He's struck it handsomely.....

Well as I sit down to write this, I am noticing that I am more excited to update this week than I usually am. I feel like this last week was full of funny stories and some humorous pictures. I always manage to find myself in interesting situations, and this week was no exception. Where should I start.....

Last weekend we went to this place called Araku Valley. It is supposedly the scenic gem of Southern India. Please notice the use of the word "supposedly" in the previous sentence. While it was a very beautiful place, it's beauty was diluted with long, windy roads, car sickness, and a sub-par cultural experience. Please don't mistake this for complaining. I am not complaining. I'm just trying to give you an idea of what goes on in my head. If I would have known what the road situation was like I definitely would have stayed back and read books all day. I get super super super car sick very easily. The ride to Hollywood makes me sick. The teacup ride at Disneyland is my worst nightmare. I can recall countless experiences of driving with my Mom to auditions in Hollywood after school and always finding my head buried in the bottom of a 7-Eleven Big Gulp cup. I remember finally getting home after those long, car sick evenings and just lying down on the cold cement of the Dartmouth house. To save you the details, I get very car sick. Well the 3 hours to Araku Valley was essentially La Tuna Canyon times one hundred. Luckily I had my man purse with me, in which I always carry enough Dramamine to put down an elephant. I took three of those and eventually gave in to my heavy eyelids. Brad and Emily were in the same car and poor baby Chloe got sick. She threw up quite a few times and I felt so badly. I wanted to help, but I think turning around would have made me follow suit a well. It's amazing what 180 degrees can do to a person on the verge of throwing up, isn't it? Well Chloe was very sick and Brad and Emily were adorned in throw up as well. We had to make a couple stops to clean up and what not, but the trip was just rough. After a trying three hours, we finally made it to the top of Araku Valley. Ok, not to sound pessimistic or anything, but when you are going to a "valley," don't expect to see anything but a valley. It's like in Arrested Development when the dead dove is in the freezer and on the bag is written, "Dead dove, don't eat!" Well, if you see a bag like that, you are gonna open it and find exactly what you knew to be there. "I don't know what I expected to be in there," you might say. Well, I don't know what I expected to be at Araku Valley, but I was kind of disappointed to find that is was only a valley. Yes, it was pretty, but just a valley. I don't know...maybe I'm complaining a little bit, but if I drive three car-sick hours to some valley, next time the valley better be full of Cherry Slurpee and cheeseburgers. And Otter Pops. The blue kind. 

I feel the need to talk more about the gym I go to everyday. Last time I gave a brief overview, but now, after having been a full-time member of the gym, I feel like highlighting some more of the benefits of going to the gym here. Well in America there are mirrors all over the place in gyms. The BYU gym has mirrors, the Gold's Gym that Kevin and Kevin would sneak me in to had mirrors, the YMCA has mirrors. Even this gym in Vizag has mirrors. There is one difference though. In America, you have to STEAL glances at yourself. Everyone pretends they aren't looking at themselves and flexing, but they are. Here in India, it is SHAMELESS VANITY. These guys will just stand in front of the mirror, pull up their shirt and flex. They will practice facial expressions, work on their smile, flex their guns. It all goes down...nothing off limits in these mirrors. I have taken a liking to this. If I feel like I'm especially ripped on any particular day, I just flex the guns in the mirror. If I am working my abs and want to show off for a bunch of hairy Indian men, then I just pull up my shirt and flex the washboard. I can't wait to go back to school, flex in the mirrors, and have everyone look at me. Here in India I am the biggest guy at the gym. In America, I am definitely on the smaller side. I better get all my flexing out now because it won't happen back in the States. Gotta take it while I can :)

When resources are limited, you gotta get creative. Now that my hair is growing out, I can't just let it hand on my forehead like this.....

This is the look I am trying to avoid. If this guy reads this blog, I am sorry for bagging on your bangs. You pull it off bro, I can't. Murray's pomade is the only stuff that can control my hair. Now that it is so far away, I had to improvise. I want to share my new secret with everyone. I guess this is just a secret for those that are too frugal/lazy to spend the money on hair product or to go to the store. If I was in America, I would buy my Murrays no questions, but when the going gets tough...you gotta freestyle the hair product. 

So this is the secret. When you shower, generally people will use a soap bar. I personally rock the Irish Spring. So after you shower, the bar is still kind of soapy. Give the bar of soap like ten minutes and the soapy stuff quickly thickens and turns into a soapy grime. K your hair is still a little damp now. Take the grimy bar of soap and rub it through your hair. The grime comes off into your hair and creates a nice, pomade-like substance. Free Murray's essentially. Not only does that drive to a nice hold, but your hair also smells like Irish Spring. Two birds with one stone....cologne, check. Hair product, check. 

This last week we were invited to sing at the Gayatri Vidya Parishad College here in Vizag. It was called "A Cultural Exchange Meet." No, not meeting, meet. I didn't forget the ending...it was a "meet" not a "meeting." They are different. So we sang some songs and they did some dancing and singing. There was this one girl that did a traditional Indian dance...straight up Esmerelda from Hunchback of Notre Dame stuff I'm talking about. My wife has got to know how to do that someday lol It was a really fun experience. There was one young man named Samuel that really wanted to sing "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias. His CD wasn't working so he asked me if I would play for him. I can play quite a few songs....but that isn't one of them. We stepped outside, hashed out the details, and Samuel sang his heart out. He did a great job. It was pretty cool how we didn't know each other previously, but we went out there and performed together. The power of music baby. Jake, Mikey and Callan, I asked this Samuel guy if he wanted to be in Par Avion....he said no. We still need to find a new bass player since Phil is off sailing the seven seas. I'll keep looking...

Let me explain this picture. My feet are on the left. On the left, an Indian girl feet. This should give you an idea of how black and dirty my feet were after I played cricket. Nice and gross huh?

Two days ago I went to a youth cricket tournament here in Vizag. I was going just to observe. I got there early and went by myself. I was just sitting in the stands and I quickly drew a crowd. Judging by their reaction, I am guessing they don't get many Caucasians at their local cricket matches. I started talking to some of the players and then this older man approaches me. He organized the whole event and is a local politician. We got to talking, then lunch time rolled around. "Korea, would you make a move to lunch with me and my friends?" he asked. Free lunch......you know I'm in brother. So we went to this really nice hotel, in his car, and ate the spiciest meal of my life. I was dying. I must have drank 3 liters of water and a bunch of rice curd to temper the spices in my mouth. I was sweating bullets and not talking much. Opening my mouth hurt. Moving my lips burned. It was hot. But it was free :) Nothing to complain about. Well after lunch with the rich politicians in the area I went back to the match with them. Mr. Suresh asked me to commentate the match lol I have watched quite a few cricket matches on television here so I know the lingo and everything now. I got ahold of the microphone and never looked back. Faked a British accent and everything. I'm sure no one could understand me, but I was cracking myself up for sure. Hence the title of this post.  It's phrases like that which make me smile. It was a good time. After I commentated I got to play in a special match with the politicians and event organizers. Luckily I played outfield for many years and I had the catching thing down. Cricket is like baseball in some ways....except you don't have gloves. Imagine catching line drives and pop-flys barehanded. My hands are still a bit swollen I think. I had such a great time though. What a great day! I love pulling my strings, using my resources, and getting myself into fun situations like that. Free lunch, my crappy British accent, and gross cricket feet from playing barefoot (see above photo). A good day in my books. 

Well it's lunch time and I am dying for some spicy Indian cuisine right now. I could really go for a cheeseburger though.....2 more months right? I hope everyone has a great day. Happy Birthday Perry.  I love you and miss you. 

From across the world, 

Kory

PS: Mom, you know how you always say "Remember who you are and what you stand for" when we leave the house? Well I have always wanted a little line like that to say to my children someday. Well, I finally got it today. This is gonna be my saying when I am a parent someday.......GO SAFELY, COME BACK BETTER!

Some of my cricket buddies

This hat says, "Be a vegetarian. Be a master." It's some sort of energy-trapping pyramid hat. Nice, huh?

Chloe looks stoked to be with me

The Salmon Room

Due to popular demand, I will pay closer attention to the aesthetics of this blog. I have been criticized (jokingly) a few times on account of the color schemes I employ in my posts, so I will be sure to make this blog post a little more traditional. 

Sorry I have been so poor at updating the blog. I promise that a lot of exciting things are happening, but I just don't have much time to sit down and write for two hours. Right now there is a big holiday going on for about a week or so. The God of Success, Vigneshwara, or Vinayaka, or Ganesha (ya, there are a lot of names for the same thing here) is having His birthday. I would equate it thusly....Jesus:Christmas::Vigneswara:this holiday in India. So along with lots of loud noises and idol worshipping on every street, they build HUGE statues of the elephant God. The picture of that statue to the left is here in Visakhapatnam. The statue is over 70 feet tall. They build these huge statues of the God out of clay and then the last day of the festival they dump them into the ocean. Not sure how they get them there, but somehow that Elephant ends up at the bottom of the ocean. I'm excited to see how it all goes down in a couple of days. 

K a quick story. Late last week I was eating my lunch on the front steps of the program house.....rice and chicken curry I believe. Well I'm sitting there eating my lunch when all of a sudden one of the translators run over and says "Fire!" Of course I couldn't understand her at the time (words like "fire" aren't exactly my first priority during my language study time) but judging her body language, I could tell something was wrong. I look up from my lunch into the park across the street and I see that this big tent is on fire. Not just on fire, but the whole thing is up in flames. The gate was locked, but parks in India aren't too hard to get into...the walls are like four feet tall. So I am running buckets of water over to this park. The fire went out fast, but not before the damage was done. The tent, covering a worship spot for Ganesha (see above picture) was gone. Some incense or candles must have just caught a little gust of wind and did work on the tent. I was really sad for the park manager that is there every day, Nairu. In the evenings I will go and stretch in the park before my runs. I always try and talk with Nairu and his granddaughter before I go. We can't understand one another, but we have become park pals no doubt. I felt bad for him. I was really impressed with what happened after the fire. A little square of the tent was back up and worshipping continued. No fire can get in the way of Indian devotion to Hinduism. They certainly are faithful people. 

In October we have a week long break from the program and our research. Everyone is on their own for seven days. I am not totally sure where everyone else is going....BUT I"M GOING TO NEPAL. In Cambodia about two years ago I met a man named Christopher Patch. He works for the State Department and has been living abroad with his family for many years now. He took me out to lunch in Cambodia and we just chatted for about an hour. It was the nicest hour I had had for a long time. I hadn't seen an American in months and it was just so nice to meet Chris. Well over the last year I have been trying to keep in touch with him. I dug out one of my old planners to get his email address and we have kept in touch since then. Well he found out that I am in India and he has invited me to go visit him in Nepal for my week off. I am SOOOO excited. I have always wanted to see Mt. Everest and now I will actually get to do it. I am picking up the plane tickets today. I can't wait to see Chris again and to see that beautiful country for a week. It is definitely a once in a lifetime kind of trip or me. I am so grateful to Chris for letting me have this opportunity as well. I don't know if he will ever read this, but Chris, thank you so much. Can't wait to see you in October!

I have been exercising really hard since I have been here. I need my "man-time" everyday. I used to just run in the evenings and do lots of push-ups and sit-ups, but two weeks ago I got a membership to a little gym here in Vizag. I use the term "gym" very loosely. It's a house that some guy turned into a gym. The gym equipment looks like it was used in WWII. It has been really nice though...my "man-time" is now really quality. I run 2 kilos to the gym, work out for an hour and a half, then run back. I cause quite the scene every time I go in there though. By the looks of it, I am definitely the first white guy they have coming through that place. Everyone just stares at me the whole time. A couple guys are much more muscular than me, but I am way more strong than they are. There are bottles of sketchy Indian creatine lying all over the place. All these guys look big but can't lift anything. If I ever need a boost in self-confidence I just go the gym. Everyone thinks I am Superman or something. Perry would get a kick out of this place. Plus, he really is like Superman so it would be even better. His biceps are like the size of these guys' torsos. I'm still just a skinny little guy, but Perry could lift the whole gym if he wanted to. Ohio is a lucky place to get to have Perry there for two years. 

Dear Ohio: 

I'm a little jealous that you get to have my brother with you for two years, but it's for a good cause so I will let it slide.

Yours Truly, 

Kory

Ok last little story then I gotta get cruising. Last night I put on a little concert for everyone in our group, and I invited the program staff and our Telugu teachers from Andhra University. We had some of the girls sing some great songs and Brad and Emily did a little skit which was hilarious. I made some ballin' salsa to go with these chips I found. I also popped three bags of popcorn. We had soda and cookie dough and some banana lassis compliments of Emily. I had to freestyle the salsa, but it ended up being super good. Even out Telugu teachers liked it, which was a major surprise. We had a really fun night of music and laughs which was what I needed. I was just getting dragged down with the monotony of my weekly schedule, so the Salmon Room show proved a nice curveball to the India experience. I just needed to play music. I messed up a ton and my songs weren't very well prepared, but it was just super fun to be playing again. I can't wait to get together with the guys. Jakey and Mike I love you guys. You will probably never read this, but if you do, I miss you. Let's plan a Par Avion Christmas show again. That was fun last year. Here are some pictures from last night....

My venue is called "The Salmon Room".....can you guess why? Just take a peek at the hideous color of the walls lol

The chips and salsa were a hit with the locals

Yes...I DID manage to find some Christmas lights in India

These are my Telugu teachers...Sarmagaru and Lakshmigaru

I played a Telugu lullaby about the moon and my teacher loved it, so he wanted to shake my hand lol

K I have to run. Today England and India are playing the second ODI of the series so I need to be there to watch it. My research is coming along. Things are chugging along here in India. I hope everyone has a great day. 

From the Salmon Room with love, 

Kory