DelhiLullaby: Fulbright Conference in Kerala

Every year Fulbright hosts a conference somewhere in India. This year, it took place in Kochi, Kerala! It was a wonderful experience meeting Fulbrighters, their partners (and even a few kids!) from all over South Asia. It was such a rejuvenation for me, as a partner of the Fulbrighter, to come relax in a nice hotel and chill out for four days. There was some work for Andy, he presented on his research topic during the interdisciplinary conference, which went splendidly. I was even able to sit in the back of his talk and listen with Samantha. We recorded his presentation too, but it's too long to upload here!

After the conference, we took a train for 4 hours south to a beach town to chill out. Our friend Sarah joined us from the US too!

Happy family decided to take a family photo in our hotel room at the Fulbright conference in Kochi, Kerala.

Conference lunch in the open pavilion. I loved all of the buffet meals.

Headed to another meal outside. Can you tell I enjoyed meal time here?

Samantha making friends with fellow Fulbright family baby Zoe. Zoe's parents are in Goa on an archaeological site. We were a little jealous of their location!

Samantha getting down on the dance floor with fellow Fulbrighter daughter. The music was Indian loud!

Samantha exploring the hotel grounds and making friends, Samantha's favorite toy was the groundskeeper's leaf basket.

This granddad of an old turkey lives on the hotel grounds.

When Samantha and I weren't playing by the pool, she practiced crawling on the clean floors in our hotel room.

The last day of the conference Fulbright organized a group tour of Kochi. These are the Chinese Fishing Nets that this area is well-known for.

Here is short video of the Chinese fishing nets in action. Andy apologizes for the poor sound and for flipping the camera at one point, he forgot he was filming! Despite the small number and size of the fish caught (someone commented that we, the tourists, were the "big fish" caught that day), you can get a good idea of how the whole giant net apparatus works. Those big rocks hanging from the ropes seen at the end of the video are the counterweights for the long arms that support the net.

Fisherman reparing their nets. Fort Kochi, Kerala.

Fish ready to fry.

This gentleman, I think his name is David, gave us a tour of the intricate fishing nets.

Touring Fort Kochi.

View from our Ferry Ride from Fort Kochi to Enarkalum Train Station on our way to Varkala, Kerala.

Samantha trying to read the official language of Kerala, Malayalam.

Malayalam graffiti, Fort Kochi, Kerala.

I loved this pink car down an alley in Fort Kochi.

And then here's how we usually travel. I need to buy one of these little toys for Samantha.

Samantha's had some big changes the last month, including starting solid food! She also grew her first tooth and began to crawl!

Samantha and I in our home stay garden where we stayed for one night in Fort Kochi.

View from 4.5 hour train ride to south to Varkala, Kerala. Samantha wasn't a big fan of the train ride.

Here's a view of what we did once we arrived in Varkala, hang out on our veranda.

And then Auntie Sarah finally got her visa and arrived from the US. As you can see, this is when the party really got started...

Quality time with Auntie Sarah on the veranda.

Just a short video showing all the progress Samantha is making, pulling herself up, nearly standing, crawling and more.

Meal time was also important in Varkala!

We did a lot of this.

And this.

And this. A view from where we ate our meals.

Here's another view from our restaurant. Great volleyball games nearly every night.

Auntie Sarah and Samantha loving the beach.

One day Sarah, Samantha and I checked out the local temple and discovered this offering tree. Some of the dolls still had their plastic wrappers on them.