I have multiple questions today, courtesy of Mom and Dad.

You keep talking about the Indian food and I was wondering where they grow their spices, what is your favourite and will you be allowed to bring some home with you?

I haven’t learned about where spices are grown and how yet, so I’ll have to return to that point in a few days. Many of the dishes I’ve eaten have had coriander in them and I think it’s my current favorite spice. Cumin comes in a close second.

Canada Customs is pretty restrictive when it comes to bringing plants and food into a country. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to bring any spices back with me, but most of the ones I really like are available in Canada. I’ve even got a number of them in my kitchen at home. What I really need to find are a few cookbooks (in English of course) which outline traditional North and South Indian food so that I can learn how to use all of the spices properly.

As a breath freshener, many restaurants serve Fennel seed (often coated in sugar) in a bowl after a meal. You place a small amount of the seed in your mouth, then chew it to freshen up. It’s a pretty tasty treat and I’ve grown quite fond of it.

What are the sunsets and sunrises like? Does nightfall (dusk) fall quickly like in Canada or is it more gradual like in Britain.

I’ve been awake to see a number of sunrises and sunsets since my arrival and have noticed that they are extremely quick in Bangalore. The sun rises in less than 10 minutes and sunset seems to be even quicker. You blink, and the sun is up or down.

How many hours of daylight are there in your day?

The sun is usually up by 6am, and from what I can tell, goes down around 5:30 – 6pm. There are about 12 hours of sunlight in the day and normally at this time of year, Bangalore is very hazy. People have told me the weather is very unusual for this time of year, as it’s very hot and humid and the sky is often clear instead of coated in a haze similar to Toronto’s smog. From what I understand, the haze here isn’t caused by pollution. Instead, it’s due to the humid climate and very low lying clouds. There are fixed points in the year where the haze appears in the sky, often throughout what we would consider the autumn in North America.

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