Diwali

Tuesday the 28 of October it was the festival Diwali. Diwali is a five day festival that is also known as the festival of lights. At campus there were events both the Tuesday and Saturday. Tuesday there were decorations, a special festive meal and fireworks at campus. I had an evening class that ended around 7.30 and then everyone went to their rooms and changed clothes into something more festive. Some students made decorations with lights, flowers and rice mixed with color.  After that we had puja (prayer) and food.
Here are some pictures of the light decorations around campus.

The courtyard of the dorm I lived in, was also decorated and prepared for the puja. See the following pictures.

And our dinning hall was rearranged and decorated for the occaion.

After dinner I took a walk around campus with some of the other student to see how the other dorms had been decorated. these pictures are from one of the all boys dorms called New Hostle.

It was a great thing to experience, for me it reminded me a little bit about Christmas, because of all of the decorations with lights. But it was just 20 degrees to hot :-)
The following Saturday there was a party where all of us were dressed up again. This time almost all of the girls including the exchange girls wore saris. For me the biggest challenge was to actually get the saris on, and learn how to walk in it. But in the end I managed with a lot of help from one of the Indian girls at campus that had volunteered to help dress us exchange girl, who were wearing a saris for the first time.
This picture are with all of the exchange students that were present at the party.

A very fun evening where I got to wear a saree for the first time in my life.