Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Diwali


Diwali is an Indian Holiday that makes the 4th of July look like Chanukah. Huge firecrackers and fireworks going off left and right. We went to our Delhi coordinator's house to celebrate. The celebration involved a lot of eating a the blowing up of a huge squash. Awesome. After that, we hopped on the train for Amritsar to stay at the Golden Temple. The city was crazy, more crowded than Delhi. The Sikh faith has some amazing traditions, though. We stayed at the temple for free, and also ate meals there for free. We spent one evening helping out in the kitchen. Me and two other guys helped serve food to the masses. It was super busy and loads of fun. Than we hopped on another train and then a bus to make it to Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama. We will be spending about three weeks here. After one day I'm already in a homestay. The house is just three rooms so it's nice and cozy. We all start our ISPs (Independent Study Projects) tomorrow and I'm siked. I'm studying Tabla (Indian drums) and Tibetan language. Anyway, I've got to get back to my homestay family or they'll start to worry. Bye bye.

2 comments:

Betsy said...

Hey Jess! Dad and I were watching a movie on Ghandi and it included the uprising (you probably learned of this) at the Golden Temple. It was amazing to see the Golden Temple on the movie and know that you were staying there! Tell us about your know homestay family! Love you, Mom

Anonymous said...

Jesse babe,
that sounds amazingly fun! well i wanted to wish you a happy halloween, so happy halloween!