oh well no pictures right now
i was hoping to put up some pictures but the usb port thing isn't working. so i'll just write and later i'll add pictures.
we are in ooty, at the ywca. ooty is actually called oodachadalamandalacala or something like that. there's a ymca and a ywca. it's nice here. we're in the nilgiri region which is also called the blue hills or blue mountains. we took a steam train to get here and it was incredibly beautiful. i'll put up pictures later and you won't believe it. it's hilly and mountainy and the hills are terraced for farming and there's tons of tea plantations and tea fields. it's so green and we passed waterfalls and lots of monkeys and apparently there are wild elephants also. we did a trek yesterday through a tea plantation and passed all these plants that we recognized: eucalyptus trees, lots of them, salvia, aloe vera and lots of succulents, lots of lantana. we even saw: fuschia, california golden poppies, bird of paradise, trumpet flowers, bottlebrush (in red and also light purple) nasturtium. it's a funny thing to recognize plants in a very different place.
we took an overnight train from chennai. we did this once before. i have to say: the overnight train thing is not bad at all. in fact it's a little nicer than not bad. we have a softish platform thing to sit or lay on, they give blankets, it's quiet. when we arrived at 7 am, we got on the steam train which was about 5 hours.
in ooty there are women with double nose rings: a round intricate kind of nosering on each nostril. also on the street they sell these things that are apparently called "noonku" or something like that. i'll add a picture later. it looks like a dark coconut from the outside. a guy puts it in his hand and chops with a machete thing all around it until you see three seed/heart/wet things inside. he gives you these and you sort of slurp them. they are juicy and josh thinks they are leechi-like. it's a weird cool thing.
something else we did in ooty was to see a montessori school. this morning we walked from the ywca to blue mountain school and met with amukta, who is a friend of priya's and visited my classroom in california last year. blue mountain school is an elementary montessori and when we went in the classroom, it was so cool to recognize materials. i'll attach pictures later. sandpaper letters, in hindi, bead chains, puzzle maps of india, powers of numbers materials, journals. the school is a boarding school and goes from ages 6 to 18 or 19. crazy and cool to see!
this afternoon also we went to the produce bazaar and we asked the ywca to help us find a guide to go with us so we could ask things. they hooked us up with our waiter from last night, and we gave him 110 rupees for a couple hours and it was really interesting. we saw a water pumpkin, which looks like a huge squash shaped cucumber, and bought some coconuts to drink and other fruits we haven't had before. i don't remember what they are called now but i'll attach pictures. (we have bleach to clean stuff and a swiss army knife to cut stuff up so we're being safe).
i'm looking very pregnant and people are noticing and asking and that's nice. i'm 21 weeks old now.
we are in ooty, at the ywca. ooty is actually called oodachadalamandalacala or something like that. there's a ymca and a ywca. it's nice here. we're in the nilgiri region which is also called the blue hills or blue mountains. we took a steam train to get here and it was incredibly beautiful. i'll put up pictures later and you won't believe it. it's hilly and mountainy and the hills are terraced for farming and there's tons of tea plantations and tea fields. it's so green and we passed waterfalls and lots of monkeys and apparently there are wild elephants also. we did a trek yesterday through a tea plantation and passed all these plants that we recognized: eucalyptus trees, lots of them, salvia, aloe vera and lots of succulents, lots of lantana. we even saw: fuschia, california golden poppies, bird of paradise, trumpet flowers, bottlebrush (in red and also light purple) nasturtium. it's a funny thing to recognize plants in a very different place.
we took an overnight train from chennai. we did this once before. i have to say: the overnight train thing is not bad at all. in fact it's a little nicer than not bad. we have a softish platform thing to sit or lay on, they give blankets, it's quiet. when we arrived at 7 am, we got on the steam train which was about 5 hours.
in ooty there are women with double nose rings: a round intricate kind of nosering on each nostril. also on the street they sell these things that are apparently called "noonku" or something like that. i'll add a picture later. it looks like a dark coconut from the outside. a guy puts it in his hand and chops with a machete thing all around it until you see three seed/heart/wet things inside. he gives you these and you sort of slurp them. they are juicy and josh thinks they are leechi-like. it's a weird cool thing.
something else we did in ooty was to see a montessori school. this morning we walked from the ywca to blue mountain school and met with amukta, who is a friend of priya's and visited my classroom in california last year. blue mountain school is an elementary montessori and when we went in the classroom, it was so cool to recognize materials. i'll attach pictures later. sandpaper letters, in hindi, bead chains, puzzle maps of india, powers of numbers materials, journals. the school is a boarding school and goes from ages 6 to 18 or 19. crazy and cool to see!
this afternoon also we went to the produce bazaar and we asked the ywca to help us find a guide to go with us so we could ask things. they hooked us up with our waiter from last night, and we gave him 110 rupees for a couple hours and it was really interesting. we saw a water pumpkin, which looks like a huge squash shaped cucumber, and bought some coconuts to drink and other fruits we haven't had before. i don't remember what they are called now but i'll attach pictures. (we have bleach to clean stuff and a swiss army knife to cut stuff up so we're being safe).
i'm looking very pregnant and people are noticing and asking and that's nice. i'm 21 weeks old now.
posted by yona abrams | 1:54 AM
3 Comments:
"a guy puts it in his hand and chops with a machete thing all around it until you see three seed/heart/wet things inside. he gives you these and you sort of slurp them"
But what happened to being careful?
We've been printing out your blog for August and she wanted me to post for her:
Sounds like you are having a great time! That dance party looked fun -- the whole trip does. Wish I was there!
Awesome!
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