We are experiencing the festival of colors and are personified decorations at school.

Week 9: March 2nd-8th:

Monday, March 2nd:

I could elaborate and stretch the description of the day, but honestly, not much happened. Exams are currently taking place in all classes at school, so we essentially just existed as decorations. Decorations that were constantly being invited to eat, which is why I politely skipped lunch to give my body a chance to cope. Other than that, nothing exciting happened, not even cricket was on TV. But speaking of cricket: India is in the semifinals!😎

Tuesday, March 3rd:

Tuesday was not much more exciting, if not even less so. We simply existed and occupied ourselves with our books. I went to the gym at home. Final preparations for Holi were being made everywhere.📚

Wednesday, March 4th:

Finally, the day had come! In the morning, our neighbors invited us for breakfast, which was quite nice. After that, we dressed up (we put on old clothes that we wanted to sacrifice), which in my case was an old sleep shirt of Tina’s and white pants from Yashoda. We then set off and picked up a family friend along the way. Sushil and his family had kindly invited us to their weekend house. There, we got acquainted with their cute dog (she is supposed to be 1 year old, but both of us thought she was an old grandma, so I’m still skeptical), before the fun with colors began. You don’t just smear them on your face for no reason, but wish for good things, health, this and that. There were also water balloons and lots of food, some drinks (yes, I also had a bit of alcohol; it was a holiday in the truest sense of the word), and loud music, so the atmosphere was excellent. I had high expectations for Holi and they were effortlessly exceeded, so we had a totally great day. The good thing? The colors we used were made from herbs, which means they can hopefully be washed out of the clothes and we could rinse off right away (above all, they are sustainable). We did this by all the women gathering in the pool together, and in the 36° heat, we naturally hopped in without hesitation and dried off again. Another nice thing is that we were already home by 3:30 PM, so we could briefly sleep off our buzz, and then played tombola with Yashoda. In the evening, cricket was on, but I don’t want to talk about that. India didn’t play, but my other favorite team did. Aside from this semifinal, it was an amazing day.🫟

Thursday, March 5th:

To put it in Yashoda's words: 'The drivers drink on Holi, so we cannot risk it.' Accordingly, we had another free day because caution is better than regret, especially concerning traffic in India. After I woke up, I read the remaining 100 pages of my book. We spent the day very relaxed. I did some hand washing with a few of my clothes because Thailand is just around the corner and solved riddles. In the afternoon, we received a very cute visit from Joyita and her family, consisting of her husband and child. She is the dance teacher in Nava Raipur and he is a computer teacher. The baby is 6 months old and was totally cute. There is also a photo, but for privacy reasons and child protection, I will not upload photos of other people's babies, even though I really like the picture. In the evening, cricket was on again, specifically the second semifinal, this time between India and England. In the meantime, we noticed the reddish moon. Unfortunately, you can't see it perfectly in the photo, but it certainly looks less white than usual. For a brief moment, it seemed like England would take India down, but in the end, our team managed to turn the game around and is thus in the finals (which we unfortunately will miss due to our flight on Sunday).🌕

Friday, March 6th:

We stayed up until 1:30 AM and, thanks to our time zone, listened to Harry Styles' new album before it was later released (hihi). Other than that, the day was freely dedicated to: 'We are going to school because someone wants to chat with us.' When I asked two days earlier what we should do since the children would have a study day, we were told that we could chat. And so it was... although the person who wanted to chat with us was busy all day, but no worries, in India, there is always someone to talk to. First at breakfast for about an hour, then in the library, where we returned books, and afterwards in the hallways as well as in the preparation rooms and in the Principal’s office of the primary school sector. Coincidentally, the vice-principal (no idea which sector he belongs to, to be honest) also had a birthday, so we congratulated him as well. Furthermore, the search for chameleons was unsuccessful, and the search for chipmunks didn’t give me any chances either. At least we saw a lizard at school, and then another one after our nap, which was climbing along the wall outside (see photo) and was even completely white. In the evening, we were visited by one of Raghunath’s sisters and her husband, so we didn’t manage to go to the gym that day.🗣️

Saturday, March 7th:

Due to our upcoming departure the next day, we were able to spend Saturday at home. So we slept in, more or less relaxing (the emphasis is on less), because without a fan it is way too warm, but with one it’s a bit too loud. After that, the last holiday preparations were made, so packing our suitcases was on the agenda, as well as some handwashing of individual clothes and check-in – just some little tasks. Moreover, I wrote this post because I decided to post the blog update now to be able to relax in Thailand.🧳

➡️ See you soon!