well, once again, i'm slacking on the blogging, but i think this should make up for it, and hopefully give you an idea about all that we've been up to lately!

MONSOONS!


it's that time of year! the monsoons have officially begun and the weather is getting wet and cool. feels great when you're sitting inside like i am right now...



...but it's not quite as fun when you're out and about!



as you can see, my friend Merrilea and i had to get creative with me trying to hold the umbrella over us as she drove the motorbike! gotta love monsoons!

JUST FOR FUN!

before i dive into all the pics from our summer volunteers, here are a couple of the fun things we've done in between all the madness:



we didn't actually see Ninja Turtles, but a big group of us went to see spiderman 3 and then had a lot of fun goofing off with the Ninja Turtle stuff at McDonalds.



i really love the folks who have become my "family" here, and i especially love it when we can all get together and just have fun. right before the volunteers arrived, we had a night of games and singing and just enjoying being together. it was awesome.



we also took some time out to go bowling with Ally and Alisa, which was great, even thought the lanes were kind of messed up and the pins kept falling over on their own!



the ride home after bowling was quite an adventure--this is the first time i've ridden with 5 adults in a rickshaw! (imagine 5 people in the back of a closed in golf cart!)



Ally was brave and managed to squeeze into the little shelf area in the back!



these two pics...well, what can i say...we're pretty goofy at times!





right before our teams arrived, a couple who's working with students up north, Brian and Leslie, came down to visit us and see some of the stuff we're doing here. it was a blast, and as you can see, they're pretty fun people! this is brian posing next to one of those really goofy little cars.



this is a hillarious pic of Leslie and Joy, one of our volunteers, riding on a camel.

TEAMS!
like last summer, we had 2 short term (2 week) teams come in may and june, and it was quite an adventure. the students did an amazing job and even though there were plenty of glitches and surpises along the way, everybody had a lot of fun.



this is a pic of the team from Georgia during orientation at our house. there were 8 people total on this team, and 1 of the guys, josh, also came last year.



after a long day of orientation, we all headed down to the Coffee Jar for a snack and coffee break!



one of the big things the GA team helped with was the Open Forum Discussion we hosted at a hotel here. the topic was relationships and we had a panel that answered questions and interacted with the audience. the evening was really fun and we met a lot of new people.



this is Rini, a student here, talking to some friends after the forum.



Kevin, Ajay, Ahbishek, and Stoffer enjoying snacks after the forum.



while the team was here, we also went to our friend Ruth's house for her parent's 25th aniversary party. it was quite a big event and a very fun evening.



at the end of their time here, the GA team hosted a party for all the new friends they'd made. we had snacks, played games, shared stories, and enjoyed watching the team (esp Matt and Marty here) put on some goofy skits.



after the GA team left, i headed to Delhi to meet 2 of our 6 week summer volunteers. i got to see a lot of friends while i was there, including my friend carolyn! she came from louisiana spend the summer in north india, and it was great to get to see her.



our 6 week summer volunteers have been amazing! this is josh and laura who came from mississippi.



this is a shot of josh from mississippi, along with our other 2 6 week vols, josh and richard. they both were on the Georgia team and stayed on after the team left. this pic is from when we went out to eat for a team meeting and talked them into singing at open mic night at the restaurant. their rendition of "my girl" was hilarious!


around the time i got back from Delhi, our second team arrived from Birmingham AL. there were 12 of them in all, and 2 returned from last year, so it was great to see some old friends.



we did orientation for the AL team on the 4th of June, and that afternoon after they left, we had an unwelcome guest appear at our house--a mouse! i called joel and kenneth to come and rescue us--here you can see them trying to find him by lifting up the washing machine!



that night, after the mouse episode, my roommates and some other friends suprised me at midnight with cake for my birthday! this is a pic of me and nafisa, our friend's daughter. even though it was really late, she was very excited about wishing me happy birthday!



here's my AMAZING carrot cake, made by Lisa, our friend who owns the Coffee JAr with her husband Cini and does all the baking



as is the tradition here, my roommates cut me a piece of cake and then smeared it all over my face!



i tried to fight back, but there were too many of them!



here i am, covered in cake, and it sure was good!!!



as you can see, i finally managed to get Preeti with some of the icing!



here's a pic of all of us girls after all the cake smearing, etc.



the next day, i had a big birthday party in the basement of coffee jar. here's a shot of laura and preeti getting ready for the party by putting up pics that my mom sent of me growing up. embarrasing but fun!



everybody had a lot of fun playing games and just hanging out.



Nassem from Iran and Maggie from the AL team



Rini, Fatemah, baby Sophy and Alisa



my 2nd birthday cake--chocolate chip!!!



me blowing out the candles



as soon as the cake was cut, Deepali moved in to attack me with a piece!



but i made sure and got her with some icing too!



i wanted to do something special for all my friends to show them how much i appreciated them, so i made a cd for everyone who came to the party. one of the songs on it was written by josh, so i got him to play it at the party.



an Iranian tradition is to take pics with the people who give you presents as you open their gifts. this is me with Kenneth, Sahil, Ruth, Kevin and Ahbishek--they gave me a cool french press because they know how much i love coffee!



me and Nassem

not long after my birthday, i had LASIK surgery so now i am glasses free! my vision isn't perfect yet, but my eyes are adjusting and i can see much better than before, which is amazing.



about a week later, our friend Lindsey from Delhi came down. she works with the student volunteers who spend the summer in different parts of south asia. this is a goofy pic of her, but the reason i took it is because the guy on the right in the back has the most crazy hair style!



near the end of their time here, the AL team also hosted a party for all their friends. this is some of the guys goofing off: Ahbishek, Kevin, Pete, Tim, Richard, Josh and Trey



Kenneth, Maggie, Kristina, Laura, Nassem, Rini, Mahanaz, Preeti



Lindsey, Candace, Janell, Kellie, Preeti



Josh, me, Nassem, Brian, Kristina, Mahanaz, Maggie



everybody getting ready to watch the skits



last year, the AL team did some hilarious skits, so everyone had high expectations for this year. as you can see from this picture, they did not let us down!



at the end we all took a group pic

well, if you made it this far, you now have a taste of what's been going on here these past few months! the teams are gone, but our summer long volunteers, josh, josh, richard and laura, will be here until the middle of july. it's sure to be a busy few weeks, especially since alisha and i are heading to thailand wednesday night for a conference, so it may be a while before i blog again... :)

it's been quite a while since i've blogged...i should be doing other stuff now, working on the orientation schedule for our first volunteer team--they arrive monday night, our time. but, there's a HUGE wedding going on right outside our house (why anyone would chose to get married in the heat of the day on a wednesday beats me) and it's too noisy to really concentrate. so, i think i'll give a little photo overview of the last few weeks:



this first picture is just for fun. instead of wearing helmets, girls here wrap their scarves in this crazy bandit style to keep dust and sun from getting on their skin. so we all have scarves now and decided we needed a goofy picture wearing them.



this is a shot of a family on their motorcycle--several of them are also wearing their scarves "Pune style"

PREETI'S BIRTHDAY




preeti turned 27 at the end of march, and we had quite a good time. one of the traditions here is to wake people up at midnight on their birthday, so alisha and i burst into preeti and sophy's room at midnight with cake and entertainment. we have this joke about preeti doing a monkey dance (people who own monkeys here will have them dance for you if you pay them), and so alisha dressed up and i made a monkey out of construction paper and we cranked up some hindi music and danced around for preeti. it was pretty much hillarious.



the cake we had was AWESOME! chocolate truffle, from our favorite coffee shop/bakery, the Coffee Jar. and of course, we had to smear some on the birthday girl's face (another tradition).



that evening we had a bunch of people over to celebrate. a lot of people couldn't come because of exams, but it was still a fun evening.




after Preeti cut the cake at her party, she went around and fed people, but before she got to everybody, she got attacked with cake again (as you can see, she fought back!)



this is a persian tradition, taking pictures with people as they give you your gifts--always makes for fun pics!

EASTER


not long after Preeti's birthday, we started celebrating Easter. one of our friends had a Passover seder at her house, which was really cool. on Good Friday, our friday night group got together and acted out the Passion of the Christ, which you see above. it was a very cool evening.



on Easter sunday, we enjoyed church and an awesome lunch at our friends' house. later that evening they hosted an Easter egg hunt for the kids in their society (apartment complex). they also got an huge inflatable slide, which was quite a hit.



the kids also enjoyed playing some new games, like duck duck goose (above) and red rover.



this is just a fun shot of one of my favorite 2 years olds ever, nafisa. i was feeding her snacks and she was just having a blast, looking super cute in her Easter dress.

SWIMMING LESSONS



another highlight of April were swimming lessons, for Preeti and Sophy and Ruth, another friend. they all seemed to have fun and learned a lot, and Alisha and i had a blast the day we went to watch them. their coach (the lady in the black wet suit looking outfit--it's actually a common style of swimsuit) was pretty dramatic and funny. i think she just enjoyed waving her arms around!



after swimming, i rode the bus home with preeti and sophy, which was quite an adventure. i don't think many white people ride the public buses here because i got quite a lot of stares.

BABY RACHEL



our neighbors' daughter, Faisy, got married last year and now has a precious little girl named rachel. she brought her over to see us one afternoon and we had a great time holding her and playing with her.



we were also invited to Rachel's baptism that sunday, which was quite a nice event. this is a shot of us with the family.

MORE BIRTHDAYS!



at the end of april, our friend merrilea had her birthday. merrilea is a mom of 4 kids, but this doesn't stop her from being one of the most fun people we know here. her birthday was on a saturday, which was going to be busy for us with discussion groups, etc, so we decided to suprise her at midnight with cake. her husband bill and the kids were all in on it, and it was quite a fun suprise. we ended up staying until almost 2 am playing phase 10 and watching the girls practice their ballet--quite an adventure!

DISCUSSION GROUPS



it's been a crazy month, with many people finishing and starting exams, so our discussion groups have been a little different, but it's still been a lot of fun, and we're excited about the summer and the 20+ students that will be coming from the US.

WE WEAR OUR SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT!



well, Alisha does, at least for a few days! she had laser eye surgery done last weekend and had to wear her sunglasses 24x7 for a day or so, so everybody decided to put on glasses and take a funny picture with her! she's seeing really well now, and i'm also seriously thinking about having LASIK done...we'll see...

RANDOM PICS



i said earlier that nafisa was one of my favorite 2 years, and here's the other, sophy! these 2 are quite a pair and all of us LOVE playing with them any chance we get. this is a shot of nafisa combing sohpy's hair--she got a little carried away and almost put sophy in a headlock, but sophy's pretty laid back so she wasn't upset and let her keep on combing!



this is me trying to hold them both in my lap and take a picture! didn't work so well, but it was fun.

well, i think that's about it. the wedding party has moved on, so i should probably get to work, esp since the volunteers will be here in 5 days! yikes--it's going to be wild and fun, and just plain busy here until the end of july, so it might be a while before i blog again...

i just thought i'd post this random pic to give you all a laugh. my friend karen took it and sent it to me--there's actually a small city up north called Mandi, but it's pronounced "Mundi." in Hindi, it means "market," and it's also a word in Malyalum (southern language) that means "silly girl," which i think is quite funny and fitting...

anyway, so today is day 600. that is, the 600th day since i landed in India. i know, i know, i'm a dork for counting, but, especially when i first got here, counting made it easier to survive. i could say to myself, wow, i've been here 37 days and i haven't broken down or gone crazy yet--i might just survive this after all! so, to be able to say i've been here 600 days, well, wow.

i think it's also just another realization for me of how fast time flies. just a few weeks back i got an email about my 10 year high school reunion...hello! it won't technically be 10 years until may 2008, but still...wow...how is that even possible? how did i get from lafayette high school to india??? i definitely never saw that one coming!

the funny thing is that so much has happened in the last 9 years that i honestly can't even remember much of high school, or all the people i feel like i should remember. in some ways, it feels like a dream, or a whole other life time. i think i've changed a lot since then, or grown up a lot at least, but it seems weird that something around which my life once revolved could become so vague and distant.

and honestly, i kind of fear the same thing could happen with india. i don't know. india is a little more intense than high school, and has been a huge shaping time for me, but really, high school was too, just in different (and not always the best) ways.

what's it gonna be like when i look back on india in 10 years? where will i be? what will i be doing? who will i be with? married? with kids? working? i thought for sure by now some of those things would have already happened, so, while i'm hopeful, i guess there's also no guarantee they'll happen in the next 10 years either! i don't know, but i wonder if it'll feel as much like totally different life time, or if that's just more an effect of the transitional state i've been in for the past 9 years...

so this is basically all i have to say. i need to post pictures of preeti's birthday bash, but at the moment i'm feeling more sentimental and caught up in deep thoughts, etc...