yes, I can go shopping at two in the morning in America.” (Wal-Mart, open 24 hours, greatest light night venture ever, if this is my mother reading this, I NEVER DID THAT). But my ignorance was not only one-sided, many of the Indian teenagers would not associate with us “westerners or friends from abroad” because of our thoughts. And also because we are kind of crazy. It was sad, we would try to assimilate but we would always find our selves on the opposite sides of whatever situation weather it be lunch tables or the dance floor (yes, we had a dance one night). They would be very clearly intimated by our crazy singing and dancing without music, or just the fact that we talk really really fast (more as in I talk really really fast). I have no idea what to do half the time, it is so unclear to me. I learned more then ever that Indian culture and western culture are clearly so drastically far apart that you really have to agree to disagree.

Well back to the RYLA adventure. The location was the Orchid International School. (Google it for some good snaps, it is like orchid education something). It is a beautiful area, and well somewhat in the “jungle,” as we were told. It is sounded by foothills, which are more of mountains, to a Midwesterner. And it had a very interesting amount of security. We had security guards around every corner. I was not to sure what they were for. The school was fully enclosed in grounds with fences and barbed wire. There was a valley and a village bellow and to the side, but like a very poor Indian village, what a big threat? They barely have running water! I did not understand the need for such serious security. Also a bunch of Rotary kids (well I guess we can get a little crazy sometimes) and Indian teenagers, what a scare! (I am being sarcastic). So I was unsure of the need for the guards to have loaded rifles and a sniper!? So they are going to shoot you or beat you up if you were found not following one of the rules? I had no idea? But I decided to ask PeeKay, who gave Stephanie an answer one of the days we were there. And according to him, we were in the jungle as evidenced by the foothills, and sometimes terrorist climb over the foothills and they need to be shot. So that is why all of the guards (around 12 of them) had loaded pistols. And there was a sniper on the roof? I felt safe at least, except for when the sniper guy left his post to go watch the cricket match, because you know if their really was a terrorist he would be watching the cricket match too.

Even with the eminent danger of the foothills, they arranged a trekking venture for everyone to climb to the top of one of the mountains. Well many of us did not have proper footwear (flip flops only), and then on top of it I was pretty sick. So we began hiking we started in this village, and many of the villagers were running up to us, which was weird. Then we begin climbing, I was not to sure how long I would make it, and well I did not make it very far before I had to sit down. So Ari and I were sitting and everyone got ahead of us, and then some kids ended up going back down, and Ari and I decided to go on, but then we had to sit like every twenty minutes, because I was feeling so poorly. Then Ari and I could not find the way up, we started to watch these two Indian women doing their laundry on an almost dried up waterfall. I don’t think they were too happy with us watching them. But we attempted to continue on but there was not a clear path and we would loose the path and end up either on a cliff, a ledge, or in a “jungle” which forbid us from going on. We ended up going back down, and because of my sickness, I ended up practically passing out when we got back to where the kids who had gone back down were resting. When I got some strength, the others told me they had been playing with the village kids, and were taking movies and pictures with them along with singing songs. It was really cute! The village kids loved to have their picture taken along with they loved to see the picture on the digital camera. I really wondered if this was this amazing technology they had never seen, because this was a very removed village. It was interesting, and I have some cute pictures! Along with some movies (I will try and figure out how to post the movies, soon!).

We also in Nasik had a talent show. And well it was funny! I enjoyed it, even though it started two hours late, and none of “my friends” were there and I got yelled at like five times to go get them, and to the extent of the fact I was in my Pjs and I was like I AM NOT MOVING, I feel really bad, don’t talk to me, mood. I some how volunteered myself to be in the talent show. I don’t really remember why in the world I did this or when I did this, but I guess I did? So I devised a plan! Heather “Heater” always has a plan (haha). But I decided I would teach them all the toilet game! If you are one of my YLC friends or a good girl scout, you should know this game! My friend Amerih (I am really sorry I butchered that) taught it to me and my fellow YLC friends a few years back and it has been maybe my favorite game since! If you don’t know it what happens is I get to make up a little story, I like doing that, and then I pick five volunteers, who have no idea what they are getting their selves into! So I picked five kids sent them out, and then they went outside, and so I tell the audience what was really going on! They are going to come back and sit on a chair, and they are going to be “using the toilet.” Yeah I know I am mean, but it is funny. So they came back in doing things like, one kid was Donald duck, one kid was dancing, one was blasting off into space, one was riding a roller coaster, and Jen who knew the whole thing but we made her volunteer because she does nutty things she broke up with her boyfriend. The roller coaster girl was the best! She comes on, and almost ruined it, by going this is a dramatization of a roller coaster, but she was like screaming her head off, and then at the end went “oh I am so relived!” She was great. There was some time though, in between when they were all outside and when they would come in, and well I had to do something, so I taught them the moose song. I decided I could not make a bigger idiot of myself anyway because I was wearing my ducky pants, which have a big rip in the butt from my dog and I know everyone saw my underwear already, so well the moose song is pretty humiliating and I went all out… It was fun though, I enjoy making people laugh. Which at first they did not get it, they were all like this is weird. But in the end kids were falling off their chairs. When Jen got on the chair and started crying, and screaming “Why does this hurt so bad!” that’s when a lot of kids lost it.

The last lecture was one that was very interesting, and I really enjoyed and the only one that does not blend together with all the others. This young guy gets up, when I first saw him, first I thought he was a girl, and then I thought he was around 15. He had long hair and was in jeans, but when he started to speak, I realized he was probably around 25. But at the same time I realized how smart of him to come in jeans and a t-shirt, we all felt much more comfortable with him, then any of the other speakers. He spoke on a few things but the number one thing he spoke on was the economy, in a very teenage friendly way. He explained the divisions between the rich and the poor in India. He explained how the poor system works in India, he explained the slums and why they exist. He explained why people in India don’t pay their taxes; he explained so many things to me, about India and their third world status. He also shared some stories of how some Indians and internationals have tried to change India, and for that matter the world. Such as examples of mass produced cheap limbs and eye surgery for the poor. How if Indian business catered to the poor so they can pay for it, it is a genius idea but so few do. Because it is true in India that there are around I think it is like 16 poor people (when I say poor I mean really poor, living on less then 50 cents a day poor) per every moderately wealthy one. It may even be more, I am not sure of the statistics, but they are very shocking. Also how important big stores like grocery stores and mega marts are to the Indian economy. Also why the rising of the rupee is killing the Indian economy. What he said was really startling, and made me think that I really want to do something worth wild when I am here in India (I have some ideas but I am not sure if India is ready for them?)

In the end because RYLA is the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, there was some awards to be given out. They gave out four. Which were as follows; Best effort as a leader, and Best Performance as a leader Two were to go Indian students, and two were to go to Exchange students. And I guess embarrassing myself and getting yelled at to wake up “my friends” really paid off because I ended up wining the Best Performance as a Leader. I found it really funny how I spent half the time sick and the other half the time being ill, that I still had managed time I be a leader. That was cool. I like wining leadership awards.

So we ended up going home after that, back on the government bus to Pune. In the middle of the night. I will brag that I had the best seat on the bus (other then the puke stains and the smell that were on my window) but I had the very front seat and I had to sit with my suitcase which I put on the bar that separated the ledge from the stairs and pushed my suitcase into the bar and put my feet up on the suit case, it was great!

Well this week has been pretty fun, Happy Thanksgiving for everyone!

Monday was Lauren’s Birthday, she turned 17! But sadly the night before she got food poisoning, which is no good! So we ended up going out in the afternoon, for lunch, and then to a movie. We saw Stardust, which is really cute, and you should see it, but really don’t let your little kids watch it. Then we came back to my house and ordered Pizza and watched movies. It was fun.

Wednesday (the day before thanksgiving) was spent shopping with friends, because we were shopping for thanksgiving dinner! Mallory, Jen, Eli and I, threw Thanksgiving dinner for all the exchange students, on Thursday night. It was a blast preparing, because we really had no idea what to do! We did have a turkey for all of you who did not think we would have on, but we did not have an oven… So we started preparing food like homemade salsa, pasta salad, stuffing croutons, carrots, and potatoes, the night before. We started at around 7 and went to bed around 1 then the next morning we got up around 9 and started around 10 and did not stop till well 7. It was fun and crazy at the same time! We got the biggest turkey in India, which was a whole 4kgs (8 pounds)! I know how big that is, HAHA! We also had around 12 pounds of potatoes. And in India they only get those little tiny potatoes, which are really small, which we ended up attempting to peal them all. Also we had a ton of fresh carrots, which no wonder Americans buy carrots pre-cleaned; they are a pain and a half! Well ingenious of us we decided to throw Thanksgiving on the real date, a Thursday. Thursday as it always is, is the day that they cut the power. Almost always there is a power shortage on Thursdays. And this Thursday we not at all an exception, we had no power when we woke up and well it came on for about twenty minutes but then it would go off, that happened twice, and it was defiantly not reliable. So we had no power and were to cook Thanksgiving dinner, lovely! It was all going as planed, except we had no idea how we were going to cook the Turkey! We had planed to cook the turkey in the toaster oven, yes in a toaster oven I am not kidding, but this was clearly not going to happen. Eli and I left on an adventure around 3, where we were going to go get Tandoori Chicken, to make up for the lack of Turkey and also the not sure if we would have turkey. So we try the first place and it is closed, we were sad, then we are like what are we going to do, and Jen calls us to tell us she wants a meat thermometer. So Eli and I set off for another side of town in hopes of both things. So we try the one lifestyle stores that may have it, and realized that why in the world would it have a meat thermometer in a country that is almost all vegetarian! And also all the tandoori places were closed. So we set off to yet another part of town, where we had no idea what we would find. On our way there though we got a message from Jen. Who told us something that was a bit startling, on two account. First they shut off the water, so not only did we not have any power but we had no water, and the second was that there were riots in the city and so to be very careful and to come back quickly. It turns out some Hindu-Muslim riots had broken out in the city, but we figured sticking to the main roads it would be ok. Until we finally found chicken and got in a rickshaw to take us home, well we had no idea where the rickshaw would take us. Eli and I ended up going right though a very interesting part of town, where the Muslim population is quite high. And all of a sudden we are passing through a ton of water, and see enough police officers to fill many cricket fields. It was interesting, we then realized that we were probably passing through the outskirts of the riots.

It is hard sometimes, not to be a bit freaked out. Really think about it, I am living where the water and power being shut off happens often and riots break out, it is not safe, yet at the same time I am not fazed by it anymore. I know it happen and I know how to move on and switch what I am doing.

Back to Thanksgiving dinner. We got back and well almost everything was done! Other then my potatoes which I was going to fry because I cannot eat the mashed ones, I had cut them earlier and they had sorta dried out in the time I was gone, but thankfully they turned out pretty ok! The funniest part was I had about three pounds worth and I fried them all in a bowl the size of a cereal bowl, I worked with what I had. They turkey was cooked in a make shit oven. What Jen had done was gotten a giant pot and filled it with like water and then another with sand and then had the turkey, or something like that not really sure how it worked, but it did! And we had turkey and stuffing, and mashed potatoes (and fried), and homemade salsa, and pasta salad, and tandoori chicken, and carrots and peas, and some other things (no pie though). It was great fun. We ate on Mallory’s roof terrace, which is always fun. In the moonlight we ate and sang, and some of us had the grand idea to act out the pilgrims and indians in a skit, I was Plymouth rock, and the turkey! What was also fun was in India they never really get enough of their fireworks, which you could see from Mallory’s roof from all over the city. But as I looked out, you could also be mistaking what are called crowed fire (which are like fire works they set off during riots by the police) where the riots were to have been taking place.

Sometimes I forget how close I am to bombs and riots everyday. In the past few days there have been several bombings in Delhi, the capitol, which is still far away, but at the same time I am a bit bothered. Not about the bombing but at the fact that Indians don’t care and also they don’t report these types of news stories, I get my news from the embassy newsletter, that I get when there are bombings, and also when I decide to log into CNN or FOX for good news updates. Newspapers and news sources don’t really report these things. I mean they will sometimes have a little filler but really, this is big news, and when you turn on the breaking news Indian news channels you get the breaking news of some guy who can pick up dumbbells with his teeth. I found it really crazy when Pakistan and Buttho began feuding I found out from my friend in Argentina, who asked what was going on! I had no idea! Pakistan is now a dictatorship and the former prime minister is marching in INDIA! For peace or freedom and I had no idea! When the riots broke out, I found out from Jen who found out from Mallory’s mother who found out from someone who had run into them. The recent bombings in Delhi I found out from the embassy email that said to be careful because violence is becoming more prominent in India, especially over foreigners. Don’t be worried for me, I am not for myself, but truly I find it wild how no one really cares! I don’t want to compare India to America but at the same time if their were 7 bomb blast in Washington DC and you lived in Milwaukee, it is the same concept, except the cities are a little bit bigger, and there are a few more people.

Well that is my observations for the current time period. My 18^th birthday is in a week! I am not sure what I will be doing for it, but lets say I will be having fun I hope! I will also be registering to vote! I am excited for it, but at the same time, I am thinking to myself, I AM GOING TO BE EIGHTEEN! AHAHAHA!!!!! What happened to me! I think sometime in the near future I am going to write you a little about Indian health facts and myths! That will be a very fun thing for ya’ll to look forward