Memories of India

Yesterday, a wave of nostalgia hit me after Nic sent me an email, with 'Rock the Party' by Bombay Rockers, and pics of when we were in Delhi. Definitely unforgettable times and experiences. :) I think India has a way of doing that to people - leaving an imprint on them forever. I thought that being of Sri Lankan origin, India would not be a culture shock... but it certainly was, but in a awesome way!

Ok, please humour me with putting up with my random memories:

- travelling 107 hours in total on Indian trains - 2nd class, non-ac please! - to: Siliguri, Kolkata, Bangalore, Bombay, Baroda, Delhi, Agra. gotta love Indian trains ! and then we have bus rides indian style to kalimpong, mysore :)

- the vibrancy of the color, sounds, smells... coming from Canada, with all its organization and order, and color combos of: white, black, blue, grey or something like that, it was a change, but also liberating...

- the view of the mountains hidden in the misty fog, and the smell of pure fresh air, from our guesthouse in Kalimpong

- getting lost in Kolkata with nic on our second day and not knowing bengali, and having to use frantic hand signals and lots of asking people in broken hindi phrases, written on a sheet of paper

- AIESEC spirit! AIESEC people! AIESEC ! :)

- seeing absolute richness to abject poverty on a 10 minute walk in any Indian city... unnerving, humbling, thought-provoking

- great Indian cooking by all the nice aunties that I stayed with :)

I could go on, but, instead of reading about it, I suggest you go to India if you get a chance. Only then will you really understand the feeling and you'll know exactly what I mean :)

8 days, 12 cities ...

So, starting tomorrow, Tina, Brett and I , joined by Mel later on will be doing an 8 day, 12 cities trip around France. I just realized that other than the Nice area, I would have then almost done a roundtrip around France :)

Sample itenerary (note: yes we 3 were a little ambitious... so let's see if we actually survive this schedule!)

Day 1: Lyon, full day
Day 2: Montélimar, Nimes, Montpellier
Day 3: Perpignan
Day 4: Couillere, Carnet Plage
Day 5: Carcasonne, Norbonne
Day 6: Loire Valley - we're seeing 7 castles in this region (ambitious, hope we do though)
Day 7: Paris
Day 8: Paris
Day 9: Back to Strasbourg!

Congrats Canadian CEED'ers!

A late but still warm congrats to all of this year's CEED'ers, including the AIESEC York gang :)

Veronica Rosu, former LCP, going to China

Llorene Agmata, former VP TN, going to India

Puneet Duggal going to Pakistan

Vincent Chai, former VP MD, going to Togo

I know you will all have an amazing experience, make sure you keep us updated!

Aung San Suu Kyi: For what price freedom?

Happy 60th Birthday Aung San Suu Kyi

I've always been interested in her. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese leader of a party that won an overwelming majority to rule Burma democratically, yet has never ruled once, instead living for over 9 years under solitary house arrest.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of many peace prizes, including the Nobel Peace Prize, educated at Oxford University, the author of many academic articles and the daughter of man who united Burma and who was assasinated when she was only 5 years old.

I'm often curious to read about the formative years of great people like these - what and who influenced her to feel the way she does about her country, her people, that she accepted the sacrifice of being separated from her 2 children, her husband (who was not able to even get permission from the Burmese government to see her one last time, when he knew he was dying of cancer, and she would not leave becuse leaving Burma to see him would mean never being allowed to enter ever again, so he died, 4 years without seeing her, and she him).

I read about her formative years, and can see why she because the person she is. I wonder how many more years before she gets to leave her solitary house arrest and lead Burma, now under a suppressive military regime. I greatly admire her for the tough decisions and choices she had to make, and I hope that it will fruitfy in some ray of hope for Burma and its people.

Read more about her at: http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html

And if you get a chance, read one of her speeches, stirring indeed. But, it has no effect on the rulers in Burma and the international community have not done more than call for her release or try and pressure the government, yet, still nothing has happened regarding her current situation of being under house arrest for 9 years.

Exploiting the Franco-German border

One of the advantages of living in Strasbourg is being only a 20 min bus ride away from the Germany border town of Kehl.

That means students especially can take advantage of deals that Deutscheban (the German national train service) offers, since SNCF (the French national train line) doesn't really have as much 'deals'. Also, the price of food is cheaper in Germany for those who are willing to undergo a bus ride back to France carrying groceries...

Something I've noticed: Once you cross the border, the differences are starkly apparent - there's no diffusion or a gradual change from one country to another. When you're in France or Germany, or Switzerland border stations, you'll know you're in another country entirely because everything from language to products sold to gas prices to culture, and even weather does change. Definitely something I wasn't expecting - but despite the whole European Union and integration that's been happening here in Europe, polls and studies show that Europeans are more nationalistic and then only 'European'. brings into questions about what begin European really is, and the whole debate over national soverignty versus Europe as a state, and what will or will not happen if either occurs. but more on that later.

Trip to Basel, Switzerland

Today, the girls and I went to Basel, only an hour and a half away from Strasbourg and yet another country.

It just so happened that today was also the day after the first big snowfall in Basel after 50 years (according to one of the friendly locals). So, the tram lines were stopped for a bit, and it was slippery and damp on the feet for our whole day of walking, but still, with the sun shining, the beautiful mountain views, and the friendliness of the locals, it turned out to be a memorable day.

The best part of visiting a city is just getting to walk around and get a feel for it. And, even better, we went on a Sunday, and like in many places in Europe, practically everything was closed in Basel as well. So it was so nice to see everyone out, enjoying their day off with their families. I saw little kids being pulled on their tobaggans by their parents, and a lot of people were wearing snowpants. (Snowpants! I haven't worn them since I was in gr 7 so it was different to see so many of the Swiss wearing them and even adults tobagganing today!).

Tomorrow is the start of Basel's big 3 day Carnaval - where everyone dresses up in costumes, and there's floats that everyone throngs to see. Carnavals in this area of Europe seem to be a big thing. In February a big one occured in Cologne and there will be one here in Strasbourg in the upcoming week.

Even the store displays for things like shoes, clothes, cosmetics had a touch of the excitement of the Carnaval as they displayed masks or mannequins dressed in Carnaval attire. You could sense the feeling of excitment in the city - we saw a lot of people wearning little copper or silver pins of a court jester type thing (a symbol of the carnaval) and I saw over 15 different snowpeople today ranging from snowrabbits to snowfamilies! Even in Toronto I have never seen so many snowpeople in just 5 hours!

Tina and I ended up taking a ferry as well to cross the Rhine river and we were so enjoying our walk along it, with the wonderful view, and mountains looming ahead, that we walked off the tourist map and had to turn around!

The day ended off with a mini-shopping expedition of, what else? My new passion: food! Other than buying the Carnaval pins, we bought a lot of the famous Swiss chocolate and something called 'Kernashtcheillen' - I definitely have the wrong spelling! - which, a friendly local recommended to us since its only eaten during the Carnaval period. I also have twigs which we collected in Basel that will soon bloom, sitting in my room here in Strasbourg.

Overall a good daytrip out. Pictures soon to come :)

Crepe Night

Yesterday, my desire for crepes was finally put to an end. A bunch of us girls got together and made crepes (or rather watched Liza make crepes) and had it to our heart's content and had leftovers too (surprisingly).

I had:
Crepe + sugar (brown sugar with a squeeze of lemon is also a nice variation)

Crepe + chocolate ice cream (yum but could become messy)

Crepe + strawberry jam (The jam was bought from the Strasbourg Saturday open air market :)

Crepe + nutella (I was so afraid France wouldn't have my beloved nutella so I brought a can from Canada, only to find out that, in fact, students here at least, are so big on it too!)

Plain crepe (after so much sugar, I was slowing down :)

next up... potentially a fondue night soon. who said gluttony was a sin anyway? ;)

The 2 month mark

I'm now into my 9th week here in Strasbourg and I'm already beginning to miss my experiences here. In another 2 more months, I will officially be done my exchange term here in France.

Having travelled for 2 months around India, I thought everything else would be a piece of cake. In some ways, its been true for me, but this experience is definitely also different from India.

I've had time to become settled here in Strasbourg, to have a hangout place, a familiar group of friends, and even a rhythm to my life here. Strasbourg has mentally become my home base in Europe - anytime I return from a trip to Paris or London or Brussles or Barcelona or Luxembourg, I'm always glad to be back 'home' - to the familiarity of Strasbourg. To recoup and re-energize for the next trip or adventure that awaits.

What I am most hesitant about, after going through all this is probably what anyone who's lived abroad and then gone back to their home country has experienced. Re-entry blues. Luckily for me, I have friends who've been through similar things so it'll be nice to be surrounded by that support network when I'm readjusting.

But its still something everyone goes through: To re-adjust back to an environment where everyone's life has been pretty much the same since you left them and where you've changed more than they have. To hold onto all those learnings, reflections and life lessons you've gained, when you are back in an environment that you're used to. To be just as spontaneous, curious and excited about your own city as you were about foreign places. To not sink too much into a routine that was similar to when you left. To shape your life based on the new insights you've gained. To continue to meet interesting people, have engaging conversations and challenge your worldview. To not lose the language skills you've picked up, or to not lose touch with the people you've met.

So let's see what happens, and until then, I'm going back to living every moment here, because it truly is surprising how times flies past when you're having fun! :)