So before I even start this blog, let me first tell you that while I am typing, Survivor is on TV because I am waiting for Friends to come on this channel and it reminds me of when people used to ACTUALLY watch Survivor...like 20 seasons ago
Now today did not go at all like I had planned it to. I must first tell you that even though I have not mentioned it, I start off everyday in India for the past...2 or 3 weeks with horrible stomach cramps. I gotta give it 15min to half an hour and they go away and I go on with my life. No problemo. But today I woke up at 8 am with stomach pains and didn't have to leave the hotel until 9:15 so I am thinking I have plenty of time. Then Shibu calls at 8:45 and says not to worry about getting there until 10 or 10:15.
Now I have even more time! Except that this time the pains do not go away. I have a god awful stomach ache on the very last day I get to go to the clinic. And being VERY experienced with stomach issues, I know that the only thing to do is to ride it out and hopefully doze off and after awhile it will go away. So I tell Shibu that I am sick but that I will rest and hopefully come in at the end of the day.
I proceed to either sit on the floor and pour hot water over my stomach (my solution to not having a bathtub) or to find a comfortable position on my bed and try very hard not to move except to eat a few biscuits or drink some water. I eventually fall asleep watching Nightmare Before Christmas. I wake up shaky around 12:30 with Shibu telling me that he has to leave at 2 for a case. So I get up and get dressed and go sit with Shibu while he eats.
He and I chat about life and such and how I will miss him very much and how I am supposed to call if I need ANYTHING veterinary related or otherwise and he is supposed to let me know whenever he finally decides to come to the US.
Then I went home with Suhra (I don't know if this is the correct spelling and as I suspect you don't care, I will not be getting up to check but she is the lady I visit with after work) and we went to her daughter's house. I have never felt more appreciated as they kept telling me how much they would miss me and Suhra told me more than once that she loved as her own daughter and did I really need to go back to the US? I tried to chat with her granddaughter who is only in about 2nd or 3rd grade, Neha (knee-ha) but she is very very shy and would only grin. Even when I asked her what it is she likes to do because I want to send her a present from America but she did give in and tell me bye eventually and she took a picture with me :-)
But anyways, they made me food, enough food to feed at least 4 or 5 people, and I was the only one eating it. And everyone watched me eat....and told me not to worry about it. But it is weird to have 3-4 people watching you eat. Very strange. Plus the food was amazing but it was the only food I had eaten that day and I did not want to eat too much and anger the stomach gods into making me sick on the train tomorrow. They insisted that it was ok and that it made them happy just seeing me eat. Whatever floats your boat man.
I promised that I will visit when I am back for a few days before I fly out. And I promised Suhra that I will write her letters and will email her daughter. I also plan to send her granddaughters those animal shaped bracelets everyone is nuts about in the US, I think that would be fun!
Got my sari blouses today!!! YAY! The tailor who did them is a woman who has trouble speaking and doesn't speak English, but I paid 50 rupees more than I needed to because she is so nice and looked so genuinely happy to see how happy I was that they fit. We did many thumbs up and I really am so excited. Can't wait to wear them!
As a last note, I had two weird dreams while I dozed this morning. One was that one of my adult teeth got loose and came out. In the other I was walking around Fort Cochin but I had no clothes on so I was trying to find something to wear (no clue why I was naked in this dream) and so I ran into a shop and wrapped a quilt around me but I knew the quilt would be very expensive so I was trying to figure out how much I was willing to pay not to be naked when I realized that I was wearing the Ali Baba pants and that I could pull them up to cover my top and not have to pay anything. Yea dreaming when you are sick is messed up.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Home is wherever you make it
So yesterday was...rather boring except for the fact that the coffee man at Cafe Coffee Day got up the nerve to ask me where I was from and what my hobbies are. It was the CUTEST thing. Like really adorable. And facebook cooperated enough to let me talk to people for almost an hour while watching crappy television. I am going to really miss my laptop while I travel because I have grown used to listening to music while I get ready and watching movies while I fall asleep.
Which reminds me I have to pack up all my stuff tomorrow. UGH!!! I hate packing...and laundry...and I gotta do both....
Oh wait! Also yesterday Shibu and I tried to take his car into Fort Cochin for lunch...but when we got there Shibu decided that for 50 rupees more he would rather have the buffet we had already passed, but he got lost and we drove in a GIANT circle back to the clinic and I was biting my nails trying not to laugh as he kept swearing under his breath and we took 40 min to finally get to lunch. Which was not only a very small buffet, it also wasn't all that great. I was very entertained by the whole episode :-)
And today started off very uneventfully with me listing all the states in America to make sure he was pronouncing them correctly. We discovered that Arkansas he had never heard of and everyone in India says EE-O-Ah (Iowa), so that kept us amused until Dr. Sunil got there and we discussed how unbelievably expensive the US is and how Undergraduate school is basically a 4 year waste of time because anything you need to learn for becoming a veterinarian is taught in veterinary school. It was a rather depressing discussion I must say.
Then we got a call for a buffalo (they keep water buffalo as well as cows here) with a prolapsed vagina. In layman's terms that means that the vagina has turned itself inside out and formed a big bubble outside of the body. It is actually a much better situation than it could have been, prolapsed uterus are more common and that means the entire HUGE uterus is outside the body. In this case I stood in a cramped cement shelter with around 15 cows and a few buffalo and watched the processes of cleaning and then pushing the vagina back into the buffalo, while the buffalo is trying to sit or lay down the entire time. It was very interesting, if smelly work.
Shibu is very sad that tomorrow is his last day at the clinic and I am as well. I want to get both he and Sunil a gift but I think I will send something from the US as they can buy anything they want from here :-) But I really will miss Shibu and genuinely hope he visits the states someday.
The best part of the day was when the lady I go home from work with invited me for tea again and her daughter who speaks English came over with her little granddaughter and also a grandson and they were so shy that every time I made a face at them they just collapsed in giggles. The daughter (who's name I CANNOT remember) kept telling me how much they liked me and how sad they were that I was leaving and that I must not forget them and when am I coming back to India? I told them I would come back whenever I could, which I will because I have become completely smitten with this country and want to explore the rest of it. I also gave her my email address and she will email me so we can keep in touch. They have invited me for a late lunch tomorrow and I told them I want to take many pictures with them and she wants to take one on her cell phone and I will send the ones I take via email. Apparently I am the only foreigner they have ever entertained and they just really like me. The lady from work told Shibu that I am much more polite than most foreigners. I just feel so welcome and loved and happy.
You really can make a home for yourself wherever you are and I will be so sad to pack up my home tomorrow night so my bag can be left downstairs with Margaret while I am gone. Besides the fact that you can be at home anywhere you choose, I have learned 2 more important lessons.
1) Always be smiling, even when you don't know what's going on, there is nothing more welcoming and it really does make you happier.
2) laughing at yourself always goes over well. My trials with the language and the mosquitoes has given everyone a laugh, including myself.
To quote a certain group of boys from Apartment 212 (the boys I lived down the hall from all summer):
"Fake it till you feel it"
Smile till you're not faking it anymore :-)
Which reminds me I have to pack up all my stuff tomorrow. UGH!!! I hate packing...and laundry...and I gotta do both....
Oh wait! Also yesterday Shibu and I tried to take his car into Fort Cochin for lunch...but when we got there Shibu decided that for 50 rupees more he would rather have the buffet we had already passed, but he got lost and we drove in a GIANT circle back to the clinic and I was biting my nails trying not to laugh as he kept swearing under his breath and we took 40 min to finally get to lunch. Which was not only a very small buffet, it also wasn't all that great. I was very entertained by the whole episode :-)
And today started off very uneventfully with me listing all the states in America to make sure he was pronouncing them correctly. We discovered that Arkansas he had never heard of and everyone in India says EE-O-Ah (Iowa), so that kept us amused until Dr. Sunil got there and we discussed how unbelievably expensive the US is and how Undergraduate school is basically a 4 year waste of time because anything you need to learn for becoming a veterinarian is taught in veterinary school. It was a rather depressing discussion I must say.
Then we got a call for a buffalo (they keep water buffalo as well as cows here) with a prolapsed vagina. In layman's terms that means that the vagina has turned itself inside out and formed a big bubble outside of the body. It is actually a much better situation than it could have been, prolapsed uterus are more common and that means the entire HUGE uterus is outside the body. In this case I stood in a cramped cement shelter with around 15 cows and a few buffalo and watched the processes of cleaning and then pushing the vagina back into the buffalo, while the buffalo is trying to sit or lay down the entire time. It was very interesting, if smelly work.
Shibu is very sad that tomorrow is his last day at the clinic and I am as well. I want to get both he and Sunil a gift but I think I will send something from the US as they can buy anything they want from here :-) But I really will miss Shibu and genuinely hope he visits the states someday.
The best part of the day was when the lady I go home from work with invited me for tea again and her daughter who speaks English came over with her little granddaughter and also a grandson and they were so shy that every time I made a face at them they just collapsed in giggles. The daughter (who's name I CANNOT remember) kept telling me how much they liked me and how sad they were that I was leaving and that I must not forget them and when am I coming back to India? I told them I would come back whenever I could, which I will because I have become completely smitten with this country and want to explore the rest of it. I also gave her my email address and she will email me so we can keep in touch. They have invited me for a late lunch tomorrow and I told them I want to take many pictures with them and she wants to take one on her cell phone and I will send the ones I take via email. Apparently I am the only foreigner they have ever entertained and they just really like me. The lady from work told Shibu that I am much more polite than most foreigners. I just feel so welcome and loved and happy.
You really can make a home for yourself wherever you are and I will be so sad to pack up my home tomorrow night so my bag can be left downstairs with Margaret while I am gone. Besides the fact that you can be at home anywhere you choose, I have learned 2 more important lessons.
1) Always be smiling, even when you don't know what's going on, there is nothing more welcoming and it really does make you happier.
2) laughing at yourself always goes over well. My trials with the language and the mosquitoes has given everyone a laugh, including myself.
To quote a certain group of boys from Apartment 212 (the boys I lived down the hall from all summer):
"Fake it till you feel it"
Smile till you're not faking it anymore :-)
Monday, July 12, 2010
Sari Sari Sari Time
Ok friends! So after a relatively uneventful veterinary day on Sunday, except for Shibu's daily American lesson which I will elaborate on later, I had given myself 2 options. If it rained, I was going to see the Hill Palace and if stayed beautifully sunny...well then I was gonna spring for the 250 rupees and go for a swim at the Grand Hotel.
Well it was sunny baby! And I spent 3 glorious hours lounging in the pool, sitting on a lounge chair in the shade, and reading a wonderfully witty and pointless romance novel. It was absolutely glorious and then was topped off when Becca and Laura got back from Varkala and we got to go to Dal Roti, our favorite restaurant, for dinner! It was absolutely brilliant and then we watched Valentine's Day and went to bed.
Now Shibu's and my discussion for Sunday was, oddly, about tattoos, tramp stamps, prostitutes, and strip clubs. The last one was especially shocking to Shibu because when he tried to look all knowing and say “ah yes are all bars strip bars in America,” and “so what does this entail? Just pole dance and two pieces?” I think I blew his mind a little when I said they got naked in front of other people. He looked both uncomfortable and intrigued as to the very fuzzy line between legal and illegal when it comes to sex in the US.
“So looking at naked women is fine? Do women go there? Men do it too?! But a whore is someone who has lots of sex? And this isn't illegal. But if they get paid, then it is?”
Highly amusing...Especially because it originally started with asking whether most women in America have their navels pierced.
Today I got up an hour early to have breakfast with the girls before they leave for Mysore and before I had to go to the hospital, only to be called a few min after I awoke and hear the Shibu had fallen in the bathroom and possibly broken, turned out it was only sprained, his leg. So then the girls and I had all day! We sent Becca's bedspread home and I found a sari I liked and haggled until I got it for about $20, I still have to make the top/blouse bit made for underneath and the Margaret said she will help me wear it.
I seriously think she and my grandmother would be best friends. She was just looking at me today, after being reassured that I wasn't leaving today - “I just love seeing your FACE everyday”- and said that I would look pretty in a sari, and luckily I had just bought one. After an amazing lunch at Krishna Café, the best rickshaw driver ever took us on a half willing half reluctant trip to a place where they grind up spices, a pretty statue, a pretty tree, and a local sari shop where....yea I bought another one :-) I couldn't help it and both blouses will be able to go under either sari and its beautiful and only cost me $10. Totally worth it.
So the girls are off to Mysore but I will try to meet them in Ooty on Friday or Sat and then we will travel Hampi together which is way better than going alone. I may hit an animal sanctuary on the way back and then I will leave 2 or 3 days to say goodbye to Cochin before I leave. I cannot believe I only have 3 weeks in India, and I could happily spend another month just in Kerala, but I need to get at least some traveling in. I'm so happy that I chose to stay and make a little home for myself in Fort Cochin because I think I have really gotten to know the people and the culture and meet so many interesting people, but I am glad to have a bit of traveling. Veterinary Hospital tomorrow and then off to the tailor to get my blouses made so I can be schooled in the art of proper sari wearing.
Well it was sunny baby! And I spent 3 glorious hours lounging in the pool, sitting on a lounge chair in the shade, and reading a wonderfully witty and pointless romance novel. It was absolutely glorious and then was topped off when Becca and Laura got back from Varkala and we got to go to Dal Roti, our favorite restaurant, for dinner! It was absolutely brilliant and then we watched Valentine's Day and went to bed.
Now Shibu's and my discussion for Sunday was, oddly, about tattoos, tramp stamps, prostitutes, and strip clubs. The last one was especially shocking to Shibu because when he tried to look all knowing and say “ah yes are all bars strip bars in America,” and “so what does this entail? Just pole dance and two pieces?” I think I blew his mind a little when I said they got naked in front of other people. He looked both uncomfortable and intrigued as to the very fuzzy line between legal and illegal when it comes to sex in the US.
“So looking at naked women is fine? Do women go there? Men do it too?! But a whore is someone who has lots of sex? And this isn't illegal. But if they get paid, then it is?”
Highly amusing...Especially because it originally started with asking whether most women in America have their navels pierced.
Today I got up an hour early to have breakfast with the girls before they leave for Mysore and before I had to go to the hospital, only to be called a few min after I awoke and hear the Shibu had fallen in the bathroom and possibly broken, turned out it was only sprained, his leg. So then the girls and I had all day! We sent Becca's bedspread home and I found a sari I liked and haggled until I got it for about $20, I still have to make the top/blouse bit made for underneath and the Margaret said she will help me wear it.
I seriously think she and my grandmother would be best friends. She was just looking at me today, after being reassured that I wasn't leaving today - “I just love seeing your FACE everyday”- and said that I would look pretty in a sari, and luckily I had just bought one. After an amazing lunch at Krishna Café, the best rickshaw driver ever took us on a half willing half reluctant trip to a place where they grind up spices, a pretty statue, a pretty tree, and a local sari shop where....yea I bought another one :-) I couldn't help it and both blouses will be able to go under either sari and its beautiful and only cost me $10. Totally worth it.
So the girls are off to Mysore but I will try to meet them in Ooty on Friday or Sat and then we will travel Hampi together which is way better than going alone. I may hit an animal sanctuary on the way back and then I will leave 2 or 3 days to say goodbye to Cochin before I leave. I cannot believe I only have 3 weeks in India, and I could happily spend another month just in Kerala, but I need to get at least some traveling in. I'm so happy that I chose to stay and make a little home for myself in Fort Cochin because I think I have really gotten to know the people and the culture and meet so many interesting people, but I am glad to have a bit of traveling. Veterinary Hospital tomorrow and then off to the tailor to get my blouses made so I can be schooled in the art of proper sari wearing.
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