It's a Small World

While visiting my friend from U of C in Delhi, we happened upon this priceless restaurant, "Piccadelhi". It was really confusing to be in India, with a friend from America in an London underground themed restaurant (especially because I've been in London more recently than I have been in New York). I couldn't help being a tourist and taking incredibly obnoxious flash photography inside (yes, I did take a picture of the menu). And to top it off, we walked in and all we had was water (it cost 100 rupees though, so I couldn't feel bad). At least we didn't light anything on fire. More Jaipur tomorrow.

Love,

Violet

Dance Fever

These pictures are from the cultural performance that we saw in Pushkar. The detail shot from yesterday is also from this show. There may or may not also be a video of me dancing with the performers. Luckily, said hypothetical video is too big for me to post online, so you will have to be content with seeing it (hypothetically, of course) when I get back. I don't know what came over me. I blame dehydration and sun exposure. I called up Pushkar officials and tried to get them to change their slogan to "what happens in Pushkar, stays in Pushkar" but they didn't like the ring of it in Hindi. So I will just have to live with the embarrassing videos that will inevitably surface when I run for President. Hopefully the American public finds Indian dance moves and camel riding endearing.

Glad I'm back? I missed you too.

Love,

Violet

I'm baaaaack!

Instead of trying to make up for missed time I am going to give you the greatest hits of my time here as chosen by my teachers. In case any of you were misinformed, I didn't win this scholarship because of merit, I won it because they want to make me the official spokesperson. At least that is what it seems from the picture board. This is the only board of pictures for all 50 students. Can you play Where's Violet/Waldo and count how many times I appear? I'll give you a hint, I'm in one of the three in the top most row. I included a detail shot for your pleasure.

I hope you didn't miss me too much.

Love,

Violet

Impromptu Break

So my computer battery died. I should have seen it coming. Apparently the voltage makes electronics crazy. I hope that I will be able to post again soon. If it takes too long or looks like it won't be fixed at all then everyone will have to make do with no pictures and the promise of an extra long slideshow when I get home. Wish me luck!

Love,

Violet

Happy Indian Birthday Daddy!

Perhaps you would like to put on your cowboy boots and mosey on down to Delhi in order to get your beard trimmed. Try not to be offended by all the questions about why American men loose their hair while Indian men keep their luscious locks. I have been told that the best answer to the question is that it has to do with the water.

I love you daddy! Happy B-day!

Love,

Violet

Qutub Minar aka more delhi more belly

This was a beautiful sight in Delhi. The park was filled with beautiful ruins and mosques. If only it had been under 110 degrees (not including humidity). Then maybe it would have been a little nicer. In Delhi there were a lot more foreigners (or as the locals say "foreigner-voreigners). I find myself staring at them just like Indians stare at me. Dekho! Ek Gora! (Look a whitey!) Should I introduce myself? "Hello, I'm Violet. Why yes I am also white!". I thought better of it, mostly because I was too shy. I wanted to have some tourist take my picture because they would be less likely to steal my camera, but just before break my friend had a dream that she asked some white guys to take her picture with her nice camera and then ran off with it. Clearly this idea has traumatized me. So you will have to deal with pretty pictures of buildings instead of pictures of pretty Violet (that's a lie, it would have been pictures of sweaty Violet, not pretty Violet anyhow).

Love,

Violet (pretty and sweaty at the moment)

India Gate

Any local and some non-locals I have talked to all say the same thing, that I have picked a terrible time to visit India and I must be crazy to be here now. I disagreed with everyone except for the people from Delhi. I'll tell you why. Delhi is hosting the Common Wealth Games in October of this year, which means they are putting in 2 new metro lines and sprucing everything up. So all of the popular sites look like the arch pictured. Everything is torn up and there is scaffolding everywhere. Now, I could have look past that except for it also meant that going from any place to another meant about at 45 min wait in traffic. That I just can't tolerate. I'm a if-the-cab-doesn't-move-for-2-mins-get-out-and-walk kind of girl. So the long periods of time in the car drove me nuts. Especially because I was sightseeing by myself. All my loser tourist alarms were going off. I was always happy to get to walk around and take pictures of any random thing when I got out of the car though. Aha! Learning the motivations of my prey. This will come in handy when I'm back in New York with full on pedestrian rage. More Delhi tomorrow. Hopefully less Delhi-belly.

Love,

Violet

Delhi Belly

This is the beautiful lotus temple in Delhi. What isn't so beautiful? Seeing your Indian food after you have thrown it up. I give chaat (indian fast food) the award for worst food to throw up (this coming from someone who got the stomach flu after a shellfish dinner). More later when I am feeling better.

Love,

Violet

Chutti

Today was my first day of my midterm vacation. I can't believe I am about to hit the half way mark. I don't feel like I've gotten any better at Hindi. I think I've just started speaking more Hindlish (which mostly means I mess up which preposition I am supposed to use). Tomorrow, I will take a bus to Delhi. I'm a little nervous to travel on my own, but I'm sure it will be a lot of fun. I also will get to meet up with two friends from U of C which will be amusingly bizarre. As you may have guessed, that means that I will not be posting for a while. I get back Sunday night so probably monday will be my next post. As a peace offering there are 4 pictures today and starting next week you will be seeing Delhi for quite some time, I'm sure.

I'll talk to you soon.

Love,

Violet

More Pushkar

So, in Pushkar I took pictures of little boys playing cricket, but I am happy to report that I have done one better than that and actually learned to play. Gone are the days were I thought the only rules in cricket were that you hit the thingy and run back and forth. I even got to play. I was pretty bad, though I did manage to make one run. Now that I know the rules, I'm bound to play more and get better! All for you Grandpa. I'm off to Delhi officially on Thursday morning. I got the ticket today and I asked the guy at the desk if it mattered that my age was printed wrong. He looked at me funny and that's when I realized that I am no longer 18 and 20 is the right age. Now he thinks I'm crazy.

Love,

Violet

Camel and Camel Coverage

While in Pushkar, we watched the traditional dressing of a camel. Yes, it is a tradition. And you thought there was no career path for the little girls who only ever wanted to dress up their barbies. The camel's name was Raja, and he obviously didn't like being dressed up. If you have never heard a distressed camel it sounds like something between a dying cow and a fog horn. Anyhow, after it was dressed up they took a picture of us with it, which ended up in the article shown here (the title in translation is "mystical foreign unicorn spotted conversing with and later riding on a camel"). I was right in front and terrified that I was going to be spit on. All was well though. After I got to ride on it. Which is not at all as easy as it looks. Camels get up hind legs first and then front legs and they are massive animals (about twice as tall as horses). So we were being swung around with very little to hold on too (and I didn't even have to sign a release form, India!). It was a bit embarrassing. In closing, yes there is video, yes I will put it on youtube.
Love,
Violet

Pushkar

On Friday, my school took a trip to Pushkar. It is famous for all of the temples it has here. Also for its Fallafel and Israeli tourists. It was a beautiful place even though the iconic lake was dried up. These pictures were taken on top of our hotel. A special thing about Pushkar is that 95 percent of the people who live here are Brahmin. Which means that everyone wants to do pooja for you, a prayer that they do at the waters in front of the temple. First they stick a flower in your palm and lead you to the water, 1000 rupees later they tie a bracelet on you that means you are a tourist and a sucker. I actually wanted to be pooja-ed but it was expensive and time consuming, not to mention that every fiber in my new yorker body was rejecting the thought of doing anything touristy. I was hoping I could find a quickie-pooja, ultimately I just settled for visiting the temples. Stay tuned for more Pushkar.
Love,
Violet

Happy Birthday to ME!

It's the big two oh. I am no longer a teenager (except that I am claiming both the eight in India and the eight in America as my birthday). I had a fun day today, including a wonderful tasty dinner. I was sung to three times (only once did I actually get to eat the cake whose candles I blew out). This is my birthday cake from school. It reads jinamdin mubarak waiylet (happy birthday violet). As a birthday present to my self (but mostly because of a school trip), I am taking a hiatus. I will be back and posting on Sunday. Thank you all for the birthday wishes.
Love,
Violet

Kuch Aur

I couldn't resist putting more pictures of City Palace up. It is too beautiful to not show you all the pictures. Anyhow, today is my last day of teenagerdom. What did I do to commemorate the experience, you might ask. Let me tell you. Something dangerous, ridiculous, something only a teenager could get away with: I ate at McDonald's in India. Ok.. a little anti-climactic. I'm too much of a goodie two shoes to do anything crazier (my first choice was skydiving, but I couldn't get it together quickly enough). McDonald's in India is completely different, by the way. One of the obvious reasons for this is that they don't eat hamburgers here and most people don't eat meat at all. Even besides that everything was different, special sauce is totally different and everything is spicy. The next time I talk to you I will be 20!
Love,
Violet

More City

Here are some more pictures of city palace. Today was my second Kathak class. I was underwhelmed with the first one so I was thinking of quitting. Luckily I had my friend Lia role play with me as my mother so that we could discuss it (I'm dependent, I know). After we got over the inept at talking on the phone problem, we decided that I would go to one more and than decide. I'm glad I did. There were far fewer people and the moves are getting progressively more complex. There are some that are recognizable from Bollywood also, which makes me excited. At some point I will post a video with some of the moves I am learning.
Love,
Violet

P.S. I got a 100 on my last exam. Booya. Just for you Jody :) .

City Girl at City Palace

The rain has come! But not before I spent an excruciatingly hot day sightseeing! City palace is beautiful, lots of different colors and passages and rooms. A lot of the things I couldn't take pictures of, which was a shame but I was glad I could see them nonetheless. I was going to take a picture of the signs outside of the ticket booth but I realized the humor would be lost on all of you so instead I will describe it. There are two identical signs: one in Hindi and one in English. They list all the prices and hours and stuff. However there is one crucial difference, on the Hindi sign the ticket price is 75 rupees and on the English sign it is 300 rupees. My Indian hosts bought 3 tickets, but the ticket guy didn't see me, so when we got to the gate the guard wouldn't let us in. We had to go back and buy a foreigner ticket for me. For the second time we approached the guard and I said, "Dekho, abhi meray pas videshi ticket hai. kush?" (Look, now I have a foreigners ticket, happy?). He was so surprised that it made up for the extra 225 spent. And the beautiful detailing on the buildings made up for all of it. Many more pictures to come.

Love,

Violet

Red, White and Blue Saris

Happy Birthday America! Last night some people from my school threw a party for Nafeeza's birthday and the fourth of July. I got to wear my new fancy sari. It was so much fun to be wrapped up in it, and not so much fun to try to do anything else in it. I am not graceful in it at all. In order to walk up stairs there is a special Michael Jackson-style crotch grab that one is supposed to do. The best I can muster is some sort of hiking up my skirt thing, like I'm about to play football. All in all the outfit was a hit and it matched the sparklers that we had and even the fireworks we set off (don't worry mom, no one got hurt and I stayed far away).

Love,

Violet

It's a Moonsoon! It's a Shower! No, It's Dust!

This week I started taking Kathak classes (a kind of traditional North Indian dance). I decided it would be more useful than singing because I could just add it to my repertoire of dance knowledge instead of having to really start something from scratch. As we were leaving class we felt the wind pick up and everything get a bit cooler. Then the sky turned this amazing pink, orange color. We were sure it was going to rain. As we headed out to get a rickshaw we were unpleasantly surprised to find ourselves in the middle of a dust storm. In terms of rickshaw traffic, this is the equivalent of being somewhere in midtown while it's raining and there is a shift change. Luckily we managed to find one auto-rickshaw driver that was willing to take as for 50 rupees and not 100 rupees (It should be 30 rupees. More or less). When I got home, I was crusted in a thick layer of grime.

Love,

Violet

Happy Birthday Shout Outs

Happy Birthday to Grandpa on American time and Nafeeza on Indian time. On the way shopping today I was in the slowest rickshaw ever and I saw a wild peacock! on the street! Of course I didn't have a camera, because that's not how things work. So instead here is a picture of the beautiful all white marble temple that's between my school and my house. Another exciting thing: I went to buy toothpaste! Just kidding, that isn't the exciting thing (although maybe it is for those who sit around me in class). The exciting thing is that one of 3 most popular toothpaste brands is Pepsodent, which is discontinued in the US!! So exciting!

Love,

Violet

It's Henna Time

Yesterday, my friend Jessica, who is also on the program, drew a design on my hand in henna. The first picture is will the paste still on, the second is after sleeping with the past on my hand (you should see my bed), and the third is after 13 hours. Usually henna just stops at orange on me but now it is a really rich brown color. The same sweatshirt is for two reasons, the first is that I wear it all the time (thanks Duane), the second is for accurate color comparison (scientific accuracy is a must). I love the design and other people have been complimenting me as well. However an unforeseen side effect is that I have become acutely aware of how much my hands sweat. It's no wonder that all of my initial encounters with people are so awkward. I need to move to Europe. (Plug: coming this october - VioletInParis.blogspot.com)

Love,

Violet