..SouthAsiaRocks..

So it seems that we always have to go to the market... so here's some fun pictures from our market experiences this week :) So, the other day, we bought some chai cups from the guy below... as we were about to leave, we noticed his display table that he has tons of class and ceramic things on.... are on a piece of plywood that is stacked on rocks and bricks... it really didn't look sturdy enough to stack glass things on, but it definitely worked... I thought it was funny... So then, in one of the markets was this guard... There are guards everywhere... but this guy was from a company that made me laugh... you can see it on his shirt... the "Decent Group"... no, not the Outstanding Group or Amazing Group, just the Decent Group :) Now, lots of crazy thing have been going on in our city with the government and the shops (closing the shops and things like that).... so this guy got creative :) He has all the shawls that he's selling draped all over his body... look...

So last year we went to the International Trade Fair (IIF) here in the capital. It was really cool. The only problem was, that last year we went on a weekend night... so it was extrememly busy... so busy that we could hardly move around.... SO.... this year we decided we'd go on Wednesday at 1:00 when it opened (that's around lunch time for most people here)... we thought that it wouldn't be so busy then... I mean really, what was I thinking... we live in a city of millions of people!! We got to one of the gates and this is what we saw.... So we thought, hmmm.... maybe all of these people are just hanging around and waiting for other people or something like that... so we decided to check out the lines.... hahaha... see below: Just a few people in line hunh? hahaha :) This is only one of the many entrances... I think there were about 12 gates!!! Hahaha... Adam and I figured out a quick way to get in :) and we were in in about 10 minutes :) Of course, there's always a ...

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Adam and I met up with a bunch of other American friends and had an awesome feast! Afterwards we got to play a little football and hang out! It was a lot of fun! Hope you guys all had a great Thanksgiving and had a great after-Thanksgiving nap :)

We got our Fooseball Table! Whoo hoo!! We got a phone call the day before yesterday from the store in M-town. They said that they were dispatching our fooseball table at that time and it should reach us in about 4 hours! Then they said something about it coming by rickshaw... Rickshaw? Adam asked to be sure, and the guy said, yes, he will be coming from M-town to Delhi via Bicycle Rickshaw!! That's at least 65 miles!!!!!!!! For those of you that can't picture what this rickshaw looks like, see the pic below: An old bicycle that has NO GEARS with a cart attached, used to manover through insane traffic on the road from M-town to the capital. Crazy!! Well, needless to say, it didn't take 4 hours... it takes us 3 hours to do that trip while in a car!! The guy left around 2:00pm and arrived at our house at 4:00am (14 hours later!!)!!! He was very nice though and waited until 6:30am to ring our doorbell... This guy wasn't a young wipper-snapper either! He looked pretty old! ...

There are many markets here in the capital. Some are very similar to our markets in M-town, but some are VERY different. We've had to go to a lot of markets this week to get all of the supplies and things we need to get our new flat all set up, so we've had many different experiences this week. The pic below is of one of the nicer touristy markets... So, most of the time, when you go to the market, you will have many kids come up to you asking for money. Sometimes (usually on Saturdays) they will have some sort of idol paraphernalia with them hoping to encourage the person they are begging from to give them some money. We usually try to keep snacks like peanuts or something else to give them instead of money and they are usually just as happy with that :) You can see why they send the kids out to do this... look how cute they are... how can you say no to a face like this?? :) One of the markets has a store that has become very creative recently. You see, there is a big proble...

So, sometimes I walk through the market and I don't think anything of the signs I see, but then there's some days when I see the same signs I've seen over and over and realize that there's something funny about that sign... take this sign for example... I guess it was supposed to be Snacks or Shakes... but SNAKES!! hahaha -- and for a vegetarian society, that's quite a funny missprint :) You know how sometimes you see how trees have grown into a metal fence or something like that... well, yesterday we saw that this tree above, has grown over this scooter tire... hmm.... how on earth did that happen????? Really? Any ideas? And this dog was just so cute, I had to post him... we don't see many cute dogs around here... unless they are shipped over from other countries... anyway, this dog made me smile so I thought I'd pass this pic along too to maybe make you smile :)

Adam & I went with our friends Jonathan & Kelley to the park for a picnic the other day! It was fun :) We ate sandwitches, threw the frisbee around and Adam even got to throw his new football!! It was fun! Adam has a new blog post up too.... http://www.SouthAsiaRolls.blogspot.com

Well, we've moved to the capital!! It was a pretty crazy last couple of days... We got a chance to say goodbye to everyone and to see all our friends before we left, but it was pretty sad... One thing that was really funny though is that we had to go to the mall to eat the day before we left because we didn't have any food or anything to cook with... so we decided to go to McDonald's.... well, it wasn't really the best day or idea to go to the mall that day... it was the day after Eid... and for some reason... there were thousands of students (high school and middle school age) were at the mall... I mean, literally thousands of kids!!! Well, McDonalds was PACKED!! and there was only two seats available... they were at the bar looking out of the front of it facing the rest of the mall... I saved the seats while Adam ordered the food... well, I was surrounded by people (these people at the mall were from the other side of town and most have never seen a white person bef...

Well, tomorrow we "Shift" to the capital (and for those of you that don't understand that, it means: we're moving tomorrow :) ... Ok, I guess it's pretty easy to figuure out... hahaha oh well :) If you tell someone here that you are moving , they get really confused, but if you tell them you are shifting , then they understand... ANYWAY... I just thought I'd leave M-town by showing another booger-picking picture :) Somehow I always end up catching people picking their nose :) Enjoy :)

Diwali is celebrated different ways at different people's houses, but with the family we live with, the morning begins with making a Rangoli... it's a colorful design that is made with either colored sawdust, rice or rice powder. The design was really neat looking this year: At night, the family will light diyas all around the rangoli (little clay pots with oil and a wick inside). The photo below is of the family that we live with. They love to take pictures :) Shakshi below: One of the things that the kids (and grown-ups) LOVE about Diwali is lighting firecrackers!! The firecrackers are CRAZY here! You just can't imagine!! There is no such thing as an "illegal firework" here! You know those big HUGE ones that you go to a park to see on the 4th of July in America? Well, everyone in our neighborhood had those... it was crazy! The thing that really confused me about the fireworks was the packaging... all of the firecrackers in the picture below are illegeal in Flori...

Sweets, Sweets and more Sweets!! That's the name of the day! Today we went out and bought sweets for our friends... (you can see the shop we bought from below)... So, we went out to our friends houses and delivered sweets, drank chai and ate sweets (that their other friends had given them)... it was fun, but I am soooo sick of those sweets!! Don't get me wrong, I like them, but I can only handle so many... they're not really sweet like American sweets... they're milk-based... so if you're lactose intollerant... this will be a bad day for you :) Sometimes, the sweets have nuts in them... and somtimes you get the shell of the nuts in your sweets (actually about every other one you eat has something hard and unidentifiable in it... at least in our city :)) So you have to eat carefully so as to keep from chipping your tooth :) The sweets in the pic above have silver on them - I've heard (but have no idea if it's true) that it's real silver on them... hmmm.....

What do you do when you have a can of pineapple that you really want to get into ... but you don't have a can opener?? I wanted to make a smoothie with pineapple and since it's not in season I decided I would use the can of pineapple we had... the only problem is, we don't own a can opener... we have tried buying one... we haven't seen them in any stores and nobody we talk to has any idea what we're talking about... So we went down stairs and asked our neighbor if they had a can opener... they didn't - but she said to open the can, we should use this tool... and she gave us their toe-nail clippers (Yuck!) that had some sort of bottle-opener tool on it... So, we ripped into the can! And believe it or not, nobody got hurt in the process :) Everybody is gearing up for the holidays... Today is Choti Diwali (Small Diwali)... We visit friends and bring sweets to everyone - It's pretty fun. I'll post some pictures from it tomorrow :) This is a picture from th...

Well, it's holiday season here, which means that there are a lot of sweets!! What's interesting is that pretty much all of the sweets are made from some kind of vegetable!! In the picture below, some guys are making a sweet that is special to this area of the country. It's a sweet made almost entirely of pumpkin!!!! It is this weird green/white pumpkin that's cooked in sugar... Adam LOVES it... Adam and I were out doing some stuff the other day and a guy was making the every popular "toffees". He was really beating this toffee like crazy! This guy below is making these cake donught-type things (that aren't as sweet) - it's cool to watch! We can get anything fixed here!! If something is broken, then take it to the guy that fixes that thing... for example... Adam's video camera bag's clip broke and it wouldn't clip anymore... soo... we went to the bag repair guy... They sell and repair bags on the side of the road! We had a duffel bag with a...