The End is Near… But Still A million miles away.

Alright Alright i may have lied a bit, yeah i got to it though, the end of the tirp....

Rishikesh:

Alright the Ganga (or Ganges) is the Holy River in India. It starts up in the Himalayas and then goes on for a long time, to this area where they cremate dead people and throw their ashes (float their ashes) down the river. Which is well a bit strange, but culture, don’t worry we were at the origin of the river and so no dead people (more or less). So we were staying at a camp in the old girl scout platform tents, except these platform tents had indoor plumbing and well carpets and beds that were really nice. So not really your Girl Scout camping experience. We spent a lot of time chilling at base camp, to recover from the rafting runs. Our first day rafting we went only about 17 km, because the next day we were going to do 33 km, which was amazing. Interestingly enough it took us the same amount of time to do 17 as it did for us to do 33, which was a little wild, fast passed action adventure time! Being up in the Himalayas it’s an amazing atmosphere, it is colder then the desert, the water is beautiful and the mountains are amazing. There are a ton of monkeys also, but the wildlife is besides the point. The Ganges as a swimming river, has a fast current, and well whitewater rapids. Also the Ganges is FREEZEING! It comes right off the mountains and it’s so cold, you go into shock when you get in, but then the adrenaline kicks in when you are sucked into the current or the rapids. So rafting was amazing, really indescribable in words. One story for you, on the 2^nd day we were following where they let the water out of the dam which means the water levels were a little bit higher and then the rapids were a little bit bigger, so we were just starting on the 2^nd half of the course, also the course that we had done the day before. In a rapid that was named the golf course in the first 20 seconds of the rapid, I got taken out by a wave and over the side I went! Now this rapid is one of the biggest in the Ganga, it is not a joke, it is huge, and also it is long. So my paddle and I went for a bit of a ride, down this rapid, quite the swimming challenge. When I fell out I was blasted about ten feet down then I had to ride the rapid to the end to be picked up by the rescue boat. It was well to say the least really really fun, but at the same time a little freaky, but I got enough holy water up my nose to make all my sins go away. Whoops, I was the only one to fall out of the boat, so I got the good story. Also a few good laughs because we hit the rapid, we hit the wave, and then Heather was gone.

So I have well like me think 15 days, left in India. This to me is just impossible! It seams to me like only just yesterday, I was sitting at home in Wisconsin not believing I would be in India for a year. Now I am doing just the opposite sitting in India and not believing I will be going home! But lets not dwell on that too much, it makes me sad inside (I will save it for the end of this blog entry).

So things that have happened lately in the life of Heather:

I changed host families

I am no longer staying off baner road, though that means nothing to you. I now live on MG RD! Which is pretty much main street. The centre of town, its where all the good shopping is, it is where well life in Pune is. Its pretty grand! But well with this comes noise, and riots, and well everything, protest, wedding parades, camels, I saw an elephant the other day too. It’s a little wild. And it’s a bit of a hike my new house, I live on the 5^th floor and there is no lift. Well also its been a little crazy because of the political elections going on, and this is the main road, so more or less, political frenzy! Daily protest and marches from all hours of the day! Its fun, and it’s a very different way of life, not to mention I love my new host family, it’s a very nice change from the end.

Serious shopping and some packing (more of the first): I don’t want to talk about this it is a sore subject in both my parents wallets and my bags.

Events:

European Film Fest: Well the EU threw a film fest, and we were always never on time for the movies, but for the last two days of the fest we could all go, and see the movies, it was great! Well it would have been great… But, the passes had all disappeared and we were told that we would be allowed in and for the movies that others had gone to the passes were not checked. So we go, and we are trying to get in and there are these guards at the gate who are awful! They more or less beat us if we tried to break in, which we did… So we fought and argued and yelled (it was similar to the event in Agra, I yelled at people for mistreatment). So finally we argued our way in, kind of. And so the man in charge finally comes and tells us that the “White People” could enter but the Indians who were fighting with us, “the Brown People,” were his words, were not allowed to enter, talk about a blow. Imagine, telling your headstrong teenagers of today this in a western country, not possible, people would just flip. Its like a blow to the chest when this happens to you because you know what it is like on both ends to get the special treatment, and to be discriminated against. We left. The next night to fight it, we tracked down two passes, and dropped one of the passes out of a window so we could get a third person in, fight the system.

May Queen Ball:

My host father is on the board of Pune Club, which is more or less the Country Club of Ozaukee, and he put together this event called the May Queen Ball. A beauty pageant essentially and well turns out two of the Pune Exchange kids were entered in it! It was great, to watch two of the exchange kids more or less compete it was great! One girl from Belgium made it to the final five, but did not win, she should have.

Going away parties seam to be in fashion these days because of well everyone leaving. Today the 2^nd girl went home, the first was from Michigan and the 2^nd was Stephanie from Indiana. Followed by more and more and more, and well then me.

I will say I am off to the Himalayas in a few days, going to go climb a mountain! It’s with Rotary, so we really have no idea what the plan is or what we are doing and every time we ask they tell us, it all depends on the weather. We might go to China (I don’t think so though, they will find some excuse to lock us in the hotel room or in a tent…).

Events in India:

Jaipur bombings, remember i went to Jaipur the Pink city, as mentioned in my last entry and well it was bombed, and most of the things i saw are not partially gone, they will never be the same again when i saw them, one thing which i mentioned was the Hawa Mahel, it was bombed, along with the amazing shopping markets, bombed, gone. What is very odd the think that just a month ago i was there, shopping and seeing the sites, well hope my mother did not read this last little thing because well i think she may flip a little bit.

Well more later about my leaving: My thoughts and feelings on this year…