August 22, 2010

Sunday August 22, 2010: After catching up on my sleep, me, Everly (another IES student who is living at my home stay now since her first home stay experience did not go well) and Anisha (another Indian living with us. She works at some government office) we went shopping at GK-1 M Block and N Block Market. I got a really cute skirt and a Kurta (a traditional indian shirt that is good with Indian pants or jeans). After shopping we came back and relaxed and then Everly and I went with Karissa (another IES student who lives down the street from us) to Old Delhi for a food walk. One of our teachers Hemanshu has a food blog and he and his friends go around Delhi and eat at different restaurants and write about it. There was about 30 of us so we had to split up since we were going to Jama Masjid (biggest mosque in India) to break the fast for Ramadan. There were about 15 of us that went into the mosque and we sat 1000s of Muslims preparing food to break the fast once the sun set. When a guy came on the loud speaker everyone started to eat. Even though out group was not keeping the fast we eat some of the food we got and it was really cool to be there while people were praying and eating. However, we heard firecrackers but they were so loud that some people (including me) thought they were bombs but Hemanshu said they were just fire crackers.

Then it started raining! So those of us that were not praying (our group) & other Muslims left while Muslims praying were entering the Mosque that was a bit hectic getting out of the mosque as people were trying to come in. Our group walked to a restaurant to eat dinner. Since the area is mostly Muslims there was meat served. Most of the group ate meat except for five of us (including me) so we were able to eat some veg dishes. The food was ok, not the greatest. After that we went to a place that served Kulfi (Indian ice cream). We had the guy open the shop since he closed it early. It was really good. After that, me, Everly, and karissa went back home since we had to get up early for school.