Because there is always a part II that everyone neglects to mention

As my philosophy teacher says, "There must be some vey, there must be some vey!! What is zat vey?"
His questions are always met with silence. He is asking us questions about the meaning of life, and in particular, about consciousness. It is his favorite topic.
"Vhat is consciousness? Vhere is it? Is it in this table? Can you feel it? How do you know it exists?"
But what he doesn't understand that as little as we understand our own individual mentalities, he is asking us to tell him what consciousness is and where it lies in Indian Philosophical terms, a mindset that we have just recently started studying, and will soon leave behind, by choice or not.

Tonight it is going to rain. I am looking for to it.

Today Riane found 3 puppies. I called Blue Cross, which is an animal rescue site in Hyderabad to help animals, house animals, etc. They must have their hands full here in India.
I don't ever want to hear Charleston Animal Shelter to talk about how many homeless animals they have up for adoption.
Today I petted a puppy so small, it fit in my palm, and it could barely open its eyes. We found it lolling around in a pile of trash. I probably have some disease, because it was missing fur, but I know that puppy was happier by my presence after just pat. He followed me, and licked water from my hand.
I had to leave him behind, because there isn't anything I can do. Everyone keeps telling me that.
It just can't be true. Who ever tells someone else that there isn't anything that you can do?

I wish I could save everything that suffers.

Hampi Part II

So.
I left off at bedtime, Saturday night.

Sunday morning, we wake up drenched in sweat like normal. The power, therefore the fan, always goes off for a certain amount in the middle of the night.
We had a weird night, all of us. We heard a few explosions and some other strange things.
We had planned this much anticipated trip at 4:30 in the morning up the 675 stairs of the monkey temple mountain to watch the sunrise.
Needless to say, 7:30 turned out to be a better time for all of us.

We went for breakfast at the ever popular Mango Tree Restaurant, where a huge mango tree grows in the middle of this restaurant. Strange, because it is the first mango tree we have seen in all of India.

 

  

Be jealous. Banana pancake with honey and fresh squeezed pineapple juice.

I'm jealous of my Hampi weekend self. It was such an amazing trip.

Turned out to be rickshaw day.

We went for all of the places that only exist in fairy tales, the stuff that your dreams of ancient civilizations and great empires consist of. 

It even turns out to made of magic - walking around in a banana tree field, Jessica and I found these ferns that close up when you touch them. It was by accident. She made a video. 

It was one of those sped up biology videos that explain the evolution process in high speed, where things change and develop - these plants are big and beautiful and open. And then by accident, you brush them, and they close up so tight, so quickly. It was amazing.

It was Avatar-ish.

On that note, I have to continuously remind myself, as strange as this seems, that this is not my world. 

Does that mean that sometimes it feels like I belong? Maybe, yes.

But  in reality, this is not my life and my culture, and I must treat it with respect and honor since I have the opportunity to explore and discover, like I do in my actual home, life, culture.

I watch other people throw trash on the ground, Indians even tell us to, but I can't. Even when I know that is where it will ultimately end up, I can't do it. 

This big world is mine, and yours. I have to listen to it, and treat it with the kindness it treats me. 

(It isn't all about trash. I know there is a lot of trash talk here, but I am silently referring to a great many things that I must leave the way it is.)

So, mindblowing botanical mysteries behind us, we left for actual temples and sites.

Here are some pictures (of the ones that exist):

So, what we were looking at is to the right of Benny, the Sister Stones, but they weren't as interesting as the actual terrain. Whole mountains were made of rocks just like those.

Isn't that bizarre?

We are standing in an underground temple. 

We probably have some sort of parasites. Totally worth it. 

So the building goes up and down, and we stepped over all kinds of things in the pitch black. 

Riane hit her head quite a few times. 

There were fish.

There was smooth stone that has been walked on for thousands and thousands of years, danced on, worshiped on, knelt on. 

This was a house for the holy, for the hopeful, for the needy. 

Like everything else in India, this is it. It doesn't apologize, it only intrigues.

We saw the Lotus Mahal:

 

and a big cow

baby tomatoes

rocks standing on their ends.

If my father had been there, he would have had a hey day placing rocks on their end to say, "I was here. Don't forget that I was here."

 

we found the Queen's pool, where she went swimming and got massages. Sounds like the life.

We also found Riane's raccoon eyes from getting tan with sunglasses on. Found those babies from across the pool.

See 'em?

Then I got Jessica to take a frumpy tourist picture of me in front of a temple we couldn't go in because of restoration efforts. I'm trying to get more pictures of me in these places.

I realize that these places don't mean anything to anybody else. The thing that mostly interests all of you is the fact that I am India, I think. Not all of these sites. I'm also tired of taking pictures of places. 

It has gotten to the point that we are all looking at our pictures and trying to remember exactly what it is a picture of. We take so many photos of buildings that they all blur together. We review them, thinking hey, that is a nice picture. What is it?

Thus begins my modeling career in India.

Keep in mind that I have been trekking across mountains and fields for 2 days now in the sweltering heat. I am tired. This isn't my best shot.

At a lot of the places we went, they had these free standing trees, just like in Lord of the Rings in the city of Gondor. 

So many cultures have nature, especially trees, in a representational position. 

This symbolizes something. I wish someone had told me what it was.

 

This tree, like all of the others, had white blooms at the top. I bet it is beautiful if the blossoms ever fall.

Jessica found a cow friend. I found a dog friend.

Then I found a naked child.

 

Then I found adorable Riane.

These men asked if we wanted some fish. I said I would take a picture of them.

The eyeballs were staring wide open up at us. Grosses me out.

I see, smell, feel so many things here, I'm glad it was so easy for me to revert to vegetarianism again.

Then we were on the road towards dinner in Hospet where afterwards, we would catch another agonizing bus ride home. The pictures truly did stop after this. 

My parting vision of Hampi before my beloved camera was lovingly settled in my Amazing Race bag.

I got a letter from Stephen today and I loved it(!!!) / Hampi part I

There are certain things that come to you when you are barreling down the road at 2 in the morning in the back of a very bumpy bus, when the events of the amazing weekend twinkle in the black you've left behind, when the delirium sets in, and all you have are your earphones to keep the thoughts away.
This tactic doesn't always work, like it works when you don't want to talk to the person sharing a seat with you.
When this tactic doesn't work and you are still curled into a small ball with your eyes closed being hurled through space at the mercy of strangers, you tend to discover yourself somewhere, and you look at your history and see all of your flaws and personal limitations.
I've said it before - India is honest. And India makes you face yourself, each time she throws something new your way. You have to face yourself, your abilities, and all of your flaws, more than you have to face anything else. You confront your limits, and then you wonder to the rushing world that is changing, passing you by outside the dark window, what do I do now that I have acknowledged my flaws? How many limits do I really have? What exactly am I capable of?


I got a sunburn this weekend. My nose has started peeling. This is because I'm on malaria pills, doxycycline, to be exact, and they make you sensitive to the sun.
I got this sunburn in one of the most fantastic places I have ever been - Hampi.
(I've taken a lot of photos during my stay here and during the picture downloading process, my computer informed me that my startup disk was almost full. In the meantime, my pictures didn't all download, but they disappeared off of my camera. I'm sorry :( I wish they would come back so I can show you.)
Hampi is no exception to India's dichotomous situation of sorts - we stayed in a tropical hut, where the toilet and shower curtain-less shower are in behind the same door, where we put down the canopy over our bed to keep out the bugs, where we only had power after 1 in the afternoon and we took freezing cold showers after long sweaty days climbing the arid mountains made purely of huge boulders, rocks, stacked by the great Mother in precarious positions, mountains that make you gasp because these aren't like any mountains you have ever imagined, that stretch out for miles, mountains that you climb up after crossing a sacred river in a round coracle boat, made of bamboo and tar, moving towards rice paddy fields and banana tree fields that line the banks of the river where people bath in the holy water and wash their clothes, towards the foot of the mountain, to climb to the top, to a temple, to an ashram, to a fort, to a haven, where what you see for as far as the eye can see are the remains of those who came before and left us remnants tucked away in the far corners of these stony mountains, only the pillars of beliefs revealing to us the power of ability and devotion.

It  is the work of something far greater than yourself, of people long ago with hopes and dreams and beliefs and devotion to those things at work that are indeed, far greater than anything we can ever imagine.


We got to Hampi early Friday

 

and we ate breakfast, watching all of the different types of people passing us by at a very early hour that somehow didn't seem to affect these people, tourists and locals alike. We didn't know that we would soon be like them, up early, soaking in everything that Hampi had to offer.

Friday was also a national holiday in honor of Shiva the Destroyer, Maha Shivaratri where everyone goes to the temple, fasts, doesn't sleep, and gets high for a whole day and night off of these pot milkshakes.
We missed this celebration because we stayed on the other side of the holy river and the boats stopped going at 6 pm, but we heard it was wild to see. Elephants and cows were just running loose, policemen shaking unresponsive babies, thousands of people everywhere.

Right - we stayed in huts - food. check. shelter? cross the river.
What we saw next:

 

our transportation to and from the home base

People washing clothes and bodies. They wash them similarly, strangely enough. The clothes they send out, and reel back in only to smoosh the clothing into a small ball and throw it continuously onto the rocks, beating the dirt, the filth, the impurities out of the cloth. They repeated this times 50. The people... they wash by hunching their shoulders, crossing one arm over their chest, holding the nose with the other and then face plant into the water, suction cup the water back up as they pull away but the cave their chest makes holds the water there, repeatedly, beating their bodies against the water, to finish off by just tossing handfuls of water onto their body. 

We ended up here:

With a window view of this:

And then we ventured off to see the town and holiday things:

 

powder for decorations

 

Bells for prayer and puja

 

The main temple devoted to Shivaratri is behind me in this picture, this is just the gate we passed through. The pictures of the actual temple disappeared off my camera :(

This is a large, sweet root.

We did some shopping and Riane got molested by the tailor. Looking back on it, we should have yelled at the man for what he did, but we were so appalled that we decided to take pictures of pantsless Riane in a man's shop where no Indian girl would ever be expected to take off her clothes for measurements. It was funny at the time, it is horrifying now.

We caught a glimpse of daily life as we wandered the alleys and twisty walkways of India:

 

Then we hopped back to our boat because we had to cross the river back to our huts by 6 pm.

We woke up to see the sunrise. 

We waited and waited and just as we were leaving, the sun poked up from behind one of the mountains, and ascended into the sky faster than any sunrise I have ever seen. And it's funny, but instead of being in that moment, in Hampi, on a boulder with a man doing yoga behind me, watching the sunrise, I was in Bishopville, the summer my brother shot off fireworks in the cotton field and set something like 5 acres on fire. We couldn't get it to stop. We just had to watch it burn away the field. 

And that is how I felt about the sunrise. It didn't matter how much I wanted that moment to freeze in time, to make the sun stop right there, the sun burning away the morning haze in the horizon, it was going to rise, bright red, until it filled the sky with light and woke the world.

And we moved on, too, because with light came heat and it sizzled me.

Jessica and I got separated from the group and remained that way all day. The first thing we did was find ourselves bartering over a trip to the Hanuman monkey temple in a river coracle. We thought we were getting deal when we agree to 600 Rs. total trip - there, waiting for us, and back. we found out later from our trusty Lonely Planet that coracle rides should cost like 20 Rs... life of a foreigner. 

Anyways, we liked our paddler man. He is married, he bought this coracle, he told us about the whirlpools and the Shiva Lingas (dancing places!!) and asked us questions about our homes and lives - he was sooo nice, he even let Jessica paddle us to our destination (she wasn't quite as adept at paddling as he was... we ended up in the bushes a few times):

The way to the base of the Hanuman temple mountain.

 

On top of the mountain, after some rock climbing.

I took a picture of the 675 stairs we had to climb - that photo disappeared too. 

I hope cyberspace sends some of those pics back.

Anyway, our coracle guide told us 675 stairs - a little kid tried to follow us as a "guide" and told us that there were 575 stairs, then he changed it to 597 stairs and so Jessica gave him a dose of his own guiding abilities and forced him to listen to her guide him about this temple and when she got to the point "no, let me tell you: this dog here built this temple" pointing to a golden retriever-ish dog that boy ran back down the mountain in a huff and we were left in peace.

Back down the mountain, we go to another temple and instead of going in - we decide to eat raspberry ice cream pops. 

Surreal moment when you are sitting there licking off raspberry popsicle from your knuckles in the shade of an old stone building across from a temple that has been deemed a World Heritage Site and you look about you at the ruins of Hampi in India, and are then offered some puja offerings from an old lady who sits down next to you and you have to accept the food even though it could potentially kill you because it would be rude to waste and refuse a gift, especially one that is meant for the gods.

We proceeded to climb the next mountain to an ashram of which god we do not know. We met some french guys at the top who were shirtless and made all of the Indian women looking around the ashram giggle and run away. Seriously, they covered their faces and eyes, giggling, turned on their heels and ran away.

 

There goes Jessica and chai man up the mountain towards the ashram. 

My lack of pictures makes me so sad :(

this man sleeps on top of the mountain so he can be there when people trek up the mountain to watch the sunrise. "chai, i give you good price in morning."

We headed down to meet the group (after getting lost on the various paths and walking through a visibly deserted village that was recently occupied..) to eat another dinner on the ground and compared stories of all the different things done and seen in India on Saturday (all of the restaurants, you sit on the ground and eat. cool.)

Jessica, Riane and I heard music on the way back to the house and went to see what it was and we were delighted to be invited into a safe haven for Jews and Israelites to come and stay in Hampi for as long as they like for free board and free food. They have these places everywhere they told us - China, Japan, the US, etc. and everyone is traveling. We exchanged some stories and info, they gave us delicious tea. But we had to leave because Hampi bugs are out to kill you and we were dying from the bug bites.

But, I can tell you - I have yet to meet a Jew or Israelite I don't like. They are cool people.

We immediately fell into bed as soon as we got to our hut.

End of day, end of post. I'll post more tomorrow. I'll try to recover my other photos too. 

lovelove

There are so many times that I have wished to be the writer that I once wanted to be, to place words across a page with attention to details that you tend to forget because they are so everyday, so mundane. But so meaningful, so provoking when it comes down to it, whatever it turns out to be.

Those are the things you remember in the end, and the things that writers capture.

The small things mean something, too.

India.

Out there, there's a world outside of Yonkers, way out there beyond this hick town, Barneby, there's a slick town, Barneby. Out there, full of shine and full of sparkle, close your eyes and see it glisten, Barneby, glisten, Barneby!
Put on your Sunday clothes, there's lots of world out there...
We are going to find adventure in the evening air.
  - Hello, Dolly!

I currently know people studying absolutely all over the world!!
And I am making friends here, from all over the world
I am an international student.
And how amazing is that?
I am truly a part of the world, and I have connections and friends all over the world who are taking advantage of what this earth has to offer.
I am glad I am not being left behind to wonder what the world has to offer.
More than being glad, I am thankful.

I talked with some local high school students over the weekend and we asked them that if they could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be? Struggling to communicate, full of blushes and half smilesAnd it made me think, when I was 10th grader, where did I think I would be, if I could travel anywhere in the world? If international students came to my school, told me about their country, and then asked me where I would go, what would I have said? I certainly never believed I would be in India a mere 4 years later.

Costa Rica, Africa, Ireland, Denmark, London, China, Spain, France, Israel...

and hahaha

sometimes, I think
"I am so jealous that they are there!! I want to... go explore a jungle and look at exotic animals, dance in a tribal dance and paint myself with shamans during a trance, explore castles, visit early Christian sites, see a play at Shakespeare's The Globe Theater, walk the Great Wall..."
etc.etc.etc.
I read every blog I come across, of these world traveling acquaintances, living "vicariously" through them.

Who am I kidding? I get jealous listening to musicals on iTunes that I'm not on Broadway, or thinking about the Batsheva Dance Company auditions coming up and all of the people that will be going.

And then I remember
that they are there.
And I am here.
I am here.
and if I were there, I wouldn't be here.

I AM IN INDIA.

Holy shit.
 
I am having so many adventures here, and experiencing new things every single day. Hah, no, India doesn't have parrots or ziplines, or castles and fortresses of my beloved kings and queens of Europe, Shakespeare or double decker red buses, or pandas, or even small cobblestone streets, and I'm certainly not getting to see any Broadways or attend dance auditions.
But India... India has so many other things to offer that are beyond amazing and absolutely mindblowing.

Haha when I think about the things I have learned in India, I'm even jealous of India for being so full of life!!

India is a toddler, a baby that needs to be nurtured and led along and taught, yet is full of history.

India has a thriving community full of what I can really only call acceptance, even though I know from being here that acceptance is not the correct term at all. I have never seem the comradeship in the US that I see among every person here in India. Reading the history books, India has had its far share of national, religious, language based, land, cultural identity strife and yet I can't think of another place where visitors are welcome to come, explore, learn and not be asked for a single thing in return, but are left to digest everything that India has set out for them.
India is honest, laying everything out for everyone to see. You can form your own opinions and you make judgments, be ethnocentric - India doesn't care. India is improving for India, and at India pace, and not for you or for me.
And just like India has left itself open for all to see - the hardships, the mistakes, the triumphs, the poverty, the wealth, the devotion, the help - India leaves one open, and India exposes weaknesses and strengths. India makes you doubt what you know, what you thought you knew, or what you have decided to do and learn.

No, India does not have the comfort and stability of other places I could have chosen to visit, to study, to learn.
I have been here a little over a month - I am still marveling over the things that I have seen.

And I might be able to do just as exciting, foreign activities that I do here, elsewhere.
But I'm here.

I'm in India.




There are two wise comments that I received during my time at CofC:

"Live here, in this moment, Allyn. You can't be in both places at once. You are here."
(this was followed up with "Your mother has this same problem." But I hate to blame my desire to be everywhere experiencing everything on my mother and genetics, it just doesn't seem right. It is certainly a personal problem.)

"Stop being so jealous of everything else."
(this was followed up with solid contemplation and a small bit of resentment for my flaws being pointed out so blatantly when I wanted it to come across as something I longed to do, and was damn determined to do, not complaining, or mentioning something I was "jealous" of and appearing ungracious for what I had. I am learning the differences.)



I refuse to let these comments, and my time here, pass me by.

because I have a lot of other things I need to be doing

this blog is gonna be short
ish

busyy weekend. factoid.

Friday:
torture trip with AIFS group to pretty sad temples and such when compared to other things we have seen (oh, like the Taj Mahal, riding oliphants to the top of Akbar's fort, beaches, huge statues, huge tombs with dancers, etc.)
We had no clue where we were going or what we were seeing and we had no guide who could help us out, we had to keep taking our shoes off, and people kept taking our pictures and names for their "local newspapers." so creepy.
bottom line: unimpressed, but I don't think we would have been as unimpressed if we had known what we were looking at.


- woke up early (5:30 am!) only to wait around for hungover people to show up late and smoke a joint so he could get out of black out drunk stage
- I slept the absolute entire time we were in the car - Riane: "I'm pretty jealous of your narcolepsy." When I was not sleeping in an awkward position smushed between 2 unhappy people in the very back of the tiny car, I was awake with 1.) grumpy people 2.) an angry bladder because I confined it to a tiny car in the middle of nowhere after 2 bottles of water. lesson learned. 3.) thank god for a wandering mind that mentally writes stories and my ipod.
- rode 4 hours to these places with people that we have chosen not to spend time with in a tiny car with people far too large to be sharing small spaces with
- had to deal with unhappy breakups and unhappy people that didn't want to see anything.
Riane and I are normally happy people, who can find a lot to laugh at. We were the only ones with this ability on this trip.
-late night return with few good pictures.
Conclusion: never again.

Here are some pics anywayssss

elephant carving

 

ha

sorry, couldn't help it.

Good morning, sunshine.

sums up the day.

 

I think, one of the only remaning Jain temples in the area. cool. They made Tyler put a skirt on and they let me sit on the floor in the middle of one of their music sessions.  I couldn't take any closer pictures :( 

This was my favorite place, if I had one, and it is because I actually had a connection with this place. 

I don't have any clue what it is and if I can even call it a connection if I am not a follower, no matter what type of religious sanctuary I go to, but just like if I were at a Methodist church, a Buddhist temple, or in a Muslim masjid - looking around at the architecture, watching the devout, listening to the music - I never fail to tear up and just stand in awe for a minute, soaking up my surroundings. It tends to happen more of the time when there is music that goes along with what I am seeing, in this case, 4 men on the ground chanting and playing strange instruments. It doesn't matter where or what. I have yet to figure out what causes me to become a basket case when I enter religious sites. The closest I have come to understanding this phenomenon is that I am in love, consumed with happiness, that the one thing that really makes one a believer, and a practitioner, is the complete faith and devotion they have. Real, true faith and devotion. 

I think the singing just makes it resonate. It brings it to life, and fills the space and then, it pulls me in. And for that moment, no matter where I am, I believe too. I'm a follower, and my heart is just as light and packed with love for the deity and religion that is lifting these people from their everyday fetters.

And how can I not? I am surrounded by people that love what they are doing, who they are, what they believe in. 

And I believe in love.

 

Typical. These men are inside a temple (The Temple of a Thousand Pillars) counting their money.

  

I have a thing for these puja bowls. 

 

When is the last time you saw one of these inside your temple?

 

Happy group... Abhishek had to tell us to stop fake smiling.

Unattentive sacred cow with Barefoot Riane.

Like Barefoot Contessa, only doing far cooler things than Miss Contessa.

 

Nobody explained any of the pictures to us, so I have no clue, but imagine replacing Christian stained glass with this...

 

Look at that tree - see that small man hanging from the tree!? He climbed that tree with a belt on and band he holds and just wraps around the tree. then he shimmies up and collects liquor. Like, actual one shot knock you flat liquor. 

Saturday:

Soccer finals - SIP team = winners of the tournment and a Rs. 2,000 ($40) check!! 

I got tripped and took a few tumbles and now I have a swollen ankle that is unhappy, but Riane and I were strikers and had a few good passes, and teamwork! I scored one of the three goals. woot.

Mom :( one of the times I was tripped I fell pretty hard and ripped a hole in your capris you sent with me. I'm very sorry. I will replace them.

 

There was a little mishap with the other female team dealing with not getting a runners up check (that they also did not get last semester for their volleyball win), sexism, and racial discrimination (the team is from the northeast... they look pretty Chinese-y because they are from close to the India/China border so "true Indians" that look like you imagine Indians look discriminate against these people a lot. It is a huge deal, so not getting their check for various reasons made things really uncomfortable. If they had won, it wouldn't have been such a big deal, I don't think...) We offered to split our winnings in half, but someone in charge insisted they would soon get their money... so we took our money and threw a bonfire party out on the rocks near one of the lakes and invited the other team (who are very cool, speak English realllly well and have awesome style) to join in and we all had a fab. time.

Sunday:

Today we woke up early and went to spend time with "10th class" students in a nearby gov. run school and to talk with them about continuing their schooling and the opportunities beyond what they know. 6 students showed up to meet with us, and we had a good time, but we left unsure of what type of impression we have actually left on these kids. Here are 4 white kids from the US telling Indian students in a 2 room school that if they work hard (despite lack of funding, opportunities and options, equal rights, encouragement, etc) they can do so many things, that they can be whatever they want to be. We talked with them about all of these things they can't even comprehend, like majoring in fashion design or being an artist, like getting scholarships and what the hell is the internet!? What is a library? They probably thought we were stupid rich white americans with nothing to say of importance, like how to convince your poverty stricken families that you will be more helpful with education. 

We leave those situations wondering what good we have actually done. We don't always feel good about our "good work" when we leave.

Then Riane and I had shopping to do for the super hot weather that is on its way:

out with the old shoes...

 

in with the new!

I got 2 shirts, 2 pairs of shoes, and a small purse for like $15.

 

schveet.

The only other totally awesome thing I did this weekend was read. Read. Read. Read.

This massive book, for a test I have on Wednesday. I have been having to read 50 pages a day.

But it has been turning into more pages because every time I sit down to read, my narcolepsy sets in and I have to make up for the reading I miss the day after. Where I fall asleep again. Never ending vicious napping cycle.

 

 

So that wasn't exactly short. Sorry. And that book right there is what I should be doing.

Thanks for the break!

"Let me say it one more time - I'm having a great time."

Ah, what a large coffee and cool atmosphere will make you say!
Quote by Riane Menardi, upon tasting her gigantic Monsoon Malabar at a super cool coffee shop, Mocha, that we found in Banjara Hills. Upon our arrival back home, everyone should expect an amazing Riane/Allyn coffee shop made of Riane's traveling coffee tasting abilities and my entertainment/traveling interior antique decorating skills.

So, I haven't put pics up lately.

Recently...

 

We took a WILD bus/train/Buddha Lake/random Horticulture gathering/Hard Rock Cafe/penthouse club adventure. At the train station, we saw a movie in the making!!! We are still wondering how they are going to make all of the viewers disappear... they were jumping the railroad tracks to get over there (ahem Riane and Ming...)

 

On the way, we found more animals I couldn't save.

The bamboo booth wanted a picture of us, even though they don't look that happy to be taking a picture with us. Going straight into the "People who want pictures with us" album.

We will start charging soon. Is that bad? Are we... selling ourselves?

 

Trying street food....

 

In the Old City with the couch surfers, I found some of my favorite people.

The bean men and their colorful carts of colorful beans!! I asked him if I could take this picture... He did the Indian head nod, which I took for yes. He doesn't appear to be thinking the same. This was right after an Indian journalism student on a field trip asked us if he could take our picture for his school paper... 

 

The Couch Surfers league of Hyderabad.

Vinny, fashion designer whose name I forgot that ordered all of our spicy food and got us an auto ride back for only Rs. 200!!! and happy Anand. They told us that they had never had so many people stare at them in their lives, that we were such celebrities. Also, that we should never go anywhere without them because we are that bad at bartering. They are adorable and we will be hanging out with them again asap.

  

 

 

Let's just talk about this amazing dance concert for a second. 

Here is what Riane says about me: 

"My roommate is the queen of local entertainment. She knows about every artsy event in Hyderabad, and I have no idea how she does it. Needless to say, when she’s got her game face on, there’s never a dull moment. I love it.
Her prowess came in handy this week (I’ve lost track of my weekdays) when we went to see a MOBILE DANCE PERFORMANCE on a 500-year-old tomb."

  Right. I like being in the know and going to performances. So we saw a mobile dance performance (after we just walked right in - the name "Mr. Raju" got us straight through without tickets or anything...) on 500 year old tombs in India on a weekday for free.

And all we could say was, "Wow. We are sitting in chairs looking up at huge tombs getting ready to follow lights around to the other various tombs where the performers will sneakily be moving and we have to follow the stampede of photographers and viewers in circles around tombs to see them dance and omg. This is exactly the type of thing you hear about and can never imagine doing."

There we were, in Hyderabad, watching a world class modern dance company from Bangalore perform "For Pina..." an homage to deceased German Tanztheater choreographer Pina Bausch on these tombs:

(thanks, flickr friend Jyoti PB and Google image finder!!)

except that there are lots more of them. 

Being a mobile dance performance where strangely enough, audience elbowing participation comes in handy, Riane and I took matters into our own hands - we decided we would just run around the back of the main tomb and make it to the seats on the other side before the mass of people all trying to smoosh down one small set of stairs could get there. In this manner, we were able to see closeup the men dancers dancing in arches on far away tombs, lit up by amazing lighting effects and the women sitting on a free standing arch, and the artistic director dancing and throwing rice around behind a screen with graphic art splashing across it, and then as we moved to the final location in our sneaky way....

we nearly had 2 backstage collision with the various dancers!  Lucky for us, they were nimble and quick and slightly confused by our presence and so they jumped out of our way, we jumped off of their stage and everything went on as normal.

Sometimes, movement loses you and you zero in, mesmerized by just one person or the movement of a dress or the sketch mind sketch of movement that needs to be remembered, replicated, or you open your eyes wide and take in everything. And this time, taking in everything - the dancers, the costumes, the interactions, the reactions, the movement, the lighting, the hanging speakers, the bizarre music, the audience, the absolutely amazing venue of ancient tombs in India - can't be explained.

And then sometimes, we just chill. And go out for birthday parties in India where we eat mexican in swanky hotels with heated outdoor pools and get free cake by sneaky Indian waiters that learn our names and put both sparklers and the birthday girl's name on the cake!!

 

hahahah Totally excited for roomie/cake timeeee.

For some reason India = we can eat desserts all of the time and not exercise.

This is not fair, India. Riane and I would appreciate it if you would tone it down on the sweets. Saying "no" is much harder when it is all just given to you.

And we join soccer teams where our coach, Ihab, is the ex-captain of the Yemen National Football team and also getting his Ph.D in Linguistics while his wife and 3 children wait for him in Yemen. 

We took team pics before our big win:

 

Cheesin? Sprawly hair? 

This was a 20 min. photo shoot...

Up to tonight - Nicole, at Mocha, the new fav. coffee hangout in Banjara Hills:

Soon enough you will be seeing the two of us on Glee. We both love the show and musicals A LOT and with open auditions happening... we are planning an awesome video to submit that so far involves water buffalo (or at least their dung,) indian clothing, an auto rickshaw, and Indians who love jumping into scenes and dancing as if they were part of Bollywood. We aren't actually sure where to find these people... but Bollywood is so huge here, we don't think it will be a problem to make our own musical with the locals.

 

 

Quick sidenote on a few more things I have realized that I know:

mechanical pencils don't exist. but pen pencils do!

You must say pen pencil or they don't give you what you need. It still isn't what you need, so next time you go to India, take your own pencils with nice sturdy erasers. Shall I say that I am learning the hard way?

All of the cars here have backing up songs. Like Happy Birthday, or Twinkle twinkle little star. When you hear the faint tinkling of a familiar song (to you - someone had to tell a professor here that his backup song was Happy Birthday) it means that you should probably move.

"Take out" isn't a known term. "Take away" is. When waiters say "take away?" your food will come back to you.

India is a brofest.

anddddddd p.s.

Riane just posted a lotttt of pictures on FB because she got the downloader to work around the proxies.

So, be a creeper, add her, and look at all of her awesome pictures from our time in Delhi.

We are going to Warangal tomorrow, a 4 hour trip to see the Temple of a Thousand Pillars.

More pics and adventures to come!

 

The Wildcats (Jenglie Birlan)

I don't know how to spell that but we won our soccer match today! Won against the best female team... Our coach is a 31 year old ex Yemen national soccer champion who is here getting his Ph.D in Linguistics.
Yea.
Now we have to play again tomorrow and I just found out that I have to read 278 pages for a 3 question test I will be having this next Wednesday.
That is 48 pages a day.

revised

This blog has changed - the question needs not to be

I'm still a fun person, right?
and fussing about others because that is how I felt at the moment.

Because anything that happens is because of yourself, and not other people. Nobody ever makes any decisions because of you but because of themselves. All decisions I make are because of me. I'm insecure, and if I were not, I wouldn't get so upset by some types of things.
I need to be more confident in my decisions


And I need to ask better questions
Am I too strict? Am I just not fun? Am I not open-minded? What are the things that are making me the person that just does not want to do that? Why isn't it ok to not want to do them?
And these questions are for myself 

I need to state that
I don't like being around certain things, but I don't like being left behind.
and yes,
Sometimes, sticking up for what you believe in leaves you very alone.

There is a fine line between how things should be said and how you want to say them.
I need to do better at finding that happy medium.

Tuesday Blues

I made friends and enemies at the post office today.
The postmaster kept giving me the wrong amount of stamps to put on my letters and I had to keep going back, and he kept yelling at me throw the bars asking, "what!? what!?" and it got so ridiculous, all I could do was laugh at the situation. People don't care about waiting in line, right? So 3 trips, and I have to elbow people in the gut each time just to maintain my place in the mail line and not get pushed further and further back and I just can't stop laughing and everyone is staring at the stranger who is laughing by herself in a mail line.
But I make a friend, I forgot his name as soon as he told me, and he helps me count all of the stamps and make sure it is all the right amount. Funny enough, a guy on a motorcycle rides up to us, says "Hello Allyn" and I have forgotten who this person is as well but I pretend like we are best friends anyways and we are all talking and I met them both in completely different situations, but they are best friends and roommates and very nice guys.
I hope I get to hang out with them more, as long as they don't turn out to be creepy Indian guys.
They have a knack for doing that.

So, those of you who receive mail from me - all of those stamps: I licked every single one of them myself. and I did it for 6 letters. I hope you like your letters, because I love the letters you have sent me.

For the rest of you, I know you read this because it tells me when it is viewed.
I am in India, but that doesn't mean I am beyond reach. I like hearing from all of you, whether it is an email or a comment or a fb message. The only people I have been in contact with constantly would be my parents.
I like to think that if any of you went away, I would do a much better job of staying in touch with you than any of you do with me.
It really truly sucks to always hear your roommate talking to friends from back home, not just her parents, and knowing that she has friends at home that care that she is gone and will be there when she gets back.


Today has been a lonely day.

If I could take you away

Sometimes I reflect

and it isn't just the big things that pop out
but little things that I have learned and experienced, small daily things.

Such as:
I received 3 letters in the mail today!!! And it made me laugh to think of the first time I sent letters out and how I am still amazed that people are still just not getting them a month later. But that is probably because I forgot to write "U.S.A" on the letter and I can't imagine how long it took all of the mailpeople to figure out where the heck S.C. is located in India.
Live and Learn. Now, I always label my letters with "USA."
I never would have thought past that 3rd grade lesson in addressing mail envelopes if I had never left the US. I've never had to label anything out of the US, or into the US and therefore, labeling anything U.S.A was unnecessary.
You wouldn't know by the screams and sometimes near head on collisions, but I have figured out, and am in the habit of, looking to the right before I cross the road.
I am now an expert at withdrawing money from an ATM, even though I wonder why there are so many ATMs everywhere. There are so many people that live on the streets - they can't possibly have a bank account and card that they need at ATM to withdraw from. Nevertheless, ATMs are on every single corner.
Sometimes I can't help but laugh at some of the things I've learned. Like, people will get on a stopped train at the train station just to use the actual toilet even though it is a hole straight through to the railway. Then they get off, the train takes off and there is a pile of poop of the railway tracks. You can spot these people. They are the ones who get on trains without any luggage.
On that note, I've learned that you don't call anything a "station" or they will take you to the bus station. If you want to go to the bus station, this is ok. If you want to go to the train station, or the railway station, it is not ok.
I've started asking myself, "What would Gandhi do?" when I notice my patience running thin for no good reason except I am impatient or find something "wrong" in my world.
In fact, I did this today when at a random cultural event as I watched people spook this poor dog with a terrible skin disease that was just trying to find a place to sit down and rest. He rested behind me after awhile because out of the thousands of people at this concert, the 3 Americans were the only ones not squealing and turning away or threatening the dog when it happened to walk by. But right before we left, he got up and sniffed a guy just a few people down and the guy turned around, made a fist, and punched the dog, straight down on his spine. The dog was knocked down, uttered a small yelp and beat it.
And I started yelling.
I started yelling at him right there in the middle of a music and dance concert, fussing at him and telling him that he had no right to hit another living being. I think it was the death glares that made him get out of my way. He left to sit in another area.
Good. I do not tolerate that.

And then I think, who am I, as an aspiring anthropologist to criticize and fuss at people I don't know for actions that they don't consider wrong, that they have grown up with. I just end up feeling like an uber ethnocentric unthoughtful American bitch even though I have stood up for what I believe in. My beliefs don't matter when I am studying another culture, at least they shouldn't. I cannot judge.
Revise.
I should not judge.

ok. so Patience and not being Judgmental.

I encountered a boy yesterday in the Old City. He walked next to me and then just stopped in front of me and looked at me. After exchanging hellos, I asked how he was and without responding he asked me how I was. I said fine, he told me that he was not. He just kept staring at me. I apologized that he was indeed, not fine. He stared at me, said "that's ok." and without another word, he walked away.
What else to do in a situation as such?
There are so many things that I don't know how to react to. I am learning, but I still have a lot to learn.


I joined a soccer team today. haha I haven't been part of a team in awhile... personalities are hard to deal with sometimes. I wasn't part of a soccer team at home, but anything goes in India. We are playing in a tournament this weekend. Tonight was the first practice.

I'm waking up early. I want to see the sunrise.
I want to feel the earth waking up, and watch the sun open her eyes slowly, see her fingers rake across her hair and witness the vulnerability of time.
I've heard that you can hear the Muslim calls to worship with the sunrise.
That's something I've never had the chance to experience at home.

There are so many stories here. I hope I can remember them all and that they will always mean so much as they do to me now.