Happy Birthday!!! Indian Style.

My birthday was on Tuesday. I turned seventeen while in a foreign country. My first birthday away from home. Kind of sad, but I'm in India! I got to experience a whole new kind of birthday. Well, it wasn't all that different. When I had birthday cake with my host family they fed it to me. Like they put it in my mouth, and they took pictures of everyone feeding me cake. It was kind of funny. Then at school I got to ditch the uniform for a day, which was awesome. When someone says happy birthday to you they shake your hand. Everyone does. There are no exceptions. You can bring in chocolate or candy for your classmates too, not the other way around. That has been nice because randomly students will come in and give us chocolate on their birthdays. Chocolate is always good.
Speaking of chocolate... (Wow, that was a good transition to my next topic!)They do not have Hershey's or any American chocolate here, but they have Cadbury. People who have been to Europe before have told me about Cadbury and how it was better than Hershey's. I never believed them, until now. It is amazing. It's so yummy and delicious. Creamy and fulfilling. Everything you need in chocolate. They have awesome varieties too. Like fruit and nut, which is very yummy. So now I'll stop sounding like the typical chocolate loving woman that I am and move on...
Indian's all do this sort of head bob thing. I've gotten so used to it that I have caught myself doing it on more than one occasion. It's like a slight tilt of the head to the side. They use it as almost the universal answer. It can mean yes, no, or maybe so. It seems to usually mean yes when they use it with silence. Otherwise they follow up the gesture with words. The few times I have done it I have gotten weird looks though... I'm becoming Indian already!
The other day I was walking down the street with two of my friends when suddenly one of them stopped. There were two white men in business suits talking with an auto driver. We literally stopped and stared about them, muttering things about American men and how we never see any. Then we noted that they had noticed us and were laughing so we quickly moved on. But it was really funny because we have already become so used to not seeing white people that it was a shock. I understand why the Indians stare at me now. It was highly amusing.
So that is what happened around my birthday and stuff. It was interesting. Now I'm waiting for the packages my parents sent me... it's been more than a week since they shipped them...
Much Love,
~ Jenna