The voyage home

As I mentioned earlier, I am back in the states safe and sound :) Poo on me for not posting sooner, but I had some difficulties getting some and have been relaxing, enjoying my family and my home.

So, the days leading up to my departure were quite stressful, with all of the final papers I had to write and such. I finished my last one at 3am Friday morning, got 4 hours of sleep and started my day with a re-entry session at the IES center. Basically we all just talked about how we feel about leaving and going back, and learned about reverse culture shock, and how people would be reacting to us once we returned. I definitely think it was useful.
Then we had our own version of bonding and went out to eat at my favorite restaurant in Delhi, Yeti. It's a Tibetan restaurant with some of the best food I have ever had. I ordered sun-dried spinach with tingmo (traditional Tibetan bread) and chicken momos (dumplings). The spinach is crispy and literally melt in your mouth delicate- it is difficult to pick up without it disintegrating between your fingers. YUM. As nice as this was, it was the last time we would all see each other because I was leaving that night. Everyone else had the next day together, and as I heard them making plans for tomorrow I had to fight back tears. I have grown to love these people and the idea of not seeing them for a very long time was really getting to me. We all had a lovely lunch in spite of that, and we all said our (rather embarrassingly tearful on my part) goodbyes outside the restaurant. I have made some wonderful friends in India and it was really hard to see them go.

I didn't have much time left in the day and I still had to go to the market to buy last-minute presents and get henna!! So I power-walked through my favorite market in Delhi, Laj Pat, and went on a shopping spree, and got henna at the last minute.

When I arrived home it was time for a 'family dinner'- the last dinner we would all be together. Wahhh!! Talk about trying to keep it together, geeze. Sadly I had to excuse myself early because I had to start packing (eeek!!). Luckily I had bought extra luggage at the market on a whim. Yeah... without that huge duffel I do not know what I would have done.
Apparently Auntie had not forgotten that I told her I sang once upon a time, so it was requested that I sing for the group! Yikes. So I pulled Pie Jesu out of my hat and barely made it through because I had a huge lump in my throat. It was all for Auntie, and the first performance I had given in years. It was really special for me, and I'll never forget that moment.

All too soon the taxi came and we all said our tearful goodbyes. One girl pulled me aside and said some of the sweetest, most genuine things to me that I never want to forget. I left very special people in India.

Long story short, I went to the airport and was sitting at the gate and my flight was canceled. Gah. Also, no one was speaking English which was frustrating. So I grabbed my bags and squished on a bus to a hotel, unsure of when I would get back to the states because the pilots were on strike. After many false alarms, I was told to be ready by 8pm the next day because we would be taking the same 145am flight, just 24 hours later. During my time at the hotel I showered and slept, pretty much. As you read earlier, I had gotten very little sleep in the previous days so I happily got caught up.

I finally arrived in Amurica, customs and immigration were a joke, and I breezed right through. Yay!
I left the airport, and drove straight to my sister's volleyball game, where we stayed for hours. Woot. Then we went straight out to dinner where I enjoyed a delicious turkey burger and fries. Yummmm American food haha!

So this will be the last post of A Diamond in Delhi, until I return to India again!! Thank you all for being such loyal readers, and I look forward to telling you stories in person :)

<3 ttfn

Cooking with Auntie

Auntie held a cooking class for everyone on the program at her house. Almost everyone came and we had a great time.
She taught us how to make chipati (like naan, flatbread), white rice, a paneer dish, dahl (lentils), and so many more.
It was so nice to have Auntie interacting with all of the students and I could tell she was just loving it, as were we!!
Auntie's daughter also came over to assist. She lives right down the street and also hosts a student.

Mother/ Daughter team in action! The little girl is Auntie's granddaughter, so that's 3 generations :)

All of the delicious spices we used

Wedding!

Ok so I'm quite behind. I am home safe and sound!!! Bu there are things that happened that I thought you all would be interested in hearing about, including the wedding :)

The wedding was amazing, and such a great cultural experience. Getting ready was half the fun, and took almost an hour and a half! To start with, makeup must be rather over the top so that took up some of my time, especially because that's something I'm not exactly used to. I would go into Auntie's room for approval and she would say, "More blush, bitte", or "More eye shadow, bitte". By the time she was satisfied I felt a bit like a drag queen but when in Rome...

Tying the sari took about half an  hour, and I did not do a thing. Our cook, Lakshmi, helped all of us and it is an intricate process, let me tell you. It's an impossibly long piece of cloth that needs to be pleated, twisted and draped into a dress. Yowza. She did a fabulous job though- here is the finished product-

We had SUCH a good time! Auntie is the groom's mom's best friend (follow?) so we were treated like VIP guests, taking pictures with the bride and groom and all. The food was wonderful, everyone was so nice, and the group of us had a great time partying it up together. Here are some pictures, all courtesy of my friend Anna.

The ladies of the house :)

Me and my gorgeous roomie

Cheesin at the wedding

Bride and groom in all of their glory

Auntie to the rescue!

Today was a wonderful example of how a day can be turned around :)

I had been studying, writing papers, and basically all kinds of stressing. It was about 5:00pm when  thought I would literally go crazy- my eyes were blurry, I couldn't type anything without misspelling, and the walls of my room were starting to close in on me. I needed to do something and I was seriously considering going for a run. I was so crazed I forgot it was 100 plus degrees outside,women aren't really supposed to do such things, and most of all, I cannot run. Luckily at that moment, Auntie came into my room like a ray of sunshine and fixed everything!
"Bitta, you look terrible. Come to a ceremony with me this evening. It will be good for you." I could have kissed her! Getting dressed up and heading out of the house was exactly I needed to get out of my funk. So I got all gussied up and basked under the compliments of Auntie "Bitta you look so pretty! And you have reduced! Your momma will be so proud. You know, when you came here you were plumpy, but now, look at you!" Yes, she said plumpy. I dwelt on it long enough to giggle inwardly at the adjective and moved on, because it's true- I came to India at my heaviest. But anyway, we headed out and it was glorious.
The function was a talent show of sorts, where music teachers from all over Delhi brought some students to perform, and then (separate from all that) Auntie's granddaughter's school was giving out awards. Kavya, Auntie's granddaughter, was going to be a recipient, hence the reason for attending. I felt so honored to be going because it was 3 generations of Auntie's (Auntie, her daughter, her daughter's daughter) and me. I felt so loved in that moment that I couldn't believe I had ever wished to leave India. My wanting to leave never EVER had anything to do with Auntie, but the thought of leaving her made me quite sad. I pushed the thought from my mind and just decided to make the best of what time we had together.
So, Auntie saved the day! Surprise surprise. She is my guru, my source of inspiration and love here in India and I owe her so much. She has invited me to another shindig on Sunday- the engagement party of the wedding I'll be attending Tuesday- so we'll get to hang out some more then :)
I just wanted to give you all a positive event here, because I was terribly morose in the last post. I will be home in approximately 2 weeks!!!


ttfn

Nearing the end

Hey all :)

I know I haven't written in awhile, but that's because I have barely left the house. I have not seen anything new of India in a long time. It makes me terribly sad, really because I am pretty sure I will never be back, but with the amount of work I have to do I really have no choice. Unlike many of my peers here, all of my classes count towards my degree and are included in my GPA so no slacking off for Katie. Not that I want to, just it would be nice to not be using an entire month of study abroad to be locked in the house working. I'll spare you the details but we are all sick and stressed and ready to go home. This is not at all how I imagined my experience would be so I'm a little sad on top of everything else. I have about 2.5 weeks left and I don't even know if I'll make it to the market one last time to get gifties :( This is sounding like one lavish pity party, but I assure you I'm working as hard as I can through the sickness and am waiting in anticipation until I get to return home to my wonderful family. Thoughts and prayers of support and strength would be much appreciated.

To end on  happier note, I will be attending a true Punjabi wedding next Tuesday (Monday morning your time :) My sari is currently being made, I bought bangles and Auntie is letting us all borrow jewelry for the occasion. Let me warn you, you all are NOT ready for the level of bling and pizzazz I will be sporting. When in Delhi... :)

Postcards :)

For those of you who have been concerned about the lack of mail, have no fear. I took a trip to the post office this afternoon! I really, really hope they get to you all, but the mail system here is questionable at best.
At Rp.15 a piece, that means it costs about 33 cents. Fun fact about the stamps- they were the perforated non-adhesive kind. Not even the lick kind. The glue kind. There was a pot of glue on a counter with no stick, so I actually had to stick my finger in the glue and smear the stamps with it- it made me nostalgic for the peel and stick kind for sure.
Auntie says you can start checking your mailboxes in a week. Uh huh... More like 2 weeks :)


ttfn

Vacation...kinda

Lots of things to talk about today, not much about India...just a warning. I'm actually wondering if I will continue blogging after I get back just about life and my experiences. If you would consider reading that, do let me know!!

So to start off, this Wednesday-Sunday is a break from school! Who new? Everyone is off enjoying Kerala or Varanasi, but I chose to stay home to get  some work done, and to just relax. The plans were to go everywhere, and see and do everything!! I just needed time to get my s*** together, as they say so I'm 'relaxing' while I scramble to get everything done. In addition to the 7 final papers I have (5 of which are 5,000+ words), I have to figure out my senior year credits (lolz, trying super hard to graduate on time), and make plans for the summer. For those who are interested I did get the State Farm internship opportunity in VA (woot woot!) but I decided it is better for me in the long and short run to stay home this summer. I need to take summer classes and bond with the fam after being so far away for so long.

Being alone for such a long time, with productivity being the attempted activity, weird things happen. For example, I am now obsessed with DIY blogs. DIY = Do It Yourself, as in craft people making crafts. Yes. Katie Stiefel now wants to make clothes and things. I told you India was changing me ;) My favorite right now is sweet-verbena.blogspot.com I may or may not have read through the entire thing, bookmarking like a madwoman. So. There's that. I'm also developing an unhealthy relationship with Pinterest. On the plus side, it has completely replaced my obsession with imgfave...gotta look on the bright side I suppose.

In addition to this blogging craze, there is something else I do when I get really really stressed...I shop. I can hear mom going "uh ohhh" as she reads this. Yeah...not good. In my defense it is all stuff that I need/have wanted for almost a year. Also, I hardly ever go shopping so when I do the $$ amount hurts a little, but that's just because it's not spread out, right? ...Right? So here's what I have bought (deep breath Mom): Watch and socks from Etsy (I love Etsy! You should all check it out and shop there!!!), Steve Madden boots (Dolla dolla bills y'all. But I have been searching for the perfect boot for 3 years, and I had a 15% coupon...are you convinced yet?), and wedges and a bag (to match the boots, also necessary...) from Target. Phew. So yeah, get ready for the packages Mom, and try not to kill me. Please.

Also I just discovered this website http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/ High-larious. Well some of them. But the few that are golden are totally worth it.
This is one of my faves, though most of them are political and equally humorous...also this post could use a picture.

And I met Auntie's grandson today! I think he is about 5 and just about the cutest gosh-darn thing I have ever laid eyes on.

UPDATE: I am now headed to the mall. For gifts!!...mostly. But hey I'm getting out of the house for the first time in days. Fair trade-off...?