Goodbye Vapi, hello Valsad.

This morning I woke up early- like 6:30. So, really- late for a school day. But.. oh well. I got up and went out to the kitchen to see Anushka and Avineil before they left for school. Of course, everyone here wears uniforms to school. I think they are cute. I didn't like our "uniforms" at the middle school, because it was more of a dress code. Here, the girls wear oxdford t-shirts with a jumper overtop (dress). The boys wear oxford shirts and navy pants. They all have little (no hood) sweaters.

I got quickly packed after the kids left and had to sit on my suitcase to close it. At our next stop I have decided to change to 2 suitcases + my carry on. Then it was time for breakfast. Omletes and oatmeal. :)

We loaded all of our luggage into Aditi and Vikaus' cars and were driven to the college. After standing and waiting for everyone to arrive for more than 30 minutes, we left to go see the Jain's dog, Jazz. When we returned to the college, most of the people runing on Indian time had arrived. So, our luggage was much more seccure this time, riding in a truck- inside not on top!

We said some quick goodbyes to our host families and loaded into other cars. After about an hour car ride, we arrived in Valsad.

Our new host is Dr. Nilax Mufi and his family. (wife- Shailaja and daughter- Khushboo) Their house is super huge. They actually live in... a house. Surrounded by a wall and 2 stories tall with an attic. Inside it's even more beautiful. All of the floors are marble and gorgeous. When we got here, my mother and father went straight to bed, and I got online for a while. Khushboo and I watched some TV- she understood much much much more than I. Ahaha. But I tried at least.

Then before lunch we got to see Shailaja prepare some of it. Especially the rhodi, or the bread. First, it takes amazing skill to roll out the dough in a perfect circle- many, many years of practice, we assume. Then she put it on a flat- not kidding, no sides- frying pan for about 10 seconds for each side. Next Shailaja turned the heat up some, and held the bread on the actual flame, letting it puff up before putting it on the tray. Don't try this at home. :P

After lunch, our host- Dr. Nilax took us out for some ice cream. I had strawberry and my father had some apple custard or something like that. Really good though. Ice cream is definitly the same, even across oceans.

We had a nice hour (s) of rest then. Much needed too. After the nice (but not long enough) sleep we met Elizabeth and Steve outside to go to the market. The... indian veggie/fruit market.

But we also had Steve and Elizabeth's guide as well. So, he saw no problem with us all fitting in his incredibly small car. That's 6 of us in a car where even 5 makes everyone squished. And yes, we actually did fit in (magically) and we rode for about 10 minutes there and 10 minutes back.

The market itself was in short educational and amazing. This wasn't re-created or for toursts. It was the actual market that the local indians go to. Of course everyone is always staring at me anyway because of my hair and complextion, but here we got even more looks. We were probably the only white people in 50 miles. We were definitly the only white people in sight.

Also got to see many new fruits and vegetables that we hadn't heard of before- or don't get in the US and see what the difference was from our fruits/vegetables and theirs.

We then returned back to the Mufti's house to get ready for the rotary club meeting. I then discovered that I had left my black shoes back at the Jain's house. :(

The rotary meeting was allright. At least it moved quickly and didn't last as long as most of the others. But the dinner afterwards- whoo. That was some spicy food.

Now we are back, my mother and father are allready upstairs asleep, and I'm sitting here finishing this blog and watching Dance, India, Dance. Kind of an Indian version of "So you think you can dance?".

But, I keep falling asleep so I think I will "retire." :P