We’ll start with the biggest news first: I’ve switched host families again! “Already?” you might be asking. But yes – the Guptas are off to London on a business venture, leaving me orphaned. Luckily, my best friend Almitra and her family in Vashi were more than willing to take me in.

I’ve been here for only a week, and I must say, I feel absolutely at home. More so than I have felt all year. It’s like I have a second family and a second home.

I live with Almitra (my host sister and best friend) and her mother, Vivekita, in Koparkhairne, a section of Vashi. But we spend so much time with Almitra’s Masi’s (Hindi for aunt) house that it’s like having two host families in one. Masi’s family consists of her husband, Yogi, and their two children Tulika and Rushil. They’re both my age so it’s really wonderful.

The best thing is, they’re a very traditional Indian family in that they spend a LOT of time with each other. We’re always enjoying ourselves over at Yogi and Masi’s house, and going out for dinner together as a family. Every night we do something different – like attending plays, dances, movies, and other cultural events. Also, they put a lot of value in frequent communication and conversation. So we’re always talking with one another – and it’s completely natural-feeling and unforced. We never run out of things to talk about, and as a result I’m learning so much from them. I honestly could not imagine a better host family.

Vashi is in New Bombay – which is still technically part of Bombay, but they’re referred to as the suburbs. It’s a completely different experience from living right in town, especially Cuffe Parade (the most elite place of residence in the city). It’s a bit quieter, but you don’t have to deal with uptown snobs, expensive taxis, or people trained in the art of ripping off foreigners. Even the beastly Bombay crows are oddly absent.

Getting around is a bit of a problem, but I don’t mind it much. To get to town I take a 14 rupee share autorickshaw to Vashi station, and from there catch a 10 rupee train to VT. The travel time is about one hour. It’s annoying, but a very small price to pay for having the best host family ever. Plus, I think traveling via public transport so often gives me more street cred as a Bombay local.

Enough about my new host family! Now I’ll fill you all in on what’s been going on:

Mood Indigo

Mood Indigo is the biggest college festival in India. People from all over come to IIT campus in Powai to compete in its many competitions in dance, speaking, music, and many other activities. Bands, artists, and performers from all over the nation and the world come here. Needless to say, it was a pretty good five days.

The first day didn’t do much to convince us of this, though. The rooms they gave us were absolutely horrendous. First of all, they told us that pillows and blankets would be provided . . . . which was just not true. So none of us brought anything from home, which did not make for a very comfortable stay. We ended up switching rooms because they were really just that bad. There was trash everywhere, the floors were dirty, the walls were all spotty with who knows what, the toilets were disgusting, and the mats they gave for sleeping on were covered in stains. Luckily, there was still room in another hostel.

During the first day we attended a very creative fashion show – the theme was signs of the Zodiac, and all of the designers made 12 costumes for their models featuring each sign. Although each day featured at least 50 events, we (the inbounds) didn’t really know our way around campus well enough, so we just spent the rest of the day hanging around. At night we walked through the woods to an abandoned pavilion by Powai lake and built ourselves a campfire. We all had smores, which marked our (Will and I) American contribution to this exchange of cultures. It was a really nice time, involving several dozen mosquito bites per limb and some really funny coal-dancing French people.

The next day we saw an actual hypnotist, who group-hypnotised about 40 participants. We then saw a classical Indian concert and an ebru demonstration. I also made quite a few interesting friends this day.

One was Mon – a Japanese artist who had painted a big mural for Mood Indigo. He showed us all of his artwork and carried around this gigantic awesome bongo drum.

Another was Neptune. He was born in Goa, raised in California, and now he’s back in Goa again with his mother, who’s from France. Yep, this guy is an official citizen of three different countries. He earns his living by traveling to different parts of India and performing on his unicycle while juggling, which is what brought him to Mood Indigo. He’s also a jew harp player, and makes a lot of money buying different varieties of jew harps all over the world and selling them to music stores in America. Literally whenever things got quiet, this guy would whip out his jew harp and start jamming. He spent a few years in Kerala learning Indian painting, and as a result speaks fluent Malayalam and Hindi. And yes, if you couldn’t tell based on the jew harp and the unicycling, he is absolutely insane. He’s also one of the kindest, most fun, open and down to earth person I’ve ever met, and he’s filled with a shitload of crazy stories. I wish I could adopt him as a cool uncle or something like that.

Here is just an example of the crazy fun we had together. So apparently there was this big fruit carving workshop and Mood-I, and there was a lot of carved fruit left over in boxes outside of this classroom, just all ready to go to waste. So Neptune and I did the honor of liberating the watermelon of its cruel fate, and returned to our group with armful after armful of watermelons. We stayed up until about 3 AM that night, just talking and eating watermelons, about 15 of them at least. Then I snuck the stolen watermelons back into our hostel, and that’s what I ate for the rest of the week.

So anyway. On day 3, I met these guys in the morning, and as a result actually attended some events diligently. We watched the street dance competition the Indian way (by balancing on this bamboo pole fence to see over the crowd), saw a few speaking competitions, ate some RIDICULOUSLY good falafels, and saw some pretty bukwas Hindi-Western fusion bands.

Last but not least of our events of day three, we saw Tararam, an Israeli drumming and dance group who had performed at the Olympics. They were absolutely fantastic, and probably the best thing we saw at Mood Indigo. Afterward a few of us snuck backstage and actually MET the performers, which was fantastic. They invited us over to their rooms in the guest house that night, and we had a really nice time just talking and sharing our cultures with one another. This means I got to discuss Etgar Keret with an actual Israeli person, so naturally I was happy as a pig in shit.

The next day was actually Christmas Eve, so we left early, leaving just after seeing a really good French folk band, Moriarty, and watching Michael and Anthea (two German exchange students) compete in the ballroom dancing competition. (They ended up winning!)

All in all, Mood Indigo was a lot better than I had thought it would be, and it was a nice segway into what was probably the loneliest and most depressing Christmas I’ve ever had.

For one thing, I was still living with the Guptas, who never got around to talking to me much, so I didn’t even have a host family to fall back on. I missed my own family a lot – everyone says homesickness gets the worst around the holidays, and that was definitely the truth with me. It didn’t help that my host father had MOVED ALL OF MY SHIT OUT OF MY ROOM IN BOXES WITHOUT EVEN ASKING ME ABOUT IT. Ugh.

We did have a big inbound/rotex Christmas party though, which was nice.

Luckily, I had made plans to spend New Years at Almitra’s house with her family. We had an absolutely wonderful time. On the eve of New Years Eve, Yogi and Almitra and took a walk at night around scenic Vashi, stopping to get delicious pani puri and then sweets at an Indian sweet shop. We came across this big outdoor photography exhibition, and no sooner did we start admiring the photographs than I got swarmed by news crews. In Vashi they’re not very used to seeing foreigners, so I was interviewed twice about the exhibition, and one of the photographers even presented me with flowers! Yogi and Almitra thought the whole situation was pretty funny. Later on, Almitra’s Mom and Mami saw me on the news twice, but unfortunately I never got to see myself.

The next day Almitra and I got ourselves some very dashing 99 rupee haircuts. And don’t let the price (just over two US dollars) fool you – these were damn good haircuts. Back in Cuffe Parade I had received a haircut for 800 rupees from a senior stylist, and even that wasn’t as good as this.

We spent New Years Eve at an enormous party at an NRI complex. Apparently it was the second biggest New Years party in New Bombay. The DJ was excellent and we had a lot of very good food and wine.

The next morning, Yogi decided he wanted to kick off the first day of the new year with a good start, so he took Almitra and I on a long drive through rural Maharashtra to Kelva Beach. We ate the best Indian seafood in the history of all that exists – fish and prawns and prawns curry all spicy perfect and delicious. Then he took us to the dockyards (Yogi’s a maritime engineer so he had to make a stop by for business), and Almitra and I got a tour of the entire shipyard. We didn’t get home until late that night, and we were completely exhausted.

The next week or so leading up to my move to Almitra’s place is kind of a blur, but here’s a brief overview:

A few nights spent working as paid international greeters at Indian weddings, a stolen phone, living it up at the pool, jacuzzi, AND sauna at Viviane’s host family’s apartment complex, enjoying happy hour at Pop Tates with my favorite French and Belgian people, a stolen wallet, far too much shisha than is healthy, seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D, a damn good Rotary meeting (they let me drink now, and nothing is funnier than watching geriatric Indian men getting drunk and boisterous), a beautiful cultural dance performance at the National Performing Arts Centre in Nariman Point, seeing the newest Bollywood craze, 3 Idiots, too much Irish coffee at Mondy’s with Urvi, Ruhi, Hena, Gayatri, Natasha, and Dhruvi, and, last (and certainly least), the dreaded dance practices.

In the case of Bombay, India, being a Rotary Youth Exchange Student means being Rotary’s pets for a year. For the district conference, they’re having us perform three Indian dances. Which would be okay, if it weren’t for the fact that:

A) these dances are incredibly hard
B) the Bollywood/Western fusion songs we dance to are incredibly bad
C) the dance center in Juhu is incredibly far (from Vashi it’s a 1 hr and 45 min commute with 2 crossovers)
D) the practices are three days a week, which is incredibly annoying to all those who have lives

But being in Juhu so often means I’m always a stone’s throw away from one of my best friends here, Archit. One day after practice we got together to meet up with another Reedie, Advait! (For those who don’t know, a Reedie is the term for students of Reed College – Archit is also a Reedie). So here we hosted yet another Reedie convention of India! We went to Phoenix Mill, a crazily nice mall, and sat in a cafe and talked for 3 hours straight. It was really wonderful, and Advait is a junior so he had a lot to tell us. Then I realized it was 9:30 and I had still had a two hour commute before I could reach home.

The next day I headed back into town for an Indian kite flying festival my Rotary Club was hosting at the pier by the Radio Club. I ate some really bad Gujarati food and proceeded to learn the art of kite-flying from the Rotarians. Apparently in India people are really into kite-flying – it’s actually pretty competitive. In some parts of India they’ll treat the kite string with glass powder, so it can cut other kite strings. People have actually died because of this – motorcyclists put metal bars on the front of their bikes before their heads in order to protect themselves from being decapitated from the kite strings.

My kite-flying adventure wasn’t as hardcore, but it was still pretty enjoyable. My first host father was there, and we went through three or four paper kites just trying to get them into the air, failing miserably. They all crashed and burned. But then I FINALLY got one up, so far into the night sky that we couldn’t even see it anymore. It was really windy, and the kite was beaten around so much by the wind that my hands were actually cut by the string running through my fingers. It was shortlived though, as it promptly crashed into the sea.

So that’s that for now! This is an ENORMOUS update, so I’m definitely going to try splitting them up better in the future.

The most important thing worth noting about Indian weddings is that they make American weddings seem like funerals. The difference was so profound that I couldn’t help but be reminded of Eugene Hutz’s take on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76YbAfFfJ8

You just got Gogol Bordello’d.

Anyway, Dipti’s wedding ceremonies lasted three days. During the first day, I arrived just in time to attend a long wedding pooja for Dipti and Saurabh. We had a very talented live musicians who performed Hindu spiritual songs and guided the couple through the ceremony. A whole bunch of Dipti’s relatives were staying the night, so it felt like I had the whole of Punjab living in my house.

The next day we went to the Radio Club, where all of the girls had mehendi applied by professionals. We mingled a bit and went home for another pooja just for Dipti. This one was really interesting as they smeared a whole bunch of this yellow stuff all over any bit of exposed skin. It’s supposed to help make it glow.

Then they put on these bangles, which Dipti had to wear for the wedding and a few days afterward. She even had to sleep in them.

That night we went to a hall in Worli for the celebration part of the wedding. It was INSANE. I danced for six hours, nonstop. I had pretty much decided that because I didn’t really know anyone at all, I was going to have to get my drink on and stick to the dance floor in order to not seem or feel awkward.

This tactic worked out pretty well for me, because at some point in time I danced with Bollywood star Neil Nitin Mukesh. In a lewd and lascivious fashion.

Don’t be jealous.

Oh, and if you think I’m lying, it made the papers:

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=30&contentid=20091208200912080232512492963815

Anyway, the best thing about the dance party is that it wasn’t just the young people dancing. It was EVERYONE. Even the old people. 

The next day, we had the actual wedding. It was down in Colaba at the Indian naval base. Saurabh made a regal entrance on a horse, greeted by crowds of dancing trumpeters, drummers, friends and family. The wedding ceremony went on for TWO HOURS at this chapel type thing, but I wouldn’t know anything about it because I was too busy eating food.

Yep. The best thing about Indian weddings is definitely the food. I’m pretty sure  I ate more at that wedding than I had ever eaten before in one sitting in my entire life. And an hour after that, I went back for some more. It was an absolute smorgasboard, with buffet tables running around the entire field.

I also sat and chilled with some pretty cool people, and then of course my Rotarians. A lot were NRIs (non-resident Indians) or friends of NRIs. I met this really cool guy from Oregon who lived in a small village in Korea for a year, and we talked about culture and loads of other things. I also met this Canadian girl who had backpacked all over the world. It’s crazy who you meet while traveling.

Anywho, back to the wedding. After the ceremony, poor Dipti had to stand in her extremely weighty wedding sari for another 3 hours at the chapel while EVERYONE (at least 600 people) came up to meet the bride, groom, and their families. After that, she finally got to sit down and eat with her family. We then commenced the downing of a ridiculously expensive bottle of champagne, put Dipti into this thing called a doli, and that was that!

After the dance party I definitely thought I wanted to have an Indian wedding, but then I realized that I will never be able to AFFORD and Indian wedding, and also, it’s so strenuous for the bride. Saris are hard enough to wear as is, let alone one that’s weighted down by a heaping assload of jewels and embroidery, and you have to stand around in it for HOURS. So I think at my wedding I’ll just have a big dance party and no ceremony. I’m sure everyone else could appreciate that too.

Oh, and guess what! I switched host families! Now I’m living with Yogiraj and Madhu Gupta. And I have my OWN ROOM. And my OWN BATHROOM. On my first night here all I did was walk around naked and read Calvin & Hobbes (Madhu is a Calvin & Hobbes fan and has books of it! Awesome!). It’s just them and me (all my host siblings are living back home in Delhi), and they seem like really chill people. They go on these daily walks together on Marine Drive, eat insanely healthy food, and spend a lot of time out of the house doing things. The only forseeable problem is that they do not have Internet here . . . .

;_______________________________________________;

. . .. but. I guess this could be a good thing. I will survive, I suppose. I’m definitely getting a lot more reading done. And now I’ll be kept out of the house a lot more.

Anyway, having my own bedroom again is definitely a wonderful thing. I can listen to music whenever I want now, I can decorate it however I want, I can have my peace and silence and privacy, which I had really, really been missing. But most of all, nakedness.

Anyway, since I feel pretty bad about not posting any new content for what might have been forever, here’s some bonus content just for you:

NICOLE GULDIN’S OFFICIAL GUIDE TO BOMBAY STREET FOOD.

Perhaps one of the greatest things about India is that even the food that’s supposed to taste bad tastes so, so, so good. It’s not like in America where anything that’s fast, cheap and convenient takes on the enjoyability of styrofoam. I don’t really understand how I lost weight here, because I’ve never in my life enjoyed food more. 

PAV BHAJI

Pav bhaji is my most favorite of all Indian foods. It consists of toasted, buttery bread (pav) and bhaji, which is this delicious, spicy, tomatoey sauce. You mix some chopped-up onions and lime juice into the bhaji, and you scoop it up and eat it with pieces of the pav. And it is the most delicious thing that exists in this world. I have killed several people over pav bhaji. I will never get tired of pav bhaji. 

VADA PAV

Bombay vada pav is famous. It’s one of those things that you never stop being hungry for, either. It consists of this fried, fist-sized lump of spiced-up yellow potato, and you stick this in the pav like it’s a burger. You dip it in tomato sauce or spicy green chutney. You’re supposed to get the best vada pav in Bombay outside of NM College, which I have lovingly sampled, courtesy of Archit. But since vada pav is literally sold on every street in Bombay, I have a lot more places to investigate.

PANI PURI

I have mixed feelings about pani puri. Basically they put this weird sweet/spicy watery sauce into these little round shell things called puris. And then schlep some chickpeas in there. It isn’t that great.

PAAN

Oh, paan. How I love you so although I know you will turn my teeth into freakish brown craters. Paan consists of pretty much everything in the world wrapped in a betel leaf. Seriously. It’s so fascinating to watch it being made. And each paanwallah makes it differently!  It’s really great to gnaw on after a meal.

Alright, well, that’s it for now. Later days! On Sunday I’m seeing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Prithvi Theatre with Archit, and I’ll be sure to let you all know how that goes.

Peace.

Just like the Monsoon RYLA in Panvel and the International RYLA in Delhi, the JOSH RYLA was a youth conference open to Rotaractors and young business professionals. Unlike past RYLAs, this one was pretty bukwas (our Germans went so far as to compare it to Hitler’s Youth), but it did possess some redeeming qualities.

RYLAs are a great way to meet a lot of really cool people, and at this one I was happy to see a few friends from the old RYLAs there too – namely Almitra, Kusshal, Sanyogita and Neha.

It also helped that I just so happened to be placed on the winning team.

Heck yes.

The RYLA consisted of two days of team sports, puzzles and activities. There were a lot of rope courses, but also a lot of really dumb puzzles that made us all feel like we were wasting our time there.

My one teammate Ojo and I participated in the one pool activity, where we had to carry hundreds and hundreds of plastic balls from one side of this 50 foot long pool to the other. It was dark and the pool was pretty much 20% water and 80% dead insects. This went on for about 30 minutes. It was incredibly exhausting, but a lot of fun. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the RYLA at all if it weren’t for how awesome my team was.

The next night each team had to participate in a big fashion show. We were each given a theme and materials and were told to design clothes for a girl and a boy on our team. Our theme was “nature and pollution.” So the girls designed a dress for Ojo to make her Mother Nature, and the boys designed a suit for Benny (the other inbound on our team) to make him pollution.

I helped with the dress and made this awesome skirt out of palm leaves, as well as a circlet of flowers. It kind of made me realize how much I missed doing creative, crafty things. So now I’ve talked with Razia, my counselor, who owns a clothes shop near where I live, and she’s going to hook me up with some tailoring lessons. So that way I can make my own Indian clothes! Awesome.

Anyway, after the fashion show came a really horrible dance party and “campfire”. Ye gods.

The next day, we finished the remaining activities, and moved onto the awards ceremony, where the people in charge proceeded to give awards to themselves for about two hours. Fun stuff.

. . . . aaaaaand right after the RYLA, we’re hurtling towards the Gujarat Desert on an AC sleeper train. No rest for the wicked.

We spent our first night in Gujarat in an orphanage in Bhuj. We showered amidst the crocodiles in ice cold groundwater.

No lies.

Which makes for an interesting time when you’re with people from seven different countries, because every three seconds you hear someone shrieking in a different language.

My favorite thing about Gujarat was without a doubt the weather. No more humidity, no more heat, just pure dry cold. I was so happy to be able to dress cozily again.

Also, the fashion of Gujarat is extremely interesting. While far from being something I’d wear myself, it’s nice to see all of the Gujarati women in these very flashy, colorful clothes.

Our down time just spent hanging out at the orphanage in Bhuj was actually my favorite part of the trip. We explored the countryside a bit, enjoyed the sunset, played frisbee and cricket with the kids and found a lot of adorable stray dogs. At one point the kids carried about 10 puppies to us, it was the most adorable thing in the world. It was a very peaceful and relaxing time, and I’m never going to forget it.

Before our first night was over we were taken by the Rotarians to Fun World – a tiny Rotary-funded theme park smack dab in the middle of the desert. It was pretty cool, though, and I’m happy to have survived it.

Our friend Aditya on the ferris wheel.

Also there was this random whale skeleton there?

Indian theme parks are pretty perilous. The ferris wheel was a ferris wheel of DEATH and went about 20 times faster than any ferris wheel should go. Then we went on this crazy ride pictured above, where you could actually see where the seats had ground against the metal supports.

Later, back at the orphanage, we crowded together and experienced American culture in the form of watching The Hangover before going to bed, exhausted.

The next day we took a bus to Kutch, where the festival would be held. The festival is called Rannutsav – “desert festival” – and is a celebration of joy and good harvest.

We arrived and were shown to our tents. Now, when we were told that we would be staying in tents in the middle of the Gujarat desert, we didn’t have very high expectations. Instead, we were greeted with tents bearing western toilets, showers, wi-fi, electricity, lights, fans, heaters, and beds more comfortable than the ones we were used to back home. As soon as we got in there, we dropped our bags and started clicking pictures – we could hardly believe it.

Exchange students from other districts – namely Pune and Gujarat – also attended the festival, and we spent the festival enjoying one another’s company. Naturally, the following things had to happen:

My favorite flag.

The girl to the right of me is a REAL LIVE ALASKAN. Awesome.

Later that day we attended a cultural parade right in Kutch. It was absolutely fantastic, but I’m afraid we spent more time getting to know the other exchange students than we did watching the parade.

Me with Yuna and Rupa.

The next day we explored Kalo Dunger and Mela together, a temple right near the border between India and Pakistan. They leave offerings on this platform every day for wild foxes.

We also witnessed this weird Gujarati form of wrestling, which honestly just looked like creative hugging.

Also, can you say “camels”?

At night we all got dressed up in Indian clothes and went on this epic desert adventure on the White Rann (the white desert, so-called because it consists only of an endless salt deposit). We travelled towards a cultural dance program by camel and later met the Chief Minister of Gujarat, who is sort of an asshole, but hey, it was an interesting time.

When we got back to the tents we found ourselves sitting in the middle of the Gujarat desert, talking about god. Life is cool like that.

The next day I went to the craft fair and bought this really beautiful Gujarati shawl that I should have pictures of, but I don’t. We then disembarked for a tour of a palace and a few hours spent by the beach. I rode a shoopuf.

We uncovered some elephant bones in our explorations.

Scenes from the beach:

After we spent our last night in the desert, we went back to Bhuj to chill with the orphans again, and then we boarded our train for Bombay and some well-deserved rest.

Well, not for me, at least. I had a wedding to attend. But more about that later.

After a 27-hour journey via overnight train and too many games of Egyptian Rat Screw to count, twenty representatives of eight countries arrived in the rainsoaked streets of Cochin.

We forded great rivers,

and battled fearsome serpents,

and learned from the masters the ancient Chinese art of net fishing.

We also made stops at the St. Francis Cathedral – the very first church of India,

and my personal favorite stop on our southern odyssey, Jew Town:

Mysteriously, Jew Town suffered a distinct lack of visible Jews.

Next, we scaled perilous mountain heights as we journeyed into the many beautiful hills of Munnar.

It was absolutely gorgeous. All you can see are endless green hills of tea plantations.

During lunch time, Mauricio and I decided to skip the food and explore Munnar on our own. We discovered a church and a temple on a ridge that overlooked all of Munnar.

We also explored the markets, and I had my first passionfruit.

We also visited a tea museum, Echo Point and the Eravikulam National Park.

The day we left Munnar marked the day that I lost a very cool pair of pajamas. All losses aside, it was a damn good time. Munnar was probably my favorite part of the tour.

We arrived in Thekkady via fleet of jeeps, as our first bus broke its axle and our SECOND bus overheated. We arrived just in time to witness the ancient South Indian art of eye-wiggling. Also known as kathakali (literally – story dance).

The make-up is ridiculously thick and takes several hours to apply.

Pretty much 90% of kathakali is facial expressions and hand gestures.

It also contains high levels of badassery.

The next day, we paid 300 rupees to see some invisible tigers and elephants, and a very cool, very visible spider.

That spider will fuck your shit up, but not as badly as the leeches.

My shit, fucked up.

The next day we found ourselves at the Hotel Germanus in Madurai. It’s a shame we didn’t get any time to explore Madurai on our own, because it’s a very fascinating city visually. We visited a very unspectacular Gandhi Museum, and after that the famous Madurai Temple.

While still a functioning Hindu temple and hotspot for religious pilgrimages, it has unfortunately become quite a tourist trap:

Afterwards came Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India.

Scenes from Kanyakumari:

A very cool church, which apparently contains the bones of Vasco de Gama.

enjoying some rest and relaxation at the hotel:

Gandhi Mandapam:

This is where Gandhi’s ashes were kept before they were submerged.

We spent the night exploring the seaside and enjoying the beauty of Kanyakumari.

A Hindu man bathing in the ocean at Land’s End Point – the southernmost tip of India.

The next day we visited the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Thiruvalluvar Statue

We spent the next night in Koyalam, where we spent our time just enjoying the pool and beach. A few of us woke up at 4 AM the next day hoping to see the meteor shower, but no luck.

Next we were in Alleppey, and enjoyed a very nice riverboat ride at twilight.

AND THEN, THERE WAS GOA:

We did a lot of sightseeing of Old Goa which included a few churches and a museum. I didn’t really think it was that great. It mainly just cut into our much-loved beach and exploration time, as pictured below:

We went also went on this fairly lame boat cruise where we danced for about an hour or so before it was over.

Along with beach time came far too much shopping.

Scenes from the Tibetan market:

Goa also included high levels of debauchery, motorcycles, nightclubbing, and late night pizza shop odysseys.

All in all, it was the absolute best two and half weeks of my life, and although it was completely exhausting, it was over far too soon.

In late October my fellow exchange students and I ventured to Delhi for a week-long youth conference at the Om Shanti Resort. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much of Delhi (other than the Akshardham Temple), but we instead spent the week exploring the spiritual side of India.

We arrived in Delhi via A/C sleeper train, which is quite an experience, once you get used to the cockroaches and playing a never-ending one-lane version of Frogger in the aisle. Being on the train is always pretty fun though, because if there’s one thing we exchange students are good at, it’s enjoying each others’ company.

About ten thousand games of Egyptian Rat Screw and Bullshit later, we arrived at the resort in Delhi.

View from our hotel room. Not too shabby.

Immediately afterward we were subjected to several days of spiritual lectures which were, for the most part, horribly boring, elementary, and redundant, to be truthful. A few of us managed to wake up for early morning meditation at 4 AM, but aside from that, there wasn’t much variety.

Chilling in lecture, before the boredom set in.

The people in white are called the Brahma Kumaris, our spiritual advisors. They have Brahma Kumari centers set up all across the world. As pointed out below:

We were  given a tour of the entire resort. Including their awesome roof:

A pyramid for meditation:

And the grounds:

Also, there was a very creepy spiritual art gallery, of which I still have nightmares.

Even though the whole experience was kind of disappointing, and we saw nothing of Delhi, it was still a really great opportunity to meet and connect with other people and make new friends:

We also gave a really cool inbound talent show, which featured the following:

Will and I sharing our American culture by performing two songs, “Anyone Else But You” by the Moldy Peaches and “Hotel Yorba” by the White Stripes.

Our rendition of two Bollywood songs (“Pretty Woman” and “Kal Ho Na Ho”) taught to us by our new friends. In return, they performed a German song that we taught them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe3FG4EOgyU

^ Life doesn’t get any better than that.

We also performed “La Bamba” as a whole group. It’s become our unofficial inbound theme song.

The RYLA was wrapped up with a sightseeing trip to the Akshardham Temple. Which was kind of like an educational Disneyland for Hindus. It was absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately photos were forbidden within the temple.

A lovely group picture (:

I spent the weekend after the RYLA at Almitra’s house. We went to see a play in Nariman Point – at the National Centre for Performing Arts – Life, Love, and Other Madness. It was nice to see an authentic Indian play for once, especially one that dealt with the changing face of relationships in modern India, which is super interesting. The best thing about the weekend though was just being around Almitra and her family – Almitra’s definitely my best friend here. Even if we’re just being lazy or Almitra spends the day studying, we always have fun, and I learn so much from her and her family.

 I’m starting to miss my friends from home a lot more here, but the relationships I’ve made here are what keep me going.