Well, today is our last day here in Mussoorie! We had our final exam this morning, which most people agreed was fair and not too hard. So it's official now - we speak (some) Hindi! It's amazing how much you can learn in only 4 weeks with a program like the one here. We're far from fluent, but I can read a lot of words by sight without having to sound them out now, and we know enough to get by in a lot of situations.
Now we have the afternoon free before we have a final dinner up at the hotel with all of our language teachers, most of whom are amazing and super friendly and nice. After that, most of us EAP kids and our friend Beer (who runs the internet café I'm typing from right now) are going to a swanky restaurant for drinks. The legal drinking age here is 25, but it is never enforced, ever.
Leaving someplace is always a little sad, especially when it's someplace as beautiful as Mussoorie. Since the monsoon started, the weather has been incredibly clear - at least when it's not raining. But when it rains, it really rains...it starts pouring buckets all of a sudden, and if you get caught in it for even 30 seconds, you might as well have been standing in the shower with all of your clothes on (I'm actually still soaked from getting caught in the rain about two hours ago on the walk down here). It's worth it, though; the weather when it's not raining is amazing, and on a more important note, the monsoon was 3 whole weeks late this year, which had disastrous consequences for India's farmers. It still hasn't really started in earnest, though, so hopefully it will soon.
Even though I'm a little sad to leave Mussoorie, I'm definitely ready to head back to Delhi. When we first got to India, we were feeling totally overwhelmed by finishing up the school year and then immediately flying off to the disorienting streets of Delhi, but after 5 weeks of having our hands held through everything, I'm ready to be in control of my life again. I'm excited to have my own apartment, be able to prepare my own food, and go where I want when I want. It'll also be a chance to really get established here - I want to get involved with the community through volunteer work, and take dance and yoga classes. Basically, I'll finally be able to start feeling as though I'm living here, rather than just visiting. And that is, after all, what I came here for!
We're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning, and our internet access will probably be kinda spotty until we get wifi installed in our apartment, and I have no idea how long that will take. Something we've learned from being in India is that you can't expect prompt service with most things, especially things like internet installation, which require someone to come to your house. Everyone here runs on what they call Indian Standard Time, which basically means everyone is at least an hour late to everything. It's actually kind of nice - one of the first lessons you have to learn here is to accept that things outside your control are just going to be how they are, and you need to just chill out and go with it. Despite the atmosphere being loud, hectic and overwhelming, attitudes here are very laid back.
But anyway, my point is that I don't know when the next update will be. So just bear with us while we get it figured out!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Yamunotri, Part 2
Sorry for the delay in the second part of my Yamunotri post - it took forever to work through all those photos, but I'm finally done, and now we have 77 photos in the Yamunotri set on Flickr! So if you like looking at pictures of mountains (and other stuff as well, but mostly mountains), I suggest you have a look.
So, in my last post I mentioned how we (sort of accidentally) walked most of the way up to Yamunotri before turning around and heading back to the hotel. We actually made it up to this shrine, where Shaina and Jen (two other EAP students who were with us) attempted to converse with the Hindu priest who lived there. He didn't really speak English, and we all had less than two weeks of Hindi class under our belts, so very little information was communcated. But, they tried, and for their troubles he gave us all some prasad to eat. Here's the photo I took of this encounter:
We got back to the hotel just in time for dinner, and rested up as best we could (which, unfortunately, was not very well, since the beds were uncomfortable and damp) for our second trek out at 7:00 the next morning. Since we'd been up once before, and we had all day, we felt more able to take it slow and enjoy the scenery. Here are some pictures we took on the way up:
This is shrine we visited the day before:
For those who wanted to make the trip up to Yamunotri but couldn't or didn't want to walk (there were quite a few older people making the trip up), there were several other transportation options, including baskets carried on a porter's back:
and, for those who really want to travel in style, palanquins:
After several hours of hiking (and me taking a horse up for the last bit, since I was tired and it got really steep), Jordan and I finally made it to the top and could see the temple:
The temple was built on top of a hot spring, which Jordan visited - I didn't go in, since unlike the men's hot spring, the women's was underground, smelled bad and was a bit dungeon-y. Many accounts reported that the water was extremely hot, and Jordan's scalded red skin seemed to agree (he wasn't burned though, he was fine). After visiting the hot spring, we headed up the stairs where we were blessed through a ritual we didn't understand, where they stuck rice and dye on our foreheads. They then tried to extort a ridiculous amount of money out of us, but we were prepared from what other students told us, and had taken everything but 30 rupees out of our wallets.
The experience was not at all what we had expected - there were people clamoring to sell us things, and there were the ritual-providers who tried to take a totally unfair amount of money from us, and then immediately rushed us out of the way so other people could take our place. Also, there was no indoor area to the temple at all - it was prettty much just the hot spring and the upper area where we were taken through that ritual. It was honestly a bit disappointing. The river the temple was built upon, though, was beautiful and pure; it's hard (and really sad) to believe that it's the same river that becomes a noxious sludge by the time it reaches Delhi.
We spent a while chatting with other EAP students by the temple, and then headed back down. Here's a picture we took of ourselves just after we left:
The reason I look so small is because we were standing on a hill, and I was at a lower point than Jordan. It looks really exaggerated in the picture, though.
The next day, we hiked down from the town of Janki Chatti, where we were staying, to the town of Hanuman Chatti, 12 km away. We gathered in a parking lot before we set off, and a group of locals gathered to sit and stare at us:
The day was perfect for a hike, and it was a really nice, easy, 3 hour (or so) walk. We ran into an Indian family on the way, who told us about Hanuman when we told them we were headed for Hanuman Chatti. Hanuman is the Hindu monkey god, who is a servant of Rama. (I really need to get around to learning more about Hinduism.) There was a girl about our age with them, who told us she lived in Tennessee, and was in India visiting her family. It's interesting how close you feel to other Americans when you encounter them overseas, even though you normally live in a country full of them and you may not even particularly like them when they're there.
We saw some more beautiful scenery along the way:
We met our taxis when we got to Hanuman Chatti. The drive back took forever, like all travel in India does - it took about 6 hours to drive the 128 km back to Mussoorie. Driving in India is crazy, but at the same time, no one ever goes above about 35 miles per hour (either for safety reasons or because their cars just won't go any faster - I'm inclined to believe the latter) so it takes forever to get anywhere, even on flat, straight roads devoid of traffic. But even so, we were glad to be back; it was a pretty tiring trip.
This weekend, it's really nice to just have some time to ourselves for a change. The fact that I have no obligations today or tomorrow is really nice. We'll be finishing up our Hindi course on Friday and heading back to Delhi next weekend. I'm going to miss Mussoorie, beautiful, peaceful and cool as it is, but I'm excited to really get this trip started once we get back to Delhi. We'll have a lot more freedom, and I'm excited to start volunteering with an NGO (don't know which one yet, but our program director has connections to several organizations, so I'll look into it when we get back). We have a lot to look forward to!
So, in my last post I mentioned how we (sort of accidentally) walked most of the way up to Yamunotri before turning around and heading back to the hotel. We actually made it up to this shrine, where Shaina and Jen (two other EAP students who were with us) attempted to converse with the Hindu priest who lived there. He didn't really speak English, and we all had less than two weeks of Hindi class under our belts, so very little information was communcated. But, they tried, and for their troubles he gave us all some prasad to eat. Here's the photo I took of this encounter:
We got back to the hotel just in time for dinner, and rested up as best we could (which, unfortunately, was not very well, since the beds were uncomfortable and damp) for our second trek out at 7:00 the next morning. Since we'd been up once before, and we had all day, we felt more able to take it slow and enjoy the scenery. Here are some pictures we took on the way up:
This is shrine we visited the day before:
For those who wanted to make the trip up to Yamunotri but couldn't or didn't want to walk (there were quite a few older people making the trip up), there were several other transportation options, including baskets carried on a porter's back:
and, for those who really want to travel in style, palanquins:
After several hours of hiking (and me taking a horse up for the last bit, since I was tired and it got really steep), Jordan and I finally made it to the top and could see the temple:
The temple was built on top of a hot spring, which Jordan visited - I didn't go in, since unlike the men's hot spring, the women's was underground, smelled bad and was a bit dungeon-y. Many accounts reported that the water was extremely hot, and Jordan's scalded red skin seemed to agree (he wasn't burned though, he was fine). After visiting the hot spring, we headed up the stairs where we were blessed through a ritual we didn't understand, where they stuck rice and dye on our foreheads. They then tried to extort a ridiculous amount of money out of us, but we were prepared from what other students told us, and had taken everything but 30 rupees out of our wallets.
The experience was not at all what we had expected - there were people clamoring to sell us things, and there were the ritual-providers who tried to take a totally unfair amount of money from us, and then immediately rushed us out of the way so other people could take our place. Also, there was no indoor area to the temple at all - it was prettty much just the hot spring and the upper area where we were taken through that ritual. It was honestly a bit disappointing. The river the temple was built upon, though, was beautiful and pure; it's hard (and really sad) to believe that it's the same river that becomes a noxious sludge by the time it reaches Delhi.
We spent a while chatting with other EAP students by the temple, and then headed back down. Here's a picture we took of ourselves just after we left:
The reason I look so small is because we were standing on a hill, and I was at a lower point than Jordan. It looks really exaggerated in the picture, though.
The next day, we hiked down from the town of Janki Chatti, where we were staying, to the town of Hanuman Chatti, 12 km away. We gathered in a parking lot before we set off, and a group of locals gathered to sit and stare at us:
The day was perfect for a hike, and it was a really nice, easy, 3 hour (or so) walk. We ran into an Indian family on the way, who told us about Hanuman when we told them we were headed for Hanuman Chatti. Hanuman is the Hindu monkey god, who is a servant of Rama. (I really need to get around to learning more about Hinduism.) There was a girl about our age with them, who told us she lived in Tennessee, and was in India visiting her family. It's interesting how close you feel to other Americans when you encounter them overseas, even though you normally live in a country full of them and you may not even particularly like them when they're there.
We saw some more beautiful scenery along the way:
We met our taxis when we got to Hanuman Chatti. The drive back took forever, like all travel in India does - it took about 6 hours to drive the 128 km back to Mussoorie. Driving in India is crazy, but at the same time, no one ever goes above about 35 miles per hour (either for safety reasons or because their cars just won't go any faster - I'm inclined to believe the latter) so it takes forever to get anywhere, even on flat, straight roads devoid of traffic. But even so, we were glad to be back; it was a pretty tiring trip.
This weekend, it's really nice to just have some time to ourselves for a change. The fact that I have no obligations today or tomorrow is really nice. We'll be finishing up our Hindi course on Friday and heading back to Delhi next weekend. I'm going to miss Mussoorie, beautiful, peaceful and cool as it is, but I'm excited to really get this trip started once we get back to Delhi. We'll have a lot more freedom, and I'm excited to start volunteering with an NGO (don't know which one yet, but our program director has connections to several organizations, so I'll look into it when we get back). We have a lot to look forward to!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Re
JB: Thanks for the translation. I can always count on you to be savvy with the language of the intertubes. (See you already know a second language.)
Jordan: Thanks for the support on the home front. The threat is real and the stakes are dire, now is when we need everyone to step up and give that little extra to insure our men and woman on the simian front have the edge they need. A big part of our campaign has been education of the people at home and abroad of the terrible truth of the monkey menace.
Because Knowing Is Half The Battle!
Cathy: Don't worry about the cake. It's a lie anyway.
Kathy: The coffee is terrible. Well OK, it's alright. But it's not what you think of when you want coffee. Imagine yourself in a distant land, REALLY wanting a good cup of coffee with maybe a bit of sugar and splash of cream. You walk into a cafe and say, "ek pyala kay coffee dijiay" (dee-jee-ay), which as everyone knows means "please give me one cup of coffee." Now you're feeling pretty good about your ability to get what you want in a strange and confusing land... until your drink arrives.
It is a small glass of beige liquid, and if you're lucky it will be hot. Upon closer examination you find that what you hold is hot milk that has been strained through instant coffee and Marsala(Indian spices). It's has too much sugar in it to be bad tasting and so you drink it, but it leaves you with an empty feeling in your soul that you know only a real cup of coffee could ever fill.
If you learn enough about Indian culture to know to order Kala(black) Coffee from a south Indian restaurant you will still wined up with a cup of the worst instant coffee you have ever tasted, and when you request cream and sugar they will look at you like you're crazy for not just ordering regular coffee. However, this cup of bitter, warm, swill will taste amazing to you and you will relish it just for being what it is.
Jordan: Thanks for the support on the home front. The threat is real and the stakes are dire, now is when we need everyone to step up and give that little extra to insure our men and woman on the simian front have the edge they need. A big part of our campaign has been education of the people at home and abroad of the terrible truth of the monkey menace.
Because Knowing Is Half The Battle!
Cathy: Don't worry about the cake. It's a lie anyway.
Kathy: The coffee is terrible. Well OK, it's alright. But it's not what you think of when you want coffee. Imagine yourself in a distant land, REALLY wanting a good cup of coffee with maybe a bit of sugar and splash of cream. You walk into a cafe and say, "ek pyala kay coffee dijiay" (dee-jee-ay), which as everyone knows means "please give me one cup of coffee." Now you're feeling pretty good about your ability to get what you want in a strange and confusing land... until your drink arrives.
It is a small glass of beige liquid, and if you're lucky it will be hot. Upon closer examination you find that what you hold is hot milk that has been strained through instant coffee and Marsala(Indian spices). It's has too much sugar in it to be bad tasting and so you drink it, but it leaves you with an empty feeling in your soul that you know only a real cup of coffee could ever fill.
If you learn enough about Indian culture to know to order Kala(black) Coffee from a south Indian restaurant you will still wined up with a cup of the worst instant coffee you have ever tasted, and when you request cream and sugar they will look at you like you're crazy for not just ordering regular coffee. However, this cup of bitter, warm, swill will taste amazing to you and you will relish it just for being what it is.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Cake Is A Lie
So, we are three weeks in to our four week language program. It is ridiculous. Who knew a language could have so many words in it? Roxy and I are doing fairly well in our studies, however we do both feel a bit behind on our vocabulary. Roxy made some flash cards yesterday so hopefully that will clear that problem right up.
Hindi is actually a pretty easy language once you get past the fact that you're writing it in a different alphabet. EXAMPLE!!!: They only have four irregular verbs in their entire language. ONLY FOUR! It is a very formulaic language without many exceptions so when you learn a rule that's pretty much all there is to it. Actually learning Hindi is making me realize how stupid English is. Our entire language is made up of exceptions and irregulars. Boo on that.
While I'm on the subject of language. Mom: most everyone here has some level of proficiency in English. You need it to go to college here and they teach it in high school. That being the case I don't really need to speak Hindi to get by, I can just trust that everyone else is better educated that me. What I do need Hindi for is to not look like a ignorant American tourist looking to get ripped off.
On a completely diff(OMG! I was just handed a bowl of homemade Punjabi sweet rice! I am told that it is a traditional dish made when a new wife comes into her husbands home for the first time. On a completely unrelated topic, the internet cafe's owner, Peter, was just married.)erent note: I was threatened by some monkeys this morning. Those simians roll mad deep. I left for school a bit late today and as such was walking by my self. After passing a few of them I noticed that they had begun to follow me along rooftops in an ever growing pack hissing and howling at me. To make matters worse I didn't have my cane with me and was therefor unarmed. Feeling them start to move in I resisted the urge to 23 skiddoo and instead quickly scanned the path for adequate impromptu projectiles. Running is the worst thing you can do, you turn your back on your foe, show fear, and make yourself prey; plus they can run MUCH faster than you. I turned and flung a few rocks into their advancing mass and the cowardly beasts broke ranks and fled.
This was only the last skirmish in a drawn out battle for Dev Dar Hotel. Many students have been attacked, chased, intimidated, and baselessly slandered. It is disheartening to admit that our EAP forces have proven to skittish to put up a real fight. Most of those attacked have responded by running away; and some even still refuse to admit that monkeys are godless killing machines bent on our destruction. We have had some victories though. I related to you before how one of our few fighters, Louis, pepper sprayed an attacking monkey last week which is to date our greatest victory.
Sorry for the break in the posts. We have a TON of pictures from Yamunotri that need to get resized before we can post them and we would rather do the second half of the Yamunotri post with the photos that go along with it. So just wait it out, we'll let fill you in on the rest of our shenanigans soon enough.
I would love to here from some of you guys who haven't posted on here yet. Don't get me wrong, It's always great to here from: Dad, Mom, Caleb, Cathy, Matt, and J.B., but we're starting to wonder if our readership is down to six people now, and that would bode ill for our ad revenue.
KTHXBY
Hindi is actually a pretty easy language once you get past the fact that you're writing it in a different alphabet. EXAMPLE!!!: They only have four irregular verbs in their entire language. ONLY FOUR! It is a very formulaic language without many exceptions so when you learn a rule that's pretty much all there is to it. Actually learning Hindi is making me realize how stupid English is. Our entire language is made up of exceptions and irregulars. Boo on that.
While I'm on the subject of language. Mom: most everyone here has some level of proficiency in English. You need it to go to college here and they teach it in high school. That being the case I don't really need to speak Hindi to get by, I can just trust that everyone else is better educated that me. What I do need Hindi for is to not look like a ignorant American tourist looking to get ripped off.
On a completely diff(OMG! I was just handed a bowl of homemade Punjabi sweet rice! I am told that it is a traditional dish made when a new wife comes into her husbands home for the first time. On a completely unrelated topic, the internet cafe's owner, Peter, was just married.)erent note: I was threatened by some monkeys this morning. Those simians roll mad deep. I left for school a bit late today and as such was walking by my self. After passing a few of them I noticed that they had begun to follow me along rooftops in an ever growing pack hissing and howling at me. To make matters worse I didn't have my cane with me and was therefor unarmed. Feeling them start to move in I resisted the urge to 23 skiddoo and instead quickly scanned the path for adequate impromptu projectiles. Running is the worst thing you can do, you turn your back on your foe, show fear, and make yourself prey; plus they can run MUCH faster than you. I turned and flung a few rocks into their advancing mass and the cowardly beasts broke ranks and fled.
This was only the last skirmish in a drawn out battle for Dev Dar Hotel. Many students have been attacked, chased, intimidated, and baselessly slandered. It is disheartening to admit that our EAP forces have proven to skittish to put up a real fight. Most of those attacked have responded by running away; and some even still refuse to admit that monkeys are godless killing machines bent on our destruction. We have had some victories though. I related to you before how one of our few fighters, Louis, pepper sprayed an attacking monkey last week which is to date our greatest victory.
Sorry for the break in the posts. We have a TON of pictures from Yamunotri that need to get resized before we can post them and we would rather do the second half of the Yamunotri post with the photos that go along with it. So just wait it out, we'll let fill you in on the rest of our shenanigans soon enough.
I would love to here from some of you guys who haven't posted on here yet. Don't get me wrong, It's always great to here from: Dad, Mom, Caleb, Cathy, Matt, and J.B., but we're starting to wonder if our readership is down to six people now, and that would bode ill for our ad revenue.
KTHXBY
Monday, July 13, 2009
Back from Yamunotri
We spent this past weekend in a little town in the Himalayas called Janki Chatti. The point of our trip was to hike up to Yamunotri, where there is a Hindu temple, and where the Yamuna river originates. Yamunotri can only be accessed by foot, and it's a 6.5 km hike from Janki Chatti. That doesn't sound like it would be too intense, but it's all uphill, and the air is really thin up there (the elevation is about 10,600 ft). We were overwhelmed by beautiful scenery everywhere we looked, even on the drive there, where I took this picture (and several others):
Something else we saw a lot of on the way...adorable Indian children!
This is a shot of the town of Janki Chatti, where our hotel was:
The town was a very cool (but very rustic...i.e. full of horse poop and flies) place, and the people there were all extremely friendly and nice. But, I have to say...even though we're used to kind of minimalistic living conditions, our hotel was pretty bad. The beds were hard as rocks, the power went out several times a day (although we're used to that), there was no hot water, and everything was damp, and consequently, smelly (including our clothes after they had been in the room overnight). Especially the bathroom. The shower was a faucet sticking out of the wall at about waist height, and the sink drain went into a tube that just dumped out onto the ground at your feet. All the water was supposed to drain into a grating in the far back corner of the room, but a lot of it didn't make it there, so the bathroom floor was just soaking wet all the time. It was kinda gross. I have a picture which I'll upload onto Flickr later, once we're done going through all of the pictures. To our hotel's credit, though, the food they made us was really good.
That said, the area was really beautiful. One of the most striking things we noticed was that the sky was actually blue, which we haven't seen since we left California - even in Mussoorie the air is a greyish blue color. On the first night there, we were supposed to stay at the hotel, but a bunch of us went with a guide who said he would take us to some hot springs. We didn't realize at the time that the hot springs were actually the hot springs all the way up at Yamunotri, where we would be hiking to the next day. So, after making it about two thirds of the way there and realizing where we were headed, we went back, since we'd be going again the next day. We did get some beautiful photos though:
And we saw some cool stuff on the way, like this giant stag beetle:
We have lots more pictures, but I haven't had time to resize and upload them all. There will be another update soon with more details from the trip, along with more photos. I also uploaded a bunch of pictures on Flickr that I didn't post here on the blog, so please check them out.
Something else we saw a lot of on the way...adorable Indian children!
This is a shot of the town of Janki Chatti, where our hotel was:
The town was a very cool (but very rustic...i.e. full of horse poop and flies) place, and the people there were all extremely friendly and nice. But, I have to say...even though we're used to kind of minimalistic living conditions, our hotel was pretty bad. The beds were hard as rocks, the power went out several times a day (although we're used to that), there was no hot water, and everything was damp, and consequently, smelly (including our clothes after they had been in the room overnight). Especially the bathroom. The shower was a faucet sticking out of the wall at about waist height, and the sink drain went into a tube that just dumped out onto the ground at your feet. All the water was supposed to drain into a grating in the far back corner of the room, but a lot of it didn't make it there, so the bathroom floor was just soaking wet all the time. It was kinda gross. I have a picture which I'll upload onto Flickr later, once we're done going through all of the pictures. To our hotel's credit, though, the food they made us was really good.
That said, the area was really beautiful. One of the most striking things we noticed was that the sky was actually blue, which we haven't seen since we left California - even in Mussoorie the air is a greyish blue color. On the first night there, we were supposed to stay at the hotel, but a bunch of us went with a guide who said he would take us to some hot springs. We didn't realize at the time that the hot springs were actually the hot springs all the way up at Yamunotri, where we would be hiking to the next day. So, after making it about two thirds of the way there and realizing where we were headed, we went back, since we'd be going again the next day. We did get some beautiful photos though:
And we saw some cool stuff on the way, like this giant stag beetle:
We have lots more pictures, but I haven't had time to resize and upload them all. There will be another update soon with more details from the trip, along with more photos. I also uploaded a bunch of pictures on Flickr that I didn't post here on the blog, so please check them out.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Haridwar/Rishikesh Trip
Sorry for the late update. I was feeling a bit under the weather this week. I'm fine now though!
So, we arrived in Haridwar just before noon on Saturday, along with 5 of our fellow EAP friends. Getting there was a bit stressful since our taxi drivers didn't know where our hotel was, and didn't speak English very well. But we eventually found it, and it was definitely worth the trouble. The hotel was comprised of several bamboo huts surrounding a lovely courtyard garden, with steps that led down into the Ganges (literally into the Ganges - we were staying right on the bank of the river). Here are some pictures of the hotel:
This is the garden/courtyard area right outside our hut.
Me sitting on the steps with my feet in the Ganges. I spent a lot of time here - it was really peaceful, and I couldn't help but feel relaxed and meditative.
Possibly the best part of the hotel experience is that the hut was big enough to comfortably fit all 7 of us in it, and it only cost 1500 rupees for the night (that works out to a little over US $2 per person)!!
Anyway, after checking in we went out to find some lunch, and stopped at the first restaurant we came to. That was fun, since the only menu they had was in Hindi, so we got to practice our Hindi skills as we ordered lunch. Here's what the menu looked like:
The food was delicious, and we got to feel triumphant about successfully employing our Hindi skills. After that we wandered the town a bit, and went to the town center where people were bathing, swimming and playing about in the Ganges. All of us decided to go into the river as well, but the guys were the only ones for whom it was socially acceptable to actually dive in and swim around. Here's Jordan, thoroughly soaked:
Anytime we stopped for more than 15 seconds or so, a crowd would start to gather to stare at and/or take pictures of us. Sometimes it was several layers of people deep, and we had to push our way through to keep walking. This might give you some idea of what it's like:
It was so hot out that even after jumping into the river, we were all totally dry within an hour or two. We walked around the bazaar, didn't buy anything, and eventually went back to the hotel, where some people napped and some of us hung out by the river. Then we went to the fire ceremony, which was amazing. A huge crowd of people gathered, and we watched from a bridge above the festivities (we tried to go in, but we would have had to check our shoes, and we wanted to guard our stuff after a friend of ours had his shoes stolen under similar circumstances).
I was expecting it to be this solemn sort of religious ceremony, but people were totally talking and laughing and splashing around in the river (and taking pictures of us from below, if they happened to look up and see us). As the sun set, more and more flower boats were sent floating downstream. The people in the river dunked themselves in it 108 times (which is apparently a number that's pleasing to the gods). All the other girls went in and participated, but we didn't get to go because we were stuck watching everybody's stuff. Oh well. When it started to actually get dark, they played music over a loudspeaker and people started singing along. Then torches were lit, and people gave donations and put their hands above the flames, then touched their foreheads. Here are the other videos of the ceremony:
The next day, half of the group went back to Mussoorie, but Jordan, our friend Jen and I went on to Rishikesh. Rishikesh is built around two bridges that cross the Ganges, Ram Jhula and Lakshman Jhula (named after Hindu gods...I wish I knew more Hindu mythology). This is the two of us on Lakshman Jhula:
Another picture of the bridge:
And the view from the bridge:
We had lunch in a cafe here and chatted with an Eastern European guy and two Indian guys (who challenged us to read a sign in Hindi, and were shocked when we actually could). We spent the rest of the day walking around, visited a bathing ghat (a marble pavilion with steps leading down into the Ganges) and hung out in another cafe with a great view above the Ganges. We couldn't believe how many tourists we saw! We're so unaccustomed to seeing other white people, I actually almost felt compelled to take pictures of them myself.
Unfortunately, since we only had 6 hours (there was a time limit on our taxi's parking spot), we didn't get to see much of the town, and we didn't get to go to any ashrams or do any yoga. I wasn't too disappointed though, since I felt like I got to do lots of chilling out and meditating in Haridwar.
Anyway, all in all it was a very cool trip. There are way more photos on our Flickr photostream, and some more videos on our YouTube channel.
Tomorrow morning at 7 we're heading out for another weekend trip - our whole group is going hiking up to Yamunotri, where there's a Hindu temple. Hopefully when we get back we'll have lots of pictures of beautiful scenery!
So, we arrived in Haridwar just before noon on Saturday, along with 5 of our fellow EAP friends. Getting there was a bit stressful since our taxi drivers didn't know where our hotel was, and didn't speak English very well. But we eventually found it, and it was definitely worth the trouble. The hotel was comprised of several bamboo huts surrounding a lovely courtyard garden, with steps that led down into the Ganges (literally into the Ganges - we were staying right on the bank of the river). Here are some pictures of the hotel:
This is the garden/courtyard area right outside our hut.
Me sitting on the steps with my feet in the Ganges. I spent a lot of time here - it was really peaceful, and I couldn't help but feel relaxed and meditative.
Possibly the best part of the hotel experience is that the hut was big enough to comfortably fit all 7 of us in it, and it only cost 1500 rupees for the night (that works out to a little over US $2 per person)!!
Anyway, after checking in we went out to find some lunch, and stopped at the first restaurant we came to. That was fun, since the only menu they had was in Hindi, so we got to practice our Hindi skills as we ordered lunch. Here's what the menu looked like:
The food was delicious, and we got to feel triumphant about successfully employing our Hindi skills. After that we wandered the town a bit, and went to the town center where people were bathing, swimming and playing about in the Ganges. All of us decided to go into the river as well, but the guys were the only ones for whom it was socially acceptable to actually dive in and swim around. Here's Jordan, thoroughly soaked:
Anytime we stopped for more than 15 seconds or so, a crowd would start to gather to stare at and/or take pictures of us. Sometimes it was several layers of people deep, and we had to push our way through to keep walking. This might give you some idea of what it's like:
It was so hot out that even after jumping into the river, we were all totally dry within an hour or two. We walked around the bazaar, didn't buy anything, and eventually went back to the hotel, where some people napped and some of us hung out by the river. Then we went to the fire ceremony, which was amazing. A huge crowd of people gathered, and we watched from a bridge above the festivities (we tried to go in, but we would have had to check our shoes, and we wanted to guard our stuff after a friend of ours had his shoes stolen under similar circumstances).
I was expecting it to be this solemn sort of religious ceremony, but people were totally talking and laughing and splashing around in the river (and taking pictures of us from below, if they happened to look up and see us). As the sun set, more and more flower boats were sent floating downstream. The people in the river dunked themselves in it 108 times (which is apparently a number that's pleasing to the gods). All the other girls went in and participated, but we didn't get to go because we were stuck watching everybody's stuff. Oh well. When it started to actually get dark, they played music over a loudspeaker and people started singing along. Then torches were lit, and people gave donations and put their hands above the flames, then touched their foreheads. Here are the other videos of the ceremony:
The next day, half of the group went back to Mussoorie, but Jordan, our friend Jen and I went on to Rishikesh. Rishikesh is built around two bridges that cross the Ganges, Ram Jhula and Lakshman Jhula (named after Hindu gods...I wish I knew more Hindu mythology). This is the two of us on Lakshman Jhula:
Another picture of the bridge:
And the view from the bridge:
We had lunch in a cafe here and chatted with an Eastern European guy and two Indian guys (who challenged us to read a sign in Hindi, and were shocked when we actually could). We spent the rest of the day walking around, visited a bathing ghat (a marble pavilion with steps leading down into the Ganges) and hung out in another cafe with a great view above the Ganges. We couldn't believe how many tourists we saw! We're so unaccustomed to seeing other white people, I actually almost felt compelled to take pictures of them myself.
Unfortunately, since we only had 6 hours (there was a time limit on our taxi's parking spot), we didn't get to see much of the town, and we didn't get to go to any ashrams or do any yoga. I wasn't too disappointed though, since I felt like I got to do lots of chilling out and meditating in Haridwar.
Anyway, all in all it was a very cool trip. There are way more photos on our Flickr photostream, and some more videos on our YouTube channel.
Tomorrow morning at 7 we're heading out for another weekend trip - our whole group is going hiking up to Yamunotri, where there's a Hindu temple. Hopefully when we get back we'll have lots of pictures of beautiful scenery!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Pics are up!
I just posted a TON of pictures on our Flickr account. Check out the new Rishikesh/Haridvar folder. Here are a few of my favorites.
This is Roxy in the talor, Iman's house. His wife helped Roxy put the sari on. I'm told it was quite the possess, but well worth it if you ask me.
My absolute favorite picture from the entire trip. A shot of the Haridvar Fire Ceremony from above.
Probably my second favorite picture. This little boy wanted to shake all of our hands and then followed us around for a while.
Anyway, there are about 40 more picks and 4 more videos so check them out.
This is Roxy in the talor, Iman's house. His wife helped Roxy put the sari on. I'm told it was quite the possess, but well worth it if you ask me.
My absolute favorite picture from the entire trip. A shot of the Haridvar Fire Ceremony from above.
Probably my second favorite picture. This little boy wanted to shake all of our hands and then followed us around for a while.
Anyway, there are about 40 more picks and 4 more videos so check them out.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Wish list
Some people (well, Corey, at least) have expressed some interest in sending us a care package while we're here in India. So, we're working on compiling a wish list on Amazon, although I don't know if they'll ship all the way over here. But, it's an easy way to inform anyone who wants to buy us stuff of what we want. So far we've only been able to come up with a few things, but they're the highest on our list. We'll probably update the list as we think of more things to add, but we'll make sure to continue to rank them by priority so you know what we want the most.
Here's where you can look at our list: https://www.amazon.com/wishlist/1FC5XIOCOYEVC
And here's the address you can send stuff to (letters, packages, etc.) for the entire duration of our stay in India:
EAP Study Center c/o Vijay Puliampet
8 Sri Ram Road, Flat 17,
Civil Lines, Delhi 110-054
India
Thanks to anyone who wants to send us stuff! Also, if you want anything in particular from India (within reason...sorry, no monkeys), please don't hesitate to let us know, and we'll try to bring it back for you.
Tomorrow I'll write a post about our Haridwar/Rishikesh trip, complete with pictures!
Here's where you can look at our list: https://www.amazon.com/wishlist/1FC5XIOCOYEVC
And here's the address you can send stuff to (letters, packages, etc.) for the entire duration of our stay in India:
EAP Study Center c/o Vijay Puliampet
8 Sri Ram Road, Flat 17,
Civil Lines, Delhi 110-054
India
Thanks to anyone who wants to send us stuff! Also, if you want anything in particular from India (within reason...sorry, no monkeys), please don't hesitate to let us know, and we'll try to bring it back for you.
Tomorrow I'll write a post about our Haridwar/Rishikesh trip, complete with pictures!
Back From Haridvar/Rishikesh
This weekend Roxy, myself, and five others left for a weekend trip to Haridvar and Rishikesh (I'm probably not spelling that right). We had taxis pick us up at 8:00am on Saturday and made it to Haridvar by about 11:00.
In Haridvar we wound up staying at this amazing hotel; it was a four bed hut that we fit all seven people in that opened up to a garden with steps that led down into the Gangees. Very cool. We got kinda lost, bathed in the Gangees and went to a fire seramony that they do every evening at sundown.
The part of the Gangees that is next to the town is a holy place in Hinduism because it was said to have been made when Vishnu stepped off of the world. Thousands gather every evening to dunk themselves in the river 108 times (a lucky number), send bowls made of leaves and filled with flowers and candles down the river, and run their hands through holy fire. It was realy amazing. I can't bellive that that many people show up to it every day.
The next day half of our group when back to mussoorie, but Roxy, Jen and myself when to Rishikesh. Rishikesh is famous for being the place that The Beatles stayed in India and where they wrote most of the White Album. It is the self proclamed "Yoga Capital of The World" and is one of the most touristy places in the country. We wound up just walking around town and stopping in a cool cafe where we met a guy from eastern europe and two Indian guys. We realy didn't have the time there that we needed to see anything and all of Rishikesh's many temples went unseen by us.
One really cool thing about the trip was that we all wound up using our Hindi a lot. Our taxi driver didn't speek any English and we had to order food off of menues written in Hindi script. Roxy left her water bottel at the restorant and when she came back a few hours latter she had to ask for it by saying, "pani bartan."
I have about 150 pictures from the trip, but I haven't resized them yet so they won't be posted untill tomorrow.
In Haridvar we wound up staying at this amazing hotel; it was a four bed hut that we fit all seven people in that opened up to a garden with steps that led down into the Gangees. Very cool. We got kinda lost, bathed in the Gangees and went to a fire seramony that they do every evening at sundown.
The part of the Gangees that is next to the town is a holy place in Hinduism because it was said to have been made when Vishnu stepped off of the world. Thousands gather every evening to dunk themselves in the river 108 times (a lucky number), send bowls made of leaves and filled with flowers and candles down the river, and run their hands through holy fire. It was realy amazing. I can't bellive that that many people show up to it every day.
The next day half of our group when back to mussoorie, but Roxy, Jen and myself when to Rishikesh. Rishikesh is famous for being the place that The Beatles stayed in India and where they wrote most of the White Album. It is the self proclamed "Yoga Capital of The World" and is one of the most touristy places in the country. We wound up just walking around town and stopping in a cool cafe where we met a guy from eastern europe and two Indian guys. We realy didn't have the time there that we needed to see anything and all of Rishikesh's many temples went unseen by us.
One really cool thing about the trip was that we all wound up using our Hindi a lot. Our taxi driver didn't speek any English and we had to order food off of menues written in Hindi script. Roxy left her water bottel at the restorant and when she came back a few hours latter she had to ask for it by saying, "pani bartan."
I have about 150 pictures from the trip, but I haven't resized them yet so they won't be posted untill tomorrow.
Friday, July 3, 2009
First week of Hindi lessons...done!
We just finished our first week of Hindi lessons at Landour Language School in Mussoorie. And I have to say...when they say intensive language program, they mean intensive. It's amazing how fast we're learning. We spend 4 hours a day in class, and then have several more hours of homework a night, usually. I don't mind, though - I think it's a lot of fun to learn a new language, and Hindi is surprisingly intuitive. We know most of the alphabet now, which means we can read most Hindi words without a problem, since Hindi is totally phonetic. Last night while I was doing my homework, it hit me that I was writing full sentences in what was indecipherable gibberish to me only 4 days earlier. A lot of people are feeling overwhelmed because we're moving so fast, but I love it! I think I'm going to get an outside tutor for conversational Hindi, too. Oh, that reminds me: one of my little factoids from an earlier post was misinformed. One of the other EAP students told me that there is no Hindi word for "thank you," but that is entirely false. The Hindi word for "thank you" is dhanyawad.
In other news, I downgraded myself to mostly vegan this week. There are two main reasons for this:
1. Where we're staying in Mussoorie, we don't really have access to a kitchen or anything, so we can't prepare our own food. Being here is a bit of a stressful adjustment (although I feel pretty well adjusted at this point), and being able to eat hardly anything was making it a lot more difficult.
2. The main reason I abstained from dairy products in the US was for reasons relating to the farming practices involved in their production. As far as I can tell from what I've seen and the research I've done, people treat cows a lot better here.
That said, this has also made me realize that being vegan isn't that much of a choice anymore. I am totally disgusted by the taste of milk/cheese/butter (especially butter!), so in anything non-vegan I eat, the taste has to be pretty well disguised. That means I'm pretty much limited to some cookies, pancakes without butter, occasional chocolate, etc. But even having that can help make things seem a little less stressful - I never realized how much sweets can really make me feel better when I'm having a bad day. Call me an emotional eater I guess. Anyway, I will probably be going back to full vegan again once we get back to Delhi and can prepare our own food - I feel more comfortable when I'm eating totally vegan.
Jordan and I are going to do something cool this weekend. Until now, we had our mind set on heading out to the Hindu holy city of Haridwar on Saturday, spending the night in an ashram there and going to Rishikesh (the self-styled yoga and meditation capital of the world - the Beatles wrote most of the White Album while staying in an ashram there) on Sunday, then heading back Sunday night. BUT, we just got invited to a Sikh wedding tomorrow. So, we might go to that instead. We'll have to ponder it and figure out tonight what our plans are. Either way, I'm sure we'll have lots to report.
Also, I just got my sari back from the tailor, and it is amazing. I have no business wearing something so beautiful! Jordan's first reaction when he saw me was to say, "aap sunder hain," which means, "you are beautiful." (I just had to mention that.) There will be pictures of me in a sari with the next blog update. Speaking of pictures, here are some new ones:
Every day on our way to school, we go past this point where there is a little valley between two peaks. On days when the clouds are low (which happens pretty often), we see them rolling through the valley like this.
Jordan just got this kurta pajama (that's what these suits are called) tailored. Including fabric, tailoring and everything, it only cost him Rs. 350 (about $7 US)!! He bought that snazzy cane here too.
We saw these boys playing cricket on the street in Landour, which is about a 10 minute walk down the hill from our hotel.
There are a couple more new pictures up on our Flickr photostream too.
In other news, I downgraded myself to mostly vegan this week. There are two main reasons for this:
1. Where we're staying in Mussoorie, we don't really have access to a kitchen or anything, so we can't prepare our own food. Being here is a bit of a stressful adjustment (although I feel pretty well adjusted at this point), and being able to eat hardly anything was making it a lot more difficult.
2. The main reason I abstained from dairy products in the US was for reasons relating to the farming practices involved in their production. As far as I can tell from what I've seen and the research I've done, people treat cows a lot better here.
That said, this has also made me realize that being vegan isn't that much of a choice anymore. I am totally disgusted by the taste of milk/cheese/butter (especially butter!), so in anything non-vegan I eat, the taste has to be pretty well disguised. That means I'm pretty much limited to some cookies, pancakes without butter, occasional chocolate, etc. But even having that can help make things seem a little less stressful - I never realized how much sweets can really make me feel better when I'm having a bad day. Call me an emotional eater I guess. Anyway, I will probably be going back to full vegan again once we get back to Delhi and can prepare our own food - I feel more comfortable when I'm eating totally vegan.
Jordan and I are going to do something cool this weekend. Until now, we had our mind set on heading out to the Hindu holy city of Haridwar on Saturday, spending the night in an ashram there and going to Rishikesh (the self-styled yoga and meditation capital of the world - the Beatles wrote most of the White Album while staying in an ashram there) on Sunday, then heading back Sunday night. BUT, we just got invited to a Sikh wedding tomorrow. So, we might go to that instead. We'll have to ponder it and figure out tonight what our plans are. Either way, I'm sure we'll have lots to report.
Also, I just got my sari back from the tailor, and it is amazing. I have no business wearing something so beautiful! Jordan's first reaction when he saw me was to say, "aap sunder hain," which means, "you are beautiful." (I just had to mention that.) There will be pictures of me in a sari with the next blog update. Speaking of pictures, here are some new ones:
Every day on our way to school, we go past this point where there is a little valley between two peaks. On days when the clouds are low (which happens pretty often), we see them rolling through the valley like this.
Jordan just got this kurta pajama (that's what these suits are called) tailored. Including fabric, tailoring and everything, it only cost him Rs. 350 (about $7 US)!! He bought that snazzy cane here too.
We saw these boys playing cricket on the street in Landour, which is about a 10 minute walk down the hill from our hotel.
There are a couple more new pictures up on our Flickr photostream too.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Namaste
Finished our third day of language class this morning. I think that our lives will be defined by school for the next few weeks. Yesterday I had four hours of writing homework and then had to study vocabulary for my quiz this morning. The quiz was pretty easy though, I just had to know some genders, how to write some thins in Hindi script and some easy translations. Actually I would be Ok with our class moving a bit faster and not spending as much time in review.
I'm thinking of going on a two day trip to the Ganges this weekend. I forget what the spot is called but apparently there is a huge temple there where they have a ceremony every night that involves floating a bunch of fires down the river. I'll probably have some pictures if I wind up going.
Matt: Perhaps you didn't read all the posts and therefor missed my comment on the monkeys, so I'll say it again. Monkeys are vicious, violent and evil little vermin. They feast on trash and the fear of others. Yesterday I heard a pounding on the tin roof of my room and when I looked out of the window there was a monkey squatting on my roof pounding it with both fists. When I rapped on the door to make him stop, two monkeys jumped on the steps up to my room, one rushed the door and they all started howling at me. There was a wall between me and them and I still feared for my life. I will say it again: Monkeys are not cute. They are honorable tiny deformed ninja that want your soul.
Ok... I'm glad I cleared that up.
Until next time,
Be excellent to one another.
I'm thinking of going on a two day trip to the Ganges this weekend. I forget what the spot is called but apparently there is a huge temple there where they have a ceremony every night that involves floating a bunch of fires down the river. I'll probably have some pictures if I wind up going.
Matt: Perhaps you didn't read all the posts and therefor missed my comment on the monkeys, so I'll say it again. Monkeys are vicious, violent and evil little vermin. They feast on trash and the fear of others. Yesterday I heard a pounding on the tin roof of my room and when I looked out of the window there was a monkey squatting on my roof pounding it with both fists. When I rapped on the door to make him stop, two monkeys jumped on the steps up to my room, one rushed the door and they all started howling at me. There was a wall between me and them and I still feared for my life. I will say it again: Monkeys are not cute. They are honorable tiny deformed ninja that want your soul.
Ok... I'm glad I cleared that up.
Until next time,
Be excellent to one another.
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