We just got back from our trip to Bodh Gaya which was really cool. Perhaps one of our favorite trips. Our train ride home was...interesting. I will tell you all more about it later.

We did get some sad news, well it depends on how you look at it. Jorn and Lise are leaving early. They are now leaving this Friday!! They originally were going to leave on the 13th of May. So we are a bit sad because we won't be able to hang out with them anymore, or make dinners. But we are happy that they get to leave early because Lise hasn't been feeling well here (none of us have!) and they are going to Germany where their daughter is and she just had a baby so they get to spend time with their new grand daughter.

So we all went to dinner at the Campus Restaurant tonight and had a good time. I have a cold, I think, so I was really careful to not pass my germs around. I didn't touch any communal stuff at the table and didn't allow myself to sneeze or anything. I don't want to get them sick, but I also wanted to go to our last few get-togethers. It has been so nice to have them around. I hope that we do see each other again.

Tomorrow I will go over there and do my last batch of laundry and we will all have grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch together. Sigh.....

But it really is coming to an end and I feel guilty that I am not sad about it. I mean I am supposed to have rediscovered myself or something here...or at least have found something here that I will miss incredibly (besides the Mango Ice cream bars). But I don't really feel that way. I am ready to come home and get on with life. I am sure that in a few weeks I will realize what I miss here in India but for right now it is hard to think that way. I think it might have something to do with the whole reason we came out here and how that isn't working out. Kinda puts a damper on things.

Kevin finally had a meeting with his professor and got some assignments to do on the project. So he has been actually doing some work this week. I just hope that he can get enough done in the short amount of time left that he won't have to retake the "independent study" class. Keep your fingers crossed!
Bodh Gaya was nice, it was more relaxing than some of the other touristy places that we have gone. It is where Buddha reached his enlightenment. There are a bunch of different Asian temples there from places like Japan, China, Thailand, Tibet and even more! It was cool to see them all and to learn more about the religion. It was more peaceful there, not as many vendors chasing you and yelling and trying to get you to buy their stuff. We only had one slight run-in the whole trip!

We got to see the tree that Buddha reached enlightenment under, it is a banyan tree, very big! Actually it is not the actual tree he sat under, but is a descendant from the original tree. They also built a temple right next to it and has a whole complex surrounding it with interesting things.

Buddha spent 7 weeks in 7 different places in the complex and would sit for one week at a time and meditate, I guess. What is interesting is that they tell us what he did and stuff, and I am thinking, "ok, this guy was a great guy, and had some good ideas...etc." but then they would
throw in strange things like "He sat here on the first week and stared at the tree and never blinked or closed his eyes", also, "here is where he walked on the 3rd week (I think) and lotus blossoms sprang up under each footstep" and each footstep marker
is about 4 feet apart. Then they show us his "footprints" and they are carved into a stone and are huge! Like 2 and 1/2 feet long. I wonder if they just depict deities as larger than humans to show reverence or something. We also saw some different depictions of him. One was a skeletal figure. We asked about that and were told that it was when he sat in meditation for 6 months without moving. So yea, I guess that not eating for 6 months might make you pretty skinny. I wonder how the different forms of Buddha came from. Like the one that we are most familiar with is the fat Buddha. We never saw a fat Buddha in Bodh Gaya.

They also had some really good food. Some of the best Thai food we have ever had! We ordered a lot of food our first time at that restaurant and didn't realize that an order of spring rolls meant two huge burrito sized rolls! So we had way too much food. But Bodh Gaya is one of those places where you really can take your uneaten food and give it to someone on the street. There were a lot of beggars there. So we always took our leftovers and gave them to the beggars. We felt kind of weird doing it, but they were so grateful and blessed us and stuff. We were actually worried a bit about if they were vegetarians, but figured if they didn't want it, they didn't have to eat it. It is better than wasting it. I am not sure how I felt about all that, I felt strange giving my left overs to someone to eat, like I should buy them their own food or something. It sure was different.



Kevin started a great trend. If a begging child came up to us, they always would signal that they were hungry. So he would look around and find the closest food stand (they always had little carts on the street that sold fresh squeezed juice or watermelon or grilled corn on the cob). Then he would ask the child if they wanted some corn or watermelon or juice and buy them some. It was a good idea but one time the kid told everyone that Kevin was doing that and we came out of a temple and had about 20 beggars following us around. It is hard, cause you can't feed everyone. One thing here that isn't so good is the tobacco chew that they sell EVERYWHERE in India and sadly everyone seems to be hooked. We can't hire a driver or rickshaw without them spitting tobacco juice out the door or over the side of the bike on our trip. We saw some little kids as young as 7 years old with gross rotting "tobacco teeth"! That is one reason Kevin started buying them food instead of giving them money. Also because of the beggar "pimps" which is a sad thing. That is where an adult has a group of beggar kids and they take a cut of whatever the kids bring back at the end of the day. Can you believe that?!! So if we buy them food, they get all of it! Some things here are really disturbing.

Anyway I will try to make a quick synopsis of the trip.
So Ben came with us. Remember the Smiths from Noida (Delhi)? the Mission Pres. family? Their oldest son is Ben and he wanted to see Bodh Gaya so we invited him to come along with us. So he came by train on Thursday and got here that afternoon. We had planned to see some sights in Kanpur with him but they were all closed in the middle of the day. Most temples close from 12 to 2 or 4. So we just ate some lunch at Mcdonalds and hung out on campus until our train left at 2 am Fri. morning. The train ride was pretty uneventful, we tried to sleep. Ben was in the next berth over from us so we didn't really see him. We thought it wasn't a big deal since it was a night train. But when we arrived in Gaya around 10 am that morning, he realized his cell phone was gone. He thinks that it might have fallen out of his shoe where he put it while he slept, and got lost on the floor of the train, but I personally think it was stolen cause when he tried calling it his call was rejected, which means that a person pushed a button to end the call. He was cool about it though and didn't dwell on the disappointment too much.


Then we took a rickshaw to Bodh Gaya, which is about 7 miles away from Gaya. We arrived at our hotel and it wasn't quite what we expected. They gave us two rooms and one had ants all over the bed. We told them we didn't want the room with the ants. They said okay then gave that room to Ben! They had wiped all the ants off of the bed when they showed him his room, but they were back within a half hour of course. Also neither of our air conditioners worked. We met another traveler in the hall there and she said that they tried to give her the ant room the day before. We complained to them about the air conditioners and the guy said "give me half an hour and we will move you!!" So we went outside to check things out. We found a big hotel that had much nicer and roomier rooms with nice air conditioners for a few bucks more a night while we were out and decided to move there. The old hotel didn't really care. The new hotel was called the Mahayana. It was really really big but really empty. I am not sure why, maybe just because it is not tourist season right now, too hot! The only downer with that hotel was that they were doing some sort of plumbing work and started at 7:30 am with the banging on the tile floors with a sledge hammer! I guess though that they wanted to get the work done before it got too hot. We were so tired the first night that we slept through it and just dreamt about it, but the second morning we were woken up and couldn't go back to sleep. Oh and the beds were like cement! We should be used to that by now though.....

So Friday we walked around and saw the main temple complex, called the Mahabodhi Temple Complex, with the Bhodi tree (enlightenment tree). We also saw one of the Chinese temples and one of the Monasteries that they have there. I think it was the Namgyal Monastery because it had these huge prayer wheels there. Really cool and different. We went to lunch at the Thai restaurant and it was very delicious, and later had dinner at the Om restaurant where all the tourists hang out. Bodh Gaya is one of those places where people travel and just hang out for a week or two. I am not sure what they do but it is relaxing I guess. That night we played cards in Kevin and my room. We made up a game we called "Tikhey" which means "ok" in Hindi. It is a silly game and we were pretty slap happy when we made it up, but it is the essence of India!


Saturday we didn't get going until around noon. We saw a few more temples that were close and went to lunch at Fujia Green restaurant. It was good but took forever! And the power went out and it was really really hot. The power goes out all the time in India, but in Bodh Gaya it goes out at least a few times a day, a lot more often. That is just how it is.







These were the famous prayer rolls that Bodh Gaya is known for. They are in the Namgyal Monastery.


Then we hired a car to take us up to the mountain (can't remember the name of it) where there is a cave that Buddha spent time in to take shelter from the rain. We drive through a little village where they have mud huts ( I wish we had taken pictures of them) and up to the foothills of a mountain. A local kid saw us heading that way and ran and jumped over a huge ditch and ran up the mountain and made it to the parking lot area (about half way up) right when we did with our car! We took his picture because we were pretty
Impressed.


We had to hike a little ways up the mountain on switchbacks and at one area there were a ton of monkeys that had gathered around. Our driver told us that is where people feed them so they expect it and right about then we saw two vendors running down the path towards us with packages of crackers. (One had on a yellow shirt the other had on a blue shirt, this is important for the rest of the story). So Kevin bought a pack of crackers for 20 Rupees and gave it to the few kids that had gathered around us to feed the monkeys. It kind of scared me how aggressive the monkeys were and some of them were pretty big too! I just stood and watched as all the monkeys surrounded us. Kevin was taking pictures. Then we went up to the cave and had a look around. It was pretty cool just being at a mountain. On our way back there were the two salesmen and their two little shops. They really wanted us to buy some Buddhist flags but Kevin and I weren't interested. Ben wanted some though, so he bought some from the Yellow shirted guy while the Blue shirted guy went on and on about how poor he was (with a huge wad of money in his shirt pocket) When I pointed out his wad of money he just sort of giggled and sheepishly smiled but stopped saying how poor he was. I mean he probably was poor compared to us but by India standards was doing pretty well. So I had looked at the pictures Kevin had taken of the monkeys when we were up at the cave and he hadn't gotten one of me surrounded by the monkeys so I wanted to get a picture of that. So when we got to that spot, the blue guy was still following us and so I said "Biscuits?" to him and he took off to grab us some biscuits from his shop, but the yellow guy saw him and so he also came running back with biscuits. I told the guy sorry but I felt I should buy the biscuits from the blue guy since he is who I asked for them. 20 rupees. So I grabbed some crackers out of the pack and gave the rest to the children to keep or feed to the monkeys an Kevin was supposed to take pictures of it all. The
yellow guy got so so annoying! He wouldn't let me enjoy myself at all. He was right there next to me begging me to buy his crackers and would not stop no matter how many times I said NO or if I ignored him. Finally I said "look! I want to enjoy the monkeys so leave me alone!" He still wouldn't. I got the camera from Kevin and started taking pictures of the monkeys and the yellow guy started trying to hand me the crackers. I kept saying no but not looking at him. Then he balanced a package on my arm while I was taking pictures and it started to fall. Rather than letting it fall onto the ground and get all smashed up, I grabbed it and tried to give it back to him but he wouldn't take it. So I set it down and within 2 seconds a monkey came and grabbed the whole package and was off with it! He said that I owed him for it. I just said that I didn't and he followed us the whole way back to our car. I started to joke with him about how nice he was that he would give a whole package of crackers to the monkeys. He would smile and say "no, no, no". Keep in mind that all this was in broken English. I don't think he knew much English so he didn't really understand us well but he definitely knew the word "NO". So we went to get to the car and then he got aggressive. He started getting really mad that I was refusing to pay him, he started demanding 30 rupees! That made no sense, the package was originally 20 rupees, and I didn't buy them!! Finally Kevin had had it and started yelling back at the guy. That just made him more mad. Kevin was saying to him that he was a thief, and the guy would just shake his head and try to block the door to the car. Kevin finally said "bad Karma!" to the guy and he kind of stopped for a second, but then apparently decided that he didn't care. We all got into the car but then our driver wouldn't leave. The guy was standing in front of the car and still wanted 30 rupees. I am not sure why the driver didn't just leave, maybe because he drove here often and didn't want to make enemies with the guy or maybe they were friends. I think he was a bit confused as to why we wouldn't pay 30 rupees, it is not that much money. But by then it was the principle of the thing. We didn't want to reward the yellow guy for being deceitful and trying to trick us, and then raising the price! Then he would think that that always works and he would just keep doing it. The driver didn't know the word "principle" though. He kept looking at the yellow guy and looking back at me with a look like "just pay him, come on!" But Kevin had all the money and I also didn't want to reward the man for being that way. I said to the driver "So the guy puts bisuits on me and then I have to pay him for it?!" along with signals. The driver smiled and seemed to understand what I said and gave me a look like he agreed, but still wouldn't drive away. So finally I said to Kevin that we should just give the yellow guy 10 rupees and go. He would probably still be making a profit. But the guy wouldn't take it! So Kevin said in Hindi "10 or Zero! your choice!" The guy finally took it and tried to intimidate us with an angry look, but I stared right back at him, just as angry and disappointed. Oh well, he probably will do it again. That is the stuff that makes me so sad here. I know that they probably don't get a lot of customers out there, but I finally had to tell myself that it isn't up to me to take care of everyone in India. I had to tell myself that or I would go crazy here with all the people who could use some help, it is never ending. I don't blame them for targeting us, we usually do have more to give. The cost of living here is so much lower that tourists usually overestimate costs so they get a lot more money from them. But when you have been here for a while and are afraid to go anywhere because you know you will get bombarded, you start to feel a bit defensive. And you all know me, I feel guilty that I can't help everyone that comes up to me and it was really bringing me down. So I had to decide what I stated earlier, I'll do what I can and try to be deciphering, but I can't help everyone here.


Then we went to see the big Buddha statue. It was built by Japanese Buddhists and took 4 years. It really is big! Then we saw the Japanese temple and one that I can't pronounce. Then it was late and things were closing. We went to the Thai restaurant again for dinner. Seriously good food!

Sunday we went and saw the big Buddha again for better pictures and also the Mahabodhi Temple. Then we saw the Thai Temple too. It was really bling bling!!

We ate at Om restaurant again and I bought a couple things to take home to people and for souvenirs. Caught a rickshaw back to Gaya to catch our train. We got to the station around 12:30 and our train didn't leave until almost 2 pm. So we sat outside for a while in the shade and after a few minutes there was a big crowd of staring people around us. We joked with each other about how if they are that impressed with us just standing there and looking tired, imagine how impressed they would be if we really put on a show and sang or danced! We took some pictures of the crowd just because after a while it was awkward for us. Oh well, we look different to people here.

We were on the waiting list for the train which meant that we had paid for our ticket but didn't actually have a seat. They usually put a list of passengers on the outside of the train car so you can check your status and find your seat if you were on the waiting list. Sometimes they don't have a list on the train though. So we always have just gotten on and then when the ticket guy comes along he tells us where our seats are. Well, this time there was no list so we just got on the train and found an empty berth. It was a nice train, very clean and roomy. So at the first stop, about 20 minutes into the ride, the ticket guy came around. He was upset with us because we got on the train and our tickets were no longer valid. I guess that if you are on the waiting list and don't get a seat assignment then your ticket is void and you aren't supposed to get onto the train. But there was no list so we didn't know that and we had never not gotten a seat. So he told us that our payment had been refunded back into our accounts and that we couldn't stay in that car. So we asked what it would be to move to a 3 tier car. He did some adding up and said 922 rupees each plus 500 rupees. What? Our original ticket was only 900 rupees and we were downgrading! He said that we had to pay for the new ticket and pay a fee for being on the train without a ticket. So then I asked what the 500 rupees was for and he hesitated then said "that is for us." What? "what does that mean?" I asked him ( I already knew that it was a fake fee that he was just going to pocket). He just kept saying "it is for us." So then Kevin kind of smiled and said "oh, a processing fee?" The ticket guy latched onto that one and said "yes, processing fee." We all couldn't help it and just started laughing. The ticket guy couldn't help but grin a little cause he knew that we knew he was feeding us a bunch of bull, but also that we could do nothing about it.
Well, we didn't have that much cash on us (1500 rupees each) so we asked how much it would be in sleeper class. (the basic). He said 400 rupees for the ticket plus a 200 rupee "processing fee" So that is what we had to do. He took us back to the sleeper class car and made some people move off of a bench and wrote us a ticket for those seats and we payed him. There are supposed to be 9 people to a berth 3 on one side, 3 on the other and 3 on the other side of the isle. By the end of our train ride there were 19 people squeezed into our berth! More would just come and sit down or climb up on top. We didn't feel like making a fuss and saying, "um, excuse me, this is our bench." And by the last leg we really didn't even care. The ticket taker came around again and made all the extra people pay 100 rupees each which he just pocketed. He didn't write them out any tickets. Funny that we had to pay for our ticket AND pay 200 rupees when they only had to pay 100 rupees. Whatever. It was an interesting experience for us. We met some interesting people and learned some more about the culture and how the locals felt about it. We spoke to a Sikh guy in our berth and he told us about the corruption in India and said "watch, none of us have train tickets and the ticket guy will come around and we will all just bribe him with the standard 100 rupees and he will let us stay". And that is exactly what happened. He also told us about his religion and asked us questions too. He wanted to know if Kevin and I had a love marriage. Then he asked us why so many Americans get divorced. He seemed very confused about divorce. It made no sense to him. Kevin tried to explain that sadly many people in America don't take the marriage vows seriously anymore and seem to think it is okay to just get a divorce if things get hard or if they are wanting a change. Very few people are willing to work on their marriage anymore. It made me realize how corrupt America is getting too! But in a different way than India. Our society accepts a different kind of corruption and is trying to incorporate it into our laws. India just has corruption and it is kind of accepted because that is the way it is, it seems like too much work to change it, and probably would take a lot of work with so many people to get to change. America frowns on the people who have certain ideals and morals and tries to make them look like the bad guys for being "judgmental" and "discriminatory". Sigh.... Well, we know that no country is really perfect right now. Don't worry, I am still very patriotic and glad to be an American!

So we got back to Kanpur around 11 pm and then Ben still had to catch his train back to Delhi, but he returned there without any problems.

It was a good trip. We also accidentally bought a sari for 1,000 rupees that started at 5,000 rupees. It is kind of a funny story, but I am tired so I will save it for later.

It is getting to the point that I am thinking about what we are going to do once we return to Kansas. Kevin is behind on his school work so we are not sure when he is going to finish up his thesis now. I don't think it will be too much longer than we had originally anticipated. We planned on moving at the end of August because he was supposed to start his job the first week of September. Now I think we might be in Kansas about another month. So we will move at the end of September. I am not looking forward to Kevin being as busy as I know he will be once we get back, but hopefully I will be busy too!
I wonder if it will be difficult for me to get back into "busy" mode. I mean I have been NOT busy for nearly 4 months now. Though I don't particularly like being bored and having not much to do, I think it may be quite the adjustment to go back to being busy. I think that it won't be so sudden though. I mean I have to find a job and we have to figure out where we are going to live etc.
I am looking forward to it all though. It will be nice to get back into my comfort zone again. Well, I am actually comfortable here now (except that it is so hot, but it will be that hot in Las Vegas anyway!). I know my way around and how to get the things that we need. I get to cook with Lise a few times a week, and I have my violin student too. We also have made friends here and are used to the way it is. Our room is "our room". In fact, it is getting pretty hot and the last few nights I haven't slept quite as well because of the heat. We have the fan on and use no sheets or blankets on us, but it is still a bit too hot. We have been told that we should ask for a air conditioned room for the remainder of our stay but I am a bit reluctant for two reasons. One is that we have accumulated so much stuff and it is in piles and in the closet and drawers etc. all throughout the room. Second, this room feels like home now. I mean, if it gets unbearable I guess we will see if we can move but for now it is still okay. Kevin never seems to be too hot! He loves it! I kind of wish he could feel the heat a bit the way I do so he would have more sympathy for me...sniff sniff.
We had dinner at Jorn and Lise's again last night and played 10,000. That is a dice game that is really fun. But when we got home I looked at the clock and saw that it was midnight! I felt so bad for staying that late! I don't wear a watch and they don't have a clock in their kitchen or living room so I don't realize what time it is. I am so embarrassed that I am going to have Kevin keep track next time on his watch and tell me when it is around 10 pm so that we can make to leave. I feel so bad for keeping them up all night! I think that I have a lot more energy at night here because that is when it finally starts to cool off, sometime around 8 pm and then I have a second wind and can stay up really late. But they aren't quite as young as we are and I need to remember that. Oh well, hopefully they forgive us!
Kevin ordered a bunch of stuff from the LDS distribution center. He got some especially for youth packets and books of Mormon in Tamil and English, also some pictures of Christ and copies of "The Proclamation to the Family". Oh yea, and he also got a DVD of "Finding Faith In Christ". He is going to give the DVD and the pictures to the fellowship. I am not sure what he is doing with the rest of the stuff, I think he has specific people in mind for the Books of Mormon. He is so much more thoughtful and brave than I am when it comes to that kind of stuff. I sure can learn from him!
Well, that is all for now, I am going to go lay under the fan until Kevin comes home.

Hindustani Classical Music Performance

I heard about this artist in residence at IIT who was a classical Indian singer. She gave a series of performances but I only found out about her when she had one performance left. I wanted to go and find out more about Indian classical music. So I went to her last performance. I stayed for about 1 hr and 15 minutes, then I had to leave. I know I hear some westerners say they don't understand Western classical music and they often say that it sounds all the same. Of course I completely disagree with that and it makes me so sad to even hear it! I don't understand how people can't see the exquisite beauty and numerous differences. I know that I have been trained my whole life to appreciate Classical music and to hear and know the intricacies of it. So it is hard for me to admit that the Indian Classical music, at this perfromance at least, sounded all the same to me. I am sure that someone who is familiar with it could tell the subtle differences throughout, but I could not,well, besides it getting faster at the end. It is interesting and intruiging to me though because I have heard that this type of music is just passed down by ear and not written down. So I have to think that it has had changes over the many years. And I also wonder how it got started, it is so different! Here is a sample of what it was like - imagine this for over an hour. This was the big climax so it was a little more interesting, but the previous hour was similar, just a bit slower. It was so loud and the b-flat drone never stopped the entire time, so after 1 hr and 15 minutes... I was done. Something interesting was how the Indians play the violin (see video). I'm going to practice this technique and give a presentation (Kevin will sing..hehe)

Cultural program.

So last night two guys from Kevins engineering department stopped by and asked if I would be willing to play for an EE event. I said "sure" and was glad, because then I would really have something to be practicing for. Then I asked them when it was. They said "oh, tomorrow night." So, I guess I won't be practicing much for it! So I chose some of my old back-up pieces, you know stuff I just always know. Tchaikovsky's Canzonetta and then Orange Blossom Special. Hey, they said it was a Cultural program. It was actually for the recognition awards ceremony for the graduating Elecrical Engineers.
Then they stopped by again today to make sure that I was still going to play for them, (didn't I say I was??) and then they asked me if Kevin would play the drums too. I was a bit shocked by that and said "well, I don't know, you would have to ask him, it is kind of short notice and he hasn't really played for a long time. " But they wouldn't take no for and answer. So I told them I would call him and see. He was surprised but thought, "what the heck?!" That is what I love about him.
They originally told us it was at 6 pm, but then today when I asked what time I should come, they said 5:30 is when it started. Again, just one of those things you get used to around here. Things don't stay the same, they always change around depending on who you talk to,or when you talk to them.
So Kevin and I showed up and the hall was so stuffy we were feeling faint. I was a little worried that I would pass out at first, but then I guess I got used to it. They wanted me to start the show. That made me a bit nervous because I don't really know the protocol around here. Do I bow, or walk off, or what ? Actually, at all of the programs or lectures we have attended here people talk and walk around and answer their cell phones etc. during the program. So, I didn't really expect much attention. Here, people seemed to actually pay attention! Maybe just because I was first and they hadn't gotten bored yet. Anyway, I just did what I was used to, I waited for a bit at the end, then bowed, then walked off. Kevin was up next. He did really well! I loved seeing him up there -pretty hot if you ask me! He just improved with this guitarist and the guitarist kinda just kept playing the same lick over and over, so Kevin was switching up his drums a lot to add some interest. He was awesome. You would have thought that they had rehearsed, but no. I kinda wish I could do that. I asked Kevin afterward if we can go and practice improvising sometime so I can get comfortable with it and have some fun. Oh, Jorn and Lise came to watch us too, they are so sweet!
I have been working with my student, Steven, on getting a hymn ready for Easter. He is going to perform for the first time on Easter Sunday. He is playing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today". He has only been playing for 6 weeks and he is sounding really good. I mean, we started lessons 6 weeks ago and he is going to play that hymn well 6 weeks later! I am really proud of him.
We had been planning this for over a month and all I had ever heard was that Steven was going to play. But today after our lesson, Stevens mom,Sheba, told me 2 other hymns that she wanted me to play for Easter also. Normally this would be no big deal, but they were hymns that I had never heard of and she had no sheet music for them either. She told me that she will have Steven find them on Youtube for me and then I can listen to them and learn them. That is doable, but quite a bit more work. It is so funny to me that they waited until just a few days before to tell me they wanted me to do that. I could have listened to it and even written it out and known the music by heart by now if they had asked me even a week ago. Oh well, I am realizing that that is just how things are here. It will be fine, I just think it is funny.

Kevin's confusing conversation

Hi everyone, it's Kevin here writing on Amy's blog. So, I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker the other day that reminded me of why it is so difficult to communicate with the people here. I have been trying to figure out if there is a "language barrier" of some sort because most conversations are very similar to the one I am about to share and they cause me to be very confused when talking with Indians. We have the same foundation of English and even though they speak more British English, I don't believe this is the barrier since I have no problem communicating with a British professor that is here. So, maybe it's a cultural barrier and I say things and understand things from a different perspective? After pondering this hypothesis, I realized that most of the conversations I have with other Indians are not really related to cultural differences (at least that I can tell), so I've ruled out that as well. I still remain very confused as to what is the root cause of this communication barrier because it happens so often that often times I find it discouraging to even try to start a conversation with other people because it will end with me being more confused than when I started. So...here's how the conversation went (I'll post other conversations of this sort as they occur):

Background: It was about 8pm and my co-worker was leaving to eat dinner (Indians eat pretty late here), so I decided I would leave as well to eat dinner.
Indian: "well, I'm leaving to eat dinner."
Kevin: "Oh, ok. That sounds like a good idea, I think I'll go too."
Indian: "So, you haven't had your dinner yet? (because they know that I usually eat earlier around 7pm)
Kevin: "No, I haven't eaten yet."
Indian: "So, then what do you bring in that plastic container?" (because I have started to bring a small tupperware container to work that holds 2-3 sandwiches)
Kevin: "That was my lunch."
Indian: "What do you eat for lunch?"
Kevin: "I bring sandwiches."
Indian: "Really! You buy them on campus?"
Kevin: "No, I make them in our room."
Indian: "What? How do you make the bread?"
Kevin: "I don't make the bread, we buy the bread."
Indian: "Where do you buy the stuff to make the bread?"
Kevin: "No,no. We buy the bread, and the stuff to put on the bread at the central shopping area (on campus)"
Indian: "So you have plain sandwich?"
Kevin: "No, it's a peanut-butter and honey sandwich."
Indian: "So, then how do you make the bread?"
Kevin: "No, we BUY the bread and the peanut-butter and the honey and MAKE the sandwiches in our room."
Indian: "You don't have an oven in room? How do you make the bread?"
Kevin: "No, we don't MAKE the bread. We BUY the bread in a loaf at the store and make the SANDWICHES in our room."
Indian: "So, it's a plain sandwich?"
Kevin: "Sure, it's a plain sandwich." (said with exasperation because I was exhausted with the whole conversation)

So, I have recited this conversation over and over again to myself and to Amy and we still have no idea what he was talking about. We even went out on a limb and thought he was being sarcastic or just pulling my leg, but that is WAAAY out on a limb because we have never met an Indian that understands or can pull-off sarcasm or joking around like that. We both think he was seriously asking me something about my sandwiches (but we're not sure what?)
Does anyone know what a "plain sandwich" is?

Yesterday I spent the whole day with Lise. I had 3 loads of laundry to do and she is letting me use her washer. It is so nice of her! I really feel for the men and ladies here that do laundry for their job! My back and wrists really hurt after all the bending over and wringing clothes out. Also it aggravates my eczema, and then it is inflamed for two days afterwards. But if I didn't do it at least every other day, it would just pile up! So I am very grateful that Lise lets me do it there. It is also nice to have someone to talk to during the day. She shows me pictures of her kids and grandkids and her and Jorns house. It is fun to spend time with her. She often makes lunch for us too. I sure miss having a kitchen!
Kevin and I have a list of foods that we are going to devour as soon as we get back to the USA! We also are planning a welcome home BBQ and inviting our friends from Kansas, and having a night where we go to the buffet at the casinos! I would really love a salad bar!

Today around noon the cleaning people came. It is usually the older, sweet guy that comes later in the day and he has a new guy helping him. So I had them come in to clean. The new guy was cracking me up, and I was doing the same for him. He saw Kevins Hindi dictionaries and asked if I was learning Hindi (I think, it was mostly gestures). I said no, I only knew a few words. But he kept trying to talk to me even though he only knew like 4 English words, and I know even fewer Hindi words. So most of it was guessing. At one point he was asking, I think, if I knew some of the letters in the Hindi alphabet. I told him I knew some, but it was really hard because so many sound the same to me. (That is why I quit Hindi class, they had Tha, Ta, and Taa or whatever, that is the English spelling by the way, but they all sound the same to me, and even when our teacher took a few of us aside to try to help us, he couldn't explain the differences, or give us English words that had those sounds as examples. Plus, I was trying to learn Spanish at the same time, too confusing!) Anyway, when I said "Tha, ta, and taa" to the cleaning guy, he started laughing so hard that he crouched down on the floor and started banging his head on the desk! He was funny. Then he started teaching me the words for mom, dad, brother and sister. Then he tried to teach me the Hindi word for movie, I think. I couldn't understand it, so I just said "bollywood!" He again started lauhing so hard he fell on the floor! The older guy was just chuckling the whole time. When they left, I said thank you in Hindi "Daniovad". The younger guy started laughing again as they walked out. It was a good time.
Lise and Jorn went with some other friends up to Amritzar this weekend. Lise lent us her bicycle so Kevin and I can go on a ride together out to the place where Jorn takes all his amazing pictures. I hope we see some of the animals and birds out there when we go. That would be cool. We can get some awesome pictures of our own!
I will try to get the Khajuraho pics up soon!
Thats all.