Im currently writitng from Jaipur, Rajasthan. We are on the 4th or 5th day (lost track of time the moment we sat in the train from Mumbai) and have already seen enough stuff to make a billion blogposts! We started out in Udaipur, moved on to Jaipur and further on to Jaisalmer and the next day right back to Jaipur. The Culture is so dominant (in a good way) and its very obvious how proud of their background that these marwadi people are. The monument are Amazibng, and Yesterday we slept in tents in the middle of the desert after riding by camel out to the beautiful sand dunes, unluckily it started pouring down (In the desert!?!) and we were all drenched and smelled like wet camel by the time we returned ... Thats all for now. I'll update again in a couple of days or whenever ill be able to get to a computer.
Maria
26 February 2011
18 February 2011
Im actually active :O
For those of you who knew before I left Denmark, you know how inactive, lazy and bad at sports I am. But after 8 months and 7kg's (OMG!) in India, I decided to do something... I had been regularly going to my yogaclasses at the institute in Santacruz, and I think that is the main reason why I haven't gained more than 7 kilos, but still I felt like I didn't do enough! So when I moved back in with my first host family (now for the third time - yes, my hostfamily history is a complete mess, I've been moving back and forwards a gazillion times) I was talking to my hostmom, Shaila, and She came up with the idea of doing poweryoga. So she took me to her gym and got me signed up and all (on my first day back in their house!!!) and the next day I was there at 7.30 a.m. to do poweryoga, a tougher kind of yoga - the western interpretation of the indian Astanga Yoga - Basically its more of movements and it really builds your muscles while working on flexibility and cardio at the same time... Now that Im a member of the gym I also decided to try out some of the other lessons, so when I saw that they also had aerobics I was so excited, I was imagining a room full of indian 'Jane Fonda's' jumping around to the sound of the loud tecno music that is always playing in this gym. So I went there and took part in one of the classes and it was hilarious! I relly enjoyed it, it didn't feel like working out at all, it was just like dancing around, but the sore muscles afterwards were the proof of the intense workout I had done without even noticing! And about the other participants - there was a couple of ladies in leggings, and one of them actually was wearing legwarmers - It was just great! So now Im active, Im doing somehting to try and shed some of the added weight before I go home - though its difficult to try to hard now that im back in the Marwadi family, everyone knows how fond of Ghee and Mithai these poeple are, I had been here for 2 days before we made Pakoras (fried onions and fried lentils served with chutney and ketchup) and I love those so much, so I guess loosing weight might be too much to ask for, but atleast getting back into shape a bit, and aim to atleast not gain any more before my return - I think that is what ought to be my goal... At least Im doing 'something'...
15 February 2011
Dalchini (!?)
I had gone to Kandivali to sleep over at Riina's house (Riina is an exchangestudent from Finland - for those who might not now...)
We went to 'more!', a small supermarket to buy the ingredients for the cake we wanted to bake. We got all our ingredients but we couldn't find the cinnamon. We asked the lady in the counter, and she was like yes yes (still sitting there). Once again I asked her "Where is the cinnamon?" and her answer was, again, "yes yes" (!?) - she, like many working class indians, didn't speak english! so Riina and I tried, without succes, to explain, in hindi, what cinnamon was... After a little while a female costumer walks in, and I ask her how to say cinnamon in hindi, she then ask the girl who worked there "Elaichi kahaa hein?". Now i just happen to know, don't ask me why, that Elaichi means cardamom, so I tried to explain to the lady that cinnamon is the one commonly used in desserts, is a kind of dried bark, not the same at cardamom, and finally she looks as if she understand, the lady ask for dalchini. I think, NOOOO (!) dal means lentalsoup!!!... But luckily the lady was right! cinnamon in hindi is Dalchini - yet another word added to my hindi vocabulary. Practical lessons everyday - the world is my college!
We went to 'more!', a small supermarket to buy the ingredients for the cake we wanted to bake. We got all our ingredients but we couldn't find the cinnamon. We asked the lady in the counter, and she was like yes yes (still sitting there). Once again I asked her "Where is the cinnamon?" and her answer was, again, "yes yes" (!?) - she, like many working class indians, didn't speak english! so Riina and I tried, without succes, to explain, in hindi, what cinnamon was... After a little while a female costumer walks in, and I ask her how to say cinnamon in hindi, she then ask the girl who worked there "Elaichi kahaa hein?". Now i just happen to know, don't ask me why, that Elaichi means cardamom, so I tried to explain to the lady that cinnamon is the one commonly used in desserts, is a kind of dried bark, not the same at cardamom, and finally she looks as if she understand, the lady ask for dalchini. I think, NOOOO (!) dal means lentalsoup!!!... But luckily the lady was right! cinnamon in hindi is Dalchini - yet another word added to my hindi vocabulary. Practical lessons everyday - the world is my college!
13 February 2011
I would like to start off by saying sorry. It has been more than a month since my last blogpost, and its really a shame because I have experienced so much in the last 4 weeks! But a couple of days ago I read somewhere that the more you experience and enjoy the less time you have to post stuff on your blog and Facebook (cant stop Facebook though - Im kinda addicted!). So just take it as a great sign - no news is good news - as the old danish saying goes.
And I can (for once) actually say that during january I was very busy! Every afternoon all us inbounds of district 3140 would meet at the Rotary Service Centre in Juhu for dance practice before the big district conference. We were performing 3 dances; maharashtran Koli dance, the Bamboo dance from Nagaland and a Bollywood dance to the song Jor ka Jathka - I was a part of the two traditional performances (the two first). We worked long and hard, and getting through all the practices was quite the roller coaster ride, but we got through it, and the outcome was fantastic!
The DISCON went smooth, the costumes were amazing and on top of it all, we were offered to come dance on television - a show called Dhina Dhin Dha on the channel Doordarshan. We also had a very fun day at the studios shooting the show, and we all very much enjoyed getting our makeup done and our saris pinned up by pro's!
In january another big thing happened for me - I had a visit from Denmark! My parent and my younger brother had come to visit me and see the city which i have grown such a liking to... On their first day here I took them by local trains, and it was so exciting to see how they reacted to everything exactly like i used to do in my first couple of weeks here. It was a bit stressful being a local tour guide showing them around in the morning, then rushing to Juhu in the afternoon for my daily dance practise and taking them for countless dinners every evening (club president, all host families, host counsellor, district counsellor and so on...) but I really enjoyed having them around! And when we jumped on an airplane headed to Goa all was forgotten and the ultimate state of relaxation took over again. I really loved having them here, and I must admit that saying goodbye at the airport was difficult, but it was worth it!
Cows on a goan beach
My hostmom was so great! She took us to the Pagoda and even went with us to the Crawford market because my parents was loving the indian food and wanted to bring home spices.
Then in february I, along with 5 oher exchangestudents, went to a corporate ryla organised by Rotaryclub of Deonar. It was held at Alibaug beach. It was a great experience, and very well organised. We had to drive for 3 hours in a bus to get there and I must admit that I was kinda bummed out when I found out that it was only 12 minutes by ferry from gateway of India...The food wasn't exactly the best I've had during my stay, so I got through mainly by chapati's, chai and my favourite biscuit Parle-G... I was the COO of my group (kinda like deputy ceo or something like that) and I won the award for best coo and on top of that I was the runner up - one vote from winning - the title of miss popular of the ryla-camp! It was a good experience, infinately better than the first ryla I attended!
Me and my group presenting our marketing pitch at the Ryla
And I can (for once) actually say that during january I was very busy! Every afternoon all us inbounds of district 3140 would meet at the Rotary Service Centre in Juhu for dance practice before the big district conference. We were performing 3 dances; maharashtran Koli dance, the Bamboo dance from Nagaland and a Bollywood dance to the song Jor ka Jathka - I was a part of the two traditional performances (the two first). We worked long and hard, and getting through all the practices was quite the roller coaster ride, but we got through it, and the outcome was fantastic!
The DISCON went smooth, the costumes were amazing and on top of it all, we were offered to come dance on television - a show called Dhina Dhin Dha on the channel Doordarshan. We also had a very fun day at the studios shooting the show, and we all very much enjoyed getting our makeup done and our saris pinned up by pro's!
In january another big thing happened for me - I had a visit from Denmark! My parent and my younger brother had come to visit me and see the city which i have grown such a liking to... On their first day here I took them by local trains, and it was so exciting to see how they reacted to everything exactly like i used to do in my first couple of weeks here. It was a bit stressful being a local tour guide showing them around in the morning, then rushing to Juhu in the afternoon for my daily dance practise and taking them for countless dinners every evening (club president, all host families, host counsellor, district counsellor and so on...) but I really enjoyed having them around! And when we jumped on an airplane headed to Goa all was forgotten and the ultimate state of relaxation took over again. I really loved having them here, and I must admit that saying goodbye at the airport was difficult, but it was worth it!
Cows on a goan beach
My hostmom was so great! She took us to the Pagoda and even went with us to the Crawford market because my parents was loving the indian food and wanted to bring home spices.
Then in february I, along with 5 oher exchangestudents, went to a corporate ryla organised by Rotaryclub of Deonar. It was held at Alibaug beach. It was a great experience, and very well organised. We had to drive for 3 hours in a bus to get there and I must admit that I was kinda bummed out when I found out that it was only 12 minutes by ferry from gateway of India...The food wasn't exactly the best I've had during my stay, so I got through mainly by chapati's, chai and my favourite biscuit Parle-G... I was the COO of my group (kinda like deputy ceo or something like that) and I won the award for best coo and on top of that I was the runner up - one vote from winning - the title of miss popular of the ryla-camp! It was a good experience, infinately better than the first ryla I attended!
Me and my group presenting our marketing pitch at the Ryla
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