Meet My Friends: Sonali

Hello my friends! As I haven't been traveling since my trip to Europe, I've decided to really focus on introducing my friends. I hope that's okay with everyone! We'll get back to my adventures as soon as I have a new one.

So! Today I am introducing my friend Sonali! Sonali lives in my neighborhood with her family. Her dad and uncle run a chat house, or South Asian snack shop, around the corner from our building. Her mom works at the local elementary school, which Sonali also attends. The school focuses on cultural and performing arts, so Sonali gets to attend lots of cool performances and events.

Sonali is such a fun friend! She and I love to go to the local library together. The children's room is great! It has tons of books to read and computers to use for play or studying. Sonali and I both like adventure stories- her favorite book is Katherine Rundell's Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, while I love Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series.

Sonali is learning to play violin! She is learning using the Suzuki method and is very disciplined. I really admire how hard she works. Sonali looks so cool carrying her violin in its case on her back around the neighborhood.

I'm really lucky to have a good friend like Sonali right in my apartment building. She's had a scooter for years, but now that I have one too, we love riding them to her family's chat house for kulfi popsicles! Kulfi is a kind of Indian ice cream. Sonali and I love the mango and pistachio flavors best!