28 Posts later

Today is my last day.

This trip started out with little expectations, and fear of the unknown. What will India be like? Will I be able to breathe?What will the Americans be like, especially the one from the South? As my trip flew bye i got all the answers to these questions and more.

 India is an amazing place. Yes, it has alot of pollution. Yes, there is alot of corruption. Yes the traffic is HORBBILE.But all these problems i see here are the same we have back at home except we make more of an effort to hide them.Dispite these problems there is much that over shawdows them. The diversity, architechture, and the beautiful people. Indian hospitality is somthing we MUST pick up in North America. I beleive not many people would invite a random Indian girl to thier family Christmas party back in Canada. But here my friend Brandi got invited to a man's Diwali party that barley knew her. I KNOW that if i hired a taxi driver in B.C. he would not invite me and my 3 other friends to stay at his house and meet his family, if he did not have some other intentions. But agian at my surprise my taxi driver Sohdi brought me to his house in the Punjab to meet his pregnant wife, and family. He fed all of us and let us all stay in his extended family's vaction home. Amazing hospitality, with no expectation with anything in return.

 The crazy Americans which turned out not to be crazy, but some of my best friends I will never forget.I got to know more about the USA and how were not so diffrent from one another. When I first heard about this girl Carol Ann from Mississippi i thought, holy shit i'am going to living with this crazy southern girl who just wants sweet tea and to be on the cheer-leading team. Well, she was on the cheerleading team and she defiantly loves sweet tea among other southern food items, but she is also an amazing and kind hearted southern belle ;) Her compassion towards others and love for her children she taught was something you cant find in any old person. When we said goodbye to our taxi driver she was crying because he was so kind to us,is such a hard worker, and barley gets to see his pregnant wife on top of all that. Such care for a man she barley knew, showed me how truly amazing of a person she is.
 Miss Molly May for Gorham, Maine is another story. When i read she worked at Camp bow wow and lived in small town Gorham, Maine I defiantly thought she was going to be a crazy dog lady/hicktown situation. She turned out to be firery little girl with a tinge of blue :P She also was very touched by our taxi driver Sohdi and went out got pictures developed of our trip, and him with his family. One day after a very hectic class, Molly had come back with her shirt torn and face beating red. CA went to go chain smoke, and Molly sat inside eating cookies and venting about how the children went ape shit crazy beating each other, smacking crying babies, and tearing up the class room because the teacher didnt show up. After that hellish day that i know someone people would just call it quit. Molly sewed her shirt back up and went to class the next day. Although she spent more than half her time here with her skin dyed blue from this crappy shirt she bought in the market, and continued to wear for god knows what reason, she is an truly
 amazing person, with a amazing voice ;)

 Jersey Shore from Princeton aka Matt Carco is a whole nother story. With the expectations of being like Jersey shore i wasnt TOO terribly far off. The boy loves his Jordan's and food. Although he drives me a little nuts at times I wouldn't have him any other way. The first day when we were at our school it was so over whelming i just wanted to sit and cry. Matt got up infront of the class and did it all by himself until i could get my shit together. He is a awsome teacher and is great with the kids! Aside from everything being Haarrible, walking dawgs and drinking caffee he helped make my trip what it was. I'am so proud of him and how hard he has worked to be who he is today. This kid is meant for great things.

Miss Jennifer "Johnson" i really didn't know what to expect because i dont know any sterotypes for people from Denver. But i soon found out what she was like. Do not cross her, or it will be one of the last things you will do. Fiesty as all shit, and suborn. But on the inside of this hardened exterior is a compassionate hard worker. She was amazing with her patients and you could tell she truly cared about them. She was the first one up in the morning and the last one back from work in the afternoon and i never heard a complaint about it. I went to visit her placement the other day and the sisters were asking about her and telling me to say hi to her and miss her. I miss her as well and was so glad to  have gotten to know her as well as i did. I wish her all the best, and know she will achieve it with the amazing work ethic, and compassion she posses.

 Blea R, is actually a fellow Canadian but she still gets included. I can still remember us first talking before the trip even started. And now 11 weeks later after being roomates for more than half the time i was here it feels weird to go back and think about when we barley knew each other. She is a blunt as all be, but a very hard worker. She dedicated alot of time to helping people knit while she was here, as well as juggling two other placements. Great at helping others, and always willing to share her stuff no probelmo at all. Without my fellow Canadian i dont know who the hell i would have talked to Tim Horton;s about  :P

In all this trip was everything i wanted it to be and more. Some people have such a crappy attitude about this beautiful country, but they only see what they want to see. If you go looking for garbage,poverty, and  pollution you are going to find it. But what about if you go looking for beauty,kindness, and overall amazing people? I guarantee you will not need to look hard for. So next time you think you know somewhere i highly suggest checking it out, before painting it with one brush.India is more than you think people! So thank-you all for your support, and kind words. This trip has been life changing, and the best thing for me at this time in my life.
LOVE.PEACE.
Nameste

Chloe. Amber

White water rafting, Beatles Ashram, and Cliff jumping.

Beatles Ashram

Ganges Cliff Jump

@ beach along Ganges

Well kids its about that time;
My trip is nearing to a end it its so hard to believe! After seeing all these new people come and go it is now my time to say goodbye!This weekend was my last weekend trip. We went to Rishikesh, and Hariwar. Which is supposed to be a 7hr drive, but we got lost trying to find our hotel and it turned into 9hrs. It was well worth the drive though! We stayed in our first 4 star hotel while here. Skye and I were in heaven! Soft pillows, clean sheets, and a real shower. We joked about wanting to just go back to our hotel room take a shower, and watch discovery chanel on our HD tv and skip the sun set prayer on the Ganges.
We started off our Sat morning going to the ashram The Beatles stayed @ in the mid 60's. It was "closed down" aka had a random man with crutches pretending to be a gaurd charging 50rs a head to get in. It was completely abandoned which made it so much cooler. Our guide said to watch out for elephants because they walk aroudn wild there. This ashram was in the jungle so i would beleive it. Giant yellow and black spiders, and monkeys flailing around everywhere. We saw a monkey with a missing hand and it was very sad. On our way back through the village there was a man pushing a cart who almost rolled over a cow laying on the ground. It wouldnt have been a life threating situation, but Paula took it upon herself to yell WATCH OUT and get behinde the cart and redirect the man away from the cow. Agian people stared at us, and i laughed and walked away. Later on in the evening we went to the Ganges river to watch the sunset ceremony. TONS of poeple where there and everything was very hectic. We bought these little flower baskets with candles in them and ran down towards the river before we missed the ceremnoy. We all each got wisked off by seperate preistto preform our Pooja. He would natter away somthing in Hindi say OM and get me to go OM. He prayed for my husband and kids and then lit my candle and i sent it off down the Ganges along with my prayer. The priest of corse asked me for 200RS, which he did not get. It was a very India experince Fast Fursious and someone demanding money for a free service.
Sunday Skye and I went white water rafting down the Ganges. Who knew it was possible? Not I. It was VERY enjoyable and clean. Because we were in Rishikesh it was a feed off from the mountain and not filled with dead bodies and floating baby corpse as is Varinasis Ganges. We met up with these two Brits Hamish and Jack, and tow girls from Mumbai whos names we didnt catch. The whole time the girls were holding onto the boat for dear life and the boys and us were joking around. The rapid were level 4 out of 5 so u can imagine what kind of situation was going on there. The instructor told us if we fell out the boat just to lay on our back until the rapids were over. I would have been very scary and hard not to drown if we had fallen out. We stopped about half way through our 16km ride and went cliff jumping. This one guy did a belly flop from the top of the cliff casue he hesitated, we think he broke his jaw. It was by far the worst belly flop i have ever seen in person. He called it a day after that. We then body surfed down the Ganges floating around until it was time to tackle our next rapids. Over all it was a very successful weekend and I had much fun with Skye!

Paula and Goa

Alexis and I

Hello All;

So Paula’s arrival has gone well and first week has wiped bye. I will let her do a little blurb at the end . Her and I are now roommates which has proved to be interesting seeing as she goes to MTDD at 7am and while preparing for her day she turns on ALL the lights bounces around and tries to have conversations with me. Really  Paula? She has even  thrown my sleeping out of wack because she wants to nap during the day so I nap with her and then she wakes up early 4am and crawls into bed  with me. Btw we sleep in single size beds.  So needless to say its nice to have her here but mabey not as a roommate. My other roommate Jennifer from the original group of  6 has gone home  L I now miss her and sitting in her bed while typing this blog post. For haloween we went to a pub situation for a Zombie  Party. We all dressed up like Zombies and walked to the pub. Can u imagine a pack of tourist running down the road dressed as zobies? We has pretty mixed reactions, I climbed on the front of someones  truck to scare these workers and one  guy was ligit scared so i felt bad. We passed an elder lady and she looked at her daughter confussed and her daughter responded , “Haloween Mama!” The walk there was probs the most  entertaining  part of the night.

Midweek I got  sick again! In bed with horrible shakes/fever super nautious. Thankfully i just slept it off and was ready to leave for Goa this weekend. But poor mom got sick and is still sick! She has the same thing I did and was sick for our trip to Goa.  Because it was Diwali this week there were SOOOO many firecrackers being lit, even as i write  this i can hear them  going off still. I was sitting in my bed sick talking the Jennifer  and some damn rebel rascals lit a firecracker off right  outside my window (room backs onto a alley) and when it exploded it litteraly shook my bed. So i think i have had enough of firecrackers for the time being thanks kids.... 

Anyways  Paula  and I went to Goa aka Arbian Sea this long weekend. We  left Thursday and got there in the evening  and Paula was not feeling well  so she went to bed pretty much right aways. Then the next day we walked  down to the beach like a 5min walk sat on some beach lounges under a umbrella and drank some cocktails with the ocean waves drifting right up to the base of our loungers. After  sitting there for a couple hrs Paula went back to the hotel and slept  thru till the next day.  That next morning Paula woke up at 4am still feeling ill but got the strength to do a tour with me. So we went to Turtle beach sat there for a  couple hrs relaxed  ate some King Prawns. They were delish.  After that we went to  some churches. 60% of Goa is Catholic so there were many of  ornate churches. We went to this one churchs where we saw the relics of Saint Francis Xazier, who is said to have has his hand cut off shipped to Portuagal and then it etched out its initials. Every 10 years  they put his body out on display. So after that we went to ride Elephants. I was going to wash the elephant in the river which was an option, but because it had just finished raining the river was red with iron deposit run offs. While Paula and i were riding the elephant there was A GIAT SPIDER Paula freaked  of corse and i took a picture, it was for sure bigger than my hand. As for today our last day i went parasailing! It was fun to be way up there floating aroud with the sea breeze in my face!

 Anyways after  fun in the sun catching a tan and seeing WAY to many men in speedos I’am home watching Mona Lisa Smile with my roommates.