Bullock Carts and Covered Wagons 9:26 AM

This last Saturday was pioneer day for the members of the latter-day saints church. and i never really celebrated it growing up in Alaska but here in India they love the annual celebration because they are pioneers themselves. so this year our elders quorum president, Sam, put together a most memorable experience for the quorum. early Saturday morning we showed up at the church to two Asian bullocks. they look like male cows but are definitely different from the cows in the states. they use them like oxen:there were two carts that we got all dressed up in blue tarps to look like covered wagons. we did it to mimic the Mormon pioneers who trekked across the states from the east to salt lake city. we so we went from the church building to a property that the church owns for future development. it was quite the trek: we all piled into the carts and were able to relax. sometimes we did get out and walk around but some people thought we looked funny trying to mimic the pioneers: once we did get to the property we played games: water balloons, egg toss, tug-a-war, etc...: and we ate some good chicken kabobs with good Byriani! it was a super fun day and i loved it. i was definitely tired at the end of the day but it was a super fun day and a celebration to be remember in India.

Mysore, Part II: Elephants Camels and Lions oh my! 7:49 AM

We decided to leave srirangapatna around 2pm to head to Mysore. once we got into mysore we could see all of the highlight spots of city that everyone told us about just by looking at whatever popped up above the city line. The palace, a cathedral, and chamundi hills. so we started stopping at every intersection tryinig to figure out what the good road were to take to the palace. it was great to ask everyone. they were all super helpful. we even flagged down a moto driver and he stopped his moto just to come answer our questions. we eventually found the palace and it was large and definitely wasnt something you could pass up easily:this is the lion:

This picture is of the outside of the palace. it is covered in lights so when nighttime comes it becomes all lit up. we didnt get to stay and see that but the photos of it look amazing:

so we removed our shoes and paid some fee to be able to go through out the whole palace, well at least the public parts. it was amazing inside (sorry no cameras allowed). Murali and i spent the whole time imagining that we were royalty and making up uses we would use for each room. we decided the wedding hall would be a good discotheque, and we would change the meeting room to have fast internet and nice couches instead of hard tile floors with small pillows. it was quite fun, but the palace was really nice with beautiful wood work and even silver doors and ivory artwork.

When we left the palace robby came running up to both of us with wide eyes and a big grin on his face telling us that they had Elephants and Camel rides out in the palace courtyard. Boy was i excited. i always wanted to ride an elephant and now i get the oppurtunity! the camel rides were 20Rs and 100Rs for elephants. that a total of three bucks!! so we did both:

This has to be one of the best pictures ever:

the camel ride was actually pretty fun. they just took us around the courtyard area but i loved it. those camels always looked pretty funny. and when he got it to lift it's head high like it was stuck up i just couldn't resist but mimic the camel. The elephant was pretty cool, a lot smoother than the camel ride, but still fun. it was eating the whole time we were walking around. it was cool to see it hold the grass with its trunk. then afterwards we saw the elephant pick-up an offering coin from a paying customer, give the coin to the owner who was sitting on its head then the elephant tapped the customer on the head with its trunk. the elephant was giving blessings and it was super cool.

After the elephants and camels we left the palace in search for food. we ended up at a hotel eating a big south indian combo meal. it was very good. we then decided that we should start the trek back to bangalore considering it was pushing 7pm and we knew it would take awhile to do the journey. so we drove by the cathedral and took some photos of chamundi hills and headed out. after a long drive in the dark and being dropped at the bus station we made it home around 11:30pm. What a good day spent in Karnataka!!

Mysore, Part I: Srirangapatna 6:55 AM

Saturday morning we woke up at 8am ready to go to Mysore:

the city of mysore is about 90 miles south of bangalore but we knew it was going to quite the trek. we invited a friend from the office, Murali, he is from the state of Tamil Nadu and he had never visited mysore so we thought we would let him tag along. plus he had a car so really he helped us out a lot!:

Bangalore being the big city it is was of course full of cars and people on saturday morning even at 9am. it took us two hours to get out of the city and get on the road. it was raining but that didnt hinder our spirits at all. the road trip was way fun. we drove through beautiful country and it looked all so adventurous. by the time 11am came along all of us were starving so we stopped at a roadside hotel, which is what they call restaruants, and had some idli:

idli is a pancake thingy that is served with chutney and sambar. its really good and you can find it pretty cheap for a good breakfast food. the next place we went was a small town on the outside of Mysore called Srirangapatna. it is the location of an old palace of King Tipu and a large temple:

we were able to walk through the temple and see all the stonework on the inside. it was really interesting. they made us take of our shoes to walk through it and it felt really good on my feet to walk on cool smooth stone. after the temple we saw that there was an obelisk behind the temple out next to a river so we hopped in the car and drove out there. it was beautiful:

now the obelisk was beautiful too but really these were the highlight shots. one of super cool bridges, one for cars and pedestrians and one for the train. that place was really fun, we went down and got in the water a little, robby ride an old school bicycle, and we got to listen to two wonderfully pestering salesman try to sell us wooden boxes and fans!!

Super Week 8:47 AM

this will be the first post i think where i dont have any pictures to support it but thats all good, for those of you who like to read you can read, if not then no worries!
1. This last week has been pretty crazy trying to balance everything. i've been pretty busy. first off last sunday i was assigned to give a quick lesson at FHE on tuesday about reverence. i did actually pretty well for the little planning i did.

2. then also we work this last week i had to give a presentation/workshop for a few developement teams about the work i have been doing for the last two months. it was quite a new experience for me, here's carter green giving a workshop to employees of HP in India about this new product that i've been working on. i can honestly say i was quite nervous. my mentor and few other fellow employees said i did really well though so i hope i was able to help out someone.

3. On Friday we went out and celebrated the ending of week by going to MG Road, which is like the strip of Bangalore where all western influence combines. we went bowling and ate at pizza hut. it was a little strange and surreal but i guess even india needs to know what a Turkey in bowling is.

4. Saturday was Super Saturday for the Bangalore YSA. we played american baseball (cricket style) and we had a water balloon toss quickly followed by a water fight that was very fun! it was a fun all-day event that brought out a lot of people that i hadnt met before. afterwards i found my way over to another church building for insititute class that night and it was very good. and while waiting for institute we played Carrom. which i am now an expert at so if anyone knows what Carrom is, then we should play becuase i'd never heard of it but i realized that we used to have a board growing up and i used to try to play pool with it.

5. and to top off the week somehow the branch president got robby's cellphone number and he asked us to both give talks in church on sunday. so i had to prepare for that also. i thought it went very well. i got some good compliments about it. i spoke about Patriarchs. Who they are and how can they help us in this life.

6. i also signed up this week for the Redrock Relay in the fall which will be super fun but i will post later on all those details

So thats it. thats super week in India! its been crazy and now i have to prepare for more things this week. but its fun and i love it.

Bangalore Weather 9:52 AM

so we have come out of summer for good and we are back in the season that exists from July-February. its wonderful. its never hot outside and its never cold except for right at my desk where there is a cursed A/C vent right over my head. which takes the nice cool air outside and chills it to make it a freezer at my desk. seriously if i leave anything a my desk and come back to it, it will be chill to the touch. but anyways i wanted all of you to see this:as you can see bangalore which is south central is in one of the cooler regions of india. it sitting at approx. 3,000 feet above sea level, has the reputation of being very cool and i love it. seriously, me being from alaska, i get pretty beat from the heat every day, but here in Bangalore it is very cool outside and usually smells pretty good after rain fall. this weeks forecast is low of 65 to high of 78. how nice is that. i'm seriously loving it here in Bangalore it is not everyday that you can take beautiful pictures like this in a big city:

Fourth of July 10:17 AM

so me and india had something in common this last weekend: Independance from England. india celebrates it on August 15th, and we americans celebrate it on July 4th. its funny to think that both of countries were at one time in control by the mother country but it was quite fun going around the office and telling them that we celebrated out independance from england. they were shocked to hear that we also were under british rule. here in india they didnt get there independance from england until 1947, but never the less they broke free and now are a free country as are we. its great!

for the fourth of july we had two bbq's at one ex-pat's home (they are members in the branch) and one missionary couple's home. it was great to see all the meat:

here in india its hard to find beef so really only in the foreigner homes do you find beef. but we enjoyed eating all day long and just socializing. we were quite the social machines!!