Whats in my care package?

Yesterday I got a care package from my parents! It was like Christmas! I was so excited to get something from home, I’m so thankful my parents sent me all this great stuff!

So what’s in my care package?

Two big jars of peanut butter
grape jelly

Wether’s candy

Multigrain cheerios

Granola

Mac and cheese

Fruit cups

Valentines Day tootsie rolls

Welch’s fruit snacks

An assortment of granola bars

Dove Dark Chocolate

Orbit Gum

Anti-itch lotion

Who knew a box of random stuff could be so exciting?

Thanks Mom and Dad :)

Chennai Trip

Quick update about our trip to Chennai this weekend!

We took a overnight train on the way there, which was great because I slept while we traveled!

On Saturday we visited a couple tribal villages! At the second village they gave us flowers to put in our hair, which was really cool! Funny side note: the Tamil word for flower is pronounced poo, the jokes about how they put poo in our hair still haven’t stopped!

Saturday evening we went to the mountain where Thomas from the Bible (doubting Thomas) was killed. It was really cool to be a place where someone from the Bible has been! I don’t have any pictures from the mountain, but here are some pictures of St. Thomas Cathedral, the church that was built on top of Thomas’ tomb. We attended an early service at the church on Sunday morning.

 

Then we went to the beach!

 

After the beach we went souvenir shopping and we all got some cool stuff!

Then it was another train back to Coimbatore!

We have definitely reached a very busy part of our semester! We have so many papers and presentations to work on, we are all feeling very overwhelmed! So the blog updates will keep coming, but they might be a little shorter than what they have been previously!

Thanks for reading my trip update!

Weekend Trip to Ooty!

This weekend we went on a trip to visit the Nilgris Mountains (about 3-4 hours away), several different towns (Ooty and Mudhumali), and two different tribal villages.

This weekend consisted of an amazing mountain climate and many adventures!

Our first stop was a tribal village!

The view was incredible, and we got to see two different places where they worship. This tribe worships nature, and especially the buffalo.

The rest of the day we went to the Mudhumali Tiger Reserve to go on a safari! Unfortunately, the reserve is inaccurately named because we didn’t see any tigers! We saw a bunch of monkeys (one even jumped on the side of the safari bus!) and baby monkeys, spotted deer, wild boar, peacocks and a few other types of birds.

After the safari we went to watch an elephant feeding! 

Saturday was another day of adventure! We started the day off early, leaving our cabin at 6:30 AM to go and ride elephants! Everyone in the group had been looking forward to this for weeks! We split into groups and hopped on an elephant to go for a trek through the Indian wilderness!

This wasn’t my first time to ride an elephant. But this time was a little more exciting than the time my grandma took my brother and I to the circus in Limon, Colorado and we rode an elephants around a ring!

 After the elephant rides we went to a tea estate and saw the entire process of how tea is made starting with the leaves and ending with the bags shipping out! “From pluck to cup” as said by our director Kirk. I really enjoyed seeing this process, as I like the tea here more and more!

Here is a picture of a door at the estate; once again India is not designed for tall Americans!

After the tea estate we went to another tribal village where we got to interact with the people a little bit! They taught us some words in their language and some of their dances! The monkeys wanted in on the action too ;)

 

 

After we left this village we made one last stop at Coonoor, which is well known for its chocolate! It was a great way to get a boost of energy before we started the road trip back to Coimbatore!

We took jeeps/SUVs on this trip and road trips in India are on a completely different level than road trips in the US. 

At one point during the trip we were traveling on a hill that had 36 hairpin turns. And some parts of the trip we were traveling on a road where in order for two cars to pass each other, at least one car had to drop one side of the car off the paved road. This made for some interesting bumps, being whipped around corners, and of course hours of honking. Several of us were fighting against carsickness the whole way! But thankfully we all made it there and back in one piece!

Mom and Dad – I will never complain during our long car rides to Colorado ever again!

This was a great weekend of seeing the natural side of India! We all had so much fun seeing the sights and riding elephants!

Raheja Apartments!

Hi Everyone! I thought I would do a blog update to show everyone where I live here in Coimbatore!

The front gate where our friendly security guards greet us with a smile!

Here is a link to the India Study Program's facebook album of pictures they put up last semester just to give you a basic idea of what our apartments are like!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.291840184163202.90424.172820189398536&type=3

India apartments are different from American apartments in many ways, so I'm going to show you guys a few of the... interesting things about our apartment!

 Here is one of the showers! Please notice the random knob on the left. I haven't found what it turns off/on yet...

 This what the typical light switch board looks like. A knob on top to control the speed of the fan, unfortunately this doesn't really work and our fans have one speed - tornado. The other switches control the electrical outlets, different lights, and the fan. I still have to guess which switch does what whenever I go to turn on a light!

The counters are also very short, not made for tall Americans!

 Our mosquito zapper! Its funny how much entertainment and enjoyment we get from chasing mosquitoes around our apartment.

Every apartment needs really high, unreachable cabinets above its front door!

There is nothing weird about this picture, but I wanted to show you guys my desk! I got this paper the store here for $1! I thought it would be a great way to display photos! I also put my theme bible verse for the semester on it! It is Matthew 5:13-16 which says, " ¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

Hope you all enjoyed this post about my home away from home! I thought it would be fun to share will you all something from my daily life here in India!

This weekend we are going to a tribal village near a town called Ooty! I will undoubtedly have some pictures and stories to share from this trip upon our return! 

Also, here is a picture I took of a man riding on the back of a motorcycle holding two live chickens... only in India. 

 

Homestay Weekend!

This past weekend the whole group was split into pairs to go on homestays with an Indian family!

Me and Becky stayed with a woman named Jaialotha and her two daughters. One of her daughters, Susan, was 19 so it was nice to have someone near our age to talk to!

On Saturday we went with Jaialotha on a business trip to Dharmapuri! She is one of the directors of a preschool chain in India and this particular program in Dharmapuri was having a "sports day" program that she needed to attend! I love Indian children so I was excited to see the program!

Here are some pictures of the day!

During the closing ceremonies they had Becky and I help pass out the kid's medals and certificates! We felt like we were American Ambassadors ;)

On the way back we stopped at a roadside coconut stand for a quick drink! Its funny, they just have this knife where the cut open a hole, stick a straw in it, and you sip and enjoy!

The highlight of the roadtrip was getting to see wild monkeys for the first time in India! They aren't very common in Coimbatore, so I was excited to see them on the trip!

 

They are small, and blend in rather well but hopefully you can make them out! I'm used to driving down the road and seeing herds of cattle, but seeing groups of monkeys was so funny to see!

Over the course of the weekend we had a lot of authentic Indian food, thankfully they toned down the spice a little bit and made it more enjoyable!

Me and Becky were so thankful for the families hospitality and will always remember this weekend of adventure!