After finishing off an assigned story the other day, I rewarded myself with a trip to the mall to see 27 Dresses. Loved it. But I seem to love all American movies I’ve seen lately. Could it be a bout of homesickness? Or maybe I just seem to love any movies with James Marsden and a star from Grey’s Anatomy.
Anyway…I’m sitting in the practically empty theater, chomping on my popcorn and sippin’ my slurpy. And realize it’s Monday afternoon at 2:30. And I’m at the movies. Although it’s not the typical “travel” stuff that usually randomly smacks me with happiness…I thought, “Holy cow, I’m lucky. I hope I can do this when I get back to the US.”
I think this might be a Muslim Barbie on these suitcases in Doha, Qatar. Or maybe is it a Muslim Skipper? It’s really been a long time since I played with the blond plastic dolls…
One of the last things I did before I left India was see a good ol’ American movie. Spending two hours in a fantasy world…where everyone speaks English and nobody is staring at me…was pretty darn fab, I must say.
I also enjoyed the movie (Enchanted), too. However, it did make me realize there’s pretty much a dearth in the number of Bollywood films for kids. I mean, in four months, I’ve seen ads for one kids’ movie. I guess Indians haven’t mastered the art of grooming child stars who grow up to be drug addicts yet.
On another note…in about one hour I’ll be heading off to continent numero three for the trip (well, four, if you count North America).
The domestic airport at Delhi had this handy-dandy magazine vending machine. Great to know I can get Time, Good Housekeeping, or Cosmopolitan if I need them.
But I should admit. I’m not really a fan of vending machines. Too many times I’ve gotten a Diet Pepsi instead of a 7Up or watched in disappointment as my Doritos got stuck mid-drop on the spiral thingy. I mean, I can just imagine pressing the buttons for Time and getting one of the machine’s Hindi-language rags instead.
Apparently, though, the company’s got a guy on hand, should I run into any vending machine woes. (He was standing around while I was looking in) So weird. I mean, why not just have him sitting there selling them??? Because it makes much more sense to create a machine to replace the human…and then hire another human to watch the machine. Obviously.
Although I’ve gotten little mail on this trip, India did give me two fab pieces. First there was the Christmas card from Melanie that arrived in Shillong way back when.
Then there was the recent urgently sent documents from my sis. Inside this wonderful little envelope from the States wasn’t just my papers. Nope. It also included two Pay Day candy bars and a copy of US Weekly. Both of which I don’t usually buy for myself back in the states but devoured pretty quickly (yeah the candy bar’s already half gone).
Although the Brit saga in US Weekly was of interest…I was floored to find out that Neil Patrick Harris (aka Doogie Howser) is gay. Apparently this is common knowledge now. And only 61% of the mag’s readers are looking forward to the New Kids on the Block reunion. Um…hello? As soon as the tour dates are released, I’m buying tickets. Seriously. Why, you ask? Well, for starters…
Step 1. We can have lots of fun.
Step 2. There’s so much we can do…
Thought I’d pop up another “Name That Tune” one for you…
This time I was at Dilli Haat in Delhi. It’s a bazaar-type place with craft stalls from most Indian states and food stalls from a lot, too. If you’re in Delhi and have only a limited amount of time to visit the country, Dilli Haat is a good place to go to experiment with a lot of the country’s cultures. (You should definitely get the Rs. 20 — about $.50 — fruit beer from the Nagaland stall, too…fun because it’s fresh and fruity but also because you won’t actually get it in Nagaland…a dry state!)
While perusing a stall, I heard a familiar song coming from the nearby Manipur food stall. Thought I’d let you try to guess it. I have to admit, it’s a bit more difficult than an Usher song…and not just because the sound quality ain’t so hot…
Almost forgot that the New Year’s Eve concert featured an American band.
Difference United performed as (I think) the third band of the night. During their performance, something about them made me think they must be a Christian rock group. I think it was the facts that the lead singer had a bit of a Southern twang, I’d never heard of them, and they had these really bad dancers wearing white tees and red track pants…doing a kind of hyped-up version of the “signing” hand dances popular in mega-churches in the ’90s (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s a scene in Napolean Dynamite where Napolean is performing one of these dances with some girls).
The band’s myspace.com page confirmed the group’s Christian roots, which is probably why they came to uber-Christian North East in the first place. Sometimes it’s so weird being in a place that’s more Christian than the Bible belt I grew up in.
How did you spend International Human Rights Day (10 Dec)?
I was at the Human Rights Concert here in Shillong. The whole reason I’d gone was to see a sort-of famous singer, Lou Majaw, who is well-known for both his Bob Dylan covers as well as his hot pants.
Sadly, though, Monday was a bit cold…and the concert started nearly 45 minutes late. After about four hours of sitting in the FREEEEEEZING cold, I called it a night before Mr. Majaw even made it on stage for his performance. (I wonder if it was too cold for his hot pants?)
The performances ranged from not-so-great to really good (but, yes, they were all performing for a good cause, so I shouldn’t judge…yada, yada, yada).
I filmed a few bits of the performances…I have a feeling you might recognize a few of the songs from the night, too…
When I studied abroad, I was insanely jealous of my fellow Americans who had early-year birthdays and got to celebrate in Oz. I thought of making up an “Australia birthday” just to get one myself.
But as you might recall, when the idea of spending my birthday away was actually creeping near, I was getting a bit sad. It’s not that I’ve had amazing birthdays back home. In fact after years of disappointing (and even a couple horrible/tragic) birthdays, I started planning my own birthday get togethers (which works out quite well…you always get your favorite kind of cake then).
Being abroad, though, I didn’t plan anything and just figured I’d have a day like any other. When the big day came, though…well, I have to say it was a pretty darn fabulous day. Right at midnight four of us had a glass of the banana wine from the local wine festival (and I got a few fab presents, too!). After a good night’s sleep, I came to the office for a round of “happy birthdays” as everyone made a point to stop by and say so.
Then for lunch, the girls had made a great big meal (all veg, of course). For dinner, we went to the Team Leader’s house and had another homemade meal (her nieces, too, remembered to make it all veg) while listening to the soothing sounds of Sean Kingston, No Doubt, and Nelly Furtado (her nieces, too, requested I bring my computer for music). My seat at the dinner table was pretty fab, too. And really made me feel a bit like being at home; it gave me a full view of the family calendar for 2008, which starts off with a picture of St. Louis and the Arch.
And even though my ever-so-thoughtful sis knew to send birthday wishes on my big day, I of course got the birthday call from my parents the next day. If you know the folks, this is no big surprise. They hardly remember to call before midnight on my birthday when I’m in Cali…expecting them to remember it AND the time change when I’m in India, well, that’s just too much. I attribute it to the fact that there’s not that whole painful-birth memory to etch the day in their minds. Still, they remembered to call when it was December 5th in Missouri.
When I finally made it to onto the Internet on that next day, I got to get lots of the happy-birthday e-mails and posts, too.
Yeah…fab day in all.
And if you’d like to see them making me birthday roti…
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