One night out

Tonight Sara, Bub and I (Mike) were able to have a most humorous adventure. For the past three days ending with today there has been a big celebration in the Hindu religion commemorating the goddess Purga. I’m not quite sure why there are celebrations, but in almost any neighborhood here you can find a temple with this goddess in it. One of the fun things they have been doing the past couple of days is making these beautiful designs with colorful sand on the ground. We’ve seen mostly circular designs with different shapes, and also one temple had made a peacock. Also on almost every corner someone is selling these strands of beautiful orange flowers which people use to decorate cars, bikes, rickshaws, and houses. It’s just a great festival to be able to observe as there’s not really anything like it in the US.

Anyways, the adventure we had tonight started with what sounded like loud dance music we could hear outside of our apartment. We went out to investigate and walked across the train tracks by our apartment and came across a small stage with a statue of the goddess Purga and next to that some lights and speakers putting out some loud dance music. We walked through the crowd and just stood at a distance of about 20ft, being the only white people in the crowd of about 100 people. There were people anywhere from kids to grown men dancing, just having fun with the music. Then suddenly someone came up and asked us to join in the dancing, and we went from being observers to being the center of the crowd. We thought that everyone would come in and dance with us, but instead this big circle of people formed about 3 persons deep around us to watch us dance. The three other people dancing with us were imitating our dance moves; maybe mocking us and maybe thinking they were really cool, we weren’t sure. There was also one man there preventing other people from dancing in the small circle, we think because he wanted us to be the center but we weren’t entirely sure. We danced with them for awhile and after each song we would try to go and they would just hold up a finger, “just one more” and we would. After about four songs we finally quit and retired our dancing for the night.

What impresses me about the different religions here is that they are more publicly celebrated. Their celebrations aren’t confined to a building, but it’s more publicly displayed. All are welcome to observe and process in their own way. And everyone from the elders to young kids are participating. There is another religious celebration that, I believe, starts today commemorating the defeat of the evil one Raman (sp?). It is celebrated with a burning of an effigy of Raman and lots of fireworks. This common theme of a victory over evil is something that can be appreciated across many religions and is very interesting to see celebrated in this way. We were told we would be impressed by the diversity and extravagance of the different religions here and we truly have been.

Will you be my neighbor?

We are getting settled in to our flat and loving the fact we don’t have to move every night. The apartment is great, dirty upon arrival but thanks to our hardwork clean as a whistle. The walls are yellow, the curtains are bright colors. It is fully furnished, though the beds are as hard as sleeping on the marble floor. The apartment is owned by the Sahara House (where Mike and Andrew are volunteering) and they finally came down on the price so we could rent it. The small balcony looks over the rest of the apartment complex and brings in a morning breeze. There are fans in every room and AC that I have to convince Mike not to turn on (we pay for utilities). We finally unpacked our India bags after a month and a half of being packed. I didn’t even know what would be in my bag and was pleasantly surprised.
Things I’m glad we brought:
-hand sanitizer
-toilet paper (they don’t have any in most public bathrooms)
-hand soap strips (thanks Amy! They’ve saved us multiple times)
-sheet (the bed had a semi questionable sheet on it)
-slackline (who knows how many friends I’ll make with it)
-frisbee (how could I not)
-running shoes (there is luckily a joggers park nearby that hopefully will work out for runs)
-food (granola bars, nuts, instant oatmeal) it’s sustaining us as we get settled in

In the neighborhood: We are set back a little ways from the main road but right next to the railroad tracks. There are shops close by and we can get to a busy part of town in 15 minutes of walking. There are street vendors all over the street we’re on and provide plenty of delicious bananas and vegetables. Last night we went to such a veggie stand and bough 3 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 3 green peppers. Coming to a grand total: 15 Rs (~ 30 cents). We’ll be eating a lot of vegetables. There is also a live chicken store across the road from the veggies, with crates upon crates of living chickens (not for long). We’re exploring and getting our bearings.

Picture descriptions:

1. the jogging park mike and i will be running around multiple, multiple times.

2. some of my favorite flowers in the area

3. one of my favorite views (non city) between two parts of town. the only wide open land around

4. the heart leaves i get a kick out of (mary t. --they remind me so much of the tree on our program!)

5. one view from our balcony of other apartment complexes. behind us is not this nice.

Sexy Man and Registration

Andrew and I got into a ricksaw to go to the Foreign Register’s Office (FRO) and the driver asked us where we were from. Once replying, “America” he responded with a grin on his face, “OBAMA!” Then he proceeded with an even bigger grin, “Sexy man. Obama sexy man no?” Andrew and I laughed at his statement and continued to laugh until the end of the ride. He was one of the better drivers yet, welcoming us into his country.
The Foreign Register’s Office was a little less welcoming. If John and his paid helper didn’t show Mike and I once where it was, we’d have no idea how it works. Essentially you go into this gate, sign your name and then walk pass lots of police with big guns. Then we follow this road that leads to a building. We were to go in, through a metal detector, and find this tiny, unlabeled hallway. There was a line that lasted for over an hour to get to this tiny, cluttered room full of papers. Mind you, there was no title or directions on the door. We were magically supposed to find the place. It was fun to see the inner workings of Indian bureaucracy and we all chuckled about the weirdness of where we were finding ourselves. Finally we got to the room, and watched as two women and one man chattered in Hindi and passed papers back and forth. They only asked us one or two questions and then told us to come back the next week to pick up our registration. It was quite the process and needed to be done to get a flat. A story to tell for sure. I really wanted to take pictures but was afraid of being arrested or the camera confiscated (which probably would not have happened).

Apartment update!

I only have internet for a short time, but I wanted to let you know the unbelievable happened. We have a flat!! We were all getting a little down and desparate about it, as all options seemed to be deadends. Alas, a worker at Sahara House got the price down on the flat Sahara House owns. We stayed there last night and were so excited we didn't have to go back to the hostel/hotel we stayed at the night before (a downscale place, with lots of character...pictures to come). The place is furnished and is nice. We are moving in today, we are at John's house collecting our stuff.
Our apartment doesn't have internet right now, and it may take awhile. Thus this may be the last time for a bit that I'll have solid access to internet. The boys went to Sahara House and the girls to the school. Both seem to be great. Anne and I were even able to teach a small group today multiplication and subtraction. Difficult for them to understand us at times, but I loved it. More details to come. Much love to all. Send us love via email. We'll be figuring out the postal service soon.

Hotel Sunderban

The skeleton keys to our hotel for the last two days. It was the cheapest we could find in the area. They had a lot of open air space and the windows go straight out to the outside (no screens) but have metal gaurds (as seen in one of the pictures). Internet was on and off, lights flickered, breakfast was toast and corn flakes, and the most random furniture was around. But there were very cool birds in the area with wonderful flowers. Employees would regularly sweep the yard with brooms made of sticks, and watering of the lawn was rampamt. They had a nice area where we could read and hang out. Check www.andrewandanne.blogspot.com for more pictures.

Pictures Round 1

Here are some snapshots early on in our journey. Starting off with our great visas, the shining/bright faces of Mike and I, our first cow sighting, the train ride with Andrew and Anne, and the view from the train.

Apartment Frustrations

Right now we're in the process of trying to get ourselves an apartment, and wow, it is much harder to get an apartment as a foreignor than you might think. They have these things called brokers that find an apartment for you and you have to pay them a "finders fee" for finding you one and helping you set up all the formalities such as passport info, why you're here, pictures, etc. It makes me very much appreciate how easy it is for us to get an apartment in the US. We're waiting now for our broker to get back to us so that we can move to the next step. It seems that we're going to be spending another night in a hotel and MAYBE be able to move in tomorrow. We were given some advice right before we left for India that "you have to expect things not to work out like you expect" and that is just about the best way to explain the situation that we are in. We're learning to be flexible and content, even though we are not where we want to be.

On the brighter side of things, Bub and I met one of the people from Sahara house today and the meeting went very well. He told us a bit about the clinic, and showed us a flat that we could have rented, but it was almost going ot be twice as much as the flat we're hoping to rent so we declined. He was very positive about us working with Sahara and seems like he will be very helpful.

One thing about India in general that I've been observing and trying to just pound into my head is that you need to approach India with an open mind and you cannot judge things by the way they would be in the US. What might look like a dangerous part of town in India to us by US standards is actually very safe and considered normal in India. Things are just going to be a little dirtier and chaotic than I am used to and that's going to be okay. Sorry if this post is a bit long and hard to follow, these thoughts make much more sense in my head.

I think we're all a bit frustrated, but trying to keep positive. It's been a great overall experience so far, and is sure to only get better. Bye for now. (sorry for no pictues, we need to get batteries for our camera to post a few pictures we have)

Mike

Apartment update and rain

Our apartment is not as easy as pie and we're working out the details. We looked at three and one is still a possilibity. We're staying at a hotel right now, hoping by Wednesday we'll be in our own home. Reshma and John, two people we had contact with before we left have been absolutely wonderful and have helped us tremendously with apartment stuff.

Today it rained for about 15 minutes and truly rained. We were out exploring at the time and ran under a store front. No more than 5 minutes later a multiple cows started running down the street. It was amazing! One of them had a bunch of young boys following, holding on to the tail. A sight to see for sure. We continued our exploration of shops and found a small restuarant that served us delicious Indian food (we're getting better at knowing what we're getting but we had to order some meals blindly). All of us ate to our heart's content for 6 dollars total. And that included drinks. I've had a tummy ache last night and this morning, but seem to be over it with no throwing up. I'm sure that won't be the worse of it :) Everyone else has been great health wise.

Just now a peacock has popped out of the trees and is walking in front of me. Who does that? It is absolutely beautiful and is now being chased away by Andrew and a camera. And a gecko is on the ceiling. I love fun animals. As soon as we get our batteries out I'll put pictures on the blog.

Much love to all, send us updates. It is a highlight of the day to get emails from friends and family!
Sara and Mike

First Impressions

We have spent a couple of days in India now and have had quite a few first impressions. Our apartment is taking awhile to set up, so we are shifting between hotels and John's apartment (he is the man who helped us set up a lot of our India connections, he is the father of one of Anne's friends).

Some favorite first impressions:

-Traffic is like Tetris. They fit the as many vechiles as possible in a small amount of space, fitting larger and smaller cars so it is jammed packed. They then weave and speed amongst each other with ease.

-The smells are the most noticable thing to me (sara). They are intense. Humidity, food, plants, animals, fumes. everything hits my nose with a bang. Every time I walk out of a building I'm reminded through my nose that I am in India.

-The food is delicious. We don't always know what we are eating, but it has been fantastic. I'm hoping to make friends with great cooks and learn from them.

-Bargaining is not my forte, but Andrew loves it. Until recently we've been bargaining for prices with autoricksaws, until we realized we can have them put the meter on and interprete it that way. They seem to hate when we suggest that because that means they can't rip us off anymore. what a shame.

-Dogs are everywhere. Stray dogs that look very similar to each other (seem to be one or two breeds) wander and sleep on the streets. There are at least ten per street. It's crazy.

-Cows roam. We've seen a couple cows, some in herds and some by themselves. It's so weird to see them in such busy cities.

-People walk on the street. Which seems so weird to me because the streets are so crazy, but we try to fit in.

Alright that's all for now, more later.
We're loving the new and loving being with each other.

We're Here!

I'm going to keep this short, but we are here! A very long journey but we are now in India! The gang is jumping on the train this afternoon and heading to Pune. It is overwhelming for all us, but it's an adventure! More later.

India Update

We are going to India! We bought our tickets last week and have our visas! On Wednesday, September 16 Mike, Anne, Andrew, and I will be getting on to a plane to (eventually) Mumbai, India. Mike and I will split from Anne and Andrew in Frankfurt and take a slightly different route. We'll go through New Dehli and a six hour layover until heading to Mumbai. After reaching Mumbai we'll rejoin Anne and Andrew for a 3 hour train adventure to our final destination: Pune, India.

A few details must be worked out before our departure but at last we will go! Mike and I bought 1 way tickets so we have freedom in our return, but we're planning to stay until early May.

And here we GOOOOOOOO!

Fun in Eau Claire

We had a grand 'ld time in Eau Claire. Here are some snapshots to prove it.
1. Biking to the Farmer's Market!

2. The tandem upclose and personal.

3. The concert at Phoenix Park

4. Kayaking together on Lake Altoona!

5. Mike on his first solo kayak ride!

"Couch" Surfing Part II

Mike and I have been quite the wanderers this month. Jon and Mary's house was wonderful, we felt so at home and comfortable. We got to paint a room--Mike's first attempt at painting a room and it was grand! We biked quite a bit, enjoyed the Middleton surroundings and worked.

Next it was off to Eau Claire. For the first week we stayed at Mary and Tom's (my aunt and uncles) while they were off in Boston. It was splendid to enjoy the beautiful home on Lake Altoona. It was like we were at a resort but by ourselves, with kayaks included! I loved showing Mike around the cooler parts of Eau Claire and the hidden gems! The week after we went to my parents for a week. It was fantastic to have down time at home, staying busy with the pleasures of Eau Claire: biking, tennis, Acoustic, ice cream, frisbee golf, tandem bikes and more! It is surprising how busy one can be with so little committments!

(captions: 1. most of our one bedroom, 2. our first surfing experience)