Today is a holiday--Happy Diwali Day! We haven't had much luck understanding what it actually is, but it still meant that we got to sleep in and have a day off. Diwali is also called the festival of lights--and celebrates the end of an evil/darkness period. Apparently, it is a pretty big deal, and runs five days in total. It is customary to wear a new outfit for Diwali but we modified that by only buying new bangles instead. After a loaded omelet breakfast (compliments of Katie) we rode bikes into the junction to pick up our new accessories (along the way everyone was yelling Happy Diwali--literally everyone), some Indian sweets and a couple of different traditional samosas type things. I was really excited about the latter things because I have found I don't love many of the indian sweets--they are so "heavy" if that makes sense. But give me samosa like anything and Im a pretty happy girl. Fireworks are also a big part of Diwali-only fireworks here are more or less just HUGE fire crackers, think mortars. It was a little un-nerving hearing them go off everywhere. There was no warning either-just a ginormous earth shaking boom out of no where. It surprises me that they don't have a larger variety of fireworks considering this is an Asian country that even boarders with China in some places (which obviously means they should have some sick fireworks right?) but oh well.
On the bike ride back I got a surge of energy and ended up at the gate of campus going pretty fast. I tried to stop fast--not even thinking that would be a horrible idea since there is a lot of gravel and sand-which is really only covering up really really hard ground. How do I know that you ask? Because I totally ate it. I wish I could of seen it happen because from how my body was moving I guarantee it looked pretty entertaining. And Berlyn made sure to confirm that it wasn't graceful looking in the least. Basically, my bike laid down and kept sliding and I was pinned underneath it. I scuffed up my arm and turns out my left leg was a lot worse then I was expecting-thank heavens I changed pants right before we left because the ones I was wearing before wouldn't have helped protect me much at all. I don't recall ever taking off a pair of pants and having shreds of my skin stuck to the inside of them. Things could of very easily been a lot worse, but the biggest tragedy of it all was one of my new bangles shattered when I hit the ground. But then, Summer (she is a new dance teacher that just came to us from Broadway yesterday--and we already love her to pieces) ran over, pulled off one of her bangles and promptly gave it to me. Who does that? She is incredibly sweet.
Once we got home, I ate a little, cleaned my wounds and decided to do something "crazy" and fix my hair. Like I thematically went through all the steps. I washed it, blow dried it and straightener curled it. The good news is I still know how to do it, but it was really weird. I was missing a few key products-such as hairspray-so the end result wasn't as good as I had hoped but it felt good to reminisce and delve into anyway. Apparently hairspray is really REALLY hard to find in this country. The locals use coconut oil to tame tame their fly aways as well as slick it all down. They LOVE slicking their hair down with coconut oil. At least where I am at anyway. I have spent a couple of weeks and gone to a few different stores but all without leaving with hairspray. Im trying again in Pondicherry this weekend though so keep your fingers crossed. If it isn't there I may be going hairspray free for the next six months. No hairspray keeps my hair cleaner yes, but lice like cleaner hair, which is not really a risk I want to take.
This is Summer. I will talk a little about her later on so keep reading.......
On the bike ride back I got a surge of energy and ended up at the gate of campus going pretty fast. I tried to stop fast--not even thinking that would be a horrible idea since there is a lot of gravel and sand-which is really only covering up really really hard ground. How do I know that you ask? Because I totally ate it. I wish I could of seen it happen because from how my body was moving I guarantee it looked pretty entertaining. And Berlyn made sure to confirm that it wasn't graceful looking in the least. Basically, my bike laid down and kept sliding and I was pinned underneath it. I scuffed up my arm and turns out my left leg was a lot worse then I was expecting-thank heavens I changed pants right before we left because the ones I was wearing before wouldn't have helped protect me much at all. I don't recall ever taking off a pair of pants and having shreds of my skin stuck to the inside of them. Things could of very easily been a lot worse, but the biggest tragedy of it all was one of my new bangles shattered when I hit the ground. But then, Summer (she is a new dance teacher that just came to us from Broadway yesterday--and we already love her to pieces) ran over, pulled off one of her bangles and promptly gave it to me. Who does that? She is incredibly sweet.
Once we got home, I ate a little, cleaned my wounds and decided to do something "crazy" and fix my hair. Like I thematically went through all the steps. I washed it, blow dried it and straightener curled it. The good news is I still know how to do it, but it was really weird. I was missing a few key products-such as hairspray-so the end result wasn't as good as I had hoped but it felt good to reminisce and delve into anyway. Apparently hairspray is really REALLY hard to find in this country. The locals use coconut oil to tame tame their fly aways as well as slick it all down. They LOVE slicking their hair down with coconut oil. At least where I am at anyway. I have spent a couple of weeks and gone to a few different stores but all without leaving with hairspray. Im trying again in Pondicherry this weekend though so keep your fingers crossed. If it isn't there I may be going hairspray free for the next six months. No hairspray keeps my hair cleaner yes, but lice like cleaner hair, which is not really a risk I want to take.
