Aranmula

---

Nicole and I have arrived at the Vijiana cultural center in the small town of aranmula. We are here for a week to take cooking classes and malyalam. THe center offers all sorts of classes from kathakali, dance, kalari, hindi, table, painting, wood carving, yoga etc.. The people are tremendously friendly. Nisha, our cooking teacher, is an absolutely adorable woman with mad cooking skills and quite good english. (as my malyalam stilll has a little ways to go....) The recipes are fun but i think my favourite is the wrapping (take home package) of banana leaves. SOme of the ingredients are going to be a little bit tough to find. Fresh coconut is in everything and all of the kitchens are equipped with coconut carvers... Not to mention the crazy machete looking tool used to break open the coconut. She is married to the painting instructor and invited us to her house for tea. Anil's (husbands) artwork is incredible. The detail is tremendous. The group of foreigners at the center are great. They come from far and wide. Its great to meet people for long enough to forge some sort of relationship. Its a little hard to meet people in india as you dont see many women and lots of the boys have an alternate agenda. The south is better in this regard as most people are very friendly and relaxed. I wish we were staying here for more than a week but I'm also excited/nervous about our upcoming stay in the ashram. I'm feeling too lazy and tired to write. hope you all are well.

---