Happy Early Diwali!
Tomorrow is Diwali, the Hindi festival of light. For this reason, the language school is closed today so I have no Hindi classes. The Diwali season is somewhat comparable to Dec 15th - January 2nd in America... the whole time is filled with parties and shopping and presents and dancing and decorations. I went to a pre-Diwali party in Delhi last week, although sadly I have not been invited to any Diwali festivities here in Mussoorie!
Life in Mussoorie has been exciting and peaceful. Every day I eat breakfast, lunch and dinne at my hotel, and take Hindi classes in between (yes, I succeeded in getting a place at the school!). In the evenings and mornings I study Hindi and read for fun. There's a whole group of other Hindi students staying at my hotel, so we help each other out with our studies and explore the area together. I've never seen so many white people in one place in all of India! It's an interesting feeling.
Our hotel and school are up above the main town of Mussoorie, and so far I have not made it into Mussoorie. The other day I started walking down the road to town, and ten minutes into my walk, two monkeys appeared! Some of you may know that I am afraid of animals, especially wild ones (and yes, I am SURE they were monkeys... I may confuse cows and horses but I've got my monkeys straight). At first I tried to walk past the monkeys but then they gave me menacing looks and started to run toward me! I panicked, turned around, and walked rapidly back toward my hotel. Fortunately the monkeys did not chase me. On my way back to the hotel, I ran into Chris, a guy staying there. He told me that the monkeys don't show up very often, but when they do, you just have to throw rocks at them and they'll probably leave you alone. A braver person than me would have tried again to walk down the road toward the village, but so far I have been too intimidatd by the monkeys. I have promised myself, however, that I will go today, because I really want to check out the town, especially to buy myself one of the woolly Himalayan sweaters that everyone here is wearing.
I could definitely use another sweater, as it is getting COLD here! It's nowhere near as cold as a New England winter, but when there's no central heating, you feel any cold air that exists. It's also started raining more which is unfortunate- my first few weeks here was gorgeous sun all the time. There's lots more that I want to see this weekend- the old colonial churches and villas nearby, the fancy British boarding school that still exists, a temple that I've heard about that's not too far from here- so hopefully we will have a warm and sunny weekend in honor of Diwali!
Life in Mussoorie has been exciting and peaceful. Every day I eat breakfast, lunch and dinne at my hotel, and take Hindi classes in between (yes, I succeeded in getting a place at the school!). In the evenings and mornings I study Hindi and read for fun. There's a whole group of other Hindi students staying at my hotel, so we help each other out with our studies and explore the area together. I've never seen so many white people in one place in all of India! It's an interesting feeling.
Our hotel and school are up above the main town of Mussoorie, and so far I have not made it into Mussoorie. The other day I started walking down the road to town, and ten minutes into my walk, two monkeys appeared! Some of you may know that I am afraid of animals, especially wild ones (and yes, I am SURE they were monkeys... I may confuse cows and horses but I've got my monkeys straight). At first I tried to walk past the monkeys but then they gave me menacing looks and started to run toward me! I panicked, turned around, and walked rapidly back toward my hotel. Fortunately the monkeys did not chase me. On my way back to the hotel, I ran into Chris, a guy staying there. He told me that the monkeys don't show up very often, but when they do, you just have to throw rocks at them and they'll probably leave you alone. A braver person than me would have tried again to walk down the road toward the village, but so far I have been too intimidatd by the monkeys. I have promised myself, however, that I will go today, because I really want to check out the town, especially to buy myself one of the woolly Himalayan sweaters that everyone here is wearing.
I could definitely use another sweater, as it is getting COLD here! It's nowhere near as cold as a New England winter, but when there's no central heating, you feel any cold air that exists. It's also started raining more which is unfortunate- my first few weeks here was gorgeous sun all the time. There's lots more that I want to see this weekend- the old colonial churches and villas nearby, the fancy British boarding school that still exists, a temple that I've heard about that's not too far from here- so hopefully we will have a warm and sunny weekend in honor of Diwali!
posted by Molly at 12:04 AM
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