This has indeed been a crazy month, I’ve been so overly busy and I can honestly tell you that blogging hasnt been a top priority on my list. Ill try to make up for it now though.
There was the country celebration with the rotex and amazing danish pastries! I went to Safala with Shaila-auntie (my hostmom) and Janina, and enjoyed the beautiful sunset over the arabian sea.
The ‘october heat’ has indeed been equally draining and energizing. I love it in spite of the dull feeling you sometimes get after too long a day in the sun. Its one of the main reasons of why I came to India - the sun! As long as I remeber to drink a lot of water during the day I can just enjoy the light and totally recharge on energy. All in all I appreciate this bright season that is coming and replacing the monsoon.
Last weekend Janina and I went for a weekend in Lonavala with Janavi from rotex. She was turning 18, and we went there by bus along with all of her friends. We had a lot of fun, and this time it wasnt the sunset but the sunrise that I was fascinated by ;) We left from Charni Rd station on saturday morning and were back late in the afternoon on sunday.
I recieved a parcel from my Grandma with a couple bags of (very needed) liqourice and a donald duck magazine :) And Anna (my best friend from home) sent me a package that I am not allowed to open untill the 31st - my birthday - she wrote it like 10000 times on the outside of the parcel! tusind tak søde unge.
I already slowly started celebrating my birthday, Janina had taken me for the breakfastbuffet in the Taj Mahal Hotel (I have to do the same at her birthday though)! We were all dressed up, and decided to take a cab there, even though its like 100 metres from her house. It was soooo classy! I loved it, doubt I have ever eaten that much for breakfast. We had been fasting since noon on the previous day becouse we wanted to be able to eat like crazy. We ate non-stop for 2 hours and 15 minutes when we just couldnt have any more without cracking, and even around dinnertime I was still uncomfortably full! But it was good - definately good.
Later that same day, we went to meet with Nishita, rotex member who had gone on exchange to Germany, and her friends. We met in one of the many hookah-bars ( på dansk: vandpibe-caféer), smoking and talking all night. Then we walked across the street to see the scarred building across from Nariman Point, where the terrorists had hit 2 years ago, it was a bit odd to see how they, in preparation to Obamas upcoming visit, had repainted the entire front and made small red circles around the bulletholes in the brickwall and doors...
On the 30th I will be moving my hostfamilies. I will leave the Vyas-family to go live with Bal and Nilima Inamdar. They too live in Goregaon west, quite nearby to my current family. On my 2nd day there, we will be hosting a birthday dinner for all the inbounds, it will be really fun! Im so excited.
My parents, brother and grandmother sent me money for my birthday. I have already spent the money from my brother on buying the most amazing orange sari with a gold and purple border, and I have already handed it in to get the blouse stitched:)
111 days, almost 4 months, 2 hostfamilies, 2 trips outside Mumbai, 10000000000 new friends, a new language, a new culture, a new country... one third of my exchange-year has gone by, and Im still enjoying every moment. It still feels like I just arrived, just when I have fallen into a slow rythm something happens and all things are shaken up again (in a good way). This is indeed Incredible India.
Since my small (blue) camera drowned during the junglewalk in the monsoon season, my photoghaphy is only possible with my big Nikon. Because of the overly crowded trains, I prefer not to bring that to townside, and therefore I do not have a lot of photos from the past month :( ill upload some as they magically appear on my memorycard...
take care
Maria
28 October 2010
16 October 2010
End Ganpati, Village pictures and 'ek'-ratri (!)
Two pictures from tonight (and the last 9 nights)'s festival -Nav raatri (nine nights). People dance and play with sticks for nine nights in a row. tonight my host mom had rented me an amazing costume and jewellery and we danced all night long !
A bit of snapshots from Safala (the village)
The last Ganpati photo!
A bit of snapshots from Safala (the village)
The last Ganpati photo!
10 October 2010
A weekend in the countryside!
This weekend I went with my host mom and Janina to a small village in Safala. It is the most beautiful place 2 hours north of Mumbai. We were visiting some friends of my hostparents, they are originally from that village but now they live in Mumbai and own a bungalow there.
Day one:
While driving up there friday before noon, it was very hot! Both janina and I were wearing the most comfortable punjabi suits (Salwar-Kameez) so it didnt really matter. We talked all the way up there and had a great time. Half way there we made a halt at a dairy. We got the most amazing mango-lassi’s to drink, and we totally recharged for the remaining hour in the car...
Upon our arrival we were served the first of the many meals of the day. The moment we were done eating we went upstairs to change in to our festive clothes. (Janina and I looked fabulous in our sarees!) And we were off to serve food for the village! See, the family we were hosted by are in to a lot of socialwork for their village, and they had funded a giant food give-away, serving dinner for over 1000 villagers during a religious procession. So we helped hand out the meals for the locals! It was incredibly hot standing there in the sunny afternoon, but it was totally worth it! When we were about to leave, some villagers and the uncle who owns the bungalow we lived in came over and gave us a wool-shawl and a coconut each! We thanked them in hindi (Dhanyawaad/Shukhria)! :)
After serving the village we had gotten an invitation to go to a small farm half an hours driving away... When we came driving up the dirt road in the middle of the indian jungle, we came to a point where we couldnt drive any further. So we got out and walked in our fancy sarees and festive wear for the rest of the way, it wasnt that far, and since it was in the afternoon so the temperature was actually quite pleasant! When we came there we sat down on the porch of a small farmers house built in cow-dunk and sticks! We had energizing fresh coconutwater and ate an amazingly well prepared smoked fish-curry off freshly picked banana leaves! It was great!
I got a tour af the farm with one of the aunties. There were a bunch of banana-, mango-, sitaphal/custard apple- and guavatrees also coconut palmtrees, jasmin flowers, rice fields and the most amazing flower, an ethnic looking white lily, and it had the sweetest most enchanting smell I have ever experienced!!! We plucked some sitaphals and ate them while walking the fields and my host mom brought home a big bag of jasmin flowers that we were to use the next day!
When we came home we were to have dinner, but I wa soooo full from all the earlier meals that I only just tasted before I went to bed after an amazing, beautiful and very tiring day!
Day two:
We woke up at early (7 o’clock) and sat in the kitched drinking chai all morning while we were tying all the jasminflowers from yesterday onto strings that we could tie in our hair or offer to the god in the temple.
After lunch we all got in the car and drove through the sketchiest little jungle roads untill we arrived at the temple. We went inside, did prayers, got prasad (a couple of white sugar-balls some raisins and peanuts that you get in return for your worship) and then we went outside and fed the fish in the temple pond.
Then we walked down a small path and arrived at the beach (or as they spelled it in hindi: Beej)... The arabian sea was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life! We rode the most beautiful small horsewagon (actually it was pulled by donkeys) and enjoyed the beauty of nature! The sun was slowly setting and it was arund 6 o’clock. A camel was walking on the beach, Janina and I got a ride on this huge fantastic animal, feeling the rythm of its steps while wathing the sun go down over the indian ocean, the camel was named ‘beautiful’ in hindi and that was excactly what this day was, Beautiful!
Me and Janina really wanted to go all the way out to where the actual water was (the tide was low, so there was over 100 metres of sand we had to walk to get to the ocean). Auntie saw that the sun was about to set, and told us that we had 5 minutes and not more! So we pulled up our salwars and ran as fast as we could out to the beautiful ocean. The black sand mixed with the seawater drenched our pants, but nothing could ruin the magical moment when we reached the edge of the arabian sea! We just stood there for a moment next to eachother, enjoying the silence and seeing nothing but water and sand ! A guy came over and took a photo of us and our amazed and happy faces, and then we went to a small jugle resort to have an overwhelmingly great meal of chicken tikka kebabs, grilled kingprawns almost the size of my palm, fish curry and fried bombay duck (a fish only available in mumbai, with very small eatable bones and a fantastic taste!) before we went home to the bungalow!
But the day was not over yet! Tonight was the 2nd night of the nauraatri festival (it means ‘nine nights’) and you are supposed to dance every evening for 9 nights in a row! Earlier today a woman had come to our house to teach us some Garda (the traditional dance that everyone does when dancing on the streets) so we were all prepped and ready after changing out of our muddy suits!
So first we just went outside the gate and danced with the neighbours, then we got in the car and drove to a bunch of different places, one even bigger than the other! we danced all night, had a blast and when we came home, we went straight to sleep out of pure exhaustion from this amazing day!
This morning we drove home, and I was(and I am still) extremely tired. So after dropping Janina at the station I went straight home, had my lunch and a nap :)
I didnt take too many photos since I have thought a lot about how I dont want to experience everything through the lens of my camera, the ones I did snap will be uploaded once I am done editing and sorting them out (maybe tomorrow, maybe next week)
Day one:
While driving up there friday before noon, it was very hot! Both janina and I were wearing the most comfortable punjabi suits (Salwar-Kameez) so it didnt really matter. We talked all the way up there and had a great time. Half way there we made a halt at a dairy. We got the most amazing mango-lassi’s to drink, and we totally recharged for the remaining hour in the car...
Upon our arrival we were served the first of the many meals of the day. The moment we were done eating we went upstairs to change in to our festive clothes. (Janina and I looked fabulous in our sarees!) And we were off to serve food for the village! See, the family we were hosted by are in to a lot of socialwork for their village, and they had funded a giant food give-away, serving dinner for over 1000 villagers during a religious procession. So we helped hand out the meals for the locals! It was incredibly hot standing there in the sunny afternoon, but it was totally worth it! When we were about to leave, some villagers and the uncle who owns the bungalow we lived in came over and gave us a wool-shawl and a coconut each! We thanked them in hindi (Dhanyawaad/Shukhria)! :)
After serving the village we had gotten an invitation to go to a small farm half an hours driving away... When we came driving up the dirt road in the middle of the indian jungle, we came to a point where we couldnt drive any further. So we got out and walked in our fancy sarees and festive wear for the rest of the way, it wasnt that far, and since it was in the afternoon so the temperature was actually quite pleasant! When we came there we sat down on the porch of a small farmers house built in cow-dunk and sticks! We had energizing fresh coconutwater and ate an amazingly well prepared smoked fish-curry off freshly picked banana leaves! It was great!
I got a tour af the farm with one of the aunties. There were a bunch of banana-, mango-, sitaphal/custard apple- and guavatrees also coconut palmtrees, jasmin flowers, rice fields and the most amazing flower, an ethnic looking white lily, and it had the sweetest most enchanting smell I have ever experienced!!! We plucked some sitaphals and ate them while walking the fields and my host mom brought home a big bag of jasmin flowers that we were to use the next day!
When we came home we were to have dinner, but I wa soooo full from all the earlier meals that I only just tasted before I went to bed after an amazing, beautiful and very tiring day!
Day two:
We woke up at early (7 o’clock) and sat in the kitched drinking chai all morning while we were tying all the jasminflowers from yesterday onto strings that we could tie in our hair or offer to the god in the temple.
After lunch we all got in the car and drove through the sketchiest little jungle roads untill we arrived at the temple. We went inside, did prayers, got prasad (a couple of white sugar-balls some raisins and peanuts that you get in return for your worship) and then we went outside and fed the fish in the temple pond.
Then we walked down a small path and arrived at the beach (or as they spelled it in hindi: Beej)... The arabian sea was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life! We rode the most beautiful small horsewagon (actually it was pulled by donkeys) and enjoyed the beauty of nature! The sun was slowly setting and it was arund 6 o’clock. A camel was walking on the beach, Janina and I got a ride on this huge fantastic animal, feeling the rythm of its steps while wathing the sun go down over the indian ocean, the camel was named ‘beautiful’ in hindi and that was excactly what this day was, Beautiful!
Me and Janina really wanted to go all the way out to where the actual water was (the tide was low, so there was over 100 metres of sand we had to walk to get to the ocean). Auntie saw that the sun was about to set, and told us that we had 5 minutes and not more! So we pulled up our salwars and ran as fast as we could out to the beautiful ocean. The black sand mixed with the seawater drenched our pants, but nothing could ruin the magical moment when we reached the edge of the arabian sea! We just stood there for a moment next to eachother, enjoying the silence and seeing nothing but water and sand ! A guy came over and took a photo of us and our amazed and happy faces, and then we went to a small jugle resort to have an overwhelmingly great meal of chicken tikka kebabs, grilled kingprawns almost the size of my palm, fish curry and fried bombay duck (a fish only available in mumbai, with very small eatable bones and a fantastic taste!) before we went home to the bungalow!
But the day was not over yet! Tonight was the 2nd night of the nauraatri festival (it means ‘nine nights’) and you are supposed to dance every evening for 9 nights in a row! Earlier today a woman had come to our house to teach us some Garda (the traditional dance that everyone does when dancing on the streets) so we were all prepped and ready after changing out of our muddy suits!
So first we just went outside the gate and danced with the neighbours, then we got in the car and drove to a bunch of different places, one even bigger than the other! we danced all night, had a blast and when we came home, we went straight to sleep out of pure exhaustion from this amazing day!
This morning we drove home, and I was(and I am still) extremely tired. So after dropping Janina at the station I went straight home, had my lunch and a nap :)
I didnt take too many photos since I have thought a lot about how I dont want to experience everything through the lens of my camera, the ones I did snap will be uploaded once I am done editing and sorting them out (maybe tomorrow, maybe next week)
3 October 2010
A quarter of my exchange is done!
Everyone at home has now been asking for a new post for quite a whilenow. Im sorry for the long gaps between my updates but I must point out that before Im able to write amazing posts about all my new experiences, I actually have to experince them!
So much has happened since last time I made a blog-post, and I wont write about everything, because that would bore both me and my readers to death before i finish.
3 months has passed, and a quarter of my stay is now completed... Yesterday I got a mail informing me about my returnticket - I am leaving on the 7th of july, after 362 days in incredible India! I felt so surreal to be reminded that at one point this year will come to an end, I still remember the thrill of reading a mail wherein I was referred to as an Inbound instead of an outbound!
October has now come, and with it came overwhelming temperatures(yesterday we reached 39∘and today its even hotter!)... Its vital that I remember to bring my waterbottle everywhere I go, and I try to have fresh coconutwater on a daily basis.
A couple of days ago Janina, my good american friend, slept over at my place. We had spent the entire day shopping for fabric and dressmaterials, and my hostmom had taken us to this big wholesale place where we could get some amazing materials for our indian outfits - cause thats another thing I have to tell all of you! I am going to start wearing traditional indian clothes (salwar kameez and stuff like that) every monday, wednesday and friday(because those are the days I have my kathaklessons, and for the danceclasses one must wear traditional indian. It’s really a royal pain to be carrying all the clothes around all day until the lessons and indian clothes are soooo comfortable, so the easiest thing is just to wear it on a daily basis!)!
2 Days ago Rotex Bombay arranged a country celebration, 4 countries were subjects of the day and Denmark were one of them. Since 11 o’clock in the morning I had been at Aanchals place (indian girl who had gone on exchange to Denmark 5 years ago) and we had been baking a danish pastry called Kringle! It turned out perfect, and I totallyburned my tongue when I tried to eat a small piece the moment it had come out of the oven. It was good that we had baked the pastry, because that was just about all that we had to showcase for all the other in- and rebounds, Christian had brought a retro style football jersey from ‘88 and we played Nephew on the stereo!
And yesterday, Janina and I went to Oneza’s place and we baked pastry all day again! This time we tried to make Hindbærsnitter (?raspberry chops?) and again everything turned out great!
A lot more has happened in the last couple of weeks, but this is all I am giving you for now... I hope everything is going great back in little Denmark.
So long
Maria
So much has happened since last time I made a blog-post, and I wont write about everything, because that would bore both me and my readers to death before i finish.
3 months has passed, and a quarter of my stay is now completed... Yesterday I got a mail informing me about my returnticket - I am leaving on the 7th of july, after 362 days in incredible India! I felt so surreal to be reminded that at one point this year will come to an end, I still remember the thrill of reading a mail wherein I was referred to as an Inbound instead of an outbound!
October has now come, and with it came overwhelming temperatures(yesterday we reached 39∘and today its even hotter!)... Its vital that I remember to bring my waterbottle everywhere I go, and I try to have fresh coconutwater on a daily basis.
A couple of days ago Janina, my good american friend, slept over at my place. We had spent the entire day shopping for fabric and dressmaterials, and my hostmom had taken us to this big wholesale place where we could get some amazing materials for our indian outfits - cause thats another thing I have to tell all of you! I am going to start wearing traditional indian clothes (salwar kameez and stuff like that) every monday, wednesday and friday(because those are the days I have my kathaklessons, and for the danceclasses one must wear traditional indian. It’s really a royal pain to be carrying all the clothes around all day until the lessons and indian clothes are soooo comfortable, so the easiest thing is just to wear it on a daily basis!)!
2 Days ago Rotex Bombay arranged a country celebration, 4 countries were subjects of the day and Denmark were one of them. Since 11 o’clock in the morning I had been at Aanchals place (indian girl who had gone on exchange to Denmark 5 years ago) and we had been baking a danish pastry called Kringle! It turned out perfect, and I totallyburned my tongue when I tried to eat a small piece the moment it had come out of the oven. It was good that we had baked the pastry, because that was just about all that we had to showcase for all the other in- and rebounds, Christian had brought a retro style football jersey from ‘88 and we played Nephew on the stereo!
And yesterday, Janina and I went to Oneza’s place and we baked pastry all day again! This time we tried to make Hindbærsnitter (?raspberry chops?) and again everything turned out great!
A lot more has happened in the last couple of weeks, but this is all I am giving you for now... I hope everything is going great back in little Denmark.
So long
Maria
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