Goa: A Trip To The Beach!

So about a week and a half ago I got back from our rotary trip to Goa! Goa is the beach vacation place in India. Luckily it's super close to (directly south west) so it was just a train ride of about 10 hours. While there we stayed in a super nice hotel near the beach for 3 nights, then went to the beach house of a rotarian for 2 nights. Overall it was a great trip and we enjoyed relaxing on the beach, shopping and exploring Goa, but I definitely wish we'd been there longer. Here's some pictures and stories from my wonderful trip!

Goa is definitely a huge vacation spot for people from all over the world. I think there were more foreigners than Indians! For some reason there's an especially large number from Russia. This leads to sightings such as the following:

Russian restaurants 

A surprising number of signs in Russian

As with any touristy place there were some tacky souvenirs.

For some reason lots of heavy coats and fur slippers. Maybe to make the Russians feel at home?

Seashell art. So much seashell art. I have yet to see anyone buy it

We visited a Basilica! It was called Bom Jesus Basilica and it held the remains of Saint Xavier. It was really nice inside and interesting to see. Here are some pictures!

The sign was in both English and Hindi

Not about the basilica, but still religion related. There's a definite Hindu influence on Christianity (which is very prominent since Goa was a Portuguese colony). Below is a sort of roadside shrine/temple that is Christian.

We also saw a Portuguese fort. It was a little boring and terribly hot but while there we ran into a good friend, Shubham, from Pune!   

Bruno, Hugo, Me, Shubham, Gustav and Matheus!

One evening we went on a boat cruise around a harbor

Audrey and me

There was a DJ and with having set behind it was beautiful

Most of the time though we just relaxed on the beach

Tons of beautiful and colorful fishing boats

 

A nice view from a hill

A Shrek sand castle

We found a beach restaurant run by a Swedish woman so Hugo and Gustav had to stop by

Tons and tons of flags everywhere!

Camel on the beach!

Beautiful views

Maybe my favorite picture of the trip

At the train station!

On our way back to Pune we visited Mahbaleshwar. It's a hill station with amazing views and incredibly delicious strawberries!

We bought newspaper cones of strawberries right out of the bus window. They were the most delicious and sweetest I've ever tasted!

 At the hill station we enjoyed the amazing views and the delicious roasted corn on the cob with salt, masala and lemon on it. I'm definitely trying to make it at home this summer!

Unfortunately there were evil monkeys roaming about trying to steal our food.

To end it all: a beautiful sunset!

A Strange and Wonderful Christmas

So, since it's now Wednesday you can see that my ambitious weekend of blogging didn't work out well. I've honestly been busy the past few days and I promise to write about my amazing experiences (including an Indian wedding!!) But until then, I hope you enjoy my pictures and tales of a Christmas in Pune. (Note: This post is kind of a block of text and I apologize in advance!)

I knew going into my exchange that my Christmas was going to be a weird one. I've spent my first 16 Christmases with my family at home and the general winter holiday season is my favorite time of the year. Maybe it's because it's so magical in Minnesota. (Excuse me while I go on a brief tangent on the greatest state.) Waking up to a fresh blanket of snow, with all the trees blanketed. Building forts in every available snowbank in my yard. Ice skating with friends and family and drinking warm hot chocolate. The Christmas movies and music. Going Christmas shopping at the mall and having decorations everywhere. These are all the feelings that I have grown up with and which I love and cherish. Though I really missed them, I still had a good - though improvised - Christmas in Pune.

All the exchange students had been warned all about how Christmas and the holiday season is the hardest for exchange students and when people are the most home sick. I assumed that I would be at least a little and I was right. Mostly I was in disbelief that it was really Christmas. There was almost no signs of it and I could barely believe it when it was suddenly December 23rd! Of course I knew that it would be different and less of a big deal in India, but that's part of the experience of living in a very different culture for a year!

Let me explain a little about religion and Christians in India. For the most part Indians are overwhelmingly Hindu, so much so that I'm often not sure if a tradition is Hindu or just Indian. It varies greatly though depending on where you are - which basically sums up the incredible diversity of India. In the North (which I'm visiting in March!!) I presume it has more Muslims and Buddhists (after Hindus of course) while the South has more Christians. I live in about the middle of India, way off to the left towards the West coast, so I luckily get a good mix of culture. A prime example: In the north they eat a lot of tortilla like breads (Naan, roti) whereas in the south they eat more rice. Living in the middle of the two, I eat both roti and rice generally. Anyway, luckily we visited the South in early December so I got a little taste of Christmas preparations. A few of our hotels and some restaurants had decorated Christmas trees - which I got a little too excited by - but that was about it. Arriving back to Pune it felt even less like Christmas. The only signs were a few shops selling tacky (a word I've learned is almost impossible to explain to non-Americans) Santa posters or tiny plastic trees. That, and the peddlers/beggars on Karve Road were selling cheap Santa hats instead of the usual cheap toys. There was also the occasional Christmas carol which I suspect was from backing up cars (remember from a few posts ago?) and the first few times I heard it though I rushed to my window and frantically tried to figure out where I was hearing Rudolph from.

A Christmas tree in our hotel in Chennai

So you get the idea, it didn't feel much like Christmas. So I had to make the holiday spirit myself. Audrey and I tried to introduce our Indian friends and family to some American holiday traditions. We invited a big group of friends to decorate cookies and watch a movie all together. It was honestly a bit of a disappointment, but we had fun. Almost no one could come so it ended up as the two of us, Hugo, our friend Kunal and our friend Jaee for a bit. Audrey and I attempted to make Christmas cookies. It started off nice with us making some good dough and listening to a good holiday playlist. Unfortunately we got distracted by comparing family traditions and reliving memories and some of our cookies burned. Our frosting also turned out weird and we ended up just dipping the rather dry cookies into a sort of sugar sauce. But, then we put on the movie Elf and my host mom made delicious Pav Bhaji (my favorite meal - a kind of soup of mixed vegetables with onion eaten with bread). So in the end we had fun!

On Christmas Eve my family and Tamara's family went over to Audrey's house. I wore a new saree (red and green for Christmas!!) that I had bought to have a little holiday spirit. Audrey's mom really likes to cook and experiment in the kitchen. She made this kind of cornbread pizza. It was thin cornbread with a sauce and vegetables on top. I ate probably 4 pieces before I found out that it was the appetizers and we still had the main meal. This has actually happened a lot for me here since all the food is so good. Anyway, we all ate and talked and took pictures around the little Christmas tree Audrey had helped her family set up and it was nice. Very different than at home, but very nice.

The next morning I arose bright and early in order to go to Christmas day mass. I had to meet Audrey at 7:15 so I got up at probably 6:30. In my half asleep state I didn't notice the stocking hanging in front of my door as I went to brush my teeth. After returning to my room I did a double take and saw it. My host parents had gotten me seed pearl earrings and a matching necklace! It was honestly one of the sweetest and happiest moments of my life. Not only has my family taken me in and treated me like a daughter for 5 months, but they went out of their way to make my Christmas feel like what I was missing at home. I don't think I'll ever be able to thank them enough for it.

While I was getting ready (aka getting twisted in my saree, almost falling over and finally asking my host mom for help) I skyped my family. My grandparents, and 2 set of Aunts and Uncles were at my house having dinner. Our sound was weird and not working, so I just let them watch as my host mom wrapped me in the saree. Finally I was ready and left to get Audrey. We headed to church where we met Bruno and Hugo. Overall the service was fine, but nothing exciting. I enjoyed singing the Christmas carols a lot and it was comforting to be there.

Hugo, Me and Bruno at church on Christmas morning

After mass I went home and had to immediately change and go to a Christmas lunch for all of the inbound exchange students. It was at a really nice hotel with a huge, delicious buffet. There we exchanged presents with each other (we'd done a secret santa group) and had a big lunch. After the long meal I went home, relaxed and finished wrapping presents. Then, in the evening I went to Hugo's house with Audrey, Bruno and Gustav for Christmas party/sleepover. Hugo's whole family and neighbors were there and we all celebrated and ate dinner. His family had even decorated the house with decorations his family had sent from Sweden! We ended up singing Christmas carols (in English, Swedish and Portugese) for them and it was a lot of fun. I also got to skype with my family and introduce them to everyone. I missed them opening gifts, but I got a blow by blow from Catherine and Timothy!

The five of us also exchanged gifts. It was very different than any other Christmas (much less presents) but in a way it was much more special. I got 2 different books (The Hobbit and a biography of Gandhi) which I was ridiculously excited about, some chocolate and a bracelet. We all went to bed late and then the next morning I woke up extra early (about 7 I think?) to skype with all of my family who were at my grandparents' house. It was a bittersweet reminder of what I was missing back home, but I've vowed that next year I will go way over the top. Probably baking dozens of cookies and having an ugly holiday sweater for every day of the week. But until then, I'm loving my time in India and going back to Edina terrifies me.

Happy holidays from the beginning of February!
Elisabeth

PS as soon as I publish this one I'm starting a new post which I might finish tonight, but will more likely publish tomorrow morning!