Random Lucknow photos

Cafe Coffee Day is the only coffee shop that I've been to here in India, my first time at the IGI Airport where I ordered a cafe latte. My second time at CCD was at Hazratganj, which is a long street full of shops, restaurants, cinemas, and offices. First, this guy from AIESEC Lohit drove me there and we met up with Vidhi and Shuxian, to wait for some news on whether we were supposed to move that night to the intern house or have dinner at the house of AIESEC Lucknow's president, Saadia.

My second visit was really a memorable one because, suddenly, in the middle of our conversation, this guy suddenly comes in with two other guys, and Vidhi was just like, "Oh my God, it's ergejrgerjg!"

Sorry about that, I forgot the guy's name, but he's a very famous Indian actor and people also call him "Mr. Bajaj". There, at least I remembered something! :D I took this photo of him but too bad he wasn't facing the camera. That guy in red is actually his brother, who is also an actor but not as famous as him, according to Vidhi, and another guy with a moustache like the one at the Pringles logo, who's a comedian but whose name Vidhi forgot. She even thought at first that he was a chef who had his own cooking show, haha!

Vidhi said that the Indians really love this Mr. Bajaj because he's a nice person and that he gives to charity, but as some fans of his approached him, including Vidhi, I found him to be obviously kind as he entertained all of them, even if this was obviously something like him taking time off work. :) Too bad I don't know any movie of his. :|

Now, the next set of photos were taken during my first rickshaw ride! :) Shu and I were on our way then to this mall called Sahara Ganj.

See that cow above? They're everywhere. 0_0 And Vodafone and Airtel are one of the biggest mobile network operators here.

That's a back view of the rickshaws there. But I really feel bad whenever I'd ride a rickshaw because it seems like it takes a huge amount of effort for the drivers to pedal them, and add to that the sun eating up your skin. 40 degrees is just horrifying.

Rickshaws on the side of the road; drivers resting under the shade provided by the trees.

Sahara Ganj. Not a very big mall, but it was okay.

And that evening, I got a taste of some Indian sweets from a store called Parampara sweets, and they were really delicious! :) For those who also have a sweet tooth like me out there, you definitely have to give Indian sweets a try. Again, I wasn't able to take photos of all of them, but I this one, I really had to capture, because the way it's eaten is just out of the ordinary, haha! It's called pani bata sha (that's how they pronounced it here), 'pani' being 'water', because you eat it with water that's slightly sour but also a little sweet with herbs in it.

On the left is boiled pea, the brown sticky sauce in the middle is, I don't know, but it's sweet with a hint of salt, and those puffy balls are hollow and are made of wheat, and fried, I think. :) The pea, by the way, is placed on this round little bowl made up of leaves formed into, yeah, a bowl. :P

So that's how it's eaten. You crack a hole in the middle of the ball, put in some of the pea (for me, I prefer to put a lot. YUM!), add some of the brown sweet sauce, and then fill it with the pani. Eat it whole! Gaaaah, now I want to eat it again. :| Maybe I'll buy some when I have the time.

And lastly, today was one of my students' birthday, Vikas. :) I think he's a 10th grader, and his friends who are also in my Spoken English class, told me that it was actually his birthday today, so I greeted him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And shook his hand. :) On my way to lunch while walking down the street along the school, he followed me on his bike and handed over to me this:

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Ok, bad bad internet connection. He handed me a Cadbury chocolate bar. :) He also gave one to Antonio. And when I got home half an hour later, it melted in the wrapper - what 43 degrees is capable of doing. :))

Cafe Mojo for Lunch

Shuxian, the Chinese intern, who is also my roommate, and I have been planning to eat at this place called Cafe Mojo, located a few feet from the school where I teach. So last night we planned it out and also took it as a good opportunity to meet the two new interns from the Czech Republic.

I wasn't able to take any photos but anyway, the cafe is situated on the second floor of a building where Gold's Gym Lucknow is, haha! Too bad I didn't bring my Gold's Gym membership ID from the Philippines, I didn't know I'd be working near one! The place is nice and has a cozy feel to it, with low tables surrounded by round couches of pastel gray colors, with a hookah on each table. The menu consisted of categories like "Fast Food" (weird category name, huh?), "Indian", "Italian" (where we found these two dishes falling under that category called 'Normal pizza' and 'Italian pizza'), and finally "Chinese".

Actually, someone from AIESEC recommended that we eat there, but I forgot to ask him for any recommendations. :| Our conversation went like this as we were passing by the building on the way home from work:

"That restaurant over there," I pointed, "Mojo's? Have you tried eating there yet?" And he answered, "Yeah, I have, and the food there is really great," as he emphasized the first syllable in 'really'. And being new to Hindi, I tried practicing one of the words that they've taught me so I said, "Really, like chokas?" with 'chokas' meaning 'awesome'? And he replied, "Actually, more than chokas!"

I think during that small talk, he was referring to the Indian food of Mojo's, because I ordered something from the Italian menu, and now, it turned into one of my biggest regrets when it comes to ordering food at a restaurant. Wrong moooove! Lesson learned today? Well, ever since I got here in Lucknow, I will never ever order foreign dishes again, and get Indian food instead. Tsk.

The good thing though is that I now have a reason to eat again at another restaurant here. :) which is totally chokas! I'd love to taste more Indian food! :3

Tan lines - no - spots. Tan spots.

Just got home from work, and I thought that since the school where I taught is just near a market (Gole Market), then I thought it might be a good time to buy some soap. :)

Outside, it was very dusty and I even had to walk some distance to reach the market, and the street I had to traverse was in the process of getting paved, so it's even dustier than it's supposed to be. The temperature is, I think, 36 degrees or so, and I wasn't wearing any hat nor did I bring an umbrella. Unfortunately for me, on Wednesdays, the outdoor market is open, and so the shops at Gole market were closed, and today is a Wednesday, so no shop selling soaps. Nada. But for your info, I still have some left to last me two showers. Yeah, just so we're clear on that, hahaha!

So I covered quite a long distance - if you also put into account the heat, then a short distance seems like a long distance -, and I had to walk to where the taxis are stationed so I could go back home. And voila, tan spots on my feet! I will never wear slippers to work again. :|

And a strange thing happened today, by the way. There were three monkeys running around the school! I've never seen monkeys except inside the zoo, so it would have been great if I took photos, but, sadly, I didn't bring my camera today. :(

Since I wasn't able to take any interesting shots today, I'll just show some that I took yesterday. These are my students in French class:

French class - Dr. Virendra Swarup School

I haven't memorized all their names yet, but pretty soon I will. I'll have to write down all their names to make it easier for me. :) 

How do teachers do it?

I've been sitting in front of my computer for hours, trying to come up with activities for my spoken language class, and though I've already prepared some, I still find myself lost and out of focus from what I'm supposed to accomplish.

How do language teachers do it? I easily run out of creative ideas for my class and it's only my 4th day of teaching. :| My professor in Spanish 30-31 is actually my inspiration whenever I'm trying to visualize language activities that I think will really catch my students' interests and facilitate their learning. Or maybe my standards are too high? Haha! Of course I want to bring them my A-game!

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But seriously, I need better ideas. D:

Hello, world!

This phrase must have been used a gazillion times by lots of other people, but it just seems really appropriate for this moment.

INTERNET AFTER 1 WEEK AT LAHAAAST!!!

Weather: Too sunny. And too hot.

Time: To eat! My first meal for the day. :P It's 4:45PM. I'll explain next time.

Location: Room. :)

Our room's ceiling :D

By the way, I'm 75% certain that I've lost weight since I got here, primarily because of all the hot and spicy food and zero meat. :3

Next update in 3 hours.........

Day 4

I had to skip day  2 and 3 because nothing much happened then.

On my second day here, the AIESEC members took me with them to Lucknow Public School to campaign for the project one last time, and it was quite an overwhelming experience interacting with the parents who were inquiring about the summer camp. It's like watching a movie without subtitles as I watched the AIESEC members talk to them, and I couldn't figure out whether a parent was angry or just plain serious or happy, haha! I also got my shot at entertaining their questions but good thing everything went well. :)

Today, we went to this mall called "Fun Republic", where I met the two other interns whom I'll be working with for the coming days: Shuxien from China and Antonio from Russia. It was a huge relief meeting them, because finally, I'm not alone whenever the Indians are speaking to one another in Hindi. :| Language can build quite a barrier, but now that there are more of us foreigners, the AIESECers speak English more often. :)

With the AIESECers from Lucknow (Arbaaz, Archita, and Rahul) and the other intern from China, Shuxian

With the AIESECers (Kirti, Archita, Lohit, Rahul, and Arbaaz) and the other intern from Russia, Antonio

Vidhi from AIESEC Lucknow and Shuixian

We're moving to the intern house tomorrow so I'm sure things are gonna be different and we'll be busier, since training is also starting. Hope I can still update after this one. :P

Lucknow, India: Day 1

Namaste! :)

For some unknown reason, my first post disappeared, so here I am again with another blog.

May 13 marked my first time to step on Indian soil - Hahaha, did I just make that sound really significant on purpose? -, in New Delhi, at the IGI Airport (Indira Ghandi International Airport). Before my connecting flight, I had to wait for around 6 hours there, so  I had to face one of my biggest pet peeves: WAITING. Good thing the airport was big so I I had to walk far to find my way around. The people at the airport were accommodating enough to lead me to where I had to go: the Transfer check-in.

Then I finally got my boarding pass to Lucknow, and took off at 8AM. It's only an hour's trip from New Delhi to Lucknow, so I was very excited to land. But when we did, as I stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac, I felt as if I just entered a sauna room. It was REALLY HOT. XD I didn't expect it to be that hot when I was looking up the weather update in Lucknow on the internet when I was still in the Philippines! Now I know how hot 41 degrees is, and in the coming weeks, I'm about to find out how hot the weather can be when the Indians say "steamy".

Two AIESEC Lucknow members picked me up from the Airport, and then we headed to this hotel where the last day of their LC was being held. It was a very busy time for them, but lucky for me I got to be introduced to almost everyone. :)

At around 3PM, we went straight to the home of my host family, and the family is indeed very warm and hospitable - I think they're as hospitable as us Filipinos when it comes to welcoming visitors. That night, I got to taste my first authentic home-cooked Indian meal - and it was AWESOME! I'm going to post photos when I get the time because really, words are not enough to recount that first experience. It was a simple meal but very fun to eat, and healthy, too! I think since I got here, I haven't eaten any meat, except for the chicken nuggets that I ordered at McDonald's when some of the AIESEC members took me to this mall. Haha! No need for any exercise or diet, woo!

I'm really excited for the coming days, especially when I'll get to meet the other interns. My next update will probably be in two days :)

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My first meal here in Lucknow:

I forgot the name of the one in the bowl, but its a slightly sour and mildly spicy thick soup with some bits of rice. And the white thing that looks like bread is the roti/chappati. :P That spoonful of green stuff on the left is like green mango puree with some herbs, so it has this tangy and herby taste. The brown ones above are potatoes! It's here in India that I discovered my love for potatoes. I can eat them everyday and not get sick of them. Haha! Those are fried potatoes, but they have this coating that tastes something like curry, or something else. And finally, cucumbers and onions on the side. I don't really eat raw onions but the cucumbers went really great and blended perfectly with the whole meal. Awesome way to end the day. :D

And I have to put this photo here, because this dog is just the most excited dog that I've ever met. He's the dog of the host family whose house I stayed at for a couple of days. Fluffyyy :3

Chulbul, the German spitz