And the days grow shorter

No, not some weird reverse effect of global warming. I know the days are getting longer but I feel like an eclipse is setting in. I have now eighteen days left in my house. Like i said in my last post, summer has set in, so during the day it's +100, usually +110. I have been watching a lot of movies and doing quite a bit of writing.
I find myself feeling like I did before I left. The days seem to go by slowly, but my time flies by.

Since I have been back I have attended a Catholic church and went to the Dragon Temple, a Zen Buddhist temple donated by the princess of Japan. That was pretty funny, I have not been to church in years and the first place I go to one, is in India. The church was, well a church. The inside was painted bright blue which was a little unexpected, but hey I am no source on the interior of churches. Sometime this week I am going to a mosque during prayer time which should be really cool, but we are still checking out if it is okay.

Almost all of my gift shopping is complete, I just need to get one more thing, but there is another list I still have to write. I need to learn to cook, both Indian and western food, and I need materials to do so. And I am a little worried that when I get back, college food will be a little bland d:

I will keep you guys updated on my last few days.
-Adam

North Tour and 4 More Weeks in Bharat

This is how I feel right now realizing that in 28 days I will be back in America. My exchange rocketed by much faster than I thought it would. Surprise surprise. I was talking with Rozina and Shamsu about my first day here and it could not help but ask "How was that all the way back in August?" I think everyone (my fellow exchangers I mean) will experience that once their trip comes close to an end.

Toh... I returned from my North India tour and Himalaya trekking adventure on March 17th. I was gone for close to five weeks and had a blast. Like last time I am going to do a day by day description so here we go!

Feb 12- We got on the train and were on it for 25 hours. Not worth writing about. Not worth remembering.

Feb 13- We arrived in Kolkutta, West Bengal and we went to a suburb of Kolkutta, I guess you can call it a suburb, called Hawara. That day was spent lazily driving around just seeing the city but not actually getting out of the bus. It was kind of a waste but the train arrived late so we had to push everything to see in Kolkutta for the next day. Milan, Yann and I did explore the famous date market on our own though. To put it plainly, unless you want to buy dates, there really is not a whole lot else there. There were a few fruit stands but that was it for the market we walked though. It was pretty cool to see all of the guys holding auctions for mass amounts of dates.

Feb 14- We started our day with a visit to a Jain temple. It was quite beautiful inside, the walls were covered with mirrors and colored glass which radiated in the sunlight that was pouring through the door. Too bad we were not allowed to take photos. The next visit was to Mother Teresa's "Missionaries of Charity" nunnery. We saw the room in which she lived, hundreds of photos of her throughout her lifetime and we got little pendents with her face on them for visiting. The next thing we saw was the Kali temple. Aside from trying to get cheated out of 100 rupees by "the man in charge" we saw goat sacrifices. It was... I dunno, there is no good way to say how you feel after you see a living goat hacked apart. After that we went to the Victorian Park but before we were allowed in we had to pass a group of conservative Muslims protesting Valentines Day. Now sure I agree that it is over the top and an excuse for a holiday but these guys were connecting Valentines Day with many other things that really do not have a connection, like still born children. Yes, that was a sign I saw... Once we got past that little fiasco we were in this lovely park for a while. Indian couples were being cutesy all around us which was a little disheartening because most of what was going on reminded me of middle school/high school puppy love games, but these lovers were mostly in their mid twenties. As we normally do, our group attracted a lot of attention and soon we had a line of people taking photos with us. /shrugs/ I never will understand what is so interesting about us.

Feb 15- The night before we hopped on a train that would take us to New Jalpaigudi, which was a filthy little city with swarms of beggars. Luckily we only stayed there for fifteen minutes before we loaded up into Tata Sumos (which are Landrover-like SUVs) and we drove 4 hours to Darjeeling. Before we entered the city limits we were stopped by a very long protest for "Gorkhaland." The people of Darjeeling and the surrounding areas (up to Sikkim) feel that they are not part of India. Pretty much forced into the country when the British organized their colonial holdings, the Gorkhaland supporters have been trying to be free of India. Their biggest protest again India is simply that they are from a completely different culture and they feel threatened by the India government in regards to resources. It was pretty cool to see and the more time I spent in the area (Darjeeling and Sikkim) the more I agreed with them. It is hard to accurately describe but it feels completely different from India. All of us students felt like we were in another country, and when we entered Sikkim, it was pretty much like we did enter another country but more on that later. We visited the Darjeeling Zoo and mountaineering museum. After that we went to our hotel, a Tibetan themed one. Might I add that was FREEZING cold, showering was painful. Our next stop was to a Tibetan Refugee School and Hostel. We were supposed to go see something in there but we ended up playing basketball with the Tibetan kids. Most of the time I was benched and taking photos but I tossed a ball around with a little kid for a while as well. After that heartwarming experience we went back to town. In the evening we went shopping. Milan and I got separated from the group and ended up finding "No Losar!" posters on one wall. Since both of us had no idea what Losar was we asked around and finally found the one putting them up. He was from the Tibetan Youth Congress, a similar body to Students for a Free Tibet, and told me that in honor of all those who have died trying to free their country over the last 50 years they are not celebrating Losar, the Tibetan new year. We talked about SFT and the TYC for a little bit, he wished me well in my fight against Chinese occupation and left.

Feb 16- We were woken up quite early to go see a sunrise. Now an exchange student joke because all the times we were woken up early to watch the sunrise it was either cloudy or a pretty lame sunrise. This time was no different and the sun barely penetrated the thick fog. Ah well. Our next stop was at the Ghoom Monastery which was so amazing. Like a little slice of Tibet, young reincarnated lamas started their morning prayers and chants around us while I and a girl named Emily, whose interest in Buddhism was growing rapidly, offered our prayers to Lord Buddha and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Actually, Darjeeling and Gangtok both are Buddhist dominated areas so I felt right at home within all of that spirituality. After our visit to the first monastery, we visited the second Ghoom complex which was much larger. There we had missed the prayers but were free to roam. I stumbled across an old man praying in a private room. Though he knew no english, he saw my prayer beads and invited me in. He had me spin the large prayer wheel 108 times. As I did that, I would peek at him from time to time in between my recitation of "Nam an dam bu" and he had this huge smile on his old face. When I finished we bowed to each other, he laughed then we parted ways. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before and I know it will be a fond memory for the rest of my life. After that monastery we left Darjeeling for Gangtok, the largest city in Sikkim. The eight our drive winded us through mountains and valleys with stunning views. At one point we had to stop to get permission to go into the Autonomous state of Sikkim which was kind of cool. The whole state was an anomaly in the North East and actually in India. It was Nepali social construction but it felt like a little European state. It was run really well and most of the issues that plagued the states around it: crime, high birth and mortality rates, starvation, illiteracy, etc. were completely missing from the whole of Sikkim. That night we arrived and just hung out in the hotel wanting to rest. That night we discovered a great restaurant called Roll House. For 30 Rs. (roughly $.60) you could get a eight inch rolled willed with paneer corn peanuts milchee a thick spicy gravy and a few other things. We loved that place so much we went every day while in Gangtok. That evening, Milan Yann Rowland and I explored the "green street" of Gangtok. It was a cobblestone street was very Eurpoean looking with park benches fountains rustic lampposts and every store was painted green. At the time we were out, not much was open but it was something so different than India. It's hard to explain really.

Feb 17- The next day we started with an excursion to Yangu lake, a holy lake up 11000 feet. We got to walk around the lake, three of us on foot (Rowland Yann and I) and the rest of the students on yaks. During our hour circumnavigation of the lake, I found one of the most hilarious signs I have seen in my life. It read "This lake is sacred, do not urinate in the vicinity of the lake. It was chilly but very serene up there. With the boarder of China only 20 KM away, the area was heavily patrolled by both military personnel and goods carries but on the lakeside, you hardly noticed they were there. After the lake we visited a temple for Ganesh. It was nothing special, just a temple on a hill really but what was funny about it was that it seemed like the Buddhists were trying to reclaim the temple. Years ago the Hindu minority in the area demanded a temple be placed on top of the hill overlooking Gangtok as they were in a Hindu nation. So the temple was there yes, but it was surrounded by thousands of prayer flags. After that we went to an orchid house and an Tibetan Buddhist library. That night again we devoured rolls at the Roll House.

Feb 18- We all painfully left The Northeastern Hillstations hilariously dreading the return to "normal India." The whole day was spent traveling so nothing fun to report.

Feb 19- We arrived in Bihar, the most backward state in India. The first thing we saw was Nalanda and Rajgir which are two old temples and universities built in the 12th century. It was pretty cool to see but the whole time we had a group of very crude Biharis following us around so that ruined the area for us. Being called the equivalent of "White sluts" constantly would put a damper on anyone. That afternoon we visited a zen Buddhist temple in Gaya (the place where the Buddha gained enlightenment) Placed on top of a mountain we hair a chairlift to the top. At the large stupa Emily and I again offered prayers and incense then went inside a smaller structure to see the Zen ceremony going on. When we entered anh followed what the monks told us to do, putting huge smiles on their faces.

Feb 20- in a surprise visit, we visited the Bodhi tree where it is said Buddha gained enlightenment under. Obviously a huge pilgrimage spot, Buddhists of all colors, creeds, and sects were present offering prostrations and prayers to the Buddha. WE were only allotted 40 minutes to explore the area, but seeing as we were at the starting point of a faith we spent more time. Our guides were very unhappy with us over this which was kind of odd. I mean it's like saying "Here is the Vatican, the central hub of Catholicism, you have 2 hours to see the city..." Mai~ lum nahi~ (I don't know) it's a little weird sometimes, I suppose. The rest of the day was spent going to Varanasi, one of the largest pilgrimage sites for Hindus in all of India.

Feb 21- We were up at 5 to get on the Ganges for a boat ride up and down the areas of Varanasi where one is to take holy dips. It was quite nice aside from the increasingly foul smell that will be explained later. After the sun rose we saw a lot of different things going on along the river banks. Yoga for the Hindu monks with random Japanese and white people tagging a lot, men covering themselves in ash offering prayers to the Ganga and Shiva; we even saw, up close might I add, a cremation of woman. We left the river side and went to the Deer Park, the place where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon. The temple was small and quaint but around the premises was a portion of his first sermon in all of the Buddhist counties languages. It was neat to see all of the different languages. We then borded another train and went off to Agra. While riding on the train I looked over the shoulder of a man reading the newspaper. As I read I came across an article that said the Ganges in Varanasi has 10,000 time the amount of fecal matter in the water than there should be to make it safe. My stomach lurched because I knew that I had swallowed some of the water when our boat man accidentally splashed us. I am still here so obviously it didn't kill me.

Feb 22- Agra. Well Agra itself is boring and a terribly ugly city, but the Taj Mahal and Fathapur Sikari (Emperor Akbar's ruling fort) are worth the journey. From afar, the Taj looks dirty, but up close it is obvious why they call consider a Wonder of the World. There is not a whole lot else I can really say about it, the Taj is the Taj. Fathapur Sikari was nice, but we were still captivated by the wonder of the Taj to truly appreciate it. That was all we saw of Agra.

Feb 23- We left Agra and headed to Jaipur we arrived in the middle of the afternoon so we only were able to do two things visit a Birla temple and get dinner at some awesome mock Rajastani village. The Birla temple was nice, though monkey infested. Did I mention I hate monkeys now? Little jerks steal from you, bite, give you diseases.... anyways. The temple was alright but when we left the temple head demanded money from all of us for taking photos. Though none of us took any photos he demanded the money regardless. We knew that he was only charging us because we were foreigners so we angrily paid him then quickly ran through parts of the temple again taking 30 Rupees worth of photos. The dinner was very tasty and the setting was original no doubt. All over the mock village were little shows and gimmicks about traditional life. Well worth the 250 Rs. entry fee.

Feb 24- We explored what Jaipur had to offer, we saw a few museums but the high light was the Golden Fort. It was a labyrinth of old passages hundreds of staircases and rooms and was even the set for a new Bollywood movie, Veer. Malik and I snuck around the guards trying to get a photo, but all we got were the extras. /laughs/ Okay so funny story, this girl named Ashley who is a little clumsy let's just say, though she would try to jump out and scare us. Well when she jumped out she actually jumped down a flight of stairs. It was so dark in that area that after she fell a few feet, we saw nothing of her at all. Yann and I ran over to the staircase and shined a light down it. The darkness engulfed our light so I used my handy dandy camera and took a picture. The flash revealed to us that Ashley was only about three feet away from us. She had fallen only seven or eight feet and was perfectly fine. Needless to say, she terrified us. We wish we could have explored the fort more but our time was limited so we moved on. That night there were two groups, the shoppers and the indifferents. The shoppers unhappily argued with our tour guides trying to get them to find "the perfect shopping area." the rest of us just went with it tired of the tensions that were raised to a breaking point. I, and a small group of others, found food and a shop right next door where we did a little shopping and moved our way back to the bus. Along the way, Rowland stopped to get a shave. I talked to the shop owner in Hindi about his son and how we were from Nagpur while Rowland got his trim. When the time comes to pay Rowland was told to pay 50 Rs. Usually it costs 15, so obviously both of us protested. The man was charging us more because we were foreign. Rowland gave the man his 50 Rs. and stormed out of the shop. Everyone had been in a terrible mood all day and we all just needed time to unwind.

Feb 25- Jaisalmer. This was the place where we had our night in the desert. We spent a large portion of the day on the train and getting to our first stop. There we put all of our luggage in a hotel, packed a night bag and hit our second stop which was where we started our camel rides. Let me tell you, camels do not look big, but they are HUGE. Being up there is fairly imposing, especially when you have a rabid camel making weird noises with what looks like his lung hanging out of his mouth riding closely behind you. I had a really nice camel but the camel uh... driver? was asking me for tips before I even got on. We traveled out to the dunes where most of the men in the group did sand sumo which was rather entertaining. That night we stayed in tents out under the wide open sky. It was pretty fun. I slept well.

Feb 26- The next morning some of us got up at 5:30 to see the sun rising over the dunes. My timing was perfect so I was only out of the camp for about five minutes. When I returned I found that my cell phone had gone missing. I ripped the tent apart and offered 500, then 1000 rupees to any of the guides who found my phone but no one found anything. When I questioned a boy about it, he looked at me in terror than ran off. It was at that moment that I knew he had it, and at the same time, I knew I was not going to be able to get it back. So even with all the care I had taken I still lost my phone. Drat. We saw a few temples, names of which elude me at this time then we visited the Jaisalmer fort which was like a city inside the city. Because people still lived and worked there it was more of a "do what you want" time than structured tourism so Rowland and I found something to eat and an internet cafe. We aimlessly wandered throughout the city until we had to go catch a train.

Feb 27- We ended up in Jodhpur the next day, known for the all blue bramin houses it is appropriately named the Blue City. We had a guide for the city that looked like he fell out of New Orleans, heck he even played the trumpet. This day we saw the Maharajah's palace. It as 70% a hotel, 25% living quarters and 5% tourist area, so we saw 4 rooms of the entire palace. Next was the Maharangar Fort which we also aimlessly wandered around for hours until after dinner. We left for Firozpur that evening.

Feb 28- From Firozpur we drove to Amritsar where is famous Sikh Golden Temple was. It is a huge complex with an enormous kitchen that feeds everyone who comes through the gates for free. The Sikhs believe the best way to show respect to someone is to share a meal with them. As much ever temple has a kitchen. In the temple we had to keep our heads covered so I wore my kuffiyah laughably as a turban. After the Golden temple we drove to the Vaga Boarder which is the end of India and the entrance to Pakistan. AS we got closer we noticed that around the gate was stadium seating. As the time got closer for the lowering of the flag, masses of people filled the Pakistan and Indian stands. Women danced in the street which somehow was part of the competition between Pakistan and India. As soon as everyone was pushed back into the stands the nationalism started. A man in a fiery pink shirt started changing pro India slogans and putting the Pakistani crowd down. a Pakistani man in a green shirt was going the same thing on the other side of the border. As the shouting got fiercer and fiercer the Germans and I talked about how this felt like some Nazi like nationalism rally. People all around us were saying "Jai Hind Down Pak!" Jai hind is the nation woohoo for India I guess you can put it like that. I was glad to leave. The following photo is pretty much how I feel. Two different nations made of the same people. Their paths cross every day yet they cannot be together.


March 1- After a terrible night journey in a bus, we arrived in Dharmsala. I was totally psyched to be there, not knowing that the Dalai Lama was out of tour. We only had a few hours in the city so we spent as much time as possible looking for him around the areas of his residence, his government in exile and the monastery His Holiness had set up. By we I mean a small group of us who wanted to see and or meet him. There was a second group that shopped mostly. Well turns out we missed him by 8 hours which was sad but hey, gives me incentive to come back and try again right? We left Dharmsala defeated but in high spirits. We headed to Manali which took all day.

March 2- Manali, we were warned, was a hippy heaven. The first day we saw no "dangerous hippy peoples" (as our guide called them) We were up in the snow, which was a little lame because the area was ran by people who controlled all the activities. Sure you could go skiing, but it was designed for people who had never seen snow so for 300 Rs. you could go skiing on a small track of snow. We were hoping for more, but the relaxation in the mountain air was nice. The setting was amazing. That night we threw a party for Yann who was leaving us the next day. Instead of visiting Delhi he was going to visit his dad in South India.

March 3- Our last day in Manali, we visited some temple with hot springs where we had our first encounter with hippies. Rowland and I were sitting at a restaurant discussing the amazingness of the grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches we had ordered when a man pulls out a bong and lights up right next to us. a little surprised we laughed and kept an eye on them just to see what they would do. Well not much more than the bong was lit, but the conversation they had took us through many years of highs and trips with different drugs, different places and many many girls. Seriously entertained by all of this, we ordered tea just to listen to the guys talk. It was a great use of 45 Rs. in my opinion. /laughs/ We left Manali for Delhi that evening.

March 4- we had a busy day of seeing everything Delhi had to offer, the Red Fort, the India Gate, Qutub Minar, the Lotus Temple and the Swami Narayan Temple. To be honest, the Delhi sigh seeing seemed bland compared to everything else we had seen, though the Lotus temple was something else. Shaped like a lotus, it was a Baha'i temple where anyone of any faith could worship. There was not a whole lot to it, but it was tranquil.

Delhi ended with shopping for me. I was with Ceres and Clemence, two french speaking girls from Belgium and France respectively. I had a fun time shopping with them because they were able to help me pick out outfits for my female friends and family I was buying for. a group of nine of us ate together at a restaurant and recollected our favorite parts of the trips. Hands down we all selected Darjeeling and Gangtok as our favorite places.

March 5- This is where my North tour ended and my Himalaya tour began. What follows is a rough outline of what we did as a lot of the trip ran together. I am constructing my story from photos.
Oh, my second favorite sign I found on the tour also. I do not even know what to think about that...


March 7th we arrived at the area where we would be hiking. We unloaded all of our stuff in the hostel and got to work on learning the ropes. We learned to pitch tents, properly pack our bags, turn our supplies into warmer layers and learned a little about the surrounding area. That evening we went on a hike to get used to the weird of our packs and get used to the lower oxygen, at that point we were at 7500 feet.

March 8-13 We spent the 8th and 9th days hiking to our base camp at 9500 feet and acclimatizing to higher altitudes by a series of strenuous games. the 10th through the 12th we spent pushing ourselves a little higher, a maximum of 14500 feet on the 12th which was the top of the mountain. One night during the experience a tree fell on a tent of girls, injuring two of them so we lost a day of trekking but they were real troopers and did their best to climb to the top with us. Trekking is something else. Really. I mean we were so far away from anyone else it was just us and nature. No lights, no internet, no cars, hell, no plumbing. The boys used a pick axe, rightfully dubbed "The Shitdigger" when we needed to relieve ourselves. Actually we had a few laughs out of our digging device. The girls "area" was beyond our tent and the boys "area" was beyond theirs. Not logical, but no big deal. So when the girls would use their area, they took our digger because they had to cross our tent. not a major problem until it's 3:42 A.M. and one of the males yells "WHERE IS THE SHITDIGGER?! IT'S FREEZING OUT HERE AND I NEED IT NOW!" Waking all of us up and causing a wave of panic over our lost digging device. Ha. I laughed writing that.

On the 13th we returned to our camp at 7500 feet and played Holi. It is the festival of color where we throw colored powder and water at everyone. This is how i looked after, and i was hit relatively light.


March 14 we drove down to rashikesh and on the 15th we went rafting down the Ganges. What was supposed to be a rapid filled adventure was not as exciting as we had hoped. But it was fun none the less. We all took a bath in the river, and I even too a big gulp of the clean water. It came right from the glaciers so it was the cleanest and safest part to drink from. On our raft ride down, we passed a yoga center with a bunch of white people on the beech. A man dressed in religious clothing called to us from the beach "HARE RAM!" and we answered "HARE RAM!" back. Well we ended up doing the whole Hare Ram Hare Krishna prayer with him yelling back and forth. We decided he had a pretty good life being able to meditate on the sandy beaches of the clean Ganges and bless people as they floated by. Good for him. After that we started our journey home.

A whole lot more happened during the trekking, much more than I can write. It was a deeply spiritual journey for me so I do not really know how to place my words correctly.

I am now living out my last 4 weeks here in Nagpur quietly. Summer has started so the heat is picking up, though we are having abnormally cool temperatures here now. I am not really planning what will happen over the next month so well see what I end up doing.

--Adam

My last day of school and the realizations it gave me

I had attended S.F.S. college from August 11th all the way until February 6th. Apparently I have gone to school longer than most, if not all exchange students in Nagpur before me. I am truly glad that I stuck with it though. I think my schooling really made my exchange year that much better. I was able to really interact with people my age and get a lot of cultural and social experiences that my peers have been unable to get. All of the other students in Nagpur do not go to school. A few of them go to cultural classes, but most just spend their days idly going from home to the mall to a coffee shop back home. I do not understand how they can do that, it must be terribly boring and they do not really get an exposure to the "youngistaan" of India as they would being in a school. My time at S.F.S. was the biggest part of my exchange I think, so much so that when I come back I am going to visit the school again just to say hi to everyone.
Ramakanth, Ravi and Ranjeet (an unphotographed friend of mine) all bought me a book on one of my last days and gave it to me. They demanded I talk about my favorite memories with them and thinking about it, I could not name anything specific. There really is not one great memory that sticks out in my mind because my time with them was all wonderfully spent. I mean when you think about it, it's hard to pin point "great" moments with some of your best friends, it all just comes together in one fond memory. At that point, it was infinity clear to me that I had made some incredible friends at that college.
It really is sad to see my college days go. I know that the next time I will see most of my friends is when I return to India for a wedding or another round of student exchanging. I will try to see my Manipuri friends after I get back from the north tour which would be wonderful to see them again before I leave.
Over all, my last day was quite as all my friends were held up in exams but the last hour was the "Oh no! This is all passing by too fast" time. The most heartwarming moment on my last day came right as I was going to get into my auto. Almost all of the Manipuri kids at the school came to say goodbye to me. I knew a few of them, but there were a lot I didn't know at all. The ones I did not know came up to me and said "I never got the chance to meet you, but Surjit and Netaji say you are really nice, you are interesting in Manipure, you think the girls are the pretties in all of India (which made a lot of the Manipuri girls smile and blush when Surjit added that to one boy's farewell wishes) and that you are leaving the college. We just wanted to wish you luck on your travels. Please come to Manipure anytime you want, we will gladly show you around," That really means something when people you do not even know come up to you say goodbye in a heartfelt manner.

The view I have every morning. I sit here waiting for people to arrive as I come 15-20 minutes early. It's really peaceful because the whole college building is empty so it is just me up there.

I sit on this wall while everyone else sits on chairs or stands. I used to get yelled at for sitting up there, but the lady stopped caring and waved to me every once in a while.

There is my wall on the left, and those two chairs are a cot are frequented spots for everyone who is taking a break from class to just sit down and talk. It is an odd place for a cot, yes, but it worked beautifully as a couch. Heck I even used to lie down there when it was just me sitting outside reading.

My friend, the stray dog of S.F.S. Everyone told me never to touch stray dogs as they will give me rabies. This one never once tried to bite me and followed me around whenever I called for her. I used to give her pieces of my roti when I had extra food so she developed a fondness for me.

Netaji

Ambrika (yellow) and another manipuri girl who I do not know d:

Ravi, Ramakanth and I

Charlie and I

Surjit and Colbain

I leave for the North tour on the 12th of this month and I will not be back until the 17th. Like last time, I will not have internet so I will update when I return.

The Post New Years Update

Okay so let's see here, it's been over a month since I have written last, let's catch everyone up to speed.

The first major thing that went on was the crazy push for January 10th, our Rotary presentation day. This actually was a cause of a lot of different troubles that I will talk about later.

So the plans to go to Surat that I talked about in my last e-mail were completely taken away because I had to stay in Nagpur and practice for the performance. The last minute change of plans was not a well liked event on my end, especially since they could stop me from missing classes, but whenever kids just randomly skipped in the weeks of intense practice, no one seemed to care. Anyways, so the time went on as normal, we didn't go to Surat and we ended up going to Amravati for New Years which was a very anticlimactic celebration with the other rotary kids, 4 Rotarians, their families and one kid who loved to change the music half way through the song to an overplayed Bollywood number. It wasn't all bad, until the 2nd when I was the first to get sick. The people serving us breakfast lunch and dinner did not serve us good water so half of the rotary students were sick with water poisoning during some point of our 12 day stay in Amravati. During the second day of my illness, it got so bad that I had to go to the doctors to get a shot. But I had already thrown up a few times so i was on the edge of falling asleep and I did not realize they were trying to give me a shot until my pants were down enough so that they could stick a shot right in my butt. Interesting experience to say in the least. But moving right along, by the time the performance came we were tired of the music we were dancing to but we put on quite a nice show indeed. More than once Rotarians came up to us and said we were the best part of the Rotary Conference. Woo.

Hmm...

I finish school on Jan. 31 and I am really sad to be saying so. I feel lucky in the way that I have made a huge extensive network of Indian friends in my classes and at S.F.S. They really have made my exchange year better than I imagined and I have made a few friends that I know I will keep in contact with back in the states and hopefully for the rest of my life. It's so sad to think that my 6 months of schooling is coming to an end and I will be unable to see most of my friends again before I leave. Many of they are brothers in the catholic seminaries, so they are very restricted on what they can do and who they can see, especially if they want to go off on their own. I will try to be with my Northeastern friends (namely the Manipuris) before and after my North tour which is coming up in three weeks.

Yeah my tour is coming up in three weeks, I will be gone for a long while after that then it'll be a month until I come home. Oh man... 3 months left... I do not want to think about it.

Oh and never ship a package to India. That's all I am going to say about that...

Sorry everyone, I have been slacking since my last post but I promise this one will be much shorter.

In the past three weeks since I have been back, not a whole lot has happened. To start, I have finally began volunteer work. I am teaching english to first through fifth standard kids who attend Nav Jeena School. It is a school set up for the children who are normally too poor to go to schools and who live in the slums of Nagpur. Around a hundred and fifty students attend the school and seventy-five live in the hostel. It is really heart warming to give the students a chance to learn and get ahead of the crushing poverty that holds man other children like them back. I do work there every Wednesday and Saturday.

Let's see, my cousin Suhail for engaged so we went to a small town call Armori (i think that's the spelling anyways) So we went there for a gathering which was fun. Tabla and dance have started up again in full in preparation for the January 10th Conference.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report. On the 24th I am going to Surat with my family to go to yet another engagement for another cousin. This is just the year of matrimony for the Rana family.

South Tour

To start, southern India is very beautiful this time of the year, it is very green and lush, not too hot and quite a bit different from the part of India where I live. This is a day by day account of my trip, so I hope you guys have a little bit of time before reading :D

This trip was with two guides (RK and Big B) and 18 RYE students.
There were eleven girls and seven boys.
Girls:
Mariya - USA Florida Staying in Nagpur
Ashley M. - USA Ohio Staying in Nagpur
Emily - USA Oregon Staying in Amravati, Nagpur area
Ceres - Belgium Staying in Amravati, Nagpur area
Lea - Germany Staying in Nagpur
Celmense - France Staying in Nasik
Ashley B (Connie) - USA Wisconsin Staying in Nasik
Margaux - Belgium Staying in Nasik
Corey - USA Oregon Staying in Jalgaon
Tomke - Germany Staying in Nasik
Serene - Canada Staying in Jalgaon

Boys:
Josef - Germany Staying in Nagpur
Martin - Germany Staying in Nagpur
Malik - Belgium Staying in Nagpur
Rowland - USA Vermont Staying in Hininghat near Nagpur
Milan - Germany Staying in Nasik
Yann - France Staying in Jalgaon
Me - USA Arkansas Staying in Nagpur

Nov. 1- We were supposed to be in a train but because of some strange circumstances we left for Hyderabad that evening in a sleeper bus. The bus ride was bumpy to say in the least and at some point in the night a water bottle hit me right in the head leaving me with a small lump for a couple of days. Other than that nothing happened on this day.

Nov. 2- We arrived in Hyderabad this morning at around 8, it was a relief to finally get off the bus and walk around some to stretch out our legs. We went to the hotel, threw everything in our rooms, showered, ate and then started our day. The first thing that we visited was the Birla Temple. It was this huge temple situated high on a hill overlooking Hyderabad. It was made of white marble so the building was stunning. The next stop we made was the Salarjung Museum which is one of the largest museums in the world. We only visited the art portion and it took us three hours to practically run through the Indian and Muslim art areas. Our next stop was the Macca Masjid in Charminar, a famous market area in Hyderabad situated by a famous Mosque. There I watched over the group of girls I was with while they got ripped off shopping for bangles. We then went to Golkunda Fort, a huge fort wrapped around a mountain top. There is a room in there near the front gate where if you clap you can hear it all the way up at the top of the fort, that was pretty cool. We ended the day by heading out to Lumbine Park and we took a boat ride to an island that was home to a huge Buddha statue, the largest one in the country. On the boat there was a "FREE TIBET" sticker which made me smile.

Nov. 3- After waking we checked out of the hotel and went to Romaji Film City which is pretty much the Disneyland of India. That was really fun, but there is not a whole lot to talk about because it was just theme park. At night we left for Chennai/Mahabalipuram

Nov. 4- Arrived and went to our beach side hotel in Mahabalipuram in a Sonic the Hedgehog bus. Mahabalipuram is a tourist town so we just hung out for a day at the beaches, though Rowland and I ran around the town for the whole day finding small temples and parks to explore.

Nov. 5- Before leaving the area, we went to a Shore Temple which was raised out of the sea back in the 70s. It would have cost 250 Rs. to get inside so we sat at the fences and looked inside. The temple was slightly worn from the sea, but it was still intact. We explored this park in the town also where we were followed by hoards of hawkers for about an hour. In the park there is a "Butter Ball" which is a huge rock that has not moved for hundreds of years. It was pretty cool because it looked like you could just push it down the hill but nothing had been able to move the huge rock. We then boarded a train for Bangalore. Somewhere along the line we stopped at a temple where elephants gave up blessings.

Nov. 6- This was pretty much the beginning of my sick days, we were in a part of the train with huge fans and open windows, so I woke up freezing and unable to breathe through my nose. Our first stop of the day was the Bangalore national park which was really beautiful and full of many different animals. We saw lions tigers (white ones and orange ones) as well as bears. Oh my! (Sorry, I had to make the reference to Wizard of Oz) After the park, we went to an art museum that I simply walked through because my cold was already eating away at my awakened state. We then went to the Bangalore Botanical Gardens where I went off on my own and sat near a pond. It was really nice because my headache cleared up a little and it was so peaceful around there. Our journey then lead us to the MG road district for shopping and me nearly falling asleep in a shopping mall Subway.

Nov. 7- We departed to Hassan which was a long bus ride away. Our first stop was Sharavan Balgola which is the world's largest monolithic statue. It is a dedication to the Jain Prince Bahubali. It was incredible, the view from the mountain top and the statue itself. The temple, statue and stairs are all carved directly from the mountain. Though my race against Rowland up the the top was not a smart idea. After that we drove to two temples in Belur and Heldbidu which were beautifully carved structures. The outside of Belur was wonderful while the inside was plain and the opposite was true of Haldbidu.

Nov. 8- We went to Mysore, but before arriving we went to the Tipus Summer Palace which was the summer palace of the Muslim rulers of the area which was quite beautifully made. The black marble is polished so often there that is shines brightly in the sun. When we arrived in Mysore we went to this very European styled Maharaja palace. We then went up the mountain to the monkey infested temple Chamunda Davi. I swear the monkeys there were running a smuggling ring or something because I saw glasses phones and offerings stolen left and right by the little guys.

Nov. 9- We departed to the mountains on this day, for Ooty. Before hitting Ooty we stopped at Bandipur National park for a little interaction with elephants which was pretty cool, but those dang monkeys were back, one decided to stalk me and was trying to bite me because I would not give it my camera. When we arrived in Ooty, we went to the Botanical gardens which were again spectacular to see and then we climbed the second highest peak in Southern India. The view from the top was not very special because the mountain was wrapped in clouds but Margaux, Tomke, Josef, Emily and I all started a meditation/yoga circle in a small clearing on the top which was pretty fun. We went back to the hotel where I spent the night with a high fever trying my best to sweat it out.

Nov. 10- This day we just walked around Ooty seeing small shops and a lake. Not a whole lot to report but my fever was still raging :(

Nov. 11- We left Ooty via train but I just slept on the bus because I spent the whole night hallucinating a bunch of raptors in military outfits walking around my room ordering me to "start the revolution." We went to a small place called Pollachi, on the way stopping at tea plantations to buy some tea and for the view which was again covered by a thick cloud cover. Our second stop was the Black Thunder Amusement Park, which was a water park, but because I was still feeling very much under the weather I stayed on the bus with Ashley M. and Rowland. I slept the whole time.

Nov. 12- I got sick in the night so while the rest of the group went to Indhra Ghandi National Park, I stayed at the hotel to rest. I am glad I stayed back partially because while they got to ride elephants almost everyone was attacked by leeches. When they came back, I couldn't help but laugh. We then went to Munnar where we crashed for the night.

Nov. 13- We awoke to headlines that the local communist party had shut down the town and it was protesting some state law on land something or other. So that day we spent inside away from the apparently very very violent crowd. At one point a few of us walked through the huge tea plantations to a lake, but at the lake entrance we were denied and walked all the way back. During the evening Rowland and I walked through the town looking for signs of the communist party, and they were everywhere. CPI (communist party India) flags and signs were all over and red sickle and hammers were painted on houses all over the town. That evening we played a card game called werewolf where we all sat in a circle, three people were randomly chosen to be werewolves and everyone else were villagers, and it is the villager's job to try and find the werewolves before the werewolves kill everyone.

Nov. 14- We drove 5 hours to Thakkadi where we went to a spice garden. That was interesting seeing everyday spices in their pre-spice form. We then went to the Pariyar Wildlife sanctuary where everyone paid 150 Rs. to sit on the top level of the lake boat while Rowland and I paid 75 rs to sit on the bottom level. We were the smarter ones. There are apparently wild elephants in the sanctuary but we didn't see anything so i spent my time exchanging silly faces with the little Muslim boy in front of me who only knew how to say "Salaam!" That evening we saw the traditional Kerala style of dance, Katakali. It was pretty interesting because there actors are painted up in these wild costumes and makeup patterns so their facial expressions were magnified. The story is told in Sanskrit by three musicians. The play itself nearly drove me insane because I was right near the speaker and one of the musicians was pounding on a cymbal the entire time making my headache painful. But just my luck we went for an hour long full body massage. /laughs When I went into the room where I was going to get the massage the guy told me to remove my clothing down to my boxers, which I did then he tied this little loin cloth around me. I was like "Alright, this is fine I did not want to be fully naked anyways," but before I knew it, he pulled down my boxers leaving me only in the little cloth string I was wearing. He tucked it into the back so again I was like "Alright, I guess he will not see my full naked rear," Wrong again, when i got onto the table he pulled the flap out and and then gave me an amazing massage. I was pretty much unable to walk out of the building I was so relaxed. Though I couldn't help put laugh at the fact that some little Indian man named John had rubbed all over my body while I wore a revealing string loin cloth. It sounds like the start to a bad joke or something.

Nov. 15- After waking up from one of the better night's rests in a while, we drove 5 hours to Allappy where we boarded a houseboat. the day was full of relaxation on the water, in the evening we played another hilarious round of werewolf then we went to sleep content with life though my digestive track was not content with me.

Nov. 16- This day we went to Kanyakumari which took most of the day to reach so when we arrived we saw a small temple and then went back to the hotel for rest.

Nov. 17- This day was interesting to say in the least. Kanyakumari is a tourist area because three oceans meet in one area, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea all meet at this point which is the most southern tip of India. Just outside of the tip there is a small island temple where a famous religious icon meditated for three days and made the temple and a huge statue to a local poet. But what made it interesting was that because it was a tourist spot, there were a lot of Indian tourists, many of which who had never seen white people before. Let me explain why this did not go down well. The whole tour, people have been coming up to us and taking photos with us or of us, usually without our permission. It is cute for a while, but it really is intrusive and sometimes inappropriate (I caught a man taking photos of some of the girls sleeping for example) It is a celebrity status that is forced upon us, and for me is totally unwanted so when a man shoved his cell phone camera in front of me as I was getting onto the ferry to leave the island I took his phone, deleted that and four more photos he took of me and gave it back to him telling him to at least ask first. After that wonderful encounter we drove to Kovalam beach, a very nice but tourist packed beach town. That night we went shopping and a found a string of Tibet stores where I got some prayer flags, a Tibetan style shirt and a shirt that is the Tibetan flag. I got praise from the Tibetan store owners for knowing my share of Tibetan history and being a part of Students for a Free Tibet, but no discounts. That evening Ashley M., Emily and I went to this little place called "Beatles" where we ate dessert and listened to Beetles music.

Nov. 18- We spent the day at the beach/stores again then we left for Cochin. Nothing really happened today.

Nov. 19- In Cochin I drank some bad water after eating some bad food the night before so I stayed in the hotel close to a toilet while the double kick of food and water poisoning kicked my ass for a day. I was so sick and miserable but luckily it passed after a few hours of rest. Everyone came back to the hotel at 4 and while we waited to pack up and leave the communist party put on a street play. It was weird seeing Karl Marx, Lenin and some Indian guy run around the streets below out hotel room. We then took a train to Goa.

Nov. 20- Goa was pretty much just chilling at the beach so that's what we did. Chilled at some beaches.

Nov. 21- We saw all over Old Goa looking at both Hindu temples and some very beautiful churches. We then did the Goa thing and chilled at more beaches. At night we went into a city which is famous for cashews and I bought 600 Rs. worth of cashews and it has been totally worth it.

Nov. 22- Beaches. And fish and chips! Woo!

Nov. 23- Packed up and had a free morning, some went to the beach, I stayed in the hotel room with Josef, Martin and Rowland. They slept, I read Stephen King's The Stand Mom, that book is really good, I hope you liked it as much as I do, but I am only on page 350 so no talking about it yet! We got on the train and then started our 40 hour journey home.

Nov. 24- Half the day on the train. Kicked the kids from Jalgaon and Nasik off at 10:30 and 12 respectively. Us Nagpur kids had to wait 10 hours in the train station in Bhusawal. It was bad. We were so bored.

Nov. 25- Arrived in Nagpur at 6 A.M. to random fireworks being shot off near the train station.

And there you have it, my crazy south tour.

EDIT:
I have now updated my photobucket with all of my photos that I have taken so far in India. There are 1221 in the "India" album and I think close to 500 in "Akbar's Wedding" album. Feel free to stop by and look at them.

http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a185/Hammer_Head/India/

I am going to be gone for a month

I am starting my south tour tomorrow and I will be without internet that entire time.
With that said, everyone have a good November and I will update when I get back.

The past three days have been a string of holidays rolled into one called Diwali. It is the Hindu festival of lights and the celebration of the new year. I do not know a lot about the religious ways of celebrating the holiday, but publicly everyone lights up their entire houses with strings light outside and then fireworks are launched nonstop for a few hours in the evenings.

We also went on a jungle expedition. That was really fun, it was a nature park around an hour and a half away from my house. It was the same jungle that inspired the jungle book apparently so there were a lot of references to the book and movie before entering the park. We were looking for tigers, but only saw deer huge spiders birds and a few other animals. It was a beautiful area, especially once we got to the lake.

Well not a whole lot else to report, I am almost finished packing and ready to go.
Hope you all are well and I will talk to you all when I return.