Germany

July 21, 2011 Right now I'm sitting on flight Delta 14 to Frankfurt for the second time today. After driving 2 and a half hours to Atlanta and then flying toward Germany for about an a hour, I found myself heading back to the Atlanta airport. I have to admit, I felt a little surge of fear when the captain announced that we were heading back to Atlanta due to something that we couldn't fly over the ocean without having checked.  Obviously, I'm glad we turned around if there was something wrong with the plane. They gave us all snack vouchers and scheduled us to leave on a different plane two hours later. So, here I sit with a belly full of pineapple smoothy compliments of Delta, and my second pair of Delta socks on my feet for the day. Hopefully everything will go perfectly smoothly this time and I'll be in Germany in about 9 hours. And I hope my ride will still be able to pick me up! Well, I arrived in Germany with no further delay or problems. Our sponsor's husband was there to pick me up. One of the first things he said was, "so, there was a mouse on the plane!". This was news to news to me, but he said that's what someone in the know told him. 

We had a nice long drive to the house and I got to see how beautiful this part of Germany is. The house we are staying in is set back from the road, in the woods, in a small town outside of Dillenburg. The bedroom and living room have sliding glass doors as the outside walls, so we get a gorgeous view of the lovely back yard at all times.  Most of the time has been spent teaching and then the show, so we haven't done a lot of site seeing. We did visit an old castle, which was really interesting.  The main room of the castle was built in the 1200s and the rest of it was built up and added on to over the years. There was a lot of battle armor and weapons from hundreds of years ago. Full suits of armor, swords, lances, and even armor for the horses.  The rest of the castle was full of original art work from Italy, Spain and Germany, as well as beautiful old furniture and tapestries.  One of the highlights for me was seeing an original Ruebens painting.   We then went to another location where an old castle that was destroyed was rebuilt into a tower that overlooks the town. It was after closing hours so we didn't get to tour the inside but it was interesting to see the site.  The weather has been quite a surprise the whole time we've been here. Even though it's summer, it has been pretty cold most of the time. It was rainy and very cold the first few days, then it warmed up a bit, then got stormy and cold again, etc.  Today it's cold again. This is my last day here so I was planning to walk around Dillenburg, but the weather is threatening to dampen my enthusiasm a bit. Not enough to stop me though.  (very long break in writing here) It turned out that our friends Hannele and Axel were in town for the Teacher Training session, so Axel and I did some sightseeing while Hannele was in the class. We did get to go in the old tower after all. The view of the town from the top was amazing, and the history was quite interesting.  All in all, it was a lovely trip.  Our sponsor, Gabi, was really sweet and I made some new friends while adding another country to the list of places I've been so blessed to be able to visit. 

New York, New York

I'm officially hijacking my own blog. This blog was previously called "Megha in India", but I'm going to use this space to add posts from all of my travels now. Let's see if I can keep up with it.

I'm at the airport now, waiting for my flight home after a weekend of workshops and a show organized by Mimi Fontana of Manhattan Tribal. I have to say, she did a really fab job of organizing everything. The show was in a nice little theatre and had a good lineup that seemed to last just long enough to keep everyone's attention and leave them wanting more. The workshops were held in a super great studio in Manhattan with lovely, high windows on two sides and good floors. This place was like a huge office building of studios. They had so many studios that they had big monitors up on the wall in the lobby with the studio numbers and events on them, like airport flight monitors. People were rehearsing and auditioning for all kinds of shows. It was a really great place with a lot of excitement in the air. The students in our classes were such a great group. It seemed like the whole weekend just flew by and everybody was happy with how it all went.

I have had such a pleasant experience on this trip. Every single person I've had any dealings with has been so nice. From the waiters in the restaurants to the cab drivers and the airport staff, they've all been kind and courteous. And to top it off, there was a weird cool spell in the city this weekend, so the weather was incredible, too. My only regret is that I didn't make plans to see a show while I was here. Next time I will definitely plan ahead for that.

To top it all off, I got to eat at, or order from, four.... Yes, that's right... Four different vegan restaurants while here! Considering that there isn't one single vegan restaurant in the entire state of Alabama, this was thrilling for me. In fact, I have a vegan coconut donut in my bag waiting for me right now. Hmmm, I think I'll end here and have it now. ;-)

Next up... Gerrmany....

Catching up

I'm so behind on my journaling.  So much has happened since my last post. 

On January 13th, one of our cousin-sisters husbands put on a huge program in Udupi.  There is a dance drama art form from Karnataka called Yakshagana.  It's a bit like a folkloric style of Katakali, which is a classical dance form.  It's only performed by men.  The productions tell the stories from the Maha Bharata and Bagavad Gita.  This particular production told the story of how the Goddess Kali destroys the demons that are reeking havoc in the heavens and on Earth.  It's really a beautiful story, which I have read but not seen performed all the way through.  My Sasu managed to stay for the entire program which lasted from about 5pm (when we met at the temple and paraded the Goddess statue from the temple to the place of the program) till about 6:00am the next morning.  I only made it to midnight.  This event was huge.  It looked like all of Udupi came out for it.  People were vending balloons and snacks out front, it was so big. 

On January 16th we boarded the train to Mumbai.  We were trying to get 2 tier A/C seats but we ended up in 3 tier instead.  That means there were 6 beds in the compartment.  With all of our luggage and 6 people it was a pretty tight fit.  I was struck by how people here don't think anything about playing music from their phones very loudly without earplugs.  Apparently it's not a big deal, but when you're trying to sleep it's pretty annoying.  Anyhow, we survived the train trip and arrived in Mumbai early in the morning.  I was shocked at how little traffic congestion there was on the road.  They have made a lot of improvements in the roads in Mumbai since last time I was here.  It was quite a pleasant surprise. 

We spent a day with our niece Priya and her husband and son.  We had quite a nice time with them.  She made saag tofu and peas pulao for Jasmine that was really good.  It turns out that her neighbor across the hall is an amazing henna artist.  She did incredible henna for me and Jasmine.  People everywhere we went were commenting on how good it was.  There will definitely be pics of that. 

Stayed tuned for the next chapter of this saga where DeAnna arrives in India and we make it to Pushkar......

Accidental cashew butter and washing our sins away

So, it turns out that Indian cooks have known for a loooong time what I only recently learned.  You can use cashews to make foods creamy.  Every kitchen I've seen in India has a mixer/grinder.  I mean every one, without exception.  They use them daily for making chutnies and gravies.  Let me pause here to explain the concept of Indian gravy.  Any kind of sauce that you cook your veggies or meats in is called a gravy.  Now, I'm a southerner, so when I think of gravy I think of a very savory sauce to pour over biscuits.  Here's another interesting tidbit, biscuits in India are not "biscuits" as we know them in the US.  They're cookies.  It's a hold over from the British colonization.  So, can you imagine Vikas's surprise and confusion the first time he was asked by passengers on the cruise ship he worked on in the US, "Don't you have biscuits and gravy for breakfast?"  LOL 
Anyway, I digress.  Back to the cashew butter.  I was trying to make a tomato - cashew gravy the other night because ever since I had it at our cousin's house in Bangalore I'd had a terrible craving for it.  So, I put a handful of cashews and a tiny bit of water into the mixer and turned it on.  I let it run for 10 or 14 seconds and when I opened it I was totally surprised to see cashew butter.  Who knew it was so easy to make?  That stuff cost a fortune when you buy it in a jar at home.  So, I used half of it in the tomato gravy (which is divine, btw) and ended up making little truffles from the other half.  I just mixed it with some shredded coconut and drinking chocolate powder and it was really good.  The first few I coated with a chocolate syrup, but then I ended up using the chocolate powder in the mix and both was were super yummy.

A few days ago on the morning of the new moon I had a first time experience here.  There's a custom here that on the 7th new moon of the hindu calendar you go to the sea to wash your sins away.  So, we got up at 4:00am to leave the house at 4:45 to drive down to the beach.  Our cousin Satish and his family took us.  There were 8 of us total.  The custom is to go to the sea, wade out into the water and let 5 waves wash over you to wash all your sins of the year away.  It's also supposed to cure all skin problems.  So, we did it.  First Vikas and Satish took Sasu and Anu out.  Then they came back and took Jasmine, Satish's son and me out.  Well, Jasmine lasted about 30 seconds and demanded to go back to the beach.  The fact that it was still dark outside and you couldn't see in the water at all completely freaked her out.  That caused Satish's little boy to demand to be taken back as well.   So finally, Vikas and I waded out and waited for the waves.  And waited.  Finally one small one came and we ducked under it.  Then we waited again.  And waited.  And waited.  It seemed that all the waves were going to either side of where we were.  So we moved to one side and waited.  And waited.  Then we moved to the other side and waited.  And waited.  And finally, we got our 4 final dips under the waves.  It was a bit chilly standing there in the water early in the morning in soaking wet clothes.  But, we did it.  There was a tented off area set up for the women to change clothes in so that was helpful.  By the time we got finished and got back home, the sun still wasn't up.  Apparently, if you wait till sunrise there are about 50,000 people on the beach at once.  There were probably several hundred when we were there.  It was interesting to see all the people walking and biking to and from the beach in the wee hours of the morning.  It was definitely a unique experience for me. 

Now, back to the kitchen.  Vikas and I found some vegan mayonnaise at the big store here a few days ago.  It was in the import section and it was labeled as "diet" mayonnaise.  I guess that makes sense, since leaving out the eggs and milk would drastically reduce the calories.  So, we decided to give it a try.  The next day we made tomato sandwiches for a snack.  O. M. G.  I can't tell you how happy I was to have a tomato sandwich after almost 3 months.  Again, I'm a southerner, and tomato sandwiches were a staple snack for me growing up.  Plus, having creamy food options made without eggs and dairy is a huge part of what helped me finally make the progression from vegetarian to vegan after so many years.  At home I can get mayo, milk, creamer, ice cream, etc, all vegan and it's pretty easy.  In India is has been a bit more challenging.  Vegetarian is easy here but vegan is a new concept.  Anyway, I got my good old tomato sandwich and it was soooo satisfying.  Yum.

Well, I'm off to work on more costuming.  I've been very busy making belts and working on cholis and I have a lot left to do.  Leave me some comments so I know you're out there. ;-)