Saturday, July 25, 2009
Things I'm thankful to have:
-being able to blow dry my hair (yea i know lol)
-my bangs are back (they were lost for a month in india -__-
-a car that I can actually drive (not those stick shifts one in india haha but my uncle said next time he'll teach me and probably even buy an automatic car just for me..how nice :] )
-24 hours a day, 7 days a week...power...that punjab doesn't get (honestly i feel bad for people there)
-my laptop and internet (i went to a internet cafe in jalandhar...my gosh the internet was so slow and internet explorer crashed on me like 4 times lol)
-AC
-healthy water and food (no more stomach infections!)
-laundry washer and dryer
-bathrooms with bath tubs and showers (there's like no point in having showers there cuz there's such a shortage of water that a shower wouldn't even have enough water pressure)
-WATER: cold water to drink and to shower with (in Jalandhar, it comes at 6am and 6pm...the rest of the time you use warm water that's stored in a tank thing on the roof and power goes out so much the water in the fridge never gets cold enough.)
-I'm sure there's a lot of other things that i just can't think of right now..if I do I'll post more.
next: things I miss about india..
-my bangs are back (they were lost for a month in india -__-
-a car that I can actually drive (not those stick shifts one in india haha but my uncle said next time he'll teach me and probably even buy an automatic car just for me..how nice :] )
-24 hours a day, 7 days a week...power...that punjab doesn't get (honestly i feel bad for people there)
-my laptop and internet (i went to a internet cafe in jalandhar...my gosh the internet was so slow and internet explorer crashed on me like 4 times lol)
-AC
-healthy water and food (no more stomach infections!)
-laundry washer and dryer
-bathrooms with bath tubs and showers (there's like no point in having showers there cuz there's such a shortage of water that a shower wouldn't even have enough water pressure)
-WATER: cold water to drink and to shower with (in Jalandhar, it comes at 6am and 6pm...the rest of the time you use warm water that's stored in a tank thing on the roof and power goes out so much the water in the fridge never gets cold enough.)
-I'm sure there's a lot of other things that i just can't think of right now..if I do I'll post more.
next: things I miss about india..
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Back from India
Yesterday I came back from India. I loved it there. My mom's side of family, where I basically stayed most of the time, is so loving. My little cousin is so adorable and smart. I loved playing around with her. I miss my family a lot. They care so much about me and eating 3 meals a day was a big change.
I think this time I traveled the most in India. First arrived in Bombay and stayed there for 4 days. Went shopping there and played around with my second cousins there. I only went shopping there because the weather was tolerable. It got even better when it started raining. Apparently after we left, it rained a lot there. Then we flew to Chandigarh where my uncle came to pick us up. He bought a car just for us so we could travel more easily. He's so nice! Drove to Jalandhar, Punjab, which took us about 3 hours. (a lot of traveling!)
The first few days we were fine, but of course we had to get sick. The water just wasn't very nice to us lol. After about a week though, we got better and we went to Himachal Pradesh, a state next to Punjab. We went to get Sahil blessings from a temple there called Baba Balak Nath. In India, people go to temples and ask for something and say what they will do in return. A lot of people prayed for my brother before he was born, because of some complication. We went to the temple because my grandma had prayed for him there and said that if everything goes well, Sahil and his family would come and get blessings. Honestly I don't like traveling in mountains. Himachal Pradesh is an entirely mountaineous area. There were a lot of monkeys on the way also. This trip was about 5 hours of driving long. We left at 4am and got back at like 6pm. Another thing about these temples in Himachal is that they're all on top of a mountain, which means you have to walk up hills to get there. For this temple, it was all stairs and my gosh so many stairs. I prayed when we got back that God please don't make me climb those stairs again.
When I think about it though, this was nothing compared to 14.5 km walk to Mata Vaishno Devi Temple in Jammu. We went there when we first went back to India after coming to the US because again to get Sahil blessings there. Now that walk was long. It took us all day to walk. The altitude goes from about 2500m to over 6600m.
The weather in Punjab is horrible, especially this year. It didn't rain much like it should have. I think it was easily 115 degrees everyday. After a few days, we went to Amritsar to visit my aunt. Little did we know that we would get really sick after. We only stayed there for a day because my aunt's father-in-law passed away. So my mom and aunt went to Dasuya for his funeral (this is also where I grew up when I lived in India) and Sahil and I went back to Jalandhar. The next day I had a fever and I couldn't eat anything. Apparently I got a stomach infection in Amritsar. My mom said she would be back that night but she didn't and she didn't call. I found out later that she was so sick that she was vomiting every like 5 minutes and wasn't eating anything at all. India is great because of all the family there but the water and the heat gets to us every time sadly.
Fortunately we got better after a few days and my dad's friend called us and told us he's coming to pick us up so we can stay at there house for a few days. Honestly this whole time I just wanted to stay in Jalandhar because my family is so big and I loved playing with my little cousin. But of course I had to go since he's so nice and has done a lot for my dad and our family. Actually his older son went to school with me when I was in India. Sadly him and his brother had already left for college when we got to their house. Stayed in Dasuya for about 3 days and went to my village where I grew up. My childhood friend Salveen was back in the village so I talked to her for a long time. I also talked to another friend on the phone. Apparently he'd been wanting to talk to me for a long time. He said he misses me a lot and I haven't seen him since I left India about 10 years ago. We talked for a long time (poor Salveen, I used up so much of her money). Rana was telling me how much the village changed after I left. When I was there, no one said anything if guys and girls played together. I used to play with Salveen, Rana and other guys and girls. No one would say anything but after I left, people started talking if Rana and Salveen would hang out. Seriously people have cheap thinking and he really hated that. Because of that he's been out ofthe village for a few years. He's doing training to go into the army.
Anyway, after I came back from Dasuya, mom and I went shopping also. We bought a lot of suits :] after a few days, my Dad's friend that we visited in Dasuya, came to pick us up and we went to Shimla. Shimla is also in Himachal Pradesh and it took us 6 hours to get there. Again we went there because of Jaku Temple there to get Sahil blessings. Omg the monkeys at this temple was so smart. If they see food, just know that it's gonna be there's in a second. I was so scared when we were at the temple. Also the monkeys steal eyeglasses and wear them lol. Yea I have no idea why but they do. I wore contacts so I was fine and uncle and Sahil left their glasses in the car, which was a very good idea. When we were coming back down from the temple, an old lady fell really badly....because...a monkey jumped on her and took her glasses..O_O seriously so smart lol.
The next day we did some shopping. Shimla is known for making things for home out of wood. So we bought a lot of things. I actually caught a cold there because of sudden weather change. It was really nice weather there. We had to wear sweaters at night because it got cold. That afternoon we drove back to Jalandhar. We did last minute shopping and even tried to extend our ticket because Sahil and I didn't want to leave India. Unfortunately it was too late to do so :[ On the 19th, early in the morning, my uncle and grandma drove us to Delhi and we visited some relatives there. One of my cousins there got typhoid fever because he went to Jalandhar and the water is obviously not clean. He'd been in the hospital for 10 days already! He was feeling better when we visited him at the hospital though. Our flight was that night at 11:10pm. I promised myself that I wouldn't cry because I always do when I leave India. I miss India so much now, well mostly the family and not the weather for sure.
Honestly I love going to India but the traveling part is so long. 21 hour flight! is ridiculous!! But I got to see the Incheon international airport in Korea on my way back. Woo! haha. Hella jet lagged though. I'm so tired. So far I feel okay. My stomach is being weird but that's understandable. I'm ready to go to Davis and see friends now. I miss everyone in Davis so much! Yay I get to see Michelle. Sad Hannah's not there. Hannah come to davis!! haha
Apparently the white marks on my arms = calcium deficiency...dangit! the doctor told me to drink 2 glasses of milk everyday :[
Sorry super long post! took me an hour to write this -__- That's all for now.
I think this time I traveled the most in India. First arrived in Bombay and stayed there for 4 days. Went shopping there and played around with my second cousins there. I only went shopping there because the weather was tolerable. It got even better when it started raining. Apparently after we left, it rained a lot there. Then we flew to Chandigarh where my uncle came to pick us up. He bought a car just for us so we could travel more easily. He's so nice! Drove to Jalandhar, Punjab, which took us about 3 hours. (a lot of traveling!)
The first few days we were fine, but of course we had to get sick. The water just wasn't very nice to us lol. After about a week though, we got better and we went to Himachal Pradesh, a state next to Punjab. We went to get Sahil blessings from a temple there called Baba Balak Nath. In India, people go to temples and ask for something and say what they will do in return. A lot of people prayed for my brother before he was born, because of some complication. We went to the temple because my grandma had prayed for him there and said that if everything goes well, Sahil and his family would come and get blessings. Honestly I don't like traveling in mountains. Himachal Pradesh is an entirely mountaineous area. There were a lot of monkeys on the way also. This trip was about 5 hours of driving long. We left at 4am and got back at like 6pm. Another thing about these temples in Himachal is that they're all on top of a mountain, which means you have to walk up hills to get there. For this temple, it was all stairs and my gosh so many stairs. I prayed when we got back that God please don't make me climb those stairs again.
When I think about it though, this was nothing compared to 14.5 km walk to Mata Vaishno Devi Temple in Jammu. We went there when we first went back to India after coming to the US because again to get Sahil blessings there. Now that walk was long. It took us all day to walk. The altitude goes from about 2500m to over 6600m.
The weather in Punjab is horrible, especially this year. It didn't rain much like it should have. I think it was easily 115 degrees everyday. After a few days, we went to Amritsar to visit my aunt. Little did we know that we would get really sick after. We only stayed there for a day because my aunt's father-in-law passed away. So my mom and aunt went to Dasuya for his funeral (this is also where I grew up when I lived in India) and Sahil and I went back to Jalandhar. The next day I had a fever and I couldn't eat anything. Apparently I got a stomach infection in Amritsar. My mom said she would be back that night but she didn't and she didn't call. I found out later that she was so sick that she was vomiting every like 5 minutes and wasn't eating anything at all. India is great because of all the family there but the water and the heat gets to us every time sadly.
Fortunately we got better after a few days and my dad's friend called us and told us he's coming to pick us up so we can stay at there house for a few days. Honestly this whole time I just wanted to stay in Jalandhar because my family is so big and I loved playing with my little cousin. But of course I had to go since he's so nice and has done a lot for my dad and our family. Actually his older son went to school with me when I was in India. Sadly him and his brother had already left for college when we got to their house. Stayed in Dasuya for about 3 days and went to my village where I grew up. My childhood friend Salveen was back in the village so I talked to her for a long time. I also talked to another friend on the phone. Apparently he'd been wanting to talk to me for a long time. He said he misses me a lot and I haven't seen him since I left India about 10 years ago. We talked for a long time (poor Salveen, I used up so much of her money). Rana was telling me how much the village changed after I left. When I was there, no one said anything if guys and girls played together. I used to play with Salveen, Rana and other guys and girls. No one would say anything but after I left, people started talking if Rana and Salveen would hang out. Seriously people have cheap thinking and he really hated that. Because of that he's been out ofthe village for a few years. He's doing training to go into the army.
Anyway, after I came back from Dasuya, mom and I went shopping also. We bought a lot of suits :] after a few days, my Dad's friend that we visited in Dasuya, came to pick us up and we went to Shimla. Shimla is also in Himachal Pradesh and it took us 6 hours to get there. Again we went there because of Jaku Temple there to get Sahil blessings. Omg the monkeys at this temple was so smart. If they see food, just know that it's gonna be there's in a second. I was so scared when we were at the temple. Also the monkeys steal eyeglasses and wear them lol. Yea I have no idea why but they do. I wore contacts so I was fine and uncle and Sahil left their glasses in the car, which was a very good idea. When we were coming back down from the temple, an old lady fell really badly....because...a monkey jumped on her and took her glasses..O_O seriously so smart lol.
The next day we did some shopping. Shimla is known for making things for home out of wood. So we bought a lot of things. I actually caught a cold there because of sudden weather change. It was really nice weather there. We had to wear sweaters at night because it got cold. That afternoon we drove back to Jalandhar. We did last minute shopping and even tried to extend our ticket because Sahil and I didn't want to leave India. Unfortunately it was too late to do so :[ On the 19th, early in the morning, my uncle and grandma drove us to Delhi and we visited some relatives there. One of my cousins there got typhoid fever because he went to Jalandhar and the water is obviously not clean. He'd been in the hospital for 10 days already! He was feeling better when we visited him at the hospital though. Our flight was that night at 11:10pm. I promised myself that I wouldn't cry because I always do when I leave India. I miss India so much now, well mostly the family and not the weather for sure.
Honestly I love going to India but the traveling part is so long. 21 hour flight! is ridiculous!! But I got to see the Incheon international airport in Korea on my way back. Woo! haha. Hella jet lagged though. I'm so tired. So far I feel okay. My stomach is being weird but that's understandable. I'm ready to go to Davis and see friends now. I miss everyone in Davis so much! Yay I get to see Michelle. Sad Hannah's not there. Hannah come to davis!! haha
Apparently the white marks on my arms = calcium deficiency...dangit! the doctor told me to drink 2 glasses of milk everyday :[
Sorry super long post! took me an hour to write this -__- That's all for now.
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