A Southbird Adventure

Diwali is another part of the Hindu festival season: basically like an enormous Christmas and New Years’ celebration, as it is the traditional beginning of the Hindu calendar.  We got one week off from school to travel as well as the weekends on either end, so I and six other girls raced around southern India as quickly as we could possibly go.  It was a great group, although a smaller group would have made things logistically easier, and we all melded together really well.  We had some great conversations and got to discuss our views on certain aspects of our program here to a length that we really had not gotten the chance to before.  However, it was a pretty insane trip; to capture the details as fully as I could, I wrote day-by-day entries...

22 October

The railway absolutely my favourite means of transportation.  We spent hours today just sitting in the open doorway of the train car watching the beautiful scenery flash past and the sunset.  Also, it is a significantly less smoother ride than cars because there are no potholes on the railway.  The seven of us girls took over a set of seats (of which only one was actually ours), so we have needed to explain several times that we wanted to be together for safety.  Fortunately, almost everyone has been very nice about it and switched with us without complaining.  The two guys are a little further down the car... they came to hang out and play cards a few times.  We are more relaxed than we have been in a long time, just able to just enjoy ourselves and ignore the stares and attention.  We were really loud at points, but it was alright.  We made a friend as well, a little boy who was sitting by the guys.  He basically moved to sit by us after a while and stayed until after most of us were worn out.  He was really sweet, even though he was very insistent on having all of our attention, and gave us candy in the evening for Diwali because I “gifted” him a pen.  We brought enough food to keep a small army going; we didn’t realize just how much we had until we got on, though, and it just kept appearing out of people’s luggage.

27) Don’t take food out in public railway stations.  You will get a lot of unwanted attention from people who would love to relieve you of it.

23 October

We had an abrupt awakening this morning when the train pulled into Bangalore at 6:25, at least an hour and a half before we were expecting.  We panicked because we didn’t realize it was the last stop, so we stuffed everything into our bags and tumbled out onto the platform before even fully waking up.  Then we got into rickshaws and went to the bus station where we didn’t even get through the front gate before we were climbing onto a bus bound for Mysore.  That was around three hours, following the eighteen-hour train ride.  So by the time we got to Mysore and checked into our hotel, we were very grateful to lie down for a little while and then spend the afternoon walking around.  We got invited into a wedding (where we had to insistently refuse photographs up on-stage with the wedding party) and got to visit the Mysore Palace.  Mysore Palace is stunning... the one standing now was commissioned in 1897 (completed in 1912) by Henry Irwin after the original wooden structure burnt down.  It was amazing to see.  The best part of the building was the marriage hall, where there was the most detailed stained glass that I have ever seen.  However, I have no photographs of that because cameras were “not allowed” inside.  We soon figured out that this was not really true as everyone had their cell phones out when we got in.  The downside to Mysore Palace was that everyone there was on vacation, so we soon became more interesting subjects than the Palace itself.  We ended up blowing up a couple times and one of my friends smacked someone who would not leave us alone.  By the time we left, it was pretty much just to get away from it all as we were so irritated that we weren’t enjoying it anymore.  Dinner for half of us was really good pizza in our hotel room while we watched football, so that raised our spirits a bit.

Mysore Palace.

The palace lit up at night... it was beautiful.

Mysore: We could have hung around for another day most likely, but I didn’t really enjoy it as much as other places I have been.  The palace was stunning though.

24 October

Today we got a bus from Mysore to the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, where we are staying in a dormitory at the ranger station in the middle of the forest.  We took a fantastic van safari this afternoon where we got to see lots of wildlife and just spend time in the forest.  Then we got to watch them feed the elephants in the evening; there were even a couple of babies.  We found out early on that we needed to keep the windows closed though, because we had a group of monkeys attempt to climb through and grab our snacks.  We had to fight them off.  Speaking of food, we had a bit of a comic set of circumstances regarding our meals here.  For lunch, we went to the only restaurant around here where, after we had read the menu that they had given us for ten minutes, they informed us that they only had one meal (which was not true as we saw other people in the restaurant eating other things).  Then we thought that we had communicated to the lady who runs the dormitory that we would eat there, but she did not understand us and went home, so we ended up just eating peanut butter with spoons for dinner.  Hopefully she will show up before breakfast tomorrow because we’re pretty hungry at this point.  But our rooms are great: spacious with a great floor for dancing, so we did some swing for a while, and we watched a movie after the power came back on (it was off when we arrived, along with the water, which hasn’t come back on, so we have been manually filling the toilet tank from the rain bucket so that it flushes).

Mudumali: While it was certainly beautiful and elements of the stay were great, like the safari, I wouldn’t really recommend it as a place to stay.  A good idea would have been to stay in the Ooty Hill Station and take a day trip to Mudumali.
  

25 October

Well, today was absolutely an adventure.  It began with an elephant ride, for which we got one elephant where we had been told we would get two.  The reason for this shift of events was that the District Judges decided that they had a right to claim all the elephants excepting one.  So, instead of each getting a half-hour ride, we split the time so that everyone got fifteen minutes (which we weren’t really supposed to do, but we did anyway).  Then we waited for a while for the bus that we needed to come by and munched on biscuits because breakfast did not happen (the lady didn’t show up and the one restaurant basically told us they weren’t going to make food).  The ride that we originally thought would take about a half-hour took three, but it was beautiful.  When we arrived in Ooty, we discovered that there were no busses to Kochi, as we had been told, so we had to catch one to Palaghut and had one hour to grab food, which we did along with chocolate and more biscuits.  Remember my description of getting on buses in India?  Yeah, we needed to do that again.  But all of us got on.  I took car sickness medicine about an hour or so in and it made me unexpectedly drowsy, so all I remember about the drive is through a drugged haze... I hallucinated a couple of times also, so I can’t distinguish very well.  Eventually, after the sun had set, we got to the bus station... but it was only about halfway to where our hotel was that night.  So one of the girls moms had contacted her travel agent who had, on the spot, booked us a hotel for tonight and a car for tomorrow morning to take us to our next spot.  The hotel is called the Fort Palace Hotel and is definitely more expensive than we would have booked for ourselves, but it’s nice to stay in such an upscale place for a night.   We are all exhausted and irritated, not least because the staff member from school who we have been working with on this trip since the beginning of the term (this part of our trip has not changed since the beginning, either) gave us the wrong information about buses and distance and then when we called to ask for advice, shifted the blame to us, saying that we only gave her our itinerary two days before we left (which was when she asked for it).  Anyway, we have learned our lesson about having her help us with our trips and taking advice from her.

Ooty: We only had about an hour there since we were just passing through, but we ended up wishing that we had stayed there for a night as we originally hoped to.  I have no idea of what is there, but it was very cool temperature-wise and looked very interesting.

28) Check directions, distances, destinations, and all other details yourself.  I really cannot emphasize that enough.  Do not take anyone’s word for anything... it sounds so critical, but it really is true.  If the person you are checking facts against turns out to be correct, that is great.  If they turn out to be wrong, you save yourself an enormous headache and probably a lot of money.  If you can’t figure it out yourself, try and find a travel agent in the U.S. that knows about India.  I hate to sound so dreadful, but we have had almost no positive experiences with travel agents and other people booking things for us.  The only ones that I would recommend are Kedar, who booked our bike trip, and the one who found our hotel for tonight faster that I knew was possible, but I have no idea what his name was (aren’t I helpful...).  However, if you are working with someone in India, be sure to be overly specific about what you are looking for, price range, etc. so that you don’t have any surprises whether because of language or more malicious intentions.

26 October

We got on the road at around 7:30 this morning, after being cheated out of a frustrating amount of money by the hotel.  Our driver was exceptional though; very amiable and when he didn’t know where to go, he just asked for the number for the houseboat and called to get directions himself.  He was wonderful.  We just took the drive to relax and reboot.  It was very stress-relieving to just not need to worry about it... and we are relieved that we can laugh about it all.  We’re pretty proud of ourselves having gotten this far, particularly considering yesterday... the bus ride was just unreal for everyone.  As one of my friends told her mom on the phone today, “I am ashamed to tell you this, but I pushed an old man out of the way to get on and I may have elbowed a child in the face... I’m not sure.  You just can’t be human.”  But we made it and so we are back on track, relaxing on the houseboat for a night in the backwaters of Kerela.  It is wonderful; everything that we were afraid to hope for and just what we needed.  We sat in silence for most of the afternoon, watching the houses and rice fields float by and listening to the sound of the waves against the side of the boat.  It has been just what we needed after the last couple of days.  Our captain is really funny and was chuckling with and at us all day long.  In the evening, a couple of the girls went swimming, but I did not as I was strictly instructed by my Passport Health nurse to not swim in the rivers... see?  I follow directions.

   

It was wonderfully quiet and peaceful on the houseboat... we basically sat in silence the entire day.

 27 October

If you ever go to India, you should really go to Kerela and spend at least one night on a houseboat.  Although there are many different companies, we went with Coco Houseboats and I very highly recommend them... they were phenomenal and extremely helpful.  (http://www.cocohouseboatskerala.com/)  Some people apparently spend up to fifteen days on these houseboats, which I think would be too much.  However, I could have definitely spent two or three.  We checked out at nine this morning and made our way to the “beach resort” that we had booked (the manager of Coco Houseboats called and got exact directions for us and then called to have two rickshaws pick us up, gave them directions, and fixed the price so that we would not get cheated... we were stunned.).  The rickshaw drive took us past some absolutely beautiful churches, as a large part of Kerela is Christian.  The amusing thing is that it is also largely Communist, so crosses are often seen mere metres from the hammer and sickle sign of the Communist party and red pennants (the colour of the party) hang everywhere.  It is about ten minutes walk through the small back roads of the fishing village to the beach, which is beautiful in a very mysterious way.  The resort is not really anything special and we are being severely cheated on food, but its clientele pretty much only consists of white tourists, so it has been very pleasant to talk to some of them.  We met a Danish family who are living in Delhi, so that was interesting to hear about their lives.  The owner has a bit of a strange music selection: all American (but not really anything good) and blasted very loudly on the front porch, which is the only place to sit outside, which makes sitting and talking virtually impossible.  Apparently, there is a music room where we can plug in our ipods and party until 4:00 am, but we are, for the most part, exhausted at this point and we are hoping to get an early start tomorrow so that we have the day to explore Cochin, so we will probably all get to sleep early.

Alleppy, Kerala: The houseboats were wonderful... I can’t recommend them enough.  The beach is beautiful, but I wouldn’t really recommend our resort (It’s called Vallis Gardens).  I would venture to guess that some of the other ones are better, but I really have no scope on that.  If you are going to Kerala, I would just say spend time on a houseboat and then an afternoon at the beach: skip the resorts.  Just as a note, I am speaking from the viewpoint of a college student with a limited budget.  If you are willing to spend more, I have heard that you can get top-quality service at extremely fancy resorts here in Kerala and that this is one of the best places for that.

28 October

We hired another car from the resort to our final hotel in Cochin.  The hotel is fantastic... the most Western one we have stayed in on the trip apart from the Fort Palace and, somehow, more comfortable than that one.  Perhaps it’s because the manager is really nice, they aren’t cheating us out of any money, and this one has computers with internet in the lobby.  But we didn’t spend all that much time there, really, instead spending the entire day walking around Jew Town and Fort Cochin (which is not actually a fort, I found out).  What did we do all day, you might ask?  Well... we shopped.  More than I have ever shopped in one day in my entire life (I would like to say that all I bought were gifts).  But it was fantastic... the adrenaline rush from bargaining (which I am astronomically better at now, thank you very much) and the overall relaxed pace of the day.  Also, the general attitude of the people here is so nice.  We ended up meeting this family (of about twenty people) on vacation from Tamil Nadu and it was great... they were friendly and very interested in us but not pushy.  They didn’t approach us or ask us for photographs until we asked them.  Then we ended up getting a few more photographs than we bargained for, but it was still great.  There were a lot of children in this family, so we pretty much made their day.  Overall, people were wonderful in Kerala... we got to meet a whole lot of people because we were much more relaxed because we didn’t feel so on display.  And the sunset was beautiful... we have seen so many amazing sunsets during this term.  The conclusion to the evening was a great: a birthday dinner for one of the girls at a really good restaurant and an evening spent talking and showing off our purchases while the rain poured outside.

Cochin, Kerala: Definitely spend more than one day here, even just for the experience of walking around and looking at all the buildings.  Apart from the house boat, this was my favourite day of the trip.  I highly recommend staying at Biju’s Tourist Home, at least if you want a nice, fairly western stay.  Obviously, it was affordable, and it was wonderfully located.  Just a note: Cochin is also called Kochi depending on where you look.

29 October

Back on the train!  I have to confess myself not enjoying it as much as I did the first time.  We are, for the most part, exhausted and ready to be done travelling as we have done a tonne in the past nine days.  Unfortunately, this trip is even longer than the last and we are going to cram us all into six bunks this time instead of attempting to find a seventh one.  Oh, also... on an Indian train you need to sleep with all of your luggage locked and under your head.  Someone kindly informed us of that on our first train.  However, I am sharing a bunk with another girl, so mine is affixed to the metal grate on the back of the seat and strapped to the back edge of the seat... I think I may have done a little too good of a job because I tried taking it off to get something and couldn’t make it move.  I gave up because I was tired, but hopefully I will be able to get it off in the morning.

30 October

Well, the trip is finished.  We reached our station around 4:00 and got rickshaws home.  My host family is in Goa now, so I am unpacking and repacking to go stay at my Tai’s mother’s house for the next few days.  It will be nice to not live out of a suitcase for two months at home.  I am exhausted.

So, see what I mean?  Not just any vacation.  Here is a list of the most bizarre elements of our trip:

-The very insistent chaiwalas (tea sellers) on the train... “Chai, chai, chai. CHAIII!”

-Bus full of college boys yelling “Ehhy!” and trying to grab our hands through the open windows every time our buses passed one another.  It happened five or six times.

-Mudumalai had no food.

-Monkeys attempting to get into one girl’s bag and nearly attacking us through our window.

-District Judges taking our elephant.

-20 men climbing up the rickety stairway to the tiny attic restaurant while we waited to go down... they just kept coming!

-The journey to Alleppy taking 13.5 hours over two days instead of 6 hours.

-Watching over 30 people jumping into a moving bus.

-Rioting to push onto the bus.

-Parents hoisting children through the window onto the bus to save seats.

-A drunk man playing footsie with one of the girls on the bus while he stared at them and snapped in their faces.

-Another drunk, very friendly old man offering one of the girls ayurvedic medicine yet again on the same bus.

-The 14 “hair-pin turns” also on that bus ride.

-A nine-year-old throwing up on the same bus.

-2 kids asking for one of the girls ipod as a “free gift” for Diwali, one of which being the aforementioned girl after she threw up.  (It was an insane bus ride... and this was the one during which I was drugged.)

-One of the girls got a staple stuck in her teeth.

-A rickshaw driver in Jew town pretending to reel us in on a rope as we were walking toward his rickshaw... then when he charged us too much, he followed us yelling until we got another rickshaw.  Then we ran into him at least three more times on the other side of town where he was waiting to give us a ride.  A little creepy.

And to think that our original plan included twice as many destinations.  Still, overall it was fun.  We are to the point where we can look back at almost everything and just laugh it off, even if it is only for the reason that it was so ridiculous we cannot really even believe it happened... the refrain is that this will make a fantastic story to tell everyone when we get back.  However, the lack of food was apparently a little more than we realized... when I got back to school yesterday, our director took one look at me and said “Lorenza, you have lost weight.”  I don’t know exactly how true that is, but there you go.

  

We were dubbed "The Magnificent Seven" by one of our staff members.  :)  Gymnastics reference, anyone?

And now it is November and time to dig deep into our ISPs and turn our research into tangible final results while still attempting to enjoy and experience our last few weeks here in India to the fullest extent.  I hope everyone is doing well; I miss you all and cannot wait to see you again.

*L*

Deuce!

An important part of our program is that the students get to live in home stays instead of in dorms or apartments.  I am really enjoying it... I have two younger brothers: twelve and a half and six years old.  They are both a lot of fun, even if my youngest brother is a little too energetic at points and thus gets tired and grumpy easily.  We’ve played football and I’ve been “taught” Cricket and a board game called Carrom.  However, I am learning that teaching me a new game means giving me the instructions so that we can begin (how to hold the Cricket bat, for instance) but not actually telling me the rules until I break them.  I would just like to say that Cricket may be one of the most boring/pointless games in existence... I don’t really understand why people play it.  I am sorry if I offend you but, really, you should try and find something a little more exciting to do with your free time.  One of my good friends here is British and he agrees; I rest my case.

In Carrom, each player takes turns flicking a shooting disc at the rest of the pieces, (which are worth different point values dependent on the colour) trying to knock them into the side pockets (a bit like billiards, I suppose).  It’s a really fun game, but after a while your fingers hurt from flicking the shooting disc and I kept knocking it into the side pocket the first time that we played, which meant both my brothers shouted “Deuce!” quite loudly and I had to put one of my captured pieces back onto the board (I played against my middle brother and my youngest brother provided highly enthusiastic commentary and advice).  Also, the red piece in the middle is worth the most points, so in order to capture that one, you need to knock that one into a pocket and then another one in immediately afterward (every time you knock a piece in, you get an extra turn), otherwise you don’t get the red piece.  Consequently, no one gets the red piece so once you get down to the last two pieces, the only one that you can shoot at is the red one because you need to have one left to shoot in after.  The last fifteen minutes of the game just consisted of the two of us trying (and failing) to knock the last two pieces in successively (except that I kept hitting deuces, so more pieces were thrown in at points).  My youngest brother got bored after about five minutes of this, leading him to pronounce it a “very stupid game.”  Eventually, though, I won, much to the chagrin of my middle brother and the delight of my youngest, both because he was rooting for me and because the game was finally over.

Carrom... the white stuff is talcum powder to make the pieces slide better.

My younger brothers are also helping me out with my Marathi and Sanskrit.  The first sentence I learned from my youngest brother was “Tu es makdur (mockur)”... most of you can probably figure that out (hint: makdur means monkey).  We have only had a few lessons, but those were complete with my youngest brother making me repeat everything about fifty times and giving me an exam at the end (I occasionally had exams on days when I didn’t have lessons as well).  He is very thorough... more difficult to satisfy than my teacher at school because he won’t let me stop repeating something until I pronounce it absolutely perfectly... which I’m having difficulty with because what I say the first time sounds correct.  We went through animals on the first night (which began when my youngest brother pulled the sentence “The elephant is my friend.” out of thin air).

My first Marathi lesson with my brothers.  As you can see, I was graded... several times, actually.  Slightly redundant as they told me how to spell everything, but at least I got full marks.

The food here is very good.  Most of the cooking is done by the servants and most of it isn’t spicy at all and we have a variety of styles.  And they love to feed people here.  Every meal, I leave feeling almost over-full.  I learned quickly to be clear about when I’m full or else I end up with more on my plate (sometimes I do anyway).

Our house is very clean and my room is very nice.  It’s cool, comfortable, and I have plenty of space and storage, including my own bathroom.  My door even has a lock on it (in case nothing else will keep my youngest brother out was how it was sold to me).  The only thing that’s frustrating is that there is a flock of birds which go crazy each time the sun rises (around 5:30) right outside my window.  I don’t ever hear anything from them except for that.  I think they’re either crows or magpies, but I haven’t quite figured that out since I’ve been too irritated and groggy to look, but there are a lot of them and they’re really loud.  Also, it’s quite common to have people roaring down the street at strange hours on their motorbikes, and since they aren’t necessarily the quietest of vehicles, I’ve been woken up by those many times as well.  I am learning to use my ipod with my noise-proof headphones (well, those are broken now, but still) to its fullest advantage... I don’t think it has been used so much ever in its lifetime.

My sheets... selected by my youngest brother.  My Tai told me that he was adamant that I have princess sheets since I'm a girl.  I've never been particularly fond of Ariel, but I really like these sheets.

My Tai (elder sister... since my host mother is not very much older than me, I call her this instead of Ai (i-e), which means mother.) went to an international school in Bangkok when she was younger, so she has a very interesting point of view on India, as well as other countries, and studying abroad.  We have had quite a few long talks and I learn new things about Indian society every time.  I really enjoy getting to talk to her and know her. Another result of that is that she makes very sure that I have space and privacy when I need it.  Privacy is not something that is understood here to the extent that we are used to back home and a few of the other students have gotten frustrated by this, so I am very grateful.  She is really great.

My Dada (elder brother, my host father) works in Mumbai, so he is only home on the weekends.  As far as I can tell, this is a fairly common phenomenon here.  Obviously this means that I don’t get to see him very much, particularly lately.  He is pretty quiet, but he is very nice and gives great travel advice.  Other than that, I don’t know too much about him except that he was the state table tennis champion in college (which is pretty neat), and that I learned from my Tai.

My Dadi (grandmother) is very sweet, but I don’t really see all that much of her.  She works all day (she’s out the door at 5:30 or sometime around there every morning) and then comes home and watches Marathi soap operas in her room all evening.  I’ve watched with her a couple times and have decided that I like soap operas even less when I can’t understand them, which is saying something because I detest the English ones...

My brothers are great (most of the time, at least).  The elder one spent a few weeks near the beginning of my time here studying hard for exams (their school is year-round so they have exams every six months) and I got to help him study for English, so I felt quite useful then... he felt like he did pretty well and I enjoyed the experience a lot.  We did vocabulary and reading comprehension for the most part.  Other than that, however, I was spending most of my time during that stage with my youngest brother when I was at home.  We found quite a bit to do... usually we read, but he got bored of that a couple of times.  One night he decided he was going to help me untangle my jewellery, so that was fun.  We play house and blocks and everything like that or he combs my hair (he has a thing for hair... which means that I keep it bound up most of the time).  We have recently picked up the Power Rangers, so we watch and play that (I get to be the evil one)... a cool concept, but the show is pretty dreadful acting-wise, dialogue-wise – well, there’s really not that much that’s fantastic about that show, although perhaps the original was better.  During my computer’s ill streak, they both tried helping me fix it, the main method being taking out the battery and shaking it, then replacing it (they wanted to shake the computer itself, but I wasn’t very keen on that idea).  Lately, of course, I have been gone every weekend, which limits the amount of time I get to spend with them.  However, I get to help them with homework on occasion and play wii with the elder one.  I get to read bedtime stories with them and my Tai every night... Dr. Seuss (which I read one night to see how fast I could go) and History of India.  It is my favourite part of the day.

One element of family life here that is difficult to adjust to is how different the concept of discipline is.  Whining is a common method of complaint... it doesn’t work all of the time in our house, but it still works a little better than I am used to.  I am a little less fun than I was initially because as my novelty value has faded, they have realized that, if anything, I am less likely to do what they want if they are whining.

I will be coming back to the United States with a new obsession: football!!!  Real football, not American football.  My family watches the British Premier League and has gotten me addicted to the point that I will be watching every single game when I get home.  Unfortunately, the games are all on weekend evenings, so I haven’t been home for them lately, but once I am finished being gone for the weekends I plan to watch all of the games that I can.  I can already tell that the decoration theme of my dorm room will be changed in the spring.

Overall, I like my host situation a lot; it’s turned out to be really great, although I was a little bit overwhelmed and slightly sceptical at the beginning.  Considering a few of the other host situations, I feel very lucky... some of them haven’t turned out the best.

23) Whether you are a student living with a host family or a family hosting a student, give the situation at least two weeks before passing any judgement.  Awkward situations and misunderstandings at the beginning may not hold and if you let it negatively bias you, you won’t enjoy the experience as much.  Also, for a student, it’s going to take a couple weeks to acclimate to the living environment and lifestyles of the family, so both sides need to be kind and understanding.

24) Make sure to spend enough time with your host family.  At the beginning it is a little difficult, both for the reason that there is a lot to do initially and that when you’re homesick it’s better to spend time with friends.  But your family gets attached to you, so don’t miss out on the experience of getting to know them.  If you are hosting, at least attempt to include your student in different activities.  One of my friends ends up staying home while her Ai goes out all the time and doesn’t really enjoy that.

25) Be very grateful for all of the things that you have at home, wherever that may be, because there is no guarantee that those items will be present when you go abroad.  For me, the list includes dryers, fitted sheets, shower curtains, windex, and fabric freshener.  Not having these things doesn’t exactly make life more difficult (except perhaps the dryer... I have had some of my clothes grow mold because they took too long to dry), but I wasn’t expecting to need to go without them.

26) House slippers or just flip-flops to wear around the house are a great idea, as are everyday shoes that can get wet, actually.  It’s a good idea if the latter can stand up to a bit of hiking/climbing flights of mountain stairs to ancient caves.  I wore flip-flops the first time... bad idea.  I just went barefoot up most of the first mountain, which was fine, but I should have had good shoes.  Here are some good ideas: crocs (there are a bunch of different styles, not just the original ones), Keens, Tevas, and Chacos... I think I’m going to get some Chacos when I get back home.

We have servants, which I still haven’t gotten used to and don’t think I will.  They are really only here while I am at school and have worked for the family for something like fifty years so they’re completely trustworthy, but it’s still a very odd concept for me to get my head around... people doing my laundry and cleaning.  I am pretty sure that I will never have servants.  The entire situation is made even more awkward by the fact that they don’t seem to quite understand that I truly don’t speak Marathi, and so they talk to me quite quickly and then look at me expectantly and I just stand there shaking my head awkwardly.  Oh well, all part of the experience.

Look at me...  I wasn’t even this consistant at the beginning.  However, I will be gone for the next week, so I most likely won’t write anything until I am back.  By the way, comments are always appreciated... it lets me know that people still read this.  *Hint, hint*  If you ask me questions, I will even answer them in my next entry, I promise.

*L*

Oh, the Things We Learn

I have less than one month left before I leave India.  It’s a very strange feeling… I don’t think I will know how I feel about that even after I get on the plane.  However, we still have a lot coming up and I am determined to fully enjoy all of it.

I know that I haven’t done the best at giving this impression, but I am actually here to take classes.  That’s what we do to fill the time in between all of our trips, you know.  For the most part they are going alright…

The first class that we started when we got here was Marathi (6 credits)... it’s the regional language here.  So far, we are... well... far worse than we probably should be.  Very rough conversations are possible, but for most of us that’s about it.  It is difficult to learn and to teach as a second language to English-speakers because so much is different.  For the most part, we can identify most of the script, but the majority of the words that the script spells out mean nothing to us.  Still, it is fun to be able to read road signs and shop names.  Those of us who have learned foreign languages before are picking up certain things faster and the three international students who are already at least bilingual are the best of all... no surprises there.  Our professor is the director of the program and we usually take the last twenty minutes to tell riddles and jokes.  It’s pretty fun, but we all wish we were better at Marathi.  We had our second written exam today; it was frightening and I don’t think I did well.

We have Contemporary India (4 credits) twice a week, once each with two separate professors.  Our professor on Monday lectures most of the class and then lets us ask questions about what we have read or seen in the news.  He has been covering the structure of India: government and political parties, history and important figures.  That is my favourite class here.  The format of our Friday section is quite different: two students lead each class after we all read one or two articles on a particular topic: gender or religion, the Dalit or farmer’s movements.  Most of the articles are at least twenty years old and quite opinionated.  It is a dreadful format for a class.  None of us are learning anything because our professor basically does nothing except sit in the corner while we tell one another what we already know from reading the article and answer discussion questions.  At the end of every class, we come to the same two conclusions:

-First, we are a bunch of middle-class white kids who know basically nothing about whatever issue it is that we happen to be discussing because we don’t actually live in India.  Even when we pretend, we are forced to admit that the articles are so old that quite a lot has changed.  Also, we are a group of students who could have absolutely no impact on anything even if we tried.

-Second, the only possible solution to any of these problems is improvement of the education system.  The issues cannot be changed by policies, the mindsets of the people must change instead.  So, if we actually could do something, that is what would need to be changed.

The whole thing got very redundant by the third time we had done it... not a single one of us enjoys it at this point.  Actually, yesterday I presented with one of my friends on the environmental movement.  We decided to make things a little different so no one fell asleep this time and started out by having people write haikus in groups of three.  We only talked for about half of the class and then things kind of fell apart.  The professor informed us that she was disappointed in our lack of enthusiasm.  Several of us badly wanted to answer that we were disappointed in her lack of teaching, but we held our tongues.  Anyway, not everyone’s favourite class.

Next, we had the choice between three electives (4 credits): Public Health, Indian Literature, and Indian Cinema and Society.  I chose the last one because it was the only one that I had any chance of getting to count for credit.  It definitely will not make it on the list of classes that I enjoyed during my educational career, but I also could have a better attitude about it.  The teaching style of our professor doesn’t mesh well with my learning style.  Also, the style of the movies we watch doesn’t really fit my taste: they are kind of along the line of Nobel prize books, which I have never enjoyed.  I guess I’m just picky about my books and movies.  We spend a lot of time on the meaningless symbolism behind certain shots and the attitude that the director wanted to convey by a particular camera angle.  Personally, I get bored of that rather quickly, but knew it would happen though and didn’t really have a choice if I wanted to get credit for something so I truly am trying to make the best of it.  Besides, while it may be slightly frustrating, it’s not as bad as the literature professor who is determined that no one will get an “A” in his class.  We did end up having a pretty great experience through my cinema professor though.  Two weeks ago, all of us got the chance to go see a movie about Phalke, the “father of Indian cinema” at the Film Archives here.  After the film finished (and it was spectacular), we got the chance to talk to the director for a while!  It was a great experience.

With Paresh Mokashi, the director of Harishchandrachi Factory, I think the best film of its genre that I have ever seen.  He isn't a trained director... he just decided one day that he wanted to make a film.

The last element of our coursework is the independent study projects (4 credits) that we each are working on.  My project is… currently under revision, which is not very good considering that the due date is less than a month away.  Originally, I was intending to research India’s policies regarding human trafficking.  However, I was advised against that as it wasn’t really a topic that I could research in three months.  So I turned to low-income education, as that ties into human trafficking somewhat.  Fortunately, I have gotten the chance to work with another of the students who is also studying education.  We were hoping to interview schoolchildren of around fifteen years old as a part of our studies.  The problem has been that a) our initial approval with our home universities took a considerable time to acquire, and b) our interviews need to be with students from government schools, which means that we need approval from the government here as well.  Unfortunately, the bureaucratic system here runs… well, slowly is an understatement.  The combination of everything means that we don’t have the approval that we need and thus cannot conduct any interviews.  So… my topic has changed yet again to where it will be only source research and no interviews.  Additionally, to give myself more material, I will be adding in more of my original idea.  Needless to say, I have a lot of work ahead of me, but it will all get done.  It’s a relief to know now what I need to do and not be waiting on anyone or anything, just be able to get on with my work.  The end result will be a paper of minimum twenty-five pages… the longest that I have ever written in my life.

Just a couple trips specific to the program or anyone who might have an independent study project to complete while abroad…

21) Get your ISP off the ground as much as you can before you leave home because everything here runs slowly.  When you get abroad, don’t expect anything to work the same.  A good tip that we heard was to plan on getting one third of the work done in thrice the time here that you would expect to complete back in the United States.  That is not an understatement.

22) Choose something you will enjoy.  Unless you are going to get credit for it back at home, you don’t even need to make it academic.  You can study different styles of music, dance, or cooking.  Having your interviewees be the other students is a great idea.  One of my friends did a project on geographical first impressions and had us all draw mental maps.  There’s no need to necessarily pick something super academic, especially because those are guaranteed to take longer and be more difficult anyway.  Besides, you don’t want the difficulties to just dishearten you to the point that you don’t want to do anything about it anymore.

Actually, the trip this past weekend to Mahabaleshwar was not really a vacation but more of a conference to discuss our projects.  We all know roughly what one another has been working on it, but it was interesting to hear how everyone has progressed.  Each of us took about ten minutes to talk about it and then got comments and questions from everyone else, including our two professors who came along.  So, nineteen students at around a half hour each… we were sitting and talking about projects for a little over ten hours.  Lots of fun… yey!  Actually, it was mostly enjoyable.  We got to sit outside on the veranda of our hotel where we could watch the monkeys jumping around in the trees if we got bored.  Still, we faced a bit of difficulty with the weather.  The majority of our presentations took place on Saturday and it began raining heavily part-way through, making it difficult to hear and eventually getting us wet enough that we needed to go inside.  Then the power went out, so we sat there for a while presenting in the dark.  But we just kept going – we are at the point where almost nothing phases us anymore – and it was still fun apart from a few obnoxious questions and comments.

Project briefings at Mahabaleshwar... don't we look like we're having fun?

 So see?  I truly have been working.  The academics are nowhere near as difficult as at home – definitely not the main point of the program.  Still, we are all conscientious enough students that we are doing fairly well despite the highly frustrating differences seen between our academic attitudes and those of our professors.

Check back in tomorrow as I am going to write even more!  Having a functional computer is great.

*L*

Here and There and Everywhere...

Hello!

Well, I have gotten my computer back, but not repaired as it seems that the motherboard needs to be replaced.  As a result, I have decided to wait until I get back to the States to see to repairs.  However… my computer has inexplicably decided to work again.  I decided that I won’t complain about it and just keep backups of my files.  So, after a silence of over a month, my blog is going to come back to life.  And this will be quite the entry, so go get your tea before you begin to read...

We have been up to quite a lot; more than I can cover even in the length that this is going to turn out to be.  Therefore, I will stick to the main events.  Three weekends ago, about half of our group got the opportunity to go on a cycling trip around the southern part of Maharashtra along the Konkan Coast.  The trip wasn’t booked through our program, but through a travel agent that one set of the students booked their term travels with.

A little fishing village that we rode through backed by the Arabian Sea.

It was amazing!  We got to see the backcountry, stay in the fishing villages, and bike along the sand.  Nothing like this trip is part of the program, so we got a completely unique experience.  Our guide, Kedar, personalizes each trip to the group’s interests and physical fitness.  He and one of his friends, Nitant, rode along with us and we had two cars following us the entire way in case we got tired or injured, driven by Kedar’s daughter and their friend Manisha.  They were all fluent in English and wonderful company!  My endurance is dreadful and there were a lot of long climbs on both days.  When Kedar saw at the end of the first day that I was having difficulty with it, he rode almost the entire way the second day with me, giving me tips for how to keep going and talking to distract me from the climb.  I made it up the entire mountain without stopping... it took about thirty or fourty minutes.  The company’s name is Green Earth Adventures (www.greenearthadventures.com) and if you ever want to experience India in an amazing way, absolutely go on a trip with them.  I have absolutely nothing negative to say about the experience... it was far beyond fantastic.

The group of us who went on the bike trip.

19) Take the opportunities that come your way... you may very well come out with one of the best experiences of your life.  We almost didn’t take this one, but every one of us is so grateful that we did.  Even if it might cost a little more or you feel like you don’t have time... seize it.

Then two weekends past, we got the chance to go to Goa... all of the students except for one who got the chance to go on a learning retreat with a group of Buddhist monks.  Goa is one of the main tourist traps of India, and for good reason... it is beautiful: all sun, sand, and green-blue waves.  We spent a day on the beach which Jason Bourne runs on in The Bourne Supremacy… some people even saw dolphins there.  And there were so many white people!  It was great... we could even wear swimsuits and shorts.  We spent one evening on a boat where we got to watch the sunset and got some breathtaking photographs.  We spent a morning walking around Old Goa, where we got the chance to see the largest church in Asia.  Goa was settled by the Portuguese and is known as the Christian state in India.  As such, they have a large collection of beautiful churches, cathedrals, and basilicas.  The Shivas, Krishnas, and Saraswatis that fill the roadside shrines that one sees throughout India were mostly replaced by crosses.  The same devotional garlands of flowers that people leave for Hindu idols adorn these crosses... it was really something beautiful to see.

The Basilica de Bom Jesus in Old Goa.

Most of us chose to rent cars to take us there and drive us around the entire weekend.  However, it wasn’t exactly the experience we were expecting.  Since Goa is such a large tourist destination, the roads became wonderfully smooth once we arrived.  Until we got there and after we left, the potholes and bumps were dreadful.  I’ve described driving in India before, right?  How lanes are only a suggestion and the horn is in constant use?  Yes, well, the highway for ten to fourteen hours under these conditions does not necessarily lend itself to comfortable driving.  The drivers were surly all weekend, cheated us into paying for their meals although we were not supposed to, swore rather liberally at having to drive around Goa, and refused to separate, which kind of defeated the point of having two cars.  The reason for the last two is that they had no idea where they were going most of the time... and maps are not really a done thing here.  So we got lost several times every time we got into the car, making our trips longer than they should have been.  The best choice would have been to take the public bus overnight, which some of the other students did, and then rent cars once we reached Goa.  So...

20) When you plan something, do not expect things to work as they do at home.  Consider every option and be careful to read advice of people who have taken each one.  However, you mustn’t let it ruin your time... it’s not worth it.  You will miss the good things.

Goa...

And then, this past weekend, we went to the Mahabaleshwar Hill Station.  There are hill stations all over India, built high in the mountains during colonization by the British to escape the hottest parts of the year.  It was slightly cooler, but not by a considerable amount.  It rained quite heavily on Saturday for several hours on end and we got to see some fantastic storms.  Also, all the rain meant that the mist would seep in around us while we were standing or sitting around… it felt as if we were in the middle of the clouds.  We watched sunset over a lake on Friday evening and a few of us got up early enough to watch sunrise on the top of the mountain.  I got to go horseback riding twice and, unlike America, I was allowed to gallop around a large track that they had.  I had so much fun.  It was quite a relaxing weekend for all of us and the slightly cooler temperatures were great.  Additionally, Mahabaleshwar is known for its strawberries.  They aren’t in season right now, but I had the best strawberry ice cream that I have ever had made from last season’s frozen fruit.  Very delicious.

Sunset in the mountains.

On Saturday morning, we went to a spectacular overlook where you could see for kilometres in every direction.  It was great except for the crowds.  The paparazzi phenomenon has been bad in other places, but it got particularly bad there… to the point where a few of us yelled at the groups of college boys following us and I actually shoved a group of them away from us when they got particularly close and irritating.  It was like being a zoo animal, completely ridiculous that they didn’t consider it rude at all.  I have no tips for avoiding irritation as I haven’t figured it out myself and cannot help becoming angry every time it happens.  Some people have begun making faces to ruin the photos… I may try that soon.  Unfortunately, I think I am slightly more prone to slapping people or confiscating their cameras.

Monkeys!  And no, I haven't tried to pet any of them yet.

So that’s my travels thus far… or at least a brief version and I believe that is long enough.  Our longest holiday is rapidly approaching so there will be another considerable entry and many photographs after that one.  However, I will be writing again before that, so check back tomorrow.  I miss you all greatly and hope that you are all doing well!

*L*

Extraordinary moments

Computer problems are persisting (mine broke again and it’s taken a ridiculously long time to get ahold of Dell) and our phone service was discontinued almost two weeks ago due to... something.  We’re not really sure.  The internet at school is down occasionally as well so that is always fun.  Even my headphones have rebelled and I’m guessing that I will need to get new ones soon.  The only things that haven’t malfunctioned are my camera and my trusty old ipod, which is the oldest piece of technology that I own... good old ipod.  I love that thing.

Anyway, all of that is merely to say that this will be a short and photo-less entry as I am using the office computer, so enough complaining.  As frustrating as it has been to operate without a computer, I know now that I don’t actually rely on them as much as I thought I did.  I’m learning to do more stuff without one and to be more flexible and just go with the flow of events as they come.  I am also coming to appreciate internet cafes and flash drives way more than I ever have before.  I mean, I would still love my computer to work, but I’m able to function without it.

Two weekends ago was the last day of the Ganpati (Ganesh) Festival.  Ganesh is one of the main Hindu gods and there is a ten-day festival in his honour right around now every year.  The Ganesh festival marks the beginning of the festival season here, and has historically been at its most spectacular in Maharashtra, but it is gaining popularity all across India.  There were idols of him all over the city and the last day (Sunday) all the idols were taken to be immersed in the Ganges.  It was a giant party all night long.  I really can’t think of anything to compare it to in the United States.  Perhaps like the Macy’s Day Parade scale-wise, Independence Day-type spirit with the decorations and fireworks, and the feel of a concert with tons of loud music and a mosh-pit feeling.  But then with a religious bent... at least on the surface.  That’s the best I can do.  It was intense.  We spent the night at one of the student’s host homes that was close to the main road where the procession took place.  We went out on the road a couple times.  The first time we just stood in one place and that was fine, although I couldn’t see anything (but how is that new?).  The second time was not fun.  There are a ton of people and it was dark at that point.  Being girls trying to push through streets mostly full of college-age guys was just... not a fun experience. We had some of our guys with us but they couldn’t really do anything.  Anyway, I didn’t go out after that, watching from the terrace of our building for the rest of the evening.  The party went all night long with tons of music and dancing and screaming and everything.  Needless to say, our sleep schedule was not super great that night.

This past weekend we went to another fort, which was as amazing as the first.  Again, there is no way to describe the experience of feeling like you are at the top of the world, gazing at the most beautiful sight you have ever seen.  These forts are all built with the intention to see as much of the surrounding countryside as possible, so the view is completely spectacular.  We loved it.  Moments like that have proved to make us highly reflective and this time I realized that it’s the moments that are so extraordinary that they steal your breath away, the views that a photograph cannot capture because even one thousand words could never begin to do them justice, the experiences that you need to have yourself to fully appreciate, and the people that make you see the good in life through the pain; these are what make life worth living.  So I hope that each of you can find those moments, those views, those experiences, and especially those people.  Be sure to take the time to cherish everyone and everything that you have been blessed with.

*L*

Can You Imagine...

I apologize for taking so long to post again.  I have been taking my turn with computer difficulties, so my laptop has been in someone else’s care for the past few days.  But finally I have it back, which makes me very happy.  Anyway, the only way this really affects you is that this post will most likely be much longer than you would rather read.  I apologize for that as well, but as I am not forcing you to read my blog, I will go ahead and write as much as I want to and trust that if you get bored, you will just stop reading.

So... last weekend, our group went to visit the Caves at Ajanta and Ellora.  They were truly the most spectacular sights I have ever seen in my life.  I just wish you could have all been there to see it with me because, again, it is impossible to describe them through either photographs or words, but I shall do my best.

We left on Thursday and had a private bus for the drive to Ellora (which just stayed with us the entire weekend) because it was several hours.  The rain began sometime during our bus ride, so by the end we had rain leaking through the windows and ceiling on part of the bus (the bus wasn’t completely water-proof; suffice it to say that several of us just gave up on the return journey and wore our rain coats most of the way back).  The rain continued pretty much around-the-clock until yesterday (that’s about seven days...) so now it’s only raining about half the time and fortunately the heaviest rainfall is now at night.  Although we were definitely more than tired of the rain by the end, it definitely gave the caves a sort of beauty that we would not have been able to see with the sun out.  The “hotel” that we stayed at actually consisted of a beautiful little compound with a dozen little cottages, a walking path, green lawns, palm trees, a partial view of Ellora, and our own personal pack of monkeys.  Unfortunately, the monkeys were a little territorial, which rather discouraged us from making friends with them.  One sent about six of us running and screaming in terror when it almost leaped from our roof onto us the first night (admittedly, we were a little too close), so we kind of avoided them for the rest of the trip.  Now that I’ve alarmed at least my mother and the nurse from Passport Health who expressly told me to avoid the monkeys, I would like to say that I did stay at least six feet away from them at all times and that one did not actually come off of the roof... we ran far enough away to pacify it.  But anyway, the hotel was beautiful, the food was great, and we basically had the entire place to ourselves.  If you ever go to Ellora, stay at the Hotel Kailas, it is fantastic.

My cabin... later on it had about a dozen monkeys jumping around on the roof.

Part of the semi-circle of caves at Ajanta.

Friday was spent at Ajanta, which is phenomenal.  Tucked deep into a lush green valley with a river flowing through it and a waterfall at one end, the caves are exquisitely detailed.  The caves at Ajanta fall into two sets: the first dating from the second to first century B.C. and the second from the fifth to sixth centuries A.D.  Here we even got to see a few caves which were left unfinished when the caves were abandoned after only a short time.  None of us could figure out why on Earth they would leave that place... we were all ready to just stay and become monks ourselves.  However, it was rediscovered in an interesting way: in 1819 a group of British soldiers were hunting when one named John Smith (not the John Smith from Pocahontas) saw a tiger disappear into one of the caves (which was very overgrown and hidden by greenery by that point).  Curious, he followed and discovered these masterpieces... I can’t even imagine how incredible that must have been.  It was so beautiful... I really don’t know how to describe it; it was just amazing.

Some of the carvings at Ajanta.

As amazing as Ajanta was, however, Ellora was my favourite of the places that we saw over the weekend.  The centrepiece of Ellora is Kailasanatha Temple which... is amazing.  I should mention that all of these architectural wonders are carved out of the rock that is already there; nothing is built, so everything is one piece.  Along about half of the edges of the cavern that has been left by the creation of this monolith were dug further into the mountain and are halls lined with pillars on one side and highly skilled motifs of Hindu mythology.  It was truly an achievement to take one’s breath completely away.  Some of us went up to the highest point of the cavern directly behind the end of the temple and just sat there marvelling at it.  Commissioned by king Krishna I at the request of his wife in the eighth century A.D., it took 100 years to remove the approximately 85,000 cubic metres of excess stone from this 81x47 metre complex!  Can you even begin to imagine that?  An amazing story that we heard about this place is that the architect who carved the main tower, after seeing what he had created said “I never designed this, it was designed by god and I merely took away what was not the temple; I did nothing of consequence.”  As a result, no one knows who the mastermind behind the masterpiece was.  In my opinion, Ellora should absolutely be named as one of the wonders of the world.  Obviously, I haven’t seen anything approaching the entire world, but I think that anything more stunning, sensational, and skilled than this might just kill me... I am not really kidding; this place was spectacular enough to rival anything ever created.

Kailasanatha Temple from the top.

After our official tour, we got to go back and explore Ellora more at our own leisure, which was absolutely the best part.  Since the crowds at the main temple were very thick and we are making very conscious efforts to avoid large crowds (which I will explain later), we walked further down the line of caves to see some of the others.  The caves at Ellora fall into three groups: Buddhist (caves 1-12, seventh-eighth centuries A.D.), Hindu (13-29, which includes Kailasanatha as number 16, seventh-ninth centuries), and Jain (30-34, ninth century).  It was amazing to just go at our own pace and get to explore every detail of any new cave that struck our fancy.  For most of the time, there were just three of us, and we ended up just sitting in one of the caves for a few hours that was mostly empty and soaking in the wonder of the place that we had found ourselves.  It’s funny how excited one can get thinking about history.  Our most-used phrase by the end of the trip was “Can you imagine...”.  We found ourselves desperately wishing that we could see all the people who created the caves we were sitting in and those who used to live there, put faces to the names and see them go about their daily routines.  The longer we sat, the more details jumped out at us and the greater our curiosity was piqued.  We speculated what each unknown discovery would have been used for, and this was much more interesting than hearing the facts from a guidebook.  It was amazing.  We didn’t get to see near everything that we wanted to, though, so some of us are hoping to take a weekend and go back to do more exploring.

 

Sunday, we headed back and stopped by Daulatabad Fort on our way.  To be perfectly honest, the architecture paled in comparison to Ajanta and Ellora, but it was built for defence, not beauty, and their ingenuity of design was amazing in its own right.  To begin with, there were four concentric walls and a triple gateway surrounds the inner fort.  Fourty-two (I think) sets of fake gates are placed throughout the compound to confuse invaders.  The gates were not aligned or at enough distance for elephants to get sufficient starts to batter them and were covered in metal spikes just in case they tried (apparently, the invaders were just as brutal and would put camels up against the doors, sacrificing them instead of the elephants).  I lost count of how many water moats there were which were filled with crocodiles and all manner of dangerous creatures and how many places one would emerge from a door only to get his head severed by an enemy soldier lying in wait.

Ruins of Daulatabad Fort.

One element that I need to mention is a series of dark passageways and stairs that was intended to be a trap for enemies.  It’s been kept authentic, so there are still no lights, and “for fun” we went through it the same way that they would have done.  Let me go just a bit further to paint this picture... the floor was, for most of the way, covered in moss due to an inch of what we decided to call “cave water” to avoid thinking about what it might actually be, there were very obviously millions of bats lining the ceiling (which gave it a not-too-pleasant aroma), it was the darkest space you can imagine, there were stairs up and down at unexpected places, the walls were prone to give way on either side, and a group of us lost the main group.  It wasn’t a terrible experience, but not necessarily one I would like to go through every day.  We kept wondering what would happen to soldiers who forgot their way through their own labyrinth.  After this experience, we got to climb all the way to the very top of the mountain where there remains a building which I think was the primary watchtower or something.  The view from there was amazing, like the mountains at home but higher and much greener everywhere.  Sitting up there made it seem as if all the problems we had in life were inconsequential and everything unpleasant melt away.  Yes, I do realize how cheesy that sounds, but I am being completely serious... it’s an experience that I don’t think any of us will forget for a long time.

Unfortunately, the weekend wasn’t fully relaxing.  Anyone who has been abroad to a place where foreigners are not necessarily common will be able to understand this.  Those who have not experienced this will not understand; it’s something you need to experience first-hand.  To explain it politely, we all gained a new sense of great sympathy for celebrities.  People were constantly snapping photographs directly in our faces (which, apart from being rude, is just highly irritating) and even if we said “no photo” quite insistently, most would ignore us.  Others would ask for photos with us, which... you know... is difficult to decline without feeling rude.  I am so very thankful that I am not blonde, although it truthfully didn’t seem to matter all that much; I’m still white.  It was exhausting and very frustrating, at least for me.  Some people dealt with it better than I did, but we were all irritated by the end.  We tried to avoid crowds.  We tried very hard.  It didn’t usually matter.  Even if there were only two people around, they would usually take photographs.  We even got a couple people who followed us around, snapping multiple photographs during that time.  Everyone, regardless of whether they were taking photographs or not, stared at us very openly (sometimes with their mouths open as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing), making us all even more uncomfortable.  At Ellora, we drew quite the crowd during out tour; people were even leaning over the balconies around the edge of the cavern to get a better view of us. We had a few staff members from our school, the tour guides, and people who worked at the Caves who would make them leave if they got too noisy or overly-irritating.

This isn't related to anything, really, just a fun photo.  There were so many monkeys!

Another crowd-related adventure we got to take during this trip was boarding an Indian bus.  Between the parking lot where our bus had to stay and the actual Caves at Ajanta, we had to take the public bus.  The way there was fine, but the way back was... not so much.  We didn’t have any warning as to what to expect and were told to form a line, so we did, just like the polite and orderly American school children we are.  The problem with that was that the line kept forming, but in front of us, and we didn’t understand that we would need to push people out of the way very insistently in order to get on the bus.  I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that we got to see all of our staff get irritated both with us for not being pushy enough and with the native tourists around us for not letting us on the bus.  We were all quite traumatized by the time we finally got on... not really an experience that I would care to repeat.  It was not fun by any stretch of anyone’s imagination (I hope... if you enjoy that type of thing, I think I would question your sanity a little).

Before loading said bus on the way out to Ajanta and after disembarking on the way back, we had to walk through a set of shops which thrives solely on the tourism that comes through there.  The vendors were, to put it politely, overbearingly persistent.  We got “gifts” on the way in of stones and crystals apparently from the area and were told the names and stalls of the vendors who eagerly escorted us from our bus to the other one.  The names that I had branded onto my brain were David, Jay, and Santiago, or something like that.  Since they were all Indian, we made a guess that these weren’t their real names.  One of the students went around telling them that his name was Harrison Ford, which was amusing to watch (they didn’t know who that was).  We had to be careful about using one another’s names, because as soon as they heard a name, they made certain to remember it and would use it to their fullest advantage.  On the way back, they remembered exactly who they had talked to and attempted to guilt us all into coming to their shops because they had given us gifts.  It was another traumatizing experience... most of us wanted to find a way to evade the vendors and sneak to our bus, which isn’t possible, there are too many.  Anyway, they followed us all the way to the bus and knocked on the windows, trying to sell us things, because we were waiting for the last of our group for about twenty minutes.

And then official classes began on Monday... just like that.  It’s a bit surreal to be doing regular schoolwork, actually.  We aren’t used to it yet.  This past week was the toughest I think most of us have had yet, actually.  Round two of computer problems hit, leaving us frustrated, and our American professor left, which I think is affecting all of us a little more than we realized it would.  There are always several people feeling under the weather, and one of our guys has even been at home for a few days now.  I’ve been really lucky and only felt ill a few times and, for the most part, I’m fine now.  Hopefully that won’t be for much longer.  But some things are improving.  After a few weeks of frustration regarding cell phones, we finally got them and they went online on Thursday, so we are revelling in the fact that we can contact one another so easily.




At the festival... we got scarves and flowers and the bindis painted on our foreheads.

Friday night, we, along with the other foreign exchange students in the city, were VVIPs (yes, there were two V’s on the sign by our seats) to an annual festival that marks the beginning of the Ganesh Festival (a ten-day Hindu holiday in celebration of their lord Ganesh... I’ll explain more about it at the end of the ten days).  There was quite a bit of speech-making and formalities (which, admittedly, were slightly boring and we couldn’t understand most of them), but we got a magnificent display of Indian music and dance and got treated very well (the boys got turbans and we all got scarves and front-row seats).  I don’t think any of us will ever hear quite as well as we did originally, but the music was amazing enough to make up for that.



Aren't those turbans great?



The best way any of us has been able to think of for describing this trip so far is “an experience of extremes.”  The high points are sensational and more amazing than we could ever hope for while the low points are very difficult and sometimes almost devastating.  But it’s helped that we’re all going through the same thing and that we’re in such close quarters that we can’t really help the others seeing if we’re having a bad day and burst into tears, which means there are hugs from every direction.  At least that’s the case for the girls, I guess I haven’t seen any of the guys burst into tears yet... they just get frustrated and we know to give them space.  Homework is made easier since we’re all in all the same classes and we’re all naturally interested in what we’re learning.  Class discussions have turned out to be great.  We’re figuring out the city: where to find bland food when we need it and clothes so that we don’t stand out quite so much, and places that we can spend Saturday nights in groups.  A group of puppies showed up at our school this week and that’s helped us all quite a bit, actually.  They are ridiculously cute and know us all at this point so they come running when they see us.  We’ve named them all and they just hang out behind our building or across the street all the time now.  Yes, they do have fleas, but we’ve all held the puppies and none of us have picked the fleas up yet so... you know.  We have determined that they are too cute to have rabies (something else to horrify my Mum, I suppose).  Anyhow, they’re proving crucial for our sanity.



Our puppies.

Just a few short tips while I’m thinking of them, and then I will end this absurdly long entry.



16) A few items to add to the packing list that I seem to be building: toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  Trust me... they are very important.  Also important is an industrial-strength rain coat.  Get one of the rubber ones... bright yellow if you need to and as thick as possible... because the “breathable” ones don’t actually do all that much good here if you’re out in a deluge all day.  You and your belongings still end up soaked.  Those may not be the classiest things to wear, but at the end of the day you would rather be dry than look good (which you won’t anyway).  And, honestly, it doesn’t matter what colour you’re wearing because you’re going to be stared at anyway.  Umbrellas are useful, but perhaps not the best accessory in a crowded situation.  More than one of us nearly got our eyes taken out by umbrellas.  Waterproof backpacks are a good idea or everything will get drenched, regardless of whether or not your have a rain coat or umbrella.



17) When confronted with something amazing, be certain to take the time to appreciate it as fully as possible.  Marvels such as Ajanta and Ellora cannot in any way be fully appreciated even if one lived there, but just sitting and staring at these masterpieces was a great experience.  Don’t be so schedule-oriented or stressed out that you miss these opportunities.



18) Try not to let yourself get overwhelmed when things go wrong.  Honestly, sometimes that’s impossible; you will break down every once in a while.  But do your best to try and be fluid.  We’re learning to operate on “India time” and, while it’s really difficult so far, once we get to that point we will be so much better off.  Those last two pieces of advice work just as well at home as well, by the way.



Speaking of getting overwhelmed, I hope that didn’t do so and that you enjoyed reading it.  If you made it all the way through in one sitting, congratulations.  The next entry will be shorter, I promise.  I hope that everyone is doing well!

*L*