The Beach; Lazy Week

Hello all! This week was a holiday week and so we haven't done much besides shop and go to the beach. I also started reading the Divergent series, and those of you who know me well know how I am with page-turners. 

The holiday was for something called Pongal, but it had different parts to it. Each day was something different. One day our kitchen staff put yellow turmeric paste all over every girl's feet. I was never able to get a clear answer as to what that was about. The design drawn with chalk below was in front of every person's house this week. I love all the colors!

Here are some beach pictures. The beach was actually pretty nice, except for the 2nd day we went there were WAY too many people for my taste. I have discovered a new loathing: staring. It REALLY bothers me when people stand around you in a circle and stare at you. People did that at the beach a lot. We were like zoo animals! It's like they have no idea that what they are doing is making you feel uncomfortable or that it's rude. Anyway, I'm trying to get over it because I know it won't stop any time soon. White people are just too weird looking! So many people at the beach wanted to take pictures with us too. We joked that we should start charging 20 rupees per picture. 

People can pay for horse rides at the beach. All of the horses looked really skinny and malnourished. Not a very happy sight. 

Before this we went shopping at a craft bazaar across the street. Craig and I have realized that now that we've been here for almost 3 weeks, we really need to stop spending money! It's so tempting because everything is so cheap compared to America, but I think I have enough clothes now. Actually, I could always buy more, but Craig thinks that I have enough ; ) The craft bazaar had awesome stuff though!

The girls bought a kite and tried to fly it. It didn't work at first, but the next day when we went back the wind picked up and they had a lot of fun.

Another aspect of the holiday week. People come around to your house and either bring a wishing cow that you can touch and make wishes or simply play instruments for you. They always expect to be paid of course. This guy just wanted a picture with us. 

 Day 2 at the beach:

I decided to wade this time, even though the water is supposedly SO gross and polluted, which is why we can't swim in it.

The waves were huge! Another reason why one should not swim here...

So, this homeless lady walks by with her pet monkey, and he immediately jumped on my lap and leaned against my belly and sucked his thumb! It was funny because we had just been talking about how we shouldn't touch monkeys or dogs here because they are not very clean. A BYU student from the past actually got bit by a monkey and had to get rabies shots. So I was very wary of it, but it was cute after all and there was nothing I could do ; ) 

Maybe monkeys can sense when you're pregnant? I kept thinking that for some reason. Haha

Well that's it for this week! It really has been quite lazy. This week Craig will probably dive more into his project and we'll start our Telegu language classes again. Oh, by the way, the girl in the background of that last picture is Asha. She just recently arrived from BYU because she was having visa problems. She was actually born in south India but was adopted and grew up in Idaho. It's funny though because people assume she speaks Telegu a lot and she has to tell them, "No, I'm American." 

I hope you all are doing well!