India Part III

Wednesday May 7, 2008

After we finish visiting the Tibetan children's school we take our cars into the town of Dharamsala to visit a Tibetan Refuge museum. While we walked from the car to the museum there were several little stations set up protesting the suppression of the Tibetan government. This one is from Poland. The museum was very disturbing. They had images of the violence against the Tibetan people by the Chinese government and show the history of their exile. There were also photos of people after they crossed the Himalayan mountains on foot. Most people who walk over the mountains suffer from foot and hand frostbite. The museum also highlighted prominent Tibetan citizens who fought for their cause.

Next, we walked to Dalai Lama Temple. The Dalai Lama was in residence and Kathy wrote a letter to try to get an audience with him but he said he had to teach the monks that day. This is a photo of the prayer wheel. Buddhist walk by and spin all of the wheels as part of the Buddhist custom. I had to try it...I think I was filled with happiness for the rest of the day.

This is a photo of me in one of the courtyards and of the other one is one of the Buddhist gods inside of the temple. As we walked around there were several people praying and many Buddhist monks in their robes. They had thin mattresses on the floor for these people to sit on when the Dalai Lama teaches.

After the temple our guide took us to a local Tibetan restaurant. This was the best food that I ate on the entire trip. We got to order whatever we wanted and try some new things. And I was able to convince my companions to grant me bites off of their plates. I always want to try everything. I certainly liked the Tibetan food way more than the Indian food.

After lunch the tour guide took us to a local art museum. This museum housed local artifacts and art going back several hundred years. It was interesting to see some of the local household items as well as local art. There was a gift shop and I was able to buy some postcards with reproductions of art on them. I know I will only send them to special people.

Next, we went back to the city and we were set loose to do some shopping. I was immediately separated from my Friends, but I had a fabulous time bargaining and finding unique things to buy. I got a ring for myself, I got some cute notebooks for my nieces, I got this large old fashioned lock for Wyatt...I had a hard time giving it to him as I really wanted it for myself. We had an hour but I made the most of my time. The next series of photos are when we were waiting to be picked up by the cars. There were miscellaneous cows walking around in the traffic and the streets barley held 1 car but they were 2 lane streets.

Thursday May 8, 2008

I did something very special this morning. We started are day as usual at 6am for our daily walk up the mountain. We walked fairly far uphill this morning, I would guess that it was about 1.5 miles uphill and then we turned around. We got back in time for our 8am Yoga class. We were able to arrange for a local Yoga master to come to the hotel and teach us an hour course. It was a wonderful experience to learn from someone so close to the origins of the sport. The teachers legs were so small and he could contort his body like it was made of a twizzler. I am not able to fully do all of the positions but I am glad that I tried.

This morning was a free day so after breakfast we decided to take another walking adventure. This being the 2nd of our day. We just started walking up a path on the side of the mountain and weaved around. We wondered off the mini path at one point and ended up in someones yard. We were fairly embarrassed as they watched us walk quickly through their yard to the path. We did this for about two hours in the morning. At the very end or our walk we saw this family's home on the side of the mountain and we all waved to them. G kept saying how she wanted to see the inside of their house. We kept walking up and as we get closer to the family we waved and said hi. We started talking to them and were able get get an invitation to tour their home. It was a brick home that was just recently built. The husband told us that the whole community came together to help them build it. It contained three rooms, a bedroom for the parents which had electricity, a big TV and a DVD player. There was a bedroom for their two boys who were about 7 & 9 and it contained simply two twin beds. They also had a kitchen, which consisted of a place on the floor where they build a fire in order to cook, a electric burner and cabinet which held their kitchen items. I didn't see a sink, refrigerator or a bathroom. It was the husband who showed us around and talked to us. The children said a few things but the wife just smiled. He tried to offer us tea several times but G told them the water would hurt our stomachs. As much as I wanted to be polite....there was no way I was going to drink the water. I am sad to say the none of us had our cameras so I have no photos to go with this story.

After lunch we made our way to the tiny airport that contained only one airline. We got all checked in and waited. They have some different baggage handling rules in India. We had to first check in at the ticket counter and then go to a separate area to have our bags x-rayed. We then we got them back after they had been marked by the attendant and they were also closed so we couldn't open them with plastic ties. After our long three hour wait we finally boarded the plane. It was fairly small only about 25 rows with 3 across. We got sat down and ready for the departure when we heard the captain give the most horrible announcement, "Excuse me Ladies and Gentlemen...Our departure will be delayed by one hour due to congestion at the Delhi airport and unfortunately we have to shut the plan off so we don't run our of fuel because the Dharamsala airport doesn't have a refueling station." We were all in horror of sitting on an increasingly hot and hotter plane with no air conditioning. After about 10 minutes of sauna like conditions the tall man in the front seat went in the back and talked to the pilot and flight attendant. I imagine that he bribed him and they let us all of the plane to wait the remaining time in the lobby of the airport. This would have never happened in the US...They would NEVER have let us off the plane. We were lucky that this was such a small airport and we were the only people leaving that day. I found out later that the tall guy was fairly famous. He was a basketball player for Chicago and had a show on ESPN, John Sally. Since I am not a sports fan...I didn't particularly care but I guess some people might think that it is cool.

We go back to the same Delhi that we stayed at before and have dinner right away at about 8pm. We did have a special surprise...Kathy one of the instructors, invited an old friend to come and speak to us about his experience working internationally. He works for Habitat for Humanity and he has traveled all over Asia working for them. I would have loved to have been more engaged in this but I was so completely exhausted by this time that I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open and I was staring ahead like a zombie. I hardly remember anything that he said. I am sad that I wasn't able to partake more of this experience.

More to come later in India Part IV.

IPOD Mis-Adventure

Last night I decided to put my Tom Petty greatest hits CD onto my computer. It has been a long time since I have done this task and I remember it taking approximately 10 minutes to burn each CD. So last night it took about 3 hours for my computer to process this disk. I thought that this was weird, but I was doing other things so I let it go. I synced my IPOD and took it to work today. Now, I am so mad…I just tried to listen to my new music and it doesn’t work! It plays the first 2 seconds of each song and then goes to the next. UGGG…I don’t like it when things don’t work! I was all psyched to listen to it and now I am so disappointed. I find it very upsetting when my technology doesn’t work correctly. I have some things to say to those Apple people!

Lawn Ornament

Do you sometimes do something kind of weird at work and you know it is weird but you keep doing it? In an effort to eat more healthy I have been bringing my lunch with me to work. However, I don’t like to eat in the lunch room because I like to leave the building and experience the sunlight every day. So in an effort to accomplish both goals I have stored a camping chair in my car and I walk out to the parking lot to sit in my chair, eat my lunch and read during lunch most days of the week. I like doing it and I feel relaxed and rejuvenated (and sweaty) every day when I return from lunch but, now I feel like a lawn ornament. Many people who drive by me roll down their windows and wave and say hi. They see me in the hallways and comment to me that they see me sitting outside. It seams a bit weird and anti-social that I go out by myself everyday but I continue to do it. So those you reading this…do you think that I am being weird?

Orienteering

As a larger girl you would think that I would have learned my lesson of what I can do with my body. Apparently, that is not the case. I have a very adventurous side to me so I decided to go orienteering on Saturday morning. If you know me you would have to know that I must have REALLY wanted to do this because it involved me being somewhere at 9am on a Saturday. I normally like to sleep till 10am and I don’t like to make commitments before noon.

Orienteering is a sport where you use a compass and a map to hike around the woods looking for flags and then you punch your card to show that you reached the flag. I struggled using the compass…I couldn't seem to get the hang of it. Reading the map was also a struggle. It wasn’t a normal map. There were several keys indicating what type of terrain you might encounter around the park, like bogs, hills, trails and ponds. At the beginning of the second course I separated from my friend to go to the bathroom and when I came out I couldn’t find her. I had to call her and we realized we were in the same parking lot…we just couldn’t see each other. I defiantly don’t want to go to the woods by myself.

So we got through the first course in 45 minutes and fairly easily. This was the beginner course and you were basically walking around on marked trails. We then took the second course which was a bit more difficult. You had to pay more attention to the map and think about where you were going to go next. As an example the most direct route to the next flag may be through swampy water, as I wasn’t interested in getting all wet we needed to plot our way around that area. As a side note, we encountered a fellow orienteer who decided to take the direct route and she was completely wet up to her knees. I guess she was trying to go fast or…just couldn’t read the map. So we finished the second course in 1 hour and 4 minutes. The website hasn’t posed our results yet...but I will let you know how we compare to the other teams.

So after we were done orienteering I decided to go to Home Depot to buy some lawn improvement items. I bought four perennial flowers, a bush and some mulch. So after an hour of rest and TV I decided to go to the front yard dig holes and redo my front flower bed. It was two hours of very physical work. I worked up lots of sweat and I had dirt and mulch all over me. When I was done I had dirt smeared all over my shirt.

So I now come to the part of knowing my body. It is still hard for me to walk today. My hamstrings and calf’s are so sore and tight it is still difficult to walk on Monday. Perhaps I could have waited to do the lawn work on Sunday?? I hope my body recovers soon. I do not like to have physical limitations; I just want to be able to do anything. Is that too much to ask?

India Part II

On Tuesday (May 6, 2008) morning of my trip we went to visit Akshardham Temple. This temple houses statues of the various Hindi gods and goddess. You are not allowed to wear your shoes in the temple so I had to walk around barefoot and they had these mats laid everywhere that were soaking wet because without the water the ground would be too hot to walk on. The average temperature in May is above 100 F.

This is a photo of some locals waiting in line to see the temple.

This is a photo of the outside of the temple.

After visiting the temple we took a small flight to Dharamsala. This the is the city in the Himalayan mountains where the exiled Tibetan government located and home to the Dalai Lama. Upon landing the scenery was beautiful and the mountains were spectacular. I LOVE Nature and this was my favorite portion of the trip. We took an hour car ride up the mountain to our hotel. The road was very narrow and I was sitting in the front seat. On occasion I had to close my eyes because I thought we were going to go over the edge or an oncoming car was going to end my life. On the way up there was a family of monkeys sitting on the side of the road. I didn't get a photo but a short distance away two monkeys were engaging in serious public displays of affection.

After arriving at the hotel and giving up our nice large room with a view (but 1 king bed) to a married couple to a small no view, no balcony room, two friends and I decided to go exploring up the mountain. The hotel was built on the side of the mountain so we could walk up the road and the go up and down the sides of the mountain that looked interesting. This photo I was pretending to be superwoman to fly off the side of the mountain.

The next morning (Wednesday) two of my friends and I woke up at the crack of dawn. This means I woke up at 3 am and was unable to get back to sleep. We decided to start our day with a healthy constitutional up the mountain. We walked for an hour and breathed the glorious fresh mountain air. We walked downhill first so that made the last portion uphill. Our elevation was about 5000 feet, I assure you I think the people at the hotel could here me breathing as it was so labored. However, it was a good labored and a great way to start the day.

Our first stop of the day was at the Children's Tibetan Village. This is a school the houses 2000 children from infants to college age. These are not necessarily orphaned children but children who have been sent to Dharamsala from Tibetan China. The children live in family units of 30 children, they are fairly self contained with each unit preparing their own meals and takes care of their own daily needs. The children all wear uniforms at the school and the ones we saw looked happy and healthy. The next series of photos will be from the children's school..there is a real cute on of me holding a baby. I was the first one to arrive in the infant room and there was this little boy holding his arms out just wanting to be held. I resisted for about 30 seconds as I am not necessarily a baby person...but he was cute. I wanted to take him home with me. When we were trying to leave he kept holding on to me tighter...he did not want to be put down.

This is the common area and one of a typical dorm.

The two above is a typical dorm room and a closet that stores clothing and linens.

Below you will find dorm's area worth of toothbrushes. I became obsessed with the idea of wondering how the children know which was theirs as there are so many in one place.

The next two photos are of their library...apparently Harry Potter is read on all parts of the globe.

Visiting the school was a wonderful experience. I am so glad that I got the opportunity to see this and to learn a bit about the Tibetan culture.

More to come later in part III of India.

Smart Pet

I think that I have the smartest cat there is, Mickey did an incredible thing on Thursday night! I was preparing to do laundry and I set the full towel basket in front of the bedroom door. The door was ajar by about three inches. Mickey comes out of the closed and sees that the door is almost closed and he panics. He hates to be locked away from any part of the houses, even though he spends 90% of his time in my room napping on my bed. He goes behind the basket from the left and tries to get out. He is unable pull the door open any further as the basket is in his way. He tries this for about a minute. Now this shows his superior problem solving skills. He walks around the basket and behind the ironing board to find a clear path to the exit. I was amazed that he tried to find an alternate exit. On second thought I could be biased as I have had Mickey for 15 years.

India Part 1

My main passion in life is traveling. I just love to go to new places and I almost never want to go back to the same place (except when my arm is twisted to go on a cruise with my brother). This year I had the opportunity to go to India and Dubai in May. As soon as I heard about the trip I had decided within 10 minutes that I needed to find a way to go. With much pleading and brown nosing of my bosses I was allowed to take two weeks off of work. Just getting ready for the trip was hectic as I graduated from college with my MBA on Friday night before my long plane ride to India on Saturday.

The commute to India was extremely long. We left Indianapolis at 12:30 on Saturday, but we had to be at the airport at 10:30am...so this is when the clock starts. We arrive at JFK and we now have an 8 hour layover...our next plane doesn't depart until 11pm on Saturday night. We had a full day of traveling before we even left the states. We had to pick up our luggage and it appeared that 1/2 of the groups luggage did not make it to JFK. I have to wonder how this could of happened as this was a direct flight. All of the lost luggage showed up about 8pm on a flight from Atlanta. Apparently our plane from Indy was overweight and their bags were sent to JFK via Atlanta.


We board the extremely large Emerites (Airline from the UAE) plane. The plan has 4 center seats and three seats on each side of the aisle, this means that there were 10 people across. This ride was 12:45 minutes long. We landed in Dubai for about 3 hours, I was very loopy by this time and my friends and I immediately went in search of food and decided that breakfast would consist of a diary queen kit kat blizzard. It was little bites of heaven after the horrid plane food. Then we boarded another flight that took us to Dubai and this ride was about 3 hours. So my total travel time was about 31hours and 15 minutes. There is one other detail that I should add. I NEVER sleep on the plane EVER. So I was a zombie by the time I reached India. We took an hour bus ride to our hotel and got to sleep for about 5 hours. My alarm clock didn't work so we were woke by the phone and Steve (UINDY Facility Member) calling us to meet the group for our first activity. I hate having to rush to get ready. My head was very fuzzy.


Our first activity in India was to visit the Jaipuria Institute of Management. This is an Indian version of a MBA school. It was amazing how this looked like any ordinary school in America. The facility of the school gave us a lecture on how the school is run, the qualifications of the students to attend the school and answered any questions that we had. The were so open and informative. When we visited China last year...the people were not very willing to talk to us and they only gave us surface information. I feel like I got a real sense of what going to school would be like there.





This is a photo of the group in the hallway. The man in the front is Dr. J.D Singh. He is the one who lead most of the discussions and answered many questions. He spoke English very well and was very easy to understand. In the left is Gloria and you will notice that she has a red dot on her forehead. The did this to all of us when we arrived. It was a gesture of welcome. They did this to us several places that we went.

This is one of their student computer labs. They are open pretty long hours but not 24 hours.

They had this poster up in their cafeteria. I found it amusing that I traveled 31 hours to see a motivational propaganda poster. I guess those people who make them are raking in the dough.

This is one of their dorm rooms. Each room had a private bathroom. The rooms looked pretty nice compared to some of them at home. Currently they only have dorm room for female students...so all of the men commute.

This is our whole group in the library. It includes everyone who was on our trip as well as all of the facility members from the Jaipuria school that attend our meeting.


I love being able to take this kind of trip that adds learning elements along with the vacation fun. Some of my fondest memories of this trip involve the business aspects. More to come soon.

Fathers Day

So I don't have a father...or mother therefore, I don't really celebrate fathers day. I do have a brother who is a father so I decided to do something nice for him for his special day. He is currently on his honeymoon with Traci in the Caribbean and away from home. I had been watching his two cats, one is at my house (Sparks) and the other lives outside in his backyard (Wendy). I went over to his house today to feed Wendy and I decided it would be a nice of me to mow his lawn. BTW it is double the size of my lawn with many more obstacles. It is about 2:30 pm on Sunday afternoon and about 90 outside. I start in the front of the house and right away I drive the mower over some paper and it spit out of the mower all over his lawn. I was thinking that he probably wouldn't like that too much. After I clean up that mess I move on to the large backyard which is very daunting. As I started back there in a circle around the perimeter of the fence I come upon the swampy area. This is where the basement water is emptied out of a drainage hose into the middle of his lawn from a long white pipe. I didn't know what to do about the pipe so I decided to tackle that area first and it was wet and muddy. My feet kept getting stuck and there was mud all over my shoes, socks and the mower. I kept wondering if it was good for the mower to go through so much water...but I kept going as it was my brother mower and not mine. Buy the time I got done with that area I had mud all up and down my legs. I then proceed to finish the rest of the back yard while trying to go around the various objects back there...a trampoline, chairs sitting in the middle of the yard for no reason, and a wood swing set. It took me about an hour an a large amount of sweat but I completed the project. I was very proud of myself. I then thought I would trim the yard also. But I couldn't get the gas trimmer started..I tried for about 15 minutes, but it just wouldn't start. I felt like such a girl for not being able to get it started.

After I was done I went inside to get a drink of water and feed the cat and and I then noticed that Lou had an ant farm on his kitchen counter. He left for his honeymoon last Saturday and there was a sink full of dishes...I just pretended that I didn't see them every other time I had come over. Now I felt obligated to do something as there were ants everywhere. I couldn't find any bug spray so I found a bottle of 409 and drenched the area. The ants did stop moving. I then decided that I had to do the dishes and clean off the counters to remove the ant corpses. While doing the dishes I discovered the reason for the ants...two glasses and a picture that had remnants of red cool-aid.

So I hope my brother appreciates his fathers day gift!

Weekend Fun

I tried to go to the movie yesterday. Tried is the key word. I met my friend Casey at the movies in Castleton on Saturday for a 1:30 showing of "The Happening". We got there in plenty of time to buy our tickets and get our free pop and popcorn (Thanks to a coupon that AMC had on the web in December when the theatre opened...some would say that I am obsessed with this coupon). As I walk over to load up my popcorn with butter that I do not need...the power goes out. I was feeling charitable so I took it easily and Casey and I found a seat and chatted for a while in hopes that the power would resume. In the 40 minutes that we waited it never did. The theatre gave us free passes for our next moves so we decided to waste some time in hopes that they would get the power back.

The second part of this story is that Casey has a dog with her. She is part of this program that trains dogs for people with disabilities. First the dogs are trained for several months in one of two local prisons (who knew that prisons did this?) then they go out with volunteers who train them in the real world for two weeks on things that they can't learn in prison...like going to the movies and out to restaurants. So we had this cute golden retriever with us. His name was Body and he was very well behaved...but he drew a large amount of attention to us everywhere we went. It is cool that she can take him to work with her and everywhere she goes. As you learn more about me you will find out that I am much more of a cat person than a dog person. So it is saying allot that I thought the dog was cute.

We ended up seeing the movie at 4pm. I don't know as I really liked it. There were large amounts of violence and gore. Then there was this big hype that the movie was to have a surprise ending...I didn't really get it. I didn't really see a surprise. The major way that I judge movies is weather or not I would see them again...This is definitely a no. I would not see it again.

I hope you enjoyed my first post. Thanks Emily for giving me this idea. I would like to have some future posts about my trip to India and Dubai in May and maybe China last year.