An afternoon with Mom

Recipe for radish-carrot salad (what was part of my dinner tonight): 1) Shred one white radish (the long, skinny kind, called "daikon" in Japan), and one carrot (they are red-colored here and not as hard). 2) Cut (using sissors) one green chile pepper (it kinda looks like a green bean because it's so long) into tiny pieces. 3) Add peanut powder (smashed peanuts), sugar and lemon juice 4) Mix all ingredients together and serve - SUPER YUMMY! Biggest news of the day: I GOT ANTONIO'S VALENTINE'S DAY CARD THAT HE SENT ME!!!! (Finally).  He sent it on February 6th and if finally got her on the 22nd.  It made my day!  I was so happy that I had to call him (was too excited to remember that it was 4:30 am his time) to tell him I got the card and that I loved it.  =)  Although being a bit sleepy sounding, he didn't mind though.  He was just glad that it had finally gotten to me.   Other excitements: - It's weird but we're already at the mid-term.  My social justice mid-term paper was due this afternoon.  I can hardly believe that we only have 4 more weeks of classes!  They end at the end of March and then our research/ internships begin in April (I will be interviewing people on the conflict resolution strategies being used in the Hindu-Muslim conflict and analyzing what I learn).   - I bought a silk sari on Saturday!!!  It's turquoise with a maroon border and will have a maroon blouse.  I bought it from my seamstress when I went there Saturday to give her some fabric I had bought for a shirt (also picked out fabric for pants and a scarf to match) and gave her the sundress design I drew.  The sundress will have tank-top straps with a scoop-neck and back and be a sunny yellow with little white flowers embroidered along the neckline and skirt trim!  I'm so excited!!!   Interesting thing about talking to the seamstress about my sari.  I asked her if she knew of a good sari blouse seamstress/tailor and she said "No but you should ask your hostmother.  We don't wear those [meaning the saris]."  I thought it was interesting that she said "we."  I wonder if this has any class or caste implications?  I will have to ask someone from the program. Further excitement related to sari: my host mom took me to get the blouse made today.  The way it works is you buy the sari material and then it usually comes with a section that the sari blouse tailor will then cut off to make your blouse (which is kinda like a belly dancing shirt in length but more modest in the neckline and the shoulders are covered).  We walked to an apartment building not far from our house and went up to the third floor or so.  The room was tiny and kind of triangular.  The walls had peeling paint and looked very old.  It was a one-room with the kitchen on one end and bed on the other.  A sewing machine was against the wall and sari material was on the bed.  Sunita (I think) is her name and after we left Amma (my host mom) told me that she is very poor which is why she took me to her instead of the expensive tailors.  She didn't look poor though (which I've noticed a lot here - they may be poor but they take good care of their clothes unless they are really old or kids).   The seamstress had me take off my shirt (in front of her and Amma - which didn't and doesn't seem to be a problem here) to try on a sari blouse that Amma had brought so they could use it as reference.  The seamstress didn't speak English (or much of it) so they basically talked, pointed, measured, and gestured to me as they decided how long things should be.  I did request that the neckline in front and back be a little lower (Amma's is much higher than I've seen most women wearing now-a-days, and also less fabric the better as it is getting SO HOT!).  And the best part is that we will go back the day after tomorrow to try it on!  This is MUCH faster than I've heard it usually takes (especially because we are now in the wedding season).   When we were about to leave we heard a tap at the door and the most doubled-over little old lady I had ever seen wobbled her way inside.  She was almost at a complete 90 degree angle and had to grab hold of the walls and table as she walked.  She was short to begin with so with the 90 degree angle she was extremely tiny in comparison to my giant height (it felt like, also because Amma and the seamstress were about the same height and much shorter than me).   After the seamstress we bought some vegetables (I got to help pick them out - carrots, a radish, okra, chilies, a long vegetable that I am unfamiliar with, and lemons).  Then we went to what turned out to be an organics store where I bough Amla candy.  My host mom had given me a bag of it in my first few days and they are supposed to be a super fruit especially good for vitamin C so I wanted to buy some.  They also had "yog for digestion" and other "yog" for other ailments.  Not sure what "yog" is but I'll find out.  There was also a man's face all over things.  Amma told me he is a famous yoga teacher.  I noticed they had a yoga class chart on the window in English when we stopped to talk to some of Amma's friends.   The temple was on the way back home.  I wandered over to the English article from 2008 Newsweek about how there are more Hindus in the US or at least more people with Hindu-like beliefs.  It was interesting to read.  Meanwhile, Amma prayed to the main god (?) before going outside to pay respect to the medicine trees again (she did this the first time I came with her, too).   We then stopped to get fruit, some yellow spongy stuff for a snack (from the sweet shop across the street from us - they also let me try this spongy milk dumpling in milk sauce that was good), and I bought toilet paper at the corner store.  Then we returned home, ate our snacks and I went to study for a bit.  Talked to Antonio via skype so he could see how much I loved the card (it's a card/book that he put pictures in and wrote lots!).  Dinner of spicy beans and the salad with chapati (the tortilla-like things) which we ate while watching the TV (thankfully it was not the political debate channel like it has been in the past which is completely talking in Marathi - not so exciting for me).   I finished going through my notes for my small test tomorrow morning in Contemporary India and now shall go to bed.  I just wanted to write this stuff up before I forgot.   Tomorrow I will start my dance class - for real this time!  And I also have a short 800 word paper to write up but shouldn't be hard.   I will post pictures when I have more time.  Have a great week everyone!