Daily Life

Okay, so now lets talk about daily life! Nothing is really that hard around here, and as you can see the culture is very laid back with no stress about whats going to happen next. The locals will sit in front of their shops for hours and sometimes days before they will get a sale and this is all part of their world. The hotel sits at the end of the paved highway into Kovalam Beach, so there are lots of taxi's just sitting around here waiting for someone who needs a ride someplace. Most of the drivers now recognize us so they have stopped asking if we need to taxi or rickshaw - now they just say HI or Good Morning!

Practice is at 6:45 in the morning so we are up about 6:30. Just about the time that the sun is coming up. Practice runs about 2 hours give or take and then its off to breakfast. We almost always go to a place called "The Lonely Planet." The main reason we started going there is because the kitchen is clean! However, over the weeks the people know us very well now, even to the point that we no longer need to order, because they know what we want. Me - Chai Masala Tea and Banana Pancake. Daren - Lemon Ginger Tea and Vegetable Ottapham. The main server is a young guy that doesn't speak English, but can understand some. One day the "manager" was no where to be found when we were ready to leave so the server just said "tomorrow". Meaning we can pay for breakfast tomorrow when we come. That is how laid back it is. Just try to imagine that happening in the states! Its also very quite at the restaurant in the mornings which is another reason we like going there. Its off the beaten path so there are not many people. Often we will go with some other students from class, or we meet there. It comes and goes not everything the same day. They also have a great view of the jungle from the seating area, including a small pond with fish in it. Living around the pond are some geese, heron and something else that no one can name except it really looks like a cross between a duck and a goose!

Our days are spent doing various activities. Checking email, writing in the blog and making sure bills are paid are the next main focus, after a shower that is. Then, sometimes I head down to the beach, if I'm in the mood for some sun and if the waves are good. I have found I don't like the ocean unless I can play in the waves so if its calm I don't want to go down there. The one thing I completely dislike about the beach is the sand! I don't mind laying on it, or running in it, or anything while I'm there, but when I get back I'm covered in it, and for some reason that just drives my crazy. So now I only go when I know I'm going to have tons of fun in the ocean. You can rent boogie boards for 50 Rupees an hour ($1.00), and so I'm getting pretty good at that as well.

I have also been doing quite a bit of reading, and have several books going at the same time. I've have finished 3 books already and almost done with the fourth. The one I'm almost finished with was one that many of you had recommended I take along with me on the trip; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I can't thank you guys enough, and for mom for letting me borrow it before you had the chance to read it! It is a book that I think everyone should read. I think there is a little of everybody in that book.

Every so many days I do laundry. Now that means putting my clothes in the sink with a little shampoo and washing them by hand. I'm sure this sounds just awful when you are on "vacation", but I'm only wearing a pair of shorts and sometimes a shirt, so I don't have baskets full of laundry. Besides, the alternative is this... take your laundry down to someone to do it for you! Simple enough. They beat the hell out of your clothes in water that we are not sure where it came from, and on rocks! Yeap, no wash board here, just the good old rocks. Now, I hang my clothes to dry over the railing of the porch as we are on the third floor. They lay your clothes out to dry on the very rocks they washed them on! Yeap, on the ground. If you are lucky the entire article of clothing will be on a large rock, otherwise parts of the article will be in the dirt.....you decide. Oh, and you pay them to do this! (the picture is of towels being laid out to dry on the rocks! If I can get it to load.) Yes, just in case you are wondering, this does include our towels and sheets. However we think that our hotel hangs them to dry on the roof of the hotel, but are not sure!

We have decided that eating dinner early is best for us all the way around. First, because in the restaurants the food is prepared per order, if you go with the regular dinner crown about 7 or so, the wait can be up to 2 hours for your food. If you go at say 5:30 you almost have the place to yourself, and the food is out in 20-30 min. Plus you get the table of choice and here in Kovalam most of the views are of the sunset! That is an interesting spectacle in itself. Because of the humidity in the air, the sun turns an incredible color of burnt orange, and then actually disappears BEFORE it gets below the horizon. It is swallowed by the atmosphere itself before the horizon can get to it... simply amazing! Last but not least, at least for me, I have found its much better to eat than to be eaten, and be back in the hotel before it begins to cool off because that is when the mosquitoes come out, They just treat me like a buffet at Circus Circus! Those little beer bellied, back woods mosquitoes just look at me and say check that feast out! I even think they wear little t'shirts that say "Westerners taste best!" At night, when everything is quiet you can even hear them flying around when they pass close to your head almost as if they are teasing you saying "You are trying to sleep and I'm going to have dinner with you as the main course!" So of course you swat and thrash in bed and they are up by the ceiling watching you act like a lunatic before you calm down again, then they strike! I think they do that on purpose because all that movement gets your heart going and blood pumping so there's more for them. They go to school to learnt his kind of stuff I'm quite certain. I do use spray, even with "deet" in it and I'm sure it works but there are the few out there that could really care less. My body however is getting used to them and I'm not swelling up like I did on the first week I was here. After about the third night, just for kicks and giggles, if we could have found a pen, Daren and I were going to play connect the dots on my body! Okay so really not that bad, much better than I thought, but when you come from someplace where they don't live, they sure can mess you up.

A tidbit I forgot to mention in the last post. This is about the town we were in with the temples over last weekend. The town itself is a small fishing town, its really not a tourist place at all, so only locals head there. Because the town itself is actually located on the Eastern side of the continent, the year of the tsunami the locals were amazed that day when all of the sudden the water started receding out into the ocean, only to come back moments later with vengeance. Many locals headed out onto the sandy base because lots of fish could be had all of the sudden and that is what they were thinking... fish! The village lost about 1000 people that day.

One last thing for this entry, and I've been meaning to put it in since the first entry when I got here to Kovalam, but I have forgotten with each post until just now. It was very funny to me at the time because first off I had just spent the last 22 hours in the air, but also because you realized you are no longer in the US. Below is the actual statement made on the boarding pass after arriving in Bangalore and getting ready for the last leg to Trivundrum:
Boarding gate closes 15 minutes prior to departure. Frisking of persons and checking of hand baggage is mandatory for all passengers. Please co-operate with security. After I finished laughing I said to myself, "Welcome to India!"