Indian folkdancing

Right above my hostfamily's apartment, there lives a gujerati family. The daughter is called Karishma, and she is a dancer... Last monday she took me along, her dancetroop (indian folkdancers) had the grand rehearsal before the big show tuesday night. They were great! Everyone were so nice, and I ws invited to come and see the big show the next day.



I went along with Karishmas parents and watched the show... Once again it was great! at least the dancing part was (I must admit that a guy speaking for hours in Gujerathi-language, isn't exactly my cup of tea)

Yesterday I went to the YMCA boys home (for streetchildren) and vocational training center... Augustinho Fernandes, a rotarian from my club were so nice to show us the place. I had been talking about it with Janina and Trevor, two other inbounds, and they were interested and came along!



These children (all boys in the age of 4-18 yrs) were so excited, at the first place, a boy danced for us, and we got a big group photo with all 25 boys. In the vocational training center, which houses 65 boys, the smallest ones started putting oil in their hair and coming it to look nice for our photos...




It was really great seeing what work the YMCA does for these children, and I think that all three of us were really keen on coming back to do some voluntary work...

Inbound orientation

Soo... Just a short post ... I went to the inbound orientation last sunday, so great to meet everybody! got to use my french a bit :) and made some friends: a couple of us (Severin and Caspar from Germany and Janina from New HApshire, USA) met up yesterday and went for lunch!

Yesterday I changed hostfamily for 8-10 days, now I live with Arun, Jyoti and Prajwal Chaudhari :) and the day before yesterday we made Chicken Biryani, I think thats my favourite indian dish so far!!! Today I went with Jyoti (hostmom) to the medical center where she works as a dentist. A nurse called Nilima showed me around, and I took some photos.

Next sunday Im having a couple of inbounds over for lunch at my host fam's place...

In a couple of hours we'll be going to my hostdad's sisters place, because her son has his birthday... I gotta get ready!


-Maria

News

So a short update:
Yesterday I took the train to Bandra to meet up with some in-, out- and rebounds. It was really nice to finally meet someone besides Christian and Neha... We went walking on Carter road and shot a bunch of pics with the indian and the danish flag (I dont have them, but once theyre on facebook they will somehow find their way to the blog :)) Then we went to mcDonalds for lunch (just needed somethin non-veg and non-indian)...

Then when I got home I had to go to the rotary meeting. My 3rd host mom came and told me that she'll pick me up monday around noon, and then Ill live with them for 8-10 days because thay cannot host me at the end of the year. A rotarian came over and invited me to come and see the YMCA-boyshome and vocational training - So ill probably go there in the upcoming week, I think it will be really interesting to see the work that is done for the street children...

Today is the inbound orientation, it will be great to meet all the inbounds (all14) in Mumbai !

-Maria

one 10th of my stay is now completed!

Now Im back again, we passed the first month, my host sis (Janhavi) has left India and gone to Denmark and I have gotten through my one-month-crisis (although; to call is a crisis might be to overstate it just a tiny bit)... I knew when coming here, that there would be more rules than I was used to in Denmark. But when I was not allowed to travel alone for 7 stations by train to meet with some other inbounds, outbounds and rebounds. I felt as though I was being treated like a kid. Luckily we sorted things out. My host mom took me to the station during peak hours to show me what it could be like. Seeing that, I were able to see that there might be some sense to their restrictions, and we made a deal that I could go if it was out of peak hours.


2nd class in the Ladies compartment during peak hours (7pm)

And yesterday I actually went, by train, alone, all the way to churchgate (a one hour journey) and then to my college to pick up another sigature needed for the FRRO registration (have lost all respect for anything that has anything to do with the bureaucracy that going on there)... And I met up with Stuti, one of Janhavis friends from the college. We went for ice cream, and she followed me to the station where i took the train to Goregaon and a rickshaw home.

Im busy!

Hi everybody whos reading my blog... Its been a while since my last post, but im just going to make a quick update.
Wednesday i was at lunch with my third host family, the Chaudari family, and rushed home for my kathak-lesson (fell very big and clumpsy, and im afraid Ill hit the fan with my hands, if I stretch them over my head!)... Thursday was pretty nice, the sun was shining (!finally!) Janhavi and I went to see eclipse (I have senn it in DK, but she really wanted to go). In the evening we went to dinner at my second host family, the Inamdars. They have a huge apartment, pretty new building and very modern decorated. Really liked talking to their daughter and niece(but she's going back to US in a week).

Today we went to the southside pretty early, and started out by going to the college to get some more papars for the FRRO registration (bureaucrazy !) ... Then we went to grab some lunch at Subway with Stuti, Alisha and Charmi(some of Janhavi's college friends)... After that Thea, a rebound who had gone to France, picked us up, we went for a coffee, and talked for a while :) Thats to be done again!

All for now
Maria

Rotary family-meeting

Last night we went to me second rotary meeting. It was "friendshipday" (didn't know what that was until yesterday, and the indians claimed it was a european thing!). And family-night at rotary!

All the rotarians had brought their children. The ladies had a sari-draping before the meeting (a pro sari-lady came, and showed all the different regional ways to drape a sari), Amazing experience. And all of the women had an opinion about how many times you had to fold the end, or if it was 1 or 1,5 times that you had to take the sari around the waist in a southindian wedding draping... The room was buzzing and it only got better when the waiter brought a big plate of pakoras!

then the time for the actual meeting occurred, and Because of family-day, it was filled with Games and people were singing and dancing... Amazing! It sure was different from what I have seen at the meetings in my home club...



Picture from the sari-draping

<3 Maria

Stuff...

Yesterday I spoke to my mother on Skype for the first time in three weeks. She told me that she had just recieved a letter saying that she is accepted at the University of Copenhagen at Psychology, so congrats to my cool mom (and credits to her for having the courage!)... I am also very curios to hear how its going at home, because today is the day that Erica (the american inbound) will arrive in Copenhagen to live with my family!

Back to India: I am getting sort of restless, really wish that college would start soon so I could meet some other people my age (beside Janhavi, Neha and Christian)... But its still nice to have a good amount of time to get used to everything!

The weather is still rainy, and i would like to see the sun sometime soon. Within the last three weeks I have lost every hint of a tan I had when I left Denmark (who would have thought I'd go pale in India?!)... Although I think that in October (one of the two hottest months in India) I'll look back at these days, wishing It could go back to being cloudy! :)




I still love it here, weather and all!
Take care <3
Maria

So yesterday (wednesday) I was supposed to have dinner with the Chaudari family (my 3rd host family), but the club president asked us all over for a small party. All of my host families and the presidents family was gathered, and had tons of food (I have noticed that I love the food, but I'm not too crazy about the sweets/desserts!)... overate Again, again! The president gave me a lovely rotary-mug. His family had gotten me a traditional indian dress in a nice green color.



Still enjoying... take care
:) Maria

One big binge!

I'll just start off by answering one question which i get all the time: I am extremely grateful that I (yet) have not experienced any 'stomach problems' caused by the indian spices!.. And its certainly not because I don't eat them: just last saturday I forgot to search my food for remaining chilies, and accidentally chewed half a small green chili (that doesn't make it any better, cause when it comes to chilies, the smaller and greener, the spicy'er!) and what did I then do? I drank almost a liter of iced water, and when that didn't help, I (on advice from Dadi) started eating the pastries we had baked the previous day, that finally helped, but I felt a slight but constant burn on my tongue for the next two days! ... What did that teach me? Danish pastry rocks! -even in India !

Well to get back to the main topic, my bingeing, I went to a dinner at my counsellors on sunday. My last host-family and a couple from rotary had also come, and all in all we were 14 people (one were an infant, but what the hell)... I think they must have been cooking for 20 hours or something like that, first we had massive amounts of starters, some deep fried vegetables wit green chutney, shallow fried fish, raw vegetables with dip, idli and I think that was about it... The main course consisted of a giant pot of vegetarian pasta, one kind of indian curry, two kinds of thai-curry (one veg and one non-veg), rice and homemade garlic-breads... For dessert we had this indian thing (i don't remember the name, but it was a deep fried dough dipped in sirup) had they put a but of raspberry jam inside, and rolled them in sugar instead, could i easily have been convinced that they were a small edition of what we in Denmark call "Berlinere"

bureaucracy and a pair of shorts.

So now I'm back in English.
Today we were very busy, left the house around 7.45 to avoid the worst traffic jams(not with much luck if you ask me!)... It was raining heavily all morning(and when I say heavily, I mean HEAVILY!!!). First we went to the danish consulate, no problems there.
The bureaucracy didn't start until we reached the police station. Hoping for the best, expecting the worst; we went into the station, The receptionist sent us to the 3rd floor where we had to wait for half an hour just to be informed of all the documents that were missing (apparently my passport, Visa, copies of both, guarantee form, school admissions, letter from Rotary, host families electric- and telephone bills, passport sized photo with red background and a perfectly filled out police form weren't enough!). But this receptionist wrote down my name, verifying that I had been there, and gave us till monday to get everything right, and then we could finally move on to the fun part of the day! :)

After this, Neha, Christian, Janhavi, uncle and I were all craving for some lunch, so we went for lunch in a small south indian restaurant (actually more like a cafeteria)... Great food!!! But you see: One car, 4 teenagers, one host father and a driver. How can that work? well, it can't really! But the smallest person (happens to be me) is to sit on top of the others. But when the smallest person (weight-wise) happens to be one of the biggest persons (height-wise) a problem occurs... This person (still me) has to bend her head more than what good is (consider that I under normal circumstances are just about 0,5 centimeters from touching the sealing with my head)... We drove to a mall wherein Christian were dragged around in all the girlie shops advising Neha and Janhavi about what would be fashionable in Denmark... I bought a nice pair of shorts (not that short though)...

Finally we went up to the food court and split two slices of pizza, 4 hot wings, a portion of fries and two sodas (all for Rs. 410 = 51,25 kr.)... And I owed christian Rs 100 from a bet we had last week, so he got himself a two scoop chocolate icecone :) and then he was happy!

mælk smager mærkeligt i Indien...

Okay jeg ved godt at jeg sagde at jeg ville skrive på engelsk, men indimellem må i altså finde jer i et par danske indlæg...


Jeg skulle her til morgen (for første gang i 10 dage) have lidt vesterlandsk morgenmad. Jeg glæder mig til mine cornflakes med mælk på, indtil jeg oplever at danskere og indere altså IKKE har den samme opfattelse af hvad mælk er: De får mælken ved at en doodh-walla (mælkemand) dagligt kommer på sin cykel med to mælkejunger som han så bærer op af trapperne i alle opgangene. Vil man have mælk kommer man ud med en skål han så fylder op... Men den her 'mælk' er så fed og klumpet et det for en minimælks-drikker som mig, virker som den rene fløde, hvilket ville være okay hvis man var forberedt på det; men nå man sidder klokken halv et, lige er stået op (og vælger en gang cornflakes fordi man ikke lige overskuer chili, karry, og alle de andre inden man har fået øjne) Så er det ikke lige det man helst vil ha...


Så vær på vagt hvis i har lyt til en skål havregryn, allbran, weetabix eller en hver form for müsli... you never know what you're gonna get !

rotary-meeting and more...

SO... Yesterday we were very busy.

Slept till 11 o'clock, had breakfast and then auntie, Janhavi and I we over to the place where I will be doing Yoga... I was shocked by the prices! (Rs 500 for one hour, 5 times a week for 3 months) And I felt bad just thinking about how much we had payed for our yoga class in Denmark.

After this, we went to meet the sir. who will be teaching these classes. Then we went and had a cup of south Indian coffee with some friends of auntie.

When we came home, we had one and a half hour to change into the clothes we wanted to wear to the rotary meeting. I, of course, wore my blazer... by the way, how come the danish RYE-symbol on the blazer sais: Danmark, Rotary Youth Exchange???

well... The rotary meeting was a lot different than the ones I have seen in Denmark, so many speakers with so many causes they all support. Im very happy that I have come to such an active club... We started out by having a light indian dinner, then the national anthem were sung and then the actual meeting had started... I gave a small improvised speech, telling everybody why I was here and how grateful I am to be here. I met all my host families and were invited to like a million dinners and lunches (Im not going to starve while Im here, thats for sure!)

Så skal der snakkes dansk

After my first week in Mumbai, I talked to Christian and Neha, and we decided to spend the day together. They came by bus all the way from Navi-Mumbai (1,5 hours) and Had lunch with me and my host family. Chistian and I were both very happy to speak some danish again, but since neither Neha, Janhavi or Juhi understood, they told us to come out of our little 'danish world', and so we did.

First we had planned to go to the cinema, but the movie we were planning to see had already started, so instead we went over to the gamezone and played videogames and other fun things all afternoon... Finally we had an Ice cream! great!

Before Christian and Neha caught a Rickshawdriver who actually knew where their busstop were, I made a small calculation, and found out that I had only spent about 65kr. all day !!! Oh my, I love India !

Mumbai trains and my college

So today Janhavi and uncle wanted to show me how I am supposed to travel by train. We went by rickshaw to the station and already then, it looked very crowded. But once we got into the ladies-compartment and sat down, it actually wasn't as bad as I had pictured. There were many people and lots of pushing, and it was nice to finally arrive at Churchgate... Then Janhavi and me walked to Jai hind college where we were to take my admissions, but it had just opened today, and the madam said that the 11th grade (in wich I will be going) didn't start untill the 20th of august, so I have plenty of tim to chill and get to know the city...

One thing that worries me, is the lack of aircon at the college... It was extremely hot, and I was sweating like a pig all the time we were in there, wonder if ill ever get used to the temperatures ?!

The janhavi and I met up with uncle, and we went to the waterfront, nice view! We all had coconut-water in the roadside, it was really refreshing in the otherwise exhausting heat (a man took a fresh, green coconut, cut a hole in the top, and put in a straw. So delicious!)

We went for some great wok-food and then home just in time for pakoras, popped rice and masala tea !

Incredible India

It sure is !

Me and christian travelled all day, and finally we arrived (1 hour later than scheduled) at Mumbai airport. MAny people had come to welcome us to India, and a lot of photos were taken... I was soon in the car with both my host sisters and my host dad. As soon as we opened the door to their apartment a chain of flowers were put around my neck, and I felt very welcome. Got some diner and went to bed.

Now we are all awake, Im unpacked and I must say, it feels great to finally be here :)

I have to go eat lunch now.

PS: Theres cows outside my window, how cool is that!?

One day in Denmark

Hi everybody... This is only going to be a short status.. I am leaving Denmark tomorrow, and theres still at least a billion things left to do. I was wondering as to weather the State Bank of India would accept my visa electron or I ought to bring travelers checks. So I found there number and called them up. I got to talk to a man who's english weren't at the top of the class, but I asked my question and (I think) got the answer that it was indeed possible...

Ill get back to packing, and the next you'll hear from me, will hopefully be from India...

A new beginning

The holidays have kicked in, and I am very relaxed... Theres 5 days left in Denmark before I take off for India. Im so excited, and have my doubts to weather or not I'm able to wait until friday.

Got home from the departure-briefing yesterday, and I feel ready to go. I have a that a lot of the other outbounds from Denmark will be following my every step on facebook for the first couple of weeks (most of them wont leave Denmark until august).

10 days ago I went shopping with Joanna, and I bought all the presents Im going to need in India (and more)... I wont reveal what I bought, because my host families and counsellors might be reading this...

All in all, I just cat wait!

Tale i klubben og sprogskift på bloggen !

Jeg vil bare lige oplyse om at jeg fra nu af kommer til at skrive indlæggene til bloggen på engelsk så Indere også kan følge med... Så find ordbøgerne frem, hvis fremmedsprog ikke er jeres stærke side ! :)

Var forresten til møde i min Rotaryklub: Kongens Lyngby imorge, hvor jeg holdt et lille oplæg på 10 min. om min kommende tur, det gik fremragende! Nu tæller jeg bare dagene til afrejsen... 16 tilbage ...

John Denver - Leaving on a Jet Plane

Visum, flybillet og afskedsfest

Nu er der 21 dage til afgang. Jeg snakker jævnligt med Juhi og Janhavi (mine værtssøstre) og det indiske par der lærte mig hindi er nu taget til Indien.

Jeg har modtaget mit visum (godt med glitter)og har travlt med at planlægge den afskedsfest som vi holder iaften.

I forgårs snakkede jeg i laang tid med Janhavi og hendes mor Shaila. De er rigtig søde (lidt svært at forstå deres engelsk på en i forvejen skrettende forbindelse via Skype)og de fortalte mig, at jeg kommer til at have ca. en time til skole via "Mumbai train"... Det er lang tid !

Den sidste eksamen er overstået, og nu venter man bare på dimmisionen i næste uge.

Rotary blazeren hænger på min gine, stort set hele værelset er pakket ned i flyttekasserne som vi købte i Silvan forleden, flybiletten kom igår, visum blev hentet fra den indiske ambassade i mandags, hele mit medicinarsenal (der er mod alt fra malaria til racermave) er i hus og om ni timer ankommer gæsterne til min farvelfest...

36 dage tilbage... det kommer tæt på

så .. nu skal der ansøges om visum.. skal afsted om lidt over en måned. På fredag har jeg min sidste arbejdsdag i grandteateret. Har også læseFERIE..

Nu vil jeg gerne snart afsted, for selvom man godt kan mærke at sommeren er på vej her i Danmark, så går man ind og ser at der er mellem 25 og 32 grader i Mumbai... Godt nok er det regntid dernede med 559mm vand i denne måned! ''

Har haft mine sidste hindi-timer.. .og er så småt igang med at lære at læse :) Det er faktisk mere logisk end man skulle tro...

Alle de mange indere, hidi undervisning og forældrebriefing...

Nå.... Nu er det ved at være noget tid siden jeg sidst har skrevet et indlæg, så her kommer seneste nyt på rejsefronten:

først og fremmest har jeg fået mig en afrejsedato... d.9. juli (min lillebrors føs'dag) klokken 5.30 skal jeg være i lufthavnen. Jeg skal flyve til München, være der i 3-4 timer og så videre mod Mumbai lufthavn... Mig og den éne dreng fra Ringsted skal vist nok følges ad. Vi bliver de aller første i hele Rotary-Danmark der skal afsted. og: My God! hvor jeg glæder mig ...

Derudover har jeg fået Hindi undervisning af S-togs inderne... Mera naam mariya. Ap ka naam kya hei? Meri Hindi kucch khaas nahi hei...Chinta mat karoo! :) bare lige en smule blær!

Endnu en inder er min ven på facebook... og jeg er forvandlet til en online sprogportal... Hvor mange gange har jeg laaangsomt udtalt 'hvad hedder du? Jeg hedder Maria' højt og ty-de-ligt over skype? jeg har ikke tal på det, men der er FOR mange gange! ... But its fun...


Og hvad mere? Nårh jo, vi fik et brev der sagde at vi skulle have en amerikaner ved navn Erica boende hos os i de første 3 måneder efter jeg er taget afsted... Hende taler vi allesammen meget med, også over skype of Fjæsbogen...


Så var mine forældre og jeg til forældrebriefing (sjovt nok!) her i søndags. Selvom jeg vidste det meste i forvejen var det bare super skøønt at få NOGET at vide, og da jeg så min afrejsedato oppe på storskærmen kildede det da også heelt viildt i maven... og så fik jeg spist masser af chocoladekage!

det var det for denne gang, nu er der kun 88 dage til afrejse. Og nedtællingen ræser afsted...

Første værtsfamilie afsløret, en hinditime udført og laaang samtale med indisk pige der skal til Danmark...

Igår havde jeg besøg fra de indere jeg opsøgte i s-toget i sidste uge... Raja Belgudri og hans kone... hvor var de bare søde (og små) de var så venlige, og vil lave et intensivt Hindi/Marathi-kursus for mig iløbet af de næste 6 uger... Allerede på fredag skal jeg ud til første sprogtime, og søndag skal jeg hjem til dem og have en 'rigtig' indisk morgenmad (og et lille shot hindi).

Smriti, min host-counsellor, satte mig i forbindelse med Janhavi Vyas. Hun er en rigtig sød indisk pige som bor i Mumbai og skal til Danmark her til sommer... Hun fortalte, at Smriti har sagt, at jeg skal bo hos Janhavi's familie når jeg er i Indien... Hvor er det fredt, for hun var bare så rar at snbakke med, tror vi chattede i 3 timer :D

Hun fortalte at der i de indiske skoler er mkring 50-100 elever, lærerne skal kaldes for sir, ms eller mrs. og sidst men ikke mindst:

Skoleuniformer ... Jeg ved atså ikke hvordan det skal gå mig! (dog sagde hun at der på nogle skoler fandtes en 'casual friday' hvor man må have sit eget tøj på)... 

International food day og tilfældige indere i S-toget

Jeg skulle til international food day med alle de andre outbounds... Jeg havde (helt selv) lavet samosa og tomatchutney. og det smagte vildt godt... Der var tonsvis af lækker mad, men alt mit blev spist op (ikke for at blære mig, men det smagte altså frådern)...

Det var rigtig hyggeligt at se alle igen. Jeg fulgtes fra buddinge station sammen med Helena, som også har gået på min skole. Men derudover er det mest Lise og Jasmin, som jeg er sammen med... Men ALLE er bare så rare, og vi snakker alle sammen om hvor meget det kribler og krabler i maven når vi tænker på næste år... DET BLIVER FOR VILDT ! ! !

Men på vej hjem i toget sad jeg igen sammen med Helena, og vi sad og snakkede om hvilke sprog vi skulle igang med at lære, hun var allerede igang med spansk, det lærer hun af sin mor det taler det flydende. Jeg sagde noget om hvor meget jeg var på spanden, da det er så godt som umuligt at finde en hindi/marathi - lærer i Glaadsaxe : D I samme øjeblik kom en indisk dame med kasteprik, sari og hele molevitten ind af døren til cupéen... først tænkte jeg ikke over det, og jeg snakkede videre med Helena, men inderen satte sig bag mig og rykkede helt ind til vinduet så jeg kunne se hendes spejlbillede i glasvæggen

Jeg vendte mig om og spurgte om hun kom fra indien, "Ja", jeg spurgte hvorfra; "Mumbai", jeg spurgte om hun talte marathi, det gjorde hun, hun talte også hindi. Så jeg spurgte om hun måske ville lære mig lidt. og så tog hun mig og Helena med ud til hendes mand der sad ved cyklerne, og han arbejdede i novo og sagde at de boede lige ved buddinge station...

Inderen ville meget gerne lære mig noget af sit sprog, hvis jeg ville lære ham lidt dansk... Så jeg fik hans mail og telefonnummer, og skal kontakte min kommende hindi-lærer iaften... Det bliver spændende!

Har kontakt med min Counsellor på Face

For noget tid siden gik jeg ind på Databasen og kunne konstatere at der endelig var skrevet noget i feltet med 'Host District'... 

Distrikt 3140 i Indien er det område jeg kommer til at tilbringe et helt år af mit livi, en forstad til Mumbai i delstaten Maharashtra. Jeg googlede det, og det er lige ved den røde cirkel på kortet til venstre...

Sammen med distiktet kom der også et navn på pladsen ved 'host counsellor' : Smirti Gulwady, en dame fra Thane Hills Rotary-Club, og jeg ansøgte hende på Facebook...