Packages...

So this week I received a package. It was from my dad! I was so excited. I had sent my dad a list of things I would like to receive that we can't buy here. One of the primary things was coffee. It is almost impossible to find ground filter coffee here. For the past 3 months I have been drinking the instant kind and have had about as much as I can handle. So you can imagine my excitement when I received 4 canisters of ground coffee!! This will surely last us until we can go to Thailand and buy Starbucks!! I also asked my dad for things to make smore with, hersheys, marshmallows and graham crackers. I did not expect to find about 20 hersheys of different assortments, 3 boxes of graham crackers, and 3 bags of marshmallows. I think we now have enough smores stuff for the next year!
Among the goodies that I asked for, I found some other random candy bars and snacks that I had not asked for- these are always some of the most fun to find. However, I must say I was surprised to find 2 packages of cheese nips. I have never bought cheese nips before, I'm not even sure if I've ever eaten any. These are one of those additions that must be a hit in my family back home or something! Anyway, I was greatly appreciative for the excess of American food. I also received huge amounts of maple syrup that DIDN'T explode, as well as vanilla flavoring, oh and I can't forget the beef jerky!- thanks to April for help with the lighting.

Newe experiences with a new Roomie!!

My roomie, and partner April finally arrived. Still jet lagged I dragged her to a holy city for a language course. Our first day there, we took a gondola to the top of a hill, to a temple. The view on the way up the mountain, and at the top of the hill was pretty spectacular. The river Ganga runs through this city, making it a holy place. Many people go down to the river to bathe, and perform puja (worship). We observed people worship their gods at the temple, and then traveled down to the river to watch the evening Arti ceremony, performed with fire. The river banks were packed out with national tourists, who came on pilgrimage to the city. Many elderly people will move to the city, so they can die close to the river, and have their ashes thrown into the river, believing this will get them a step closer to god in their next life. Unfortunately we didn't get out too much after our first day, due to our diligent language learning, so we were glad we got to see what we did on the first day!

A NeW FrIeNd!

His name is Oscar! He is one of the cows that randomly roams the capital. He eats out of trashbags and dumpsters, and is possibly the tamest bull I have ever seen. Apparently someone actually owns him and the other cows that like to congregate in the area. Cows are a pretty common occurance here, especially in the capital, and the city pretty much revolves around their fancies. Cows can be seen crossing the street in twos or threes, blocking traffic, sitting in herds on highway medians, and laying in the middle of the road. Most cows in the States would not be so bold as to nap in the street, however, because of the esteemed position of the cow here as "Holy" they can pretty much do what they like.

Another Birthday.

Although my language helper's birthday wasn't until the 15th March, I was leaving the City Beautiful and heading to the capital on the 13th, so we had an early celebration on the 11th. As usual, the plethora of sweets were present, as well as TWO cakes, and chai. It was a sort of bitter sweet celebration, as it was the last time I was going to see my family for a very long time. It is amazing to me that a family, who by American standards has very little, freely shares everything they have with someone they have only known a short time. The hospitality here is unlike anyother I have known- relationships are so important!
I have now arrived in the capital, and will head out again in a few more days to go to a language course in yet another city! Lots of traveling ahead!

Day Four...

On our last day, we got up at the usual time- early, but due to some unforseen bowel issues, we were slower to get ready than normal. We were a little unsure if a bus was going to be the wisest decision with the state our stomachs were in, but we decided to risk it, and jumped on the 1pm bus home. It felt like possibly the LONGEST bus ride in the existence of buses. 7 hours, up, down, and around the mountains, while your stomach is cramping, and you're praying you can make it to the next bathroom, is not the most enjoyable of experiences, however, it IS a part of life here. Here are some pictures that I took while, in Nimda that I didn't have room to post in previous posts. To our right you will see the letters KFC- yes it's Nimda's very own KFC, although I don't think they know where Kentucky is, nor do I think they even sell chicken there. I LOVE this next guy. Are those dreads even in his beard? I think he is a Hindu, holy man, who has forsaken all wordly possesions and will walk around giving blessings- for money. He was walking around the Mela on the last day, when I managed to snap this close up of him. These ladies were sitting under the bridge washing clothes in the river. You can pay people to wash your clothes and press them for just a couple $, seeing how some of my experiences with washing clothes here have gone, it might be a good idea for me to start paying other people to wash my clothes, just so I don't stain all of them yellow. (see previous post on washing trauma). Well my friends that is the conclusion of my trip to the mountains. I think I'm a little blogged out. I'm going back to the Capitol for a language course on Monday. More fun times ahead I'm SURE!

Day Three.

Day three we continued our exploring. We first traveled down some narrow side roads trying to look for a suspension bridge someone else had told us about. Along the way we found a lot of ducans(shops) including a sweet shop, tailors, grocers, and more. We finally ended up at the river, and could count 8 mandirs/temples just in that area. We continued along the river bank looking for the suspension bridge that we could see in the distance, however, we were a little uncertain as to how to get to it. The picture of this guy (left) was snapped outside a temple. I wasn't sure if he was selling these things as offerings for the temple, or whether he was just sitting oustide the temple because it was a good place for business. Ok, now that I think of it he was probably selling things for the temple.
Along the river bank, on the way to the suspension bridge we saw some more donkeys- YEAY!!! My brother has commented that the only reason I would like a donkey is because I wasn't allowed a rabbit when I was younger- ok so it was only a couple years ago, but the scars still run deep! I would like to say in response to his comment, that Jake you are mistaken. As you can see in this picture, Donkeys are a most useful animal, especially when you need a bunch of plastic bags carried around. Yes those are plastic bags on the donkeys' backs. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be a make shift saddle, or if their owner just needed these plastic bags carried around for a bit.
We finally reached the suspension bridge, and yet again the area was covered with temples and shrines. One thing I have come to notice is that the areas that people fear the most are the areas where they place their temples and shrines as protection. In this area, the river and the mountains are obviously places that are feared among this people.
After lunch, we ventured up the hill behind our hotel. I had been intrigued by what was up there because we had seen buses of people going up and down the hill during the Mela. We had been told there was a temple at the top of the mountain, so off we walked up the hill. It wasn't long after we started out that I realised why people were taking BUSES up the mountain. The hill was pretty steep, and although we probably walked for 20+ minutes up this monster of a hill/mountain, we still did not find the temple. We DID manage to find the water purification site. Apparently the water goes through at least a sedimentation tank (that's all I could see from the road) before it reaches the town. We never actually made it to the top of the hill. We stopped walking when we could see the temple and realised it was still a long way off, and it was starting to rain. We quickly ventured back down the hill to get to shelter before the heavy rain started. Although our trip to the top of the hill was postponed, not all was lost as we still managed to take some good pictures of the Gurdwara and the neighbouring town along the way.

Day Two.

The second day of our trip we awoke early, after a night of loud noises outside our door the night before (The Mela brought in a lot of tourists from other parts of the country, and I don't think they slept!). We ate an early breakfast and then headed out to do some exploring of the town. At first someone told us that the town was 50km around, which sounded like a lot, but we later found out it was only 5km, which makes a lot more sense because it only took us about 20mins to walk from one side of town to the other. The town is split by a river, and the main residential area and market is on one side, where the bus stand, and open air type market is on the other side. There is a main bridge that joins the two parts of town, decorated with colored flags, and a great view from it. As you cross the bridge you come to the main market in town. The underground market as it is called, contains, as I was told over 200 shops, including food, bookstores, clothes, electronics, pretty much anything you need. The market is in a square shape with a building type thing in the middle,(see picture top) I'm not too sure what it is, but there were also idols in the garden surrounding the building. After visiting the market, which was closed because it was Sunday, we ventured to see what a crowd nearby was looking at. There was some sort of ceremony/Puja that they were doing for one of the 200 Idols that had come from the surrounding town. There were men banging on drums and blowing horns, while another man, dressed in white danced around with swords, and insence, after a couple minutes of this ritual, they stopped and the crowd dispersed.
We then decided we would go exploring through some of the streets. We started up this one hill, just out of curiosity, not really knowing where it would take us. We kept on walking further and further up the hill, while we were walking we saw multitudes of mandirs/temples, and a lot of shrines on the top of people's houses too. Apparently there was a a temple at the top of the hill, but after about 20minutes of walking UP the hill, we decided we would turn around and come back down. There wasn't too much to see, although the view was nice. On the way down we passed some donkeys, the town is full of them. It seems the come in pretty handy when carrying groceries etc. I later found out you can buy one of these cute little guys for a mere $200 or so. You may hear more in the future about me trying to acquire one of these guys for my own grocery shopping!!
After a morning filled with walking, and crowds, we ventured back to the hotel for some food and lunch, the rest of the day was spent meeting people, and hanging out. Day three to come later...

Shivratri Festival (Mela)

Last week I wrote about the Shivratri parade that was in the City Beautiful. Well the festival lasts much longer in Nimda. The festival had all ready been going on for close to a week, and we caught the last day of it. Over 200 deities are brought from surrounding areas to Nimda, where they will perform Puja (worship) of them. There is a huge fair that accompies this festival in Nimda, and thousands of people flock to the town to see and worship the deities, and partake in the festival. This picture is of the fair ground and open market that accompanied the festival. There was a fair ground that sold cotton candy, and sweets, as well as a ferris wheel, and other attractions. The deities will be paraded around for a week, and then go back to their homes elsewhere in the district. The fair will continue for about another week and then open market that accompanies the festival will stay another week after that. Although the Shivratrti festival was a good thing to see I was glad when the actual fesitval was over, it was much less crowded and a little less overwhelming.

Another mountain Trip.

Unfortunately there is a problem with the website today and it won't let me upload pictures, so I will write about my mountain experience and then add pictures later!
During the course of my stay in this hill station I managed to take about 80 pictures in 3 days, and I was able to experience ALOT so I will be updating over the next couple days.
We arrived Saturday, by taxi, and got settled in our Hotel, which was on the side of a hill, which had a GREAT view. We got settled, ate and decided to venture out into the City. Unfortunately, the wind picked up, the temperature dropped, and it started to rain before we even got to the end of the road our hotel was on. So much for the first day. We spent the rest of the night reading and resting, in prepereation for the next day. We did manage to take some pictures from our hotel room.