Pick Up Lines in Foreign Countries

One of my friends and I have traveled extensively in India and some in Latin America. We have compiled a list of (failed) pick-up lines used on us over the past 3-4 years:

Guy on the street:  Heeeeyyy baaabyyyy! You speak-a Spanish?
Me: No.

Guy wants a photo (while staring at my chest): Wow, you're slender (I'm really not). Photo?
Me: *Shrug* Sure.
Guy puts arm around shoulders and inches towards *other* places, which I remove. He turns in shock, "But. . . you're western!"

Random guy in market: "Madam! What country?!"

While we were riding a camel, "Madam! Verrryy niiice cam-mel!"

More while on camel, "Hello camel lady! You are looking very beautiful!"

Woman groping us at the airport as the scanner picked up the underwire on our underclothes, "You are wearing undergarments, yes?"
"Yes"
Grabs the undergarments, "You are wearing Indian dress" (yes, yes we were) You wear Indian dress verry nice!"All the while patting said undergarments. We ran.

French man invites American girl into his apartment after one meeting. She declines. He responds, "What? You don't like sex?"

Guy in bar: "Hi, I'm Nigerian-Finnish. Why are you here?"
Me: Why are you?

Man in market in Morocco to my male friend traveling with me, "Sir! Sir!"
Friend: "Yes?"
Man: "I will give you 20 camels for the blonde."

While walking through the streets of Kerala, a teenager zooms by on a bike and slaps my friend on the butt. Classy.

Not a pick-up line, but pretty epic out of a tenth grade playbook. Indian guy sits next to girl, spends the evening rubbing her side with his elbow. Expects her to know what's happening.

In a club, awkward man pursues friend, looks deeply in her eyes and mouths along with the lyrics, "And tonight I'm f***ing you!"
No, no you're not.

Holi

A friend of mine and I went to the boys' home where she volunteers to "play color" on Holi. For those of you who have not seen the result of Holi, the point is to throw both powdered and wet color at each other until you run out. It was 25 young boys versus the 5-6 adult volunteers. It was insane and one of the best experiences I've had in India. The only downside? I showed up to work with most of my face still multicolored due to the staining. Everyone would look at me, giggle a little, and then say, "Happy Holi!"

Sangam

A friend of mine came to visit, a lifelong Girl Scout, and we took the opportunity to visit one of the international Girl Guide/Girl Scout centers, which is located in Pune in southern India. On a whirlwind, one-day trip, we flew down to Pune and met with some of the women who volunteer at the center.

The center is located smack dab in the middle of three different communities of various backgrounds, but it is an island of serenity. The grounds are beautiful, with lovely gardens and a pool, and many of their programs focus on volunteerism. They even offer space for local schools to rent in order to learn about camping and tell their own stories around the campfire.

Though I didn't get to see much more of Pune, it was wonderful to see a place where women from quite literally around the world work together towards mutual goals-- I saw signs from women from Bangladesh, other places in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and many other countries. Women from at least four or five were volunteering while I was there. Highly recommend getting there if you have any tie to Girl Scouting!

Rhinos, elephants, and monkeys. . . oh my!

Where you start your elephant safari from.

Baby elephant came to say hi!

Riding through the elephant grass.

Watching the rhino cross the road.

The view of where the Diphlu River meets the Brahmapatra in the third section of the park.

Monkeys!

Three friends and I went to Kaziranga for a weekend and got to experience one of the coolest vacations I've ever had. Kaziranga is one of the national parks in India located in the northeast, in a state called Assam. It serves as a preserve for one horned rhinos and tigers. Sadly, though we saw many rhinos, there were no tigers.

The trip started with an elephant ride early in the morning (where baby said hi to us all!) followed by a jeep safari through the Central Range. We saw more than fifteen different kinds of birds, some rhinos, some wild elephants, two different kinds of deer, water buffalo, and some monkeys.

In the afternoon, we headed to the Western Range, which is home to more rhinos than the other areas. This is where we got to see a rhino cross the road-- just a few feet from our jeep! The final stop was in the newly opened part of the park, which is better known for its scenery and the opportunity to see three different kinds of monkeys-- which we did! All in all, an incredible adventure.

Christmas in Kolkata

This year I spent Christmas in Kolkata. While sad about not seeing my family, two friends and I had a wonderful time seeing the lights on Park Street and the decorations around town. There were some that I found particularly entertaining. From the creepy Santa in front of the Forum Mall to the tree that looks like Spiderman is crawling up it (he's actually attached to the building right behind it), I loved to see some of the interpretations of traditional holiday decor and the truly stunning lights along the main drag in town, Park Street. I hope you enjoy this taste of Christmas from Kolkata!

Howrah

A friend who works in microfinance invited me to go with her one day to see her organization in action. Howrah is an area across the river from Kolkata proper, and I was able to see very different communities from those I usually interact with in Kolkata. I was privileged to watch women, who are the clients, repay their loans and show my colleague and me their small businesses. The first photo is the line of taxis outside of the Howrah train station waiting to receive passengers coming in from all over India. The railways are still very much in use here. The four women in the one photo are standing outside of one of their vegetable shops. The other photo, showing a lane in a small village, was where I got to meet a whole group of children, who were fascinated by the westerners who were visiting.

Jharkand

In September I was sent to Jharkand for work. It's a state west of West Bengal (where Kolkata is) that is home to many mining communities and farming areas. I drove with some colleagues from Ranchi to Dhanbad, which is where I was able to take some of the photos in this post. It took about six hours in each direction, partially due to the fog and the late rains. In one photo you can see a bike with large bags being pushed up the side of the hill we are on-- the bags were filled with coal that the men were bringing into town to sell. We saw bicycle after bicycle being pushed probably more than twenty miles over very, very rough roads.