This is me and Umer at a stop on the way to Ganderbal, after maybe 15 hours of travel already.
This is the village that Umer is from. It's really gorgeous, right in between some mountains, with vibrant green rice fields in the center of the valley.
This is the house that his family lives in. They're relatively poor, so they only have two rooms, a living room and kitchen, and we slept in the living room and the sisters slept in the kitchen. It gets really cold in Kashmir during the winter, thus all of the blankets in the corner.
Everyone was so so so nice to me. Even so, I had a really hard time adjusting the first two days, because I didn't understand anything or anyone, and even non-verbal things were different. For example "shhh" doesn't mean be quiet, it means come here, or look at that. And I would get confused because people would smile and point to the chai, and I'd say, "yes, it's very good" but really they meant, "do you want more?"
Umer with some of his cousins. We went to so many different aunts and cousins houses, and I think I met like all of his relatives.
Early in the mornings I would hear the cows mooing, so I asked if I could see someone milking one, because I never have before, and they all laughed at me, but we went to some aunt's house and she gave me a demonstration.
Lots of people in the town wanted their pictures taken on my camera, or pictures of their children. This woman came over to the house so I would take a photo. Once I was out walking and accidentally didn't understand that some woman wanted a picture, and so I didn't take it, and felt really guilty afterward when it was explained to me.
Umer's mom asked me to come on a walk with her, and then showed me this patch of rice land, with a really proud expression on her face. It was their land, and she wanted a picture with it.
Cannabis plants grew ALL over in Kashmir. The sides of every road were lined with it, but Umer told me that most people didn't know what it was and just thought of it as a native plant.
Umer's grandfather was a holy man, and this is a shrine to him in the village. People come from far away to pray there.
The river that runs past the village. The water in Kashmir is really pure, and I didn't have to worry about drinking it, like I do in Delhi.
Babur, Umer's little brother was really cute. He wanted to copy Umer, so he was always wearing headbands like him, or borrowing his clothes. (Just a note, Aubree, if you're reading this, I don't think it's cute when you do that. Just so you know.)
This is Dal Lake in Srinagar. We stayed about 30 minutes away from here, and I only went by it once, on the way to a cousin's house, but it's really beautiful, and people live on houseboats on it. Umer's friend Manzoor invited us to stay on his houseboat and eat dinner with his family, but it was our last night, so we couldn't.
This is the largest mosque in Kashmir, and I think it's where some of the violence occurred on Friday during Eid.
The way that they do meat in India is completely different from how we do it in the US. Refrigeration is iffy, so instead of buying it at the grocery store, you go to a butcher and he had a slaughtered and skinned goat or sheep hanging there, and you point at the chunks you want and he slices them up for you.
At the neighbor's house we took the meat and pounded it on a grinding stone with a wooden mallet, to make meatballs for Eid.
This old woman is their neighbor. She kept trying to speak to me in Kashmiri, and I kept saying I don't understand, and she didn't seem to get that I didn't speak her language.
One of Saiga's friends in the village had the hobby of doing henna, so she did mine the night before Eid. The dress I'm wearing is borrowed from the sisters, because I made the mistake of wearing pants and a t-shirt one day, and the sisters told me I could wear their clothes instead.
The two girls on either side of me are Umer's sisters, the one in orange is a cousin, and the baby is... I have no idea whose, it was just a random baby that showed up occasionally in someone's arms.
Me in the kitchen.
Umer and his mom.
These are some of the spices used in Kashmiri food, sitting out in the sun to dry.
Me with some of the cousins. The girl in the black scarf in the back was really funny. She didn't speak English, but she pet my hair while I was napping and pinched my cheeks and stuff, and when I left, she gave me a huge hug and lots of kisses. Oh, and when we were getting ready for Eid, the sisters and mom asked me to put mascara on their eyes, and they put kohl on mine.
Saiga with a rose growing at her aunt's house. The aunt is really rich because her husband is a bank manager, and they have a huge, castle-like house that's still under construction upstairs.
A bunch of Umer's family got together to celebrate Eid. We were trying to go to a pretty garden in a nearby town, but couldn't pass through any of the roads, because every time we tried to go in one direction, some grim faced villager would say "kharab" which means bad, and it was because Kashmiri people were throwing stones in protest of police occupation of the region. We ended up going to Umer's aunts house instead, and from the upstairs window we could see people yelling and throwing things at cars that passed by. (They throw stones at locals too, because they say, "85 people have been killed in the last 3 months, how can you go about your normal lives and not grieve for them?")
This picture should actually be at the beginning - we stopped to change a tire on the way to Ganderbal and this is the view from the road.
I went on a group trip, with the EAP program to Jaipur and Agra. It was a nicer trip - like we stayed in good hotels and ate fancy food, which I'm not really crazy about. It was a guided tour, and they would drive the bus to places and say, "Get out, take a picture, then get back in the bus." I probably have less pictures than other people because I refuse to do things like that.
These pictures aren't really in order, but this is a view on the way down from the Amber Fort in Jaipur.
Inside the Amber Fort... even though I complain about the tour situation, we did go to some very cool places, and this was one of them.
Some of the other girls on the program.
A window in the tower of the Amber Fort. One of the kings who lived there tried to import Kashmiri saffron and grown it in the middle of the river, but was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempt because saffron only grows in three places in the world - Kashmir, Spain, and Iran.
Some Indian tourists checking out the fort.
These were the stairs that led up to the temple part. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it had people playing huge drums inside at an almost alarming volume.
We were really lucky because part of the trip included riding elephants up to the top of the Amber Fort, something that is kind of an expensive luxury I'd never pay for if I was by myself, but actually really cool.
The Amber Fort, from the bus.
Oh, this picture isn't really in order, but one of my friends had a birthday, and we went to the zoo in Delhi which is quite nice, but it rained the whole time, so we got soaked.
Me and Kashi on our elephant.
Yes, we did go to the Taj Mahal, and it was very cool, just like everyone tells you.
I don't know...
All of the girls in the picture live with me in our apartment in Delhi - Kashi, me, Madelin, Aly, Yasmin and Robynn.
It was really hot, and we didn't eat lunch until way too late... maybe you can tell from my expression.
All of the EAP kids who are studying in Delhi.
My friend Misha is from Iran, and she told me I could visit her there if I wanted!
Another elephant picture...
And another.
