June 22nd 11 pm: Becca and I went to dinner tonight at the principal, Jean Abraham's home in Coimbatore. We wore our best churidhars only for her to say she wished we had worn our "american costume!"
Due to the increased traffic for tomorrow’s parade, Jean took us the back roads. These roads used to be only for walking and were never meant for cars so they're extremely narrow and there are no sidewalks. You can imagine the chaos. There were a lot of market shops stacked nearly on top of each other, tons of people walking and just sitting around chatting. There was a huge community water faucet since there isn't any water to most of the houses. People were filling big plastic bins with water and Jean told us they usually boil it first if they're going to use it for drinking water. The streets were so beautiful with all the little shops and everyone had strung these colorful little lights for the conference. I was so surprised that Jean’s car was a stick shift, now I really need to learn, I'm way overdue.
Jean's family lives in a very nice apartment complex that looked very similar to ones in the US. She lives near an old windy racetrack that is now used as a walking path. She reminded us that it’s probably the only safe place to walk in Coimbatore since there are no cars on the path. Her complex had a pool and a gym and a tennis court and this crazy elevator with a door that you had to open yourself, then a metal gate that slid across. It was tiiiiiny and on the way out we squeezed 7 people in it...I was praying very hard that we wouldn't plummet to our death.
Once inside the apartment we met with Jean's sister, her niece, her husband, her friend Ann, Ann's daughter, and Jean's son. Before dinner, Jean's husband served us the most delicious wine from Goa. It was a deep red port wine and tasted like it had brown sugar in it. They served it in these tiny little shot glasses. For dinner Jean made the yummiest pasta dish with corn in it and a very mild sweet curry chicken dish over ricebread. Her husband was so funny and kept telling us “Have more! Have more!” Even when we said “no thank you” he put more on our plates. It was just like eating dinner at a Filipino aunt’s house. Jean even refused to start eating until all her guests were done, just like my Lola does! And then, when we seriously could not put another bite in our mouths for a million rupees, there's dessert. Mmm chocolate mousse. Guess I won't be losing weight in India after all. We kept complimenting Jean on the great food and told her husband he was a lucky man and Jean said, "tell him that again! He needs to hear it more often!"
After dinner Jean showed us beautiful photo books from her daughter’s wedding. Her son joked that half of Coimbatore was in attendance at his sister’s wedding. The crazy part is Jean and her husband found their daughter's husband on the internet! We didn't ask her to elaborate, but Becca and I agreed that was very peculiar. Their daughter met him online through Skype, got engaged one day later, and were married within one week! I thought there would be no way their daughter could be down for such a marriage but in every photograph in the book she has the biggest smile on her face. And Jean says she calls her every month on the date of their anniversary just beaming about how happy she is.
Jean's friend, Ann was Becca and I's favorite. She was the funniest lady, she had this boisterous jolly way of describing everything in so much detail. She was all about describing what the motion of the house boats will be like for us and how it is "Oh sooo soooooothingggg!" It surprised me when she told me she had to ask her husband’s permission to go visit her son in LA. She was so funny how she described that she waited verrrry patiently for him to be in a good mood (it took quite a while she pointed out and giggled) and then asked him for a 4 month visit. He said yes and so she waited one more week and then asked to extend it to 6 months. I couldn't believe such a seemingly independent, outgoing woman had to ask permission to visit her own son, but boy was she funny.
We talked a lot about the differences in our culture and in other countries they had visited. Jean said everywhere she goes people are always surprised that most Indians know English. We watched the world cup and learned how much India hates Pakistan. We talked about how we all think the French are rude and never try to help people learn their language. We talked about our big love American cheesecake. Finally around 10 pm Jean noticed we were all getting very sleepy eyed. She laughed at us and said usually they wouldn't even eat dinner until 10! Her husband said he would drive us home but she snatched the keys from him and instructed that she could do it. (Go Jean! haha) A good night was had by all and we went to bed with full tummies and happy hearts.
The first photo is of Becca and I with the wine. The middle picture is of us and Jean. The last picture is what the Churidhar pants look like haha. My roommate Kelsey made me post it. I'm not even stretching them out they're literally that large haha.
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