Hello All,
so last we chatted I mentioned the trip to Coimbatore that Mariah and I took last Saturday. Coimbatore is a city on the plains about 4 hours away from Kodaikanal that houses over a million people. Because of the rather impressive population, it also houses a four-story shopping mall which includes a movie theater and grocery store. So although I knew a day in Coimbatore would be a great experience, I was more than a bit worried about the drive to and from. Let me remind you all that Kodaikanal is separated from every other plains city by a 2 hour drive along an unfathomably horrible road. I swear that at some point in time this road must have been used as a rite of passage. Like, boys became men if they made it up and down this road without losing their lunch... something like that. Anyways, on the first ride up to Kodai, my intense excitement helped keep the motion sickness at bay. But after feeling sick just riding on the buses during field trips recently, I had a feeling that this time around the drive would be more than I could stomach... literally. Well, turns out that western medicine can be pretty awesome! I tried a motion sickness patch that I got before leaving Montana and it worked like a charm! Except for waking up really dizzy, I felt totally fine the entire trip (I suppose now is a good time to mention that I also slept for 85% of the drive both ways, but still... hooray for drugs!).
So after about 2 hours, we reached the bottom of the hill. It was still another 2ish hours to Coimbatore, so we decided to take a "bathroom" break. In case you missed it, the word BATHROOM is in quotation marks... this is on purpose. I paid 5 rupees to go behind this roadside snack shack, enter a stall that had no lock, and squat over a hole in the ground. Shout out to Sarah Hendricks at this point if she's reading this, because I owe that lady big time for the travel toilet paper!! I don't even know if I was facing the right direction! ... needless to say, it was an experience that I'm sure I'll have to repeat before getting back to Montana but am perfectly fine postponing for as long as possible. From here on out the drive was fairly uneventful. It was pretty incredible how much denser the traffic was the closer we got to Coimbatore... but besides that there isn't much to report until actually reaching the mall.
Like I said before, this mall was fairly impressive, 4 stories tall with both a grocery store and movie theater. We arrived around 10:30am, and having last eaten at 6:00am, our first stop was the food court. It was a strange feeling being in the mall. I almost had a hard time remembering that I was in southern India still, and not somewhere in America (the complete lack of white people was a not so gentle reminder at times, and Mariah and I were approached and asked for pictures more times than we've ever had in Kodai. But overall it felt very normal). One thing that made it so westernized was the McDonald's, KFC, and Baskin Robbins in the food court. The rest of the shops were all totally Indian, but looking up and seeing the golden arches was kinda weird... not going to lie though, I had a McFlurry and it was wonderful! After the food court we decided to check out the movie theater. We were hoping that the Hobbit was still playing since Mariah and I had both recently finished the book, but alas, there was only one English movie playing and it was the Lego Movie. Things I never envisioned myself doing: seeing the Lego Movie in theaters, seeing the Lego Movie in theaters in India, seeing the Lego Movie in theaters in India with a bunch of high school boys (unbeknownst to our staff member group, a group of high schoolers from KIS arranged for transport down to coimbatore the same day so we ended up seeing them everywhere in the mall... especially McDonald's and KFC :) In the end, the movie wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. The theaters were super nice, just as nice if not nice than any we have in Missoula, and for $2 the movie was quite entertaining.
Fun Fact: there are no previews before movies in India. Instead, there is a 15-minute intermission half-way through the movie where they're shown.
So other than the movie, and the eating, the day was spent shopping! For Mariah and I, our main purpose of Coimbatore was to find some more Indian-looking clothing. You know, because once we don the kurthas, we blend right in with everyone else in India.... that was sarcasm, but it does make you feel more incognito even if it's just a little bit. Anyways, we were both able to find a couple of things in Kodai over the past month, but the shops here just can't compare to the selection in the mall. There were department stores everywhere! All with mannequins in the windows sporting the latest saris or kurthas. In all the stores we went to, there was always a western section, but the majority of stuff was kurthas, leggings, and (what I call) Aladdin-pants. The store employees were also very interesting... in my time at the mall I identified 3 personalities. There was the one who stood right next to you to make sure you didn't steal anything. There was the one who was more than willing to help with anything and everything you were doing, regardless if you wanted the help or not. And finally, there was the employee who either didn't speak English, or didn't know why the heck I was in the store. These last ones just look at you like, "Are you lost?" ... in retrospect, I really can't decide which demeanor I found least uncomfortable...
By the end of the day, Mariah and I had made a haul! Multiple kurthas, several leggins, and at least one new pair of Aladdin-pants each (which, by the way, are the most comfortable things I've ever worn. If I see them again, I'm shamelessly buying at least 3 more pairs. They're wonderful.... it's like wearing socially-accepted pajamas. The waist band is drawstring and could probably accommodate the waist of jabba the hut. So they're just the most flowy, breezy things I've ever had.) After sleeping the entire way home, I got back to Kodai around midnight and it was straight to bed!
so last we chatted I mentioned the trip to Coimbatore that Mariah and I took last Saturday. Coimbatore is a city on the plains about 4 hours away from Kodaikanal that houses over a million people. Because of the rather impressive population, it also houses a four-story shopping mall which includes a movie theater and grocery store. So although I knew a day in Coimbatore would be a great experience, I was more than a bit worried about the drive to and from. Let me remind you all that Kodaikanal is separated from every other plains city by a 2 hour drive along an unfathomably horrible road. I swear that at some point in time this road must have been used as a rite of passage. Like, boys became men if they made it up and down this road without losing their lunch... something like that. Anyways, on the first ride up to Kodai, my intense excitement helped keep the motion sickness at bay. But after feeling sick just riding on the buses during field trips recently, I had a feeling that this time around the drive would be more than I could stomach... literally. Well, turns out that western medicine can be pretty awesome! I tried a motion sickness patch that I got before leaving Montana and it worked like a charm! Except for waking up really dizzy, I felt totally fine the entire trip (I suppose now is a good time to mention that I also slept for 85% of the drive both ways, but still... hooray for drugs!).
So after about 2 hours, we reached the bottom of the hill. It was still another 2ish hours to Coimbatore, so we decided to take a "bathroom" break. In case you missed it, the word BATHROOM is in quotation marks... this is on purpose. I paid 5 rupees to go behind this roadside snack shack, enter a stall that had no lock, and squat over a hole in the ground. Shout out to Sarah Hendricks at this point if she's reading this, because I owe that lady big time for the travel toilet paper!! I don't even know if I was facing the right direction! ... needless to say, it was an experience that I'm sure I'll have to repeat before getting back to Montana but am perfectly fine postponing for as long as possible. From here on out the drive was fairly uneventful. It was pretty incredible how much denser the traffic was the closer we got to Coimbatore... but besides that there isn't much to report until actually reaching the mall.
Like I said before, this mall was fairly impressive, 4 stories tall with both a grocery store and movie theater. We arrived around 10:30am, and having last eaten at 6:00am, our first stop was the food court. It was a strange feeling being in the mall. I almost had a hard time remembering that I was in southern India still, and not somewhere in America (the complete lack of white people was a not so gentle reminder at times, and Mariah and I were approached and asked for pictures more times than we've ever had in Kodai. But overall it felt very normal). One thing that made it so westernized was the McDonald's, KFC, and Baskin Robbins in the food court. The rest of the shops were all totally Indian, but looking up and seeing the golden arches was kinda weird... not going to lie though, I had a McFlurry and it was wonderful! After the food court we decided to check out the movie theater. We were hoping that the Hobbit was still playing since Mariah and I had both recently finished the book, but alas, there was only one English movie playing and it was the Lego Movie. Things I never envisioned myself doing: seeing the Lego Movie in theaters, seeing the Lego Movie in theaters in India, seeing the Lego Movie in theaters in India with a bunch of high school boys (unbeknownst to our staff member group, a group of high schoolers from KIS arranged for transport down to coimbatore the same day so we ended up seeing them everywhere in the mall... especially McDonald's and KFC :) In the end, the movie wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. The theaters were super nice, just as nice if not nice than any we have in Missoula, and for $2 the movie was quite entertaining.
Fun Fact: there are no previews before movies in India. Instead, there is a 15-minute intermission half-way through the movie where they're shown.
PART of the busy food court in the mall. This was looking to my left (towards KFC). On my right, just as far away, was the McDonalds swarming with high schoolers.
So other than the movie, and the eating, the day was spent shopping! For Mariah and I, our main purpose of Coimbatore was to find some more Indian-looking clothing. You know, because once we don the kurthas, we blend right in with everyone else in India.... that was sarcasm, but it does make you feel more incognito even if it's just a little bit. Anyways, we were both able to find a couple of things in Kodai over the past month, but the shops here just can't compare to the selection in the mall. There were department stores everywhere! All with mannequins in the windows sporting the latest saris or kurthas. In all the stores we went to, there was always a western section, but the majority of stuff was kurthas, leggings, and (what I call) Aladdin-pants. The store employees were also very interesting... in my time at the mall I identified 3 personalities. There was the one who stood right next to you to make sure you didn't steal anything. There was the one who was more than willing to help with anything and everything you were doing, regardless if you wanted the help or not. And finally, there was the employee who either didn't speak English, or didn't know why the heck I was in the store. These last ones just look at you like, "Are you lost?" ... in retrospect, I really can't decide which demeanor I found least uncomfortable...
By the end of the day, Mariah and I had made a haul! Multiple kurthas, several leggins, and at least one new pair of Aladdin-pants each (which, by the way, are the most comfortable things I've ever worn. If I see them again, I'm shamelessly buying at least 3 more pairs. They're wonderful.... it's like wearing socially-accepted pajamas. The waist band is drawstring and could probably accommodate the waist of jabba the hut. So they're just the most flowy, breezy things I've ever had.) After sleeping the entire way home, I got back to Kodai around midnight and it was straight to bed!
This red one is my favorite kurtha! Isn't the design just gorgeous?!
Mariah, Sally (a volunteer high schooler from New Hampshire), and I all sporting our nice Indian clothes.
Now, I was going to take this time to tell you all about my day of teaching last Thursday, but I feel an experience from tonight is more deserving of this post space (don't worry, the post about me teaching is on its way...). So tonight after dinner, Mariah and I return home, bracing ourselves for a night full of grading and lesson planning. We have a window in our living room (the one with the incredible view in the morning) that we usually leave open during the day for the sunlight, but at night it creeps me out if it's not closed. So, as I've done countless times since arriving in Kodaikanal, I walk over, take hold of the curtains, and yank them closed. Normal. But the soft thump I hear as I'm closing the curtains is new. Also new is the object I see falling from the curtain rod, out of the corner of my eye. I bend down to see what it was that had fallen onto the seat cushion below, and IT MOVES!! Thank the lord it wasn't a snake or I probably would have peed my pants AND screamed. As it was, I kept it mostly in check, only letting a decent screech escape as I realized there was a lizard scurrying across our living room bench.
Luckily this was not a big lizard, only 6" or so, but it was quick! Naturally my screech had alerted Mariah, so she came running in (to save the day... seriously big shout out to this girl for deservedly earning the title "Lizard Wrangler" because if it had been up to me, I would have been over sleeping in the neighbors' house tonight). She overcomes brief self-doubt, stares that lizard right in the face, and promptly scoops him up in our pineapple container and delivers him outside. Check that one off the list of things to do in India! In retrospect, of all the animals that could have snuck into the house and dropped unexpectedly from the curtains, I'm quite glad it was just Screech (it didn't feel right not naming him, so before taking him outside and washing the heck out of our pineapple container, we named him "Screech" and took a picture). I'll take a little lizard over a lot of other creatures I've heard live in these parts any day! It just makes me laugh because only in India would you hear daily stories of animals inviting themselves inside (monkeys stealing chocolate out of teachers' desks, squirrels dropping from holes in the ceiling onto the dining room table, etc.) and then come home to house that's raining lizards... life here is definitely not dull!
Well folks, it's officially late. I'm off to bed. Sweet dreams to you all, when you get there. Check back sooner than normal for my next post where I tell you all about the wonders of my day of solo teaching, and the horrors of passion fruit. Miss you!
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