Boring Day

January 22
Oh, we celebrated my birthday again today, in Chennai. We also played on a playground outside my cousin Nikki's house in Chennai. I played a lot with Nikki. I read a series about this girl called Sophie. We were going o go sightseeing, but then my sister had a fever, so we didn't do anything.

January 21
We were on an overnight train. We stayed up till 12:00, and then we had cake for my birthday and Hide-and-Seek biscuits. Then we pretended we were spies and climbed from one bench to a bunk to another bunk without touching the floor. We also did lots of secret spy missions. It was really fun.
Oh, did I mention I am seven?

Birhday

January 20
Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear me-e, Happy Birthday to me. In case you didn't know, tomorrow is my birthday. My grandma made a really nice cake and we bought one cake. My grandma's cake was better. Then we got on a train to Chennai, because this was our last night in Kerela.

More doggies

January 19
We didn't really do anything. I'm going to talk about the dogs at Vazhoor. There are three of them. Blackie, Pupy and Titto. Blackie is a few months old, and we don't know her breed. She likes biting, play-fighting, and being bowled over. She is black, fuzzy and really playful with sharp teeth. Puppy is three years old. She is Choti's niece. She is fluffy and white and she is a Pomeranian. Titto is Puppy's son. He is taller than Puppy, and more playful. We don' know who his father is.

stampede

January 18
Day-before-yesterday, 106 people died in Kerela. I'm not kidding. They were all on a holy pilgrimage, and then for some reason there was a stampede. (My sister says the newspaper says that it was caused either by someone yelling “there's an elephant coming this way!” or an accident between two vehicles.) Oh, and thats why everyone was heading on that road, either to check on relatives or to go home.

Sick D;

January 17- I am sick
I was sick today, and I threw up a few times. But I'll fill you in on what happened yesterday. After Kumarakum, we were driving to Cochin via Ernakulam to catch Sylvie's flight. But there was a huge traffic jam(I will explain the reason later) so she missed her flight. Today, they went to one of the oldest Jewish settlements in the world and the very oldest in India. Also they went to an ancient castle.

January 16- Kumarakum

In Kumarakum we were with Sylvie. I picked lots of flowers. They were hard to get. One was a water lily. The other one was an African water something- it was also a weed. Oh, by the way, we were on a boat there. My mama plucked hose flowers out of a boat by leaning over and pulling them out of the water.

January 15- Mountain trip.

Today, my sister went up to the mountains. See, Kerala is famous for two things- backwaters and mountains. And, like I said, today my sister and my mother went up to the mountains. I don't know how tall the mountains were. They drove up in spirals, I think it was a long drive, but I didn't go. On the way up, they stopped and there was a WATERFALL!!!!! I was a small-ish one and my sister says I looked like it had been painted because it was so pretty.

January 14-Sylvie comes.

Today, my mama's friend Sylvie came over. She used to go to college with my mama. She was coming for a three day visit and she is an activist. To tell you the truth, I don' know what an activist is. (Wait, let me ask my sister).Oh, I found out. They are people who sop unfair hings happening to other people and the environment.

A few more things.

January 12: In the front seat
Today I went from Vazhoor to Manganam in the front seat of the car all by myself. Tun tun tun. My appa and I were driving back. I got to talk to my Appa all by myself, because my Mama and my chechi were not there. They had been dropped off at Vazhoor.

January 13: Bananas
Some days back I wrote about bananas. I want to tell you a bit more about bananas since nothing really interesting happened today. I love bananas as much as the biggest monkey in the world. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy. There are tons of kinds of bananas here. The bananas here are super tiny. There are many kinds of tiny bananas. It takes 2-4 tiny bananas to make a normal sized banana of the kind we have in Minneapolis.

Rickshaw

January 11: Rickshaw game
Some days back I invented a new game—the rickshaw game. Rickshaws are three wheeled cars. They are painted yellow and black, and are basically taxis. You can wave out to them on the road and you stop them. This year we have not yet gone on a rickshaw, but last year we did. In the rickshaw game, we count rickshaws between Vazhoor and Manganam. Today was the highest ever score—we got up to 113.

Going to a shop

Today morning at breakfast we discovered that we did not have any bananas. So my grandmother said to go the shop and buy some bananas. Shops are different here from Minneapolis. They are not big like Target stores or something. They are like stalls. The store we went to was on wooden legs. It stood by the side of the road. We walked from home to the store. There is much more traffic on the roads. We waited when there were no cars and then we went across. You see, there are no traffic lights and very few zebra crossings.

Butterflies

Butterflies
Today when we were badminton, we saw some very interesting butterflies. India has a lot of butterflies, and Kerala has a lot it seems to me. I dont know the name of the butterflies, but they were pretty interesting. One was pure white with one tiny black spot on each wing. The other, which my father saw, was black and yellow. We tried to take photos of it, but they moved around too fast.

Dogs and Cats

I love Appu and all the other dogs. To the dogs I used to be 'the person who pulls tails, oh no lets run away'. I dont know when I stopped doing that, but I did not do it last year or the year before. The dogs are still a little scared of me, but Appu was the first one to be stop being scared of me. The dogs live outside in cages/kennels. The dogs here are also very violent. They are not violent to us, but these dogs don't allow any other animals to come inside the yard. They have killed three snakes since we came, and really badly hurt a wild cat that came inside our yard. My sister and grandmother saw the dogs attacking the cat, and stopped them and saved the cat.

Cows!

Today, I was with my grandmother at Vazhoor while she was milking the cow. She squeezed the udders (the part that held the milk) and brought it down into a kind of pail. She has only one cow, one big goat, and about four tiny little goats. Did you know that milk is actually yellow? I had some fresh milk—the yellow milk. It wasn't that much different in taste, but I liked it more. Do you know why the milk you get in stores is always white? Because they use chemicals, and take out the cream, and that gives most of the yellowness.

Update

December 29:  Played with the dogs

Today morning I got up and played with the dogs at Manganam.  Bachhi and Pippi.  Bachi is a big black dog (slightly smaller than a lab).   When she saw me, she rolled on her back, and said that she wanted her tummy scratched.  It was a very pleasant sensation, because I haven't scratched any dog's tummy for a long time.  You see, my parents wont allow me to get  a pet. Mean, isn't it.  

December 30:  Plucked a bean  by myself

Today I plucked a bean all by myself.  I saw a bean that was ripe, and I asked Purshottam uncle, who was there at the time, if it would be alright to pluck it.   Purshottam is a worker at Aruvey house.  He used to work at my grandparents house when they stayed in another part of the country.  He still visits us for a month or two every year and stays and helps my grandparents.  Anyway, I was allowed to pluck the bean.  I told you we would get back to the bean.  How did I predict the future so well?

December 31: New Year's Eve: cracking my first coconut

Today we were at Vazhoor for most of the day.  Vazhoor and Manganam are close to each other—maybe ten miles away.   I must have forgotten to tell you that between Manganam and Vazhoor we have seven dogs in India, and one cat.  So that makes the total up to eight pets altogether.  My grandfather at Vazhoor (my mother's father) showed me how to crack a coconut's husk. You put it on this special machine and you put the foot at the base to stop it from falling over and then put the coconut on the two sharp edges that are together.  There is a lever to pull one edge down.  That opens up the coconut.  Then you have to shred the straw kind that of substance (husk) that surrounds it.  Each coconut has some black circles at the top.  You make a hole in one of them, and drink the water by putting a straw in, or you could just pour it into a glass, but that's much more boring.  I like cracking coconuts, but I am not really fond of coconut water. 

January 1: Two Elephants. 

On my trip to Vazhoor today I saw an elephant.  We passed right by it in our car.  It was walking on the road. It was at least twice as tall as our car.  It had a few palm leaves in its trunk.  A palm leaf is approximately twice as tall as a full grown man.  It's legs where chained together so that it couldn't run away.  It was, like you probably expected, an Asian elephant.  Now you might be wondering why I called this story two elephants.  Well, by chance, when we were going back to Manganam, we saw another elephant.  It was near a lumber yard.  I did not get a good look at it, so I am not sure whether it had any wood on its back or not. 

There are many elephants in Kerala.  Two hours from Vazhoor, there is a big forest where there are many wild elephants.  There are also many tame elephants, like the two we saw.  I rode on a tame elephant last year.    I will be posting a picture of an elephant soon. 

On a completely unrelated subject, Ms Moosbrugger, I am sorry that I didn't email you, but I was busy writing this blog on open office.  I am going to post it on a site on blogger.  Hopefully we will be able to make search engines find it soon. 

January 2: Sleepover

Today Maluchechi slept over at Manganam House. It was so fun. On our way back we picked up some biscuits called marie gold and tiger. When we got home we had a wonderful time. All three of us played a lot of games, and had cake and biscuits. I slept next to maluchechi and not next to chechi (my sister).  It was a wonderful sleepover.

January 3: Anu comes over

Anu's real name is arunima, like my sister's. (my sister too goes by a shorter name,aru). She is a friend of my father, from his days as a college student in England. Now she is a teacher in Delhi, capital of India. When she was leaving we went to the railway station to see her off. It was a very busy railway station – it was like the busiest place I have ever seen. Purushotham uncle left for Gujarat the same day. My grand mother and sister made a cake for naina deedi and phalguni (Purushotham uncle's daughters). It was so good that we wanted to make another for ourselves. And this time we made a marble cake -  that does not mean it was made of marbles, or marble. And we gobbed it up. gobble..gobble.. gobble.. yummy...yummy .. yum

The First few days

December 26:  Arriving in India; manganam and vazhoor

We got to the airport in India in the morning at 3 am, and my uncle picked us up.  Before that, we had to wait very long in a queue to get admitted to India.  We made it through fine.   While my mom and dad were in the queue, I was away reading Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse.  But I got scared in the middle of the Titan's curse and stopped. 

My uncle, Accha (he is my mother's younger brother), is a good driver.  He drove so fast and so swiftly and in a swervy way.   The rules are way different here.  I don't have to wear a seat-belt, and I can sit in the front.   Woo-hoo!

And then I arrived at Mangam, which is where my dad's parents live.   They have named their house Aruvey, which is a combination my sister's and my name.  There are four dogs at their home.  The dogs were kind of excited when I came.  Arf Arf Arf!!!

After a few hours, we all went to Vazhoor, which is where my mother's parents live.  The whole village is full of people from their family, in other words my family.  I have tons of second cousins and granduncles and relatives.  All of them together must weigh a ton.

December 27: Parrots Scared Away

Today morning I went into the parambu [farm] at Manganam and picked beans and other vegetables for  lunch.  My grandma and I scared away the parrots when we came.  They were trying to eat all our nice food.  Mean parrots, aren't they?  You will hear more about the subject of beans later probably. 

I have been having lovely food.  My grandma had a chocolate cake waiting for me yesterday when we arrived.  

In the evening, at Vazhoor, we burst tons of firecrackers.  There were sparklers that I could hold in my hand.  Then there were rockets, and there were also the spinners that shot out fireworks.  Then there was a spinner that spun fireworks in a big blast, stopped for a moment, made you want to go close, and then started up again.  Whoosh!

December 28:  Playing with my cousins

I played with cousins Aksharachechi, Nikki.  I have six cousins, all on my mother's side.   Two of them,  Kukuchacha and Maluchechi, are too old to play with me most of the time—Kukuchacha is eighteen, and Maluchechi is fifteen.   Kukuchacha does not stay in Kerala, but he is visiting because of the vacations.  I like playing Mechanix with Kukuchacha.  Kukuchacha was the only kid allowed to light the fireworks.  

Aksharacheci is ten years old.  She stays two hours away, in a city called Ernakulam.  She is visiting for a week because her school is closed.  Nikki stays in Chennai, and is six years old.   She has a younger sister called Aarohi (we call her Roo) who is about a year old.  Aksharachechi, Nikki and I play a lot together.  We play stuff like kannupothikali (like blind man's bluff).

My real site is supposed to be on blogger, but I can't access it right now, because we don't have access to the internet.  Once the internet is fixed, one computer in the house will have the internet. 

The Departure and the aeroplane

December 24: The day we left

The day we left, there was a lot of hustle-bustle.  My father woke me in the morning and told me, 'we made a mistake about the date we were leaving.'  The way it happened is that my grandfather told my dad to check the time they were supposed to arrive, and when my dad looked at it, he saw that we had to go today.   I jumped out of bed to help.  The way I helped my mom and dad was by not getting in the way.   Apart from that, I basically did nothing. 

We had three hours to pack and rush to the airport.  Our friends Subbu and Leigh came over to help us pack and get the house ready.   We left them in charge of our house and went off to the airport in a taxi.    The person in the taxi, because I was so well behaved, gave me a pack of gum that had ten pieces.  Sadly, he did not know that I didn't like gum. 

At the airport, it was junk food day.  We had orange juice and a chocolate croissant at Minneapolis airport.  Then we flew to Chicago, where we were for six hours before catching our plane to India.  I had two hot dogs, and two slices of pizza. 

We also bought some books for the trip.  We got the first three in the Percy Jackson series: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, and The Titan's Curse. 

December 25: Christmas in the plane

There was basically no Christmas in the plane.  The first plane trip was fourteen hours long.  That’s long, isn’t it? It felt so long.  I basically didn't sleep at all.   I read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and started the second one as the trip was ending.    Then we had a stopover in Abu Dhabi, where we bought lots of Guylian chocolate for all my family and grandparents.  Yummmmmmy...

The Departure and the aeroplane

December 24: The day we left

The day we left, there was a lot of hustle-bustle.  My father woke me in the morning and told me, 'we made a mistake about the date we were leaving.'  The way it happened is that my grandfather told my dad to check the time they were supposed to arrive, and when my dad looked at it, he saw that we had to go today.   I jumped out of bed to help.  The way I helped my mom and dad was by not getting in the way.   Apart from that, I basically did nothing. 

We had three hours to pack and rush to the airport.  Our friends Subbu and Leigh came over to help us pack and get the house ready.   We left them in charge of our house and went off to the airport in a taxi.    The person in the taxi, because I was so well behaved, gave me a pack of gum that had ten pieces.  Sadly, he did not know that I didn't like gum. 

At the airport, it was junk food day.  We had orange juice and a chocolate croissant at Minneapolis airport.  Then we flew to Chicago, where we were for six hours before catching our plane to India.  I had two hot dogs, and two slices of pizza. 

We also bought some books for the trip.  We got the first three in the Percy Jackson series: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, and The Titan's Curse. 

December 25: Christmas in the plane

There was basically no Christmas in the plane.  The first plane trip was fourteen hours long.  That’s long, isn’t it? It felt so long.  I basically didn't sleep at all.   I read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and started the second one as the trip was ending.    Then we had a stopover in Abu Dhabi, where we bought lots of Guylian chocolate for all my family and grandparents.  Yummmmmmy...