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. ;-)

Back in Udupi

Well, we finished up our trip to Kolkata with a stomach virus.  Jasmine and I both got it.  She had it worse, but I had it longer.  We were able to make the trip back to Bangalore thanks to medications and first class train tickets.  We ended up spending an extra couple of days in Bangalore, though.  The overnight buses don't have bathrooms and don't have scheduled stops.  So, we got to spend an extra couple of days with our neice, her husband and their 18 months old son.  We had a really nice time with them.  On the day that I thought I was over the bug, we went to a "safari" at a wildlife rescue center.  It was pretty cool.  This place rescues and rehabilitates wild animals and then releases them back into the wild.  We saw lions, tigers (including white tigers), bears, dear, buffalo, and antelope.  They also had a butterfly garden which was really cool.  I generally don't go to zoos because the animals there are often captured in the wild under bad circumstances and sold to zoos for recreational purposes.  I don't want to pay people to do that.  So, whenever we get a chance to visit a wildlife rehabilitation facility we jump on it.  We drove through the park in a shuttle van which was wrapped in protective wires.  When we got to the tiger section they had a double lock gate for security.  We drove in through the first gate which was then shut and locked behind us before the second gate was opened for us to go through.  They can't have tigers wandering into the other areas, so this is part of the safety precautions.  Overall, it was a very nice time.

After having to cancel and change our bus tickets twice, we ended up on an overnight bus again.  This time it wasn't a sleeper though.  It just had nice, comfortable seats that reclined way back.  It was actually much more comfortable than being on the top bunk of the sleeper bus.  I also took some motion sickness meds before we left which pretty much knocked me out so the trip was much quicker than I expected.  I think it was 9 hours. 

So, Jasmine and I are back in Udupi.  Vikas, Vishal and Vilas had to go to Mumbai for a funeral.  One of their uncles passed away while we were in Kolkata so they left yesterday to attend his 13th day ritual.  They had an overnight bus journey, so Vikas has spent a lot of time on buses in the past few days.  They'll leave tomorrow to come back to Udupi.  After that we'll be here until we leave for Rajasthan around the 18th of January.  The weather has cooled off considerably so it's pretty pleasant here now.  I'm not sure what all we'll be doing before we leave again.  I'm working on costuming right now, constructing belts.  That will keep me pretty busy.

Oh, Jamsine has started cooking tomato omelets for herself each day.  For those of you who don't know this yet, the south Indian omelets are made from chickpea flour batter instead of eggs.  Now that Jasmine has learned how to make them she is in the kitchen a couple of times a day asking if she can cook them for herself.  This is a great sign to me.  Soon, she'll be doing a lot of the cooking and Vikas and I will get a break. ;-)

Trains and Temples

We had a nice stay in Bangalore at our cousin's house.  She has 2 daughters so Jasmine was happy.  She warmed up to them very quickly and they got along great.  We were only there for one day but it was a good one.  Our cousin, Chetan, was a bit surprised to learn that Jasmine and I can't eat chilies and was worried to death that the food didn't have any flavor at all every time she cooked for us.  The food was actually delicious every meal.  She was also shocked to see us make tea using coconut milk instead of cow milk.  That's also really good when you have the right proportions, but she didn't believe us and wouldn't try it.  I'm not trying to single her out, though.  This has been the reaction of everyone across the board here.  Milk is such a huge part of the hindu lifestyle that they really have a hard time understanding how you can not have it.  It's an interesting perspective they have.  They feel that they must have milk for 2 reasons.  One is that they believe it's very nourishing,  and the other is that they believe the cow represents the mother, or God, and to refuse the milk is to turn your back on God.  That's my understanding of the situation anyway and I apologize if I got any part of that wrong.)  The sad thing is that the horrendous practice of torturing cows to get large quantities of milk and then slaughtering them once they can longer produce milk have made their way into India now, too.  Most people here aren't aware of that, though.  It used to be that dairy cows were very well treated here, according to everyone we've discussed this with, but along with the "bottom line" mentality of the west that crept into India has come these shameful practices.  Anyway, I digress.  You really stopped here to read about Trains and Temples so let me move on.

The train ride was nice.  The train itself wasn't spectacular, but it was clean and comfortable.  There are 4 beds in each compartment and we ended up not sharing the room with a 4th passenger so we had the entire compartment to ourselves.  It was nice to be able to completely relax and to get up and walk around as much as we wanted to.  They served meals and snacks throughout the journey so we never got hungry.  We saw some beautiful scenery along the way.  There were lots of beautiful green fields, several lakes and rivers and lots of little villages.  At a couple of places along the way we looked out the window and saw these huge piles of boulders all stacked up into mountains.  They seemed to be naturally occurring, but really looked as if some giant had made big stacks of what would have been pebbles to him.  There were a couple of places where you'd see a huge boulder sitting on top of a larger one, balanced on a small corner or something.  I think I got some pictures of that so I'll try to get them uploaded soon.  When we got to the different stations we inevitably saw scenes of things like cows grazing by the railroad tracks and at one station I looked up and saw a huge pig come walking across the tracks.  That was a bit surprising.  I'm used to seeing cows everywhere here but I haven't seen a lot of pigs walking around.  A little further up the way there was a group of pigs, including a nursing mom with a few piglets having a snack.  Oh, and at one station we finally saw some monkeys. 

When we got to the station in Kolkata our niece, Pooja, was there at the train to meet us and we had no trouble getting to the car (which was parked right at the train) and getting to her home.  It's been very nice staying here.  They have a beautiful house with a lovely garden in the back and two Dalmatians.  They also have a parrot, a small pond full of goldfish and a small aviary.  Jasmine has been having the time of her life here.  Every morning the whole family (there are 3 generations living in this house) goes out to the garden to have tea and spend time with the plants and animals.  Jasmine has been going with Pooja's father-in-law to walk the dogs every morning before I even wake up.  We've really been enjoying spending time with Pooja and her new family.  They are really very nice people and we all get along so easily.

The house is only a couple of blocks from the Birla Temple here in Kolkata.  This is a famous temple built by a successful businessman who has erected several of this Krishna temples in different places.  We walked up to the temple yesterday for a visit. It's very beautiful.  The architecture is really interesting and has lots of beautiful carvings all over it.  The energy there was peaceful and relaxed.  We all enjoyed it very much.  However, as many of you probably already know, Kolkata is the land of Kali.  So, we obviously had to visit a Kali temple while we were here.  This morning Pooja's mother-in-law took us to the major Kali temple here in town.  It turns out that Saturday is the day of Kali so it was very, very busy.  Just getting into the temple ground was a bit of a maze.  We made our way up to the actually temple with some effort and squeezed our way in toward the door where we got wedged into a traffic jam of people moving in both directions.  It was really chaos.  Poor Jasmine got so overwhelmed at one point that she started crying.   There was no way we were going to be able to get into the actual room to do puja so we prayed from outside looking toward the Kali (which Jasmine finally got to see by standing up on the ledge but Vikas and I never did) and then made our way out.  It was madness.  So, Auntie took the offerings we got to give at that temple and took us to a smaller temple they call the Lake temple and we did puja there instead.  It was completely different. Very easy going and peaceful but powerful feeling.  When I go to a Kali temple I always get a surge of emotion and energy when I stand before Kali.  That obviously didn't happen at the big temple today, but definitely did at the second one.  It was good to experience the difference between the two places and it all ended up being quite a nice experience.

So, now we're getting ready to go to a private club with everyone for dinner tonight.  That means I have to wrap this up for now but I'll be posting pics to go along with the blog either later tonight or tomorrow and will have plenty more to blog about. 

Of Sleeper Buses and Screech Owls

Well, we made it to Bangalore on the overnight sleeper bus.  It was quite an adventure.  The bus itself was nice.  The beds were actually pretty comfortable and there were reading lights and curtains for privacy.  The layout has 2 beds side by side in one compartment with no divider, and one bed across the isle.  When Vikas booked the tickets he was under the impression that we had 2 beds on one side and the third one was across the isle.  It turned out that the tickets were actually for the two on one side and one of the beds in the next two bed compartment.  So, we ended up all three in one two bed compartment.  Vikas and I weren't comfortable with him having to sleep next to a total stranger, and I certainly wasn't going to be able to do it.  That ended up being OK, too.  It wasn't too bad and in a way was nice and cozy to all be there together.  The not so good part was the bouncing and jerking around due to the poor roads.  The worst was when we were crossing the ghats, a set of mountains that lies between Mangalore and Bangalore.  It seems that there are just narrow roads winding around the circumference of the mountains .  There has been too much rain this year and the roads were all in very bad condition, so we were bouncing around the whole time, and I mean REALLY bouncing around.  I didn't get any sleep, and I don't think Vikas did either, but Jasmine slept like a baby.  We're planning to try to change our return tickets to a daytime bus with comfortable seats instead of beds.

On to the screech owls.... I've been meaning to blog about this for a while.  There are a couple of screech owls that hang out outside our bedroom window.  I think they actually perch on the building next to ours and hunt from there.  The make the scariest noise.  When they first come and you're not expecting it, it can almost make you jump out of your skin.  So several nights Vikas and I have laid there and laughed at how loud it is and how startling it can be.  A few nights ago we're sure we heard their successful hunt.  It was even louder than usual. 

Coming up.......Pig walking on train tracks,  cows out the windows and stone mountains.