snooze control

as december draws ever nearer....and the mornings grow ever darker...i am reminded about how much i love the snooze button. it's actually a two part snooze, as my phone conviniently snoozes long with my alarm clock. nonetheless it is quite handy to live a 5 minute walk from school, i am learning just how late i can leave and still be where i need to be on time. dont get me wrong though, i LOVE getting up early when my body says it;s ok.

fun weekend ahead. choir concert tonight. i am singing a solo in alison krause's down to the river. cool! then it's my friend tom's bday, he and isabelle are having a get together.
tomorrow we have a few parties to go to . one at the canadian high commission and another on a friend's rooftop. convinient that both are 70s parties. i got a 70s kurta made! i have to go pick it up tomorrow. then on sunday there is a big mela (market) at school! shopping! and even more exciting eamon is coming to town. we have social engagements in the evening, a friend's dinner, but he'll be around all week, which i am psyched for.

ok. HAPPY FRIDAY. and don;t lose your snooze control

glorious goa.

we knew when we stepped of the plane and looked at the bright blue sky and breathed the clean air that it was going to be great. and goa never disappointed. thinh and i spent most of our days laying on lawn chairs, and soaking up the rays. we met up with tom and isabelle (work friends) on sat. up at little vagator beach which was more stunning than our baga beach.
had some incredible seafood (followed quickly by incredible belly aches, surprise surprise) and vegged out. much much needed.
highlights? most def. the tan. and also the rave on saturday night. so very much not my scene, but i was glad to have experienced it.
check out the pics!

i survived

i survived my first, and hopefully last delhi earthquake. any earthquake is bound to feel big at 445 in the morning when you wake up shaking with your bed. it was just a little one, but provided quite the jolt of fear

goa pics and stories to come


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Strong_tremors_rock_Capital_adjoining_areas/articleshow/2570791.cms

xoxo
b

gobble gobble

happy thanksgiving.
as we sat in the teacher's lounge eating the fabulously prepared turkey (from our principal's cook) and stuffing i think of just how much i have to be thankful for.
there is something about india that really humbles you. it makes you take a step back and see just how fortunate you are, and how blessed you were to be born you. sometimes these exact humble moments really make you feel like shit, but that's india.
i'm blessed to have been adopted into a wonderful school with a fabulous staff who invite me to come over and hang out with their kids:) it is the next best thing to having my little ian and eloise. i'll take what i can get. and of course, i am SO thankful for my friends and family. seriously. what would i do without all of you? being here is half the battle, i admit that, and it is courageous and enlightening (these are your words, not mine, i don't always feel all the courageous)...but i truly couldn't do it without all of you as my anchor. reminding me that i am not really alone here, and that i do still make some semblance of sense even though my blog entries clearly show that i am in a constant state of flux.

THANK YOU!
and happy thanksgiving.
i'm going to the beach in goa. (im REALLY thankful for that:) )
all my love
b

mascarade balls and such

fabulous weekend here in delhi. i got some new wheels! i finally picked up my bike from school and took it to the bike wallah who got it all spruced up for me! riding home on my indian bike i felt a new freedom...it was amazing
shopped yesterday with my friend briar who showed me all the good fabric stores. i have moved into the time when i am ready to explore getting clothes made...quite exciting. i gave the tailor some of the fabric to get started on some kurtas for my trip to goa next week.woohoo!

my friend laura takes a dance class here in delhi, and last night was the celebration evening. so, we headed to a hotel for a lovely pool party (albeit a bit chilly). i met an old friend, captain morgan. amazing how he never ages, right?

rishikesh, rafting...

just got back from a fabulous weekend in rishikesh. went up to see my friend eamon for the diwali holiday 4 day weekend back to the camp where I went with my middle schoolers a month ago.

diwali is a fabulous hindi and nepalese holiday celebrating the return of king rama from his 14 years of exile in the forest. "Divali/Diwali" come from the Sanskrit word "Deepavali" . Deepa/dipa means "light of the dharma", and avali means "a continuous line". The more literal translation is "rows of clay lamps" (thanks wikipedia).
nonetheless the holiday was celebrated on the beach by lining the tents and the shoreline with candles, and heaps of fireworks being blasted off. it was lovely to be out of delhi where the same thing happens...reeking havoc to the environment and such.

so i spent the weekend in the sun, playing cards, rafting, enjoying campfires at night. eamon and i were able to head into rishikesh a few times too and saw the aarti ceremony, we lit some candles and floated them down the river with our sins.
to the left are veejay and eamon at the camp.

back to the valley now. marveling in holiday bliss. anticipating the next holiday and doing good work in the meantime. lots of love, b

night soil

at some point or another everyone has heard me talk about the poop problem here. read on...
ok, so clearly not everyone has time to read it. here's a smidge

Health hazard

2.6bn people in the world do not have access to a lavatory (700 million in india alone)
80% of all sickness in the world can be attributed to unsafe water and poor sanitation (i.e. the water that comes out of my kitchen sink)
400,000 Indian children die from diarrhoea every year, usually because of dirty water

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2788635.ece

marine ball.

we went to celebrate the 232rd birthday of the marines. the party itself was quite dull. the dancing and the table fun, getting ready and dressing up was quite fun though.
here is a picture of the ladies with the marines. from left to right....skye, laura (red), natalia (back), kira (green) and i

amritsar- the tales

we decided on sunday that we should eat at the temple with all the pilgrims. the world food india book suggested it (thanks kari) but presented it with a story that was almost unbelievable. here is my story, the way i experienced the golden temple and lunch.

walking into the golden temple on saturday night was magical. the magic of walking into a structure and seeing the golden temple seemingly floating in the middle of sparkling water is unexplainable. the feelings i had paralleled those of other holy places around the world. i immediately think of family, present and past, and feel an overwhelmed proximity to them, not physically but spiritually. moreover, watching the reactions of other guests arriving at their mecca, as close as they can be to their higher being. i'll never forget the feeling of the cold marble floor as we walked around and took in the temple from all four sides.

the visit the next day was a very different experience. the sheer quantity of people that were around put more guards up. the lady who tried to open my bag as she walked by didn't help either, but the magic was different. i prefer the evening. lunch was the most profound experience i have had in india. we paid our donation and went towards the kitchen with the other 2000 or so people hungry for grub.

we were handed a plate, bowl and spoon, each by a different pilgrim volunteering his time. we herded, literally, up some stairs, each person desperately hoping to not step on someone's sari or get stepped on. then we stormed into a hall with long strips of cloth delineating where people should sit. all the while, petar and i are quietly trying to decide what we should be doing and how we are going to do this without offending anyone. the next few minutes are spent cross legged among thousands of hungry sikks trying to figure out what everyone is doing. bowl here, oh that's a glass, turn your plate, move your spoon, here comes the dal, and the rice pudding. oh, the bowl is for water? water to wash our hands or water to drink? "two hands" the guy with the roti says to me and i hold my hands up to receive my other utensil, the bread.

the clanking of the kitchen is something i will never forget. the sound of constant dishes being washed by hundreds of volunteers around the clock. so that everyone who is hungry can eat, regardless of class or religion.

at the golden temple, life works. the hungry get fed, the tired sleep and the religious pray. a seemingly perfect harmony.

loneliness

sometimes having a big apartment in the diplomatic enclave just doesn't really cut it. case and point that things can never really make you happy forever. of course it's great to come home to a fabulous place, but it is so isolating too. i have always wavered on the whole alone time thing. it's not that i don't enjoy alone time, i do, because i can do things like this, but when it comes down to it, i would love to jump over to kyle's or molly's in 10 to sit on the couch and jab or eat nachos. those are the things i miss. the convinience of a small city, the luxury of a car, and a city that isn't hard to drive places. so i find myself in between two scenarios, almost always. so busy i can't keep track, or so isolated that i feel like crying. the happy balance is hard, as always, to find here in delhi.

the novelty of it all has worn off. at this point i find pure frustration in not knowing where things are, not having the umpfa to go into the market and deal with 'men's club' and not having the cushion that living some place for more than 3 months (yes, i am at least realistic) gives you.

i feel like i constantly have to make india sound like a fabulous and intriguing place, which it is, but what i fail to mention and what really digs at me the most. that india is posterchild of the 'lack of.' the land of 'tikhe' the land of 'just ok.' i think this is for you, the reader, and those who love me and want this experience to be the fabulous that it is sometimes, and retrospectively will be. summatively it's just been a tough few days.