Our roommates are leaving one by one, and with them goes the computer chargers. After tonight we will no longer have regular computer access.
Handed in our last papers today, got tickets for Rajasthan for tomorrow. Everyone came by our place and we had a big family dinner with everyone who is still in Delhi. Even though we all partied last night, it was nice to see everyone in a more relaxed setting. It is going to be really strange not seeing everyone all the time. We have made a great little family here.
So, I will see you all on or near the 27th.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Done!!!!
We're done!!!!!
We both finished all our papers and took our Hindi final, and are now officially free from all academic obligations! Yay!!!
Last night everyone in EAP got together to celebrate the end of the program, since people start leaving for their various adventures today - actually, our roommate Ronny has actually already left, and his presence at the party was sorely missed. We ended up not getting home until almost 5 AM, but even though we're not normally big partiers we had a lot of fun. This is a great group of people and it was great to hang out with everyone. Going through an experience like this together definitely has a way of bonding people, so there was a lot of love and group hugging going on. It was nice.
So now, Jordan and I just have to turn in our papers, clean up the apartment somewhat, do some shopping for last minute things we want to get before we leave India, and work out our travel plans. Unfortunately, we just found out our travel agent totally failed us and we ended up not being able to get tickets to Darjeeling. So, much as that sucks, we're going to see if we can get tickets to Udaipur for tomorrow night instead. Although it doesn't have the clever tie-in with the start of our relationship (going to see The Darjeeling Limited on a date), by all accounts, Udaipur is incredibly beautiful, peaceful and romantic, which sounds perfect to us. Plus, it's in Rajasthan, and I love Rajasthan! It's full of camels!
We both finished all our papers and took our Hindi final, and are now officially free from all academic obligations! Yay!!!
Last night everyone in EAP got together to celebrate the end of the program, since people start leaving for their various adventures today - actually, our roommate Ronny has actually already left, and his presence at the party was sorely missed. We ended up not getting home until almost 5 AM, but even though we're not normally big partiers we had a lot of fun. This is a great group of people and it was great to hang out with everyone. Going through an experience like this together definitely has a way of bonding people, so there was a lot of love and group hugging going on. It was nice.
So now, Jordan and I just have to turn in our papers, clean up the apartment somewhat, do some shopping for last minute things we want to get before we leave India, and work out our travel plans. Unfortunately, we just found out our travel agent totally failed us and we ended up not being able to get tickets to Darjeeling. So, much as that sucks, we're going to see if we can get tickets to Udaipur for tomorrow night instead. Although it doesn't have the clever tie-in with the start of our relationship (going to see The Darjeeling Limited on a date), by all accounts, Udaipur is incredibly beautiful, peaceful and romantic, which sounds perfect to us. Plus, it's in Rajasthan, and I love Rajasthan! It's full of camels!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Good news
I have lots of good news today! The first piece of good news (that I'm sure our family and friends will be excited about) is that Jordan and I are coming home two weeks early; we'll be flying back November 27th. We haven't officially changed our tickets yet, because it's the weekend and the travel agent won't be open until Monday, but they did tell us that it shouldn't be a problem. So we'll be in Sac first, then I'm going down to spend the holidays in LA while Jordan stays in Sac, then we'll be moving back to Santa Cruz. Which brings me to my other piece of good news...
We're getting our old house back!! We had assumed our old roommates had moved out long ago and our landlords had found new tenants, but I just got an email from our old roommates this morning saying that they're moving out December 15th and we can have the house back if we want it. Which we totally do! We love that house, and I am beyond excited that we get to move back in. We will have to have roommate(s), which wasn't what we were planning on, but this time we're in a position to be picky about it. Our landlords are awesome and cool with pets (which is a lifesaver because we're getting a dog when we get back, and renting in Santa Cruz with a dog is almost impossible), the location is perfect, we don't have to go to the trouble of finding a place to live, and we just really love that house. So yeah. I'm really excited!
We're getting our old house back!! We had assumed our old roommates had moved out long ago and our landlords had found new tenants, but I just got an email from our old roommates this morning saying that they're moving out December 15th and we can have the house back if we want it. Which we totally do! We love that house, and I am beyond excited that we get to move back in. We will have to have roommate(s), which wasn't what we were planning on, but this time we're in a position to be picky about it. Our landlords are awesome and cool with pets (which is a lifesaver because we're getting a dog when we get back, and renting in Santa Cruz with a dog is almost impossible), the location is perfect, we don't have to go to the trouble of finding a place to live, and we just really love that house. So yeah. I'm really excited!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Uh... School
Just sitting around trying to be productive today. Finally trying to stop procrastinating and get some work towards my finals done. I've been kinda' stressed about my lack of momentum which is making me want to avoid the cause of my stress by goofing off instead of just doing some work to remove the stress itself.
I'm eating some lunch right now (spicy fried rice) that we just had delivered and then it'll be back to work. My goal for today is to send out one email and read and take notes on one of my three sources.
Good times.
I'm eating some lunch right now (spicy fried rice) that we just had delivered and then it'll be back to work. My goal for today is to send out one email and read and take notes on one of my three sources.
Good times.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Diwali and the Pushkar Fair
Jordan and I have been so busy procrastinating writing our final papers that we've been kinda neglecting the blog. While we haven't been doing much to write about in those past few weeks, there have been a few things worth mentioning, so I figured I'd mention them. Plus, I'm sick again, so I'm just lying around doing nothing today. I don't know why I just can't seem to go more than a couple weeks without getting sick here. Bluh. Anyway.
A couple of weeks ago, Delhi celebrated Diwali along with the rest of India. Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is a huge holiday here, and interestingly enough, it has religious significance in three major religions. To the Hindus, Diwali is a celebration of Rama's return from the forest; to the Sikhs, it marks the day that the 6th of the 10 Sikh gurus was freed from prison; and to the Jains, it celebrates the day Lord Mahavira attained enlightenment. In a larger sense, though, it is a symbolic celebration of the triumph of good over evil, and the spiritual light within every person. Even though it's a religious holiday, it's sort of like Christmas in the US in that it's a national holiday and I think everyone celebrates it to some extent, even if it doesn't have particular significance to their religion. It's hard to say, though, since the vast majority of Indians are Hindus, and most people in our neighborhood are Sikhs, so Diwali is certainly celebrated with gusto around where we live.
Although only one day is officially designated as Diwali (which is based on the Hindu calendar, so the date changes every year), the celebration lasts for weeks. People decorate their houses with strings of colorful lights, light dozens of tiny oil lamps, buy gifts for friends and family, eat sweets, wear nice new clothes, and most importantly of all, set off tons of fireworks. I don't think there's any regulation of fireworks in India, so people were setting off seriously huge and impressive fireworks.
The night of Diwali itself was amazing. The fireworks, which had been going off for weeks, came to a magnificent crescendo, as people across the city all celebrated Diwali together. From our roof, we could look around and see fireworks go off every couple of seconds in every direction - it was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful things I've ever seen. Jordan and I brought our mattress up to the roof and lay there for at least an hour, watching the fireworks go off all around us. It was pretty spectacular. I wish we could have taken pictures, but our camera has been unusable since our battery charger got stolen. What a bummer!
The only downside to Diwali is that the entire city has been blanketed with thick smoke ever since. It's really gross - it makes Delhi even dirtier than it already was, plus it sets off my allergies.
The other exciting event that took place recently was the Pushkar Fair (also known as the Pushkar Camel Fair). The Pushkar Fair is a week-long event that combines Hindu festivities at Pushkar Lake (the site of the only Brahma temple in India) with a huge livestock fair, primarily for camels and to a lesser extent, horses. The end result is something like the state fair back home, complete with carnival rides and cotton candy, only about a million times more interesting and with a distinct Indian flavor.
I drove out to Pushkar, a small tourist town in the state of Rajasthan, with 3 other people from our program (Jordan decided to skip it). It took us over 10 hours to get there and almost 8 hours back, making it a kind of insane day trip, since we only ended up staying in Pushkar for about 8 hours. It was worth it though, since we ended up having a lot of fun. We saw hundreds of camels, had awkward conversations with locals in broken Hinglish, ate delicious chole from a street vendor, went on one of those swinging boat carnival rides, rode a camel, peeled raw sugarcane with our teeth and ate it, and saw a cultural exhibition featuring various Rajasthani performers. The show was pretty fun to watch, and included acts like a drummer with a drum strapped to his front, one to his back and one to his head, who was playing them with a flaming drumstick; a couple of bellydancing hijras; a very talented 10-year-old dancer; a performer dressed in an elaborately embroidered dress who balanced spinning, flaming wheels on his head; and a group of women who danced while swinging small cymbals on ropes along with the music, holding swords in their teeth and balancing vases full of flowers on their heads.
We probably won't be doing any more traveling for the next two weeks, since our final papers are due then and we haven't really started them yet. But November 17th is our last day of academic responsibility, when we will have our Hindi final and then be set free! This also happens to be the date of our two-year anniversary, so I guess being free from school is a pretty nice way to celebrate that.
After our semester is finished, we intend to spend the final 3 weeks or so of our trip traveling around India. We haven't got an itinerary planned out yet, but we are hoping to head to Darjeeling as soon as we can (to celebrate our anniversary, which we thought was fitting because we saw The Darjeeling Limited together on the day we consider the first "official" day of our relationship) and then from there, basically head clockwise around India and see how far we can get before we run out of time and have to head back home. It's hard to believe we're so close to the end of our trip now - I still feel like I have so much to do. I think by the time our trip ends, though, I'll be ready to go; India is amazing and I have come to feel pretty at home here, but it can also be exhausting, and it will be kind of nice to get back to life as usual.
A couple of weeks ago, Delhi celebrated Diwali along with the rest of India. Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is a huge holiday here, and interestingly enough, it has religious significance in three major religions. To the Hindus, Diwali is a celebration of Rama's return from the forest; to the Sikhs, it marks the day that the 6th of the 10 Sikh gurus was freed from prison; and to the Jains, it celebrates the day Lord Mahavira attained enlightenment. In a larger sense, though, it is a symbolic celebration of the triumph of good over evil, and the spiritual light within every person. Even though it's a religious holiday, it's sort of like Christmas in the US in that it's a national holiday and I think everyone celebrates it to some extent, even if it doesn't have particular significance to their religion. It's hard to say, though, since the vast majority of Indians are Hindus, and most people in our neighborhood are Sikhs, so Diwali is certainly celebrated with gusto around where we live.
Although only one day is officially designated as Diwali (which is based on the Hindu calendar, so the date changes every year), the celebration lasts for weeks. People decorate their houses with strings of colorful lights, light dozens of tiny oil lamps, buy gifts for friends and family, eat sweets, wear nice new clothes, and most importantly of all, set off tons of fireworks. I don't think there's any regulation of fireworks in India, so people were setting off seriously huge and impressive fireworks.
The night of Diwali itself was amazing. The fireworks, which had been going off for weeks, came to a magnificent crescendo, as people across the city all celebrated Diwali together. From our roof, we could look around and see fireworks go off every couple of seconds in every direction - it was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful things I've ever seen. Jordan and I brought our mattress up to the roof and lay there for at least an hour, watching the fireworks go off all around us. It was pretty spectacular. I wish we could have taken pictures, but our camera has been unusable since our battery charger got stolen. What a bummer!
The only downside to Diwali is that the entire city has been blanketed with thick smoke ever since. It's really gross - it makes Delhi even dirtier than it already was, plus it sets off my allergies.
The other exciting event that took place recently was the Pushkar Fair (also known as the Pushkar Camel Fair). The Pushkar Fair is a week-long event that combines Hindu festivities at Pushkar Lake (the site of the only Brahma temple in India) with a huge livestock fair, primarily for camels and to a lesser extent, horses. The end result is something like the state fair back home, complete with carnival rides and cotton candy, only about a million times more interesting and with a distinct Indian flavor.
I drove out to Pushkar, a small tourist town in the state of Rajasthan, with 3 other people from our program (Jordan decided to skip it). It took us over 10 hours to get there and almost 8 hours back, making it a kind of insane day trip, since we only ended up staying in Pushkar for about 8 hours. It was worth it though, since we ended up having a lot of fun. We saw hundreds of camels, had awkward conversations with locals in broken Hinglish, ate delicious chole from a street vendor, went on one of those swinging boat carnival rides, rode a camel, peeled raw sugarcane with our teeth and ate it, and saw a cultural exhibition featuring various Rajasthani performers. The show was pretty fun to watch, and included acts like a drummer with a drum strapped to his front, one to his back and one to his head, who was playing them with a flaming drumstick; a couple of bellydancing hijras; a very talented 10-year-old dancer; a performer dressed in an elaborately embroidered dress who balanced spinning, flaming wheels on his head; and a group of women who danced while swinging small cymbals on ropes along with the music, holding swords in their teeth and balancing vases full of flowers on their heads.
We probably won't be doing any more traveling for the next two weeks, since our final papers are due then and we haven't really started them yet. But November 17th is our last day of academic responsibility, when we will have our Hindi final and then be set free! This also happens to be the date of our two-year anniversary, so I guess being free from school is a pretty nice way to celebrate that.
After our semester is finished, we intend to spend the final 3 weeks or so of our trip traveling around India. We haven't got an itinerary planned out yet, but we are hoping to head to Darjeeling as soon as we can (to celebrate our anniversary, which we thought was fitting because we saw The Darjeeling Limited together on the day we consider the first "official" day of our relationship) and then from there, basically head clockwise around India and see how far we can get before we run out of time and have to head back home. It's hard to believe we're so close to the end of our trip now - I still feel like I have so much to do. I think by the time our trip ends, though, I'll be ready to go; India is amazing and I have come to feel pretty at home here, but it can also be exhausting, and it will be kind of nice to get back to life as usual.
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