Weddings, Cricket, Etc.

One of our program staff members, Minojji, has a friend who sells saris wholesale. On Friday, he sent over a whole bunch of saris for us to look at and buy for really cheap. I got mine for 450 rupees, which really impressed my homestay mother so I consider it to be a good deal. On top of that, my friend Sophie's homestay sister runs this furniture/jewelery/accessories business and had a whole bunch of bangles at her house that she sold to us for 50% off. Those two deals definitely make up for the overpriced shoes earlier this week. Anyway, after borrowing a sari petticoat, necklace and a pair of "danglers" (earrings that aren't studs) from my homestay sister, I was all decked out and ready for the wedding on Friday night.
It was my homestay mother's cousin's son that was getting married, so my homestay sister and I went. The rest of the group got invited as well because a few other families are a part of the extended family. The actual wedding had happened a few days earlier in the bride's town; what we were attending was a reception. It was separated by genders: the women sat in a tent off to the left, and the men sat on sofas that were arranged kind of like little living rooms set up all over the venue. The bride wore a pink sari, and her face was covered the whole time. You could go and lift up the veil to look at her, but I thought that was kind of weird. She had to keep her eyes down the whole time, and had to look very reserved. The groom wore a bright yellow-orange turban and had a sword. It was an arranged marriage, and my sister said that they had probably met only once or twice before the wedding day. She told me later that love matches are becoming more common, but that arranged marriages are still frequent as well. Families try to match based on education, job, etc. This whole week I've heard her making matchmaking calls for someone so I'm interested to see where that goes. Interesting fact: In arranged marriages, the bride's family proposes to the groom's family for the match, but the groom's family still holds all the power in that they can turn down the proposal. I thought this was really interesting because even though the guy proposes to the girl in America, it's still usually that he has the power in the situation. Two different systems, same balance of power. Anyway, the reception consisted mostly of food and chatting, and delicious pistachio ice cream that I had to chase around my plate with the little wooden stick they gave me to eat it with. I didn't bring my camera but after we got home my sister took a bunch of pictures of me and then my homestay mom took one of us together:

On Saturday SIT threw a welcome party for us. We drove to this beautiful fort outside of Jaipur surrounded by all this greenery and spent the day wandering around the fort, playing cricket (I was impressed by how well I ended up doing at batting. Bowling (pitching) was an entirely different story.), having a dance party to a mix of hindi hip hop/pop/techno and random American songs like Mambo No. 5 and the Macarena, and eating McDonald's veggie burgers (a little disappointing but was on my list of things to try in India) among tons of other foods. We were given the burgers as our pre-dinner, post-tea time (where everyone (myself included) stuffed their faces with the giant snack spread the staff put out for us) snack, and about half an hour later tons of food was laid out in front of us to eat as well. I was too full to partake, but it smelled delicious. The evening was capped off by some of the staff members setting off fire works for us from a turret in the fort. Surreal.
I'm writing this post from my bedroom and two monkeys just jumped across the balconies across the street. I went to my window to take a closer look/franticly take a picture (that didn't work out so well) and the doctor was doing his furious walking next door. perfect.
I digress. Today (Sunday) I went to the Albert Hall museum. It was built for Prince Albert when he came to visit Jaipur, and houses some beautiful Indian art. I set off with my neighbor Deirdre and from our autorickshaw (which we bargained down to 60 rupees from 100. Yes!) we spotted Russell walking and picked him up too. So the three of us went to the museum, and used our American college ID's to swing the "Foreign Student" price of admissions. Didn't think that one would work out, but I'm really glad I decided to take my Wheaton ID with me. Anyway, we saw painted manuscripts, figures of various Hindu gods, mini sculptures depicting really intense yoga postures, and some "stuff":

Afterwards we went to the Old City and wandered around the bazaars, which were very chaotic but fun, especially because I'm starting to get a feel for what things are actually worth and as such am more comfortable bargaining and also just in general. The first one we went to was pretty touristy, but the second one we went to, the Sanjay Bazaar, was not. We were the only white people there. It was nice to walk through the bazaar without being hassled by shopkeepers to look at their things, and even though we probably stuck out like sore thumbs at the same time I felt really inconspicuous. It was all open air and there were some beautiful textiles being displayed. We walked all the way back from the Old City to the Civil Lines, where Deirdre and I live. I don't know how long it was, but I just drew it in on my map of Jaipur and it looks nice and long.
It was really hot yesterday and today, and I wanted so badly to buy grapes from a roadside vendor but that just wasn't a good idea because I would've eaten them right away rather than going home & washing them. I almost caved and bought an ice cream from a Kwality (the brand we were told was safe to buy) stand. Mmm.