Dear Blog,
HAPPY ONE MONTH IN INDIA ANNIVERSARY!
We made it 1/3rd of the way!!!
Illness scores
Coco: 2 Sammy: 0
One was a mild cold/sore throat (I blame Lucky Strikes) and the other was pretty bad; vomiting and other bad things. I went to the hospital yesterday to make sure that I would be healthy in time for our performances this weekend. (It's our first 3 day performance weekend.) They gave me some antibiotic medicine and electral... which is kind of like gatorade. I finally feel ready to start working out again! To bad it's 1 a.m. here and I should be getting to bed since we have to leave super early because the mall we're performing at is 45 minutes away from our hotel! So this will be a short post.
We are now in Pune if I haven't mentioned it already. We were soooo happy to leave Ahemdabad. It was good, but now we're next to mountains like we were in Jaipur. In Ahemdabad I felt like it had an orangish/red color to it... here it is green. On a good note about Ahemdabad it was pretty clean. We also met two Americans and one Pakistani at the Himalaya mall! One was a journalist/photographer and he got some awesome photos! Can't wait to post them!
Meeting new people is my favorite part about traveling. I can't wait to meet the new team tomorrow. So far we have had really friendly teams in each city. :) Our kit team is pretty awesome too. Gaurav, Deepak, J.P., Mehesh, Adi, Sammy, and I; we're the dream team. Sujit is apart of the dream team too. Speaking of Sujit, we get to see him tomorrow!!! YAY! It's been a long time!
I don't know what else to say... so I will end now. Maybe I'll type more tomorrow night... just wanted to update those who do read this. :)
Namaste!
-Corinne
Friday, 29 July 2011
Monday, 18 July 2011
Extending our stay in India!
Dear Internet
From Corinne
The place Sammy and I are staying for the next two weeks in Ahemdabad does not have internet. So I'm experimenting to see how I do without it. Luckily our team has arranged for us to have a mobile internet stick. But we assume it's pay as you go so we're using it as minimum as possible. I'm even writing this on a word document that I will copy and paste onto the blog so I don't waste net time typing.
During our stay in Jaipur we had a great time! We made a few friends that showed us the town. The day after camel and elephant rides at Chowki Dhaani we had an intense sunbathing and hoop session on the roof top of the hotel. It was magical, being so high up in the middle of the city, sunbathing. We had no idea what was to come. Around 4pm our friend Lucky came to the hotel to give us a new S.I.M. card for the cell phone we carry. He offered to take us somewhere in Jaipur and we impulsively agreed. His friend Haresh came with us. On the way to our destination we stopped by a lake that had a palace in the middle of it. When Obama came to India him and the president went to this palace. We took some pictures and then headed into the mountains. One lane roads up a mountain is not very safe, but blasting the horn warns the vehicles on the way down that we were coming around the corner and SLOW DOWN! Nahargarh Fort was where ended up. It is the highest fort in Jaipur that overlooks the entire town. We took some pictures and enjoyed some chai while absorbing the sight of the entire town. On our way back to the hotel our tour guides, Lucky and Haresh, mentioned a dance party they were invited to and asked us to join. I had been wondering about the clubs in India so I said yes, Sammy came too. We brought our light up toys and Lucky made sure the DJ announced us when we started our hooping. It was fun being announced... normally we are just prop performing along side the DJ but this time we were more important than the DJ! I had a lot of fun and after awhile Lucky mentioned there wasn't a big crowd so we decided to head back to the hotel. After all, we had to wake up early to catch our 10:15 plane to Ahemdabad.
We woke up with plenty of time to get to our plane. Lucky and Haresh came to catch us at 8:45. We thought we had plenty of time. WRONG. Next thing we knew it was 10:00 and we still hadn't left the hotel. We had no clue what was wrong. Something about paying for the hotel... I knew we had to get to the Airport or we would miss the plane, so I offered to pay for the week stay as long as we were reimbursed when we arrived in Ahemdabad. So Sammy and I quickly rounded up the money and rushed to the airport in hopes we would make the plane. We arrived at the airport at 10:25. Totally missed the plane. Our driver had mentioned a few places in Jaipur that we did not see so we decided to go see them since our next scheduled flight was at 7:30. The monkey palace had only one monkey and the mirror palace was a 3km walk... so in the end we went jem shopping. :) Jaipur is known for their gems. By 6 we were at the airport ready to get on the plane for Ahemdabad. The plane ride was only an hour long. It went by quick. I love riding on airplanes. Our friday we spent resting in our hotel. Not doing much but exercise and watching TV. Normally the TV in our hotel room is off but with there being a lack of Internet it just kind of happened.
I have caught a cold and so this weekend I was trying to get better. We still had our performances though. There was a great crowd on sunday night and a photographer so hopefully we'll be in the newspaper again. I think we sold 12 laptops. This morning we rested but later in the evening Adi took us to a market for some shopping. Then we came back to the hotel and watch Spiderman and ate some noodles. It's time for bed now and I think I've made this post REALLY long so I'm going to go. Especially since I'm still sick and for some reason we made plans to wake up early to go to a temple. I might pass... but we'll see how I feel in the morning. I've been having some CRAZY dreams while on this malaria medicine so I might decide to sleep while they go to the temple. I'll see plenty of other temples while I'm here. Oh yeah! Before I go, I forgot to mention the most exciting news. We have been doing such a good job that H.P. has hired 2 more hula hoopers to come to India. They are going to be traveling as Kit 2 and we are kit 1. They have taken over some of the shows that we were supposed to do but that okay because we have been given other destinations. AND our tour has been extended by 6 weeks! We might end up missing Halloween... but there will be next year. Who knows, maybe they celebrate it here in India. Well that's all that I have for tonight. Until next time, NAMASTE!
-Sending Love from India
Corinne
From Corinne
The place Sammy and I are staying for the next two weeks in Ahemdabad does not have internet. So I'm experimenting to see how I do without it. Luckily our team has arranged for us to have a mobile internet stick. But we assume it's pay as you go so we're using it as minimum as possible. I'm even writing this on a word document that I will copy and paste onto the blog so I don't waste net time typing.
During our stay in Jaipur we had a great time! We made a few friends that showed us the town. The day after camel and elephant rides at Chowki Dhaani we had an intense sunbathing and hoop session on the roof top of the hotel. It was magical, being so high up in the middle of the city, sunbathing. We had no idea what was to come. Around 4pm our friend Lucky came to the hotel to give us a new S.I.M. card for the cell phone we carry. He offered to take us somewhere in Jaipur and we impulsively agreed. His friend Haresh came with us. On the way to our destination we stopped by a lake that had a palace in the middle of it. When Obama came to India him and the president went to this palace. We took some pictures and then headed into the mountains. One lane roads up a mountain is not very safe, but blasting the horn warns the vehicles on the way down that we were coming around the corner and SLOW DOWN! Nahargarh Fort was where ended up. It is the highest fort in Jaipur that overlooks the entire town. We took some pictures and enjoyed some chai while absorbing the sight of the entire town. On our way back to the hotel our tour guides, Lucky and Haresh, mentioned a dance party they were invited to and asked us to join. I had been wondering about the clubs in India so I said yes, Sammy came too. We brought our light up toys and Lucky made sure the DJ announced us when we started our hooping. It was fun being announced... normally we are just prop performing along side the DJ but this time we were more important than the DJ! I had a lot of fun and after awhile Lucky mentioned there wasn't a big crowd so we decided to head back to the hotel. After all, we had to wake up early to catch our 10:15 plane to Ahemdabad.
We woke up with plenty of time to get to our plane. Lucky and Haresh came to catch us at 8:45. We thought we had plenty of time. WRONG. Next thing we knew it was 10:00 and we still hadn't left the hotel. We had no clue what was wrong. Something about paying for the hotel... I knew we had to get to the Airport or we would miss the plane, so I offered to pay for the week stay as long as we were reimbursed when we arrived in Ahemdabad. So Sammy and I quickly rounded up the money and rushed to the airport in hopes we would make the plane. We arrived at the airport at 10:25. Totally missed the plane. Our driver had mentioned a few places in Jaipur that we did not see so we decided to go see them since our next scheduled flight was at 7:30. The monkey palace had only one monkey and the mirror palace was a 3km walk... so in the end we went jem shopping. :) Jaipur is known for their gems. By 6 we were at the airport ready to get on the plane for Ahemdabad. The plane ride was only an hour long. It went by quick. I love riding on airplanes. Our friday we spent resting in our hotel. Not doing much but exercise and watching TV. Normally the TV in our hotel room is off but with there being a lack of Internet it just kind of happened.
I have caught a cold and so this weekend I was trying to get better. We still had our performances though. There was a great crowd on sunday night and a photographer so hopefully we'll be in the newspaper again. I think we sold 12 laptops. This morning we rested but later in the evening Adi took us to a market for some shopping. Then we came back to the hotel and watch Spiderman and ate some noodles. It's time for bed now and I think I've made this post REALLY long so I'm going to go. Especially since I'm still sick and for some reason we made plans to wake up early to go to a temple. I might pass... but we'll see how I feel in the morning. I've been having some CRAZY dreams while on this malaria medicine so I might decide to sleep while they go to the temple. I'll see plenty of other temples while I'm here. Oh yeah! Before I go, I forgot to mention the most exciting news. We have been doing such a good job that H.P. has hired 2 more hula hoopers to come to India. They are going to be traveling as Kit 2 and we are kit 1. They have taken over some of the shows that we were supposed to do but that okay because we have been given other destinations. AND our tour has been extended by 6 weeks! We might end up missing Halloween... but there will be next year. Who knows, maybe they celebrate it here in India. Well that's all that I have for tonight. Until next time, NAMASTE!
-Sending Love from India
Corinne
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Camel Rides
Namaste, Sammy Sunshyne writing from India!
Our second weekend of performances went well. We were able to plan our performances better now that we know what we’re doing. The days at the mall are very long, from 10am – 8pm, with a lot of sitting in between, but you won’t find me complaining - it’s the best job ever! We were having a little fun this weekend and used fake names and home countries: I am “Inka” from Sweden and Coco is “Nina” from France. Ink and Nina are our new alter egos. No one can tell where we really are from; they just have to take our word for it! I asked a shopkeeper to guess where I was from once, and he said, “Brazil,” LOL.
Today we are sleeping in, resting, and may go camel riding later (no joke). Tomorrow we are setting out to Agra, the city where the Taj Mahal is. I cannot describe how thrilled I am to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World!!! And possibly hoop in front of it. J
We are on our own now, until we reach Ahmadabad. We are learning how to handle ourselves in India. You need to be a quick learner here in order to adjust to the differences. People will never confuse us with locals, but it is best to act like one, or at least try. I really am the blondest person in India. When we go out, everyone turns to stare at the American girls…
Sorry for the short post - I will try to keep updating more often!
Sorry for the short post - I will try to keep updating more often!
~ No matter how far I travel, home is always in my heart. ~
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Delhi Belly
Today was relaxing again. We move onto Jaipur tomorrow for the second weekend of performances.
We did see a movie today! It was called Delhi Belly. Soooo FUNNY! Luckily they offered a hinglish version so we understood the whole thing.
I posted a discussion on hoopcity.ca last night and today it was the featured discussion! I hope we get a good amount of fellow hoopers following our travels. <3 you spin family!
-Coco
Circles = <3
We did see a movie today! It was called Delhi Belly. Soooo FUNNY! Luckily they offered a hinglish version so we understood the whole thing.
I posted a discussion on hoopcity.ca last night and today it was the featured discussion! I hope we get a good amount of fellow hoopers following our travels. <3 you spin family!
-Coco
Circles = <3
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Bollywood Dancing.
Namaste! Cocomo writing.
Today we took a day of rest. For the most part. Relaxing and sunbathing on the balcony... it was definitely nice. Towards the end of the day, Nilesh called to say he'd come catch us for a Bollywood dance class. At first I didn't think I wanted to go. I wanted to stay on the balcony and work on bronzing myself... but I dragged myself inside to the shower and after a quick rinse I was off to a entirely different kind of dance class, that I had never experienced before. It has been about 4 years since I've had to learn a choreographed dance but I feel I did alright. The song we're learning the dance to is super rad. I'm posting a youtube video of the song and we do some of the moves that are in the video as well. I'm glad that I drag myself to the class. I had a lot of fun. I hope to go back for more tomorrow. I feel kinda dumb dancing especially next to Sammy with her gorgeous long blonde hair and then theres me, with my new short manly hair cut... I'm glad I did it don't get me wrong... I just want it to grow faster. Anyways... after our class was over, we showed the group of boys our hoop dancing and tried to teach them some. By the time they got it, Sujit showed up and we trekked back to the hotel. Nothing else exciting happened except for the fact that I think tonight was the first night we ate all of the food we ordered. And it was Indian food! Our taste buds are adjusting! WOOOPIE!! It saddens me to think about how we'll have to re-adjust when arriving back in the USA. Our food is soo bland you don't even know it!
Well I'm pretty tired from laying out in the sun and learning the Bollywood dancing, so I'll catch ya later bloggers! Goodnight!
Video of the song from the dance class -->
Bollywood Dancing!
Lata,
Cocomo
Today we took a day of rest. For the most part. Relaxing and sunbathing on the balcony... it was definitely nice. Towards the end of the day, Nilesh called to say he'd come catch us for a Bollywood dance class. At first I didn't think I wanted to go. I wanted to stay on the balcony and work on bronzing myself... but I dragged myself inside to the shower and after a quick rinse I was off to a entirely different kind of dance class, that I had never experienced before. It has been about 4 years since I've had to learn a choreographed dance but I feel I did alright. The song we're learning the dance to is super rad. I'm posting a youtube video of the song and we do some of the moves that are in the video as well. I'm glad that I drag myself to the class. I had a lot of fun. I hope to go back for more tomorrow. I feel kinda dumb dancing especially next to Sammy with her gorgeous long blonde hair and then theres me, with my new short manly hair cut... I'm glad I did it don't get me wrong... I just want it to grow faster. Anyways... after our class was over, we showed the group of boys our hoop dancing and tried to teach them some. By the time they got it, Sujit showed up and we trekked back to the hotel. Nothing else exciting happened except for the fact that I think tonight was the first night we ate all of the food we ordered. And it was Indian food! Our taste buds are adjusting! WOOOPIE!! It saddens me to think about how we'll have to re-adjust when arriving back in the USA. Our food is soo bland you don't even know it!
Well I'm pretty tired from laying out in the sun and learning the Bollywood dancing, so I'll catch ya later bloggers! Goodnight!
Video of the song from the dance class -->
Bollywood Dancing!
Lata,
Cocomo
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Hooping at the Lotus Temple = No no.
Good day everyone! Corinne typing...
Today was a great day! I actually slept in past 8! After waking up around 9ish I got to chat on the internet to a homie back home. That was a great way to start my day. Soon after 11, Nilesh came to catch us and we went straight to the Lotus Temple. This is a great building but there's not much to do except sit in the heat, sweating, and praying? The architecture is amazing though. I just walked around it looking at how it was built. So beautiful. On our way back to the car Sammy and I wanted to hula hoop and video it to put together a little movie of all the places we'd been. But after about 30 seconds of video we were yelled at by the security guards.
After the Lotus Temple we went to a lookout tower. I guess that 20 years ago they allowed people to go up to the top, but after a girl committed suicide they locked the doors. We at least got to go inside the gates and look around the grounds. It was build in the 1100's. India is a very old country. At the lookout tower Sammy and I had a bunch of people grabbing our hands and wrist pulling us into their picture... I guess they've never seen USA girls? When we were done with the lookout tower we went to Ghandi's grave. This was a beautiful spot but unfortunately the museum was closed :(.
We then tried the Indian McDonalds. No beef. So I got a McChicken, Fries, and a drink all for a little under 200 Rs... maybe the equivalent of 2$. Next on our list was shopping. Sammy and I went nuts!
This place has the BEST clothes and they're so cheap! We were in heaven on earth. We bought soooo many things! I'm not sure how much I spent, but I got a skirt that I could buy in Lincoln for $40 for $4. When we were done shopping it was pretty much the end of our day... we did get to see the presidents house and the India Gate though... that was in-between market places. Well after that long day of touring and shopping I'm pretty tired. I'll update more tomorrow! Goodnight bloggers
-Coco
Today was a great day! I actually slept in past 8! After waking up around 9ish I got to chat on the internet to a homie back home. That was a great way to start my day. Soon after 11, Nilesh came to catch us and we went straight to the Lotus Temple. This is a great building but there's not much to do except sit in the heat, sweating, and praying? The architecture is amazing though. I just walked around it looking at how it was built. So beautiful. On our way back to the car Sammy and I wanted to hula hoop and video it to put together a little movie of all the places we'd been. But after about 30 seconds of video we were yelled at by the security guards.
After the Lotus Temple we went to a lookout tower. I guess that 20 years ago they allowed people to go up to the top, but after a girl committed suicide they locked the doors. We at least got to go inside the gates and look around the grounds. It was build in the 1100's. India is a very old country. At the lookout tower Sammy and I had a bunch of people grabbing our hands and wrist pulling us into their picture... I guess they've never seen USA girls? When we were done with the lookout tower we went to Ghandi's grave. This was a beautiful spot but unfortunately the museum was closed :(.
We then tried the Indian McDonalds. No beef. So I got a McChicken, Fries, and a drink all for a little under 200 Rs... maybe the equivalent of 2$. Next on our list was shopping. Sammy and I went nuts!
This place has the BEST clothes and they're so cheap! We were in heaven on earth. We bought soooo many things! I'm not sure how much I spent, but I got a skirt that I could buy in Lincoln for $40 for $4. When we were done shopping it was pretty much the end of our day... we did get to see the presidents house and the India Gate though... that was in-between market places. Well after that long day of touring and shopping I'm pretty tired. I'll update more tomorrow! Goodnight bloggers
Monday, 4 July 2011
The Fourth
Namaste. Sam here…
Happy Fourth of July! Of course, here in India that means nothing. No fireworks this year. Coco and I may light up our fire hoops later in honor of the holiday. That is, only if we can find some type of safe fuel, since the stuff we regularly buy isn’t for sale here.
Coco and I are slowly figuring out how to work everything in India. The toilets were easy to figure out (they have two buttons that you push into on the wall) but the hot water heater is a mystery to us. The outlets have to be turned on in order to work. We are supposed to be calling someone right now but can’t figure out how to dial out on the phone. There is a huge communication barrier here. Mostly everyone can understand English, but it is hard to understand what they are saying back to us. We’ve figured out how to talk to the cooks & they know our morning order now. The language barrier is hard to bridge sometimes, but other times it is easy. For example, when Adi is announcing our act and interacting with the audience, I can easily tell the message he is conveying.
Our performances are a lot like street performing. Basically what happens is Adi announces us and draws in a crowd and then we perform to music. It’s all for promoting HP’s computers. We have 6 -8 performances each day for about 10 minutes each. So basically we are hanging out at the mall all day in between those performances.
We just rested today. Tomorrow we are visiting two temples. The most I’m looking forward to is the Baha’i House of Worship, also known as the Lotus Temple. We will be out in Dehli all day in marketplaces and sites.
~ I wish everyone a safe holiday filled with love at home. ~
Saturday, 2 July 2011
July 2nd from Coco
Today was our first performances. I had a lot of fun! We did about 5 or 6 performances and each time was better and better. Other than that we just walked around the mall. I'm very tired... just fell asleep writing tired... spelled time instead. So good night.
Friday, 1 July 2011
July 1st
Coco again... Today we traveled to Jaipur. It was about a 5 hour drive from Dehli. After we arrived in Jaipur we went to the Pink Square Mall, which is where we will be performing all day tomorrow and Sunday. I should probably get some sleep... but I can't sleep with this whole new world infront of me! Some of it is sad. Seeing all these people laying on the streets with no home... but with 1.2 billion people here, there is lots they can do to avoid it... and they don't... therefore they must like it? Not exactly... but I was once told by a wise friend of mine that hard work will get you anything you want.
Our new place of residency is a PALACE. There's also a pool! After our performances on Saturday and Sunday we will have a day of rest, then head to the beach. :) It's about a 3 hour drive, I think, so we will leave early in the morning.
The mall that we are performing in is HUGE. I think it's like 6 stories... and super nice. I can't wait, we're going to have so many people watching us from all levels... I'll definitely take pictures. You have to walk through a metal detector before entering the mall! And there's a ton of security guards. I feel safe in that mall, that's for sure...
Today I saw a camel! Lots of them actually. Wellllll, I guess since it's almost 1 am I should go. Our performances start at 11am. So we will have to be ready by 10am. AND I got to write in my personal travel journal, wash my face, brush my teeth... all that good stuff before laying down... soooo I'll update again tomorrow night! If I'm not pooped. We'll be doing performances all day long... till 9 pm. Okie, chao for now!
Goodnight!
Our new place of residency is a PALACE. There's also a pool! After our performances on Saturday and Sunday we will have a day of rest, then head to the beach. :) It's about a 3 hour drive, I think, so we will leave early in the morning.
The mall that we are performing in is HUGE. I think it's like 6 stories... and super nice. I can't wait, we're going to have so many people watching us from all levels... I'll definitely take pictures. You have to walk through a metal detector before entering the mall! And there's a ton of security guards. I feel safe in that mall, that's for sure...
Today I saw a camel! Lots of them actually. Wellllll, I guess since it's almost 1 am I should go. Our performances start at 11am. So we will have to be ready by 10am. AND I got to write in my personal travel journal, wash my face, brush my teeth... all that good stuff before laying down... soooo I'll update again tomorrow night! If I'm not pooped. We'll be doing performances all day long... till 9 pm. Okie, chao for now!
Goodnight!
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