Julia and I recently visited our families back in New York/Jersey. One afternoon we visited the Dale Chihuly exihibit at the New York Botanical Garden, in the Bronx. Dale Chihuly’s work is always phenomenal. The bright colors and sensual alien shapes really gave the garden an out of this world feel. Visit the gallery for my photos.
Sorry Anthony, but it looks like I have a new love: mangosteens. These fruits are not only beautiful but are so delicious! You crack open the hard purple shell to find bright pink insides and sweet, tangy white fleshy fruit. They are not available in the States because of fears about fruit flies, which is especially sad because we are leaving here in just over a week.
How did 8 months fly by so quickly? I’m trying hard not to get caught up in the “but I didn’t get a chance to do this” and “we never ended up visiting this place” train of thought. I could probably live in India for the rest of my life and never visit all of the places I want to see or learn about everything I’m interested in. What I’m trying to focus on instead is the fullness and beauty of our time here: the faces of all of the friends we’ve made, the hours spent wandering around our neighborhood, the countless plates of vegetarian biryani I ate at my favorite shop around the corner (I think I might need a rice detox after we leave here. South Indians are rice obsessed!)
I didn’t keep this blog up very consistently, but that’s partly because I ended up being quite busy. People are always asking me what I’m doing while Anthony is working, figuring that I’m spending the day reading and shopping. But these are just some of the things I’ve done with my time here:
-Learned basic Tamil at the University of Madras
-Studied fashion design at the Institute of Design, including 2 months of fashion illustration and 4 months of pattern design and sewing (on an old-fashioned foot press machine!) I am most proud of the men’s shirt I made for Anthony and the pants I’m finishing today.
-Went to aerobics class 4 times a week
-Volunteered at an after-school program in a slum through a great organization (with Anthony)
-Studied yoga in two different places
-Learned reiki and provided free reiki to women at an old age home
-Completed The Artist’s Way
-Took a few cooking classes
-Made wonderful friends
-Traveled inside and outside of India
-Danced to Bangrha music
-Ate lots and lots of idly and sambar
-Shopped (of course.)
-Read a lot of great books
-Became addicted to my first TV show in years (Project Runway–I can’t wait to rent the second season when I get home!)
-Sweated. All the time.
-Grew even closer to my love, Anthony (I was just joking about the mangosteens) 
I’m feeling both sad and excited right now. I’m very much ready to come home and embark on my next adventure (more about that in a new blog maybe?) but I know that I will miss India, my friends and my life here so much. One thing that comforts me is that I am sure I will be back to India many times in my life. This place is a part of me and it always will be.
In Tamil when someone is leaving they never say “I’m going” or “I will go,” it somehow seems too harsh, too final. Instead the phrase used is “po itu vareh,” which means “I will go and come back.” I’ve used this phrase hundreds of times over the past 8 months, but it’s never felt more true than now.
India–po itu vareh!
At the end of March our good friend Melissa visited from California. This was Melissa’s first time travelling out of the country and I think that I can confidently say that we showed her one of the most beautiful parts of India. Kerala, known as “God’s own country,” is overflowing with lush coconut palms and lined with gorgeous rivers.
It was wonderful to be able to introduce a friend from home to our life here. Melissa met all of our neighbors, ate idly at my favorite shop and joined us volunteering at the after-school center. Her visit made me realize how deeply different our experience in India now is from our travels last year. We are so far removed from the tourist curcuit, we have real friends and a home to return to each night. Melissa felt pretty shocked when we went to Cochin in Kerala and she felt what it was like to really be a tourist in India: the restaurants are filled with other foreigners and serve bland Indian food and the streets are lined with tourist shops. But as in any “tourist” area it is always possible to get outside of that world and have unique interactions with people. Melissa woke up early one morning and ended up spending an hour talking and having tea with some friendly fisherman.
Ever wonder what Anthony and I do in Chennai on the weekend when it’s 96 degrees outside?
We stay inside in the air conditioning and get creative…
