so today, i found this lovely creature on the road just down the street from our house:

those of you who know how big my feet are will realize just how big this beast is (and if you don't, i wear a women's 11 1/2!).

that's about it. it's a busy and crazy week getting ready for the camp this weekend, so please keep us in your thoughts. night!

so today we started preparing for Christmas. we cranked up the music and baked over 10 dozen cookies, plus made candy cane bark..mmm...

we got creative and cooked up some tasty apple cider
we put up the tree and all the lights (still working on the ornaments)...

set up the cool Indian nativity scene...

and then got a little crazy...
and turned our drying rack...


...into a fireplace!!!!

so yeah, we've got Christmas spirit in abundance...

stay tuned...more to come :)

Happy Turkey Day!!!

i know it's been forever since i've posted...it's been kind of a crazy month, with lots of changes going on here, and most for good. even some crazy things turned out pretty good (like, our fridge broke, which was not fun, but we got a new one and it's nicer, so it all worked out ok in the end!)

anyway, even though i'm in india, i still got to celebrate thanksgiving, which was pretty cool. i've been very blessed with good friends here who are really more like family, and we had a great day together, eating LOTS of food and just hanging out. here are some pics:

awesome desserts: cupcakes, pecan pie, some pumpkin cake thing, cherry cheese cake, apple pie

main course: chicken, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, dressing

SWEET POTATO PIE!!!! this was my favorite thing we had for lunch! cornbread, homemade rolls, brocolli (sp?) and cheese casserole, salad (this was my contribution...well, me and sophy and preeti!)

and we even got to watch a real football game! (american football, that is!). some one had taped the rosebowl from last january, so we had it on in the background while we hung out and played games. it was definitely a treat, esp since it was such an intense game (texas beat usc by scoring a touch down in the last 30 seconds of the game!).

so, overall, it was a great thanksgiving. i can't believe that i'll be back in the States this time next year...insane! i hope you all had a wonderful day as well, and many things to be thankful for :)

it's almost 3 am, and i'm still up...darn internet...


what am i doing up so late? obsessively checking my email (for no real reason, i just do that), listening to a new mix i made on itunes of fun dance music, anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new ipod, trying to look up iranian dance music online, checking myspace and facebook, and playing with this new celebrity face recognition thing i found--check it out:

i've tried quite a few pictures, and it seems like i most consistently look most like michelle rodriguez (Lost)--random, i know--and candace cameron (Full House), and emma watson (Harry Potter movies), which is pretty cool. however, it also said that i looked like bruce willis, william shatner, and billy idol, so it's not perfect, but definitely fun.

this week has been pretty nuts. actually the past 2 weeks. last week, the roommies and i were temporarily relocated to our supervisors' apartment so we could babysit their daughter while they were away. i say babysit, but she's 13, so that's not really the best way to put it. it was interesting, and a bit weird not being at our house, but we had some fun times, and learned a little about what it will be like to parent a teenager...

monday and tuesday we headed to a nearby hill station on an international student retreat. what a trip--about 70 students from at least 10 countries, sleeping in tents, treking around crazy tourist traps, lots of dancing and singing, nauseatingly scary bus rides, and more. it was wild, but also a lot of fun. i have to say, i really love iranians. i mean, they are a blast to hang out with. they are incredibly friendly and generous, and we had so much fun dancing and singing with them the whole trip. even tonight, a bunch of us got together and ended up singing and cutting up like mad in KFC. fabulous. oh, and did i mention that there were also 3 buddhist monks on the trip, dressed in their orange robes? they're awesome, and everybody wanted a picture with them.

the downside of the retreat was that the cooler weather made me sick again. ugh. but i went to the doctor and have been "taking steam" (a whole post in itself...), so hopefully i'll be back to normal soon.

but i have to admit that i'm starting to wonder, what is normal anyway? i mean, every time i think, "oh, after _____, it'll all go back to normal," i find myself sadly mistaken. not so much disappointed, just wrong, because things here seem to constantly be in a state of change. maybe life has always been that way, and it just seems more pronounced now because i find myself needing something stable/normal/familiar/whatever more here.

that leads me to the biggest event of the week...when we finally saw our supervisors after we got back from the retreat, they hit us with the big news that they're moving to thailand. like, next week. what?!?! i still have not even begun to really process this, but i know there are a mix of emotions waiting to come out in full force: fear, frustration, sadness, confusion, excitement, etc.

i know this is where they need to be, so their whole family can be together (the 2 oldest kids are in boarding school there already), but at the same time, the timing of it all just seems so nuts. things here are getting exciting and i can see God opening cool doors for our team and then WHAM...normal ceases to exist...again.

darn it...i wish i had more answers. i wish i even knew what questions to ask. i wish i didn't have to say goodbye again, especially to people who've been my family for the past year. and yet, at the same time i have this strange sense of peace, of okayness, if that makes sense. i'm sad, and a lot more, but i'm not really freaking out. i wish things didn't have to change, at least not like this, but i also have this confidence that God is in control and He's got good things in store for all of us through this. strange and refreshing...

i'm hoping this trusting Him becomes my new "normal." i could get used to that.

well, that's enough processing for now. it's about 3:30 am and i should get to bed, or get back to my fun with face recognition...i'll leave you with this random pic: me and my friend shaggy feeding a monkey at the retreat. gotta love these nasty little buggers.

so the news of "Brangelina" (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) and their recent descent upon our city has been all the rage lately. for the past week, both papers we subscribe to have featured pictures and stories and all the latest news on their front pages, which i personally am so grateful for because, honestly, how would i survive the day without knowing what they ate for dinner last night???

needless to say, i was a little alarmed this morning when all the north korea news took over the front page of both the Times and the Herald. i mean, i need my daily super star fix, folks! but, fortunately, i saw that the Times had just moved the latest story on the super couple down to the middle of the front page. it seems they took a rickshaw out around town and the Times had gotten an exclusive interview with the driver. the funny thing is that the driver didn't have a clue who was in his rickshaw until someone told him that this couple is as famous around the world as Amitabh Bachan is in India! (this may not be as funny for those of you not familiar with Bollywood...).

i think what's really funny about this picture is that the driver actually used the meter! (the "for hire" sign is upside down). even if he didn't know they were superstars, it's pretty amazing that he didn't quote them some outrageous price just because they're foreigners. guess it goes to show that there are some honest rickshaw drivers out there!

anyway, i'll be sure and keep you posted about any breaking news regarding their stay here in Pune, since i know i won't be escaping it anytime soon...

(disclaimer: just in case you're wondering, i'm being totally sarcastic throughout the bulk of this post...)

i've been reading friends' blogs this afternoon, working on a project for our website (http://www.connectingstudents.net) and CD project. it's fun catching up with everybody, but sometimes i also find myself wanting to do what they're doing, feeling even a bit disappointed because they seem to be doing so much cool stuff. traveling all over. seeing the mountains, cold weather and even snow. learning much more hindi than me. getting to visit other friends and just have adventures that i find myself a bit jealous of...

but when i really think about it, i don't want to be anywhere else. i have to admit, i never imagined i'd be working in the 8th largest city in India, hanging out with college students. i thought i'd live somewhere much more "traditional," like varanasi; or further south, like chennai; or maybe that i'd just spend more of my time here traveling and moving. but fortunately, the choice really wasn't up to me! i mean, it was, but it was more of choice of, do i trust God and follow His lead, or try to make my plans happen? let me tell you, this is another one of those times when i am SO glad that He knows what He's doing, and what i really need!

there are definitely things i don't like about my city, my job, and my life. it's too polluted. students are so fickle and unpredictable. i miss my family and friends, and i wish we were closer to more of my friends here. it rains too much and it never gets really cool. sometimes i feel like i have no direction and just want something more structured. i wish i wasn't here as a single girl, but with my husband.

i could go on, but that's not really the point. what i've realized is that my life is so indescribably better than i could have ever imagined it would be. i've screwed up a lot, and i definitely don't deserve to be as blessed as i am. seriously. it still just amazes me when i really stop and think about it all, the bigger picture of my life and how God's had His hand in it, even since before i was born (Psalm 139). and there are also so many cool/funnny/suprising/insane little things always happening around me that i sometimes just need to remind myself of how good things really are.

here are just a few examples from this week:

-Monday was Dussera (major Hindu holiday)--ate lunch with my friend and her family

- and also Ghandi's birthday, which we celebrated by seeing "Lage Raho Munna Bhai", the new hit movie driven by Ghandigiri, or living like Ghandi

-discovered that Pune has a Mocha, a FABULOUS coffee hangout place--we had great coffee and a fabulous evening of hanging out with friends

-Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are randomly filming their new movie (about Daniel Pearl's kidnapping in Pakistan)

-i've had a several really cool and deep conversations and connections with people this week, all very unexpected

-through the marvel of the internet, i was able to talk to one of my dearest friends the other morning, and i just downloaded the first episode of LOST season 3

i know there's more, but these are just a few cool things. life really is good--i'm just learning that you have to learn how to look at it all the right way. easier said than done, but better than anything else i could imagine. alright, i'm out...LOST is calling my name :)

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...