I promised that I would add some pictures of Indian Weddings! I was actually able to attend a small part of a wedding, and I do have some nice pictures! I'll put some of them up; but remember many more will follow after these next few weeks!
This first picture is of the Bride! The bride always wears red, it is basically a "mandatory color." Also, if you can see her hands and wrists you will notice that she is wearing many many bangles and ornaments on her hands and fingers!
During a Gujarati ceremony the Bride and Groom will walk around a small fire, each of the seven rounds they take mean a different thing.
These are the feet of the Bride. The Bride will have Mehendi on her feet/legs and arms/hands. It is very beautiful! There are Piles being placed around her ankles right now, it is a traditional ornament that many women wear. Also, children will wear them until they are about 6 years of age.
During the ceremony the Bride feeds the Groom sweets.
And the Groom feeds the Bride sweets!
The wedding season has started here in India! Everyday many many weddings take place, and the roads are full of traffic, people, fireworks, etc! Even though it may take me twice as long to get somewhere, it is so fun to see! For example, when I am coming home from my Indian Flute Class I see a wedding pretty much every time, I think there was only one time when there was not a wedding!
As I am going by, people are in the middle of the street dancing, there is a small marching band with a few brass instruments, fireworks go off, and then the couple is either in a car, or one night the couple was in a lighted horse drawn carriage!
Also, weddings here are not normally a small affair, they will be over 3 to 4 days, each day having a special ceremony or ritual. I will soon be able to experience this whole process! I will put up pictures then, as of now I am still just looking forward to experiencing it all!!! :)
I went to Ahmedabad a few weeks ago, and I was able to ride an elephant!!! I was with other exchange students and returnees from the U.S. last year! We all had a great time! I mentioned how much I wanted to ride an elephant, so everyone searched for a place for me to ride an elephant. It ended up being at a temple, that is from the South (where more elephants are).
Over the vacation after New Years, my host family and I took a trip to Valsad, Gujarat. While we were in Valsad we took quite a few day trips to near by towns, and sight seeing places. For example, one morning before it became to hot we took a hike up to three temples on top of a mountain. It was lots of fun!!
There were three temples at the top of the mountain, the first picture is of one of the temples. The second picture shows the people inside the temple praying, and the third is at the bottom of the mountain where the hike starts, the entrance!
The same day, we went directly to the family farm where we watched my host Grandfather water the mango trees, etc.
In the first picture my host Grandfather and his brother are preparing the fertilizer for the mango trees. Since there is no electricity to pump the water on the farm, the second picture shows a worker pumping the water up from the bucket into the tube, so as you see in the third picture, the water the plants with a long metal tube.
The next day we visited a botanical garden, a waterfall and a small villiage where they make items out of bamboo to sell to people!!! :)
The first picture is the map of the botanical garden.
The second picture is of the area where people have picnic lunches inside the garden.
The third picture is of a flower in the garden that I thought was very pretty.
The fourth picture is of cows drinking at the top of the waterfall. We walked to the lake at the top of the waterfall, which is why we saw this.
The fifth picture is how the people in the villiage get their flour, they put raw wheat into the hole in the center, and use the handle to spin it around, and that grinds the wheat!
The sixth picture is how they make stripes on the bamboo.
The seventh picture is a lamp that was made at the villiage. It has animals all around it that are made out of roots :)
Even though I am on vacation from school, I want to post some pictures of my school for you all to see. Here the schools are not air conditioned and there are really no electrical things in the room other than the lights and fans.
Right now I am on my Diwali vacation! I have vacation for 21 days from school during this time because it is the Gujarati new year, one of the most important festivals. This Diwali vacation lasts for 21 days because it is the only long break from school here other then summer vacation.
This festival lasts for 5 days, and the last day being New Years Day. Each morning my two host sisters and I would wake up really early and make what is called a Rangoli. We make Rangoli's out of colored sand on the ground with our fingers. The picture below is a Rangoli made by my host sister in front of our house. It is a Garmpati (Ganesha).
Other than making Rangoli's we also have pujas, religious ceremony's, at different times for different things. For example Diwali is also about prosperity for the New year. So we have a money puja one day where we wash all the money and sing certain things in order to have prsoperity in the New Year.
Then on New Years day everyone wears new clothes that have never been worn before. These clothes are normally very fancy, so my host Mom and I decided that I would wear a Sari!
Today is the eighth day of Navratri, and big festival with the Hindu religion, but even also in Gujarat! Here in Gujarat where I am, during Navratri Garba grounds are set up throughout the state where everyone goes to dance Garba! There are big Garba grounds where everyone goes to dance, with DJ's and loud speakers and many many people. I have seen one of those Garba grounds but have been going regularly to the Garba ground, Faculty of Fine Arts. At this particular Garba ground there are not as many people, so me learning how to dance Garba it is an ideal situation! Also, there are no microphones or DJ's here, the music is played on drums, and hand symbols, harmonium, and people sing also! It is a more traditional place to go, it gives me the sense of how it was in the olden days! I have been able to learn how to dance the Garba and I am enjoying it very much!
Also, during these Garbas the girls all dress up in Chania Choli's, they are long skirts (Chanias) and then short tops, usually backless (Cholis) and then a Chuni to cover the midriff area that shows because the Choli is very short! All the Chania Choli's are very sparkly and colorful! The males also wear traditional clothes, well some of them! It is more acceptable for them if they only wear a traditional tops and then jeans. Some of them do however dress up in fully traditional clothes, which are very sparkly and colorful!
This festival is very nice! I enjoy how everyone celebrates together and dances! It is very enjoyable! :)
Recently I have been busy going to school and attending my tennis classes. School is quite busy now for all the students because everyone is busy studying for the First Term exams that start on September 17th and end September 26, well those are the dates for my school. All my friends from school are busy studying for these exams so it is hard for me, and the other exchange students to go out with our classmates. But we then just use the extra time we have to go out with each other. I have heard that many of the exchange students do end up just hanging out with each other a lot rather than their classmates since school is so important here in India, but especially Gujarat.
Recently I have gone out a lot with the other exchange students that are here in Baroda. There are a total of 7 of us, between 2 schools. We often go to the movies, watch movies at someones house, and go shopping together! It is always fun to be able to hang out with other exchange students because they always understand you!
Don't get me wrong, I do hang out with my classmates from school when they have free time from their studies! For example their is a festival that has been going on for 10 days now, and will end today called Ganesha Festival or Ganesha Chaturthi. For 10 days people hold pujas in their homes or in their socities (neighborhoods) around the Ganesha Idol, Ganapati. This festival normally takes place between August 20th and September 15th, depending on the Hindu Calender. So for one of the nights of this festival I went over to a friends house to participate in the puja that was held at her house! It was very fun! Since tonight is the last night of the festival this year, all the Ganapaties must be emersed in water. So in the old Baroda city it will be very busy this evening because everyone will by emersing their Idols in the lake that is in the center of the city.
Another festival that I participated in was for the Birthday of Lord Krishnas birthday on August 23rd. This is also called Janmashtami. During this festival people put a pot, filled with curd--yogurt-- with a coconut on top, on a very very high string. Then a human tower is built to climb up to the pot, break the pot with the coconut and let the curd fall out. Curd is used because Lord Krishna is known for loving curd! The males are the ones who make the human tower, and then the girls stand around and chat, and we even pour water on the boys to make them really muddy and slippery so it takes them longer to crack the pot! The one I went to the girls got the boys all wet, and they were really muddy, and were slipping all over the place! But surprisingly it only took them 3 tries to get up to the top and crack the pot! The way they planned the route to the top, was very smart!
The next festival that starts will be Navratri Festival. This festival lasts for 10 nights when the Hindus honor all the Goddesses, and through this they dance for those 10 nights all the traditional dances, and they dress up, offer food to the Goddesses! It should be lots of fun and a very cultural experience!
Tennis! Here tennis is quite fun, the other players in my class are very nice and we are able to talk about all sorts of things together! I may even be able to travel with them to play a few matches. That would be a fun!!!
I was lucky enough to be able to travel a lot around Gujarat recently. The first stop is Valsad, where my host mom's older brother and parents live. We traveled by train to get there, which is a crazy experience for someone from the U.S. First off, the trains are rarely air conditioned, they only have fans. Also, there is no assigned seating. You just need to get there early so you can "claim" a seat before someone else can. And there are luggage racks above the seats where people will sit if there are no other seats. They become very very crowded. Also, being a white female I attract lots of attention here. Everyone is curious because here it is rare to see someone with light skin traveling. So that is something you must get used to.
So my family and I traveled to Valsad for a festival called Rakshabandhan. This is when the sisters tie Rhaki's (bracelets) to their brothers to show that they will always have a bond with eachother because normally the daugther moves out after marriage and will live with the husbands family or alone, and may not be able to see their brother's that often. But times are changing now, and most of the time you are still able to see your family members even if they are married.
Then I went to a Dam in Gujarat called Sardar Sarovar Dam.
It is a water project that supplies water to 3 1/2 states here in India. It is very pretty there. It is in the mountains and lots of water around. It was very pretty to be able to see that part of India. Also, on this trip I visited a Palace which was also very nice. But here most of the ancient Palaces are still lived in and used on a regular basis, so we only saw the museum part, not the inside.
Then I was able to go to Ahmedabad a larger city by where I am staying. In this city I visited a silk fair, that had silks from all over India for sale to make traditional clothes, like Sari's, etc. Also, just driving around here in India can be scary. There really are no traffic laws. Anything goes. So the two wheelers, cars, trucks, Rickshaws, everything is all on the road, and no one really follows the lanes. So sometimes it is best to close your eyes at all times when in a car. But I have gotten used to it for the most part, it only takes a little while. Also, not only do motorized vehicles share the road, but also animals of all kinds. Cats, Dogs, and Cows are the most common. But while on my trip to Ahemdabad i saw Camels with carts behind them, and an Elephant traveling on the same road that the cars do. It was really amazing to see. But it just causes the traffic to be a little more dangerous with all the animals to dodge, but more exciting at the same time!!
Here in India, I am studying in Tejas Vidyalaya. (www.tejasvidyalaya.org) I am studying in the 12th Standard, the same as 12th grade in the U.S. Here the schools all have uniforms, and many have different requirements about the length of your fingernails, your hair style, jewlrey. My school's uniform is a khaki skort, knee length, with a off white shirt with the school emblem on it, black shoes and white ankle socks. The fingernails must be cut short, the hair must be tied with a black hair tye, and then the girls with long hair usually must oil their hair. Also, jewlrey is not always allowed, nothing too flashy, just small earings and thats pretty much it. You think that the school would not be able to enforce all these rules, but they do, on mondays and then other days, they actually check your uniform, hairties, everything!!!!
Then classes here. You choose a certain stream after 10th standard. Either Fine Arts, Commerce, or Science, medicine (biology) or engineering (maths). So I choose, science--medicine--biology. Which means I am taking Biology, Physics, Chemistry, English, and Computers.
I will add more about school and my activities soon!!!
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
