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

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 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

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)