Hey everyone!
I am sitting at the Seoul, South Korea airport waiting for our flight home. We had a great time in Bangkok last night and all day Sunday. We did lots of shopping. We had a scare when Emily lost her camera and she was so upset by it all day but it turns out she left it on the plane from Phuket to Bangkok and the airline had it!!
Our hotel that my mama picked out had free breakfast and was very nice. They called us taxis for cheap and were so helpful.
After we got done with all our shopping at the weekend market we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We rode in a tuk-tuk and when the guy got to the beginning of the hotel road he stopped and asked for more money and when we said no, you knew where you were taking us when we agreed to a price, he kicked us out and made us walk from block 1 to block 48. Ugh. I have never had a blister on my feet till this day.
We have had smooth sailing and I just want to thank everyone who has been following my blog and praying for us. I love you all so much! I will have pics up soon and on facebook so stay tuned if you want!
Special thanks to my mom and John for all their support and also to Emily's parents who helped us out immensely with flights and tips!!!
I love you all and can't wait to see you soon!
~love, Michelle
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
The Beaches
Hey all!
We are sitting in the Phuket airport awaiting our flight...which has not been cancelled...yay!! I only get ten minutes so I gotta make this quick. We spent the last two days on Koh Phi Phi and it was amazing. Sure enough our one full day there we had crap weather and I got hit with the travellers curse and I will leave it at that. We met tons of cool people and had loads of fun. We actually met some Americans and they are from Denver and Miami. We met some English lads and they taught us some pretty sweet lingo to use now. We both loaded up with sunscreen a ton all day but both managed to still get sunburns. We danced on the beach and swam a lot and got great pics. The water is pristine and the beaches are white sand beaches.
Anyway more to come later but I gotta catch the flight.
I love and miss you all!!
~Michelle
We are sitting in the Phuket airport awaiting our flight...which has not been cancelled...yay!! I only get ten minutes so I gotta make this quick. We spent the last two days on Koh Phi Phi and it was amazing. Sure enough our one full day there we had crap weather and I got hit with the travellers curse and I will leave it at that. We met tons of cool people and had loads of fun. We actually met some Americans and they are from Denver and Miami. We met some English lads and they taught us some pretty sweet lingo to use now. We both loaded up with sunscreen a ton all day but both managed to still get sunburns. We danced on the beach and swam a lot and got great pics. The water is pristine and the beaches are white sand beaches.
Anyway more to come later but I gotta catch the flight.
I love and miss you all!!
~Michelle
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Relaxation in Thailand
Hello all!
I am writing to you in an internet cafe right on the beach road in Ao Nang, Thailand just outside of Krabi. It is beautiful here. We got in today and before that we were in the jungle.
We made our way out of Phuket on Monday and little did we know, the last bus to Khao Sok National Park left at 1:30 PM. We got there at 2. We searched desperately to find another way there that did not involve spending 3000 B on a taxi (or like almost $100 US). We finally found a trval agent that had a minibus leaving at 3 for Surat Thani and it would drop us off somewhere where we would get picked up by another bus to go to Khao Sok. We took our extremely bumpy, fast minibus ride ( I was so nauseous, duh, praise Jesus for Dramamine) and got dropped off at this ghetto restaurant for almost two hours waiting for our next bus. The lady running the place apperently did some travel agent work herself. We saw so many minibusses go by and finally ours, the only thing going to Khao Sok, picked us up. We got to the place in the jungle that we were staying called Our Jungle House. It was awesome, the reception and restaurant are in this open air room right on the edge of the river. It has dim lighting and candles. I almost feel like I am sitting in the restaurant at Disneyland inside Pirates but it is the real thing!!!!
We got dinner, our first Phad Thai in Thailand, and it is different. It is almost cheesy....? We also got Thai iced tea...AMAZING!! The ambience is so great. We sign up for the elephant trek and head off to bed.
Our room is really cool up in a treehouse. It has lots of openings for critters and bugs which I never really noticed that night. We had a mosquito net and thank goodness for that. The next morning we got up early to get breakfast before we left for the elephant farm at 7:45. I got banana stuffed pancakes (i could have died...so good) and a sickningly sweet iced coffee with no milk (cuz my malaria pills wont let me have dairy within an hour of taking them). We drove off along with a young German couple to go to the elephants. We got there and one was getting a bath in the river!! It was sprawled out relaxing as a man washed him. We got put onto a two person bench on top of the elephants back and we were off. Our guide walked behind us yelling out commands to our dumbo. The German couple and their guide was behind us. It was so amazing. We were bouncing around giggling trying to take pictures. We walked through rivers and up hills and through thick jungle. It got a little scary when we went downhill because even though we had a seatbelt on, Em and I slid forward really fast and struggled to stay on. We stopped for a break after like half an hour and the guides showed us the biggest spider I have ever seen in real life. It was a bit bigger than my hand stretched out. Yuck!!! At least is was way up high away from us.
We got back on to head back and this time we got to one at a time ride on dumbo's shoulders, our legs on eigther side of his head. This was one of the coolest moments of my life thus far. It was like it was just me and dumbo here just walking through the jungle.
We got lots of pics and I am excited to show everyone. After that we fed him bananas an said goodbye. Sad. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping and relaxing in the restaurant area right next to the river. It was so nice cuz they had a smallish library where you cann just read books or take one on your travels. We sat around snaking on different menu items and drinking cokes and reading for hours on end. It was so relaxing and I almost finished a whole novel in that time. We went to bed and this is where the night turned sour for me. I got into bed and we both were reading more of our books by flashlight, safe in our mosquito net. But I start getting really itchy and uncomfortable and Emily is scraed because there are tons of creepy weird buugs and buzzy bugs all over her side of the outside of the netting. Yuck! I got sleepy and dozed off and woke up an hour later to the sound of someone coming up the stairs trying to get into our room. I wake up more and don't hear anything but now I am awake wide eyed. I am itchy everywhere. We have bedbugs and they bit! Grr I am so tired but cannot relax. I fall asleep again and later I wake up to what sounds like something falling from way up high crashing down on the floor by the bed. Wow, I am scared. I toss and turn and notice Emily is doing the same but at least she is still somewhat asleep. I fall asleep and this time it is good till morning but once I get up I am too scared to get out of the netting to see what large creature fell out of the rafters....or to see if my legs are covered in bites. I peek out and find nothing except a small bag of candy I had near my pillow that must have been the loud sound dropping to the floor.....Or the huge evil monkey found a way out. I have no bites either.
We get up have breakfast and I get crepes stuffed with Papya, bananas and pineapple. Amazing but the honey inside attracts a swarm of bees. We have to move and leave a plate of honey to distract them.
We took a minibus to Krabi this morning and then a cheap public taki to Ao Nang. Our hotel is awesome with AC and an actual bathtub. We went to the beach and it is amazing. The water is so warm, warmer than Hawaii by far and the beach is great. We can see tons of other islands and large rock formations sticking out of the water around the islands. We swam a lot. My shoulders burned and Emily is okay but more freckly. We bought a ferry ticket to Phi Phi Island for tomorrow morning and we are just gonna go try and find a market now.
I cannot wait to come home and see everyone....especially at my mom's wedding!! Also, I think things are better now but please be praying for a safe smooth travel home because there have been problems with the Phuket airport and political protestors. Pray that we get to come home on time!!
I love you all very much and I will write back from Bangkok in two days!!
~Michelle
I am writing to you in an internet cafe right on the beach road in Ao Nang, Thailand just outside of Krabi. It is beautiful here. We got in today and before that we were in the jungle.
We made our way out of Phuket on Monday and little did we know, the last bus to Khao Sok National Park left at 1:30 PM. We got there at 2. We searched desperately to find another way there that did not involve spending 3000 B on a taxi (or like almost $100 US). We finally found a trval agent that had a minibus leaving at 3 for Surat Thani and it would drop us off somewhere where we would get picked up by another bus to go to Khao Sok. We took our extremely bumpy, fast minibus ride ( I was so nauseous, duh, praise Jesus for Dramamine) and got dropped off at this ghetto restaurant for almost two hours waiting for our next bus. The lady running the place apperently did some travel agent work herself. We saw so many minibusses go by and finally ours, the only thing going to Khao Sok, picked us up. We got to the place in the jungle that we were staying called Our Jungle House. It was awesome, the reception and restaurant are in this open air room right on the edge of the river. It has dim lighting and candles. I almost feel like I am sitting in the restaurant at Disneyland inside Pirates but it is the real thing!!!!
We got dinner, our first Phad Thai in Thailand, and it is different. It is almost cheesy....? We also got Thai iced tea...AMAZING!! The ambience is so great. We sign up for the elephant trek and head off to bed.
Our room is really cool up in a treehouse. It has lots of openings for critters and bugs which I never really noticed that night. We had a mosquito net and thank goodness for that. The next morning we got up early to get breakfast before we left for the elephant farm at 7:45. I got banana stuffed pancakes (i could have died...so good) and a sickningly sweet iced coffee with no milk (cuz my malaria pills wont let me have dairy within an hour of taking them). We drove off along with a young German couple to go to the elephants. We got there and one was getting a bath in the river!! It was sprawled out relaxing as a man washed him. We got put onto a two person bench on top of the elephants back and we were off. Our guide walked behind us yelling out commands to our dumbo. The German couple and their guide was behind us. It was so amazing. We were bouncing around giggling trying to take pictures. We walked through rivers and up hills and through thick jungle. It got a little scary when we went downhill because even though we had a seatbelt on, Em and I slid forward really fast and struggled to stay on. We stopped for a break after like half an hour and the guides showed us the biggest spider I have ever seen in real life. It was a bit bigger than my hand stretched out. Yuck!!! At least is was way up high away from us.
We got back on to head back and this time we got to one at a time ride on dumbo's shoulders, our legs on eigther side of his head. This was one of the coolest moments of my life thus far. It was like it was just me and dumbo here just walking through the jungle.
We got lots of pics and I am excited to show everyone. After that we fed him bananas an said goodbye. Sad. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping and relaxing in the restaurant area right next to the river. It was so nice cuz they had a smallish library where you cann just read books or take one on your travels. We sat around snaking on different menu items and drinking cokes and reading for hours on end. It was so relaxing and I almost finished a whole novel in that time. We went to bed and this is where the night turned sour for me. I got into bed and we both were reading more of our books by flashlight, safe in our mosquito net. But I start getting really itchy and uncomfortable and Emily is scraed because there are tons of creepy weird buugs and buzzy bugs all over her side of the outside of the netting. Yuck! I got sleepy and dozed off and woke up an hour later to the sound of someone coming up the stairs trying to get into our room. I wake up more and don't hear anything but now I am awake wide eyed. I am itchy everywhere. We have bedbugs and they bit! Grr I am so tired but cannot relax. I fall asleep again and later I wake up to what sounds like something falling from way up high crashing down on the floor by the bed. Wow, I am scared. I toss and turn and notice Emily is doing the same but at least she is still somewhat asleep. I fall asleep and this time it is good till morning but once I get up I am too scared to get out of the netting to see what large creature fell out of the rafters....or to see if my legs are covered in bites. I peek out and find nothing except a small bag of candy I had near my pillow that must have been the loud sound dropping to the floor.....Or the huge evil monkey found a way out. I have no bites either.
We get up have breakfast and I get crepes stuffed with Papya, bananas and pineapple. Amazing but the honey inside attracts a swarm of bees. We have to move and leave a plate of honey to distract them.
We took a minibus to Krabi this morning and then a cheap public taki to Ao Nang. Our hotel is awesome with AC and an actual bathtub. We went to the beach and it is amazing. The water is so warm, warmer than Hawaii by far and the beach is great. We can see tons of other islands and large rock formations sticking out of the water around the islands. We swam a lot. My shoulders burned and Emily is okay but more freckly. We bought a ferry ticket to Phi Phi Island for tomorrow morning and we are just gonna go try and find a market now.
I cannot wait to come home and see everyone....especially at my mom's wedding!! Also, I think things are better now but please be praying for a safe smooth travel home because there have been problems with the Phuket airport and political protestors. Pray that we get to come home on time!!
I love you all very much and I will write back from Bangkok in two days!!
~Michelle
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thailand!!
Hey everyone!
I don't have much time to say a whole lot because internet is expensive here. We finally made it to Phuket yesterday afternoon after being stuck inside the Bangkok airport for 13 hours due to a political strike in Phuket. It is amazing here. There are a lot of tourists which makes it easy to find our way around and ask around about the best places to go.
Our room for our first night was pretty nice. The bed was so comfortable after sleeping on the what felt like concrete lined matresses in India. We went out last night to dinner and then went out. It has been fun so far!!! Today we go to our jungle huts and I will come back to tell more in a couple days!
I love you and miss you all!!
~Michelle
I don't have much time to say a whole lot because internet is expensive here. We finally made it to Phuket yesterday afternoon after being stuck inside the Bangkok airport for 13 hours due to a political strike in Phuket. It is amazing here. There are a lot of tourists which makes it easy to find our way around and ask around about the best places to go.
Our room for our first night was pretty nice. The bed was so comfortable after sleeping on the what felt like concrete lined matresses in India. We went out last night to dinner and then went out. It has been fun so far!!! Today we go to our jungle huts and I will come back to tell more in a couple days!
I love you and miss you all!!
~Michelle
Friday, August 29, 2008
Our Last Days in India
Hello all!
I am writing you on our last night in India. I am so excited to leave. I can only handle being sweaty and hot and rained on and hungry for so long. These last few days have been rough. After the last blog I wrote we went back to our hotel and the power was out. It stayed out until 12:30 AM. We had no fan and it might have been our hottest night here. Emily and I layed as still as possible in our underwear for a long long time because I was about to flip out on someone or something. Do you ever get in one of those situations of being hot and uncomfortable that you just might kill to get cool? That was me. Emily fell asleep pretty quick but I layed there staring up at the motionless fan so angry. I layed awake till the power came on. Then I was okay.
We went to school and I got in trouble with the teacher. She doesn't do anything and even sometimes sleeps and when I tried coloring with my boy for the last ten minutes of class, she came and took the book that we were copying from away. Haha.
Yesterday Emily and I spent the afternoon just lying around the room and also started packing. We bought sweets from our sweet shop and I bought a banana...it was amazing. We hung out in the room and had dinner and ate our sweets and then watched one of my favorite movies on tv: Life Is Beautiful. I hate when the movie has been dubbed over in English but we somehow managed to watch it.
Today at school it was one of the boys birthdays, thank goodness. Someone got a cake and lots of little treats for everyone. We sang and it was a lot of fun. We worked for a little over an hour and then the teacher said it was time to go....it was 45 minutes before we normally leave. We said our final goodbyes to the kids who hadn't already run off to their houses. While waiting for our train it started to downpour on us. We got on to whichever train car was closest and it happened to be the vendor car. This is where all the men that are moving whatever fodo or nasty thing they sell into the city. I got on and there was no room but I had Emily by the hand and she was barely in...it is still pouring outside during all of this chaos. I finally was able to pull Emily on just before we started moving. She said the only thing she was holding onto was my hand and barely because it was wet. This car smelled like a mix between nasty old cigarette and barnyard animals. I covered my nose with my shirt AND a bandana and still smelled it. Plus it was muggy and hot inside too. I started feeling really dizzy and it was the closest I have ever been to passing out. When Emily said she saw my eyes roll into the back of me head she grabbed me and we happened to stop and we got off and got onto the next car down...the women only car. Ah this was heavenly and I suddenly felt all better. It was not crowded and the fans worked and they all smelled better.
Todays thunderstorm has been outrageous!!!! I have never seen so much lightning and heard continuous thunder like this. I mean it looked liek someone was just taking picture afetr picture with a bright flash and no letting up.
Our hotel is our of power again right now. Today is our day to finish packing and get ready for tonight so we are hoping it comes back on. Tonight we are going out to dinner with our Spanish and Japanese friends and it is going to be a lot of fun!!!
Tomorrow morning we fly out to Phuket, Thailand and we are stoked. I will write back in a couple days at the most.
Aunt Linda, your comment was so funny. Haha Rocky. I cannot wait to see you for the wedding and eat your biscuts and gravy!! I love you so much!!
I miss you all and will write back soon!!
~Love, Michelle
I am writing you on our last night in India. I am so excited to leave. I can only handle being sweaty and hot and rained on and hungry for so long. These last few days have been rough. After the last blog I wrote we went back to our hotel and the power was out. It stayed out until 12:30 AM. We had no fan and it might have been our hottest night here. Emily and I layed as still as possible in our underwear for a long long time because I was about to flip out on someone or something. Do you ever get in one of those situations of being hot and uncomfortable that you just might kill to get cool? That was me. Emily fell asleep pretty quick but I layed there staring up at the motionless fan so angry. I layed awake till the power came on. Then I was okay.
We went to school and I got in trouble with the teacher. She doesn't do anything and even sometimes sleeps and when I tried coloring with my boy for the last ten minutes of class, she came and took the book that we were copying from away. Haha.
Yesterday Emily and I spent the afternoon just lying around the room and also started packing. We bought sweets from our sweet shop and I bought a banana...it was amazing. We hung out in the room and had dinner and ate our sweets and then watched one of my favorite movies on tv: Life Is Beautiful. I hate when the movie has been dubbed over in English but we somehow managed to watch it.
Today at school it was one of the boys birthdays, thank goodness. Someone got a cake and lots of little treats for everyone. We sang and it was a lot of fun. We worked for a little over an hour and then the teacher said it was time to go....it was 45 minutes before we normally leave. We said our final goodbyes to the kids who hadn't already run off to their houses. While waiting for our train it started to downpour on us. We got on to whichever train car was closest and it happened to be the vendor car. This is where all the men that are moving whatever fodo or nasty thing they sell into the city. I got on and there was no room but I had Emily by the hand and she was barely in...it is still pouring outside during all of this chaos. I finally was able to pull Emily on just before we started moving. She said the only thing she was holding onto was my hand and barely because it was wet. This car smelled like a mix between nasty old cigarette and barnyard animals. I covered my nose with my shirt AND a bandana and still smelled it. Plus it was muggy and hot inside too. I started feeling really dizzy and it was the closest I have ever been to passing out. When Emily said she saw my eyes roll into the back of me head she grabbed me and we happened to stop and we got off and got onto the next car down...the women only car. Ah this was heavenly and I suddenly felt all better. It was not crowded and the fans worked and they all smelled better.
Todays thunderstorm has been outrageous!!!! I have never seen so much lightning and heard continuous thunder like this. I mean it looked liek someone was just taking picture afetr picture with a bright flash and no letting up.
Our hotel is our of power again right now. Today is our day to finish packing and get ready for tonight so we are hoping it comes back on. Tonight we are going out to dinner with our Spanish and Japanese friends and it is going to be a lot of fun!!!
Tomorrow morning we fly out to Phuket, Thailand and we are stoked. I will write back in a couple days at the most.
Aunt Linda, your comment was so funny. Haha Rocky. I cannot wait to see you for the wedding and eat your biscuts and gravy!! I love you so much!!
I miss you all and will write back soon!!
~Love, Michelle
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Coffee never tasted so good
Wow!
Only two more days left in India. I am kind of jumping out of my skin with joy! It is been a love/hate relationship between me and India. The things I hate outweigh the things I love BUT the things I love, I love so strongly that the two kind of meet in the middle.
Yesterday I stayed home from school because I felt really bad with my cold. Emily went on ahead with the Spaniards and Japanese. I slept more (because I hardly slept through the night with this stuffy nose) and when I woke up two hours later I felt a lot better. I watched some tv till Emily got back and after taking a few advil we decided to walk to the Babu Ghat. This is a place along the Hooghly River that has steps leading into it and people come to bring offerings and pray and bathe. This particular ghat was kinda dumpy but itwas cool to see this part of Indian culture.
We walked back to our hotel and waited for dinner. For lunches we usually ask for the noodles but now they assume that is all we ever want so we get noodles for lunch and dinner today. Em and I hardly ate any of our dinner noodles and ate some bread that we bought. Haha just bread and water for dinner.
Today, Wednesday, we got up and went to school. It was a good day at school because I was with the boy that loves to learn, Sumon, and his sister who hates to learn, was with Emily. It ended up being me and Emily helping this girl mostly (she is older than her brother and he knows so much more than her) and him working quietly by himself. The Japanese kids brought oragami papers and that took up a lot of time with the kids and gave all the other volunteers a break.
When we got back to the hotel Emily and I ate our lunch (noodles again) and headed out for a coffee shop called Barista. We had this at the airport in Bangalore and we saw it the other night when we went to Kwality way far away. During our walk it started to downpour on us and of course I am wearing tennis shoes with socks (best protection from the bugs and dirt) and khaki pants that become see through when wet. We are soaked and it is miserable and I feel like everyone is looking at my legs through these pants and that would be slutty here. Emily said I was being paranoid and I know I was but still!! We finally got to Barista and oh my gosh. I got this thing that was cold coffee with chocolate, ice cream and milk in it and it was amazing. Emily just got a straight up iced coffee with milk and chocolate. We drank/ate them in like seconds and it was heavenly after living off of just bread, noodles, and rice for two weeks. We are probably gonna get horrible stomach aches with how fast we drank them but it was worth it.
Now we are gonna go back and see what is on tv...again.
I love you and miss you all!!!!
~Michelle
PS Dawn: HAHA no I am not engaged to Rocky. Rocky=Icky
Only two more days left in India. I am kind of jumping out of my skin with joy! It is been a love/hate relationship between me and India. The things I hate outweigh the things I love BUT the things I love, I love so strongly that the two kind of meet in the middle.
Yesterday I stayed home from school because I felt really bad with my cold. Emily went on ahead with the Spaniards and Japanese. I slept more (because I hardly slept through the night with this stuffy nose) and when I woke up two hours later I felt a lot better. I watched some tv till Emily got back and after taking a few advil we decided to walk to the Babu Ghat. This is a place along the Hooghly River that has steps leading into it and people come to bring offerings and pray and bathe. This particular ghat was kinda dumpy but itwas cool to see this part of Indian culture.
We walked back to our hotel and waited for dinner. For lunches we usually ask for the noodles but now they assume that is all we ever want so we get noodles for lunch and dinner today. Em and I hardly ate any of our dinner noodles and ate some bread that we bought. Haha just bread and water for dinner.
Today, Wednesday, we got up and went to school. It was a good day at school because I was with the boy that loves to learn, Sumon, and his sister who hates to learn, was with Emily. It ended up being me and Emily helping this girl mostly (she is older than her brother and he knows so much more than her) and him working quietly by himself. The Japanese kids brought oragami papers and that took up a lot of time with the kids and gave all the other volunteers a break.
When we got back to the hotel Emily and I ate our lunch (noodles again) and headed out for a coffee shop called Barista. We had this at the airport in Bangalore and we saw it the other night when we went to Kwality way far away. During our walk it started to downpour on us and of course I am wearing tennis shoes with socks (best protection from the bugs and dirt) and khaki pants that become see through when wet. We are soaked and it is miserable and I feel like everyone is looking at my legs through these pants and that would be slutty here. Emily said I was being paranoid and I know I was but still!! We finally got to Barista and oh my gosh. I got this thing that was cold coffee with chocolate, ice cream and milk in it and it was amazing. Emily just got a straight up iced coffee with milk and chocolate. We drank/ate them in like seconds and it was heavenly after living off of just bread, noodles, and rice for two weeks. We are probably gonna get horrible stomach aches with how fast we drank them but it was worth it.
Now we are gonna go back and see what is on tv...again.
I love you and miss you all!!!!
~Michelle
PS Dawn: HAHA no I am not engaged to Rocky. Rocky=Icky
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday....Ah the Spaniards
Hey hey!
Yesterday Emily and I both woke up with really bad colds. Well maybe not really bad just annoying. It is hard because toilet paper is scarce so I am actually using one of my bandanas as a hankie and it is nasty. We both are snotty and have bad sinus pressure. We layed around most of the day yesterday because a lot of things were closed. It was relaxing. We also met the 6 new volunteers that are joining our group this week. 4 girls and 2 guys from Spain. They are so fun! They speak very little English but Spanish is something Emily and I know some words in.
Just Emily and I showed the Spaniards and the Japanese kids how to get to school today. We all piled on the train and now we have strength in numbers.
Today teaching was better. My mom told me that I came off really mean in my last blog about the kiddos but I did not mean it. I was fresh from the frustrations and I let them fly. Today Emily and I worked together with two boys: Raja and Sunom. They were very eager to learn and hardly complained. They get easily distracted but I think that comes with being a child. These kids are not orphans by the way. They get kinda snobby but I don't know why because they have so little. Maybe it is all a front.
Anyways today was good and the boys were so cute. We got back had our quick lunch of noodles and made our way to the New Market to get our Sarees. We found Rocky, who by the way I found out today really wants to be my boyfriend (scary) and helped us find the place and pick them up. He also helped us find a couple last minute things. When he invited us to a movie we decided it was time to leave. We walked back and are looking for the Spaniards now cuz we wanna hang out with them!
Overall I am so ready to leave this country. I am tired of being sweaty and stinky and hungry. I can't wait for Saturday when we fly to Thailand. I will write once or twice more before then because I olny have so many rupees left.
I love you all! Take care!
~Michelle
Yesterday Emily and I both woke up with really bad colds. Well maybe not really bad just annoying. It is hard because toilet paper is scarce so I am actually using one of my bandanas as a hankie and it is nasty. We both are snotty and have bad sinus pressure. We layed around most of the day yesterday because a lot of things were closed. It was relaxing. We also met the 6 new volunteers that are joining our group this week. 4 girls and 2 guys from Spain. They are so fun! They speak very little English but Spanish is something Emily and I know some words in.
Just Emily and I showed the Spaniards and the Japanese kids how to get to school today. We all piled on the train and now we have strength in numbers.
Today teaching was better. My mom told me that I came off really mean in my last blog about the kiddos but I did not mean it. I was fresh from the frustrations and I let them fly. Today Emily and I worked together with two boys: Raja and Sunom. They were very eager to learn and hardly complained. They get easily distracted but I think that comes with being a child. These kids are not orphans by the way. They get kinda snobby but I don't know why because they have so little. Maybe it is all a front.
Anyways today was good and the boys were so cute. We got back had our quick lunch of noodles and made our way to the New Market to get our Sarees. We found Rocky, who by the way I found out today really wants to be my boyfriend (scary) and helped us find the place and pick them up. He also helped us find a couple last minute things. When he invited us to a movie we decided it was time to leave. We walked back and are looking for the Spaniards now cuz we wanna hang out with them!
Overall I am so ready to leave this country. I am tired of being sweaty and stinky and hungry. I can't wait for Saturday when we fly to Thailand. I will write once or twice more before then because I olny have so many rupees left.
I love you all! Take care!
~Michelle
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Our Weekend in Kolkata
Howdy!
I heard country music today in the market place from the US so I had to say that. I hope you are all doing well. It was a rough couple of days Thursday and Friday cuz our flights overlapped our booked hotels. But Emily's dad, Papa Joe, the hero that he is, fixed everything for I us!!! I had been so sad that we were gonna leave early but he changed some things and worked his magic and poof we got the flights we needed. Thanks Joe so much for all your help!!
Yesterday was a very unproductive day at school. The teacher decided to hand out the gifts the Italian man got for the kids right in the middle of math time, so obviously no work got done. Emily and I decided to hold hostage the little girl's dolls until they finished their last few problems. It was fun. And for some reason when the girls are being especially disobedient, Emily and I get joy out of torturing the children. Not really torturing, we just would rip the heads off the dolls (they did not know that they pop on and off easily) or we would withhold stuff. Haha it is so sick but necessary.
After school we went home and hung out and decided to walk to a part of town that had a good restaurant recommended in our India book. It was sooooo far but we refused to pay for a cab. I loved the walk it just was dark out but still a thousand degrees. The place was called Kwality and I got chicken nuggets and a bottle of Kingfisher beer which was huge, Emily got coffee and ice cream and the Japanese girl got a chicken burger and a Thums Up which is kinda like ultra sugary Pepsi and yes it is spelled Thums with no "b". We took pics and it was all around a fun night!! And it was the first time we had been in a/c in a week.
This morning, Saturday, we got up and walked almost as far as Kwality to the New Market. This is a building and then some of just little shop after little shop of so many amazing deals. We did so much gift shopping and we got sarees for ourselves. I am so excited about this because they were mega cheap and custom fitted. Shopping is so much fun when you know it is so cheap!!!
We met a guy who speaks English really well named Rocky (haha) at one of our shops. He decided to take us around to all his friend's shops and knock so much off our prices. It is awesome! He also showed us the way to KFC which is where we ate lunch. Mmmm, chicken and french fries. YUM!
We are just gonna relax tonight I think because we want to use hardly any money this week. Tomorrow we might go to the baptist church down the street!!! We are so excited especially because everything here is closed on Sundays.
Anyway I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all so much!
Talk to you soon!
I love you my precious fam!
~Michelle
I heard country music today in the market place from the US so I had to say that. I hope you are all doing well. It was a rough couple of days Thursday and Friday cuz our flights overlapped our booked hotels. But Emily's dad, Papa Joe, the hero that he is, fixed everything for I us!!! I had been so sad that we were gonna leave early but he changed some things and worked his magic and poof we got the flights we needed. Thanks Joe so much for all your help!!
Yesterday was a very unproductive day at school. The teacher decided to hand out the gifts the Italian man got for the kids right in the middle of math time, so obviously no work got done. Emily and I decided to hold hostage the little girl's dolls until they finished their last few problems. It was fun. And for some reason when the girls are being especially disobedient, Emily and I get joy out of torturing the children. Not really torturing, we just would rip the heads off the dolls (they did not know that they pop on and off easily) or we would withhold stuff. Haha it is so sick but necessary.
After school we went home and hung out and decided to walk to a part of town that had a good restaurant recommended in our India book. It was sooooo far but we refused to pay for a cab. I loved the walk it just was dark out but still a thousand degrees. The place was called Kwality and I got chicken nuggets and a bottle of Kingfisher beer which was huge, Emily got coffee and ice cream and the Japanese girl got a chicken burger and a Thums Up which is kinda like ultra sugary Pepsi and yes it is spelled Thums with no "b". We took pics and it was all around a fun night!! And it was the first time we had been in a/c in a week.
This morning, Saturday, we got up and walked almost as far as Kwality to the New Market. This is a building and then some of just little shop after little shop of so many amazing deals. We did so much gift shopping and we got sarees for ourselves. I am so excited about this because they were mega cheap and custom fitted. Shopping is so much fun when you know it is so cheap!!!
We met a guy who speaks English really well named Rocky (haha) at one of our shops. He decided to take us around to all his friend's shops and knock so much off our prices. It is awesome! He also showed us the way to KFC which is where we ate lunch. Mmmm, chicken and french fries. YUM!
We are just gonna relax tonight I think because we want to use hardly any money this week. Tomorrow we might go to the baptist church down the street!!! We are so excited especially because everything here is closed on Sundays.
Anyway I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all so much!
Talk to you soon!
I love you my precious fam!
~Michelle
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Kolkata Day 5...Mother Teresa
Hi Hi!
Today we got to go back to school and heck I don't know why I am saying got to as if it was a privelege or awesome. Today at school made me want to never go back and never teach EVER AGAIN! We got to the train station and I was in a good mood. We had some yummy tea there in Dalit cups. I got on the train and this folks is a very hard task in India. Seating is a free for all and men are crazy animals that are put on this Earth to ruin my day. So I am the best out of our whole group at pushing through, grabbing seats and laying my body out in such a way that I save a seat for all 5 of us. Today Emily got on first and we both put our legs up to save seats for the slow, naive, precious Japanese kids. I had my foot across to the backwards facing seats saving them and this man f-ing sits on my foot. OW! and HELL NO! I said "ya know I am saving these seats for my friends" in the sweetest way I could manage and he said "no that is not how it works" in a pissy I am not going to move for you way and this is when I go off on him. (HE IS STILL SITTING ON MY FEET BY THE WAY!) He goes on to tell me that that is UNCIVILIZED! So I say "um, everyone pushes and nearly tramples each other to get on here and you are calling me saving seats uncivilized!?" (Oh and also there are still seats all around us so I don't know why he is fighting it so much.) So this fighting goes on for a long time. The Japanese finally show up and find other seats and me and this guy are still arguing. Emily throws in (in response to something mean he said) "We are uncivilized??? In America it is ladies first and you respect women!" Haha kick-ass Emily! By now I am saying "Just stop, we are all seated, it is over, move on and get over it". Then he talks to his friend about how impolite we are and righty so after the way he talked to us.
Anyways then we got to the school and I find out that the weekend trip they are supposed to take us on is actually NOT inclusive like we thought the website said it actually costs like $450 US to take the weekend trip to Delhi and Agra. Now I fricken have to come back to this country just to see the Taj Mahal and the ghats.
Then the children come. I get the stubborn girl again and she is a bad influence on this other girl named Sonom. So I am desperately trying to get them to do something and when I am about to start beating them I realize that I could tell the teacher to tel them that they need to work NOW! She says something to them and goes back to gossiping with her teachers aid. Ugh. They work for about five minutes and then start coloring again. I have no patience for this so I turn around and ignore them the rest of the day. I would be a horrible teacher in real life. Well I could maybe do older kids....and only History, my favorite subject.
We get done and go back to the hotel for lunch and I am exhausted from this emotionallu draining morning. Emily and I set out to find Mother Teresa's House and Hospital. It is a few blocks down from our alley so we were lucky to be able to walk. We got there and looked around the hospital a little but of course it is all closed up to visitors on Thursdays. Next we walk a little further down and get to the house. I think that this is where all the nuns stay but it was closed up as well except for Mother Teresa's tomb. We got to go in and take pics and take flower petals from her tomb. It was really cool to be there and know that this was where she helped to many people. We found out that we can volunteer at the hospital whenever we want so next week we might do it a couple afternoons.
Overall this was a really cool day and I am excited we only have one more day of school and then it is the weekend. YAY!
I love you all...talk to you soon!
I love you mom!
~Michelle
Today we got to go back to school and heck I don't know why I am saying got to as if it was a privelege or awesome. Today at school made me want to never go back and never teach EVER AGAIN! We got to the train station and I was in a good mood. We had some yummy tea there in Dalit cups. I got on the train and this folks is a very hard task in India. Seating is a free for all and men are crazy animals that are put on this Earth to ruin my day. So I am the best out of our whole group at pushing through, grabbing seats and laying my body out in such a way that I save a seat for all 5 of us. Today Emily got on first and we both put our legs up to save seats for the slow, naive, precious Japanese kids. I had my foot across to the backwards facing seats saving them and this man f-ing sits on my foot. OW! and HELL NO! I said "ya know I am saving these seats for my friends" in the sweetest way I could manage and he said "no that is not how it works" in a pissy I am not going to move for you way and this is when I go off on him. (HE IS STILL SITTING ON MY FEET BY THE WAY!) He goes on to tell me that that is UNCIVILIZED! So I say "um, everyone pushes and nearly tramples each other to get on here and you are calling me saving seats uncivilized!?" (Oh and also there are still seats all around us so I don't know why he is fighting it so much.) So this fighting goes on for a long time. The Japanese finally show up and find other seats and me and this guy are still arguing. Emily throws in (in response to something mean he said) "We are uncivilized??? In America it is ladies first and you respect women!" Haha kick-ass Emily! By now I am saying "Just stop, we are all seated, it is over, move on and get over it". Then he talks to his friend about how impolite we are and righty so after the way he talked to us.
Anyways then we got to the school and I find out that the weekend trip they are supposed to take us on is actually NOT inclusive like we thought the website said it actually costs like $450 US to take the weekend trip to Delhi and Agra. Now I fricken have to come back to this country just to see the Taj Mahal and the ghats.
Then the children come. I get the stubborn girl again and she is a bad influence on this other girl named Sonom. So I am desperately trying to get them to do something and when I am about to start beating them I realize that I could tell the teacher to tel them that they need to work NOW! She says something to them and goes back to gossiping with her teachers aid. Ugh. They work for about five minutes and then start coloring again. I have no patience for this so I turn around and ignore them the rest of the day. I would be a horrible teacher in real life. Well I could maybe do older kids....and only History, my favorite subject.
We get done and go back to the hotel for lunch and I am exhausted from this emotionallu draining morning. Emily and I set out to find Mother Teresa's House and Hospital. It is a few blocks down from our alley so we were lucky to be able to walk. We got there and looked around the hospital a little but of course it is all closed up to visitors on Thursdays. Next we walk a little further down and get to the house. I think that this is where all the nuns stay but it was closed up as well except for Mother Teresa's tomb. We got to go in and take pics and take flower petals from her tomb. It was really cool to be there and know that this was where she helped to many people. We found out that we can volunteer at the hospital whenever we want so next week we might do it a couple afternoons.
Overall this was a really cool day and I am excited we only have one more day of school and then it is the weekend. YAY!
I love you all...talk to you soon!
I love you mom!
~Michelle
Longest Day Ever aka Kolkata Day 4
Hey All!
So yesterday, the 20th of August, Emily and I were banished to our room all day. The entire country went on strike for political reasons and evrything pretty much shut down. No trains ran, barely any flights ran, no school, and no taxis. I woke up an hour later than normal (so at 7 am) and heard silence, which is unheard of in India (hehe). Usuall you hear people laying on their horns at every hour of the day but when I looked out the window toward the busy street there was nothing. Only a couple people taking advantage of a carless street. We layed around and watched tv and read and did crossword puzzles all day.
Finally we couldn't take it any longer and we ventured out. The streets were empty except for kids playing soccer or cricket in the road and the occasional truck full o men dressed in India country colors (orange, white, and green). I assumed they were going somewhere to strike but we were not by anything big. With all the shops closed and nothing to do being out was worse than being in.We went back and layed around some more. At one point this man with two monkeys on leashes came right down our little alley and put on a show down below. We watched from our window above and they danced and walked on two legs. They were so cute and that was pretty much the highlight of our day. We watched Red Eye and went to sleep. It was very boring and I thought it would never end.
Love you all much
~Michelle
So yesterday, the 20th of August, Emily and I were banished to our room all day. The entire country went on strike for political reasons and evrything pretty much shut down. No trains ran, barely any flights ran, no school, and no taxis. I woke up an hour later than normal (so at 7 am) and heard silence, which is unheard of in India (hehe). Usuall you hear people laying on their horns at every hour of the day but when I looked out the window toward the busy street there was nothing. Only a couple people taking advantage of a carless street. We layed around and watched tv and read and did crossword puzzles all day.
Finally we couldn't take it any longer and we ventured out. The streets were empty except for kids playing soccer or cricket in the road and the occasional truck full o men dressed in India country colors (orange, white, and green). I assumed they were going somewhere to strike but we were not by anything big. With all the shops closed and nothing to do being out was worse than being in.We went back and layed around some more. At one point this man with two monkeys on leashes came right down our little alley and put on a show down below. We watched from our window above and they danced and walked on two legs. They were so cute and that was pretty much the highlight of our day. We watched Red Eye and went to sleep. It was very boring and I thought it would never end.
Love you all much
~Michelle
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Kolkata Day 3
Cheers everybody!
I hope you all are doing well!! So today I am writing you about what Emily and I did today. We got up, I keep getting up super early for some reason (maybe cuz I feel aleep before Jurassic Park 3 even started last night at nine) and so I took a shower. The shower is just the shower head pointing toward the middle of the bathroom so everything in there gets wet. I can't escape being soaked, be it with sweat or the shower or in today's case: a monsoon. Today after our breakfast of sugar toast and watching Friends on tv, we set out for school. We walked over to the train station and pushed our way onto one of the crowded trains. We have to ride in the main cars (which is mostly men) cuz we have our Japanese boys with us and the Italian guy. There are all women cars which look so nice cuz they are never crowded. 6 stops later we hop off the train and we are at the village. Today I helped a little girl who refused to do more than like 4 math problems. I have no patience for this so I say "YES NOW" and point and she says "NO FINISH" and we go back and forth but I realized that if I leave her and pay attention to someone else, she gets my attention and shows me that she is working, so I help her again. Ah, children. I am also helping my precious Tanu, who Emily keeps calling the little gay boy because of what we thought SHE was. I am trying to not think of her like that cuz she is my little homie. So today she was doing easy addition ya know 2+4 and so on and whenever she got a set right she put both hands up expecting a double high-five!! SHE IS SO CUTE!! Such good bonding when you know you just taught someone something new for the first time and they get excited. Oh, I could cry! Anyways while at school we started hearing thunder, loud loud thunder and the next thing you know it is a downpour. And it has been that way since.....so for 7 hours. We took the train home and by this time we are soaked to the bone. We get served really good spicy noodles for lunch and then Emily and I set out to see some sites. We figured, hey we are from Seattle we can handle this rain. Well it was cool at first but now we are miserable especially because we are in sandals and the puddles have Lord knows what mixed in them.
We were in search of a place we found in our India book called the Indian Coffee House where it said you can just sit and have coffee and meet people and it is right in the college district so it sounded great. We found it and it was so crowded and kinda pricey for coffee here so we left but it was cool to see. We searched aimlessly for an ATM because Emily ran out of rupees and mine were getting low from paying for both of us. We finally found one, right by our hotel after wandering forever. I love that.
Now we bought some "sweets" from a bakery and we are gonna go back to the hotel and get dry and watch tv. I say "sweets" in quotes because I think they might have spiciness in them which would be and Indian sweet but we will have to wait and see.
I love you Mommy! And I love and miss everyone else.
~until tomorrow maybe, Michelle
I hope you all are doing well!! So today I am writing you about what Emily and I did today. We got up, I keep getting up super early for some reason (maybe cuz I feel aleep before Jurassic Park 3 even started last night at nine) and so I took a shower. The shower is just the shower head pointing toward the middle of the bathroom so everything in there gets wet. I can't escape being soaked, be it with sweat or the shower or in today's case: a monsoon. Today after our breakfast of sugar toast and watching Friends on tv, we set out for school. We walked over to the train station and pushed our way onto one of the crowded trains. We have to ride in the main cars (which is mostly men) cuz we have our Japanese boys with us and the Italian guy. There are all women cars which look so nice cuz they are never crowded. 6 stops later we hop off the train and we are at the village. Today I helped a little girl who refused to do more than like 4 math problems. I have no patience for this so I say "YES NOW" and point and she says "NO FINISH" and we go back and forth but I realized that if I leave her and pay attention to someone else, she gets my attention and shows me that she is working, so I help her again. Ah, children. I am also helping my precious Tanu, who Emily keeps calling the little gay boy because of what we thought SHE was. I am trying to not think of her like that cuz she is my little homie. So today she was doing easy addition ya know 2+4 and so on and whenever she got a set right she put both hands up expecting a double high-five!! SHE IS SO CUTE!! Such good bonding when you know you just taught someone something new for the first time and they get excited. Oh, I could cry! Anyways while at school we started hearing thunder, loud loud thunder and the next thing you know it is a downpour. And it has been that way since.....so for 7 hours. We took the train home and by this time we are soaked to the bone. We get served really good spicy noodles for lunch and then Emily and I set out to see some sites. We figured, hey we are from Seattle we can handle this rain. Well it was cool at first but now we are miserable especially because we are in sandals and the puddles have Lord knows what mixed in them.
We were in search of a place we found in our India book called the Indian Coffee House where it said you can just sit and have coffee and meet people and it is right in the college district so it sounded great. We found it and it was so crowded and kinda pricey for coffee here so we left but it was cool to see. We searched aimlessly for an ATM because Emily ran out of rupees and mine were getting low from paying for both of us. We finally found one, right by our hotel after wandering forever. I love that.
Now we bought some "sweets" from a bakery and we are gonna go back to the hotel and get dry and watch tv. I say "sweets" in quotes because I think they might have spiciness in them which would be and Indian sweet but we will have to wait and see.
I love you Mommy! And I love and miss everyone else.
~until tomorrow maybe, Michelle
Monday, August 18, 2008
ANDO
Hey buddy! I miss you so much. I am sad that you think of me to hang out with and I am not there. Frowns. I can't wait to come home and see movies with you! I hope you are doing well and saving your money......take care of yourself and do something nice for mom from me....she is worried.
I love you lots baby bro and I can't wait to see you again!
~Michelle
I love you lots baby bro and I can't wait to see you again!
~Michelle
Kolkata Days 1& 2
Hello all!
So Emily and I got in to Kolkata yesterday afternoon, the 17th. It has been so different than what we expected. We got in and the woman from Volunteer Visions found us and we hopped in a cab. She told us that all the host families were full so we were being put in a hotel for the whole two weeks along with a few other volunteers. We got there and she told us everything we needed to know about the school and where to go and eat and then she left. Emily and I are staying in a room with a girl from Japan that is volunteering also. There are also two other boys from Japan and two people from Italy (yay!) and the man from Italy is a host coordinator and has been coming every summer for the past 5 years so he knows his way around and is so nice. We pretty much stayed in our room all day yesterday. Is it normal to sleep a ridiculously huge amout of hours in hot weather maybe? We slept 9 hours the night before last then yesterday sitting around our room we slept another three and then last night slept almost eleven!!! It is cool I guess. So whenever we want meals we just go to reception and tell them and they bring up mystery food. It is so exciting to sit there and wait to see what we get each time. For dinner last night Em and I were starving and they hahaha it is so funny, they brought us each a plate with 3 little tortilla things and some spicy broth...no spoon. We ate our meager food and hoped for a good breakfast. Our room is pretty cool we just have fans so sleep with no covers but it is nice. It is suprising becuase you could find lots of places with a/c in Bangalore and Chennai but not so much here.
Today we woke up and called for breakfast and watched tv...the only thing in English is VH1. Our breakfast came and it was hahahaha two slices of bread with sugar and butter on top!! Now don't get me wrong that was delicious but I am not used to eating so little at every meal. The lady from Volunteer Visions came to pick us up to go to the school we were going to be teaching at. We walked across our busy street (the Indian woman was dodging cars and motorbikes like the bad ass that she is and we stayed on the curb for so long cuz that is a learned skill) and we went to the train station and hopped on a super ghetto train. It has planty of seats and fans and wind but man at every stop more and more people piled on. It got real crowded but luckily our stop had come. The little village is 20 minutes down the line and literally right on the edge of the train tracks. We went in to find a one room schoolhouse. We took off our shoes and sat around waiting for the kids to arrive. 16 kids came all in uniform and they are so cute!!! They said their pledge of allegiance(sp?) and we jumped right in to sitting down and teaching them from their English books. I was working with an older girl maybe 10 named Vipik and the baby of the class maybe 4 Tanu. Tanu is adorable but the girls there have pretty short boy length hair and Emily and I thought she was a boy at first. I figured it out not when I saw her painted nails and toes (cuz my little bro Garrett def has painted nails most of the time) but when she acted really feminine and kinda OCD about her markers and the way her books were laid out neatly (kind of how I am) and it was confirmed but her brother when he said this is my sister. The older kids can speak English enough to talk a little and it is so fun. We did an hour of English followed by an hour of Math, and for some reason I found it way easier to teach the math than the English. We ended the schoolday with a game sort of like duck duck goose but not. We get to go there everyday and do this and I am so excited!
We just got back to our room and had lunch (rice and potato stuff and broth, again no utensils) and it was pretty good.
Oh I gotta talk about the toilet situation here. Most of the bathrooms in India have one Western style toilet (that's ours) and the rest are squat style. It is like a toilet built into the ground with grooves on each side so you can squat over the whole and not slip. We have been fortunate enough to only have to use those once. No where do they have toilet paper except the nice hotels and restaurants. We brought our own don't worry. What they do supposedly is use a hose thing and hose off over the hole....ew. Anyways our hotel has a normal looking above ground toilet BUT it has, instead of a seat, the grooves for not slipping. Now I haven't figured this out but are we supposed to climb up and squat way up there to use this toilet?? I have been just squating normal cuz it works and I have no idea. I know ou all wanted to hear that :)
Anyways we are just hanging out trying to figure out what to do ext with our cool Japanese and Italian friends.
I miss you all and I will write back porbably tomorrow or the next day. Internet is right by our hotel and we have lots of free time.
I love you mom!
I love you everyone else!
~Michelle
So Emily and I got in to Kolkata yesterday afternoon, the 17th. It has been so different than what we expected. We got in and the woman from Volunteer Visions found us and we hopped in a cab. She told us that all the host families were full so we were being put in a hotel for the whole two weeks along with a few other volunteers. We got there and she told us everything we needed to know about the school and where to go and eat and then she left. Emily and I are staying in a room with a girl from Japan that is volunteering also. There are also two other boys from Japan and two people from Italy (yay!) and the man from Italy is a host coordinator and has been coming every summer for the past 5 years so he knows his way around and is so nice. We pretty much stayed in our room all day yesterday. Is it normal to sleep a ridiculously huge amout of hours in hot weather maybe? We slept 9 hours the night before last then yesterday sitting around our room we slept another three and then last night slept almost eleven!!! It is cool I guess. So whenever we want meals we just go to reception and tell them and they bring up mystery food. It is so exciting to sit there and wait to see what we get each time. For dinner last night Em and I were starving and they hahaha it is so funny, they brought us each a plate with 3 little tortilla things and some spicy broth...no spoon. We ate our meager food and hoped for a good breakfast. Our room is pretty cool we just have fans so sleep with no covers but it is nice. It is suprising becuase you could find lots of places with a/c in Bangalore and Chennai but not so much here.
Today we woke up and called for breakfast and watched tv...the only thing in English is VH1. Our breakfast came and it was hahahaha two slices of bread with sugar and butter on top!! Now don't get me wrong that was delicious but I am not used to eating so little at every meal. The lady from Volunteer Visions came to pick us up to go to the school we were going to be teaching at. We walked across our busy street (the Indian woman was dodging cars and motorbikes like the bad ass that she is and we stayed on the curb for so long cuz that is a learned skill) and we went to the train station and hopped on a super ghetto train. It has planty of seats and fans and wind but man at every stop more and more people piled on. It got real crowded but luckily our stop had come. The little village is 20 minutes down the line and literally right on the edge of the train tracks. We went in to find a one room schoolhouse. We took off our shoes and sat around waiting for the kids to arrive. 16 kids came all in uniform and they are so cute!!! They said their pledge of allegiance(sp?) and we jumped right in to sitting down and teaching them from their English books. I was working with an older girl maybe 10 named Vipik and the baby of the class maybe 4 Tanu. Tanu is adorable but the girls there have pretty short boy length hair and Emily and I thought she was a boy at first. I figured it out not when I saw her painted nails and toes (cuz my little bro Garrett def has painted nails most of the time) but when she acted really feminine and kinda OCD about her markers and the way her books were laid out neatly (kind of how I am) and it was confirmed but her brother when he said this is my sister. The older kids can speak English enough to talk a little and it is so fun. We did an hour of English followed by an hour of Math, and for some reason I found it way easier to teach the math than the English. We ended the schoolday with a game sort of like duck duck goose but not. We get to go there everyday and do this and I am so excited!
We just got back to our room and had lunch (rice and potato stuff and broth, again no utensils) and it was pretty good.
Oh I gotta talk about the toilet situation here. Most of the bathrooms in India have one Western style toilet (that's ours) and the rest are squat style. It is like a toilet built into the ground with grooves on each side so you can squat over the whole and not slip. We have been fortunate enough to only have to use those once. No where do they have toilet paper except the nice hotels and restaurants. We brought our own don't worry. What they do supposedly is use a hose thing and hose off over the hole....ew. Anyways our hotel has a normal looking above ground toilet BUT it has, instead of a seat, the grooves for not slipping. Now I haven't figured this out but are we supposed to climb up and squat way up there to use this toilet?? I have been just squating normal cuz it works and I have no idea. I know ou all wanted to hear that :)
Anyways we are just hanging out trying to figure out what to do ext with our cool Japanese and Italian friends.
I miss you all and I will write back porbably tomorrow or the next day. Internet is right by our hotel and we have lots of free time.
I love you mom!
I love you everyone else!
~Michelle
Saturday, August 16, 2008
MOMMY :)
Mom,
I just wanted to write you special because I miss you sooooooo much and after talking on the phone with you I am really homesick. How is all the wedding planning going?? I hope you are not too stressed. I am doing well I threw up yesterday but was fine right after. I hope I can talk to you again maybe from Calcutta. Don't worry about us anymore because we are headed straight to the airport after this to meet with our group. Thank you for all your help in making this trip possible for me. You and John both I owe so much to. In the next two weeks I am gonna be getting everyone India presents and I am so excited to try and find something good for you and John. I miss you to pieces and I can't wait to talk to you next. Give Riley my love!
I love you so much mom....you are the best mother in the whole universe.
~love you Michelle
I just wanted to write you special because I miss you sooooooo much and after talking on the phone with you I am really homesick. How is all the wedding planning going?? I hope you are not too stressed. I am doing well I threw up yesterday but was fine right after. I hope I can talk to you again maybe from Calcutta. Don't worry about us anymore because we are headed straight to the airport after this to meet with our group. Thank you for all your help in making this trip possible for me. You and John both I owe so much to. In the next two weeks I am gonna be getting everyone India presents and I am so excited to try and find something good for you and John. I miss you to pieces and I can't wait to talk to you next. Give Riley my love!
I love you so much mom....you are the best mother in the whole universe.
~love you Michelle
Chennai :(
Hello everyone!
I am writing you from the internet cafe right across from our hotel. We got here to Chennai on Thursday night and it has been very different from Bangalore. Bangalore is like the IT capital of India but Chennai is the trash covered, endless traffic, stinkhole of India. Our first night in we got a cab (with no a/c) and it took us no joke at 9:00 in the evening 2 HOURS to get to our hotel covering a distance of maybe 25 miles at the most. Our hotel that Em and I found on a hostel website was (as anyone could guess) not what it was in the pictures. It was a room with a dirty bed, no shower just a hose and buckets, and it was in a sketchy area. We watched some tv and the only thing in English was Disney channel and The Wizards of Waverly Place....yay. We woke early the next morning and set out to find the hotel Emily's dad looked up for us but we were to stubborn to see until after a night there. Oh yeah and someone was banging our our door at 12 AM asking if we needed anything I shouted NO NO GO AWAY.....it was funny, except not cuz I was asleep.
We went to the other hotel and It has been great. On Friday we explored the city...we saw Marina Beach and were followed and had our pictures taken a lot and people ran over to have their kids shake our hands. We got Pizza Hut for lunch cuz I have been craving food from home. We did not do much else except drive around the city in a rickshaw and take pics. I have seen in this city 3 people just doing their business in public: a little girl girl just squatting on the road in with tons of cars going by was just taking a crap right there, a baby boy with his mom holding his thing peeing into the street, and (scarred for life) an old man squatting on a curb and I wont say anymore , it is too scary.
We decided if we were going to survive another full day in this city with something to do that we would take the tour down to the beach temples in Mallampuram. We got up super early and went to wait for our tour bus. I had taken my pills on an empty stomach and the tour was supposed to give us breakfast but I didn't think the it would be well into the tour. At the tour center waiting for the bus I got really queezy....I ran to the bathroom and puked. Yes mommy I got sick and needed you :( But after throwing up I felt fine and have felt fine since then....I think it was just the pills with no food that did it (and the horrible smells of the city)
The worst smell of all time: the smell of them burning their garbage....well and the smell of the river that runs though town!
So we went on our tour and saw cool temples (we couldn't actually go all the way into them cuz we are not Hindi) but it was cool. We did go to this little part where a guy blessed us cuz we are not married and he prayed for us to get married and gave us that red stuff on our foreheads....and then expected a donation. One thing I am learning about tours...it is all a scam to get more money. We had to stop and look at their affiliates saree and silk shop and pay for lots of extras...not much but still! We went to see the Shore temple which is a world historic monument dating really far back. It was cool cuz it was right on the beach and we got some great pictures.
They fed us breakfast and lunch. Breakfast in Southern India is one thing. It is called Idlis and it is yuck times ten. It is white dough stuff you dip in some spicy stuff. And they have donuts that you think are gonna be good but they are filled with spices and super deep fried. I am sitting there trying to force it down thinking of your biscuits and gravy Aunt Linda or my mommy's tiger cakes or John's omelette's. Lunch was pretty good it was rice and spicy gravy and naan...so good.
We made friends with four American girls on our tour bus so that was cool. The last part of our tour was stopping off at their local amusement park here and it was awesome. We were freaking hot so we went on the log ride and got soaked which actually was not cool cuz then we dried just sticky.
Overall this has been an experience.....I would not call it good or really bad just there.
I want to apologize if my typing is getting hard to read, I am getting used to speaking in mixed up sentences so that I am understood but the Indians.
Well we are off to the orphanage with the organization so we will be taken care of for the next two weeks rather than taking care of ourselves...YAY!!!!!
I love you all!
~Michelle
I am writing you from the internet cafe right across from our hotel. We got here to Chennai on Thursday night and it has been very different from Bangalore. Bangalore is like the IT capital of India but Chennai is the trash covered, endless traffic, stinkhole of India. Our first night in we got a cab (with no a/c) and it took us no joke at 9:00 in the evening 2 HOURS to get to our hotel covering a distance of maybe 25 miles at the most. Our hotel that Em and I found on a hostel website was (as anyone could guess) not what it was in the pictures. It was a room with a dirty bed, no shower just a hose and buckets, and it was in a sketchy area. We watched some tv and the only thing in English was Disney channel and The Wizards of Waverly Place....yay. We woke early the next morning and set out to find the hotel Emily's dad looked up for us but we were to stubborn to see until after a night there. Oh yeah and someone was banging our our door at 12 AM asking if we needed anything I shouted NO NO GO AWAY.....it was funny, except not cuz I was asleep.
We went to the other hotel and It has been great. On Friday we explored the city...we saw Marina Beach and were followed and had our pictures taken a lot and people ran over to have their kids shake our hands. We got Pizza Hut for lunch cuz I have been craving food from home. We did not do much else except drive around the city in a rickshaw and take pics. I have seen in this city 3 people just doing their business in public: a little girl girl just squatting on the road in with tons of cars going by was just taking a crap right there, a baby boy with his mom holding his thing peeing into the street, and (scarred for life) an old man squatting on a curb and I wont say anymore , it is too scary.
We decided if we were going to survive another full day in this city with something to do that we would take the tour down to the beach temples in Mallampuram. We got up super early and went to wait for our tour bus. I had taken my pills on an empty stomach and the tour was supposed to give us breakfast but I didn't think the it would be well into the tour. At the tour center waiting for the bus I got really queezy....I ran to the bathroom and puked. Yes mommy I got sick and needed you :( But after throwing up I felt fine and have felt fine since then....I think it was just the pills with no food that did it (and the horrible smells of the city)
The worst smell of all time: the smell of them burning their garbage....well and the smell of the river that runs though town!
So we went on our tour and saw cool temples (we couldn't actually go all the way into them cuz we are not Hindi) but it was cool. We did go to this little part where a guy blessed us cuz we are not married and he prayed for us to get married and gave us that red stuff on our foreheads....and then expected a donation. One thing I am learning about tours...it is all a scam to get more money. We had to stop and look at their affiliates saree and silk shop and pay for lots of extras...not much but still! We went to see the Shore temple which is a world historic monument dating really far back. It was cool cuz it was right on the beach and we got some great pictures.
They fed us breakfast and lunch. Breakfast in Southern India is one thing. It is called Idlis and it is yuck times ten. It is white dough stuff you dip in some spicy stuff. And they have donuts that you think are gonna be good but they are filled with spices and super deep fried. I am sitting there trying to force it down thinking of your biscuits and gravy Aunt Linda or my mommy's tiger cakes or John's omelette's. Lunch was pretty good it was rice and spicy gravy and naan...so good.
We made friends with four American girls on our tour bus so that was cool. The last part of our tour was stopping off at their local amusement park here and it was awesome. We were freaking hot so we went on the log ride and got soaked which actually was not cool cuz then we dried just sticky.
Overall this has been an experience.....I would not call it good or really bad just there.
I want to apologize if my typing is getting hard to read, I am getting used to speaking in mixed up sentences so that I am understood but the Indians.
Well we are off to the orphanage with the organization so we will be taken care of for the next two weeks rather than taking care of ourselves...YAY!!!!!
I love you all!
~Michelle
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Kuala Lumpur Disclaimer
So this city really is not that bad. We were hot, sweaty, dreadfully tired, lost most of the time and not feeling well.
The city was pretty cool, how these big high rises just come out of the jungle nearby. We needed to lean our first lesson on cabs and now we are skilled negotaitors and have not spent very much money at all.
Overall Kuala Lumpur had beautiful sprawling palm tree jungles and that was my favorite part!
The city was pretty cool, how these big high rises just come out of the jungle nearby. We needed to lean our first lesson on cabs and now we are skilled negotaitors and have not spent very much money at all.
Overall Kuala Lumpur had beautiful sprawling palm tree jungles and that was my favorite part!
Seeing my Manoja!
Namaste everybody!
Today I got to go and meet in person my precious Manoja Santhoshappa. We got picked up at 7am and driven out to his village which was an hour away. We were in the backseat of a small car and the bumpiest road in the world with the world's worst driver. Needless to say those who know me well know that I was pretty sick the whole ride. Once we pulled up to the projuect in manoja's village it all disappeared. All the 240 kids of the Compassion project of that village were lined up ready to sing to us and throw flowers at our feet. Talk about feeling special. We received wonderful smelling garlands around our necks and they all cheered and a band played, it was like a little parade in our honor. We got to go inside and hear all about the project and the children. Then the moment arrived where I would see him. He walked into the room and he is so cute!! I thought for sure he would look so different but there he was still this precious boy with the biggest eyes I had ever seen. It took everything in my power to not run over and give him a huge hug (which would have been severely inappropriate here). We chatted a little, but he and I have so much in common.....he is terribly shy, he lost his father last year, and he loves to sing.
They took us into the chapel and the kids screamed and started singing a beautiful worship song in English. We got introduced and some girls did a dance for us. We sang a worship song and then Manoja sang a song to me!!! It was one of the greatest moments in the world. We got up to say encouraging words to the kids and I prayed for all of them in front of everyone.
Next we went to see Manoja's house and neighborhood. He lives in a one room hut with two beds and meager possessions. They did have a small tv though which suprised me!
They fed us cake and gave us tons of exotic fruits. I got excited over having a pommegranite and everyone thought that was funny.
We were asked so many questions about America and our families. I asked lots on what they do for fun and how old they were. I gave Manoja his presents and he loved the bubble gum (props mom and john) and he looked so happy. I found out that I was the first person in the whole project to visit their sponsored child! They took so many pictures of me and of Emily that we were dizzy.
Seeing him and being able to talk to him gave me so much joy that I want to do more. I want him to reach his dream of becoming a teacher and helping others. I am so emotional!!!!
Lastly we ate a delicous authentic South Indian meal made by the village women (we could be paying for that later) and said our goodbyes and I said one last prayer for Manoja and his family and the project.
It has been such a beautiful day to be alive!Now we fly to Chennai to see the sights and maybe find Emily's boy.
I love you and miss you all very much!
~Michelle
Today I got to go and meet in person my precious Manoja Santhoshappa. We got picked up at 7am and driven out to his village which was an hour away. We were in the backseat of a small car and the bumpiest road in the world with the world's worst driver. Needless to say those who know me well know that I was pretty sick the whole ride. Once we pulled up to the projuect in manoja's village it all disappeared. All the 240 kids of the Compassion project of that village were lined up ready to sing to us and throw flowers at our feet. Talk about feeling special. We received wonderful smelling garlands around our necks and they all cheered and a band played, it was like a little parade in our honor. We got to go inside and hear all about the project and the children. Then the moment arrived where I would see him. He walked into the room and he is so cute!! I thought for sure he would look so different but there he was still this precious boy with the biggest eyes I had ever seen. It took everything in my power to not run over and give him a huge hug (which would have been severely inappropriate here). We chatted a little, but he and I have so much in common.....he is terribly shy, he lost his father last year, and he loves to sing.
They took us into the chapel and the kids screamed and started singing a beautiful worship song in English. We got introduced and some girls did a dance for us. We sang a worship song and then Manoja sang a song to me!!! It was one of the greatest moments in the world. We got up to say encouraging words to the kids and I prayed for all of them in front of everyone.
Next we went to see Manoja's house and neighborhood. He lives in a one room hut with two beds and meager possessions. They did have a small tv though which suprised me!
They fed us cake and gave us tons of exotic fruits. I got excited over having a pommegranite and everyone thought that was funny.
We were asked so many questions about America and our families. I asked lots on what they do for fun and how old they were. I gave Manoja his presents and he loved the bubble gum (props mom and john) and he looked so happy. I found out that I was the first person in the whole project to visit their sponsored child! They took so many pictures of me and of Emily that we were dizzy.
Seeing him and being able to talk to him gave me so much joy that I want to do more. I want him to reach his dream of becoming a teacher and helping others. I am so emotional!!!!
Lastly we ate a delicous authentic South Indian meal made by the village women (we could be paying for that later) and said our goodbyes and I said one last prayer for Manoja and his family and the project.
It has been such a beautiful day to be alive!Now we fly to Chennai to see the sights and maybe find Emily's boy.
I love you and miss you all very much!
~Michelle
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Kuala Lumpur=Hell on Earth
Soo yesterday we had a long layover in Malaysia. We were so excited to go see the Two Towers and walk around by the ocean (which we were told was right nect tothe towers). We got downtown and were hot and tired and hungry. We tried to find the ocean ( again not there) and went into the towers to eat. I got McDonalds and Emily got something local (go her) and it was so good. We hopped in a taxi to go back to stay in the hotel the airline offered us for the day because we were so frustrated by the lack of ocean and the heat and the rude people. The taxi driver screwed us out of our money (kinda) and we sat arguing with him for a long long time. His meter was faulty and apparently a ten minute ride racked us up to 80US. Shady huh? I said "You drove us in circles and your meter is faulty" and he said something that made it sound like "You are American's you have the money" and Emily went on to say that not all Americans are rich and so on and so forth. Finally we gave him all that we "had" which was a lot of Ringitt and a bit of US dollars. In reality according to his meter we only paid like half what we owed but it still was too much.
So we got back and slept at the hotel by the airport till our flight took off. The only cool thing about it was all the security guards at the airport were younger looking than us and carried around MACHINE GUNS! I felt like I was in a movie.
Needless to say I will never come back here again. Taiwan was cooler.
Love you all!
So we got back and slept at the hotel by the airport till our flight took off. The only cool thing about it was all the security guards at the airport were younger looking than us and carried around MACHINE GUNS! I felt like I was in a movie.
Needless to say I will never come back here again. Taiwan was cooler.
Love you all!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Bangalore!!
HEY!!
So we made it safely to Bangalore! Yay! Our hotel is awesome thanks to Emily's dad :) This has been quite an adventure and it didn't hit me that we are doing this until this morning walking the streets of Bangalore. We both are feeling really healthy. Emily got a bit of a cold on the plane rides just from going up and down in pressure so much.
We have done a lot of wandering today and plan to try and see the botanical gardens later. Tomorrow morning we are driving out to see my Manoja so we are very excited about that. It is hilarious how the locals are staring at us and laughing. I don't see what is so funny!!
Our hotel gave us free breakfast and it was cool to get donuts and croissants and chocolate flakes? which were yum yum.
We have taken a few rides in the auto rickshaws and it is pretty scary. All they do is honk and expect anyone around them to move out of their way. There is no concept of lanes, traffic signals, or direction. We were walking before but we were too likely to get hit by a speeding motorcycle (which is the main use of transportation by EVERYONE here).
Okay I gotta go I will write once we get to Chennai tomorrow night.
I love you so much Mom, Andy and John and I miss you guys a lot!
Talk to you soon, cheers!
So we made it safely to Bangalore! Yay! Our hotel is awesome thanks to Emily's dad :) This has been quite an adventure and it didn't hit me that we are doing this until this morning walking the streets of Bangalore. We both are feeling really healthy. Emily got a bit of a cold on the plane rides just from going up and down in pressure so much.
We have done a lot of wandering today and plan to try and see the botanical gardens later. Tomorrow morning we are driving out to see my Manoja so we are very excited about that. It is hilarious how the locals are staring at us and laughing. I don't see what is so funny!!
Our hotel gave us free breakfast and it was cool to get donuts and croissants and chocolate flakes? which were yum yum.
We have taken a few rides in the auto rickshaws and it is pretty scary. All they do is honk and expect anyone around them to move out of their way. There is no concept of lanes, traffic signals, or direction. We were walking before but we were too likely to get hit by a speeding motorcycle (which is the main use of transportation by EVERYONE here).
Okay I gotta go I will write once we get to Chennai tomorrow night.
I love you so much Mom, Andy and John and I miss you guys a lot!
Talk to you soon, cheers!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Taiwan?
Hello everybody! Just found a free internet cafe here in the Taiwan airport. We were not told we switched planes heer but it is fun! John this is a shout out to you you are so amazing and I am sorry for yesterday and I can't wait to have you as my stepdad! I love you mommy!! Bye everyone!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Getting Ready!
Hey ya'll!
Yay!! It is the night before I leave and I am packing. Wow nothing much to say yet. I will have lots more soon. :) Emily and I are leaving Sunday night at six and we are flying into Bangalore, India which is in Southern India. I can't wait!!
I have been spending most of the day feeling hungry but not being able to eat because I am so unbelievably nervous. Emily called me and she is feeling the same way right now so just pray for us and our nerves and our worries and safety.
Thanks so much for reading this boring blog....I am not really sure how this works but once I get there and have crazy experiences with Emily you will definately want to read :)
I love you all very much and will miss you!
~Michelle
Yay!! It is the night before I leave and I am packing. Wow nothing much to say yet. I will have lots more soon. :) Emily and I are leaving Sunday night at six and we are flying into Bangalore, India which is in Southern India. I can't wait!!
I have been spending most of the day feeling hungry but not being able to eat because I am so unbelievably nervous. Emily called me and she is feeling the same way right now so just pray for us and our nerves and our worries and safety.
Thanks so much for reading this boring blog....I am not really sure how this works but once I get there and have crazy experiences with Emily you will definately want to read :)
I love you all very much and will miss you!
~Michelle
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