Thanksgiving #1

(Okay so what if my Thanksgiving posting is late)

My first American Thanksgiving. Wednesday night we went to the much anticipated Macy's balloon inflation. Besides GIANT the Mr Potato Head the highlight of the night was being mistake for Parminder Nagra from ER fame , not The Office, Melt - she wasn't that off ;). The balloons were massive - and after watching the parade on tv the next day, I'm seriously considering being trained as a balloon handler for next year.

Thursday morning started early. A 630am wake up to get to the edge of Brooklyn to volunteer at a Senior's Center with Jen, Joe and Nirish. I came to realize that I actually like old people. The "Manhattan Four" had a blast, it didn't even feel as though we worked for 5 hours. Selfishly, the unabashed gratitude that we received from the diners and the staff felt great, and in the end we definitely got more out of the experience than any of our patrons. I hope they realize that.

Lunch with some old folks followed by wine and dinner with my pseudo family (Jen has more pics up), including an appearance by my famous garlic mashed potatoes. I think I might stick around next year.

Family ties

I always forget how much I love having family around. For the past 10 days Shivali, my cousin from Leicester was here visiting little ol me (maybe some other people too..but primarily me).

After her weekend sightseeing, I gave her a week Asha-style and surprisingly she kept up pretty well.

Late night giggle session before sleeping, phones going off all through the night, weird strange customer service peeps, the feeling of a full moon ALL the time, random PATH rides in the middle of the night and tablecloth shopping and more tablecloth shopping.

Having a live in partner in crime was a blast!

The differences that are life...

In the past few weeks I've taken to seeing films. Everyone who knows me well has heard my infamous 'I'm not into movies' line, but lately I've had a change of heart.

My picks these past weeks have been Born into Brothels, Paradise Now and Jarhead. Each very different, and each leaving a specific taste in my mouth. All recommendations from me (before you ask).

I'm left marvelling at how incredibly varied life is. All these stories are so completely out of my scope of thinking, out of my world, but yet all are true representations of the life of young people living at the same time as me. This globe is still so big, as much as we like to think its shrinking.

My newest (and first) bollywood crush...

This evening I went to a press conference for the upcoming film Ek Ajnabee, staring Amitabh Bachan, Arjun Rampal & Vikram Chatwal. The entire time I was within 1 to 8 feet of the most iconic hindi film star in history and I found myself staring to his right the entire time. I am now a complete Arjun GROUPIE! Sigh, lately all the good ones are married ;)

All in all, it was interesting to hear the 'legend' himself answer questions - and to have him chastise the one who called him that. To see a Bollywood press conference that will no doubt be seen on my favorite AVS this weekend was a bit of a hoot - the chaos of indian-ness mixed with the precision of the New York Security detail. The questions could have been deeper and tougher, but I'm not sure the star struck audience was up to it.

I'm excited to see whats next for me...

Always wear skirts on Sunday

Sunday morning, woke up on the floor and picked myself up to cheer Dave on at the New York Marathon. It was absolutely amazing. We were waiting around mile 18 and stayed there for about 45 minutes before Dave surprised us by running right up to get some High 5s. It was inspiring to watch all the people of all ages, nationalities, abilities, costumes and it was an absolute blast to cheer on all the strangers and scream out their names off their shirts.

Straight from the marathon to the bar. And then from the bar to the field. We put on these grass skirts on the subway ride over. They were Michelle's genius, as were the brown bags of beer on the field. We looked wonderfully silly and the game was a blast, I think we might wear these things more often.

A very random saturday...

Only in New York can you start the evening off watching a sobering documentary about children growing up in the brothels of Calcutta, stop and eat pomme frites w/ frites sauce at our new favorite little belgian fries shop, move to an East Village patio and get your palm read correctly by a passing cross dresser with red glitter lips, then somehow make your way to a townhome in Chelsea listening to the sounds of tabla and sitar while eating fresh daal vada and jelebi and then end the night drinking at Butter with new friends. And those are just the highlights. Random, random, random. I felt as though I was in a movie. Thanks Nirish for 'dragging' us along!

Still haven't found....

Including last night, I've officially been to 5 mandirs in New Jersey. And nothing just feels right. Yesterday's temple was in a temporary location while they are building a new structure/community centre a couple of blocks away.

It came the closest to the home feeling, the singing and chanting was vibrant, they only said one slok that I didn't know. People were friendly and there was food (finally Priti Bhojan!). But no young people. I don't understand what is up with the kids here, no one goes to the temple. Not even when forced by their parents. I can't understand how life here is so busy that there's no time for this, ever. It all makes me a bit sad. Who'd have thought I'd miss good ol' Albert Street in Burnaby?

Diwali in the City

Spiked Mango Lassi's, Kulfi, Paneer, Gulab Jamun, Naan, Friends that feel like family.

Its Annakoot today...I haven't been to the mandir in AGES and this is one of my favorite events celebrating one of the few stories I can recite from memory. Can't wait.

Am I the only one who thinks the name "Beaver Stadium" is funny?

On Saturday I ticked off one of my Top Ten things to do while in the US - "Go see a big time College Football game". And when I say big time...I mean BIG. 109,467 people big. Thats bigger than Coquitlam was when I first moved there big. Where did they all come from big.

At 7am, we rented a big van and drove 4 hours east to State College, PA - home of the Penn State Nittany Lions - to see Penn State play Purdue at Beaver Stadium (hehe), I was pro Purdue, LOVE cheering for the away team. After a drive marked with Bloody Mary's & Screwdivers (all before 9am), we pulled up to a WalMart Supercenter and grabbed some burgers (veggie for me) for the grill.

Tailgating at the top tailgating school (as voted by SI) was a blast. The direct tv satellites on the pick-ups, the NWO flag, that weird game where you throw metal rings into holes and breaking white patio chairs with sledgehammers, it was quite the experience. I even found midwest boys who preferred drinking my Canadian beer to that light water like stuff they call beer down here.

I'm def going to do this again, hopefully my team (whoever they are) won't suck next time.