Journal 14

Dear Journal,

I am still so exhausted from the weekend and have not caught up with my sleep yet. I did make it to Yoga today and I am glad I did, because it actually made for a good start. After class and after lunch, Satya took us to pick up some things so that we could wear our Saris out tonight. When we got home we asked one of the ladies who works at the guest house, if she could show us how to wear them and I was AMAZED at how much work it actually is to correctly wear a Sari. It was kind of fun to have her show us though. It was Christine, her and I in the room and she was trying to explain it to us even though she speaks no English at all. She was trying to ask us for a safety pin to secure the fabric, but of course we didn’t know what the Telegu word for “safety pin” was, so we just kind of guessed for a few minutes until she was able to explain what she meant through sign language and gestures. I am often surprised how well we are actually able to communicate, even without speaking the right language. When she was trying to explain to us that part of the fabric would have to be tucked in in the front, she started giggling and pointing and it was very cute. Even though I tried to pay extra attention to what she did, I have NO IDEA how she actually folded the fabric…it was very confusing. BUT the Saris are beautiful and I really liked wearing it.

So after we figured everything out and had our Saris on, we left for a traditional dance performance in Hyderabad. It was a very interesting experience…the theater itself was very different, the crowd was different, the smell was different…everything was new to me and it was kind of exciting. The performance was pretty impressive. It was one woman in a bright yellow, very traditional outfit, with heavy make-up and lots of gold jewelry. It was so interesting, because the performance itself was so different from anything I had seen before…it wasn’t really “exciting,” it wasn’t fast or spectacular…it were her facial expressions and hand gestures that made the performance so fascinating.
I was also very impressed by the fact that she danced for one and a half ours straight with such body control and rhythm. I also really enjoyed the fact that the music was also part of the performance, as the singers, violin players, and percussionist were all sitting on the left sight of the stage also performing without a break for one and a half hours.
At the end of the show we were so hungry and exhausted that we decided to leave and eat at a nearby Indian restaurant. This was the first time our group had actually eaten out and it was delicious!! We enjoyed the meal and headed home to try to finally catch up with some sleep.