What's the date?

Hello friends, so sorry to keep you waiting!  I was in a city without internet access, but do not fret, I am here.  I have a lot to cover so bear with me, or just look at the pictures.  That's fine, too

Monday, December 31, 2012

In the morning we visited the site of one of our sponsor organization, Laurie Baker Center.  We toured around that campus for a while.  First we listened to a man named Ar. P B Sajan talk about the background of the Laurie Baker Center and about the history of Laurie Baker.  We had a coconut water break with vanilla cookies (NOMS).  Then we listened to another speaker, Dr. K P Kannan.  First he talked generally about India and discussed a variety of topics including: culture, religion, political parties, languages, population dynamics, education, social systems, and land distributions, which was very interesting.  Then he talked about four important transitions that are occurring in India right now: demographic transition, health transition, transition from agrarian to non-agrarian, and educational transition.  He briefly talked about the next transition that will occur which is the change from rural to urban habitat.  We also met a student, Logan, who has been living at the center since September to do research.  He went on the India Winterim last winter where he was first introduced to the Laurie Baker Center and decided he wanted to spend more time working with them.  He told us about his experience here and that he received a job offer as a professor here.  After these talks, we had lunch at the center where I learned how to eat with my hands (Don't worry, I washed them).  After lunch, we had a final brief lecture by Ar. P B Sajan.  He introduced us to the Center for Development Studies (CDS) project.  After the introduction, we packed in the van and traveled to the CDS.  We toured the center’s library and some other small buildings then had a snack of chai tea (noms) and fried bananas.  Then we went back to our hotel for about 5 minutes and then left again.  We took a long drive to the Sagara Beach Resort where we spent our New Years Eve on Kovalam Beach on the Arabian Sea.  The beach was so pretty and there were touristy shops all along the strip.  When we got there, there was dancing going on.  There was a traditional dance that I could not follow at all, and then there were dances by children.  There were these two boys who were up next to dance and the DJ kept putting on the wrong song.  So they were standing up there forever.  He finally got the song correct and they started doing their dance.  Then he changed the song and kept scrolling through songs!  I felt bad for those boys.  They ended up just stepping off the stage and not getting to do their dance.  After that we ate dinner there and then went along the beach and walked in the water and looked through all of the shops.  Spending the New Year on the beach was wonderful.  Unfortunately, my camera died this day and I only got one picture:

It's of a rubber tree at the LBC.  The sap runs down and collects in the coconut shell and then they turn it into rubber.

I found an adaptor for my chargers so I will have plenty more pictures for the rest of the trip.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Tuesday was a pretty low-key day.  We traveled to Kanyakumari in the state Tamil Nadu, which is the southern-most tip of India.  This is where the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean meet.  Before we got there, we stopped at Padmanabhapuram Palace.  It was beautiful. 

Courtyard before entering and mountains

Entrance to courtyard from inside

The front of the Palace

Windows looking out to the front of the palace.  They can see out, but no one can see in.

Where the King and Queen bathed.

Oh, look, that's me.

The name of this is "Nagini". So obviously I took a picture

Statue

Then we got lunch at a little stop called Sri Gowri Shankar.  We ate our food off of banana leaves and with our hands.  On our way to the city, we were stopped at a bridge and we look out the windows and there is a policeman pulling a mans arm while he is on a motorcycle, trying to stop them.  There were three people on the bike and apparently that is restricted  Afterwards we checked into a hotel in the city, and then went exploring.

Our hotel in Kanyakumari

Fishing boats

Beach area

They're kissing!

Am I immature? Whatever, I laughed.  STD is a telephone booth by the way.

There were copious amounts of little shops to look through.  I was with 4 other people when we were starting to leave one shop when this child snapped something toward Katie and Dana.  At first I thought it was a firecracker until I looked.  There was a whole family, which I can only describe as gypsies, because that is what they reminded me of.  They were making such a racket in the street.  We ran inside the shop to get away from them and they followed us in!!  Thankfully, the owners shooed them out.  We then had to devise a plan to get around them in the streets.  It was definitely a bizarre moment.  This city is much more chaotic than Trivandrum.  There are so many more people, since it is a tourist area and there are also just a lot of people living there.  It is pretty upsetting to see some living conditions.  Here we saw people sleeping on the streets with little to nothing and children taking care of children, among other things. After we were done walking around we ate dinner at a restaurant across from our hotel, and then went to watch the sunset on the water.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Today was another low-key day.  We woke up to watch the sunrise on the water, but there were clouds in the way.  Then we went to stand in what is apparently the world’s longest line.  A line for the ferryboats to take us to the Vivekananda temple on a small island off the coast.  I believe we stood in line for about 2 hours.  There were people walking around trying to sell ray bans, pearl necklaces, maps, and some other odds and ends to us.  Our professor had a blast haggling with these people.  The ferry ride was really short to the temple and we only spent about 30 minutes there.

After the visit to the temple we began to head back to Trivandrum.  On the way “home” we stopped to see a Hindu temple and had lunch at the same restaurant as yesterday.  Throughout the drives between Kanyakumari and Trivandrum, there was beautiful scenery, rice paddy fields, tapioca fields, banana fields, cows, goats, and so much to see it’s impossible to include everything. 

Fruit, nom!

Creepy. Trash bin

Cady, Misty, Dana

On the ferryboat

World's Longest line ever

Still in line..

the Temple

Hindu temple