Indian festivals: Happy Onam

Before I moved here, I heard lots of rumors about all the Indian festivals. And it`s not an exaggeration to say all of them. There are so many of them, there is no way I can keep track of them. But this wednesday, we celebrated Onam, the harvesting festival of the state of Kerala. And what are festivals like here? There is colors, food, flowers, laughter and fun everywhere. 

And for the very first time I wore a Saree, that amazingly pretty dress the Indian women wear  when they want to show their prettiest side. And I felt sooo pretty too. I walked around the whole day feeling like a Disney princess. 

Food is served: 

And it comes on a banana tree leaf, and you are supposed to eat it with your fingers, uah 

I got amazingly good help putting the Saree on. My God, it`s a complicated process. I don`t think I would be able to do it my self if my life depended on it. And at this point, I think that is the only reason I can think of for why I will not wear one every day for the rest of my life. 

'

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The really really home sick day

Things I miss about home:


- I miss putting fish on bread in busy mornings and calling it breakfast
- I miss fried eggs
- I miss cooking my own food
- I miss sarcastic Norwegian humor
- I miss having Internet connection that let's me talk on skype all night if I want to
- I miss having a place to go where I know I can be alone for ten minutes
- I miss sleeping continuously for six hours
- I miss having days with "only two lectures"
- I miss having time to work out
- I miss being able to walk alone at night
- I miss not getting sick from what everyone else can eat
- I miss my dog
- I miss girls night with salads and pesto crutons
- I miss my dad's fresh out of the oven bread
- I miss drinking tap water
- I miss looking at food without being afraid of getting food poisoning. Again.
- I miss talking with my mum and my friends
- I miss having fish for dinner
- I miss not having to explain why I came back after 10 pm
- I miss waking up from my own alarm clock
- I miss big cups of black coffee
- I miss eating with a knife and a fork
- and raw paprika


God, I miss crispy raw paprika



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Radio Mirchi

Talentshow, indian style ?

Hindi-songs, Bollywood-moves, accordians, gitar, and a blond chick.

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My roomies

These are my two roomies Radhika and Aishwaria. Together we will be sharing 25 sqm and one bathroom. No problem at all when they are as sweet as these two: 

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Adventure Plus

Here are a few pictures from the trip to Adventure Plus, the adventure park we visited on wednesday. I Am sort of in class, so I`m afraid there is no time to explain what it was like. But I bet you will be able to tell from the pictures that we had a lot of FUN:

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Day 25

So... How has the exotic life in India been since last time? Busy. That word summers up everything that has been going on the last few days, without saying anything. It fits perfect, but all the colors are missing.

Since I came here almost a month ago, I have had four exams, to individual hand ins, six group hand ins, and two presentations. I think I have had sixty lectures already, I should have had one more, but I was locked out of it, because I was a minute to late, I have been completely exhaused, I have loved India a lot, hated the life a little, missed home a bit, danced til late at night, fallen asleep at eight in the evening, eaten great food, lost four kilos, and then gained six.

I don`t think my life has ever been this busy, but still there is time to do some fun things in the meanwhile. Like on wednesday; Indian Independence day. The first day since I came here, without a single lecture. Oh sweet luxury. Back home I would probably have spent the day sleeping ultra late and chilling without a single plan. There is no time for such a life here. When I finally had some real time off, there was so many things I wanted to do. On wednesday we chose to go to an adventure park somewhere outside Pune. Not one of those with rollercoasters and those kinds of things, but one where you climb mountains, paddle canos and dance in the water. It was sooo much fun, and sooo muddy in the middle of the monsoon. (Smileface)

After school, the campus is filled up with boys playing cricket and soccer. It seems they never get tired from it, and since there are so many people living here, they always manage to fill up the teams. The last few days they have had tournaments in the evenings, and I bet you would have been able to hear the cheering several kilometers away. It is so much fun. At any given time you can just go down to the court - and you will find someone to watch and cheer with. The same thing is true if you want company, there are people everywhere.

So life is basically really really great. Exept from two things that are driving me kind of nuts.
1. The curfew
Yes, there is a given time we are supposed to be inside our room. 22:30. Every day. When having to be prepared for five lectures evey day, and two other people living in the same room as I, there is no way that can work. Seriously, I need to study. And I am never done by 22:30. I cannot understand how other people do it, and so far I have just concluded that they are even sharper machines than I suspected. Me, I am trying really hard to remember that curfew, but every second day I have dived into a book and suddenly I realize it`s 1:30 already. I am so afraid it will get me into trouble at some point, but man... That cliche about not knowing what freedom is until you loose it? I am starting to realize what it means. I can feel my body getting really tense when those people are making me sign a form every night stating that "my name is Karen, and I came home too late last night". Seriously, I have been able to take responsibility for my own curfews the last six years.

2. The lack of caffeine
The other, and probably biggest challenge is the lack of caffeine. With lectures for ten/twelve hours each days, after five or six (if I am lucky) hours of sleep, I am experiencing serious issues with keeping my body in a horizontal position. And I really think it would have been possible if I had the possibility to pour down three or four cups of coffee, but we are not allowed to drink anything during the breaks. If I was back home, and I read this, I would have asked myself why I didn`t just drink coffee in the breaks, and believe me, I am trying. It`s just a few things that is making that tough as well: first of all, the cup you get is smaller than a cup of espresso back home. and it is filled with 3/6ths of milk, 2/5ths of sugar and 1/6th of coffee in the top. I live in the land of chai. They do not like the taste of coffee here. So, I order a black coffee (no sugar, please). And they start brewing (is that the word for it?) while I stand there. It is done a minute before I am supposed to be inside that room where no liquid can enter. That burned tongue and sugar layer on my teeth helps in about fiftheen minutes, before I again sit and concentrate on staying awake. And the Indian students? Totally awake. I told you they are machines.


What else.... Oh, yeah, the Democratic Republic of India just desided that every citizent of this country can only send five texts per day. Three days before that, they sold me a sms package with 1000 sms to be used within a month. I want my money back. Why they did it? To calm the people. There are lots of riots in India right now, becuase of the amount of illegal immigrants they are dealing with, and the way they are being treated. I can`t say I have seen any of it, but it is happening. So to keep the people of India calm, they cut their abilities to communicate freely. Hello real world, good bye freedom. Not that I am the people of India, but I can`t say I am super happy and calm when my phone tells me I reached my allowed amount of texts.

Well, I am in their country now, they probably know better how to run their own country than I do. And for me, I am off to class. For seven more hours.



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I did something this week that has made a greater impression to me than a lot of other things I have ever done in my life.

Everywhere I go, I seeso much poverty, and where ever I move there are children begging for money. We have been told not to give them any money or anything, because the money will never go to them - but to other people forcing these kids to do it, because people like me will feel sorry for them and give in. It definitely works. It hurts into my the back of my spine every time I see a two year old kid with big brown eyes and the skinniest little fingers you could ever imagine. I want to give him my entire wallet, but I know it will only make the situation worse over time is those men make money through these kids. So most of the time I force myself to turn my back to them and walk away.

Earlier this week it just got too tough though. While walking into KFC to eat, something broke inside me. Sometimes they are just too hungry and too cute to ignore. It felt especially wrong walking past them, while I was about to eat junk food, just because I was sick of the food in the school cafeteria. On my way out I bought three bags of french fries and gave them to a tiny kid outside the store. He was so happy he screamed and hugged those bags of fries in a way I have never seen anyone hug a present they have gotten in their life before.

I don`t think I will ever forget that kid.
And do you know what? Through those bags of chips, I felt like I did something more meaningful than anything I have ever done before.



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More pictures from India

I`m afraid there`s no time to sit down and write a lot about the impressions over here now either. I just got out after finishing my third exam in two days, and I seriously need to get my ass to the gym asap if there should be any chance of getting things done today. After that there is yet another hand-in waiting, number two in four days. Man, it`s so busy here, you have no idea. 

Well, in the meanwhile you can have a few pictures from the last few days here:

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Model United Nations - awards ceremony

Yesterday they announced the winners of the model united nations, and guess what? I won the price for best delegate! So that lead me back up on the stage again, and with me down came an envelope with one thousand rupees in it. I have to say it feels pretty cool to have been here in India for such a short time, and still be able to compete on the same level as the other students in something.

Still, I must say, I didn`t win this price on my own, every delegation did after all consist of two people. Wowa and I was the German one, and we did write all the posts and remarks together. The only thing left to do now, is to find out what we can use that price for. Sweet.

 

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Model United Nations - Indian Style

One of the things that impresses me the most over here, is my fellow students. After finishing those 12 hours of school, they still have tonnes of energy for extra curricular activities. Some of them teaches children from the streets, they have movie clubs, arrange conferenses and debates.

Yesterday they arranged a simulated UN conferense, and of course Wowa and I took part in it when we were asked.. Since we are fresh meat, newly imported from Germany, they asked us to represent Germany. That was kind of scary, since everyone sort of expected us to know everything about the political system and their opinions and... war and world peace and..such as.. Well, since I`ve only lived there since october last year, so that wasn`t particularly true. Thank God Wowa was there, who knows quite a bit more. And in the end, it turned out to be a lot more fun than anything else. It was definitely my kind of a thing.

The debate was about the Arab Spring, and the goal of the game was to create to resolutions that together would stabilize the situation down there. Quite a task, huh? Well, believe it or not, we did it.With tonnes of laughs as well.

Here are a few pictures from it:

The executive board - or the judges if you`d like

"Dear congress"

The turkish team and I got very well along

Preparations till far past midnight the ngiht before

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