mama luwanas FIFFFFFFTY!

Last weekend, my ma had her 50th birthday party! Whoop whoop! It was hawaiian themed and therefore had some badass bbq, legit hawaiian dancers, AND a PINATA!!! It was fantastic seeing the fam and celebrating my mom. 

leftovers that i love:

wannabe tiger lady.

So before I left Korea, I started a list of things that needed to be accomplished. It included swimming in the ocean, getting a henna tattoo, riding an elephant, etc. The list was long, but in the number one slot was  playing with a tiger. I collected pictures on my desktop of other lucky people playing with them, researched the best sanctuaries, basically just daydreamed all day long about how fun it would be. "Are their mannerisms more like dogs or cats?" "What do they smell like?" "Could I die?" "How much would i be willing to pay to keep one for ONE WHOLE day?" It went on and on.  Sadly, making it to a tiger sanctuary never worked out, so you can imagine my excitement when I found a replacement hidden within a national park in India.  ALMOST as good as the real thing.

You know it's cold when a girl uses her quick dry towel as a shawl. Poor climate planning on my part. :)

wonder of the world: taj mahal.

and guys, it is even more gorgeous in real life.

cass and i got so hooked on taking photos that our indian guide finally resorted to telling us that we had enough pictures. seriously. we took that into consideration and promptly forgot it. 

curry heaven.

these are literally the only photos i have from india involving food. and one wasn't even taken by me. i had a running total of my food photos in mind the entire trip. i'd never tasted food so good and i needed to document it. i'd prep myself while waiting for it to be served trying so hard to remember to just take one stinkin photo. but all sensory hell broke loose every time i'd smell or taste that first bite and taking pictures fell 50 steps behind getting that paneer masala into my mouth as fast as possible. now i look back and laugh because even the plate scrapped clean makes my mouth water. 

it's embarrassing how much cass and i fell in love with indian breads. naan, roti, chapati. all of it. everybody else at the table would get two. maybe. if they were feeling hungry. aw hale no. we threw all care of fit figures and social acceptedness to the wind and ordered 8. 

listened to the glorious advice of my lady susan and ordered fruity lassis at every opportunity. 

sardines.

everything you've heard about trains in india is true. 

first day in the country, second hour in mumbai, cassidy and i were already on one. 

and of course it was a near disaster. 

we realized that we had got on the wrong train and then seconds later the train started leaving the station. 

already packed into the middle of the car, we had to push to get out in time. 

jumping out of a moving train with both a packed train and crowded train station and almost eating dirt?

great way to start an indian adventure.

other observations:

-you would think that because the trains are full of people, they would be smelly. but not at all. they were actually quite pleasant. 

-the "ladies only" cars were FANTASTIC. it was like a giant sleepover where you could just hang out with your girlfriends and paint your nails together. 

-the best thing about the lady cars? checking out all the gorrrrrgeous saris. 

-every time we got on a train someone befriended us and helped us find the right stop. so, so kind. 

-the car doors stay open so you can totally hang half outside the car if you want. slightly, okay incredibly terrifying. 

INDIA, holy moly, i might die of excitement, oh my gosh, ahhhhhhhhh.

i absolutely, positively LOVED india. the colors, the smells, the tastes! my two weeks could have lasted for months and i would have been content. :) more to come.