This week we headed to the mountains for a team retreat. Well, ok, so maybe they were more like hills and plateaus, but for a Louisiana girl, anything above sea level seems mountainous!! Anyway, it was great--the weather was considerable cooler, the scenery was awesome, the pollution was absent, and there was just an overall feeling of peacefulness in this small town (especially when you compare it with a city of over 3 million people!).

The ten of us had a great time bonding, planning, and just having fun. I think this next year is going to be really incredible, and I'm excited about getting to work with such great people. Here are some photo highlights of our trip:

pretty scenery

look who's house we found! SRK!!!

silly mountain, er, plateau pics

beautiful sunrise (i wish i could take credit for this pic, but my roommate took it cause i was not about to get up at 6 am and hike up a big hill!)

can you tell what i'm eating in this picture? (hint: they served it to us for breakfast)

if you guessed brain curry, you were right!!! (don't worry, i didn't really eat it, it just made for a really gross picture!)

group picture

amazingly smooth and nice road on the drive home (this is totally rare here!)

and one more just for fun...does this look familiar to any of you ALIAS fans???

so the roommies are watching LOST, season 1. i'm halfway watching, and halfway catching up on blogging. it's been a good week, and i'm doing a lot better than i was the other day. i can't say that i have a whole lot to say at the moment, but i do have some fun random pics from the past few weeks, and there are also some catch up posts down below this, so scroll down and enjoy:



creative sign at a house not far from where we live....



student discussion group at our house friday night



rat tails are totally "in" here!



guys dancing together at 3D Fun Destination (like Chucky Cheese + a bowling alley and a dance floor)



random pic from solapur



all dressed up in our sarees, with our friends over for dinner



pack of pigs running down the street!



water buffalo!



yes, this guy is wearing a paisely shirt...



crammed in a rickshaw!



dinner time!



fun at the park...well, outside the park--the gate was locked. (note the "elephant" in the background)



preeti, sophy and a giant tank



more fun at the park (this one was actually open)







preeti tries out the crazy swing thing at the park



indian students' version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. one word: PRICELESS (and that's a guy in the dress, by the way)



yes, that guy is wearing a Simba hat...

i think i'm officially having "one of those days"...i haven't posted in a while, but, warning, this may be "one of those posts" that's more about me needing to vent than something you're really dying to read...just so you know...

my computer is being slow and annoying. blogspot is being even more annoying. i've been lazy the past few days, which can be nice, but also leaves me restless. my new ipod is not working--in fact, i can hear a piece rattling around inside of it and i have no idea why. i feel like i have a lot to do, but no real direction on what i should do, what to prioritize, and little motivation. i could use a hug, a real and good one, know what i mean?

my best friend Amy was here last week, and it was amazing. that's another post in itself, with pictures (for now, check out her myspace: www.myspace.com/holykiss). but now she's back in california and i'm here in India, trying to get back to "normal life." it's not working very well so far. i had such a great time hanging out with her, and just talking and being with someone who knows me so well and, well, i'm not sure how to adjust back to the way things were. or if i even should.

i don't think i'm feeling homesick; i just miss the deeper relationships that i had before. i love the people i'm around here, but it's not the same, and i don't know why. i don't feel like i can talk to people as much or be as honest or real or whatever, and it stinks. has it always felt this way, or is it more just the aftermath of something exceptionally good?

don't get me wrong--i'm extremely grateful for the time we got to spend together. my heart and spirit needed the long talks, laughter, prayers, and abundant hugs. and, totally unexpectedly, i truly experienced God's grace on a new level with the family we stayed with. they were amazing, and while i was struggling with feeling unworthy to be so protected and cared for, God was all the while telling me that He was using this to show me more of Himself! oh, how great is our God! He knows what we need, and He is faithful!

He is faithful. He'll get me through this slump, and probably even teach me something amazing from it. not a bad deal, even if it is no fun in the midst of it. but blogging helps, as do comments..hint hint :) thanks for listening.

[i meant to post this about 2 weeks ago, but didn't have time before i headed to bangalore, so here goes...]

I really was psyched about being a better blogger for a while...I guess I still am, I just need to actually DO it...so here goes:


Our next door neighbor’s youngest daughter got married recently. It’s my third wedding here in India, and it was definitely the most random. We went to the church (Catholic wedding) for the ceremony at 4:30 pm. The bride wore a white sari that I first thought was a wedding gown. It was a pretty traditional Catholic wedding, with a few Indian twists—my favorite was the song played during communion—it totally had a beat like a Hindi pop song! The ceremony was over by 5:30 pm, but the invitations said the reception started at 7:30 pm, so we were kind of confused. Everybody else seemed to know what was going on, because they all left, so we did too. Around 8 pm, we headed back to the reception, which was just getting started. It was definitely random, but since we went and had coffee in between, it was time well spent!



Alisha and Sophy had an interesting adventure with the pressure cooker. They were trying to make beans and it started overflowing. I was in my room when I heard the familiar sound of the pressure releasing, only it didn’t stop and was accompanied by squealing and laughing. I entered the kitchen to see a volcanic eruption of beanyness spewing all over our kitchen. Gross but hilarious.



A local church here hosted a youth weekend for students and brought in a band and speaker from the US—Thomas Young and No Longer Strangers. Supposedly they’re somewhat of a big deal with college students back home, though this was the first time I’d heard of them. However, I can see why, because they were quite good and it made for a fun weekend. We also made some new friends and got to reconnect with several old ones, which was quite cool.



Now that the rain is starting to let up, the weather has been quite nice here lately, so the roomies and I headed up to the “mountains” near our house to catch a scenic view of the city and enjoy a picnic (gotta love egg salad!). It was a fun afternoon, and we took plenty of silly pictures of each other. The nice weather also brought back a flood of memories, and a longing for things I’d forgotten about. I found myself I dreaming of the Res back in Jackson, on a breezy fall afternoon. Lying on my blue knit blanket that lets the grass poke through just enough. Reading, doing homework, sleeping, talking, dreaming, whatever. I wish I could have another one of those carefree lazy afternoons.



The roomies and I headed back to Solapur (a city about 5 hours away) early Monday morning to meet with a friend we made when we took a team of students there in May. We had a great time with our friend, met with a bunch of ladies from her church, got fed WAY too much food, stayed in a questionable hotel room, and had quite an adventure on the train back this morning. We misread our tickets and ran back and forth on the platform several times before finally finding our seats. Gotta love the Indian Railway system!



Every year around this time, Pune breaks forth into complete madness for about 10 days for the celebration of Ganpati, a Hindu festival dedicated to Ganesh,. As it turns out, this festival is really only celebrated in our state (Sophy and Preeti had never heard of it before coming here) and is MOST celebrated in Pune. Little (and BIG!) mandals (shack like structures) are set up all over the city to house the idols and pay homage to the elephant-headed god. Every night, we’ve heard loud music and serious drum beats at the multiple mandals that surround our flat (I think there are somewhere over 7000 in the city!). On the final day of the festival, all of the idols, some of which are incredibly ornate, are taken down to the river to be immersed (they are made of clay and eventually will be washed away).





Tomorrow night I leave for Bangalore! This could be slightly complicated by the fact that it’s also the last day of the festival and the roads will be insane on the way to the airport, but I’m totally excited! I can’t wait to get to spend a week hanging out with my best friend—how great is our God for working out all the details on that! I will post more after all our adventures :)

this post is for my friend Sarah, who is moving to Virginia tomorrow! we grew up together, but just became good friends in the last 2 years i was home--we've had lots of crazy times (as you can see from the picstures!), and i'm very excited for her about her big move. about a year ago, Sarah and i got into this habit of always telling each other 5 good things each time we emailed--i think it started because i was in a bad mood one day and she got tired of listening to me complain! anyway, the lists went from serious to silly, but they always encouraged me, so Sarah, this is for you friend :)

5 good things from today:
1. good Indian food for lunch, esp. lots of sticky rice (not really Indian style, but that's they way i like it!) and chicken

2. facebook connection with my friend emily, who i've been missing and haven't talked to in sooooo long

3. the dentist. i know, how can that be good??? but friends, it was. i was SUPER impressed by how nice and clean the office was, and how cool the dentist is--she told me when i come back to have my cavity filled next week she'll let me listen to her ipod so i don't have to hear the drill. rock on, dr. kaur!

4. late night skip bo with the roomies (thank you sarah for introducing me to this game!), accompanied by their random music mix: rod stewart, travis tritt, journey, josh groban, michael jackson, merle haggard...the list goes on, and so does the fun here in our flat!

5. and last but not least...LaRonna...all you BCMers know what i'm talking about, and tonight, i introduced the roommies to the one and only LaRonna Marie Stokes...oh my, how i have missed her and her freestyle rappin skills...wow...i'll have to dedicate a post to laronna one of these days...for now, check out her webpage that i found--it's not much, but it is truly shinein' like a highlighter!

it truly is the simple things that can bring such joy...good friends, good times...

the chef bakes a cake...

I had a convicting experience in the kitchen earlier today. I'm still trying to process it, so I hope what comes out here makes sense...

This afternoon our friends came by for coffee, so I decided to make a cake. I have to admit, I don't bake much here in India (my roommate Alisha is an EXCELLENT baker--croissants, bagels, cinnamon rolls, biscuits, cookies, you name it!), but I had a box mix that my mom had sent from the US so I thought I'd give it shot.

My first mistake, and the reason I'm a better cook than a baker, was not following the directions, but taking them more as "suggestions." I did ok with all the ingredients, but I don't know what size the pan is that I used, but I figured it wouldn't matter too much, so I just poured all the cake batter in and popped it in the oven. About 20 minutes into the baking time, I realized that the top was getting really brown, so I pulled the cake out to check it. The top was brown, and the edges were done, but the middle was still quite gooey.

I wasn't sure what to do, but then I remembered that when I was a kid, my grandma used to make cake for me and my sister with her little sandwich maker (the thing that was like a George Foreman but for sandwiches). This was my train of thought: you can make grilled cheese sandwiches in those sandwich makers, and you can also make cakes; you can also make grilled cheese in the skillet, therefore you should also be able to cook cake (I know you're laughing now if you weren't already!). So I took the cooked part of the cake and set it aside and then scooped the gooey part up and tossed it into the skillet.

I was making a huge mess by this point, but everything seemed to be working pretty well. I finished cooking the cake in the skillet and put it on the plate with the other pieces. It tasted fine, but looked awful, so I decided maybe some icing would help. I'm not a great icing maker either (once again, following directions is important), but I got Alisha to look up a recipe and gave it a shot. At first, it looked great, but before I could put it on the cake (or the pieces of cake that I'd tried to rearrange in the pan), it started separating. I'm still not sure why it did that, but I smeared it on the cake anyway and popped the whole mess in the freezer, hoping that cooling it down might help.

[Hmm...maybe this is genetic....I'm suddenly reminded of a similar incident my mother had with a chocolate birthday cake she made for my sister several years ago. It was such a disaster that it ended up in the freezer, full of the toothpicks my mother had attempted to keep it together with. I don't think she's made a chocolate cake since then.]

Well, my friends came not long after this, and the cake ended up just staying in the freezer--I was too embarrassed to serve it to anyone, and my roommates got a good laugh out of it when I pulled it out for them later.

The more I think about this cake, the more I think this is how I interact with God, and it kind of scares me. I think I keep trying to take the messes in my life and "doctor them up" instead of just being honest and bringing them to Him. I keep pretending and fixing and hiding instead of letting His grace work itself out in all areas of my life, even those that I'm scared to admit exist. I'm so worried about looking nice and proper that, like the cake, I hide anything that seems too messy.

I think that's why I enjoy cooking--I can glance over a couple recipes, take from them what I like, and pretty much experiment away, because it tends to be a much less precise science than baking. But baking...you might be able to get away with a few things here and there, but if you really slip up, it's going to show because your cake is going to turn our looking funky.

Cooking just allows you to hide more. I love to "doctor up" dishes that might not have gotten off to a good start. You can make so much from so little, and it still looks (and tastes) impressive. Cooking leaves more room for creativity and spontaneity, and even if my spaghetti sauce turns out a little different every time, it still tastes pretty good.

I think God may teach me a number of lessons from this goofy experience, but what hit me as I was washing the dishes was that, just like the cake recipe, I tend to treat His Word more like suggestions than something that truly guides my life. Ouch.

I find myself "cooking" with Him...taking bits and pieces of what I like from Him, His word, His people and mixing them up into something that I think will turn out great, but it just doesn't. Experimenting with His grace, His mercy, His power, etc. leaves me with a mess and a strong desire to do whatever I can to cover it up and pretend everything is alright.

So, as they say in India, kya karna? (what to do?) I've been here for a year now (an overwhelming thing in and of itself), and I feel like more than culture, language, people, students, food or anything else Indian, I'm learning about myself. The good, the bad, and the extremely ugly...It hasn't always been a fun process, and I can't say that I really feel any farther along than I did a year ago, but I do hope the next year holds more of the same.

I'm not really good at ending thoughtful posts like this, so I steal lyrics from one of my favorite songs, Wrecking Ball, by Jill Phillips:

"So piece together these little mysteries
It isn't hard to see the writing on the wall
Triumph and tragedy, only God can be
Both the Builder and the Wrecking Ball.
And He builds it up
And He knocks it down
Just to build
it up, even stronger..."

"Can't you see that it's just raining...

...ain't no need to go outside." Ah Jack Johnson, one of my new loves in life...what a perfect song to describe monsoon season in India. Why on earth would anyone want to even think about setting foot outside when the ground is more water than land, and trash and who knows what else is floating in the nasty brown rivers that were once roads? But that's the hard thing about life here--for most people, going outside isn't even an option. Truth be told, sometimes it seems like more people live outside than in, and of those that do have homes, few have the luxury of hiding away in their flats on rainy days.

You would think that after growing up in south Louisiana, rain wouldn't bother me that much, but there's just something about the wetness/nastiness of monsoon season that makes me want to hide in my room. Even so much that I would have prefered to do my monthly financial report today over going outside (and that's saying a lot!). Fortunately, we had plans to meet up with some friends this evening, so we ventured out into the madness.
It turned out to be a pretty fun evening. It's actually been a really fun week, with our 2 new roommates from Delhi, Preeti and Sophy. They are fabulous girls, and we've had a good time getting to know each other since they moved in last Tuesday. And a few adventures as well--like tonight, when the brakes on the rickshaw went out and we had to get out and walk the rest of the way home. The distance wasn't too far, but the road was more water than, well, road, which made me quite thankful for the Crocs my sister sent me for my birthday.

We eventually made it home and ran straight for the showers to wash our feet, then proceeded to the living room for dinner, laughing, funny videos and music, and speed Scrabble.
I've been reading other friends' blogs lately and I'm impressed at how thoughtful/thought-provoking their posts are. I think I've just viewed blogging as a way to tell people about stuff that won't fit in my newsletter, post pictures, and so on, but I like the idea of getting a little deeper. Maybe that will be my focus for year two.
And that's a whole other topic altogether...year two. 2. Too. It just doesn't seem possible, and yet this Saturday will mark the 2nd time I've spent August 12th in India. Today is day 361. More on this later...
One final note...I don't know if anyone reads my roommate Alisha's blog, but you should, cause it's fun and she's fun and funny. And there's a fabulous post about a little incident that occurred a few days ago that I think you'll get a kick out of. I'll just leave you with her address (http://www.xanga.com/roaming_sojourner) and this picture:

Summer Travels and whatnot...
Wow, it's been a long time since I updated! I've been traveling a lot in these past few weeks, so I'm trying something new with the slide show--let me know what you think :)
Jill and Varanasi
After all our adventures with our two teams that were here, my friend Jill came to visit from Louisiana! I was SO excited to see her--it'd been almost a year since I'd seen anyone from home--and we had a really great time. We hung out in Pune for a while and she helped me do some follow up with work our teams had done. Then we headed up to Delhi, did some MAJOR shopping, and hopped on a train to Varanasi. Varanasi is an incredible place--it's on the bank of the Ganga river and known as one of India's most "holy" cities. Jill spent the summer in Varanasi 2 years ago, and before I came to India, most of the stories I'd heard had been from her about that summer. I was really excited about finally seeing this city that I'd heard so much about, though it was a totally exhausting journey! We spent two days running around the city and then barely made the train out of town due to a festival that was going on. Oh the madness that is India!
Thailand!
The night after Jill and I returned to Delhi, she headed back to the US and I headed to Thailand for our annual meeting. Last year at this time I was still in training in Virginia, so this was my first time at AGM and it was AWESOME!!! So many people from all over--truly an extrovert's dream come true :) I had a great time hanging out with old friends and made some new ones as well, and the conference was really a blessing. Everything was extremely well done and it was obvious that a number of people had put a whole lot of work into pulling it off. And of course, there were also plenty of fun things to do in thailand, like shopping at the night market, eating really good food (hamburgers!), and even bowling!
Vietnam
After our conference, me and 3 friends headed to Vietnam for vacation. I know what you're thinking--Vietnam??? I wasn't really sure what to expect (since I'm not a planner and was just along for the ride!), but it was incredible! It's a beautiful country, with a strong mix of both the traditional/history and the modern/global.We visited 2 major cities (Hanoi and Hoi An) and got a fun taste of both city life and the beach. We shopped around town, had clothes made by fabulous tailors, ate lots of really good seafood and sticky rice, took a boat tour in the bay, and drank some amazing coffee. My favorite part of our vacation, though, was getting to spend time with friends and just relax on the beach. This did, however, result in a pretty wicked sunburn, but it was worth it!
Back to Delhi...and a visitor from Spain!
After Vietnam, I headed back to Delhi to pick up Tep, a friend who came to visit us from Spain! Before I continue with this though, I have to pause and talk about airlines. They are insane, and this summer has proved it. In all my travels, I took 10 flights in about 3 weeks (not to mention the trains, buses, taxis, rickshaws, sung taos, boats, etc etc), and while most of these flights were pretty good, we did have some misadventures getting from Vietnam to Delhi (3 flights, 3 airlines, over weight luggage, customs 4 times, sketchy man sitting next to me...the Delhi airport was the best part of the day, and that's saying a lot!). After all this insanity, when I picked up Tep at the airport, her luggage had not made it to India (this is the 3rd piece of lost luggage we've had this summer...insane). It made it to us 2 days later, so all was well.
Tep and I spent a few days in Delhi and had a great time visiting with people. Then we headed back to Pune and hung out here for a few days. The monsoon season is here in full force, so it's kinda gross, but everything is green again and it's much cooler than when I left. It was great to have Tep here for a few days though, and we were sad to see her head back to Spain. The funny thing is when she left to go back to Spain, the plane couldn't take off because "parts were missing" or something sketchy like that...gotta love traveling overseas!!!
Well, I think that's a pretty good overview of my summer so far. New roommates/coworkers move in on August 1st, so it might be a while before I update again. Peace out!

Madness, Fun, and 1000s of Pictures...
Our teams of students from America have come and gone, and it still all feels like a blur. How has the past month flown by so fast?!??! It seems like 2006 just began and now it's half way over, as is my time here in India. Insanity...
Both of our teams were absolutely FABULOUS and SO much fun--so unique and energetic, and definitely a true blessing to have around. They ran hard, meeting students, drinking coffee, trying all sorts of new food, exploring the city, and just having a good time. Some highlights from these 2 incredible groups:
-watching their reactions to all that is India (bollywood movies, animals everywhere, riding camels and elephants, holding hands with friends of the same gender, rickshaws, poverty, insane traffic, religious saturation of life here, student culture, etc)
-playing in the park with hundreds of curious people
-not having to hold their hands every step of the way, but seeing them jump in and run with everything we gave them
-celebrating my 26th birthday (am I really that old already?!?! yikes!)
-singing, laughing, and just hanging out with college students
-getting sarees made!!!
-planning parties for the students they met and having a blast, esp. playing games and doing skits
-their energy, excitement, and passion
-touring temples and mosques and learning more about Indian culture and religion
-visiting local campuses and seeing what life is like for students here
-shopping and learning to bargain, and watching them pay WAY too much for stuff :)
-training them to share their stories with people they met and seeing them have a blast doing it
-hanging out with students for hours on end, just getting to know them and having fun
-eating out more times and places than I care to count...
-traveling by train back from a meeting in Solapur (nearby city)
-1000s of pictures (literally, i have over 5 gigs of pics from the past month!)
-seeing them tough out even some of the roughest situations (flooding, monsoons, nasty squatty potties, sickness, changed plans, you name it!)
It's been a great couple of weeks, and I'm excited about what the next month has in store as well--tomorrow my friend Jill arrives from Louisiana! This is exciting because she's the first person from my "old life" that I've seen in over 10 months--insane! We'll hang out here for a while, then travel to Delhi and Varanasi (she was there in summer 2004). Then she heads back to America and I head to Thailand for meetings. Then on to Vietnam with some friends for vacation, and back to Delhi to meet up with Tep, who's coming in from Spain to visit!!! It's going to be a wild couple of weeks, but I'm excited. Until my next update, peace out :)
[I can't get pictures to work here, so go to my xanga to check out the pics that belong with this post: www.xanga.com/darkness2light ]

When it rains, it MONSOONS!!!
This week our first team of students from the US has been in and ALL over our city! It has been a MAD week, but also extremely full of JOY :) Here's a little glimpse into the madness:
-our supervisor had back surgery in Thailand last Saturday, then just came back here last night
-we toured Bombay with the team: we almost got swept away by the Arabian Sea when we visited the "sea mosque," and saw the filming of a Bollywood music video at the India Gate
-rode camels, elephants, and rickshaws
-shopped like crazy
-met tons of students
-drank dozens of Kappi Nirvanas
-eaten all sorts of Indian food, and stayed mostly well from it :)
-played at the park with 1000s of people
-hosted a party
-had a slumber party
-got fitted for saris!
-toured several temples
-visited campuses all over town
-hung out with friends
-my roomie and i have both felt rough this week, and i've been to the physical therapist most days this week for traction on my back--all i have to say is that the hospitals here are an interesting experience...
-and dealt with stuff back home: my grandma has been sick for a while, and she passed away Wed night (US time). it's been hard to deal with all this and losing her, but i have been SO blessed to have 8 extra people to hug on me and encourage me--talk about perfect timing :)
I can honestly say i've learned more about myself in the past few days than in quite a while--it's been a great growing experience. So, 1 week down and 1 to go, which promises to be even more full than the first! all i have to say is, bring it on!