A Very Unhappy Kitty

Sorry it has taken me so long to write my blog, our Internet has been out since yesterday and we have been unable to connect. Luckily, our RA Solomon has a USB Modem that we are able to connect Morgan's laptop to in order to write our blogs. Unfortunately this means that I cannot upload any of my photos since they are all on my iPad! So I will upload those as soon as we get wifi back in the hostel; look forward to that post, there are a lot of good ones! So here's what you missed in the life of Marissa in India:

On Friday morning we all woke up BRIGHT AND EARLY, meaning 5 am to drive all the way to Sirgali, the location of the wedding. As promised, Dr. Ravi and Dr. Rohini arrived exactly at 5:30 am and honked the horn to let us know they were here. On the way, we stopped along the side of the road and Dr. Rohini picked up jasmine flowers for each of us to put in our hair. It was super sweet of her and it made the whole car smell like jasmine - a smell you definitely come to appreciate in India. 

We stopped by a "Hi-Tech Veg Restaurant" for a quick breakfast and to put on our sarees. Breakfast in India is really just like any other meal, no defined breakfast foods. So we had idli (a rice flour patty) and sambar (hot chutney sauce), which you eat off of a wet leaf and with your fingers. It was quite the adventure and our first real Indian meal. Let me say, it was absolutely delicious and I now know what real Indian food (off-campus) tastes like. I was very spoiled by it. We also had "filter coffee." Oh. My. Gosh. Now that, that is absolutely wonderful. The coffee is so hot that you have to pour it into a bowl and back into the cup multiple times in order to cool it down, but once it's cooled down enough to drink, it may be some of the best coffee I have ever had. I hope to have it again before I leave India! 

The woman who owned the Restaurant/Inn was Hindu and it is a tradition amongst the Hindu woman to draw kolams with white chalk each morning. Kolams are designs in the sand, often times flowers. The woman drew a flower in the sand out in front of the restaurant and it was amazing to watch. She was 77! She wanted to take a picture with us (since we are American) and have us send it to her so she can put it up in the restaurant, it was very sweet. 

Some people also came with us to the wedding, so we had about four Indian women help us put our sarees on. We were actually pretty successful in our attempts to wrap them ourselves the night before, but these women were definitely more experienced. When we walked back into the restaurant with our sarees on and jasmine in our hair, I do admit, I felt about one-quarter Indian!

Next, we headed to the wedding! It was quite different than anything I had experienced, and there was no shortage of stares from the crowd, especially the children. We walked in and there was very loud music playing and even when the bride and groom were on stage, people in the crowd were still talking. Apparently this is not usually how it is at an Indian wedding and this was not the most representative of Indian weddings - but it was still a great experience! We did find out that the marriage was arranged and that also made it a little different to see. I know most people in arranged marriages usually end up very happy, but I always feel like the beginning is a little forced and not so easy - but maybe that's just me and I'm completely wrong, who knows. 

We left the wedding a few minutes early just to avoid the crowd and especially to avoid all the people wanting to take pictures with us and talk to us while also simultaneously wanting to talk to the newlyweds. On our way home, we stopped again at the Hi-Tech Veg Restaurant to go to the potty and get something to drink, but the doctors had provided us with some butter and jam sandwiches on delicious bread, so we were good on food! After four hours each way on a VERY bumpy ride through India, we arrived back at the hostel. Though we were all very tired, we went to the valediction ceremony for the communications class we had got to speak to a couple times. It was great to see so many of those students speaking English so well on stage in front of so many people - even I have a hard time doing that! And at last, we finally went to sleep after a long and busy day!

Today, we slept in! And it was glorious. Sleeping until nine-o-clock has never felt so wonderful. Later this evening we went shopping; yes, once again. I got a couple more kirtas (Salwar Kameez tops) and LOTS of gifts. I currently think I have everyone covered as far as gifts go and some for myself. And even with all of the amazing things I got, I only spent $50 total. We got home and went straight to dinner which was a very yummy homemade veggie burger. While we were trying to enjoy our meal, a cat was SCREAMING somewhere and it made it very hard to focus on food, thus, a very unhappy kitty.\

Anyways, I will post pictures ASAP. Stay tuned!

-Marissa