New Year's with a Bang

This post is the first of two Diwali posts.  I just returned from a week long Diwali break, Internet was down and I'm catching up.  The timing's not quite right but I still wanted to share so please excuse the verb tenses and timings.  

The past couple of weeks have been leading up to Diwali.  The Festival of Lights.  New Years.   Diwali officially begins on October 24th.

We are actually beginning a week long holiday to celebrate Diwali.  I've started packing and while I wait for a final load of laundry to finish and listen to bangs and pops of fireworks; it's a great time to share some of the things I've learned and ways I've celebrated already.

One bang...decorations.

Decorating with garlands.

Close-up of the garlands, photo courtesy of Kelli Thexton

Rangoli artist, photo courtesy of Aimee Martins

Kelli, Andrea, Nancy and our first Diwali at ASB

Ganesha, rangoli and diyas.

Elementary girls with bindis before they dance, photo courtesy of Aimee Martins

Demons and Kings, photo courtesy of Aimee Martins

Two bangs...an assembly.

Faculty and parent dancers, photo courtesy of Aimee Martins

The story of Ram and how he saved his wife Sita, photo courtesy of Kelli Thexton

Ram fighting the demons, photo courtesy of Aimee Martins

Good conquers evil, photo courtesy of Kelli Thexton

Three bangs...learning about lanterns.


Before I moved to India, I'd heard of Diwali but didn't know much about it at all.  Luckily, I've got my guides who've taught me lots along the way.

Last night I went with Heeru, Barbara, Andrea and Debbie to Mahim.  Another suburb of Mumbai.  Barbara and Heeru organized our visit to see lovely lanterns.

The characters reminded me of Korea.

Both sides of the street were lined with stalls.

Colorful rangoli flour

Heeru and Debbie

Heeru and Barbara with lanterns for the library

Lots of purchases.

Happy Diwali India!

I didn't wind up buying any lanterns this time round.  I did buy a rangoli template for next year though.

Outside my apartment window, it looks to me more like Christmas does outside Chicago.  There are strings of colored lights on balconies.  Lanterns also shine outside windows.

Four bangs...presents!
Diwali is also a gift giving holiday.  I didn't quite have my act together but my colleagues did.

Heeru's Diwali gifts.

I received chocolates and candles.

Sweets!

Diyas and sweets.  There were lots of commercials on t.v., ads on billboards and stores all showing everything you could buy your loved ones for Diwali.  From clothes to jewelry to cars.  It reminded me a lot of the ads on t.v. in the U.S. before X-mas.

Thanks to my teachers and friends who've made my first Diwali here very special.  Happy New Year!

One final bang.
Lately I've been reading a lot about reading and 21st century schools.  And I've learned a few things.


I realize that if people really want to know specifics about things, we can just Google them so I haven't given a lot of background in this post.  I'm leaving up to the interested parties to gather the info as I think there are lots of great sources who share it much more accurately and just plain better than I can.  You'll see there are hyperlinks throughout so learn as much or as little as you like.


Also, that this post is really long.  In a world where we point and click so quickly, posting something like this isn't kosher.  So, I'm working on shorter posts and working on changing up my blog a bit to reflect that.  Please bear with me as I make those changes as I think we'll all like this a lot more.

Watching the Paint Dry

Actually, the paint's dried.

The curtains are ordered.

The dishes are microwave and dishwasher proof.  Hope that means if I drop one that counts since I'm the dishwasher...

My apartment's feeling homier and homier every day.

I Can't Stop Staring at my Hands

That probably sounds strange but it's true.  When I'm writing, typing, washing them or dishes, I keep catching myself looking at my hands.  Here's why:

Mehndi is a henna tattoo.   It's a traditional kind of art. Many times brides and their female family members and friends have applied to their hands and feet a few days before their wedding.  The tradition among the artists is passed down through families.  I

On Wednesday evening, also my dad's birthday, a small group of girls got together for a mehndi party.  Tiffany and Maribel shared amazing food and organized for the artists who'd visited their Kindergarten class during the day to treat us to have our own turn.

Delicious samosas and sweets and chutney.

Tiffany, our hostess taking advantage of her one dry hand.  
You  have to wait for it to dry so the henna becomes darker.
It can take an hour or so to dry.

Maribel, aka Miss India

The start of my mehndi

One palm done.  Two sisters shared the work on my hands.
One did the palms and larger flowers while the other did the details and shading.

Palms are done!  

They used small plastic bags to squeeze out the henna.

Many of us had two people painting our hands at the same time.

Heeru's attempt at me showing off my mehndi.
She gave me a bridal photo shoot.  I need to work on my dancin' finger positions.

Heeru told me a few things about mehndi when I came to school on Thursday.   She told me that the stronger the color is of your henna, the more your husband loves you.  Or for us single girls, the more passionate you are.   I've heard that the henna can last from one to three weeks.  We'll see on my pale skin what happens.

Okay, the end of this post has come.  One final glance down at the flowers on my fingers and peacock feathers on my palms before I need to start my day.

Spelunking Holiday

Two weekends ago we had a three-day weekend.  I went to Aurangabad, India which is in the same state as Mumbai.

Outside of Aurangabad are some amazing caves.  The Ellora and Ajanta caves.   This is the draw to the area.  Aurangabad also has the Bibi Ka Maqbara which was created by a prince in honor of his mother.  His father built the Taj Mahal for the same woman.  She was definitely loved.

My first Indian holiday was definitely just what I needed.  The weekend shared:

• great people (my traveling companions Bobbi Jo and Andrea along with 7 other wonderful ASB faculty members who we bumped into and hung out with throughout the weekend).

• unbelievable Buddhist, Jain and Hindu temples.  Seriously, how did they make these so long ago?

Ellora

Elephants and pillars, Ellora

Bobbi Jo's favorite animal and becoming one of mine as well.

Ganesha

I loved everyone's clothing colors against the colors of the rocks.

The caves were so incredibly dark.

Amazing paintings.  No flash photos allowed so not so easy to capture.

photo by Andrea Johnston

• scenery.  There is an incredible India outside of Mumbai that reminds me so much of the Cerrado in Brazil.

Boys doing some crab fishing.

• a real break from everything.   The challenges, the noises, the chaos, the intensity.

 Here are a few highlights from our trip:

• having a bad case of the church giggles when the doorbell rang for 10 minutes while Bobbi Jo tried to sleep and two hotel employees tried to save her ("No problem madam.",
• laughing and chatting with 10 ASB friends in one hotel room while enjoying "grape juice" on a dry day, 
• sipping on a delicious Fosters on a dry day at the Ajanta Caves,

Andrea and I and some nice cold Fosters, photo by Bobbi Jo using Andrea's camera

• eating delicious tandori (aka "The Sizzer") and fresh lime sodas with friends,

• feeling like celebrities as everyone wanted their photo taken with us and some even had us hold their babies,

They wondered why we wanted a photo with someone with such dark skin.

Photo by Andrea Johnston

Photo by one a local using Andrea's camera

Meet my new family, photo by Andrea

• feeling peace inside the caves.  The type I haven't had in a long, long time.

• seeing India's wildlife:  spider-like chipmunks with accompanying theme songs, camels, cows and crabs.

Spider chipmunk is in the center of the photo.  Can you find him?

• sunning and splurging as friends treated us to a poolside afternoon at their hotel,
• playing charades to entertain ourselves and other travelers both at the Aurangabad airport and on the airplane back to Mumbai.

I gave this weekend...

And for those of you Eat, Pray, Love fans, yes that is what you think it is.  photo by Andrea Johnston