An exchangestudents memories of India

This video is in Danish, i made it for my rotary presentation upon my return to Denmark. It shows the many wonderful sides of being an exchangestudent, and i hope  you'll like it :)

Song: Saude Baazi - from the bollywood movie Aakrosh. 

Translation of the video:

India - By: Maria Kortenbach

Copenhagen --> Mumbai

A year on Exchange means...

... That you take a leap into the deep waters ...

... Everything is different... Everything is new!

The families

The homes

The friends

The school

.. and the friends from there

The gods

Different celebrations

The surroundings

The nature

The street-picture

Overwhelming 

But i love it!

So what does an exchange student do?

Learn new languages

Mein hindi sikh rahi hoon (im learning hindi - in hindi)

Get in the newspaper

Dance, 

on national Television!

You taste new food

... And delicacies from the street 

and you get to see where it all comes from

You take part in the festivities

 - The victories!

You learn to get around by new modes of transportation

Even something as normal as the train - 

Gets a new meaning in Mumbai!

You get around

 - see it all

Exchangestudents take new paths...

Explore new art forms

.. and foreign treasures

 - Cultural treasures

Worrying...

Today i found out that there had been 3 bombblasts in Mumbai; the crowded Dadar, Operahouse and Zaveri bazaar... So far 21 dead and around 130 injured. I dont have any news from my hostfamilies and im worried out of my mind. I cant even begin to imagine how anyone could ever do anything like that... Terrorism is pointless and rediculous and i hate it more than anything. Now i cant do anything but pray that everyone i know are ok.

Back home.

I've been in Denmark the past 26 hrs. Its weird to be back home again - you see your country with prom a new perspective. Denmark is so neat and clean - and quite empty! There's hardly anyone on the streets or anywhere else for that matter... But as much as i miss Mumbai and the people there, it's still really nice to be at home.

My parents, grandmother and my best friends picked me up in the airport, we drove home and had brunch, and during the day a lot of people stopped by to greet me welcome. The bags that didn't make the connecting flight from Munich reached only 8 hrs after i had gotten home and all my luggage were then delivered to my home by courier and by 7pm i could hand out all my many presents to family and friends...


Good to be back. Odd. But good!

Last goodbyes

In one and a half hours i'll be off to the airport, im both excited and sad. I'm (finally) done with my packing and have minimized my overweight as much as possible. All day today people have been stopping by to say the last goodbyes. Its an odd feeling and what i really want now is just to jump on the plane and be home.

I cant wait to see everyone in Denmark again! So thanks for an amazing year - India has been kind to me. But now it's time to go home.

Thats all for now, next post will be from Denmark.

- Maria

50-something hours 'till departure.

Today its thursday, saturday evening Christian and i will one again be bording a flight, this time going the other way. I'll be leaving India and coming back to Denmark. Im really feeling torn, I've become very attached to Mumbai and the families and friends i have made here. On the other hand, im really excited to go home... I never before knew that it was possible to feel so strongly about to complete opposite things at one time!

I've started finishing up everything here, everyday im going for goodbye-lunches or -dinners and i just took my power yoga exam yesterday - I am now a yoga teacher, graduated with a 96% (A++). Im really happy with that! Also in the orphanage where Marion, Clemence and i have been volunteering as english and french teachers for the past month we are giving the last lesson to the girls tomorrow. My district chairman, Ramon Abrol, had all the remaining inbounds over to his house for a farewell-lunch and we were all just enjoying ourselves, looking at each others blazers and eating pizza and paneer.

१६ दिन ! 16 days !

In the beginning you look at the calender and a year feels like forever, the months doesn't really matter - 1-2-3-...9-10 and all of a sudden its weeks i'm counting. Then those pass too, and suddenly its a matter of days! 16 of them to be exact. Its odd, i went into this thinking that a year would be such a long time - but time flies by quicker than you can imagine, and now it has been 10 months and 9 days since i arrived in Chattrapathi Shivaji International Airport of Mumbai. And theres only 16 days until i hop on an airplane back to Copenhagen...

मैं भारत अच्छा पसन्द हुँ l फिर मिल्ते हैं - ZARUR!



Maria

Photo safari in Bombay

Mumbai might not be the prettiest, cleanest, most lovely or the richest city seen with a conventional set of eyes. But after living here for almost a year - I know where to look to see the beauty of this vibrant city. I have learned how to look into the trains and see the ocean of colours that can't do anything but make you smile, stand in the doorway of the same train and watch how the most amazing picturesque scenes float by - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - And where most people (even me in the beginnig) would just see all the garbage, pollution, dirt and poverty, i now look past all that and see a lovely beautiful city filled with warm, open and always friendly Mumbaikars (the people of Mumbai).

I wanted to capture my view. And share my Mumbai with everyone, so i took my Nikon with me and started shooting...


Marking of the 2nd class ladies compartment on the Western Railway in Mumbai.


Passengers in the ladies compartment waiting to get off the train at Andheri.


Elphinstone Road, a South bombay stop on the Western railway.


Slum-area at Mahim Junction seen from the train tracks.


Old women sitting in the 2nd class ladies compartment in an afternoon Churchgate-Borivali train


Mango stand on MG road in Goregaon


Two ladies crossing the street in the MG road - SV road crossing in Goregaon.


Street food. Pani Puri stand outside inorbit mall.


Rickshaw-meter.


Me having a (much needed) cold coffee in Colaba after a long day!

Being an Exchange Student in India

A fellow exchangee in Mumbai, Trevor Hlynski from Canada, made this wonderful video. It really provides an amazingly precise picture of the exchange student life in Mumbai - India!

मराठी बाणा (Marathi Bana)

On friday the 15th, my rotary club (RC of Mumbai West Coast) was hosting a fundraiser for 5 villages they adopted in Karjat and two other places. They were having a huge dance/play set up - मराठी बाणा - a quite famous musical showing the best of maharashtran culture. More than 150 artists were on stage and it was a marvelous show! Riina, Finland, and Beatriz, Brazil, had come with me and my family there, and we were all dressed up in saris (not the traditional maharashtran 9-yard saris though) and I wore my new Indian jewelry. We really enjoyed the show the dancing and singing was good - but the long monologues in marathi weren't exactly easy to comprehend. In the intermission we had a billion samosas - yum!


A great evening, and a lot of money were collected - for a very good cause!

One month and 26 days...

Now we're almost halfway through april, and i'm returning to Denmark on the 5th of june. I feel really weird about it... On one hand i'm really excited to go back to my friends and family and returning to my "normal" life. On the other hand i still feel like i belong in Mumbai, it's an odd feeling and it didn't really come before sometime in december, but now i actually feel like a part of this city, i'm not like an alien on a strange planet anymore - this is my home too!

My friends here are the best! and it's very hard to imagine that one of them, Beatriz, is going back to Brazil in only one month. It really made me realize how it's all coming to an end, and frankly i don't like that thought!

It's funny actually, in the beginning, the first two months especially, i felt like time was passing in slow motion and i really thought that a year would feel like a lifetime. Let's just say it snuck up on me. This morning i woke up and almost started panicking because i started thinking of this wonderful and fantastic year coming to an end.

Dont get me wrong, i miss my danish family and my danish friends and i am so excited to see them all again. My friends here, Riina and Beatriz especially, i hope to stay in touch with for the rest of my life. I want the magic of this year to continue forever.

Deep down i know that you cannot "have your cake and eat it too". But i really wish i could!

India win the world cup

Cricket Fever!

The 2011 Cricket World Cup was held in India! My interest in cricket didn't really start before the semifinals India-Pakistan (These two are sworn enemies!) It wasn't just a cricket game, it was a battle of honor !!! To most indians, it would be more important to win this game than to win the final.



Beatriz (Brasil) and Riina (Finland) had come to my place on tuesday to watch the game on the big screen that had been put up in my society. We had a popcorn machine, a sandwich maker and a guy making bhel (a typical street food). They were all geared to sit there from 2.30 pm. when the match began till around midnight when it would get over! Us girls had so much fun, we watched the first half hour of the game and then we went upstairs and made nachos with my host mom. We were just talking and talking and talking, then we ate some mango ice cream and talked some more. Then we went down and watched the last two hours of the game. India won! (of course)! And we went to Barista in Lokhandwala to celebrate with my host mom and some of the neighbors. It was crazy in Lokhandwala! People were dancing on the cars and on the streets, waving the indian flag and screaming from the top of their lungs! There was an awesome vibe and everyone was happy!



Then a couple days went by and it was saturday, the day of the final! India would be meeting Sri Lanka on the field! It was a tough fight and a many point of the match it looked as if Sri Lanka was about to win... But ultimately Dhoni hit a 6 and India won!
Everyone was jumping up and down, and the city was in euphoria! It was awesome. We went out driving and I hijacked an indian flag from to guys on a bike. So we were waving the flag screaming and driving around the suburbs which had all turned in to one big party! Finally we went back after 3 am. and I still (two days later) dont have any voice! AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Holi !

Ill take a small break from writing about the North trip (/there will be more, don't worry) and tell about the wonderful festival i was lucky enough to experience yesterday. Now it is harvest time in India and with that comes the festival of colors! People gather on the streets and in the societies and play with water and color-powder. Its so much fun.! The night before there is held a big bonfire in the villages and in the building societies. They do pooja (De tilbeder ilden og beder for et gunstigt udbytte) to the fire and roast coconuts! Then on the actual day of holi (which was yesterday) I went to a big holi party along with a bunch of other exchangestudents and around 100 other people everyone was in crisp clean white shirts that would soon be ruined by the fun games involving gulal (the colorful powders used everywhere on this day). We would mix it in a bit of water and splash it all over each other! We had a blast!

Before & After

Its also a tradition on this day that you do Bhang, an indian 'drug' put in a sweet milk drink called Thandai and gets you high for days! Of course we didnt do that. But walking on the road you would see so many people obviously under the influence of something (if it was alcohol or Bhang - ill never know, but it sure was fun to watch! )

Even the dog on mahalaxmi station had been playing holi!

North India - Jaisalmer and the desert!

Jaisalmer, still in Rajasthan, was the third city on our journey through the North. Even though we had seen a billion things already we were still equally exited about the new place. The busride from Jodhpur had been exhausting, sightseeing in the morning followed by 8 hours in a bus. And we didn't have time for a lot of stops like earlier because we had to reach our destination before the night with its darkness and danger of highway robberies arrived.

We did have time for one stop on the way - the sand dunes in the desert! As the sun was about to set we passed a couple of wonderfully untouched sand dunes in the middle of nowhere! We managed to convince Mithun, our travelguide, that we needed to stretch our legs, and that there were no better place than here.














In jaisalmer we had a nice hotel but most of us were to tired to do anything else that sleep in the evening. But the next morning we again got up early because our sightseeing program was packed! We started out at an artificial lake that was made to provide clean drinkingwater to the people of Jaisalmer.

There was A LOT of catfish in that lake, and when you threw out a bit of bread they would be lying so close in the water that it looked like it was only fish and no water!




In Jaisalmer We went inside the city fort, And inthere we entered a couple of jain temples. They were small but beautiful, and while we were in there a small group of nuns (or whatever the hindu-ones are called).




We had a lot of fun taking amazing photos in those wonderful settings. Like a dream!


















After all of this we took the bus a ouple of hours outside Jaisalmer to our new hotel - a desert hotel - all the 'rooms' were actually tents and in the afternoon we went for a desert safari riding camels. It was awesome even though it was pouring down from above. I was on the camel with Riina and we had so much fun!!! In the evening we had a traditional dinner and danced with unaks (men dressed like women) All in all a great day!

North India - Jodhpur (the blue city)

The second stop on our trip was Jodhpur. In Rajasthan it's like every city has a fort and a palace and endless amounts of french tourists. They we're everywhere and our group contributed with 3 of them!





On the way from Udaipur to Jodhpur (a VERY long bus ride of almost 9 hours) we made a stop to see a Jain Temple. It was amazing! One of the most beautiful temples I've seen so far, It was massive and all made in sandstone.




When we actually reached Jodhpur, we were exhausted from all the traveling and we just had dinner and then we enjoyed the evening. The next morning we got up rather early to finish all the Jodhpur-sightseeing before noon when we had to move again.










This used to be the Maharaja's bedroom! Notice the mirrors everywhere, imagine having decorations like that in your own bedroom, or even having one of that size!


On the right you see the outside decorations of this fort, all handmade a long long time ago.








On the left is a picture of one of the many saddles for the elephants which the Maharaja, and his family, were using. See the fort is now working as a museum, and all of these royal items (which actually once upon a time was in use!) are displayed.






Of course we went to the city fort and from there we could see all of jodhpur - also called 'the blue city' because of its many blue buildings. They belong to the Saddhu's (holy men) who paint their houses red in sympathy with

And we also saw a temple raised by the former Maharani (queen) of Jodhpur in honour of her husband the Maharaja. It was pretty and the garden was very pleasant.

North India - Udaipur

Udaiur was the first stop on our 18-days long NorthIndia trip. We went to the city palace and saw the hotel whereat the bond movie octopussy was shot! It was a good day, everyone was still fresh and up for a lot of sightseeing!



On the left - A guy selling Bhel, on the street. A delicious snack characteristic of north India, but very much available in Mumbai also.

Down - All the students in front of a wall painting on the city palace.



Down- Location of Octopussy, the Bond movie ;)




Udaipur was a nice city and a perfect start for a wonderful trip.