Oct 28

           Today was the first day of our exchange trip to Mumbai. Although we arrived Mumbai at 1:00am and we didn't go to bed until 3:00am, I woke up early at 7:30am...which means I only had 5 hours of sleep. Still, I was really excited to get to know my host Parmangana's family and India. I had breakfast with my host family, and chatted with them about Mumbai, Indian food and their culture. I've learnt that Mumbai is actually similar to Hong Kong in some ways, for example the crowdedness, the lack of land, the British influence, etc. The religion, however, is completely different; Parmangana told me very interesting stories about their Gods.
           
           Then we went to a lunch meeting with all the host families and teachers. The restaurant-"The Village"-was a traditional Indian restaurant decorated to resemble an Indian Village with stands offering different cuisine from different parts of India. Although the flavour was very different from what we usually eat and some of them are a bit too spicy to our tastes, we all enjoyed the food very much. Four of us left early for Parmangana and Muskaan's football match-they won the semi-finals and had to compete with another J.B. Petit team for the champion. The game was very exciting and the other team won in the end. Throughout the day, I have seen the poverty of India and the rich British culture brought to the country during the colonial period. The architectures were very special and interesting as they were infused with both British and Indian cultures.
           
            After the match we went to the mall in High Street Phoenix for some (window-)shopping. The mall was very nice, and we went home after getting ice cream.
           
            We had theplas(thin pieces of pastry) and some other traditional Indian dishes for dinner. They were very delicious and tasty.
           
            After dinner we watched some tv(football, Manchester vs Chelsea) and then rested. This was surely a great day and I can't wait to see more of India.

--Yan Chan
28th October, 2012

Oct 28

Arriving at the Mumbai Airport at 1am, it was overwhelming for us to see our hosts eagerly waiting for us at the exit, some even holding up beautifully decorate cardboards with our names written on it. All of us were pretty sleepy, considering the fact that it was midnight for them, and almost 3 in my morning for us. Nevertheless, we were warmly welcomed and a lady even came up to us and put a red dot on our foreheads, a Hindi symbol for luck and peace.

My host Sanaya was really nice, and both her parents and her chatted eagerly with me during the long car ride back to their home. My first impression of India was that it's always beautifully lit up, even in the middle of the night. It was almost 3am when we finally arrived at her home, and after a brief tour around her house, everyone gladly went to catch up on their sleep.

Waking up at 8am in the morning (due to the freezing air-conditioning), I enjoyed a simple Indian breakfast of noodles with Sanaya's family. It was soon 1 o'clock, and Sanaya's mom drove us to a restaurant called The Village where we had lunch together as a whole. To my surprise, Indian food wasn't as spicy as I'd imagined. In fact, they were delicious, especially an orange spiral dessert named Jalebi.

Soon, we got tired of eating and most of us were pretty full. We had a crazy dancing session, involving dances that require us to hold 2 bamboo sticks in our hands called Dandiya, and even a dance where we had to wear a special horse costume to do it! We all got really sweaty after the dances, but no one seemed to mind since we were all having so much fun :)

After chilling at Sanaya's home for a while, watching movies and her brother teaching me to skateboard, her family took me around for sightseeing around the neighbourhood, showing me heritage buildings such as the Old Taj Mahal Hotel and interesting tourist activities such as riding in an open-roof chariot.

It was a pretty amazing experience for me, since I have never seen anything like that before. All in all, I think my host and I had a great time bonding, and I am really looking forward to tomorrow for our first day of school in Mumbai.

June Ho 3U (12)

Oct 28

We arrived at Mumbai at around one o'clock in the morning. Even though it was this early, our host buddies were holding cardboards with our name on it, waiting for us. They all welcomed us to Mumbai. A woman came and put a red dot on our foreheads has greetings and good luck. Then we followed our respective host buddies home and have some sleep.

At around one o'clock in the afternoon, we all met at "The Village" to have lunch. The whole place is of Indian decoration and it is where people eat Indian food and have a taste of  Indian culture. I tried some of the Indian food and they taste delicious, though some are really spicy. I went and have a '"tattoo art" being drawn on my arm. It is very beautiful. Then we did some Indian traditional dances. One of them involved the use of sticks, but the moves are quite hard to grasp. For another dance, everyone formed a circle and dance, Mrs Wong and Mrs Lau joined in too. Afterwards, we watched a puppet show, and it is funny and different from others that I have seen before.

All of this is a very nice experience and we all had a very nice time.  I am sure tomorrow will be another exciting and fruitful day.

jalebi

dosa

painting tattoo art

puppet play

Oct 28

First Day In India

Arrival at the airport

       We arrived in the Chhatrapti Shivaji Terminus Airport at 1 am. The five-hour flight was tiring yet we were all very excited and eager to meet our host families since we have been chatting through the Internet for the past few weeks. When I first saw my buddy Deeksha, she was holding a name tag writing my name. We greeted each other and did a lot of talking in the car. It was amazing how we felt like a family once we saw each other. By the time we reached home, it was already very late.

       We did a brief room tour and some unpacking. Deeksha  and I did even more talking on the bed and we retired for the day.

"The Village"

"pav-bhaji"-- a typical Indian food that tastes like heaven

        The next day, we got up early at about 8 am. Deeksha had to attend an MUN conference so she left soon after she had her breakfast. I stayed in the house for the morning and I revised a bit so that I can catch up with my other classmates because I will be skipping school for more a week. Then auntie took me to the restaurant called "The Village" where all the girls will meet. The restaurant , which resembles an Indian village, was really fascinating. There were a lot of delicious food and we all had our tummies full. After that, we watched the process of making those beautiful clay bracelets. Some of us even bought a few. There is also a booth for tattoo art.

the booth for tattoo art

all of us dancing "Dandiya"

bracelet-making 

        We also had a "dancing section" and I loved it so much. We learnt some Indian dance moves and danced as a large group. That was a lot of fun. There is also one dance called Dandiya that involves the use of wooden sticks. We were all sweating like a pig after "exercising".
        It was such a fun experience and a good start. There is nothing like this in Hong Kong where people gather together to relax and enjoy themselves. I am starting to love this place even more.