if you can't make a straight kolam you will never marry an indian.

note to self: do not light fireworks that come in a box with the Hulk printed on the front.

since sunday all i've heard is fireworks going off for diwali (or deepavali/the "festival of lights"). i'm not even exaggerating. the fireworks started sunday night after we stuffed ourselves with pizza at martin's "pimped out" house, woke me up monday morning at 6 A.M., were part of our celebration last night back at the guest house, AND our night watchmen (kalai and nanda) continued to set them off this morning in our yard.

i thought they would have ended last night when we had a close call with those Hulk fireworks. now me.. i am personally afraid to light sparklers. our friend steven from north carolina, however, is a different breed of firework enthusiast. last night he lit up a Hulk firework, whose fuse lit up quicker than everyone expected and threw it a little too late- leaving a small burn on his middle finger and his cheek. oi veigh. steven is perfectly fine- they are very minor burns, but for a second everyone thought they were permanently deaf and that the dining room was exploding...

to further celebrate diwali, i learned the basics of making kolams last night from an older tamil woman. kolams are line drawings painted with rice or granite powder. they are not being taught as much anymore, but you still see many ladies in south india making them outside their front doors. they are supposed to bring prosperity and good luck to a household. some designs are based on astrology- there are designs for each planet- and some are made for certain gods, such as shiva and vishnu. according to our teacher, people used to judge a woman to a certain degree by how well she could make a kolam. thick, messy lines = this woman is not economically thrifty and will spend all your cash. thin/broken lines = hell no. straight/even lines = wife material obviously.
i'm working on my lines, but it's not looking too promising..

in other news- our yoga session today was one of the more interesting ones..
one of our instructors, soma, teaches an incredibly unique style of yoga that combines very fluid motions with stronger, more rigid poses. with that said, today we were introduced to some rather interesting poses. one of them was the lion pose and if i showed anyone at home i'm sure they would nearly die from laughing so hard. you tuck your feet under your bum, plant your hands in front of you (leaning forward slightly), and then cross your eyes and stick out your tongue as far as you can. then you breathe in and let out a strong breath that i guess sounds like a roar of sorts.
it took me about five minutes to stop laughing and actually try the pose. some people just looked at soma in disbelief and then watched as we all made faces that would definitely scare small children and people who watched the exorcist too much away.

gorgeous, no?

not going to lie- i eventually tried it. maybe one day i'll be able to do it with a straight face and feel the strength in my lungs that it is supposed to provide?