My cousin Jake is here! He is the February Session. Like literally--Jake is the only volunteer. We had some other guests come to campus for a few days here and there but Jake is the only one that will be here for the entire session. One of my dreams is to have my family come to India and experience all this goodness so this is a start right?
I took this video when he was coming out of the airport--and you can hear him saying "Oh my gosh you are as bad as my mom!" but I didn't even care. In fact I took it as a compliment. Plus, my ankles were eaten alive by mosquitos while waiting for him so I was going to get the most out of the whole picking him up at the airport experience.
His flight didn't get in until late, so of course we didn't get back to campus until later but we still decided it was necessary to eat some junk food and hang out for a bit.
The first time we went to playtime he was wearing a superman shirt which the kids absolutely LOVED, so he is now called superman or Jack by most people on campus. Jack because they seem to have a hard time saying Jake.
Over the last couples of weeks I've been able to visit Wallajabad and Chettipuniyam colonies with Jake. He has gone from shaking hands as he was removing his first bandage from a patient's foot to manning the blood pressure and blood glucose station like a boss. Seriously--he looked like he had been doing it forever. Unfortunately, I don't have pics of the actual work in these colonies because I was washing at one of them and floating/being water manager/wrapping bandages in the other (yeah--wrapping the bandages were a first. I don't know how they held up but I did my best!) but I do have some pictures of him and some of the patients afterwords as well as the some of the activities we did after going out on medical. He really is so good with the patients. He is kind of shy (this was news to me) but is so polite, thoughtful and very courteous to whoever he is around.
In other news, we were able to attend an Indian wedding. The daughter of the man who owns the auditing company we use got married and although it was not full blown Hindu wedding (the bride and groom were Catholic), there was still plenty of Indian flare to the celebration. And it was huge. It was very obvious that both of the families involved had a lot of money and were very well known in the community. The ceremony was at St. Thomas church (the one where he is actually buried-the world famous church) and the reception was in a ginormous fancy building just off one of the main roads in Chennai. I wanted to take a lot of pictures but there was for reals, legit paparazzi there--making it more than a little awkward taking my own pics. I could of done it if I really wanted to but I don't think I could of done it without being disrespectful to the overall tone of the event and and all its prestigious guests. I guess there were a lot of those too. Mr. Johnson (he is the finance manager on campus) kept pointing to people and saying "He is a really famous Tamil actor" or "That man was part of this section of government" or "This guy is a very famous pastor" all. night. long. It's likely that this was the one time in my life where I will have an opportunity to interact with famous people and I didn't recognize a single one of them. In fact I hadn't even heard their names. Ironic eh?
It probably goes without saying that there were a kabillion people there, so waiting in "line" (remember, Indians don't really do the whole wait in a line thing although they attempt it all the time) to give the bride and groom their present was both interesting and infuriating. I was trying to stand our ground but instead of one or two people cutting us in line, it was whole groups of people. The largest group was a group of nuns. Really? What am I suppose to do with that? My favorite part of the wedding was when the bride changed into her wedding saree. Her wedding dress was beautiful but her wedding saree was stunning! And totally blinged out in Indian jewelry too. I was in love. My other favorite part of the wedding was getting to dress up fancy myself. I'm always a fan of that. :) Oh and the food too. Not that it was crazy good because it was all way to spicy for me, but there was just so much of it and the colors and smells of it were intriguing.
This past Saturday-Valentines day-we went to Pondicherry. I "celebrated" Valentines by eating a heart shaped powdered sugar and raspberry jelly shortbread cookie. I was really happy about that.
And this is the sign on the bathroom door in Bakers Street Cafe. Every time I see it I always think I need to get a picture of it. Well today I finally did--it is kind of Valentines Day themed right? Boys REALLY like girls?
Anyway, we did our normal Pondicherry thing- experiencing the bazzar and hitting some shops. I love Pondicherry, it is such an interesting place, but I didn't know how much Jake would like this place since it is more or less just a bunch of shops, be surprisingly (well to me anyway) he loved it. See--look how happy he was:
Who knew all the things you can learn about your cousin when hanging out in the middle of nowhere India! Jake bought himself a fancy traditional Indian suit, and it occurred to me that I don't know what they call those things. It was pretty snazzy though. Apparently, Jake likes to dress nice. He also likes other people to dress nice too. In fact, he was my biggest cheerleader in favor of me buying another saree. Or possibly another two sarees. I wasn't going to buy anymore but then I found a really good deal and it was really nice fabrics and I have been wanting a nicer one. And then I fell in love with two colors so oops! Whatever, you only live once right?
We stopped by the fish section of the bazaar but it was later afternoon so it was shutting down. I have never visited it in the later afternoon so it didn't even occur to me that there wouldn't be as much to see later on in the day, but we were still able to see some stuff. We happened to come in another way then usual--which also happened to be where the fish gut scrap pile was. The smell wasn't to great but it was morbidly interesting. I thought so anyway. Basically, it was an aquatic anatomy themed I spy picture.
I was excited for Jake to come but the last couple of week have made me realize how much I've needed him here too. There has been a lot going on for me the last couple of weeks-personally, medically, etc. and it has been so nice to have family here. Even though we are far apart in age, even though we were never super super close prior to him coming (we have a zillion of cousins on my mom's side of the family and while I love them all it is hard to know them all personally) it has been just what I needed. It's funny how thing "just" work out like that eh?
I took this video when he was coming out of the airport--and you can hear him saying "Oh my gosh you are as bad as my mom!" but I didn't even care. In fact I took it as a compliment. Plus, my ankles were eaten alive by mosquitos while waiting for him so I was going to get the most out of the whole picking him up at the airport experience.
His flight didn't get in until late, so of course we didn't get back to campus until later but we still decided it was necessary to eat some junk food and hang out for a bit.
The first time we went to playtime he was wearing a superman shirt which the kids absolutely LOVED, so he is now called superman or Jack by most people on campus. Jack because they seem to have a hard time saying Jake.
In other news, we were able to attend an Indian wedding. The daughter of the man who owns the auditing company we use got married and although it was not full blown Hindu wedding (the bride and groom were Catholic), there was still plenty of Indian flare to the celebration. And it was huge. It was very obvious that both of the families involved had a lot of money and were very well known in the community. The ceremony was at St. Thomas church (the one where he is actually buried-the world famous church) and the reception was in a ginormous fancy building just off one of the main roads in Chennai. I wanted to take a lot of pictures but there was for reals, legit paparazzi there--making it more than a little awkward taking my own pics. I could of done it if I really wanted to but I don't think I could of done it without being disrespectful to the overall tone of the event and and all its prestigious guests. I guess there were a lot of those too. Mr. Johnson (he is the finance manager on campus) kept pointing to people and saying "He is a really famous Tamil actor" or "That man was part of this section of government" or "This guy is a very famous pastor" all. night. long. It's likely that this was the one time in my life where I will have an opportunity to interact with famous people and I didn't recognize a single one of them. In fact I hadn't even heard their names. Ironic eh?
It probably goes without saying that there were a kabillion people there, so waiting in "line" (remember, Indians don't really do the whole wait in a line thing although they attempt it all the time) to give the bride and groom their present was both interesting and infuriating. I was trying to stand our ground but instead of one or two people cutting us in line, it was whole groups of people. The largest group was a group of nuns. Really? What am I suppose to do with that? My favorite part of the wedding was when the bride changed into her wedding saree. Her wedding dress was beautiful but her wedding saree was stunning! And totally blinged out in Indian jewelry too. I was in love. My other favorite part of the wedding was getting to dress up fancy myself. I'm always a fan of that. :) Oh and the food too. Not that it was crazy good because it was all way to spicy for me, but there was just so much of it and the colors and smells of it were intriguing.
This past Saturday-Valentines day-we went to Pondicherry. I "celebrated" Valentines by eating a heart shaped powdered sugar and raspberry jelly shortbread cookie. I was really happy about that.
And this is the sign on the bathroom door in Bakers Street Cafe. Every time I see it I always think I need to get a picture of it. Well today I finally did--it is kind of Valentines Day themed right? Boys REALLY like girls?
Anyway, we did our normal Pondicherry thing- experiencing the bazzar and hitting some shops. I love Pondicherry, it is such an interesting place, but I didn't know how much Jake would like this place since it is more or less just a bunch of shops, be surprisingly (well to me anyway) he loved it. See--look how happy he was:
Who knew all the things you can learn about your cousin when hanging out in the middle of nowhere India! Jake bought himself a fancy traditional Indian suit, and it occurred to me that I don't know what they call those things. It was pretty snazzy though. Apparently, Jake likes to dress nice. He also likes other people to dress nice too. In fact, he was my biggest cheerleader in favor of me buying another saree. Or possibly another two sarees. I wasn't going to buy anymore but then I found a really good deal and it was really nice fabrics and I have been wanting a nicer one. And then I fell in love with two colors so oops! Whatever, you only live once right?
We stopped by the fish section of the bazaar but it was later afternoon so it was shutting down. I have never visited it in the later afternoon so it didn't even occur to me that there wouldn't be as much to see later on in the day, but we were still able to see some stuff. We happened to come in another way then usual--which also happened to be where the fish gut scrap pile was. The smell wasn't to great but it was morbidly interesting. I thought so anyway. Basically, it was an aquatic anatomy themed I spy picture.
I was excited for Jake to come but the last couple of week have made me realize how much I've needed him here too. There has been a lot going on for me the last couple of weeks-personally, medically, etc. and it has been so nice to have family here. Even though we are far apart in age, even though we were never super super close prior to him coming (we have a zillion of cousins on my mom's side of the family and while I love them all it is hard to know them all personally) it has been just what I needed. It's funny how thing "just" work out like that eh?
