November 25th: Coimbatore

After five hours of driving, we arrive at a water park which was the most stressful thing I've done. (Getting wet in a swimsuit in front of local Indian boys... Never again) I have no pictures to show of it, not that you missed much.

The exciting thing about today is that it's American Thanksgiving. The Americans decide that we should all dress nicely in our traditional salwar suits and eat dinner together, as a family. After all, we are an exchange student family. One that I'm fortunate enough to be part of. For everyone else, this is their first Thanksgiving. This is one of the most special Thanksgiving for me. I don't think I'll ever get to spend Thanksgiving with my exchange family again.

Turkey switched to curried chicken, stuffing to paneer tikka masala, mashed potato's to rice and pumpkin pie to freshly put fruit. Although, my Thanksgiving meals are Jamaican/Trinidadian/Guyanese based. But whatever. My point is that the foods were different.

Today, I am grateful for so many things. I am grateful for all these people that I have met. They have made an extremely special and big spot in my heart. For many of them, I cannot imagine my life without them. I was having a hard time being alone in Yavatmal, and being with them saved me from myself.

I am grateful for my exchange. Rotary Youth Exchange became part of my family when my brother signed up in 2002. It came up again in 2005 when my sister signed up, and in 2006 when my family hosted a boy from Argentina. Then once again in 2008 when we hosted a boy from Brazil. Since then, doing my very own exchange has been the only constant goal that I've had. I'm living it now, and it's nothing like what I thought it would be. I'm grateful for the conditions of my exchange. I have a home district who checks up on me once a month, and are always there when I need them, and a sponsoring district who does the same. I have loving host parents who take great care of me, and treat me as their own daughter.

And finally, the last thing that I will write about, I am grateful for my biological parents. They love and trust me and my siblings enough to let us go on our adventures. When Janice and Peter tell people that I am in India for a year, some people are shocked. They say to them "I love my child too much to let them go" or other similar comments that indicate that my parents do not love me enough. Right, my parents don't love me enough to contain me in London, Ontario, the only place where I grew up which happens to be more on the side of a cold cultural desert than not. They don't love me enough to deny me a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn about myself outside my Canadian perspective, learn about a new culture as a local and appreciate what I have back in Canada.

P.S. I'm being sarcastic.

My parents allowed me to have my special exchange year and for this, I am the most grateful for them.

Fun Fact: I am both a Daddy's Girl and a Mamma's Girl, and I am proud of it.
#PeteyandMamaKhanLove