September 2, 2010

Thursday, I had my classes and then the home stay students went to Cate's (director) house for a dinner to talk about our host families. Some of us decided to take the bus because it was cheaper and we didn't have to be at Cate's until 6:00 and we wanted to hang out at the residence (where we stayed the first week). The bus ride wasn't as bad as I thought. I have heard stories of busses taking 2 & 1/2 hours instead of 40 minutes. On the way to Neeti Bagh (where the residence is and where Cate lives) we saw a camel which was really cool. After hanging out at the residence for about an hour we walked to Cate's house. Cate asked us what we wanted for our dinner and people had a mexican food craving so we had nachos, salsa, and bean burritos. Unfortunately, I was sick so I could only taste the salsa. There is a store in one of the markets that has American foods, but it's the same price as they would be in the states. After that we met the rest of the group at my home stay and my home stay's driver took us to two temples because Thursday was Krishna Janmashtami which is the celebration of the birth of Krishna. It was really cool seeing dancing and singing at the temples. At midnight temples are crowded with people who come in to do the puja (prayer), because Hindus believe Krishna was born at midnight. We did not stay for that because the temples are so crowded it is hard to move. After we visited the two temples we came back and everyone went home.