Taj Mahal or Bust!!

Happy Bakreid!!

Today is the Muslim festival of Bukreid or the 'festival of sacrifice.' Every Muslim family today sacrifices a goat and apparently there is so much blood that it runs in the streets. For the past few weeks there have been goats all over the place and sometimes their horns or their entire bodies are dyed to mark which goats belong to whom - except the dyes are neon pinks and blues. Its weird when I've been in India long enough to not think too much of a bright pink goat wondering around. Sajjid, our driver, had to ask for an advance on his monthly salary so that he could buy a goat for his family. I asked Sajjid why every family must sacrifice a goat and he said, (and I quote) "I don't know. It's like the rules or something." Very insightful. Made me want to break out in a chorus from Fiddler on the Roof of "Traditioooooooon. Tradition..........Tradition!"



My wikipedia sources tell me Bukreid commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. I'm down with that. And at first I kind of felt bad for all the goats, thought about buying one and saying "run free little goat. ruuunnn!" but when you think about it, goats in the U.S. are all probably going to be killed at some point. Across the world, whether its for religious purposes, consumption, or glue - any goat is pretty much a dead goat.

But the real reason I'm writing today is that I'm packing for my trip to the Taj Mahal! I'm doing three cities in five days and I'm sooo excited! Kind of nervous (cause I'm going by myself) but more excited!

Here is the plan. I will fly from Hyderabad to New Dehli and then spend one day/night in New Dehli sightseeing. Then I will drive about five hours to Agra and stay in a five star hotel there. (Excited about this cause my other Indian hotels were really cheap and the last semi nice hotel I stayed at - my sheets were dirty. These are the kind of hotels where I will be packing my own toilet paper. Need I say more? ) The next morning in Agra I will wake up and see the Taj Mahal by sunrise! I also plan on having one of the hotel ladies tie my saree for me so I can wear it to the Taj and feel all special and pretty. Maybe I'll even apply a tilak (the hindu third eye) with some bright red lipstick. (Don't know if thats frowned upon or not. Hopefully I won't bring down the wrath of the 330 million plus Hindu gods. That would make for one BAD day.) After seeing the Taj Mahal I will drive about five hours to Jaipur. Jaipur is known as the pink city because one of the sultans painted the whole city pink in 1853 in honor of a visit from the Prince of Wales.

I'm so excited but you might be wondering if I'm going to drive. No, I hired a driver. And it might have been cheaper to buy train tickets but I'm posting this video to show why I opted out of the train ticket itinerary. When we were in Bangalore, Hein (Theo's brother from South Africa) and I saw this commercial about 8 times and I kept getting offended by the name of the suitcase brand, which Hein thought was very amusing. Although slightly offensive, the commercial does have a point.



And the real kicker of that commercial is that train doesn't have air conditioning and most of those people haven't bathed in a few days - maybe even in a week or more. Thus I chose a driver.

I leave in for the airport at 4AM (so really in about six hours!) I will update you as soon as I get back with tons of pictures and hopefully some more videos from my digital camera!

Where is the Toilet?

I know its been a llooooonnnggg time since I've written and I'm so sorry! I have no excuse except that writing these blogs always takes me forever and I got lazy. Not even taking classes and this is happening. Geesh.

Okay so a quick update. YAAAY!

Days Left in India - 20
Season - "Cold" Season
Temperature - 72 Degrees
Mosquito Bites - 37
# of Times I've been Spit Up on Today - 1

I haven't been writing, but a lot has been going on! I will try to give a reader's digest version of some of the highlights!

Well first, lets start with some bad news. Its my only bad news and I'd rather just get it out of the way. Abdul and I aren't speaking anymore :( Basically, it boils down to that he wanted to be more than friends and I didn't. Unfortunately, it caused a rift in our friendship. I really like Abdul. He's a handsome, friendly, and charming guy but I'm not just looking for a relationship right now. That's not why I came to India. Perhaps I didn't explain it well because we got into a fight and haven't talked since. Even the Hindi lessons just stopped and I haven't pushed it cause I don't want things to be awkward. I lost a great friend but I can't change the way I feel and unfortunately, neither can Abdul.

Moving on.

I saw my first cricket match! The pitcher (bowler) tries to hit the stick things (wickets) and then the batter tries to hit the ball. If the ball rolls to the boundary then its worth 4 points if it clears it then ... screw it. Just know its awesome. Though, it should be noted, I was lucky enough to see all three games with 20 overs limits which means the game only lasts four hours as opposed to traditional cricket games which can last five days.


But I'd have to say the BEST thing about cricket was once I got to see the American cheerleaders experience an Indian bathroom for the first time. Here I am washing my hands and they come bouncing in (cheerleaders, you know how they bounce) and one opens the stall and says, "OH MY GOD.... where is the toilet?" They stand there contemplating the logistics of how to aim into the hole in the ground before they both slowly make their way into the stalls. The next thing I hear is "ah hell no! There's no toilet paper in here! Just a bucket of water!" I wanted to say, "Welcome to India. When deciding which hand to wipe with, the left is the correct choice. Oh, and I might watch the Indian man who has been opening your water bottles and handing them to you - he's a lefty."

But I just let them figure it out on their own. Come on people, read a guidebook.


I've also been spending a lot of time with Kara. She's getting sooo big and more beautiful everyday. Sometimes, I wish that she was older. I wish that I could talk to her, and color with her, and play in parks and that sort of thing. But the most incredible thing about being a nanny for a baby is that you watch her grow before your eyes. You watch her discover her hands and then her feet and then her reflection in the mirror. She's rolling everywhere now, she's gaaing and gooing all the time, she's laughing, she's learning to sit up, and we've started feeding her her first solid foods. Its amazing! She just turned seven months and I'm completely attached to her. I think I'll be stealing babies out of cribs in the US just so I can remember what it feels like to hold one.

Here's a video I took today of us playing around! My hair is kind of crazy but that's what happens when little hands are grabbing at all the time!



I also had a very Indian experience I hoped I never would - I went to an Indian hospital. A few weeks ago I just got really sick. It started off with a cold and as soon as that went away it turned into an awful fever. When I went to the hospital I had a temperature of 103 and I felt miserable. I was there with Sajjid and Raju and we had to visit all these different sides of the hospital for different things. And I had to get my blood drawn. I hate blood. I hate needles. I hate getting blood drawn. I was waiting and waiting and I was so hot and dizzy that I let my head rest against the table in front of me. When the doctor was done drawing blood he put the bloody cotton swab right where my face had been three seconds ago ... wonderful. Also, one of the corridors was lined with buckets and buckets full of used needles. I asked Sajjid why they were there and he said that some people fight through the hospital garbage bins looking for food and they end up pricking themselves on a used needle and infecting themselves with HIV or something of the sort. So the hospital just keeps the used needles inside now. I got some fever medicine and got out. I felt better the next day and am so glad that I've been healthy since.

But perhaps the best thing that has happened since my last post was my trip to Mysore and Bangalore! It was my first trip outside of Hyderabad and it was wonderful! Theo's parents and brothers came to visit and together we all took the trip! First we flew to Bangalore then Theo's family and I took a train to Mysore while Theo and Marga stayed behind in Bangalore. Mysore was a beautiful small city (small with about two million people) with all these old British buildings. And soo many cows!

(Cows are holy in India. Can't eat them. What a waste.)

Mysore also had the most amazing palace I've ever seen! (And I've seen my fair share of palaces across Europe) It was incredible and at night they light the palace up! Millions of tiny lights, it's breathtaking! I have some photos and video to check out too! The photos of the palace interior I stole from google because you're not allowed a camera inside but I just had to show y'all.



Also in Mysore I saw lots of temples, lots of cows, and my first real live monkey! I also ate the best Indian food I've had yet at this little hole in the wall restaurant we tried. It was amazing! We spent one day in Mysore then took the train back to Bangalore.


In Bangalore the highlight was the Taj Hotel that we stayed in. Marga and Theo certainly know how to travel in style cause this hotel was incredible. On your bed they provided a pillow menu - about 15 types of pillows ready to suit whatever pillow mood you happened to be in. Also, at night, they don't leave a mint on your pillow - oh no, they bring a chocolate slab/ chocolate mouse box with a kiwi and chocolate sauce dribbled artistically across the white plate. The hotel was surrounded by beautiful gardens and it felt hidden and exotic even though it was in the heart of the city. Quite unfortunately we actually left the hotel sometimes to do sightseeing.



My favorite sight was the Bangalore Palace. It doesn't look like a palace at all but a Castle. Actually, the family who ruled in Mysore, the Wodeyar's, the Bangalore Castle was their summer retreat. But it was built after the Sultan traveled to Europe. Basically he saw the castles and said, "Very nice. I'll have one."



It was such a neat sight because it was completely different than any other palace I've been to. Not more spectacular but less and that is what made it so interesting. When walking around the Bangalore Palace you feel like you've stumbled into an 15o year old forgotten castle. The furniture inside is worn and dusty, pigeons line the pillars, and you are allowed to sort of just wander around while a guide follows you and explains things about the room you walked into. Interestingly, decedents of the royal family still live there today so parts of the palace are closed off to the public. With royalty still living in the palace naturally I had to poke around and look in through the windows until I got yelled at. The rooms still occupied by the royal family are incredible and are juxtaposed ironically with the rest of the palace which looks abandoned.

Okay I'm going to leave you guys here! I have so much more to tell you! Stories about Raju and Sajjid that will bring a good laugh and about the trip to the Taj Mahal I'm planning for next week! I promise more blog posts within the week! I have to make up for all the lost time but also not have a blog post worth submitting as one of my college 15 pg finals!

Al and Abdul Go to the Zoo

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"What do you think they have in an Indian zoo? Maybe they'll have elk!"

- Brittany Nickolay (my fricken awesome sister)

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Close! The first animal that Abdul and I saw at the zoo were spotted deer. Besides them though, it was a lot of lions, tigers, and bears.

Oh My!

I convinced Abdul to go the zoo with me last Saturday and we actually had a really good time. Even despite the fact that honestly, the zoo wasn't all that great. The cages were really dirty so there were awful smells wafting around. And people taunt the animals! There were boys throwing rocks at the lions! Poor lions! And besides that the zoo is ginormous and there aren't any signs so you just kind of wander around. We were trying to find the giraffes (cause they're my favorite animal) but people just kept pointing us in all different directions.

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And once again I attracted a lot of attention. Abdul kept saying, "people are always staring at you." No, really? We decided that I needed my own exhibit so people could just take photos, and throw rocks at me, and get it over with.

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After walking around for a while, Abdul and I sat down and had this little boy take our picture. I should have learned my lesson at the last park I went to

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you NEVER sit down. Cause it starts off so innocent.

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Aww see, so cute right? And then Shabaam!

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Tons of little kids, I don't know! And of course, things got way out of hand. But they're so cute, how can you not love them? Then they just started following Abdul and I around for the rest of the day!

They picked flowers for me (even though the guards were yelling at them) and they even bought me ice-cream! Abdul accused them of flirting with me when they were bringing me flowers but they said it was not like that, I was like an older sister to them. Awww. Can I keep one?

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Well we didn't se anymore animals after this pack of monkeys joined our outing. It was amazing though. I can really see myself coming back to India to be a teacher one day. They just warm my heart.

(Pretty flowers they picked for me)

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P.S. I'm being eaten alive. I offer this photo as proof. Mind you this is ONE side of ONE of my arms.

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to my new blog! See isn't it pretty? If there's anything you want to look over or read again here's the link to my old blog - http://tomahawkreddot.blogspot.com/ . I'm going to keep it around because I think I will at least want to read over it again. Anywhoo, once again, so sorry about destroying my first blog. What can I say, its a gift.

But let's not linger here, moving forward.