cawfee

hello, fall break. you are a welcome addition to my life right now.

i've spent the break at the herbert house in dallas and have thoroughly enjoyed myself. danae is the type of friend that we both have a mutual understanding of things that annoy us, and we each have no problem voicing them. so that means we don't get sick of each other. nice.
the herbert family also has a way of welcoming me with their southern hospitality so that i feel "at home" when i am at their house.
yesterday, danae, will, and i went four-wheeling and then had a bonfire at her house in wills point (aka the small-town, country america.) what is more fun? nothing.

now we're back at the dallas house blasting some ABBA and having a dance party with some excellent blended coffee drink that i made myself. the ingredients are top secret.




coming soon (i promise) : pictures from the big anniversary for my grandparents. stay tuned!

i'm gonna sell it to charity

EDIT:
i'm just going to say that this video is the funniest thing ever. and brooklynn and i made a similar video over this past christmas with the same song. except we're not 11.




after a miserable attempt at making a decent grade on my math test at 9am this morning, i decided i would take the rest of the day off. i went home and did something more productive than going to class- i took a really great nap. then i looked around my room at my clothes completely covering every inch of carpeting (i had forgotten how messy i am when i live without a roomate). i thought i might as well clean up.
as i was hanging up/folding my clean clothes i realized i just don't have anymore room. my cloest is completely stuffed and my dresser drawers couldn't hold one more sock. i actually had so many clothes on my floor because that's the only room i had for some of them! i even have some things in my mom's closet.

it was time to give some of my crap away.

this is something always hard for me because i love to create new outfits with old clothes, but i decided to get rid of anything i haven't worn in a while, anything that was ugly, or anything out of style. the pile on my bed accumulated to a huge heap, and after about only 20 minutes of sorting, here is the result:



pictured above: 2 pairs of capris (WHY did i own capris?! ) 3 pairs of jeans, 1 jacket, 7 shirts, 7 tank tops, 4 dresses, and 3 sweaters. talk about EXCESS. and that isn't even counting the "throw in the garbage" pile.

that's completely ridiculous. but, in my defesnse, i AM an excellent bargain shopper and get most of my stuff on sale. and i have a small closet.

i don't know what she's gonna DOOO when she sees the BALLOONSSSS!!

my favorite thing right now :


kristin wiig is wonderful.
this video is fitting because it seems that all of my friends have had birthdays this week. but, no birthday compares to that of laura's 21st this wednesday in stillwater.


laura made her dress.



in other news, i got asked to write the "left" political opinion column each week for my school's newspaper (they have opinions on a specific topic each week from each side). i said no when i first got asked...i didn't want to make anyone mad... but the second time i decided to go for it. this week's issue is "seperation of church and state". should be a piece of cake...i don't even know what the argument would be for this one. ha.

thank you, at&t.

when i arrived in india it was a pleasant (and unpleasant) surprise that my phone got service while my team mates had none.
"When it comes to staying in touch, you can trust AT&T for fast, easy, and reliable connections worldwide."
^ it's the truth. and you can also trust that when you buy calling cards, that they AREN'T going to work, and you will come home with a $700 phone bill.
so i get on the phone with at&t, and i told the lady that i had bought calling cards and everything, and she puts me on hold. then she comes back and says "well, those charges are for roaming, so they are legitimate.and you still get charged for the minutes. but i can take off $26!"
well whoop de doo! thank you so much! now that you have taken off that $26, i can pay. psh. if i had to pay for roaming when using a calling card no matter what, then WHY would i pay for a calling card? wouldn't i just make a call? it makes no sense. so then my mom comes home and i beg her to call and be mean because i can't, and she makes me do it. but they still tell me they will only take off the $26. so i'm on the verge of tears and i just hand my mom the phone. of course, after about 5 minutes, mom got it "down" to $350. bleck.
ok, another batch of photos!

the cows and i just waiting in line for some ice cream

this is in khopoli:



the market!






this is prapaula, the head of the school in the slums.

some sort of joke.


auntie louisa john isaac! haha. she is so sweet!

we took a ferry ride to elephante islands. this is the gateway to india and the taj mahal hotel

saris! yeah they are pretty..but imagine wearing one in a crowded church for four hours with no air conditioning. i felt like a baby swaddled in a blanket.


here are pictures from the red light district i wrote about. the street going horizontal is where the centre is, and if you take a right by where the lady and the big trash heap are, that's one of the four "lanes" where the prostitutes are living..

you can see it better here..

the centre where the kids (and some of their moms) go during the day since they can't go to school.

these women are practicing and their children are at the centre.

the kids! they stay here all day and sometimes well into the night.

these girls got into a real school!

one night during our stay in mumbai, all of us in the house heard music coming from outside, and it continued to get louder and louder as if it were coming towards us. being in mumbai for a few weeks now at this time, we were used to loud commotion outside the windows, but nothing like this. it was well after 10 or 11pm, and we had kind of been scared into staying inside after dark. but of course, i was curious and i needed to see what was going on. allie was brave enough to come with me out onto the streets with what seemed to be a thousand other people as well. we saw a large circle with music playing and people crowding around everywhere. we were intrigued and wanted to discreetly slip into the circle and video this, because it was awesome. we should have known by now that white girls in india cannot discreetly do anything. as we were walking towards the circle we were practically bombarded by all these men/boys (not many women come out at night) wanting us to take their picture. it was madness. i was trying to be nice so i took a couple and then couldn't handle the large circle that began to crowd around US. so, allie and i ran back inside and decided to watch the indian wedding from the terrace... and here is the video we took:


now, i will continue to do post some heart- warming video of the sweet kids at the orphanage. get your tissues out.

home

being back home is a bittersweet feeling. at first i was so excited to be in america- to smell the fresh air, throw my trash in trash cans that are conveniently located within a 20 foot radius of anywhere i walk, and just to be in a familiar place. eating at chili's for the first time was almost a religious experience.
now the excitement of seeing my family and friends is beginning to deteriorate and i am finding myself actually having to sit alone and think of what i have seen and done this summer. the alone time that i was looking foreward to all summer can get sad at times (which i was warned about). when people ask me how india was i don't know how or where to start to explain the things i saw to them, so i usually say "it was great" and maybe tell a story or two, explaining to them that i have full intentions of divulging more information to them when i have the time. after that, conversations of boyfriends and other normal everyday topics start and i just can't fully engage.
the truth is, i have had plenty of time to call some of my friends and family and tell them about my summer but i just haven't really wanted to. i've been procrastinating and that is why.
i'm sure it will pass.

in other news, oklahoma is super hot. mom is keeping the air conditioning on to what must be about 40 degrees, because i am now sleeping with two large blankets over me and long sleeved shirts and sweatpants. it's so nice to lay in a soft bed.

laura and i are going to watch "born into brothels" later today. it's a documentary i saw a few years ago about a woman who goes into the red light districts in calcutta. she lives there for a good period of time and finds out the children there are fascinated with the camera (which is something i experienced in india as well, ha). she starts selling their photography to help pay for them to get an education. it's an amazing movie and i'm really excited to watch it again. you should definately see it.



ok, i will be putting a couple more posts on here later. i still have plenty of picture to share!! here is a video of sweet prana singing happy birthday to me.

sonapur (red light area)

today we went to sonapur, a red light district that is up and running less than ten minutes away from the home we have been staying at all summer in bhandup.
a social worker took us first to the sneha center, where the children of the prostitutes stay and learn english and have a schoolday there. the children stay there sometimes past mindnight so that they do not have to see their mothers practicing their prostitution. what's sad is that it is almost impossible to enroll these children into local public schools because they do not know the name of their father. the school wants to know the names, and they just have no idea. their motheres are seeing sometimes 10, 20 or more customers a night, and a lot of them are just passery-by truck drivers that they won't see again.
this center is in what looks like a storage shed, probably 60 feet long and 20 feet wide. they are fighting getting it taken away because the landlords said that they can get more money from the prostitutes that want to rent it out. we were told that this storage shed would be used as an area for about 50 practicing prostitutes...all in this open room.
a few of the women took us to see their homes where they practice. as we walked down the alleyway where the homes were, my feet were covered in mud and there were prostitutes all sitting in front of their homes. they all had on a lot of red lipstick and some had revealing clothing. their faces were so unhappy and cold it was hard to look them in the eye. the homes we went into were difficult for two or three of us to squeeze into. they had a few bunk beds and that was about all there was to the homes.seriously- it was a door, four walls, and some beds. there were about six women to a "home" and they all practiced in there..at the same time. their children would be in the corner sleeping while all this is going on. i can't even imagine being a child in that situation.

these women cannot escape. a lot of them are from different states in india and some from nepal. they are from villages and are tricked into coming there for promise of a husband and a better life. then, they get there and are sold to these "mothers" that take all the money they make from prostitution and let them have a place to stay and a meal. that's it. so many of the women were asking us to please pray for them to find a way out. these women cannot get away also because there are always men out looking for them, and they always have to answer to someone about where they are going and what they are doing.when/if they get away, if they are found, they are beaten. they are someone else's property and not their own. i just felt so helpless.

tomorrow we are driving about two hours to bhadlapur, where we will go to the transformation center where some of the women who got out are living.