Every year Global Adjustments, the relocating company that helped us move, holds a photo competition for expatriates. I decided to enter some of the photos we had taken throughout the year. They had four main categories, Faces, Places, Into India and Festivals. They also had a Humor category.
The requirements were that the photos had to be taken in India, given a caption and taken by an expatriate.
These are the photos along with their captions that I entered.......
"The Taj"
"Watch Out"
"Royalty"
"OOOPS.....I forgot my bowl"
"OM"
"Nice Accessories"
"Hold On"
"Good Morning Lord Shiva"
"Happy Birthday Lord Krishna"
This last one won 2nd place in the Humor category
"Does this pattern make my butt look big"
There were over 500 photos that were entered. Some of them were just amazing.
What is Cake Mixing? That is a good question...we had never heard of it until moving here.
It involves mixing a lot of dry fruits and nuts and then adding wine and rum. The big hotels make a Grand hurrah about this. They usually invite celebritites and VIP guests to do the honors. Luckily, our friends at the
Asiana (http://www.asianahotels.com/) put together an event for a different kind of VIP's, the kids. The hotel went all out, as they usually do, by providing hats, gloves and cute aprons, which we got to keep.The hotel had the atrium all decorated for Christmas. It was nice to see a huge tree and hear Christmas music.
This is how pretty the dry fruits and nuts are assembled....
Lets get ready to mix.........
As you can see, the kids had a blast. It was all fun until the adults started pouring in the wine and rum. At that point the kids started to slowly leave. Carissa said the smell was too strong. If the smell was strong I can't wait to see what it's going to taste like.
Yes, they actually bake it into cakes and sell them. It is supposed to be the big thing to give during Christmas. Of course we ordered one, so stay tuned to see what it tastes like.
I thought these were the cutest things....the pastery chef made them. He is the same guy who won the award and made those cool sculptures I blogged (India's Got Talent) about some time ago.
IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!
Since Diwali is such a big holiday around here. Carissa's school had a big celebration.
We all had to dress up in traditional Indian clothes. We had fun "mingling" with all our friends.
Divya and Carissa
Ms. Lauri (Carissa's teacher)
Carissa, Ryan, Amy, Christian and Michael
Yun Seo,Carissa,Ginny,Mahra and Ellen
Grace,Darlene,Emi,Sun Oak,Angie and Kim
Believe it or not, I have friends too.
We headed to the Gym for some dancing. Carissa and I learned "Dandiya" dancing, which is from the Northern state of Gujurat. This dance was fun once we learned how to use the sticks. It could be dangerous if you didn't get it right.
Even Ryan got into it....
After the dancing was food and then fireworks. We all had a great time...until next year!
Diwali is the time of year here in India that is like Christamas/New Year rolled into one.
The tradition is to get new clothes, gives sweets and light a heck of a lot of firecrakers. Since we we out of town, we decided to have a party for our staff and their families before we left.
I let Easwari take control of the party, I just provided the house and funds. She was so excited, even her husband, Ramesh was into the party planning.
First thing...First...Nievta and Kalpana had to make the kolom out in front of the house. Since it is Diwali we are supposed to add lights "diyas". These diyas are little clay saucers that are painted. Oil and a wick were added to the saucers and then were lit. It is hard to believe what lights can do to a kolom.
Next we had to light the lamp to symbolise " A new light to get rid of the darkness". We each had to light a wick for good luck in the new year.
Of course, how could we celebrate a new year, good luck, and rid evil without our good friend GANESH
It was time to eat. I said we were going traditional so it was eating on the floor, on banana leafs and with our hands.
Niveta, Sujata, Swami, Ramesh and Easwari.
Ryan, Prakash,Sathia,Kalpana,Niveta and Sujata.
After, dinner it was time to go outside and enjoy some fireworks.
The party ended after the last firework burnt out. We had a great time celebrating Diwali with our "Indian Family".
As I mentioned before, we went to Bali to rest and relax and that is just what Ben did. He deserves it!
We all just lounged by the pools and hopped between them and the beach. The kids had fun at the beach. The water was clear after the tide went out. You could see the bottom of the ocean. Carissa found a starfish, but she forgot her underwater camera so we couldn't take a picture.
Ryan had fun collected the coral that washed up. He was not a big fan of the salt water. I don't blame the poor kid.
The pool was our next stop.....
Carissa even made a friend from France. Her name was Lauri.
A poolside snack....
Nap time
Just to let you know....Ben was in pain the next day...OUCH!
Sadly it was then time for us to say "Goodbye" to Bali. It was an incredible trip and we are planning on coming back.
We continued our adventure the next day with a day trip to different villages. We first headed to a cultural performance called "Barong" Good vs. Evil. We were given a piece of paper to explain the story. It was very interesting on how much preparation and emotion goes into each performance. The costumes were amazing.
Our next stop was in a village called Celuk, it is known for its silver jewelery. We were not allowed to take pictures but they showed us the process of melting the silver and how they make the different designs. This village was silver shop, after silver shop. I would have stayed there all day if Ben would have let me.
On to Kintamani volcano....the kids were really excited to see this. It is an active volcano, but hasn't erupted in quite a long time.
We ate lunch overlooking the volcano and the hot springs down below. The kids found these little guys funny.....
On to the Monkey Forest. This place had monkeys running all over the place. We even saw one steal a bag of potato chips from a lady.
Ryan had is own little encounter with a monkey and he has the scare to prove it.
As you can see the kids are enjoying this little monkey. Well the monkey decided that Ryan was too cute so he jumped at him and scratched him on his ear. We all freaked out, but Ryan went into hysterics. It was just a small scratch and we put disinfectant right away. He talked about it all night long, we thought for sure he was going to have nightmares, but he didn't.
I am sure he will show you all the scar this summer and tell you the story.
After that incident, we called it a day.
