Let's Do It Again!

I'm going home tonight! It's been a busy week of not paying attention to how soon the trip would be over. And thank goodness I checked my ticket home, because I thought I had another two days here.

Last week we finished the program and the whole group of us went to Sravanabelagola, Belur and Halebeed to see some more stunning temples. It was nice to get to hang out with everyone one last time. The highlight for me was waking up at 5am, trundling onto the bus and arriving at the Halebeed temple in the still of the morning. It was a serene stroll around the temple grounds, and the stone carvings were all the more impressive in the cloudy morning light.

Yesterday there was a festival for Ganesha. My host family waited for the servant to clean their house before going out to buy a clay statue of the elephant-headed god of wisdom. Your house is supposed to be clean before you bring Ganesha home. My roommate and I went with our host sister to buy the god and the offerings that would be given to him. We bought grasses, banana leaves, guavas, bananas and beautiful garlands of purple and yellow flowers. My host mother had been preparing yummy sweets for the past couple of days, and those were arranged in front of the statue along with our other purchases, oil lamps, and all the other Ganesha statues already in the house. When the shrine was ready, the family performed their pooja. Then we got to eat the delicious treats.

In the evening, we attended the wedding reception of a relative. The day before we went fancy clothes shopping, which was initially my worst nightmare. When I shop I like to get in, find something as fast as possible and get out. No help necessary, leave me alone, I hate this. Shopping here requires a different state of mind. Once I got into that state, it was awesome. When you go into a sari/salwar kameez shop, you are immediately attended to, usually by a man. You sit at a counter, tell him what you're looking for and then the clothes begin to appear before your eyes. Outfit after outfit is brought out and you have to accept or reject every single one. There were three of us looking for clothes, so the mountain of fabric piled up quickly. It took three shops and four hours for all three of us to walk away with something appropriately fancy. Whew! I have never seen so many beautiful fabrics in such rich colors, embellished with embroidery, gold, stones, sequins, sparkles. It was like a fashion show with no models. The Seattle standard black uniform is going to seem so drab.

But I'm still looking forward to home. I can't wait for that moment driving home from SeaTac, when I get that first glimpse of the Seattle skyline. Then it's back to Ballard to figure out what in the world has happened this past month.

(I'll post my pictures when I get home.)