I took a walk today

Ganesh and Me. he was kind enough to take me to the

Hard Rock Cafe

on my last night in India.

it was so much fun, great food and great people

...what could possibly go wrong? :)

The most amazing wrap i have ever had in my entire life.

promise.

if you ever go to south mumbai and you

want an amazing place to eat (veg and non-veg)

then come to this place...

you wont regret it.

Mumbai police.

the police took it up a notch because of the mumbai attacks in 2008.

This is the view from where i stayed in mumbai...

on the 12th floor

Rama, Lakshmi, Lova, Karuna, Suda, Durga

Even more snaps.

Snaps

India

Sometimes I throw bananas....

and sometimes I throw bananas at priests who are

attached to long poles...

yes, this is what I did today.

Durga Puja has been going on this past week and

one of the festivals that are included is

giving offerings (throwing bananas)

to a priest (who was representing a goddess)

on a very long pole.

Thousands of Indians were there to take part

in this festival which happened over the course of about 2 hours.

At some points in the procession

the crowd was getting pretty intense

and the police actually starting beating men

with sticks.

This was definitely not something I expected to do in my lifetime

but I had tons of fun doing it!

I rain dance....even in India

Our driver tried to charge us 50 more rupees as the rain started to pour even though we were almost to our house. Sooooo we just got out and ran home in the rain. He tried to call us back, along with the several other shopkeepers yelling "mam!" at us to get out of the rain, but we said

no thank you sirs!

"Everything is God"

These are Krishna's offerings because today is his birthday.

All of his favorite foods.

This little boy was in a play I saw. It was extremely

colorful and enthusiastic.

This is near the remote village we visited a few weeks ago. It was amazingly

quite and peaceful...

Like I mentioned earlier today is Krishna's birthday so these little footprints

represent his footprints as a child. The families that put these there hope that Krishna

will enter into their home.

These children could have started a riot! they crowded around me pushing and shoving because they wanted to be in the picture.

"Everything is God," this phrase has been repeated to me several times since

I have been here in India. The first time I heard the three letter

sentence I was taken back for a second.

After letting these three words sit in my mouth for a

a minute I felt a sense of relief. These people know where they came from,

they are happy and they know their place because

"Everything is God."

Chocolate

Indians are way awesome! After one of the students mentioned she would love a chocolate cake right about now, our professor left the room.

Thirty minutes later....

he returned with this, a chocolate cake covered in chocolate frosting.

It was delicious because

that's just how you do it India.

Compelling

This village came out to see us off. They were so hospitable, it was amazing. They lived in an extremely remote village in a valley. They were kind and made their living with rice patties. It was a beautiful humbling experience. This particular village was established only 20 years ago and as far as I could tell they had little to no electricity and definitely no running water. While we were leaving other villages came out and waved us goodbye.

Yes, this is how they get their water.

This boy looked at us absolutely confused then after I smiled and gave him a thumbs up he smiled and returned the gesture.

Visakhaptnam

This lady thought I was Indian and tried talking to me but i tried to explain I did not understand her. Most people think I am from Nepal.

Okay the mosquitoes...so far I think I have had about 10 bites, they are gotten pretty huge and red. It's very important for me to sleep under this at night along with taking my malaria pills daily. This is my room that I share with my awesome roommate Kelly.

This isn't my shirt but this is how we dry our clothes. The washer man takes our clothes to the top of the house to wash them and leaves them on the roof for a bit then takes them across the street to be softened and dried.

Namaste

I just wanted to thank those of you who helped me with my study abroad. I really appreciate it. I am just starting this blog to share my photos and adventures while in India. The program is beginning in a few days and will end on the first of December. Thanks again for your love and support. Stay Tuned!