A Perfect Weekend in Delhi

I went back to school on Friday, after having no school on Thrursday. I brought in a worksheet for the kids to do, but we didn't end up doing any work. The teachers at Vidya brought popcorn and peanuts to once again celebrate for Lorhi Festival. The kids all held hands in a circle as the fire was lit, and then they each got a handful of goodies to eat. It was a lot of fun to just spend time bonding with the kids in a different setting other than lessons. They are so interested to learn and share things about themself with me. I know all of the names of the kids in my class, which I'm proud of haha. A lot of the names are kind of hard to pronounce, and I see them giggle a bit when I call them by name. While we were all outside eating the popcorn and peanuts a lot of the older children and adults from the little slum community came to join. It was nice to see everyone come together to share friendship and a good time.
This weekend I opted to stay in Delhi to do some exploring around the town. It's such a large city, and there are so many different things to see and visit. I'm having a hard time navigating myself around. A lot of the different markets look very similar.
I went to the Lotus Temple again, this time to go inside. Cameras aren't allowed inside, because they don't want the tranquility to be disturbed. It was very beautiful inside, though. The temple is a place for people of all religions to come and meditate, so all the different prayers and creeds are recited in cycles. I heard the Lord's prayer while inside.
Saturday was and absolutely amazing day. There are only 5 of the volunteers still home this weekend, so we all hung out together. We went to Dilli Haat, and spent a great deal of time exploring all the different scarves, shoes, and trinkets. I was able to get some really good deals on presents for the family. I hope they like what I've gotten them.
The weather was amazing as well. It was the first day that I haven't had to wear a jacket! And the fog even cleared for the sun to come out! Because the weather was so fabulous, we all felt it necessary to go to a park. We decided to go to the Lotus Village park. It was beautiful. There were so many trees and such a PLETHERA of birds (that word is for Aaron :) haha). The whole place is deafening with the different caws and squacks of birds. It litereally sounds like you're in a giant bird cage. My favorite of all the birds were the lime green parakeets. There are different paths to walk through the park and a small pond in the middle. There were a ton of lotus plants and ducks. It was lovely.
I finally finished reading Tales of a Female Nomad. I really enjoyed the book. It makes me want to explore in so many other different countries. I hope to get the chance to travel much more throughout my lifetime. Since finishing that book, I've started another. It's called Holy Cow, and is about an Australian girl's life in India (mostly Delhi). It was on the bookshelf in my flat, so I thought I'd give it a try. So far it's been pretty good. I was a little disappointed with the beginning of the book. To start off, it had a very negative perception of India, and seemed to exaggerate some of the negative points of the Delhi. After the first few chapters, though, it has started to talk about more of the positive things.
There was one part in the book that made me laught so hard out loud. My roommate started laughing at me because of how hard I was laughing. The author says "We wake up to the rumble of wooden wheels of vegetable carts, the clip-clop of cows, the ping of bicycle bells and the cry of 'aiiiiiiyeeeeeeeee, aiiiiiiiiiyeeeeeee' (please come)." I thought this was so funny because it's exactly like where I'm living. There is this guy outside of one of our windows that yells aiiiyyyyyeeeee ALL DAY LONG. It's gotten to the point now that we all repeat after him as some sort of weird reflex and laugh. I realize you guys haven't heard this man, so you might not think it's that funny... But I thought it was downright hilarious.
I had another small discovery that made my day. There is this green sauce stuff everyday at lunch, and I've never had it because I always thought it was some sort of mint sauce. Well, today I finally tried it, and it definitely NOT mint sauce. It's amazing! It's tastes kind of like super spicy guacamole, and I'm in love with it. I went crazy mixing it in with my rice. It's something very simple, but it made me very happy :)
I think the five of us that were left in Delhi for the weekend are going to go out and eat southern Indian food tonight. I'm excited about it, I've only had northern Indian food so far. I'll let you know what my taste buds think of it.
I'm starting to plan a trip for next weekend. I think Anne, one of my roommates, and I are going to go to the Ganges. Exciting business! The weather is supposed to be really nice, not too hot, not to cold. So, I think it will be perfect.
That's all I've got for now. I'll try and blog tomorrow as well. I'm going to be starting a big project with my glass. I think they're really going to enjoy it, and it will give them a relatively big goal to work toward.