Preparing for Eid is like preparing for a hurricane

I feel like I'm with my east coast friends and family in spirit right now. Even though the worst is hopefully behind you now, I feel like I am going through the same preparation steps you may have taken days/weeks ago. It is Ramadan here, meaning people have been fasting all month and tomorrow will be the big day, Eid, for their holiday (their Christmas, if you will). Eid does not even compare to shopping before Christmas or preparing for a hurricane or anything - it is on a whole new level of craziness all by itself, especially here in Bangladesh. It's a month full of shopping for gifts and a special outfit for each family member to wear on the Eid day. I've gone out shopping several times the past few days to stock up on supplies before Eid, because after Eid most shops will close for up to 10 days. Even the grocery stores close for 3-4 days. It has been overly crowded everywhere but today was amazing to see! I wish I could begin to estimate how many people were in Agora (the local grocery store) -- hundreds!! Every aisle was packed, there were at least 10 customers waiting in each checkout line (about 6 checkout lines in total). It was insane! When I first walked in, I thought to myself, you do not really need any of the items on your list, but I continued on anyway because there was a great sensation of feeling like I was a part of their holiday in this one way. While I am very excited to be here during Eid, I will be happy when things go back to "normal" (whatever normal is in a country populated by 160 million people).*side note -- I was going to get a facial or massage but the "spa" was packed! They estimated the wait to be at least an hour but I think that was an under estimation. The ladies like to be made more beautiful for Eid, including having mendhi done.*

A few items on my must-have list for the holiday weekend include:

• going to the DVD store - bought Grey's Anatomy Season 7 (the second half since I purchased the first half last spring), Nicholas Sparks multi-movie disc, and Pirates of the Caribbean collection (I have only seen the first one - now might be a good time to get caught up) -- each disc cost $1 (amazing!)
• ribbon - I brought mini clothespins with me and needed more ribbon so I can then hang pictures off of the ribbon -- so I can spend some time over the holiday nesting/decorating the apartment
• 2.5kg potatoes, onions, pasta, limes (lime juice goes in a lot of dishes I seem to make here!), oatmeal (and other ingredient for no-bake cookies), and my favorite food obsession - chickpeas! 

The pictures below do not even begin to give you a sense of the crowdedness of the grocery story today. At least people were very polite about it, no pushing and shoving you like you might have seen in the US (hello, black Friday....). Occasionally someone would bump into my handcart or I would bump into them and there was always a quick, friendly apology with a look of understanding - that this is crazy!

A shopper's nightmare....

Waiting in line to check out....

  Waiting in line while others try to maneuver around the lines to get down the next aisle

A sample Iftar meal...I love Iftar food but my tummy doesn't always love it because it's all fried, as you can surely tell in this picture. When I first arrived we went to my favorite restaurant, Tava, to order some food to bring home. While waiting for our meals to arrive in take-away boxes we were served this lovely plate of Iftar food so that we could break the fast with the other patrons in the restaurant. Michelle and I also went to our neighbor's (from last year) home for Iftar the other night. Families often create a pre-made plate of food just like this, even when breaking the fast at home. PS -- can we talk about the bird in the middle of the plate?! I am what I like to call a polite vegetarian when in Bangladesh. I do not really like to eat meat here (I am not vegetarian by any means it's just a personal choice to not eat it here). I especially do not like to eat beef here but I will eat it if it is served to me and there are not any other options, to be polite. Last year I did not eat the beef after seeing cows slaughtered during the second Eid (that was the end of my beef politeness....). I could not, however, bring myself to eat the bird on my plate....

Thailand Sneak Peak!

I feel like summer is flying by and it does not have my permission to do so! My mom's family got together for a family reunion at Myrtle Beach, which was awesome. It took us three family photos to get everyone in a picture...and still there is not one picture that captures all of us at one time! haha It was a great time hanging out, eating, tanning, and finding lots of weird critters in the ocean!


I finally got my laptop back today...even though it isn't fixed yet....thank you Bangladesh for doing quite a number on my laptop! and I was feeling inspired to look through the hundreds of photos I took in Thailand and Malaysia in May! I thought I'd start by posting a few of my favorites that stuck out as I sorted through photos today.

Young girl in one of the long-neck villages

 at a temple in Bangkok

 Koh Tao!

 Chiang Mai temple (don't ask which one....we went to a million!)

I don't know why but I really loved these hot water kettles at our breakfast on our overnight hike to a hilltop tribal village outside of Chiang Mai

la la la Sri Lanka

March 10-27, 2011 Spring break in Sri Lanka!! A much needed vacation from the long hours of lesson planning, grading, teaching, student meetings and having no social life. OK, don't get me wrong - I love my job - but I'm not a machine!

A few faves from my wonderfully amazing vacation in Sri Lanka!! :) More pictures here. 

I was blessed to meet two of my students' mothers. Wasana's mother, Nima's mother, and a family friend while showing me around Colombo.

Elephant Orphanage outside of Kandy

adorable!!

waiting for our train, taking pictures of other trains going through the station in Kandy

on the most beautiful train ride from Kandy to Ella...I sat in the doorway with my feet dangling out the door most of this train ride - one, for the fresh air. two, because I kept giving up my seat to cute little old ladies that needed to sit more than I did.

this was one of those ladies who i gave my seat up to :) 

gorgeous country side.

storm rolling in!

Our awesome tomato farmer that led Michelle and I up to the top of Ella's rock, barefoot. Apparently we looked lost as we tried to read our scribbled down directions from our lonely planet guide. Thank goodness for him and his machete that was to protect us from the wild boars (?!?! yikes!)

Unawatuna!! <3 

 

Unawatuna was such a lovely way to end our vacation! I loved our guest house/hotel that we stayed at -- secluded at the end of the beach with slotted doors allowing the sounds of the waves crashing to soothe us to sleep every night! :) 

Fishery Ghats

February 12, 2011 I finally made it to the fishery ghats! Claudio, AUW's professional photographer, graciously donated 6 SLR cameras to the photography club because last time he was here the photography club had NO cameras!! After the symposium he has been at AUW teaching groups of students how to use the cameras and leading them on trips to document the Saraswati Puja. This past weekend he took the photography club to one of his favorite places in Chittagong, the fishery ghats. For the best photos and most action at the fish market we left early, early, early (6am) Saturday morning. It was so worth it! There was so much happening - building ships, unloading fish, transporting huge blocks of ice, selling the fish, drying the fish, etc. I even boldly climbed up a flimsy ladder with 2 students to explore a ship being built - we found out that it only takes them 3 months to build the ships - crazy, huh?! Big thanks to Claudio for an awesome field trip and for renewing my love of photography! Oh yeah, and donating cameras to the photography club so the students can finally be little shutterbugs!

Here are a few of my favorites from the day....enjoy!

Hiking and Paragliding in Nepal

December 22, 2010 Our last day in Nepal...After too many days in the big city of Kathmandu, Michelle and I were ready to see the esteemed mountains of Nepal. Since it was almost Christmas time I was feeling especially nostalgic for the Alps and this was the perfect cure!! In fact, I think the Himalayas might be more beautiful and breath taking than the Alps! (crazy, huh?) It was absolutely gorgeous hiking up to the city of Sarangkot and watching the sunset from the mountain side. We went to bed early - one, because we were exhausted; two, because it was freezing and curling up in bed was the warmest option! The next morning we woke up bright and early to catch the sunrise (unfortunately with a million other people who didn't even make the effort to climb up the mountain...yes, there's a road that takes you right to the top). After the sunrise it was time to paraglide down the mountain!!

Sunrise from Sarangkot

Pokhara Valley

 Paragliding Start Point!

 And we're off!! Looking back on the Himalayas and our starting point

Igor, my awesome Russian pilot, and I mid flight!

Looking down on all the other paragliders -- Igor was awesome at finding thermals and keeping us high up in the air! I had wanted to go parahawking (the pilot looks for the hawks in the air and follows them because they find the thermals and float around - not losing altitude) but there's only one pilot that does this in Pokhara and he wasn't flying that day....but Igor naturally did this - AWESOME! Sometimes the hawk would be flying right beside us!

Beautiful!!

Nepal/India faves

I may never get around to going through all of my pictures from my 3 week vacation to Nepal and India but I wanted to post a few favorites.

At a Buddhist temple in Nepal

At the end of the day when we were waiting for our bus to take us "home" to Agra after a day of sightseeing in Fathepur Sikri I went to buy a bottle of water... I had a long debate about which stand would have the safest water and I wanted to make sure I chose a stand that had properly sealed bottles of water! Well, I got way more than I bargained for! 10 minutes later the vendor took a huge knife to my bottle of water to get it open - yup, it was sealed alright!! While waiting I happened to see these cute men sitting around a shoe polisher. 

Kristen swears I chose this cute old guy to be our tour guide at the Agra Fort so I could take pictures of him...it's only 1/2 true! How cute is he?!

 

Beer camel! No, really! Our camel entourage had just arrived at our final destination in the dunes and we were enjoying the sunset and I made a comment that anywhere else in India or Bangladesh someone would come along trying to sell us something! Then we saw this guy. We didn't think much of him at first and then he asked us if we wanted to buy beer! We all busted out laughing because the timing was too perfect! Sad for him, we had already bought beer before setting off into the desert!

Delhi was where we got our shopping quota! Luckily we met a wonderful woman in Agra who we ended up staying with in Delhi and she told us about this special market that was going on - complete with festive music!

India

So much to write about, so little time....I'm back from winter break and had a wonderful 3-week vacation in Nepal and India! Life has been pretty busy and hectic since returning. I spent the first couple of days home in Bangladesh sick (thanks to food poisoning). Then, 80+ esteemed board members and visitors, including Cherie Blaire - AUW's newly appointed Chancellor, visited AUW to observe classes, meet students, and see the site of the new campus - designed by Moshe Safdie. Following these events at the AUW campus, the entire campus (400+students, faculty, staff and families, and visitors) stormed Bangladesh's public transportation as we made our way to Dhaka for the AUW Symposium, "Imagining Another Future for Asia: Ideas and Pathways for Change." In the interest of time (lesson plans are calling my name!), check out Jess' blog for more on the conference!

I realize that was a very skeleton update but I'm teaching two semester long courses this semester, TAing, and advising three clubs....and sometimes sleeping.... I haven't even had a chance to look through all of my vacation photos but I thought I'd post a few that I have looked through. Of course when you go to India the first thing everybody wants to know is, "Did you see the Taj Mahal?" So here are a few pictures from the TAJ!

 

Photography Field Trip

November 26 and 27, 2010, Twenty-three students ventured the streets of Chittagong for our first photography field trip to the War Cemetery. There are 755 soldiers buried in the War Cemetery from the Indo-Burmese war front of World War II. The cemetery was very beautiful and provided lots of photo opportunities for the students. Below are a few photos I took during the field trips.

 Pahima, one of my current students and a member of the photography club, smelling a fragrant-less flower...but it still makes a cute picture :)

 One of our new friends hanging from a tree limb

 1st group of shutterbugs on the 26th

 A few of the students - they were so excited to finally learn how to take photos! Unfortunately none of them have cameras and the University didn't quite have enough so that each student could have her own camera for the day.

 In the shadows

On the 27th we came back to the University to find the basketball club practicing, so the photography girls tried their hand at basketball

Masooma snapping a photo