One Good Day in India...

Today was a treat as we woke up at 9:00, half an hour later than usual to yet another delicious Indian style breakfast (with, of course, our own flavours of peanut butter and Nutella). After the hearty meal, we went outside for the beginning of the International Womens' Day ceremonies. Josh enjoyed himself thoroughly. The celebration consisted of various readings and dances, all of which were extremely entertaining. We had a little trouble understanding some of the Tamil parts but we feel soon we will be quite fluent.

After the festivities, the cantine staff showed us how to make chapatis (a lovely Indian bread type thing). Matt felt sick though so he took a nap. Now he's better. High Five!

This took us through to lunch where we strategized for the upcoming World Cup match, Canada vs. India. At the end of the meal, Ms. P had the wonderful idea to "improve" the recipe for the apparently not perfected chai tea. Her idea was to remove the vast majority of the sugar. Good idea? You be the judge. We were all extremely disappointed (except for a select few) and demanded that it never be done again. Dinner was better.

After lunch we may have had what was the first day-time chill session of the entire trip (because the rest of the time we're building fences and inhaling turpentine). We were grateful and used to it catch up on some much needed sleep and frisbee throwing.

Returning from our brief holiday, it was time to let the Indians know how we do it in Canada on the football pitch (very horribly). As the Canadian team leisurely strolled to the field, several minutes late, the Indians had already begun warming up, which included several laps around the pitch and a three hour tae-bo workout. Not to be outdone, the Canadians aggressively sat in their chairs and did nothing. Matt and Mr. Brickell arrived late, in a rickshaw. The captain, Jackson, who will from now on be referred to as "The Great One", was busy memorizing a few set plays and benchpressing small children at the same time, because he's intense like that.

After a few quick photos with the enemy, the Canadians assumed their positions, or at least tried to (having the combined soccer experience of about 20 minutes, the team was pretty much just improvising (except for The Great One, of course)). With the mighty blow of the whistle from the referee, the game started, and about 45 seconds into the game, the Canadians had already given up three goals. Deciding that, although hilarious, the game was quickly getting out of hand, The Great One organized a mixing of the teams. He did this because despite great play between himself and Matt, who's strength and stamina stole the show, several of the Canadians had inexplicably begun to cry, probably just at the sheer dominance of the Indians.

The latter half of the game began with considerably fairer teams, and with Matt out of the picture (at the end of the first half he had started to sweat, a startling and disconcerting phenomenon, so startling, in fact, that he vowed never to do much of anything ever again) The Great One and his Indian cohorts were free to run amuck. After scoring a goal, carrying several goats off the field of play, and kicking a ball so hard that it crossed the Chinese border, Jackson decided to work only half as hard (which meant he was still working twice as hard as Superman ever did). This lack of focus contributed to him accidentally breaking the window of a nearby household and after several minutes of apologies the game was able to resume. Which then ended in a friendly manner.

Basically, everything is awesome. March break has officially begun so shout outs to everyone back home. We miss you a lot and hope the snow isn't destroying your lives. Try not to think about the weather we're experiencing here. It'll only make you feel bad.

Signing off,
Matt and Jackson

PS: On Tuesday morning we leave for Kerala, and nothing's for sure, but we may not be able to blog for one, two or possibly even all three of the nights we're there. A thousand apologies.