It's Been a While

So, this trip has been over for a while. And I can't say that I haven't tried to write everything from the last weeks  but I never got that far. Below is as far as I got with my several attempts:

Well, it's been a while. I can't say that I have tried to maintain this blog properly, but when you have finals and get sick and then spend your final days out with your friends, you kind of forget about the blog you are meant to be updating. It's been a pretty awesome last couple of weeks. Or actually has it been a month? It actually might be. Well, list of things to talk about:

Mumbai
The North (Jaipur, Agra, Varanasi, Lucknow)
Sickness (ugh)
Our last night out
Kerala
And home!

So Mumbai is first. I have been really lucky that my parents rack up Marriott points like no other on their Marriotts Rewards card. I therefore, was able to stay at the Marriott for a weekend with the girls with no room cost! Yay! Well, it was quite the luxury compared to have I have been living, nice big bed, air conditioning, which is free at the Marriott, I got a spa treatment, and Western food. Dear lord, can I tell you how much I have been craving chicken caesar salad and sushi. And I got both at the Marriott! Not together of course. Well, honestly the highlight of the trip was just the hotel. It was such a luxury trip. The only real thing we did outside the hotel was go to the thieves market (which I would highly recommend) and Shar Rukh Khan's house, which I was dragged to by my Bollywood loving friend. The major expense honestly was food, I didn't know how much I wanted it till it was right in front of me. So that was Mumbai, or my Mumbai. Short, sweet, and to the point.

The North. Hokay, so, the North is a lot different than the South with India. Like, waaaaayyyy different. So we started in Jaipur. And actually spent the day unplanned, we knew we should hit X,Y, and Z temples but if we didn't, we weren't going to cry over spilled lassi. So We made our way to Pink City, the old city, and then so r of just wandered till we ended outside a palace or temple of some sort and then picked up an auto to take us to the outer sites. We went to the Lake Palace and the

And that was as far as I got. But I am back in America now and I can't keep reliving the past. It was fun and really cannot be put into words what I experienced in India, but it has made me think about what I want in my life. What is important to me and what I take for granted. And adjusting back into this way of life that I have grown out of habit has been difficult and strenuous. But there was no way I would have been able to live out there forever. I am glad I took the leaps that I did to get there, but also need to get out of my mind and into my life now. Become the present. So that is the end of this blog! I hope you enjoyed reading. Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Nicole

Friday

So, I haven't exactly been keeping this thing up to date. For starters, I have been on two nice little trips since I last wrote. Also, this weekend was a festival called Holi. But back to the trips. Hampi and Mysore, in that order. Yet I think it says something that I wrote the first draft of this blog entry on my Mysore hotel notpad from my sick bed. But, I'll get to that later. Hampi first. I went to Hampi last weekend. Honestly, I only had two things planned with Hampi, and to describe them I am going to need to re-employ the HIMYM code. My two planned events were seeing the Hanuman temple and having a sandwich lassi.

So we got in on Saturday moring and went straight to the hotel to check in then to a restaurant for breakfast. We then went across the river and a little hike over to the Hanuman temple, Hanuman is the monkey god, every loyal to Rama and Sita. Well, no one had mentioned that the Hanuman temple was on top of a mountain, therefore a long hike to the top (well, they had stairs.) So much for not researching places I want to go as to be more spontaneous. We had a nice morning view of Hampi from the top. It was cool since Hanuman is one of my favorite Hindu/Indian gods. Then back down and a short auto rick back for sandwich lassis.

This is where things took a turn, where the trip turned into a "trip." We heard about the sandwich lassis prior to getting there but we didn't know exactly what we were getting. So we went to the prescribed cafe and got the special lassi, the cafe's own private code, then waited on the cafe's seats, which were mattresses on the floor. That right there, should have been the clue. W were told that when we order we should ask them to be strong. They came out and all the lassis tasted like were sandwiches, pure sandwiches. But on we went drinking our sandwich lassis. Each of us split one and Kaitlin and I ended up sucking down ours in about 10 minutes flat, a very big difference from our party's thirty minutes to suck down theirs. As for the effects, they took a while, but once they hit we understood why there were mattresses on the floor. And there was the walk back to the hotel. Dear god, it felt like forever. And once in the hotel, a 16 hour nap with an interval of puking my brains out and showering (which really just consisted of hitting myself in the head with a shampoo filled hand several times.)

And the next day I groggily woke up, ate breakfast/lunch and attempted to look at more temples before I succumbed to window shopping and an Ayurvedic massage. And that was it. My entire 48 hours of Hampi retold for your glory. Riveting stuff, eh?

Well onto Mysore. As my dad has so ingeniously figured out, Mysore was "my sore." Honestly on the Thursday we left I felt so incredibly sick that I was debating not going. But I did. And so a plane and bus ride away we get into the Mysore hotel. Now I have to mention that the program that I am here in India with planned this trip, therefore not going seemed like sort of an insult. And me going and staying at the hotel they arranged seemed like a perfect place for me to be sick. After a night on down comforter bedding, I woke up and asked my roommate Adrian to pick me some toast from downstairs breakfast. She returned with one of our program leaders and asked if she thought if I could make it through the day, which I replied a resounding no. So in bed I was, for the next two days of the trip, eating room service, watching Dexter on TV, and finishing the rest of the fourth Harry Potter book. What a vacation. On Sunday I did get out of bed for an activity, mostly because we were leaving for the airport directly after that. So Mysore was all it lived up to be, a sore.

As for Holi, it was fun we threw colors at each other and all that hoopla, but I only participated during Sat morning, as my back sort of got pulled out from attempting to lift Kate's suitcase.So, yea, that is all you missed from here. Off to Mumbai this weekend and I will let you know that goes afterwards, or the best I can do because I am only touching down for about 12 hours till I go up to the North for a bit.

Also, pictures (only some from Holi, sorry) are up on facebook.

~The Finn

Someone Like You

Well, it's been such a long weird crazy week! I just got in from Tamil Nadu last night. So much of the trip was unplanned or improvised and honestly it could not have gone any better. I am so happy with how everything had turned out and how much I feel like I just did things that are so indescribably beautiful and surreal and could never be repeated. I just reveled in the moments of this trip like no other and I think they are really relaxing any other part of my life just by thinking about everything. I still laugh to myself (audibly) about some little moments.

I started out with my group by going to Chennai as a transit stop on the way to Pondicherry. Once in Pondicherry, which was sticky in weather, I was able to just reflect on one of my favorite books growing up Life of Pi and think about the place as a character, which it was. It was overpriced for India,as most of the income for the city comes from European tourists, but was a nice starting point. I was able to eat some really great seafood (pepper prawns and garlic grilled squid) and just walk around this quaint French quarter. Oh, and also we somehow ended up staying at a rooftop villa for less than the price of the hotel room that we were originally booked for. Very cool.

We then headed down to Madurai, via crammed bus that we almost missed our stop on and 7 hour train ride that was supposed to be 3 hours. It was a full day of transit as we later found out when we just decided as a group that we would catch a bus (which ended up being a cab because we missed the bus) to Kodaikanal later that night. But in our short 2 hours we were in Madurai we ended up going to probably the most beautiful temple (the Menakshi temple) I have ever been to in my life. We also ate about two dosas each for dinner because we did not really have any real meal that day. We then headed up to Kodai as I have mentioned, with full moonlight views of the mountains all the way up. Oh but I forgot the craziest part of Madurai, where a strange Indian man grabbed my face in the train station. It was all super weird, he like squeezed my cheeks like I was a child, which I won't lie that I got really Asian chubby cheeks but dear lord he wouldn't have done that if I was Indian.

So we then were in Kodai for pretty much the rest of the trip. I ended up waking up to sunrise views of the valley as our hostel (Greenlands Youth Hostel, I highly recommend it) was on the top of a mountain. The first day we went to the Pillar Rock (looks like those mountain island things from Avatar) and then up to the Guna Caves, which more or less ended up as just as some hiking on the mountain ridge with views of the clouds. Then I did some horseback riding, which was more or less just me trying to either get my emaciated horse to move or stop. Honestly, I was terrified and very proud of myself after the entire experience. We then headed into town and got Tibetan food that is also highly recommended, if I could remember the name of the place. Note to anyone going as well, the monkeys there are awful bastards. They honestly grabbed a box of Kodai chocolates out of my friends hand, those horrible little creatures.

The next day was also started with sunrise views and then walking down to the lake and to a crappy waterfall that had one of the most gorgeous paths in the woods. I then sat down at a cafe for a while, nearly froze because it was so cold. Bought a sweatshirt and had some good conversation before dinner at the same Tibetan place and then a bus down the mountain. We stopped to change buses at the dirtiest place in the world and took the second bus to Cochi.

In Cochi we took an auto rick to a beach just outside of town and watched the sunrise through the palms. Lastly, we saw dolphins that sort of solidified the magic of the trip. Then off to the airport where we waited for an extra 2 hours for the plane, which was obviously on India time. Well, I would show pictures but there is still something wrong with my photo deal on blogger (bitch) so just look for the album on facebook, specifically made for your enjoyment/because of the problems with blogger picture deal.

~The Finn

Bad Day

I know I promised more Ellora cave pictures, but Blogger is being a bit of a dick right now and not letting me upload more pictures because I reached some sort of space limit. Therefore, sorry if you loved my old blog posts, but it was either take them down or buy storage, and I ain't about to pay for anything with this site. Thinking about it now, I should have copy and pasted them into some word doc, but c'est la vie.

Anyways, today has been my first off day. What I mean is it just really hasn't been the best of days for me. This is not to say that I have had an awful day and I am super angry, it just not my day today. I am being very Indian about all of it and just accepting the lack of greatness to my day and going to let it pass through my sleep tonight. Aside from my off day, I decided that I would skip my Hindi class this afternoon because I have an incredible migraine and I don't think that spitting out a language that is so incredibly difficult to understand, let alone pronounce, would be the best of ideas for both my migraine and my attitude. I was afraid I might just snap in the heat of the sun or the over-articulated sounds of hai in the back of the class. Therefore, movie (I decided the feel good film Love Actually) and a shower plus lots of water and some Excedrin Migraine tablets. The day will pass, so long as I don't let my off day get me down. I think it is natural to have these days so with being a month and a half into my semester, I have to say it was inevitable but also pretty impressive that I have made it thus far without one. Onward to my shower and an early night. To a better day tomorrow.

~The Finn

Conjunction Junction

Onto the Ellora caves. Honestly, they didn't feel any more special than the Ajanta caves, outside of one particular cave. Cave #16 is a temple to Shiva, god of destruction, of his residency in the land of the gods if he were to ever want a home on earth. It was made out of one cliff of rock and they got so much crazy detail that I just kept returning back to that cave. These are pictures of all of the caves at Ellora, but notice the detail. Too many photos to upload all at once, more to come.

~The Finn

The Ladies Who Lunch

Well, I am about a week late to post this exact post, as I returned from a very busy and jam-packed weekend from Aurangabad last Monday, but the post is exactly worth the wait as the place I went to was so incredibly amazing that if I had any doubts that I was stupid for coming to India this semester (which I actually have no doubts) it confirmed that I was in the exact place I am supposed to be in. Aurangabad is a incredibly seedy, smelly, dusty, foul-tasting place, but the reason that anyone goes to Aurangabad is never for that town. It is for these caves, the Ellora and Ajanta caves, that makes it worth it. They are carved out of cliffs and valleys to make these just awestruck temples and you kinda can't help but leave with you mouth open (that was not meant to be a dirty joke, so take your mind out of there.) I'll start you with Ajanta, which I saw directly after we arrived in Aurangabad, and then I will work you over to Ellora in the next post.

Ajanta is carved out of a valley.

It honestly felt like I was coming into an Indiana Jones setting.

I loved these dudes holding up the pillars.

~The Finn

Break your Heart

Well, it has been a really laid back couple of days. I have been out and about and come back to relax. Since I have told my cravings from my hangover, I got an email from my mother after my hangover post, with the following typed-

" You looked like shit on skype. So its not my imagination."

Thanks mom, you just know what to say to make my heart fill with joy. Speaking of quotes, or quoting quotes, or however you would put it, I have a couple of funny ones that I would like to share. A couple have to do with diarrhea, which has become completely acceptable during any conversation at the dinner table. All of these will remain anonymous.

One of my friend's descriptions of her bowel movement:
"I just peed out of my ass."

After a long period of liquid, my friend on the can, with so much excitement:
"SOLID!"

Describing the greatness of martial arts films:
"It's like a Bollywood film, but instead of breaking out into song they break out into fighting."

Now for a couple of photos. Pongal, the holiday that I had over the weekend, meant some serious shopping. I got a couple of paintings for a friend of mine and some pants and a kurta. These two paintings are actually for my mom who, as mentioned above, is the epitome of supportive. They both feature fish.

Also, here are a couple of others.

Getting henna.

Auto rickshaw!

Chalk designs for Pongal.

~The Finn