Trip to a Rural Village

As promised, pictures from our trip to a tribal village. I'm particularly proud of these pictures, so I may be a bit cocky.

A view from the six-hour drive.

From left: Akta, Priyanka, me and Chelsea, 4 of the people in my ride.

This is definitely my favorite thing we saw on the ride.

Yeah, it's a massive Ganesh riding down the road. (We're in the middle of a massive festival celebrating Ganesh, who, as you may or may not know, has always been a fascination of mine.)

We visited several different NGOs, one of which that focused on sustainable gardening. Naturally this is one of my favorite things, thanks to working at the Garden for eight years. Got some nice pictures there.

Earthworms!

And now for the village itself:

A guy processing cashews.

Pat and Kim playing cards.

I believe this is Dani and Kara doing some wandering. I don't care, I'm very proud of this picture.

I loved this little kid, he was posing so much.

This is my favorite picture of the batch.

Goats!

Some local crafts. Would you believe that these are papier-mache?

My buddy Pat is basically five, even though he's the oldest of us.

My buddy Chris, enjoying the flowers that each of us received. (I love taking pictures of other people taking pictures.)

Kim.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend! My roommates are all out of town, so I'm flying solo for the weekend. I might go shopping on Laxmi Road tomorrow. (Again, I am a total clotheshorse now. I bought two new kurtas the other day, and they were cheap, too!)

What else? Oh, I started my Indian voice lessons this week! We've been learning variations of raga scales. They're fascinating, too. The base note ("Sa") is the same as "Do" in the Western scale, but all the other notes are slightly different pitches from their counterparts. Also, the syllables are different- instead of Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti, it's Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa-Dha-Ni.

G'night, everybody!

Gaaaaaaahhh, behind again!

Okay, sorry guys, it's been a while since I updated. More pictures are in order, I think.

First we have a few selections from a trip we made with Swapna-tai. We were planning to go see some temples, but instead we ended up visiting a friend of hers who was a sculptor. He had a gorgeous place, up in the mountains.

Here are a few of his pieces, all done in clay:

This piece was actually really cool; it's a portrait of a local swami. He hadn't finished it yet- he has to mist it every once in a while to keep it moist so he can work on it. Here's what it actually looks like:

And now for another slice of life in the hostel: dealing with roaches!

This is one of several attempts to fumigate the apartment. We seem to be doing okay right now, though.

Jeannie and Erin are dressed appropriately; the sprays smelled so bad. (Also, Jeannie is ready with a flip-flop in her hand in order to kill any roaches that escape. Deven and I are just along for the picture-taking ride.)

We were jamming to "Bug City." (We also played Also Spach Zarathustra, and I had to sit in the corner for a while because I actually know the name for the theme for 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's not my fault that I come from a family of music nerds!)

I'm going to make a separate post for my village pictures because there are a lot of them.

Aaaand now... a fashion post!

One of the (many) things I've always loved about India is the clothes. I think I've wanted a sari since I was 11 or so. Obviously, there's no way I could spend four months in India and not get some clothes. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that most of my fashion sense revolves around what doesn't itch, but I'm having so much more fun shopping here.

First, the always fashionable salwar kameez. My three roommates and I went to an store called HyFashion on Laxmi Road. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the actual shopping process- I had thought that I did! But here's the one that I bought:

 Not the most attractive picture in the world, I know. But I love the color and it's super comfy and it cost 600 rupees, so who am I to complain? (For those keeping score at home, that's roughly 13 dollars.)

Here's a picture of all four of us hostel girls along with Satim, Swapna's son.

Then we went to a festival celebrating the first wedding anniversary of a couple- almost like an anniversary bachelorette party. There was lots of color and dancing.

Swapna and I took a spin on the floor.

...Then Deven and Jeannie:

And now, the post you've all been waiting for... SARI SHOPPING!!

We went with Swapna and her twin sister.

First, Jeannie goes up to bat.

Now Deven tries on her first. (NGL, I am so proud of this picture.)

Deven gets bindi'd.

And now... MY TURN!
Whenever we go to shop for Indian clothes, the shopkeepers always put so much effort into finding clothes particularly for me- I guess because of my coloring. There are so many that I liked, but I only tried on two.

Yeah, you can see why I'd like this one.

There's no way I couldn't resist trying this sucker on.

It was gorgeous, but I wasn't in love with it. The colors seemed a little ridiculous and it wasn't quite what I was looking for. I then asked how much it cost... and it was the most expensive material I've found to date. It cost OVER 9000 RUPEES! (Which, admittedly, is not a fortune in American money, but it's more expensive than everything I'd bought so far in India put together.) That was met with a "...I'll keep that in mind!" (Or, if you prefer, "Thank you very much for calling, sir. I'll be sure to pass your concerns along to the Congressman." *SLAM*)

This was Erin's turn. (She really doesn't like this picture, but I think it looks pretty. It's  funny how so often we notice all the flaws in pictures of ourselves in ways that others don't. So whatevs, I'm posting it. :P)

Also, I like how you can see me creepin' in the mirror.

This is the second one that Deven tried on. She'd been jonesing for a red one all night. I think this was too expensive, though. (We spent so much time trying to talk them down pricewise, and begging them to only show us less expensive things. Which they finally started to do...)

Jeannie found this one, which is one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen. AND it was only 1500 rupees! SOLD!!

And then... there's this one. I totally fell in love with it. It's great material, super detailed and two very pretty colors. Even Swapna liked it. And it was only 1850 rupees, so you know what that means...

SOLD!

Neither of these saris were ready-made, of course, so a tailor came over and took our measurements. She's making the blouses for us and they should be ready tomorrow!!

And with that, I should sign off. I've had a funky week lately. I came down with a cold a few days ago and it took me a while to shake it. I've also been super tired- I get so wiped out in the middle of the afternoon and then can't sleep by the time I go to bed, perpetuating the sleepiness. I actually did fall asleep in Contemporary India today. D: (It is, admittedly, pretty dry, but I love the professor so I felt really bad! Nothing to do with the teacher.)

G'night everybody! And a special shout-out to my folks at home gearing up for a new school year. (And my little sister, who's now a freshman in high school. D: D: HOW DID I GET SO OLD?)