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!

Goa, India

Hey guys! Right now I'm in Goa, which happens to be on the coast of India! Which means I'm kinda @ the beach! My mom and Dad are here for training and strategy with some of our friends' company. Im just here for the beach! LOL! I hope you are all doing well! I have enjoyed being able to talk, text, and call some of you guys! There are a lot of things that are different about Goa than Pune. First of all, it's not so dusty. Also, there isn't as much trafiic. But, I LOVE Pune so much better because it is so much cooler there! The sun here is so intense and hot. I'm enjoying a little vaction though! It is kinda odd, most of you guys go to the beach in the summer, while it's winter here and I'm @ the beach! I wil post some pics, again, once we get internet in our house. I think it will be up and running a few days after we get back from Goa. Well, that's pretty much it! Talk 2 you guys later!

Airport Chaos, Plus More!

Ok… Hello to all of you awesome India4Teens readers! I have a lot to tell you guys! First of all, I’m so sorry for not posting before now! I know it’s been like 3.5 weeks since I posted last. We don’t have internet in our house yet, so I’m posting this from a wifi hotspot. All right, let me get started! Right after I posted that QuickiePost about our travel plans, my dad got an email saying that our flight from Greensboro l to Newark was canceled! After that we drove another 10 minutes from McDonald’s to the airport to try and get things straightened out. When we got there the lady at the desk first told us we would be taking off to go to somewhere, I’m not sure where, around 12:30pm. The thing you have to realize is that we thought we had to check 19 bags, eat lunch, and board the plane in 1 hour! We were about to have a heart attack! Anyway, we ran down to the airline kiosk to check our bags. Then we told them how many bags we had. They said one word, and I quote, “No”. So, after that we went back down to our original airline kiosk. The lady at the desk said that the only thing left to do was for us to stay in a hotel overnight until the next flight the following day. Bummer.  My dad was talking to her, trying to see if there was any other possible way to get to Pune, India without spending the night in a hotel. He told her that we would be willing to drive to Charlotte to fly out of the Charlotte airport or something. So, that’s what we did! We drove to the Charlotte International Airport which was 2 hours away from where we were @ that time. Our plane left from Charlotte @ 8:10pm. I enjoyed some Pizza Hut and Cinnabon in the airport! Yum! So then we flew from Charlotte to Frankfurt, Germany. Once we got to Frankfurt, we had some layover until we left from there for Pune. Thankfully all of our bags made it to Frankfurt with us! I have to give Continental Airlines a big hand for that! Now, the first flight we were on had some pretty cramped seats, but the flight from Germany to India was actually another airline called Privat Air. So, that plane turned out to be a business class jet! Yay, free upgrade! There was a considerably larger amount of leg and seat room. My dad was all smiles to the new leg room! We got to Pune and I was feeling like I was about to be sick. We went through customs which was actually pretty quick and easy! One of the other m’s in India came to the airport to pick us up and take us to the hotel we stayed @ for a few nights before we were able to get furniture for our house. Unfortunately, I was sick for the first 4 days we were in India. (But now I’m feeling great, if you are wondering!) So, now we are almost totally settled in. I think we will be 100% settled in about 2 more weeks! I’ll tell you 2 funny stories for now. Ok, we were @ a store during the first few days we were here and my dad was talking to a few of the sales people. There was another sales guy that noticed I wasn’t feeling well. He came over and was trying to cheer me up. First of all, my dad towers over the Indian men, who are pretty short! The guy I was talking to pointed to my dad. Then he acted like a giant! It was hilarious! He said my dad looked like a wrestler! I thought that was very funny! The other story involves my mom and a hair dryer. I’ll start from the beginning. While we were still in Virginia during the month of January, we went to Target so my mom could get a hair dryer that would work in India and the US. Well, after 2 associates’ help and a lot of searching, we found one. Once we got to the hotel my mom plugged it in to freshen up or something. The hairdryer had a little switch on it to switch from 120 volts to 240 volts. She didn’t switch the switch. Maggie started screaming, “THE HAIRDRYER IS SMOKING!!!” If you think about it, the cost per use for that hair dryer was about $15. I’ll never let my mom forget that! I’ll post pics and videos in their sections as soon as we get internet in our house! Thanks 4 reading!