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