Let me just first say that I was VERY nervous about India! The stories I had heard prior to India were enough to make me wary of coming here. I was so nervous about having my birthday in India that my team and I prayed that we would still be on the same team and that it would be amazing for about four months! Birthdays are a big deal to me and we were not messing around! I wanted to give you context before I say: This was one of my most favorite birthdays EVER!! I felt treasured and doted on by everyone, including our contacts!
Some of my team and our main contact tried to surprise me by picking up the other team in Chennai for my birthday celebration. Well, our contact accidentally let it slip. My team thought I would like to have a bigger group of people to celebrate with, but I had been so looking forward to a day with only my team. I was upset because I thought they should know by now what I would like, and they were upset because they had tried to do something nice for me (with good intentions) and I didn't appreciate it. It took awhile for us to talk it out the night before, but by the end, both saw the other person's point of view and apologized for not understanding initially.
On my birthday, I woke up early so I could call home. I got something for my birthday that I've never had before nor will I ever forget; I got to talk to my mom while it was her birthday (Feb. 10 in USA) and mine (Feb. 11 in India) at the same time!! After that, I had to get ready to go. Abby did my hair and make-up and we all got dressed up in our sari's!! It was so much fun; we had photo shoots all day long!
We thought we were going to Express Lane Mall, the second largest mall in Southeast Asia, but the mall we went to was nothing any of us expected. It was a glorified indoor market with people bidding us to come to their shop because they had stuffs no one else had. Once we reached the food court in phase three and the restaraunt we wanted to eat at was no where to be found, we asked and were told that Express Mall was only 1 km away! We were so confused. We went to ask our contact if he could drive us 1 km to Express Mall. He said he could, but then told us this mall was for shopping and Express is for eating because Express is very expensive. Once we reached Express, our expectations which had been crushed were then met. We found Kobe Sizzler and ate a delicious lunch. We were a sight to see, the only white people in the mall and they're wearing sari's! Everyone stared at us and others asked to take pictures. We walked around for a little bit, went to a coffee shop, and then got some pizza hut and cupcakes to go. We all basically ate five desserts that afternoon and were so stuffed! We were waiting for our contact in the lobby of the mall posing for pictures when a lady came up to us. She was a reporter and wanted to interview us about what we thought about Valentine's Day and why we were wearing sari's. We made television! Abby, Julia, Alli, Megan, and I all stood there, gave our answers, and laughed at the whole situation. Then they asked us on camera to sing a song about love – none of are strong singers – and we got really quiet. We didn't sing a song, but they let us slide. On the way home, we stopped for coffee at a hole in the wall on the side of the road.
When we got home, Mama Shanthi had a BIG feast waiting for us! It felt like Christmas and Thanksgiving all rolled into one, the best food ever!!! They had bought me a cake and sang Happy Birthday. There is a little girl here, Saraswathi, who is my birthday twin. We gave her a card and sang her Happy Birthday as well. All of the girls gave me birthday cards they made me and we had a super fun photo shoot (pictures to come).
It was a birthday I will never forget! I just want to thank my team for making it so special and our contact, Joe, for giving up time with his family to be with us!
