Free Day!

day 7 7-25-10 – Sunday day 7
Free Day!
Yay for Sunday! I missed Sunday last week cause I was I was traveling.
I wanted to see if I could find a ward to go to that isn’t too far away, cause it would be awesome to go to church here in India! Alas the internet hasn’t been working, so I had no way of finding a ward to go to.
There were people planning on going into town today around 9 so I got up earlier so I could do some laundry.
The power went out in the middle of my wash. Welcome to india, sometimes the water works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the power works other times it doesn’t. Oh India…So I pulled my very wet clothes out of the washing machine and brought them into my room. I rinsed my clothes out in the shower and then hung them on my canopy bed to dry.
I finished just barley in time. Everyone was leaving together to learn how to get on the bus to ride into Banglore. We walked into Kotonor. It’s a nice little walk – probably just about a mile. Here are some pictures I took on our walk into Kotonor:
walking:
and Justin riding:

And us waiting for the bus:
This is the small temple that is across the street from the bus stop:
The busses here are pretty crazy…it costs 15 rupees to ride, but if you don’t have exact change and give them 20 then they will just take the 20. (oh well 5 rupees…what do ya do? That’s like ½ a penny..k not really but still) The busses get pretty crowded as you may be able to tell here:
The women all sit/stand in the front of the bus and the men at the back. Yes it is separated.
We rode the bus into Banglore – to Commercial Street.I spent a little bit of time with Eve and Annie and helped them pick out Sari’s. I decided to go into the gift shop next store while I waited and was reunited with…
My favorite street buddy…Matt!

Matt and I broke off from the other groups of people that we were shopping with and went off to shop. We walked by this boy selling corn – it smelt SO good! I had to get some…
and it was SO YUMMY!!

As we were walking around we saw an AMAZING moth on the ground! It was HUGE! I wanted to catch it! So I could bring it home for little Neeley! I got a plastic bag and chased it down the street and into a store…I then proceeded to chase it around the store. No joke! I am sure the Indians were wondering who the crazy American was that was chasing this moth around. The moth Really didn’t want to be caught and there was a guy that worked at the store that was giving me really nasty looks. So when it flew into the back of the store where I couldn’t get to it I had to give up on it.


Anyway…Let me tell you…I am an AMAZING barter! Lets talk about my bardering skills…for real! I am good at it!

For example:
-There was a young man that was selling knitted tablecloths and things that were hand made- knitted… He was trying to sell me this table cloth and then he said it was 1400 Rupee’s…ha no way…he went down to 13 and then 12 and then I remembered that I don’t even like table clothes. Haha… I started to walk away and it went down to 1000 and 800 and 600, and it keps going down as he followed Matt and I down the street. It he got down to 400…and Matt looks at me with his pleading eyes and said – just buy it Kristy. Fine! So there it was. I bought a table cloth for my mom…it actually is really pretty and I got it for a rocking good deal!
Matt wanted to find some Indian clothes so we found this little shop- he went upstairs to look around and I went downstairs to the shoe shop. When I came back up to the sales guy was in the back grabbing stuff and Matt huridly says to me, “By the way, we are married” HA! – that’s what he had told the sales guy. So we got him some shirts and pants and I bartered for them – so I got him a good deal!
Matt and I trying on some Indian clothes...there was no mirror so we took pictures instead =)

Lets see…other things that I got good deals on today: some bracelets, and some scarf’s
My friend Matt has the most sympathetic heart, he feels bad when I barter with people – because he feels like I am cheating them out of money that they need more than I do. haha
We stopped at a little bakery shop and they had all kinds of pastries – we got a pastry with coconut in it. SO SO GOOD!!! We asked what it was called and they said coconut muffin. Ha, I think it was a coconut pastry not a muffin, but whatev it was good!

We then decided to go and find the bus home.
While looking for the bus station we found this...
Not very often do you see Christian cathedrals in India...but we found one.

We also walked by some men working on a mural - I was really imporessed by their artwork!
We found the bus station and we were told to ask the drivers and bus workers over and over AND OVER again: Kotahnor? Kotahnor? This bus to Kotahnor? To really make sure that we were getting in the right bus. This is matt and I waiting for the bus…while enjoying our pastries.

We almost got on the wrong bus a few times and once we did get on the wrong bus because they said it was the right one and it wasn’t. We finally got on the right one…

Once again India intervenes and Matt went to the back of the bus and I sat next to a new friend...
This is my new friend I met of the bus her name is Mimi. She works in Banglore at a hotel and was on her way home. There was also this cute little family. A mom and grandma with their baby.
SO CUTE!!! she STARED at me with those Big brown eyes the whole bus ride! And then the bus attendant was joking that they should give me the baby to take home with me.

so we made it back to Kotahnor.

Then we went on our way to walk the mile-ish back to Visthar. Good thing I knew where I was going...Matt really had no idea where he was or which way to go. I let him start to lead the way once...that wasn't the best idea. I took over again, turned us around, and we were back on track for getting home.

As we were walking back the sun was going down and it was getting darker. On the way we passed by a temple that was having a festival. Some people in our group had checked it out earlier in the day and they all wanted us to come so Matt and I decided to stop by.

The front entrance was nicely decorated!
Inside was decorated too.
We went in and we were warmly greeted and welcomed by a man who helped put the festival together, he asked us to come in and sit and enjoy the music. They had different 'bands' scheduled to play every hour all day.
If you look at this picture you will notice that most of the people are turned around...
well once again Everyone was starting - they were all very happy that they had Americans at their temple festival!
As Matt and I listened to music I noticed that a lot of the people were beating along to the music. There is an Indian way of counting the Talaums in Indian music which we had learned how to do in music class by Teacher Leeja. So Matt and I joined in, our little hands counting along to the music and some of the Indian people noticed and told their friends they were really excited! There was also a man there with a news looking camera, and he was filming the performers. He then turned the camera and started filming the Americans. HA! I leaned over to Matt and told him, "I am totally fighting the urge to wave at the camera and say 'Hi Mom!'...you know how people do on the news and etc." hahaha

So there was a break and some people were leaving and Matt and I thought it might be a time to slip out and go home. Right as we got up we were approached and told, "Your lunch is prepared!"

"What?" I said with a smile

"Your food is ready...you want to eat?"

Matt and I looked at one another then back to our host, "Um...sure!"

We were then lead out to a tented area with long tables and chairs set up and given seats and leaf plates. Yes the plates are made out of leaves.
can you tell?

They served us food...it was good too! The tradition is after you are done eating you fold your plate over itself in 1/2 so they cant give you more food. funny thing is they keep on bringing more food out and offering you more before you have the chance to finish it and fold it over so they don't give you more. haha.

After we ate we thanked our festival friends and headed back to Visthar.


It was a good day!