Here is part two of the catch-up blog. Back to Bangalore for a couple of days, which was good since I was able to get a few things sorted for my eventual move to India. Also gave me some time to reconnect with a few friends from school who were still in town. My travel companion caught up with me a few days later on our way headed down south for a bit of beach time. We had a few days to check out City Market and the main park but not really any time to do much exploring. Varkala [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to the first half of the catch-up entries. After over one month living out of a suitcase and searching for the nearest internet cafe to check my email, I am finally home in Canada (living out of a suitcase and borrowing friends and families’ internet connections). So back to the beginning. February 28th was one heck of a busy day. In the morning I had a job interview with an NGO in Bangalore and a job offer on the spot, in the afternoon my last exam, and in the evening a flight to Mumbai. So I arrived in Mumbai [View Full Entry]

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I finally managed to drag myself away from Varkala. And it was a real drag! My last night in Varkala was fabulous. I went to see the Kathakali dancers who did an amazing performance of a fable about a demon who falls in love with a mortal, so she disguises herself as a beautiful girl. She proposes marriage to him, but when he refuses her she turns back into a demon and he saws off her breasts. The makeup they wear is amazing, all made from powders of stones mixed with coconut oil. And they put some sort of herb in [View Full Entry]

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Before I left, my dear friend Farhad kept trying to subtly hint about India not really being paradise. I was blathering on about grass huts the beach and peaceful oceans. I was starting to believe him after 6 weeks in the noise and pollution of Bangalore, but then I went to Kerala. More specifically I went to Varkala. I finished my exams on Friday and was on a plane Saturday afternoon to Thiruvanathapuram. A large group of us from school met up that night in the beach side town of Varkala with the intention of staying one night and then going [View Full Entry]

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Took a very nice train from Bangalore to Mysore, complete with A/C, served meals and snacks, and complementary ear plug and eye covers! Not bad for a two and a half hour train ride. And Mysore itself was such a welcome change from Bangalore. The traffic is delightfully light and quiet (there is no incessant honking) and the air is completely breathable (sans pollution). What a relief. After checking into our room we went to check out the sultan's palace. On our way to the sultans palace we were accosted by all the familiar rickshaw drivers trying to trick us into [View Full Entry]

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Well this was definitely not your usual holiday season for me. Christmas was a non-event here. No carols, no gifts, there was a rather sad looking Christmas tree or two on campus. I even asked some of the locals in the shops if Santa would come to India for their children, but alas Santa Airlines does not fly to the sub-continent. It was just a regular working day, and a number of the students even had classes. The only thing that was closed was the yoga studio that I wanted to go try out. I did find a Busche de Noel [View Full Entry]

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Nandi Hill is a small hill station just north of Bangalore. Even though it is close to Bangalore (60 km), it still takes about 3 hours to get there. Since my friend and I missed the direct bus we had to go through the town of Chickballapur and connect to a bus going up the hill from there. It seems the best strategy at bus/train/air transport locations is to latch onto a sympathetic English speaker and don't let them out of your sight until you are on the right mode of transport. In this fashion we managed to catch the bus [View Full Entry]

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My new home is quite different than Montreal. First off I am living in the residence on campus, which is okay but rather basic. You can see from the photo that the mattress on the bed is exactly 8 cm thick and stuffed with what feels like a mix of concrete and sawdust. But amazingly I am sleeping rather well, just in the middle of the day instead of at night (still have to get over the ten hour time difference). I have already started shopping for some little improvements to jazz things up a bit. I have a meal plan [View Full Entry]

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The first thing to know about driving in Bangalore is not that you drive on the left hand side, but the location of you horn. The horn is used in a pre-emptive manner. Rather than waiting for a near miss to occur, as soon as another vehicle or pedestrian (this does include cows) is visible on the road, begin honking. This should assert your dominance over all others on the road, allowing you to proceed. Unfortunately, all others on the road are also seeking to claim a position of dominance. The resulting cacophony is many decibels louder than your average western [View Full Entry]

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The Journey Montreal to Paris Big thanks to Cara for putting me and the cats up for the last week and Carrie and Liba for the ride to the airport! And big hugs to Farhad, Su Mi, Cara and Shu Ching for helping me out with my last minute cat crisis. The flight to Paris was comme une garderie! In other words, screaming children everywhere. Thank goodness for strong tail winds that made the trip just under 6 hours. Paris to Bangalore Lucky for me, I met a a street theatre group travelling from Montreal to Bangalore, law and drama students [View Full Entry]

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