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