i just thought i'd post this random pic to give you all a laugh. my friend karen took it and sent it to me--there's actually a small city up north called Mandi, but it's pronounced "Mundi." in Hindi, it means "market," and it's also a word in Malyalum (southern language) that means "silly girl," which i think is quite funny and fitting...

anyway, so today is day 600. that is, the 600th day since i landed in India. i know, i know, i'm a dork for counting, but, especially when i first got here, counting made it easier to survive. i could say to myself, wow, i've been here 37 days and i haven't broken down or gone crazy yet--i might just survive this after all! so, to be able to say i've been here 600 days, well, wow.

i think it's also just another realization for me of how fast time flies. just a few weeks back i got an email about my 10 year high school reunion...hello! it won't technically be 10 years until may 2008, but still...wow...how is that even possible? how did i get from lafayette high school to india??? i definitely never saw that one coming!

the funny thing is that so much has happened in the last 9 years that i honestly can't even remember much of high school, or all the people i feel like i should remember. in some ways, it feels like a dream, or a whole other life time. i think i've changed a lot since then, or grown up a lot at least, but it seems weird that something around which my life once revolved could become so vague and distant.

and honestly, i kind of fear the same thing could happen with india. i don't know. india is a little more intense than high school, and has been a huge shaping time for me, but really, high school was too, just in different (and not always the best) ways.

what's it gonna be like when i look back on india in 10 years? where will i be? what will i be doing? who will i be with? married? with kids? working? i thought for sure by now some of those things would have already happened, so, while i'm hopeful, i guess there's also no guarantee they'll happen in the next 10 years either! i don't know, but i wonder if it'll feel as much like totally different life time, or if that's just more an effect of the transitional state i've been in for the past 9 years...

so this is basically all i have to say. i need to post pictures of preeti's birthday bash, but at the moment i'm feeling more sentimental and caught up in deep thoughts, etc...

i know it's been a few weeks since i've blogged and some of you are wondering what we've been up to lately. sometimes, i wonder myself! but fortunately, i have plenty of crazy pictures to jog my memory.




this picture pretty much defies explanation. i think of it as just a glimpse into the insanity that we experience often on a daily basis. one of our iranian friends invited us over this past weekend to eat dinner as a celebration of their new year (it was last tuesday night). so we go, and they feed us and there's music, but no one dancing...yet. at first the music was persian, and then it suddenly switched to Michael Jackson and this crazy character appears and proceeds to do his best imitation of Michael. all i could think was, thank goodness i have my camera, because no one would ever believe me if i didn't have a picture!



backing up a little bit...students are now entering exam time. well, some are at least. unlike the US, all colleges here are on different schedules as far as holidays, exams, etc, but basically, from mid February to early May, somebody's taking exams. it's a crazy schedule, so we decided to invite some of our friends over for lunch a few weeks before their exams actually got started. we had mexican food, which was a first for them, and then we played a few games. it started off tame, but by the end of the day we were dancing and playing leap frog and just laughing like crazy.



at one point, the girls decided we should build a pyramid, with one of them standing on top! it was a wild afternoon, but probably one of the most fun i've had in a while.



a few days later, after one of our discussion groups, we went out to eat at a persian restaurant and some dish called "dizzy," though that's probably not how you spell it. it have goat and potato, in some sort of stew, and you're supposed to mash it up with this plunger thing and then eat it. not bad, overall.



we've also has a ton of birthdays these past few weeks. one of the kids we know here turned 12 a few weeks ago and had a big party at the nice swimming pool in town. it was wonderful, perfectly hot and sunny for swimming.



we also have 2 friends from holland and one of them, suzanne, called us over for her birthday last week. it was fun, and a nice mix of cultures (dutch, american, indian, african, etc). but it also goes to show that wherever you are or wherever you're from, birthdays are still a great reason to get together and have fun.



then last week, we had the much awaited "Princess Party/Luau 2007." in December 2005, we had all the little girls over that we're friends with here and had a Princess Party--lots of dressing up, make up, games, pizza, movies, etc. well, ever since then, all the girls have been asking when the next party was going to be. since our schedule has been a lot more busy this past year, we had a hard time finding a good day to have it, but we finally pulled it off and it was a blast. everyone came dressed up for the beach, we had lots of good smelling flowers and good food, and we danced and played games and watched movies until well past midnight.



alisha had the brilliant idea of getting a pinata, and it was quite a hit, as you can see here. (and yes, that's a rolling pin she's using to hit it!)



even the big kids got to take a couple swings at it!



when it finally broke, everyone made a mad rush for the candy!



we also had a blast dancing. we had some fabulous hawaiian and steel drum music, as well as fun hits from movies like "High School Musical" and "Cars."



the four of us big kids dressed up for the party



finally, around 1 am or so, we got everybody to go to sleep. i hoped they'd crash, but they were up eating candy and chatting at about 6 am! it was quite a wild night, but a total blast! oh, and i almost forgot...one of my favorite moments of the party happened while we were watching Cinderella 3 (don't hate, it's cool). the bad cat, Lucifer, gets stopped by the mice and one of the girls, who's 4, says, "he got told!" (she has 4 older brothers). oh wow, it was priceless!



this is random, but i saw it on another friend's blog--it analyzes your blog and makes a "word cloud" with the words used the most...fun times. i think that's about all for now, but be on the lookout for more updates soon, because Preeti's birthday is today, so there should be some fun pics from that.

you may remember my post from a few weeks back about our crazy BBQ adventure...well, this is the video...enjoy!

the past few weeks have been busy (suprise, suprise!), but also full of (mostly) fun stuff, and, of course, lots of random adventures and even a few lessons along the way...



near the beginning of february, we headed off to a nearby town in the hills for a team retreat. it was a lot of fun and the weather was beautiful. we even got to see a bunch of people paragliding over the vallye near the camp where we stayed!



we had a really good group, and we managed to get a lot of work done while having a lot of fun :)



one of the high lights was having a bonfire saturday night and roasing marshmellows. marshmellows are not really common here, so several people had never tried roasted marshmellows before, but once they did, they were hooked.



group pic



Valentine's day was right after the retreat. the 4 of us went to breakfast at our favorite local coffee shop, The Coffee Jar. then several of our guy friends here went all out and got us flowers, chocolate, sparkling grape juice, and took the 4 of us out to dinner! i have to say, it was a lot of fun and i was highly impressed at all their hard work.



later that evening, just before dinner, we headed back to the coffee jar to pose for picture in the paper for an article another friend was writing. that's me all the way on the right.



we've had discussiong groups several times this month, and it's been a mix as far as participation, but really fun overall. exams are starting, though, so it could be an interesting few months...



near the end of February, the 4 of us girls headed to delhi for a conference and some meetings. we decided to be adventurous and take the train there, and we were not disappointed! it was quite a trip.



we had a berth to ourselves, which was nice, and we spent most of the 26 hours talking, reading and making up games to play since we forgot to bring cards!



there were some down sides to taking the train, though...we were a little too close to the bathroom and every now and then a wave of stinkyness would come through our area. there was also a serious roach problem and we spent a good bit of time smacking the nasty little things.



but overall it was fun and we saw some pretty cool sites, such as this stop along the way: raja ki mandi! (i think this mean's "king's market")



we were all really glad to finally arrive in delhi, even with all of it's quirkiness and crazy traffic.



the conference was friday, sat and sunday night, and it was really good. preeti and sophy got to share about what we've been doing in Pune, and we also had a lot of fun hanging out with their families.



sunday night, after the conference finished, we got together with a bunch of friends that were in town and had a girls night--it was great!



then monday our friend kyle came down to visit. we went out for lunch and on the way back got nailed by a water balloon! the festival of Holi was the following weekend and is celebrated by throwing water and colored powder on people. fortunately, we just got hit by water!



that evening, things got a little crazy when we found a mouse in the kitchen of the guest house where we were staying. after quite a bit of craziness, we finally managed to catch it under a trash can.



the guys were going to take him outside and dispose of him, but he managed to escape. however, they did get some bricks to block his way in, so hopefully he won't be back!



overall, it was a fun trip and especially nice to get to hang out with friends we don't see so often (Karen and i with the Wei Wei noodles we found at the market!)



alisha and i came back tuesday, but preeti and sophy stayed an extra week to spend time with their families. we had a lot of stuff to catch up on when we got back, and alisha wasn't feeling so good, so we went to the doctor, which turned into quite an adventure. this is a picture of her doctor, who also happens to be who part of the hospital is named after! he was nice and told her that she'd need to have this procedure done where they put a camera down your throat to look at your stomach. it sounds way crazier than it actually was, though the pics of the inside of her stomach were pretty wild. in the end, he prescribed some medicine and told her to drink carbonated beverages to help untwist her stomach...gotta love medical care overseas!



even after all the maddness at the hospital that morning, our crazy day was just beginning. we had our dicussion group in the afternoon, and then alisha and i hopped in an auto rickshaw to head downtown. however, on our way, 2 guys pulled up beside us on a motorcycle, reached into the rickshaw and grabbed alisha's purse. it happened so fast we hardly knew what was going on. our driver tried to catch them, but they disappeared. we headed back home, quite shaken, and alisha canceled her credit cards. then our friends went with us to the police station and we spent the next 3 hours trying to explain what happened (which included taking the police to the place where the bag was snatched and doing a lot of translating because they mostly spoke marathi). it was not the most fun way to spend an evening since things here take at least 2 or 3 times as long because of bureacracy and out dated facilities and systems (this is a picture of how files are stored at the station...).



but, the next day was holi, the festival of colors, and getting to spend time with friends made things a lot better. actually, it's all made me think a lot, because when the purse was snatched, i felt like more anything else, they stole our sense of security. i just wanted to cry because suddenly everything seemed so scary and crazy and wrong. but the more i thought about it all, the more i realized how blessed i really am because i have so many people here who care about me and my roommates. some of our friends stayed with us at the station and came with us the next day to get the report, and every other person we talked to said that if we needed anything at all, they'd do whatever they could. this really helped me to put things into perspective and realize that while bad things do happen, there's also a lot more good out there to outweigh them, if we'll choose to see things from a bigger perspective than our own.

it's been a busy, and really fun, past few weeks since i got back to Pune. i'll try to give you an idea about what all we've been up to:



the weekend after i got back, just a few days after our big BBQ fiasco, DELIRIOUS? was in concert in Pune. actually, the played in a big field just a few blocks from our house! it was a really fun evening.



the next day, saturday, we had friends over and after our discussion group we all watched High School Musical. it was great, because even though we're all in our 20's, we just laughed the whole time. after everybody left, Preeti and Sohpy and I ended up having a dance party while we cleaned up. let me tell you, "Life is a Highway" (from the Cars soundtrack) is a GREAT song to sing and dance to!



sunday evening, after our discussion group, a couple of us went out to eat at this crazy place called Sheesha. the atmosphere was quite fun (we sat on this little couch thing and the ceiling was open so we could see the stars) and the food was really good.



on tuesday, we went for coffee with some friends that were in town and saw the most crazy mullet-esque hair style ever! (see the bottom right hand corner)



then on thursday we saw a lady driving a rickshaw!!! (for those of you that don't know, this is very rare here).



that evening we went to our friend Ruth's house for her birthday. we had some great food and really good cake.



however, her dogs are kind of crazy and sophy was pretty scared! (ok, so, i was too!)



then after we left ruth's, we headed out to hear our neighbor's band play. they're called purple patch, and they're pretty decent. we all had a good time hanging out.



then friday was republic day, kind of like the 4th of July--it's when India's constitution was signed. so, to celebrate, we decided to have another BBQ! the guys were in charge of the meat, so they came over to our house to marinate it, and Kenneth and Ronnie also baked a cake (well, 3 cakes actually!).



then we drove across town to Sahil's house for the BBQ...



...and on the way we passed the electric creamatorium! (i've been wanting to get a picture of this forever).



the guys did a really great job with the BBQ and everybody had a lot of fun.



some time that weekend, we saw tons of sheep, all walking down the road of course. i'm not certain, but i think it was most likely connected to a festival going on the next week.



that weekend, one of our friend's cousin's got married and invited us to the wedding (this is quite common here, getting invited to people's weddings that you've never met). there was a dance party friday night, which we missed, and then a huge dance performance on saturday, and the actual wedding was sunday. we drove out to what seemed like the middle of no where and found that the wedding was at this AMAZING place, with a HUGE stage set up!



there were dozens of dance performances, as the bride and groom watched from the side. then the bride got up and danced! it was wild, and there was even a big TV camera on a crane thing set up to record the whole show. we stayed long enough to watch our friend dance, and then had to head to yet another event...



...a birthday dance party! our friend had everyone out on her terrace and we danced and had a blast and then had some incredible cake. quite a fun, but crazy evening!



the next night was the actual wedding, so we all got dressed up in our saris. mine is kind of see-through, so i decided to be clever and try wearing my swim suit underneath. it worked kind of well, except that the petti coat kept moving around because the suit was so slippery!



but it looked pretty good once i had it all tied and pinned properly!



all of us all dressed up and ready to go!



like i said, the place where they had this wedding was HUGE! our friend told us they invited around 5000 people!



me with preeti and sophy standing inside of the hall



the grounds, with the new stage set up for that night



the four of us with our friend Deepali and the bride and groom (their clothes were AMAZING and probably cost a fortune!)



we had a rather low key week after our crazy weekend, which was quite a relief! but this past weekend was almost as crazy as last weekend. we had our discussion group on saturday and 22 people came, the biggest group we've had yet. we had a really good discussion, and then had fun afterwards eating snacks and hanging out.



we met at Kevin's house and he has an amazingly small dust bin! (trash can)



then sunday night, we headed all the way across town to another friend's birthday dance party. it was quite fun, though it got cut short when the neighbors decided we were too loud and cut the power to our friend's apartment!



yesterday morning Alisha and i got up early and headed to our friends' house to watch the superbowl. even though it was a pretty early morning (kick off was about 4:30 AM!), we had a lot of fun and a lot of GOOD food!



danielle, me and amberly, up early to watch the colts win!



today, preeti and i spent the morning at the BSNL office, our phone/internet provider. the building was huge, and it was literally like we stepped back in time. we've had a problem with our billing, and had to make a few phone calls, trying to get things figured out. we still have to look more into it all, but we did find out that they've been billing us incorrectly for the past year and a half...ah, the wonders of government offices here!



then i spent the afternoon hanging out with Maria and shopping for new glasses. i think we found some pretty cool ones, and we also stopped to take a picture with this crazy moving mannequin that's on MG road (she has her hands together and they move up and down).

That's about it for now. we're going on a leadership retreat this weekend, so i'm sure i'll have more pictures soon. oh, and below this is a slide show from my trip to malaysia, and my time in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, etc. it was a pretty fabulous trip overall, but i sure am glad to be home!