Canada Day in Mumbai

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Happy Canada Day everyone! I've been looking at pictures of friends on Facebook, mostly in Canada, some elsewhere (my best friend is in Scotland and has been posting some lovely pictures-- hey girl!), and I've come to the conclusion that things seem so easy there compared to here! I think I mentioned in my last post that I was feeling constantly tired; when I think about how busy it is here (the time I spend concentrating on my security, the constant traffic and people, exchanging prices, breathing polluted air) I think it's understandable that compared to India, I find Canada is much calmer.

We were supposed to have a Canada Day celebration at our place yesterday, then maybe head out to continue the party, but a few hours before people came over we found out it was a dry day!! Meaning there is no sale of alcohol in the city... Maaaaaan I'm still not even 100% sure why, but that sure put a damper on things. Instead, Jonny and I walked around Bandra a bit and sat by the water, nice enough. The other day though I was invited to a Canada Day celebration by the Canadian consulate in Mumbai, so Erin (another girl on the OMG program) and I headed to the very fancy, 5-star, Trident Hotel. The exchange coordinator at my school, Father Roy, invited us but no one checked our identity or anything! It was one fancy event, with businessmen, politicians, and who knows who else. There was a free dinner, drinks, and a show by Shiamak Davar and his group! Now I definitely want to work at a Canadian consulate if I get to go to parties like that. So that was fun, we got to dance on stage (I just have to mention the very goodlooking dancers from the troupe) and we even met some other Canadians there! Afterwords I met up with Jonny and some of his friends from Jai Hind College at some dingy bar, which was a drastic change from where I was haha, but equally as fun (minus the lizards on the wall...)! Goes to say I didn't go to class the next day. However, I did have to go to class the next day, a Saturday, because there's class on Saturdays! So shit, I hate that and I hate waking up early every day to go to class. I wonder if you have to wake up early if you work at a consulate... I decided if that doesn't work out, I could try and open a animal shelter here in India, because goodness knows they could use a few. Seeing the cats and dogs around here is SO sad, it's shame that it's become a normal part of living here.

Anyways, I can't do anything about that now, however I have started with the Social Service League at my school to make at least a little bit of a difference while I'm here. I figure I should help out on a more local level before trying to help make a difference on an international level, because it's actions like this by so many around the world that help to make a huge difference. So far I've been asked to help out with this program called Project Care that is currently in the works. The people in the SSL at my school are amazing people, and they're all young people working really hard to make a difference. It's often a struggle, because the bureaucracy here is ridiculously unorganized, so kudos to them for attempting to make it through all that. I've also signed up to go on a weekend workshop next weekend with them up at some hill station a bit out of the city which should be super fun!

Some other experiences I've had here is eating pizza with paneer on it, seeing a monkey in a train station (did I mention that already?), and riding on the back of a motorbike! There are soooo many bikes here, and it was super fun to ride (but I would never be able to do it myself in Mumbai, I can hardly cross the road lol). On another note, I thought I'd mention that you can order McDonald's here and have it delivered (hahaha funny things too, like Aloo McTikki and stuff), or stuff from the pharmacy (imagine Shoppers Drug Mart delivered), which is sooooo convenient! Also, it's really weird but I've been so many brown doppelgängers of people I know! For example, I've made a friend in my history class, Jinx, who reminds me so much of my friend Jaaved from back home (ok so they're both brown but still), and one of Jonny's friends from Jai Hind looks so much like my friend Lisa from France, and today I met a South African who looks a lot like Javid from Ottawa!

Anyways people, I'm off to bed, as I've mentioned I've been quite tired since being here. Happy Canada Day once again!

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Photos

View from our Apartment
Here's a panoramic view from a window in our apartment onto the street!