October 26th, we celebrated Diwali! Diwali is the Indian festival of lights. I don't fully understand the history behind it, but is is a celebration of the triumph of light over darkness. The day began with an Indian film, Jodhaa Akbar. It told the story of the romance between the Mogul emperor and his Hindu bride, a match made in order to unify the empire. It was a fabulous movie! So well-done and with so many rich colors and wonderful music. I suggest you watch it if you can find it!
The movie was followed by dinner at an Indian restaurant in Hanoi. I didn't know that I wanted Indian food so badly until I was eating it. I ate with my fingers to mirror Divya, who sat right across from me. Dinner ended with so many Indian sweets like jilebis and carrot halva. So scrumptious! We got back to school and erupted into a sparkler/dance party. I learned some bangra (a type of Indian dance) moves and just generally broke it down to some great beats. A fantastic time was had by all! I already knew that I would go to India at least once in my lifetime because of how much family history I have there, but I've now decided that I will be in India for at least one Diwali during my life.
Maeve and I spent the morning today walking to the Old Quarter in hopes of going to a museum. It was raining but not very hard, and we were determined to get out for a bit. It keeps happening that the beautiful days are ones when we have oodles of work to do and the gross days are the ones when we actually have free time. By the time we got to a place we wanted to get some lunch, the rain was torrential and we had given up any desire to be outside. We happily caught a taxi, which was warm and dry, back to school.
We got together to watch Inside Job, a documentary about the financial crisis in the States. It was obviously made by someone with very sure intentions, but there are irrefutable facts presented as well that back up almost point made in the movie. It takes a critical look at Wall Street and every Presidential administration back to Reagan. It was fascinating and depressing and a call for change. It's a good watch as well, though I suggest you watch Jodhaa Akbar first.
We went for an end-of-term karaoke party with some of the faculty and staff at the school who have helped us so much. The two classes taught by the Vietnamese professors have finished, so that's why it's end-of-term even though we have 6 or 7 weeks left in the program. It was great fun to sing along to some of our favorites (still no You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling) with some of our favorite people at school!
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