India pictures:-)

Finally, here comes a small selection of pictures from India:-)

Taken at a textile factory on our way to Fort Cochin, Kerala

Tea plants, on our way to Fort Cochin

Early morning in Kerala:-)

Laundry in Hoskote

I'm back at Sund!

Finally back at school, feels so good!!!! Inderøy is beautiful during winter time, although it's incredibly cold here now, I think we are up to -20 today, but the sun is shining and my fingers are itching for the camera, but instead I am inside, trying to sort through all my pictures from India, over 1000 photos:-) By next week, I have to find 20 of them, that I want to show, today I have to show 5, and I have 6.

I have started getting christmas presents ready, being really early for once.....there is a first time for everything, but I think this years presents are getting really good, I'll post the results later. In the mean time, I'm going to figure out which pix to show.

India, part 2

We left Fort Kochin quite early in the morning on the 11th of November, and on our way back to Bangalore, we stopped at some of the most beautiful water falls I have ever seen! Here, we also saw a lot of monkeys, they are so cute, but really mean! They will steal anything they can get their hands on, and you must never try to feed them! We were supposed to cross the boarder by 9pm, but didn't make it in time, so we had to drive a different route, which made 12 hours into 25. On this trip, I had the worst headache I've had in a very long time, and I was really dizzy, so I drugged myself on Paracet, and tried to relax, but the roads were really bad, and everyone drives in different speed, so when the bus suddenly stopped, I rolled down from the seat and on to the floor, the whole thing left a rather big bruise on my behind. When we got back to Bangalore, I still didn't feel well, so I spent the day, sleeping, and I think I took at least 10 paracet that day, but I think the headache came from not drinking enough, so I will remember that next time.

Originally, we were supposed to go from Kerala to Bangalore, and to Hoskote the same day, where we were going to spend 2 days with a host family, but because we came back from Kerala one day later, we got 2 days free, and 1 night with our host family. Hoskote is a gathering of smaller villages, about 2 hours from Bangalore. These villages has been with the organization CSA(Center for Social Action, they were our hosts in Bangalore) for several years, and students from the photography class has been staying here for about 3 years. The teachers stayed in the main camp, while the students were spread out in 3 different villages, in groups of 2 and 3. I think staying with the host family is the most absurd thing I have done my entire life. You can say that we were put on exhibition for 24 hours. Being blond there, was like being a goddess, it's really weird. while the whole neighbour hood was in the door, watching, we were dressed in saries, they also did our hair, our nails, and decorated our hands with henna. Around 07.30pm, they started makinbg the bed for us in the living room, and we thought 'okey, they are going to bed now, I guess we'll play cards or talk or something else', but no. While, again, everyone in the village was watching in the door, and the rest of the family was watching tv( no matter how pore a family is, they have a tv), we were put to bed at 07.30pm. The rest of the family were up untill around 9.30pm, and we slept in the same room as 9 other people, and the cow!!! I think it must have been at least 30 degrees in the room, not to mention all the bugs. I didn't sleep much, but woke up around 11pm, feeling something crawling on my leg. I figured 'I must be dreaming, this can't be real, but I'll check anyway', and it was a bug the size of my thumb, crawlig on my knee. Being really scared of bugs, I actually managed not to scream, but I didn't close my eyes for the rest of the night. We left the camp around 3pm the day after, and on our way back to the main camp, we had to sit in the back of a truck, I don t think I have ever been this car sick in my entire life, and there was still 2 hour ride back to Bangalore.

The last week in Bangalore were spent with 4 students that were at Sund last year, as well as several volunteers from the CSA. They were so amazing, and it was so much fun getting to know them! I only wish that we had gotten to know them earlier in the trip, I an going to miss them so much!

A bit more general about India, the traffic is the most insane thing I have ever seen! It's a regular road, with room for 2 cars, and most of the time there are 6 cars driving beside each other. They all drive in different speed and direction! Janne, our teacher told us that 'the only time I worry about you, is when you're going to cross the roads, try not to!!' Everytime you are going to cross a road in India, just pray for your life and run! The taxies, also called 'rikshaws', are hysterical!!! It's like a 3 wheel motorized vehicale. Here, we also bargin with the drivers, and it's a lot of fun, because they get really angry, and drive liker maniacs!!!! It was kind of scary also though...We had a catering firm delivering food that wasn't as spicy, but still we felt the chili here. We were out twice at indian restaurants, and indian food is incredibly spicy!!!! In India, cows are sacred, so We haven't had beef in 3 weeks, but a lot of fish, chicken, and rice. I have never been so sick of rice before, that may be a good thing! I also have a bet going with a friend, we have bought a lot of green chili in India, and when we get back to Sund, we are going to see which one who can eat the most without drinking:-) As I said earlier, being blond in India, is a very interesting experience. Everyone looks at you, and I actually had 2 indian boys, wanting to touch my hair:-)

The flight back to Norway was one of the longest, most boring journeys of my life. I had been awake for over 24 hours when I landed in Oslo, and was caught in the security check 4 times. Still being on Indian time(4 and a half hours ahead), I was completely exhausted, and slept for like 14 hours. Today, I am still tired, so I haven't really done anything except relaxing and watching movies. Tomorrow night I am going back to Sund, can't wait to see the people from jazz, FK and football again!

All in all India is the most exiting, most amazing journey I have ever done, and I will never forget it! I am sure I could have stayed longer, to learn more about the culture down there, but in the same time, it's good to be back in winter. Although, I will definitly go back to India some day! I am also very impressed over our teachers, Janne and Merete, who actually kept up with us 24/7 for 3 weeks, they did an amazing job!

Going outside now, song of the day is actually my brother. He is, what we call 'russ' next year, and he has made the song for their bus, it's really good! TTYL:-)

India, part one

Hey everyone!

Came back yesterday from an amazing 3 week trip in India. I think this will be a very long update, so I will divide it into 2 parts:

We left Sund by bus on Sunday the 31st of November, and drove to Oslo. I think we arrived at the airport around 2am, and since we weren't going to check in before 5am, we spent like 3 hours playing cards:-)

After about 5 hours waiting in Heathrow, we arrived in Bangalore around 6am on tuesday, november 2nd, and got about 5 hours of sleep, before our teachers took us to a huge mall called 'forum'. In Bangalore, we stayed at 'Christ University', and the dress code there, at least for girls, is not to show shoulders or knees. This is a rule that counts for most parts of India, so the girls went a bit crazy in the shopping mall, but I have never seen this color full clothes ever, and they are so comfortable!

We stayed in Bangalore for 3 days before we moved on to Kerala, and 2 of the days in Bangalore, were spent photographing in the slum. This was such an amazing experience. I thought the teacher was exaggerating when she said that, to the children, we are Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but this was crazy! 'Anti anti, foto foto', they scream while they come running 10-15 at a time. They are so adorable and it's so hard not to take pictures of them! The slum was a really big reaslity check, at least for me. These people are so happy with what they have, no matter how pore they are, and I envy them the importance of family to them.

On November 5th we moved on to Kerala, by bus, of all! The indian perspective on time is a story of its own. For each hour they say something is going to take, you have to add at least 2, so 1 hour on the bus became 4 etc. We stayed 2 nights at them same place at the most, and I think we stayed at 5 hotels in 7 days. this was in some ways a lot of fun because we got to see so much more of the country, but on the other side I have never been more exhausted. Anyway, we moved from Bangalore to Kerala, and me and 3 other students spent the night in a really cool house boat. earlier in the day we had gone sailing with the same boat, and we also stopped on the way for shorter photography sessions. Here, I actually got to hold an eagle, it was so cool! The bad thing is, people had chopped off parts of its wings, so he couldn't fly. We moved on to Varkala, an amazing beach resort, where we spent 2 days just relaxing at the beach. At this point it was almost 40 degrees in the sun, and we spent the evenings walking up and down the road, trying to bargin with the sales people, it's not really that much we are talking about herte, the point is that they are constantly trying to get more than they should. After a while we learned to bargin quite well actually:-) The resort we stayed at also had a spa, and I had the most amazing full body massage of a very long time!

We moved from Varkala to Trivandrum, where we stayed in an AMAZING hotel called Keys. This is actually quite ironic, because you needed a key card to get anywhere, and when 3 people share a hotel room, with only one key card, this gets a bit difficult. After a few day, we started to leave the key in the reception. With us to Kerala, for the entire week, we had a professional photographer called Girish Kurup, a very nice guy, as well as an amazing photographer! I learned a lot from him over that week, we also went out around 05.30 in the morning to photograph, best time to take pictures is either early in the morning or in the evening. We moved from Trivandrum to Fort Kochin, on the way we visited a textile factory, which made the most amazing clothes out of plants, so every clothing item was good for your skin, sore muscles etc. In Fort Kochin we also went out in the morning to see the morning life:-)

This was about half of the trip, I will continue from here in part 2, which will also contain 'song of the day:-)