Accomplished
I actually feel like I was super productive today. Which is funny, because I stayed up until 4am trying to finish the Mahabharata with still a few dozen pages unread. This means that this morning really sucked. I was sooo incredibly tired. You know those days when you've only had a few hours sleep and you wake up feeling refreshed for some odd reason. Well, that's what I was hoping for. It wasn't one of those days.
In Hindi I messed up speaking again. And I'm really dreading the test this week. But luckily it's not on my birthday tomorrow! It's Friday. Lots of cramming is needed.
Ancient Texts and Religions class is getting better. It's not excellent. I don't exactly look forward to it, but I don't dread it either. It'll get better though, once we dig into more stuff. I was really tired in class today, and the two hours seemed to last forever. But somehow I came to life after class.
First, the majority of our group went to FabIndia, a sorta upscale Indian store. Mostly clothes. Looks can be decieving. The store looked amazing, but on closer inspection I couldn't find a single thing that I wanted to buy. But a lot of other people found some great clothes. I guess I did find one shirt, but I felt bad spending 275 Rs on it, when I usually don't even spend that much for a shirt in the States.
Next stop: lunch. At? The Black Stallion of course! I've now had five official meals there, and I have no desire to go anywhere else. It's an easy 5 minutes walk from the hotel, convienantly located right next to this internet cafe, the waiters are super nice and the food is superb! What more could I ask for? Plus, every dish is under 100 Rs ($2), and very filling. Our group has successfully taken over Black Stallion, just as we have with Ten Downing Street. It's quite amusing. Today we had 7 students (out of 14) and our two professors there for lunch, and none of us planned to meet up there. It's sorta like how NoodlesEtc is for me in Hyde Park. It's the neighborhood place that I'm in love with, and I always seem to run into people.
After lunch the fun began. I think today was one of the best days since I've been here, the more that I think about it. After lunch I walked back to the hotel and met up with Yusra, Amelia and Margaret. We squeezed the four of us into a rikshaw (after bargaining with them to let us sneak an extra person in for extra rupees) and headed to Laxmi Road. It was like paradise. Well, not really at all, but it was a great neighborhood and there were so many neat stores! I really want to go spend more time here. Almost every store sells clothes and fabric. The first store that we went into was Balaram Market. It was pretty upscale and they had fabrics in almost every color imaginable. It was beautiful. I climbed upstairs and entered the fancy saree room. They were gorgeous. The walls were covered with shelves and shelves of sarees, all folded up in almost any color you can imagine. In the room next door there were silk sarees (much more expensive). Taking off my shoes, I went up another flight of stairs to the Poona Saree room. The floor was lined with a soft mat that felt good on my bare feet. Some women were sitting down while the male shopkeepers pulled down sarees from the shelves and laid them out to be examined. I was in awe at the selection. It was overwhelming. There were so many absolutely gorgeous sarees, and most were under 1000 Rs. In the end, after a few minutes of admiration, we decided to ask Pratibha to come back and saree shop with us. She's the administrator of our program, and is always very nicely dressed. We're hoping she'll like our offer.
We kept strolling down the street and my eyes were easily distracted by all the colors and objects surrounding us. The street was very alive. So many people, so much brightly colored and flashy patterned fabric hanging outside the shops. I ended up making 5 purchases at a store, and an anticipated purchase for tomorrow at another. After Balaram Market we went across the street to Shivkanchi Matchings. After pulling out roll after roll of fabric from behind the counter and talking to the manager (I assume he was) of the store, we decided to come back tomorrow with our garments ready to be copied. Margaret and I both want to get pants copied, and both of us really adore this grey material with tiny blue pin-stripes. For 250 Rs a meter it's a decent deal. And then it's only 175 Rs to get the pants sewn. Coolio. I just have to remember to bring my black pants to be copied tomorrow.
Exciting Finds
So walking along down the street I was window shopping and happened to spot these boxes full of fabric, which I thought were scraps. We went inside and it turned out that the boxes were full of dupattas (scarfs), some of which had small stains, and some of which only had little tears, and some seemed perfectly fine, just a little wrinkled. They were only 25 Rs a piece! What a deal. It was my favorite kind of shopping! Old stuff thrown into a box for me to dig through. I got so excited and dove in. I found 4 dupattas that I really like. :o) And then, I spotted some really beautiful fabric. It's really too rich a fabric than my taste, (and gold, which I'm usually not so fond of) but I loved it anyways. It's dark red/marroon with intricately patterned golden thread woven in. Kinda hard to explain. I bought two yards and the more I stare at it now the more beautiful it gets. It's my favorite purchase yet (and the most selfish one too!). I'm really excited to see how the skirt will turn out. Now I just have to find a tailor.
I actually feel like I was super productive today. Which is funny, because I stayed up until 4am trying to finish the Mahabharata with still a few dozen pages unread. This means that this morning really sucked. I was sooo incredibly tired. You know those days when you've only had a few hours sleep and you wake up feeling refreshed for some odd reason. Well, that's what I was hoping for. It wasn't one of those days.
In Hindi I messed up speaking again. And I'm really dreading the test this week. But luckily it's not on my birthday tomorrow! It's Friday. Lots of cramming is needed.
Ancient Texts and Religions class is getting better. It's not excellent. I don't exactly look forward to it, but I don't dread it either. It'll get better though, once we dig into more stuff. I was really tired in class today, and the two hours seemed to last forever. But somehow I came to life after class.
First, the majority of our group went to FabIndia, a sorta upscale Indian store. Mostly clothes. Looks can be decieving. The store looked amazing, but on closer inspection I couldn't find a single thing that I wanted to buy. But a lot of other people found some great clothes. I guess I did find one shirt, but I felt bad spending 275 Rs on it, when I usually don't even spend that much for a shirt in the States.
Next stop: lunch. At? The Black Stallion of course! I've now had five official meals there, and I have no desire to go anywhere else. It's an easy 5 minutes walk from the hotel, convienantly located right next to this internet cafe, the waiters are super nice and the food is superb! What more could I ask for? Plus, every dish is under 100 Rs ($2), and very filling. Our group has successfully taken over Black Stallion, just as we have with Ten Downing Street. It's quite amusing. Today we had 7 students (out of 14) and our two professors there for lunch, and none of us planned to meet up there. It's sorta like how NoodlesEtc is for me in Hyde Park. It's the neighborhood place that I'm in love with, and I always seem to run into people.
After lunch the fun began. I think today was one of the best days since I've been here, the more that I think about it. After lunch I walked back to the hotel and met up with Yusra, Amelia and Margaret. We squeezed the four of us into a rikshaw (after bargaining with them to let us sneak an extra person in for extra rupees) and headed to Laxmi Road. It was like paradise. Well, not really at all, but it was a great neighborhood and there were so many neat stores! I really want to go spend more time here. Almost every store sells clothes and fabric. The first store that we went into was Balaram Market. It was pretty upscale and they had fabrics in almost every color imaginable. It was beautiful. I climbed upstairs and entered the fancy saree room. They were gorgeous. The walls were covered with shelves and shelves of sarees, all folded up in almost any color you can imagine. In the room next door there were silk sarees (much more expensive). Taking off my shoes, I went up another flight of stairs to the Poona Saree room. The floor was lined with a soft mat that felt good on my bare feet. Some women were sitting down while the male shopkeepers pulled down sarees from the shelves and laid them out to be examined. I was in awe at the selection. It was overwhelming. There were so many absolutely gorgeous sarees, and most were under 1000 Rs. In the end, after a few minutes of admiration, we decided to ask Pratibha to come back and saree shop with us. She's the administrator of our program, and is always very nicely dressed. We're hoping she'll like our offer.
We kept strolling down the street and my eyes were easily distracted by all the colors and objects surrounding us. The street was very alive. So many people, so much brightly colored and flashy patterned fabric hanging outside the shops. I ended up making 5 purchases at a store, and an anticipated purchase for tomorrow at another. After Balaram Market we went across the street to Shivkanchi Matchings. After pulling out roll after roll of fabric from behind the counter and talking to the manager (I assume he was) of the store, we decided to come back tomorrow with our garments ready to be copied. Margaret and I both want to get pants copied, and both of us really adore this grey material with tiny blue pin-stripes. For 250 Rs a meter it's a decent deal. And then it's only 175 Rs to get the pants sewn. Coolio. I just have to remember to bring my black pants to be copied tomorrow.
Exciting Finds
So walking along down the street I was window shopping and happened to spot these boxes full of fabric, which I thought were scraps. We went inside and it turned out that the boxes were full of dupattas (scarfs), some of which had small stains, and some of which only had little tears, and some seemed perfectly fine, just a little wrinkled. They were only 25 Rs a piece! What a deal. It was my favorite kind of shopping! Old stuff thrown into a box for me to dig through. I got so excited and dove in. I found 4 dupattas that I really like. :o) And then, I spotted some really beautiful fabric. It's really too rich a fabric than my taste, (and gold, which I'm usually not so fond of) but I loved it anyways. It's dark red/marroon with intricately patterned golden thread woven in. Kinda hard to explain. I bought two yards and the more I stare at it now the more beautiful it gets. It's my favorite purchase yet (and the most selfish one too!). I'm really excited to see how the skirt will turn out. Now I just have to find a tailor.
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