random holiday rumblings

Ever since I learned about it, I've known that Thanksgiving is an American holiday. But it never really clicked with me until I moved overseas. Our first Thanksgiving here, Priya asked me what exactly Thanksgiving was about. I began telling her how some people sailed to America on a big boat. She cut me off and asked, "Noah's boat?" Last week, Jaya asked me to explain in detail, which was a great opportunity to share with her. The day of Thanksgiving, I saw Doctor, our neighbor, and he asked me about the holiday, too. I thought I did a good job explaining it, but I guess with his worldview, a few minutes' explanation just wasn't enough:

Doctor: So you will go to an office to give thanks?
Me: Not today, no. We will give thanks in our home, because we believe we can speak to the boss anywhere.
Doctor: Oh yes, we too believe the boss is in everything.

Hm, not exactly what I said. I've come a ways from confusing Noah and the Pilgrims, but it seems I still have kinks to work out.

Okay, so we know it's officially Christmas season now! Husband and I decorated last night. We have some pretty pathetic Christmas decorations, that not only border on, but go right on through to Tackyland. But I put them up anyway, because to me, it's better than nothing. And next year, when I have access to good Christmas decorations again, I have full intentions of rectifying the situation.

But for now, we'll make do with our super skinny and leaning tree. And we have no real tree topper. I saw we had some leftover ribbon, so I made a lame attempt at topping the tree with some bows. Then husband saw a certain ornament that my mom gave us, and we just knew this would be topping our tree. Please, please tell me, those of you from other states, that you too have state-pride ornaments on your trees? Otherwise, I'm just as obnoxious as I try not to be.

In my pregnant clumsiness, I dropped our nativity scene a few weeks ago, and several of the ceramic pieces broke. Fortunately, the three main characters stayed in tact, as well as a sheep. But a shepherd and a cow broke. Considering where I live, I found that kind of humorous. Anyway I didn't have a place to put our nativity scene, so I finally settled on our 'Africa table.' Didn't you know that giraffes and Masai warriors were also at that stable long ago?

byob - bring your own bird!

This year, our Capital team decided it would be much easier if all the families just brought their own chickens to the Thanksgiving lunch. So since husband has been having fun all week using his new tandoor, of course we brought tandoori chicken!

The night before Thanksgiving, we had some friends over to grill in our backyard...all of which takes on a new meaning here, when a grill looks like a bucket and a backyard is about 8x8 with concrete flooring.

Here they are gathered around the grill.


Husband taught them how to make naan. If I had to guess, I think naan translates to "little pieces of heavenly bread." :)


The chicken we took to the Thanksgiving feast. Since the grill gets about 700 degrees inside, this entire chicken took only 15 minutes to cook all the way through.


After lunch, a lot of us went down to the park to play/watch a good game of American football. Husband somehow managed to keep his new white shirt from getting dirty.


And since we looked odd because a.) we were playing a game that wasn't cricket, and b.) there were a lot of Westerners in one place, we drew some spectators. I wonder what they thought of the game?

I can't say enough how much of a blessing it is to have a 'family' over here. We miss our families in the states so much, especially at holidays. I still miss the fun Thanksgiving traditions we have with our families back home, like kick the can, going to the lake, and trying to accurately make Mema's dressing (this year I didn't put enough poultry seasoning in it, and also made it too dry - there's always hope for next year!), and our family here can't replace that. So having a family over here keeps us from going crazy from loneliness. We thank the boss for these wonderful, fun, and creative people!

put on your saree...

...it's time to celebrate Diwali!

(I love that episode of The Office!)

Here are some pics from Diwali - the Festival of Lights. We went to Jaya's house to watch how they celebrate.

Our street all lit up

A sobering reminder


Jaya's mother's home, complete with hanging marigolds and the flower decorations on the ground. The designs are always so beautiful.

Jaya told me the colorful decorations on the ground are so the goddess of wealth will visit the home that year. She had about 5 of these on her driveway and patio. Some were made of flowers (like this one), some of colored powder, and all had candles around them.

The crackers are the main attraction. Husband estimates that their family spent around $500 on crackers! It was quite the show. They wouldn't let me get close, and I had to sit almost the whole time, because of my 'delicate situation.' Every year, so many crackers go off all over the city that it sounds like a war-zone.

wedding time!

Remember the bridal shower from a few weeks ago? Last night was the wedding! It was a lot of fun for several reasons: 1, we know the bride and groom well. 2, we knew a lot of the guests. 3, the ceremony wasn't at 2am!

The mother-of-the-bride (Auntie) told me ahead of time that the wedding would be very small - only about 400 guests! Now, my own wedding was considered huge by American standards with 300 guests, so even though I'd been to two South Asian weddings at that point, it still shocked me. I asked Auntie how many guests were at her wedding, and she said about 750! I posed the same question to another lady who was listening to our conversation, and she agreed that about 800 guests were at her own wedding! I guess I had conveniently forgotten how many people were at the other weddings I had been to.

The bride and groom about to cut the cake. This wasn't the cake we ate, nor could this small cake have fed the 350+ guests. Instead, they passed around South Asia's favorite cake - fruit cake! :) I'm not sure where this cake ended up:

Sorry for the dust spots in the pictures. Our pixel-thingy catches the dust particles, and it drives husband nuts:
Here is a picture of two of our good friends that also happen to be gorgeous! The one of the left is the sister of the bride:

The happy couple!:

mehendi

Yesterday was the festival where women dress up in their really nice clothes, sometimes their bridal wear, and fast for the long lives of their husbands. Last year, I spent some time with Priya on this festival, and she surprised me by eating apples and sweets and other things while fasting. So this year, I was expecting Jaya to do the same, but she keeps a complete fast from sun up to sun down. She woke up around 4, did a pooja (special worship) and then had a big breakfast. She didn't have anything to eat or drink again until 5pm, after she did her second pooja and then had some milk. Around 8pm, she and her husband went to a special spot where the moon is showing, and they did the moon pooja, then had dinner. I didn't watch, but she and her husband told me that they take a flour sifter, hold it up to the moon, and then to the husband's face. When I asked what it meant, they said they weren't sure. (If you watched the Bollywood dance video several posts back, they celebrated this festival in the song)

On Sunday I went to Jaya's to get mehendi done. Her husband did a very sweet gesture, surprising her by hiring someone to come to the house to do it. Mehendi is henna. It's done for festivals and weddings, and is considered very beautiful, like jewelry. When I get it done, I am always so happy I live in South Asia because it's so fun to be a woman here at times like that! It goes on in a thick paste and hardens, and you have to let it stay on for awhile before letting the pieces fall off. When it comes off, the henna is light orange, but by the next day, it's a dark brown, and stays on for several days or weeks. Here is Jaya, her sister-in-law, and me showing off our mehendi. Between the white skin and almost 9 month pregnant belly, I bet you can't guess which one is me! ;) Jaya actually told me while we were getting our mehendi done that I was "so lucky" because my mehendi would show up so dark on my fair skin. I had to laugh at the irony of our two cultures, both wanting what we don't have!

festival season

I talk about it a lot, but I don't think I've ever elaborated on Festival Season. The time frame depends on the lunar cycle. This year, it's mainly in October and ends with a bang (or a cracker!) in early November for the Festival of Lights.

First, there is Nine Nights, a festival that is celebrated for, you guessed it, nine nights. It's going on right now. Each day, a different goddess is worshiped. In the middle of the Nine Nights is a 2-4 days festival and worship time for the goddess who they believe is kinda like the mother goddess, and who represents femininity but is depicted as a warrior. The devout will fast during this time, but it's not the same type of fasting we know in the States. They actually eat a lot of what they call fasting foods. Apparently people end up gaining weight during their fasting, so there was an article in the paper the other day to give tips to those fasting on how to not gain weight...during a fast.

Then, on the 10th Night, another festival is celebrated as the culmination of the 9 other nights. People will build a large effigy of a legendary evil guy who was defeated by the good guys (again, according to legend) and then they all gather and watch the evil guy burn. I've been seeing lots of these large statues being made all over the city. We passed some yesterday on the road to Kishori's.

Several days after the 10th Night, there is the Husband/Wife Celebration. That's the day many women dress up in fancy clothes or bridal gear, fast all day (again... often a different type of fast), then they worship the moon and eat dinner with their husbands. And then finally, The Festival of Lights. It's the biggest celebration of the year.

I can't forget to add in a very important celebration that took place yesterday (which happened to also be the most auspicious day of festival season, according to Jaya). It was My Birthday! :) I was so surprised at how many gifts and treats I received this year - much more than last year or the year before! Since I went out to Kishori's yesterday with my supervisor and our friend who does translation work for us, they both brought me gifts. Then Kishori had everyone there eat a sweet in honor of my birthday and she also gave me a new suit! When I got home, our neighbor had brought a mousse cake to us because it was his birthday too, and then Jaya came over. She brought me a black forest cake, which she made us all feed to each other while taking pictures! She also gave me a new suit and some flowers. Such sweet gestures from my national friends!

Husband took me on a date last night to a nice East Asian restaurant. Then we went to another cafe for dessert. Both places look really fancy but are much cheaper than you'd think! At the cafe, I got even more chocolate. Except for a small nibble this week, I haven't had chocolate or sweets at all in 7 weeks! So you can imagine that the entire day was a shock to my system. I wasn't even able to finish all my dessert (sacrilege!) because I so full of sugar already. It was a great birthday!

bridal shower

Today I hosted a bridal shower! It was a lot of fun, but I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about it. I was wondering what cultural faux pas I was going to commit today without even realizing it. Were the red and gold flowers I bought actually a symbol of death in the culture? Did having an odd number of chairs mean I wished them bad luck? Was it wrong to serve coffee before chai? I had no clue, and honestly, if I did something wrong, I'll probably never know it anyway.

The hard part was that I was throwing somewhat of a third culture bridal shower, because the bride is South Asian, but she is a cousin, and she is also very Western. So for example, on the invitations (which were just printed on regular paper and passed out to everyone at the office), I was going to put this picture of bridal mehendi, until husband wisely suggested I call her sister just to double check if this picture was appropriate. I did, and her sister kindly told me that the wedding was going to be about as Western as it gets - white gown, no bangles, no mehendi, etc. So the invitations turned out like this.

The shower was pretty much last minute, a thought from some ladies in the English weekly group I attend. I offered our house, and since my "American cookies" (chocolate chip :) were specially requested, I made those. But other ladies chipped in with South Asian snacks and cake, so I really didn't do much. Another lady led a time of special requests for the upcoming wedding and marriage, and then the bride's sister led us in some games. There were about 20 ladies in attendance. Sounds a lot like American bridal showers, wouldn't you agree?

What's a bridal shower without food?

The mother of the bride is Auntie. (For those of you who read the baby blog, she is the same one who is loaning us the awesome baby crib) She was videoing all day.

The bride was asked to reenact the proposal.

The toilet paper bridal gown game transcends all borders. She's beautiful, isn't she?

birthday party

We went to a good friends' birthday party last week. It was at their house about an hour and a half from ours, almost across the state border. They told us it started at 7pm, and we thought that meant South Asian time, so we left at 6:15. But they had already started the celebration by the time we got there! This family all received such joyful hearts a few years ago, and so of course the party started with wholehearted and jubilant music. It was so loud, we could hear it as we came down the street!


So this is what we arrived to:

I'm in here - can you find me?


What about husband? ;)


After the music and speaking (husband was asked to speak too) we gathered on their patio for ice cream, and sang "Happy Birthday" about 3 times!: Later, some guys even asked husband to show them how to play it on the guitar, so then we all sang it again! After cake, we had dinner and sat around and talked. I had lots of language practice that night! They wouldn't let husband and I leave without making us take home enough leftovers for a week.

And here is a little boy who was there that kept showing me his picture on his mom's camera phone: Something funny about South Asia (and East Africa too!) is that the people may not have a lot of money, but they always have nicer cell phones than us.

festival of colors

The people in the Capital are a lot more serious about their holi celebrations than those in the Himalayas. The main reason is because it's still really, really cold in the mountains in March, and here, it feels very spring-like. Holi is celebrated during a full moon, so last year it was Mid-March. We celebrated with Priya and her family, and we used only powdered dye, and then raced back inside to change and wrap up, because it started to hail. But we watched on TV how the crazies in the Capital were dancing around as people hosed them down in dye and water.

Well this year, we got to see that for ourselves! Not that we ourselves are celebrating, but I've been outside a bit watching everything going on. All week, we've been dodging water balloons! I've only been hit once, from one of the neighbor boys across the street, but husband has already been hit 3 times! The boys (and we've even seen girls!) will hang out on their balconies, waiting for innocent passers-by to pelt with water balloons from their vantage point! My friend, Jaya, told me to not even think of going outside on the actual day of holi! Here are pics of the snipers in action:I took this right before he dumped a bucket of water on some kids!

Our next door neighbors' son. Notice the water gun, poised in the air!

But this morning, when I heard screams and shouts in the park behind our house, I just couldn't resist. I thought I'd climb to the roof to get some pics, but when I snuck up there, the boy who lives in our building was up there, filling up water balloons. Luckily he didn't see me, so I quietly retraced my steps. I opened our back gate and took a few pics before retreating pretty quickly when our next door neighbor came running up with a water gun:

Then I watched from the garden as brightly colored boys and men walked up and down our street. Here are the pics I've taken so far today as I've cowered under roofs and awnings, like a spy in a paintball game:

holi cow!

On our way out to eat last night to celebrate a friend's bday, we saw an unusual sight on our street. This weekend is the celebration of holi, the festival of colors. It celebrates the arrival of spring, and people buy powdered dye to throw on each other. On our street, someone had made a little bonfire which had drawn 6 cows to it. And then someone had decorated the cows with the dye! Holi cow!

yea for south asia!

This past weekend was a holiday that celebrates when major nations around the world recognized this country as a sovereign nation. We celebrated by going to watch the big parade. The day was pretty funny because our plans were changed all day. We couldn't go to the main show because they don't allow cameras there, and we didn't want to go without a camera. Our thinking on that was we'll have next year to go without a camera. So we tried for the end of the route, which seemed like a good idea at first. But after going through security, we were told we couldn't bring cameras through there, either. So we began walking. We didn't know where we were walking, but we had quite a big group with us, so walking wasn't too bad. Our friends had the idea to try to climb to the top of a building and sit on the roof and watch the parade, but the buildings had been closed. After quite a few turns and questions, we finally found a road where the parade went by. This place, since it was more out of the way, allowed cameras, and we found a place to stand. We didn't have any flags though, and husband and I wanted to wave around some flags and show some spirit. I saw a little girl with a flag, so I decided to go ask the woman that was with her where they had bought it. I even practiced how to say it first..."Where did you buy the flag?" When I questioned, she immediately responded in perfect English, "Oh her school gave it to her." She asked me to sit with them, and fed me juice and french fries. She was great to talk to and invited me back, so I am looking forward to hanging out with her and her family.

After waiting about an hour, the parade came down the road! It was so cool, I had never been so proud of this country before. There's just something about parades. I had read in the paper several articles on the days leading up to this day that the people, while very patriotic, are not outspoken about their love for the country. I witnessed this first hand while the military men from different states marched down the road. We crazy Americans were yelling and clapping, though, and it wore off on the those standing around us. Eventually they began to cheer and clap as well. It was so cool to see the different states' military. One state known for their turban-wearing came by with big bright red turbans on every man. Another state, located in the desert, came by riding on camels. And the most surprising one to me, the military men from the Himalayas came by with snow-skis strapped to their backs! The military here marches with very swinging arm motions, so that was interesting to see. Also, each unit had a band following them. The desert brigade's band also rode on the camels! It was definitely a first for me to see a man playing a tuba riding on a camel. The different states and some government organizations had made floats as well representing what they do. They were very creative, and we were all blown away by how well put together everything was. Some states had tigers and jungles, some had temples, some had people dancing or making clay pots. One, representing some kind of national safety organization, had people going through a metal detector! Kinda weird for a parade float, but it did give them visibility.

After the parade, a family invited us over for chai and sweets, so all 9 of us trooped over to their house. It was actually in a fire station.

Here are some pics from the parade. Remember, these are just a few of the floats!