Turner Falls - A much needed break

My sister Priyanka, had a spring break last week. Most of the time we spent in cleaning the house so at the end of the week, we were all in need of a well deserved break..One of her school friend was visiting us during the weekend. Friday evening when I reached home, our friend Nileshbhai, called us if we wanted to go see some movie...Desiring the much needed break, we agreed and went to see last chance Harvey...Its an Ok kind of movie..Too dramatic..I loved hearing the English and Irish accents...After the movie we went to eat at chipotle and finally went home where Disha and Sapan joined us..While sitting, I was telling them, how it would be a good idea to take a break..All of us were probably enough stressed in the week, that the idea of the break sounded tempting and was met with zero resistance except for one of our friends, sunny who could not join us because of his schedule..So there, on a friday night around 11 pm we decided to head to Turner Falls in Oklahoma and stop by Winstar Casino on the way back..Having been to Turner Falls in Nov 2007, I knew it would be a good place for a picnic, but the fun we had outgrew my expectations, because last time when I visited it was cold winter time and this was the spring season... Most of the friends in the group have know each other for atleast couple of years now and we are very compatible group..Friday night after deciding the final plan nileshbhai, bhabhi, disha and sapan departed my place around 1 am..Next day we were on the way to Oklahoma falls around 8 am..Strangely enough, disha was the first one to wake up amongst all of us and also disha and sapan reached on time at nileshbhai's place..The drive was good, about 2 hours from my place...Pretty much most of it on 35ENorth with the last few miles being scenic. Once we reached the area, we went to the scenic overlook, which we had missed last time. It was beautiful seeing the falls, the castle and the surrounding areas from the top...



Seeing the falls from the top, we all knew in our hearts, we had made the right decision to come to this place...
We entered the turners fall park area..drove through the beautiful scenic sites and flooded water bridge....
We parked our car at the parking to go the falls...It was almost 11:30 and most of us were hungry...So being obvious, we decided to cross the river side and picnic on one of the benches overlooking the river..That morning, I had a chance to cook some pulaav rice for all of us, and disha had brought lots of snacks, so we took all the food we were planning to eat from the car trunk and headed towards the picnic tables crossing the river carefully by stepping on the rocks....


I think treading through the moving river made us forget about how hungry we were and start on the adventure ride...Some of us were involved in playing catching with a small tennis ball sapan had brought along..Some of us were busy in posing for photographing...and so that triggered the reaction of messing into each other business which started with all the crazy idea of throwing ball on the people in the group posing for photos and them throwing the unwanted ball into the river and then people trying to rescue the ball from the river waters...The water in general looked quite good, but at the sides there were some moss, which made going to the river edge to get the ball quite yucky and throwing the ball quite entertaining...


After we had enough of the play sessions, our stomachs were hurting with hunger..So finally we decided to eat the yummy pulaav ;)..It was drizzling a little bit while we were eating, but no one cared...Everyone was so hungry, that there was hardly any noise while we were eating...Also it started to get a little bit cold, since the sun was hiding in the clouds and the water drizzles made the air chilly...Once we were done eating, we went our way back crossing the river to drop off the containers as well as the trash..Finally most of us also picked up jackets from our cars. On the way back, we decided to go to the falls, through the river, stepping on the water and the stones and having fun with the splashes. We showed each other way and helped to pass through places which were quite slippery sometimes...



And so finally we reached the destination...heheh..the falls....Amazing and beautiful as always..A regular walk of 10 minutes was extended into an hour and half fun treading through the river for all of us....Seeing the falls,the first thought, disha and I had was the water was less, comparative to what we saw when we went there in Nov 07, but the water has its own beauty and charm...We were mesmerised by the falls...


We enjoyed the view for quite a while and then decided to take the hike for the caves and view of the top..It was a wonderful adventure, not difficult at all, but fun stepping on the rocks and finding the way through the mountains...we reached a beautiful cave on the top, which had some dangerous pathways, which lead to the top of the falls..Sapan was more adventurous than us all and decided to go there..I am sure the view was heavenly from that place as I could judge from the photos he took from there...We decided to move on talking and walking and admiring the nature..The weather was getting better with no sun, but no rain too, so there were more people coming onto the top...We saw the sight of other small falls and the river and then some tents were visible at a our distance which pinched our curiousity and we decided to go to the river...now we had reached the top and to go to the river, it was a downhill climb, and the route was not normal...so we had to find rocks and paths on our own to reach the bottom, most of it was not bad, except the final one, which was a long rock and thus needed a jump or some support from someone at the bottom to actually reach the end...finally all of us did it..yahooooooooooo....The river reminded me of the river bias in manali, which rocks and water treading its way.....the water had not been much since it was still the start of summer and we did not have much rainfall yet, so that enabled us to jump from rock to rock inside the river and keep on going.....finally after about 2 long hours, some of us felt hungry and tired...so we decided we will head back.....and thus came back again to the falls.....the joy of being one step closer with nature was fantastic...finally after reaching the main falls again, we decided to sit at the main rock of the falls and observe the falls..by that time there were lots of people bathing in the water falls..we also saw a tortoise inside from the rock, which was funny since I was out of water on the rock, but would have been scary if I had been inside..hehehe..

Finally Nileshbhai and Sapan, decided to be more adventurous and climb the rocks from where the water was falling...It was a dangerous climb, though lots of kids were already there, but I think the adventure was worth it...

It was around 5 pm and we decided we will start heading home, since we had plans to stopby at the Winstar Casino...Winstar casino is big, I have been there about 3 times now, but this was the first time, i actually saw the other areas past the front region where we normally play on the 25cents machine..They have made the interiors like paris, beijing beautiful...I had put few dollars and had won about 40 dollars till I lost is all again...But isnt that what casinos are meant for?? Loosing?? Did someone actually win something???(Huh, well if that someone is smart enough to cash out before they start loosin yeah.........)

Overall a fantastic trip and I would look forward to more trips like this in future...

XOXO
Bhumika

My To-Do List...

Things I have done so far:

• Bungee Jumping
• Rides at Stratosphere
• Ice Skating
• Paragliding
• Snorkeling
• Skiing
• Rafting
• Tennis
• Water Aerobics
• Swimming
• Skating
• Karate
• Bharatnatyam
• BallRoom Dancing
• Drawing and Painting
  
• Fitness Boot camp, including kickboxing, strength training and abs workout
• Circuit Training
• Watching a football game in a stadium
• SixFlags and Seaworld
• Travel to Canada and Europe

Things I want to do next:

• Sky Diving
• More Skiing and try Snowboarding
• May be deep water diving (I hope the water is not too salty ;))
• Start advanced levels of ice skating
• Learn a new language
• Take a professional development course
  
• Visit more countries
• Join some interesting clubs and volunteering activities
• Be involved in something where I could really make a difference!!
  

Mixed Emotions and Story of Change in a Foreign Country

Most of my friends, who have known me from India, believe I have changed a lot. Ofcourse they say its all for the better...I feel this change myself noticeably evident in my thoughts and actions...The once shy, quiet and traditional girl now reflects an aura of confidence and independence....This must have been a smooth transition process because I hardly realized this happening....

When I first came to USA in August 2004, I had hardly gone to the bank about couple of times in my life (the last one being to get the travellers cheque's since they require your presence and signature to issue those cheques), had never written a cheque, had never used a credit card or an ATM, had never filled petrol in my activa or kinetic, had never driven car in the traffic areas like the city, had never made my own bed, had never washed my clothes or cleaned my utensils, had never made any buying decision alone, had never been confused on what to cook etc.. and the list goes on and on....I remember when my uncle first took me to a bank, I asked them how to write a check..My uncle and aunt showed me to how to use the ATM, to withdrawn the cash or deposit the cheque(Depositing a cheque is still something I prefer doing at the bank in front of a live person)...When my uncle took me to the shopping mall to buy comforter set for my bed in my new apt, I asked him which one should I buy and there he taught me an invaluable lesson for life. He teached me, now that I was in a country, where everyone is independent, I should be making my own decisions...and thats how the process of own decision making started in my life...Still, sometimes I would call up my parents or my friends and ask them what they think about the things I buy...I remember buying my first own 60$ camera, not a branded one, and I had emailed my old friend in india back and forth, just to make sure I was making the right decision.....so the change was not all of a sudden atleast I would think....But then the number of decisions to make kept on increasing from buying an ipod to driving to canada to visit an old friend and see niagra falls, to present at a SWE conference in Anaheim california, to work as a intern, to take up research, to visit india, to graduate, to look for a job, to deal with customers, to live in a foreign country called slovenia (whose name I had never heard before)for 3 months, to travel in Europe, to rent an apartment and the time available to make these decisions kept on decreasing...forcing me to making my own life decisions fast...taking full responsibility of my actions...

I don't know when I changed from the Bhumika, who thought its ok for a girl to live at home and not work, to bhumika who believes every individual is responsible for their own self and can make their own decisions on how they choose to live their life. Gender should have no influence on whether you want to work or cook!! If I was still living in India, I would have considered divorce is wrong, that should never happen, being in the independent land, my views have changed to, you live once, if both of you are not happy in the life you are living, it is better to separate and live a happy life rather than live under the same roof in pain for the sake of others( the society), who are not even your family and have no right to interfere in what you do is your personal matter. These views might be considered too modern and liberal by the still conservative, male generation of my birth land..

I wish friends and families in my home country, India, become more respectful of girls and encourage them to acheieve their dreams...The culture of a country is never lost by individuals voicing their opinions....Infact, the spirit of culture becomes more strong when you have the liberty to decide what is right and what is wrong for self.....

Astrology and character traits....

I believe in horoscopes and sometimes I get confused with the compatability reading between different signs.. I am a leo and I wonder if leo's do not do so well with signs like Gemini, Cancer and Scorpio, why do I have majority of my list of best or close friends falling under the sign? One thing that has fascinated me in the last couple of years is how astrology works. How are they able to predict a person's nature just by the configurations of the planets on the day they were born...How wearing certain stones makes you lucky or helps you nullify the bad influence of the planetary positions on your life...Can this happen? Is is true? Well, I do not know if I fully believe in stones and their influence, but I had this ruby ring as a gift on one of my birthdays and have always thought of it as my lucky charm..Things in life have changed for the better after wearing that..Now, maybe the things were destined to change and thus changed, but somehow I just noticed them after wearing this..But then what is destiny..How can you be destined for something..Why do some people get all the things in life without working for it and why do some people work so hard and still get no results..Being born in India, I had been introduced to the Karma theory since birth and now I see people in the west believing in it too... Do good and u get good in return, but still how much good things you get would depend on your past karma? So then, I would say its unpredictable how much good or bad things/experiences you would get in life!! Well not really sometimes, if you believe in astrology..The other day I ordered some reports from this website called astrology.com, believe me, the astrologers there know what they are doing! I mean, I got this real you reading and it said all things about me, which I usually ignore or would not like to believe existing...So, the day I was born and the time I was born, actually makes the nature I have today..Like if I am very social, it is not because I want to be social but its because I have been born under that planetary confirguration which makes me social..Wow!! amazing huh...Well, so I have been pondering about these things for a while now and during one of the discussions with my close friends, one of whose father happens to be a gynaec surgeon told me, these days instead of the natural birth of the child when it would occur, parents like to have their babies delivered at some particular time which they have confirmed with their astrologers to be the most auspicious time..Now,one thing I keep thinking about is, what if in the future all the babies are born on such days that they are always going to be lucky and rich, how would the basic economic theory of supply and demand hold? Can everyone be rich and lucky at the same time?