Living Well in Panajim, Goan Coast

We hope that each of you had a very merry Christmas and the brightest solstice!
On December 23rd, Luke and I hopped a short flight from Chennai to Goa and spent Christmas here. We sprung for an amazing room in a 200-year-old Portuguese house and happily got what we paid for. This city is easy, quiet, clean and painted in yellow, blues, whites and pinks. It is a city on the ocean and because the Portuguese were here for 100s of years, before the Brits came and still after they were forced out by Gandhi, the architecture here is described as old-world Lisbon. This makes for a beauty city with many small, ornate local Catholic churches, as well as a cathedral and an enormous Basilica 10km away that holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier. We have some great photos to share and Luke will put them up soon. For midnight mass, we first went to the city cathedral, but nobody sang along during the pre-mass carols and there were nearly 10 soldiers arming the outside of the church since the attack in Mumbai, so we made the call to head down to Saint Thomas' Church was is a little, sweet little chapel whose proud parishioners who we had seen spending the day decorating and setting up chairs outside for the overflow for the holy day mass. It was really great to be here at midnight with this parish of people. Everyone was all dressed in their best and the kids were all nodding off into sleep---it reminded me of midnight mass at the church in my hometown in Michigan.

On Christmas day, we opened some (excellent!) gifts, had breakfast and walked the city a bit. In the heat of the afternoon, we took in our first cinema Bollywood experience: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. It was 3 hours long, with an intermission that was perfect for grabbing some Baskin Robbins from the lobby. These theaters are much nicer than anything Boulder had until recently. The film was so fun, with great dance numbers and catching songs. Even though it was all in Hindi, we understood most of it because they are so dramatic! Indians are suckers for romance and high drama, and I guess I am a bit too, so nan nan nan... *giggle* Since it didn't have subtitles, we are going to rent a version with subtitles once we get home so we can fill in the blanks, especially around all the staring-off, crying scenes.

My family is gathering in Michigan over these next few days and I am missing each of you so much. Next year, let's meet in Colorado for Christmas and skiing! (Everyone reading this is welcome to come too=)

oxoxoxo