Cooking Mama: Hallie's Edition

On our morning walk on Friday, we saw a whole auto rickshaw filled with children going to school. I was not expecting it to stop so they could all ask us questions like our names and where we were from and shake our hands. Everyone shook our hands, even the auto driver!!

Shopping in India is totally different from shopping in the United States. There are always way too many employees just standing around, so when there is a customer they all watch you and follow you around. I always say that I'm just looking but I still don't get any space. They do it to everyone and it makes shopping much less enjoyable. When I get home, maybe I won't complain as much about there not being as many employees around to help!!

On Monday, we went back to Lady Doak College and met up with Jazmin, an American student, a few of the teachers, and one of the teachers sons. We split up. Jazmin, Max, and I went to India's version of a mini walmart called Reliance. It was a lot smaller than I had originally expected but had a ton of stuff! Then we met up with the whole group for ice cream before splitting up again. Jazmin and I went shopping and I got a nice Chudidad along with some nice jewlery! I love all the bangles here! I won't get the Chudidad until tomorrow since the lady is adding sleeves to it. I didn't get to finish my shopping since the other group kept calling us impatiently, even though we had agreed to meet much later so I plan on finishing my shopping when I go back to pick up my Chudidad. I liked these stores so much better than the one on Friday! Less stress!

Yesterday I helped make lunch!! The dish I helped with was vegetable briyani, which is a type of rice dish. The knives here are very different but not to hard to use.

A Batik instructor (spelling??) came to visit. He is hoping to start selling his work in the US. With his work, he supports 11 orphans and gives a good salary to a bunch of people in his village.

This is the one I bought!! It's of the traditional Indian dance. A few of the girls are teaching it to me!

These are the vegetables for the Briyani I helped make :)

Marudupandi Thambi: Or Pandi No 2. He knows virtually no English and so it was hard to try to keep him from getting distracted in my lessons!

Another pose of the traditional Indian Dance. It looks really pretty when someone who knows what they are doing does it!

This is a picture of a woman making butter.

PROOF!!! See! It IS me cooking!