yesterday was by far the busiset we've been since those first two or three days after we got here. out mission? sari shopping for Vidya (prof. raju's wife)'s birthday. the kannada teacher volunteered to take us out for the day to buy the sari, and show us where we can go shopping for ourselves.
we went to the mysore silk factory to buy the gift. it was really bizarre, though, because we were allowed to go in and look around where they actually made the silk...the whole process is done there...spinning the silk fibers into thread, then onto spools, then wrapping and re-wrapping the spools, and doing other stuff with it, to the actual weaving of the cloth on the machines, to the final cloth.
the machinery was SO loud. from the outside, it sounded like a v.strong current of a huge river. but inside, it was just deafening. the most amazing thing was that each of the machines in the weaving room was set to a different pattern, so each one produced silk with a different gold pattern on it. and there were HUNDREDS of machines. it was really incredible.
so after picking out what we wanted to get vidya, we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring salwar shops and eating in a hotel and finally seeing the infamous Planet X (where we didn't meet the americans the other night). strange place. it's like a mini amusement park, but like, not really...there's a dance club, a bowling alley, a pool hall, go-carts, arcade games, and places to eat. it's kind of strange. actually, scratch that. it's really strange.
then, last night, in addition to vidya's birthday dinner at sandesh, we went to a music concert, where we saw a 20394203947 year old british guy sing traditional south indian songs, followed by a Baratha Natyam dancer. watching her just made us realize how much we need to learn and how fast we need to get if we ever want to look ok at our final performance.
then it poured rain.
today was spent lounging, exploring, and eating. as is every day.
though, on our way to walk around the lake, we came across a clearing where there were easily 20-30 monkeys running around. babies, grown ones, so many monkeys!
on the way back from the walk, these two guys on a motorcycle literally pulled up and stopped in front of us to cut us off...
"hello pretty girls! names? names? where are you from?"
"um, U.S." ::super fast paced walking::
"OOOH! UNITED STATESSSS!!! BYE!!! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 PRETTY GIRLS!!!"
indiaaaaaaaaa
we went to the mysore silk factory to buy the gift. it was really bizarre, though, because we were allowed to go in and look around where they actually made the silk...the whole process is done there...spinning the silk fibers into thread, then onto spools, then wrapping and re-wrapping the spools, and doing other stuff with it, to the actual weaving of the cloth on the machines, to the final cloth.
the machinery was SO loud. from the outside, it sounded like a v.strong current of a huge river. but inside, it was just deafening. the most amazing thing was that each of the machines in the weaving room was set to a different pattern, so each one produced silk with a different gold pattern on it. and there were HUNDREDS of machines. it was really incredible.
so after picking out what we wanted to get vidya, we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring salwar shops and eating in a hotel and finally seeing the infamous Planet X (where we didn't meet the americans the other night). strange place. it's like a mini amusement park, but like, not really...there's a dance club, a bowling alley, a pool hall, go-carts, arcade games, and places to eat. it's kind of strange. actually, scratch that. it's really strange.
then, last night, in addition to vidya's birthday dinner at sandesh, we went to a music concert, where we saw a 20394203947 year old british guy sing traditional south indian songs, followed by a Baratha Natyam dancer. watching her just made us realize how much we need to learn and how fast we need to get if we ever want to look ok at our final performance.
then it poured rain.
today was spent lounging, exploring, and eating. as is every day.
though, on our way to walk around the lake, we came across a clearing where there were easily 20-30 monkeys running around. babies, grown ones, so many monkeys!
on the way back from the walk, these two guys on a motorcycle literally pulled up and stopped in front of us to cut us off...
"hello pretty girls! names? names? where are you from?"
"um, U.S." ::super fast paced walking::
"OOOH! UNITED STATESSSS!!! BYE!!! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 PRETTY GIRLS!!!"
indiaaaaaaaaa
posted by nadelblog at 9:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home