I'm home!

Home sweet home!

Yes, I'm finally home - after spending a night in Chennai and spending hours on two planes, I finally got home!

Soda Sikanji

So, it was my last night in Vizag and, of course, I learned something new.

Have you heard of sikanji?

It's a salted drink with some unidentified powder in it - how was it?

Now, I'll give you some details on it.

There is a new place called Spice India and it's apparently owned by one of the Sweet India brothers.

The layout was pretty modern like Marry Brown, but the food resembled that of Chaatpat.

Brooke and I were curious about this new fusion place so we went in - and I, as usual, decided to something new.

I skimmed over the menu and couldn't help but yell out "what's sikanji?"

An Indian guy dressed in western clothes - with a black shirt and a pair of funky jeans - replied and told me that it's a carbonated Indian drink.

"What does it taste like?"

He paused for a minute or so and said, "It's like salted lemonade."

Hmm. Salted lemonade.

Then I came up with another question;

"Which one do you recommend?"

"I personally recommend masala thumbs up."

"Wait... Thumbs up like thumbs up with masala like masala? (sorry for such a horrible sentence.)"

He understood what I meant - I meant "Wait, you seriously mix thumbs up (Indian coke; it's actually produced by the Coca Cola company... how ironic.) with powder masala (typical Indian spice - it's pretty much used in everything. I remember having "Magic Masala" Lays chips.)"

I couldn't decide between Masala Thumbs-Up and Soda Sikanji.

I knew what masala tasted like and I also knew what thumbs up tasted like.

Therefore, I decided to try sikanji (there were three kinds: soda, rose, and khus. Apparently khus sikanji tastes like khus khuse, my favorite Moroccan dish.)

They took the order and took my receipt outside to the "bar."

The "bartender" looked at my receipt and said: soda sikanji?

I replied, and he started squeezing lime into a plastic cup and threw in some ice.

He then sprinkled greyish-greenish powder (A LOT of it) and opened up a bottle of soda.

He tried to make everything look cool by making the soda bubble all over the place...

Yeah, the making of soda sikanji was pretty interesting - and guess what; haha my taste buds said that the taste was pretty interesting as well.

Carbonation of the soda tickled my tongue and the salty powder, mixed with a tint of sweetness in the soda, created an undescribable, unappetizing taste.

There we go - doing something for the first time is never easy.

The aftertaste of having sour lime marinated in salt was even more unpleasant - my taste buds were screaming.

Eh... but why don't I go for a second sip?

It might make a difference.

I started getting used to the odd concoction of different ingredients, but honestly, I just refused to handle it after having five sips.

I mean, I could have finished the whole cup, but I don't think it was worth it.

The fact that I tried something new counted!

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I actually forgot to mention a very important event - I had to say bye to my Telugu friends.

Brooke and I became very emotional but we had to hold the tears in...

The kids were more than aware of the concept of "leaving" - and I think they also knew that there is a very slight chance of us coming back.

We were off to Cafe Coffee Day, and we had a good crying session.

It was really funny, in a way, because Coffee Day is a place where we go to be happy.

A place where we go to have a conversation for a good hour. A happy conversation.

We were overwhelmed by the lack of time. By the bittersweetness of leaving. By the distance that will part us from seeing everyone.

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This is the last blogpost that I'm writing in India, and it's making me think A LOT.

I'm going over everything that happened in the past eventful four months.

Honestly, I can't even think of a way to describe how I feel: of course I'm excited to see my family and friends at home, but leaving India?

I won't see any more of the bright yellow autos that stare at us all the time.

I can't bargain anymore and use my Hindi and Telugu phrases.

And... no more English classes with my friends! :(

What about all those Indians that take pictures of us all the time?

I'm not going to feel like a celebrity anymore...

 

One week.

One week.

Seven days.

That's it. 

In India.

Indian Clothes

Whenever I pictured an Indian woman, I always pictured them in beautiful sarees, with elaborate embroideries.

I didn't know that they were all tailored separately; as a shopper used to getting ready-made clothes, buying fabrics to get them tailored never even crossed my mind.

In India, most women buy fabrics at fabric stores and bring them to tailors - apparently this is much cheaper than buying ready-mades.

For some reason, I expected getting clothes tailored would be more expensive, despite inexpensive labor.

So yesterday, I went to a fabric store called Amber with Brooke, Priya (Brooke's host sister), and Brooke's host mom.

We got materials for scarves because we didn't know what we wanted to get tailored - maybe a salwar kameez or even a saree!

We then went to handicraft stores and different malls to check out more fabrics.

Although I've been in India for more than 3 months now, it seems as if India has something new to offer everyday.

I can't think of any days that I haven't encountered something unfamiliar - actually, I should emphasize the fact that those unfamiliar encounters are more than familiar now!

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A little update on current situation-

As I've mentioned in previous posts, our train trip to Hyderabad was cancelled (if it wasn't, I would be there at the moment) and I was disappointed.

However, at the moment, it is one of the highest alerted cities in India - I'm glad that the trip was cancelled!

We are not allowed to go to Cafe Coffee Day, which is the hot gathering spot for foreigners; but the Park Hotel was opened up for us the other day.

We have two weeks left, and I'm looking forward to making the best out of it.

I can't believe that it's only two weeks now, because I feel like I just came back from our Rajasthan trip (it was in October).

Christmas is also coming up....!

seoyeun

Navy Day - "the" day for Visakhapatnamese! (actually, they're called Vizagites)

I actually made up the word Visakhapatnamese.... pardon me... haha

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There is a navy base in Visakhapatnam and it was Navy Day today.

I went to my host family's friend's house which is located ON the Beach Road - it has a spectacular view.

The event started at 4PM but the Beach road was blocked from 3:30.

It lasted for about 3 hours, with helicopters and planes flying everywhere and "crackers" going off every other second.

Here are some pictures - 

December!

I can't believe that it's already December!

How does this work?!?

I have less than 3 weeks in India.....!