Dear Me

Dear Mouth and Stomach,
Thank you for being troopers today.  I am sorry that you feel like you are on fire.  You will live, I promise.  I will be very good to you for the next few days.
Sincerely,
Me
In other (related) news, I went to my first Indian birthday party today.  Note to self: wear a Sari to birthday parties.  I was a little (a lot) under dressed.  Luckily, Samantha wanted to wear traditional Indian clothing and was a HUGE hit at the party.  They loved it that she dressed in Indian clothing and was very polite.  She remembered please, thank you and "Aunties" all where appropriate. (Whew)
There was a lot of really spicy food.  I wish I could tell you what I ate, but I have no idea what it was.  They kept filling my plate until I couldn't fit one more thing in my belly.  I finally took the plate into the kitchen and gave it to someone so they would stop filling it up. Later a lady asked me how many children I had.  When I said "4" she looked at me disapprovingly and said "you are still so slender."
Beauty is such a funny thing.  As a woman it is so easy to think a certain way about your body for so long that you don't realize you think it until someone points it out to you.  Here in India, it is not feminine or attractive to have a "six pack" for abs.  What is beautiful is a soft and slightly round belly.  Just watch any Bollywood movie or dance video (if you haven't, you should anyway)  and you will see young, beautiful women in sari's showing of nice, soft bellies.  The other day I thought, "hey-I look like that" regarding a person on a billboard.  Do you know how often I have thought that in America?  Never.  (Although I was wishing- just a little- for beautiful, shiny black hair)
Back to the party.  I had a really good time sitting with the ladies and chatting with the few who knew English.  I have started learning some Hindi, so I was very excited for this party because I really wanted to use it.  However, no one at this party spoke Hindi, only Kannada.  One of the crazy things about Bangalore is how many languages are spoken here.  So many.  I did get to use my Hindi to tell someone on the street that I don't speak Hindi.  It is so exciting to use even 2 words! The grammar is so different, and it is really hard to focus during the lessons with all 4 kids running around, but it is still really fun.  Our teacher doesn't speak any English which is helpful for our learning method, but it also poses some challenges when we can't explain what we want her to do or teach us. We usually get a few laughs when we think we know what we are saying and find out we are saying something entirely different.  The other day we thought we had learned the name for pet, but we were really saying that we didn't know where something was.  I also told my teacher that a fish ate me (I was trying to say that I eat fish).  We all got a good laugh about that one. 
Before I go to bed tonight I will teach you something in Hindi.  If you want to greet someone in Hindi, put your hands together (like "prayer hands) slightly bow your head and (If they are your age or younger) say naMAstay (phonetically) or if they are older than you namaSCAR (emphasis on the caps).

-Please insert your age appropriate namaste or namaskar here