Uhhh...uhhh...I'm holding the course..

Funny stuff....

The awards ceremony

what can you do...it was still fun and cool to be at a match...

Dean

And India looses...England celebrating.

and India is falling fast and hard...M S Dhoni just got caught out!!!

Yuvraj batting...slow bowler...lots of guys ready to catch an edge..

Showing spirit...with the homeboy who hooked me up...

Lunch break...India still doing good...

Sachin Tandulkar

Dravid batting

India vs England cricket match...3rd test match...day 5...at this stage india is on pace to win...needing a run rate of about 2 runs per over...

In da club...da remix

In da club...

Homies!!

Our group going to the club...not everyone was able to come

Riding in the 3 wheeler to the club after dinner...

The whole party!!

Udayan and Sona

Dean and Sherry

Raunaque and Sanya

What I had for dinner...shrimp...it was quite good!! It turned out to be quite a party...

My birthday, getting a pick with Anil Kapoor, one of the biggest film stars in Bollywood!! that night, there were celebrities at both tables next to ours...celebrating in style!!!

Dancing!!

coming around!

Another shot of the procession!!!

Another tribe dancing their way in!!

Dancing!!

More of the dancers!

Tribal dancers!

Part of the finalee!!

How's that for doing pull-ups!!

Breaking bricks!

Some stunts they were demonstrating!

one vs four!!

Stick fighting!!

Some of the girls fighting!!

Practice fighting!!

Not too sure what they're doing in this one!!

More ab workouts!!!

Real mens ab workout!!

Stretching!

Squates...the real mans way!!!

Doing warm-ups!!

The Karate Demonstration

We went this day because they were having a big festival and a Karate demonstration by the students.

Where the boys sleep who stay at the center!! Nice and cumfy!!

Hey! you! Quit looking at me like that!!!!

Say cheese Katja!

Looking at a few of the local residents!!

Another shot of the center

A shot of one of the gardens at the center.

A group of tribesmen dressed in their dance uniforms!

It's 6:30 am and we are heading out of town to visit a medical center that caters to tibal people on the outskirts of mumbai!! It's the first time we've been up this early in months!!

Sunrise from the train

So that's what one of these thingys look like inside!!!!

Udayan's first time cooking!!

Hello everyone, I know it's now April, and I just finished posting the pics from Goa which was the last weekend in February! We had internet and computer problems last month so I was able to do it sooner! I hope to have everything updated by tomorrow!

So anyways, Goa was a great trip, nice and relaxing!! A pleasant break from the city, noise and pollution!! But it was too short! Goa is very beautiful, palm trees everywhere!! If any of you have seen the movie Bourne Supremacy, the first scene was filmed in Goa!! We supposedly went for carnival, but it was the most pathetic carnival i've ever been to...and i've never been to carnival!!! It felt more like a party you would find in Eugene...there were people doing fire dance. There was supposed to be some salsa thing, but we went to eat, and by the time we came back, they were playing trance music and it was mainly guys dancing!! Not too sure what happened to the salsa...but anyways...that's OK. It was pretty much the off season when we were there, I think it still is the off season, but the majority of the tourists were old european couples. Then at the same time there are a lot of hippies that live there!! We went to this bazaar, and it almost felt like walking through the saturday market! So basically, it didn't feel like anything new or different. On the other hand, the beach was very nice and the water was very warm, so during the day we just layed on the beach and swam all day!! There were people coming around and selling things, and there was this one lady who was giving massages. Udayan got a massage, but I didn't get a pic of him all oiled up!!! It would've been funny!! At night we went out, but the party scene wasn't the most happening because it was the off season, but we still had a great time! That was basically the extent of our trip there, relaxing, laying on the beach, swimming, eating, and of course some drinking! It was too short though, we didn't get to go around and see anything. There are supposed to be some forts and old churches to visit, but we didn't have time to do that. Maybe next time!!!

A different angle. the last pics were taken from on top of those stairs...

the back of the building...

Kherwadi...the NGO where I work...

Madalsa with straight hair!

Heading back home... :-(

Walking around that same beach area!

A rocky beach we drove to...

An elephant by the wayside...I think you could pay to ride it, but we just drove by!

An attempt at a shot of both of us while moving!

A church along the way! Goa, being a portugese settlement, is very catholic!

A view in perspective from the back of the scooter!

View from the scooter!

Renting Scooters for the afternoon!

The morning after...it's about 7am...we were up all night...!!! Quite a peaceful morning!

representing the west coast!

...after dinner!

Amit and Madalsa

While we're waiting...!!!

:) !!!!!!

how about tequila???

what should we get???

The Goa Carnival...I've never been to the carnival...but that had to be the worst carnival i've been too!!! But we still had a lot of fun!!

Udayan, like usual, on the phone!!

Everyone!

Some stray dogs that were hanging around us looking for food!!!

Sunset!!

One of the many restaurants on the beach!

Madalsa and Katja! Katja got a little too much sun!!!

Sunset and getting food!

At the beach. There really weren't too many people, mainly old european couples!! The water was wonderful though, really warm!! Could stay in all day. No big waves! Tried some body surfing, but we weren't too successful!!

The hotel grounds

Our room!

The hotel we stayed at. The girls had this room to themselves!!! (the whole top floor)!

...???...it's India!!!

Goa!!!!

Month of February

Hello Everyone,

OK, so all those pictures below are from the month of feb. Since I didn't post anything the whole month really, actually I kind of got behind, and I can't remember everything that happened, it would be too long, I tried to put more detailed explanations under the pictures. I know that it's not complete, but if anyone has questions they can just email me and I'll try and give more complete responses!!

This month, the girls have gone, only Sherry is still here, and there's a new guy, so it's three guys and one girl!!!

I'm going to post pictures from Goa next.

Last night together! (before going to Goa)

Sunset from the plane on our way to Goa!!!

Almost the whole group!

Our last night out with the girls before Mariana left!

This guy wanted to sleep with Mariana after one day!! He was cool with us though! Mariana wasn't so fond though!!!

the old guy in the background is a celebrity...I don't anything else about him!! don't know if he was cool or not!

the pool area at the JW

Yeah...we look good!! The picture looks a little g**, but don't ask!

;-)

Mr. Cool!

cool mirror!

don't ask!

He's out!

successful poses!!

In action!

Udayan trying to get them to pose!!!

The winning team!

all smiles!!

...!!!

!!!

:)

It's a lot of fun to do this with them!! They have really so little in their life and to look forward too, but they are quite happy!!

They like having their picture taken!!!

Udayan and the kids! After the game! They really have a lot of fun!!!

Some more of the kids!!

Udayan's turn!

A shot of one of the games. You can see the quality of field that they're playing on!

Mr Celebrity!!! They all come up and shake my hand when we arrive and say hi and ask me what my name is!!! It really makes me feel like a celeb!!

Some of the slum kids from the cricket league

Sick me!!! But I still helped the kids play their cricket!!

Don't ask!

Udayan and one of Anu's co-workers. He really liked Madalsa, even though they didn't speak the entire evening that we were out, but he found out where we lived from Anu's driver and he sent her a bottle of perfume...men's perfume!!! When Anu found out about that he got mad at him saying what were you doing sending men's perfume, so the next day he sent another bottle of perfume, only this time it was women's perfume!!! There were a couple strange emails after that, but that was the extent of that. She wasn't interested in him.

Mariana with her "friend" that she met!! He's very rich and he took us all out a couple times and paid for everything, which was nice.

The trucks are nicely decorated though, it's pretty cool!

I've been helping Udayan with a cricket tournament that he's organized with some slum kids, and the field that they play (field is an understatement, it's more like a dirt area: there will be pictures later) on is in the middle of this dirt and gravel yard!

Eating brunch the next moring...we're all dead tired!!

cool picture!

Uda and his mohawk!

Sherry the last roomate to arrive!! It now makes us 6!! 2 boys and 4 girls!

the start of the night!

Some random old guy at the club who probably wanted to hit on the girls and thought that if he got into our picture he could then talk to them...I don't think the girls fell for it though!!!

In the train...the girls in there section and the boys in theres!

Udayan sleeping on the train on our way out! I think he ended up going home that night!

Madalsa

I'm not sure what was going on???

Mariana in the traditional non-married indian woman garb!

all of us

Relaxing on marine drive after 4 long days!!

some random cool looking building we walked by so I took a picture of it.

a dance performance

Some of the art

another view of the street

The Kala Ghoda arts festival. This was in south bombay, and the whole street was decorated and there was music and food and art.

What to do now??? It's late and we were trying to figure out what to do next because it wasn't THAT late!

Udayan should have the picture of my side somewhere!

A night out with the roommates!!!

Another picture of everyone...dancers and musicians!

the end of the concert. Overall it was a really good concert, and we felt very lucky to have been invited. I took videos of the concert, but they don't do justice to the real concert.

There was also dancing mixed in with it. Here some children from this NGO that they sponsor were dancing.

The germans were on the right, and the indians were on the left. The indians were playing some traditional instruments such as the sitar and tablas, and the germans were all wind instruments.

It was celebrating 50 years of Siemens being in India, so they had a fusion concert by bringing in some of the best jazz musicians from Germany and some of the best jazz musicians from India.

Katja and I got invited to this really nice fusion jazz concert put on by Seimens. The head of our NGO got the tickets for us. It was an exclusive concert, I don't think that tickets were sold to the public, I think that it was on invite only!