Poll

Hello! Thanks to everyone who voted the recent poll about travel. The results are in!

"If you could go to any continent, which would it be?"

North America - 1 vote
South America - 1 vote
Asia - 2 votes
Australia - 3 votes

And the country that would be most vistied by India4Teens readers...

Europe, with 4 votes! Thanks for voting!

Gadgets and Features!

Hey guys! Sorry for not posting for a while. I've been sick the past few days :(. I wanted to let you know about some of the gadgets and features on India4Teens. First of all, the picture and video sections are up and running! I only have one video right now, but I am working on more. Another thing that is new is following India4Teens by email. All you have to do is type in your email address into the box on the sidebar. Every time I put a new post on, you'll get an email telling you. Pretty cool! I have also changed the polls. About every two weeks there will be a new poll. I will post the last poll's results in a blog post right after the new poll is up and running. You can also become a follower of my blog if you have a Gmail account or Google ID. Just click the "Follow" tab that in the Followers gadget. Have a great day!

School, and Motorcyle Sightings

Hello everyone! I realized that there are a lot of day to day things that you guys would love to hear about. One of those things is school. First of all, before we left the US, we took off about 1.5 months of school for Christmas, to pack, and to do a bit of traveling between NC and VA. In India, the kids are in standards not grades. For example, a boy in the US in 1st grade does the same stuff as a boy in India does in 1st standard. But when the teenagers here get to 11th and 12th standard, those are considered "Pre-College". The kids here are normally off during April and May. Since we took 1.5 months off earlier, we are just going to go through June, then pick up in August. That's sorta confusing! :)We homeschool here just like we did in the US. I am in 7th grade. The thing is, homeschooling allows you to work at a faster or slower pace depending on where you are or what you're working on. So you aren't really in a certain grade the whole year, but a level. I like having "private tutors" named Mom and Dad! They are some of the best teachers I've ever had! (Did you hear that Mom and Dad?) My mom asked me the other day if I would ever want to go to one of the schools here. I said that I wasn't sure @ the moment, but maybe later down the road I would love to. My favorite subject is Science, which I have a test in tomorrow. There is another boy in our society that is about my age, and he goes to this Lab near Pune University where twice a week a bunch of kids come and do experiments with people who are scientists for a living! It sounds super cool! My mom is going to try and sign me up. Who would have thought that going to a 3rd world country would give me a great opportunity like that? Certainly not me, LOL! Something I saw a few days ago was super funny! There was a motorcycle with 2 men and 2 goats on it! I herd a "BAAAA" and turned around to my amazement! We have seen 2 men with a desk chair, a family with a mom, a dad, a 8 yr. old, a 4 yr. old, and a baby, 2 men with a 20 foot ladder, and a bunch of other crazy stuff on motorcycles! We have been saying, "I wonder what we are going to see today?" Well, I have to go finish studying. I'll try to put more pics on under the Pics section soon! :)

Holi!

App kaise hein? That is "how are you" in Hindi. I'm working on learning the language:). I have been super busy in the past week! The culture here is so radically different from America. It's so awesome! The food is great and flavorful. The people are so friendly. If you are going somewhere and need directions, you can ask anyone. There is a pretty good chance that they will know where the place is, but if they don't know they will probably find someone who does. The dust and pollution isn't as bad as I thought it would be. We live down from the road level where the air is cooler and cleaner. If you are on our roof, you are about road level, which is pretty neat! Now I'm going to tell you guys about the Indian festival that we started celebrating last night. It's called Holi. Once upon a time the festival had religious roots, but now most people just enjoy the food, sweets, and a game called Colors. Last night we went to a bonfire in our society that kinda kicked off Holi. This morning we had breakfast with everyone in the society. Then we played Colors. Colors is a game played during Holi that consists of colored powder, water, and fun! First, you have to buy colors and water guns. You can also get water balloons. Almost every store on the street has those things before and during Holi. When you play colors, you throw powder on people before or after spraying them with water. Everyone goes crazy and has a lot of fun! After you play you go and take a shower. A good thing to do before playing is to coat your body from head to toe in coconut oil. This makes the colors wash off easily. Holi is a very popular and fun Indian festival! Another thing I want to tell you guys about before I go are our bug zappers. We got these tennis raquet looking things that kill bugs. Once you see a bug, you hold down the button and it puts electric charge into the wire mesh of the raquet. 2500 volts of electricity goes through the bug when it touches the wire. It's so much fun to do! Our house is now almost bug free. Thanks for reading!

Shopping, on a whole new level!

Hey guys! I am loving all of your comments! Keep them coming! In this post I'm going to tell you guys a little about shopping in India! First of all,here they use rupees instead of dollars, and there are about 45 rupees in a dollar. Now, every week we go grocery shopping about two or three times. We also have to go to a few different stores to get everything. For example, one store might have cleaning supplies, but no meat. Another store may have meat, but not much in the way of produce. It is a full time job to shop here, but it's loads of fun! We have quite a few things here that you may not have expected, such as peanut butter, beef, pizza places, ice cream, candy, chocolate, Lay's potato chips, and much more! Some things we don't have are Reese's, Cheez-Its, American marshmallows, lunch meats, hot dogs, Reddi-whip, and a few more things. You can get some of those "we don't have things" at imported goods stores, such as Reddi-whip for $10! Overall, they have a wide variety of foods here. I'm even enjoying Indian food more and more! Eating with your hands is fun, too! About shopping at stores without fixed prices... it's so much fun! Talking people down on prices is my favorite thing to do now! Getting a good deal has a whole new meaning! Most street shops' prices are flexible, but they start sort of high. It's funny to walk up to a rickshaw driver, (see pic in pics section!) and him give us a super high price. Then I start talking him down, and he laughs a little as I talk! It's a lot of fun! There is only one Wal-Mart in India. I think it's in New Delhi. Anyway, they need a Target here :)! That's a little bit about shoppping here! I have lots of post ideas already jumbled around in my head, so there is more to come! Also, check out the Photos section. I'm still working on the Videos. Don't forget to comment!