Family Life

Candlelit chicken curry dinner with Paige and Bridget

Today reminded me of the best part of my study abroad experience so far: my wonderful families.  In the past two days, I got to speak fairly extensively with many of my loved ones, which made everything seem a bit better.  However, I say families because my host family is easily the best host family out of all the ones in the program.  

First, there's Uncle Ji.  He is a very happy man and always pleased to talk or chat with you.  Also (the extremely lucky part) he was a professional chef.  As said in India, he is first class.  He was the head butcher for the king of Saudi Arabia at one point and cooked for others, including Bill Clinton.  Though he doesn't cook every night, when he does, its amazing.  First, we had his Indian version of pizza.  Then there was the best vegetable soup that ever had.  And tonight we had meat for the first time - an excellent chicken curry (it was a special occasion).  Although it was spicy enough that Bridget was crying a bit, I was amazed at the quality of the dish.  I'm sure it helped that the chicken was butchered only this morning.

Then, there's Auntie Ji.  She speaks the least English out of anyone in my family, so she forces me to practice my Hindi a bit.  Things can get a bit jumbled sometimes, especially when speaking about locks.  Bridget and I don't understand the need to lock all the doors (our flat is built around the balcony, so from the outside there are doors to my room, the living room, the bathroom and the kitchen), but we have also never faced a monkey raid.  We live fairly close to the Hanuman temple and, therefore, apparently have frequent monkey visits. But, the best part is that she is quickly growing very fond of us.  Yesterday morning, she wished her children (Bridget and I) a good day before handing us our tiffins to go to school.   This morning, she made us the best banana pancake/crepes that I have ever had.  She always wants to know where we are going, but tolerates pretty much anything, so long as we are back before 9.  And she loves having fun.

Rockin' out to some Rihanna

Today, Uncle Ji's two sisters came over.  His middle sister is CRAZY.  She was shouting and dancing and making all kinds of crazy jokes.  We literally locked Uncle Ji out of the house today, and all had a dance party, at Auntie Ji's urging.  I learned some great moves from Uncle Ji's sister and Taneshka, the elder daughter.  At sixteen, she reminds me a lot of my own sister (even she fights with her mother), but a little less bashful.  She knows what she is good at and is not afraid to say anything that she wants to.  Her younger sister, Nanoo, and she get ready for school every morning to bass pumping pop music. Both are always up to talk to you, no matter what time of the day.

Nanoo with the daily chai

Even though all this stuff is wonderful, the best part about my host family is seeing how family interactions never really change.  Most of the stuff that I notice I recognize from what my own family experienced at one point or another.  Just today, Taneshka was given a new phone by her aunt and every one was fussing about it.  However, off to the side, Paige (another student living with our family) and I could see Nanoo getting very jealous.    Eventually, it ended with Nanoo leaving the room to avoid crying...nothing ever changes. 

Humans are all the same, no matter where you go.