9. Amusement Park Fun

Sorry no cultural insights today. Just a little fun. Today some friends and I went to an amusement and water park outside of my city. We had a blast!

I must say that, considering how not clean my country is generally, the water park and amusement park are amazingly clean. Cleaner than some parks in the States. We rode the amusement park rides first, crazy ones that take you round and round and up and down. My favorite two were called Drop Zone and the Maverick. Drop Zone shoots you up into the air and gradually drops you down, similar to Acrophobia at Six Flags over Georgia. The Maverick is just crazy fun.

The water park is really great, too. A lazy river, the boomerang water slide and many other great water rides made us keep cool in the hot South Asian summer sun. We had a good lunch at the park, complete with popcorn and cotton candy. One of the good things about the park is that it isn't so big that you can't do it all in one day. We were able to ride almost every ride and slide every slide. It was so fun! I can't wait to go back!

8. Not your typical housewarming party

Rather, not your typical house! You hardly ever see houses this amazing here. Today we went to a housewarming party for our neighbor's sister. They haven't actually moved into the house, but this was the celebration of its completion and the day that they perform special religious ceremonies to bless the house. This was one amazing party! Thousands upon thousands of dollars were spent on the party, and I would venture to say hundreds of thousands were spent on the house (or more). It is the most extravagant house I've ever been to in this country.

WARNING: Lots of pictures, little words, loooong post. I would have done a mosaic, but the pictures need to be seen in their full form.

NOTE: In the post below there is a quick movie of dancing milk, suitar playing and the man that hands out the party favors. Scroll down and start loading it before looking at the rest of this post.

Us with our neighbor and her sister

Preparing the doorway for entry

All the shoes outside the house

The kitchen

The gods' room

Home theater

Inside the elevator

The rooftop

A Jacuzzi tub (5 in all to be exact)! There aren't many tubs here.

Carpet! There's not much carpet here.

Grass! There isn't much grass here.

Bollywood on the Balcony

The entertainment

Preparing a feast

My first chat! Yum!

The lunch

Interesting dessert

Finally, us... with our neighbors

I hope you enjoyed the post o' pictures!

7. Our Ironing "Walla"

A "walla" is anyone who sells something or provides a service. There are wallas for everything...autos, vegetables, fruit, greens, tea, ironing clothes, newspapers, etc.



These two are some of our ironing wallas, or press wallas. There are several in our neighborhood, one of which comes to our door about two times a week, takes our clothes, irons them and brings them back by the end of the day...all for under $1, usually. The two in the picture are our "back-up wallas." They are located on the sidewalk just around the corner from our house. We usually give them our ironing when the ironing walla that comes to our building has gone to his village or is taking some time off.

If you notice, the iron is huge! It's really heavy, and there are hot coals inside. The walla usually has a pile of black coal on the sidewalk that he puts into the iron. Then he heats the coals up in the iron over a fire. Naturally, most of our clothes have a lovely charcoal smell after ironing, but the ironing is top notch! Not a wrinkle in sight!

It is quite the luxury to rarely iron my clothes, and I am so spoiled because of it! But the coal ironing can quickly cause clothes to fade and look worn. So, I do keep my nicer things and iron them with an electric iron...myself. :-(

6. Bees!

This photo is taken from our balcony. This is the second hive to find its place here. Last year about this time a swarm of bees made a hive at this same spot, but several months later they left. The hive eventually fell. Then not more than two months later, another swarm (or perhaps the same) made another hive in the exact same spot. They've been here ever since.

The bees don't bother us, and they really only swarm at night. I sometimes wake up and can hear them buzzing around the windows and the doors to the balcony. It's pretty creepy.

We have had some humorous moments because of the bees. Once, when Reba's friends were visiting, the bees decided to swarm the morning that they had to leave for the airport at 5 a.m. Well, it was a sight to see. Everyone was using their suitcases for cover and dashing down the stairs to the waiting taxi.

Unfortunately, about eleven (we counted) bees made their way into our living room because they were headed toward our lights. Well, you can imagine. Rebecca and I, only half-coherent at five in the morning, were trying to kill the bees before we could go back to sleep. It was hard to just get them with our shoes so we got out a can of odor neutralizer (the only thing we had on hand). I sprayed them until they were drunk and flying around in a daze. Reba then smacked them! It was pretty funny. We can't help but laugh about it.

Recently, the same sort of thing happened in Kaitlin's room. A maintenance guy left her door to the balcony open while he was repairing her fan and then left it open when he was done. Later, she went to her room...bees. I wasn't here for this one, but they tell me it was much like the morning Reba and I swatted down the eleven.

When the hive first appeared, we asked our builder that is around everyday what he was going to do about it. His reply, "Nothing! I am going to get the honey! Bees are very auspicious (lucky)." Bees? Lucky? Yeah right. Lucky if you're not allergic.