Miracles and the first week of classes

(It won't let me type captions under the pictures so I'll list them briefly here. The first two are of my room in the hostel, next is Jackie and Liz at the rooftop restaurant, Liz on our adventure, a picture of the Pondicherry Freedom Jam that took place on the beach, and me striking some sort of pose in the French Quarter in Pondi!)

The past week has been spent trying to figure out the five classes I’ll be taking this semester. I’m taking Media Studies (English), Feminist Studies (English), Indian Sociological Perspectives, Medical Anthropology, and Practical and Classical Yoga. Choosing classes takes a while here, as it requires meeting several professors to see if I can sit in on their class, sitting in for a day or two, and then deciding. Also, it is fairly common for teachers to attend conferences/not have class, and they rarely tell students when classes are cancelled. This has happened a few times already, but since it is fairly common, it’s given me a chance to get to know some of the Indian students in my classes. It’s frustrating to wait for fifteen or twenty minutes for the bus to take me from my hostel/dorm to the social sciences & humanities department block (which is about the size of Hendrix, everything is big and spread out here!), get to class and realize it has been cancelled, and then go wait for the bus again. It’s okay though, I’m getting used to it…and I have started bringing a book everywhere I go, and have been reading a lot.

I take the bus back to my hostel for lunch most days. The bus is often so crowded that dozens of people stand in the aisles, and more than once I’ve seen boys hanging on to the outside of the bus as it is moving! Liz and I went into Pondi the other day to buy a bicycle to share. We’ll be riding it to and from class instead of always taking the bus, which will be convenient.

Last Saturday, Kara, Lauren, Jackie, Liz and I took the bus into Pondi to explore the French quarter. We had tea on a rooftop restaurant for 35 rupees (50 cents or so), which was lovely. Tea time (5pm) is a big thing here, and dinner doesn’t start until 7:30. Liz and I stumbled across a bookstore and left loaded down with Indian fiction. In the evening, we listened to live music on the beach (it was Republic Day, so there was a concert going on, a parade, and the main park was lit up with neon lights). We were craving American food pretty badly at this point, and split a chicken tikka pizza at Pizza Hut. It was pretty expensive, though, and the restaurant itself was much, much nicer than Pizza Hut in the US! All kinds of things besides pizza were on the menu: salad, pasta, cheesecake…it was delicious. Best pizza ever (not really, but it was so good).

On Sunday, Liz and I went on an epic adventure to nearby Auroville, the intentional sustainable community. I say epic adventure because we underestimated how far it was, and got extremely lost. We had planned on taking the bus to the main road, walking to the visitor’s center, and reading somewhere and just relaxing. Instead, this is what happened:

-Liz saved me from being hit by a motorcycle driver by pulling my backpack back just in time

-We walked for 2-3 hours, along the way finding: children that tried to take my camera, a pottery shop offering classes for 200 rupees (4 dollars or so), Farm Fresh – a local supermarket & restaurant, a coconut disaster (I bought a coconut, we shared the juice, and once it was cut in half I was savoring the meat inside when I stumbled on a dirt-covered hill, holding onto the coconut shell but dropping the meat in the dirt…I thought about eating it for a second but then reconsidered), stumbling across a Tamil village where no one knew where the visitor center was (hint: by now we are officially lost) and from there we kept walking…oops…were given directions by 5 people who kept telling us it was “just 1 km more, just 1.5 km more!” watched some boys playing a game of cricket, finally stumbled across the back entrance to the visitor center (where the bemused security guard told us to turn at a eucalyptus tree), and FINALLY made it to Auroville.

-Once we got there, I looked at the events listed on the bulletin board (they look awesome, lots of gardening, an eco music festival, etc.) and Liz and I read for a while. What a day. A bit more than we bargained for, but I had a blast. I think we walked between 6-8 miles during that time…

 

A South Indian Tour: Reflections on Time in Kerala and Tamil Nadu

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Before classes started (note: they still haven’t started, I’m still not sure when they are/what is happening exactly, we’re picking classes today, though) I went on a tour of the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu (my school is in Tamil Nadu) with the other students in my program, as well as our fantastic program director, Professor Dr. Uncle Sunny Luke (a man of many names! We just called him Sunny or Dr. Luke).

Sunday, January 13: Saw 7^th century sculptures and stone carvings in Mahalbupuram, took an overnight train to Cochin.

Monday: Shopping, wandering around, and relaxing in the touristy beach city of Cochin. Only in India moment: when your bus driver pulls over so someone (Dr. Sunny Luke) can buy a fish off the side of the road.

Tuesday: Visited a wildlife sanctuary in Ernakulum that had mangrove trees and bats known as flying foxes, and visited a college so Dr. Sunny Luke could give a presentation about his stem cell research (yes, he is not only our program director but a renown geneticist!).

Wednesday: The day of endless patterns, Sunny’s wife took us shopping to buy traditional Indian attire: salwar kameez (silk top/pant/scarf outfit), kurta tops, and leggings. The patterns here are so vibrant and colorful. It’s beautiful and overwhelming. I spent about $60 US and bought two silk salvar kameez sets (pants, shirt/tunic, scarf), a kurta top, and a pair of leggings. We went to Sunny Luke’s house in Kottayam for dinner, and his wife, Philo, made delicious food, including spiced biryani rice and a fish curry. His house is beautiful! It’s in a gated community, overlooking water. It astounds me how friendly and welcoming people have been on our trip so far.

Thursday: Today was the most amazing day. Everything in India is a constant celebration! So much excitement and energy everywhere – this morning we went to a college for a cultural exchange (we sang America the Beautiful, Build Me Up Buttercup, and the Star Spangled Banner) and watched a performance of mudras – hand motions that tell stories. Dancing/performance art is very expressive in India, and uses all parts of the body, including hands, facial expressions, etc. As we left the cultural exchange, we realized we were in the midst of a welcoming parade (though only men were in it/dancing, surprise…). Hundreds of students walked with us, dancing and clapping, fireworks went off….it was pretty rowdy, really. We had a relaxing afternoon boating in Vembanattu, and on the way back to our hotel in the evening we ran into yet another parade, this time at a Hindu temple. There were people dancing, men with metal rods pierced through their mouths, a man riding an elephant, boys dancing with pots on their head…it was crazy. It just blows my mind how intense everything is here, there’s just so much going on all at one time, pretty much all the time (though not at the university, it’s much calmer). How do people function on a daily basis when everything looks like a constant celebration?

Friday: Attended another cultural exchange, this time at a women's college near Kumily.Talked to a student about gender inequalities, gender norms, etc. for Indian women, which was really interesting! Women in America have a lot more freedom to do things I hadn't even thought of until I came here, really...like walk around by ourselves at night, or wear whatever we want. During the cultural exchange, we watched performances of south Indian dance, classical music, and other arts/music/dances that are from southern India. Afterwards, some of the girls taught us a few dance moves!

Kumily is beautiful – it’s a bit what I pictured Darjeeling to look like. We visited a tea plantation, which was like a dream come true, walking through tea plants! Kumily is the spice capital of the world, so everything here is spicier than anywhere else I have been. Meat and fish are also more common, because of the higher Muslim/Christian population as well as the proximity to the ocean. Our hotel is really nice – there is a balcony that overlooks a field, with the highlands behind them. Monkeys play on trees nearby. Funny quote from Sunny about staying in Kumily: “You may hear a knock on your door at six in the morning. Do not worry, a bird will be there.” (This actually happened, by the way, a bird did knock on our door!)

Saturday: Another Sunny quote (he is hilarious, also): “I am like your Indian dad, just like you have a dad in the U.S. After the semester you may be so happy that you will change your name to Luke, I am your father!”

Kumily is my favorite place we’ve visited. Today, we went on a guided hike through the highlands, where we saw wild elepants (WILD! ELEPHANTS!) as well as some spiders and the state bird of Kerala, which is endangered. There are so many monkeys here, I think they are the squirrels of Kerala.

Sunday, we rode the train (and I have already posted about that semi-traumatic experience!). We got to Pondicherry early Monday morning, moved into our dorm rooms, and slept. Later on, we went to an Indian grocery store, where I bought the following for about $20 US. A blanket, a towel, a plastic bucket, a handkerchief, a plastic spoon, tape, 6 plantains, 2 oranges, a bag of pistachios, a bag of dried prunes, a vanilla candle, a box of incense (100% natural, chemical free, etc etc. smells a bit like dirt), a tupperware container, 7 chocolate bars, and 3 packages of tic-tacs.

Tuesday: Got our visas registered (only had to go to the visa office three times in one day to do so, oh, India), tried unsuccessfully to get the internet to work, and started looking at potential classes.

My next post will cover the challenges of planning classes in India, and my first week of classes. It’s…different here. Not as straightforward. Surprised?

 

 Our group wearing traditional indian attire. From left to right: Jackie, Lauren, Kara, me, Liz, Chris

 Wandering through a tea plantation near Kumily. I'm in a daze because of the prospect of being surrounded by tea...

Liz and I making super attractive faces near some crocodiles!

A man carting an elephant - probably to a Hindu temple.

Sari fabric. The patterns, colors, and materials are all so vibrant and beautiful here.

 

 Blurry picture taken on the first (note: fun, exciting, fewer cockroaches) train

 The ladies (minus Liz, who took this picture) sharing beer on a rooftop bar before the worst train experience of all time! (We are clearly not expecting what came next haha)

Facing Your Fears Every Day: Cockroaches, trains, heights, crowds, and wild animals

India is a constant challenge. That is to say, it’s been quite an adventure so far, and there are many aspects I love about India. One bad thing, though – unlike in the U.S., where I can easily avoid facing my fears (cockroaches, things being dirty in general, claustrophobic/crowded situations, etc.) in India I am presented with these challenges on a daily basis, and there is no way to avoid them. This means that you face your fears, make it through them okay, and come out on the other side a little less scared.

Take for example, the train. The station itself is crowded and noisy, and once you figure out where the platform you’re looking for is – taking into account that they aren’t marked very well – when the train arrives everyone rushes to board. Indians don’t seem to have the same concept of lines as we do in the U.S., people just push past each other (this is a cultural norm, people also don’t say excuse me, it’s seen as oddly formal). I’ve been on two overnight sleeper trains, the first from Chennai to Cochin at the beginning of the South Indian tour, and the second from Madurai to Villupurum. When you board a sleeper train, you are given a seat number. We rode 3 tier non-AC sleeper trains, and once we got to our seat, which was a long bench, there were two benches above the one we were sitting in. You pull down those benches, secure them with a metal cable, and then people sleep that way. The train to Chennai was overall enjoyable – I was still in the “oh wow I am in India, holy moley!” phase, so I had a good time. The train was just as grimy and gross as I had feared, but I did it, it was fine…though for future reference, (TMI time) it’s really hard to use a squatting toilet on a moving train!

The train to Villupurum was pretty much hell on earth. If you combined all the fears I mentioned and magnified them, that’s what it was. While the first train was relatively clean (I only saw one cockroach), there were so many cockroaches crawling all over the train compartment that after I killed seven or so I just started swatting them away when they got too close. I’m sure I saw at least fifty though, as well as two mice. Also, the train situation – we accidently booked the wrong tickets and didn’t realize until we got to the station and had to buy last minute seated tickets for our group of seven people (worst case scenario, train edition). This meant once we boarded the train, we didn’t have sleeper status, so we had to look around for an empty bench that we could all sit on overnight. We got on the first train, and the ticketmaster kicked us off right before it started moving, saying there were not seats available. On the next train, we were so desperate that we just sat wherever we found room – in my case, at the foot of a bed of a nice woman and her daughter. At four a.m. after we had been on the train for about five hours, a family gave us their sleeper seats, so Liz and I shared one for about forty-five minutes…until we were woken up because we were reaching Villupuram. To borrow a quote from my friend Lauren's blog, for every terrible or frustrating thing that happens here, something beautiful happens. I need to keep that in perspective when I get frustrated when day to day things aren't working (we had to go to the visa office three times yesterday, the internet cuts out, etc etc). I just need to be patient because this is India, and it will work out in the end.

This semester will be…challenging, I think. Everything is incredibly bureaucratic – from checking in our bags at the library and waiting to be helped, to having our rooms not cleaned before our arrival even though they were supposed to be cleaned, to miscommunication about choosing classes. I thought we would be finalizing courses today and starting classes tomorrow (Indian students have already started classes, we are supposed to have a ‘slow start’ to sit in on classes until we decide what we want to take), but we are choosing classes tomorrow, meeting faculty and getting our things together for our dorm rooms, and starting classes “on Thursday or Friday or Monday.” So like I said, it’s a soft start – people seem to be more flexible with things here than in the U.S., less concerned with time deadlines.

On a more exciting note – the other day, when we were in Kumily, we went on a guided nature walk through the highlands in Kerala. There, we saw the endangered state bird of Kerala, some crazy big spiders, and a herd of wild elephants. I love elephants, and I was freakin’ out over the elephant sighting. We were about 150 feet from them when our guide told us, “if they charge, run!” which prompted Liz to ask, “What happens if we see a tiger?” to which our guide told us, “you die.” Ahaha. Good thing we didn’t see any tigers! Being near the wild elephants was both thrilling and scary. Also, I have interacted with more elephants in the past few days than ever before in my whole life. We rode elephants in Kumily, near a spice plantation, which was fun – much more stable than riding a camel, which I’ve done once before. Then (dreams really do come true) when we were at the largest Hindu temple in Tamil Nadu in Madurai, an elephant blessed me for ten rupees, which involved bopping me on the head twice with its trunk. 

 I just got internet yesterday, then it stopped working...and Facebook and Skype are supposedly blocked for Pondicherry University students, though I just got on FB because the internet decided to work again. Hmm. So for now, please email me! RosenLF@hendrix.edu until I figure out the FB/Skype situation :)

To The Other Side of the World

It’s been an overwhelming few days, but I have made it to Pondicherry! We’ve been staying in a hotel in Pondicherry itself (the university is a few miles outside the city) because school doesn’t start until January 21, and we don’t move into the university hostel until January 20. Tomorrow I am going on an overnight train to Cochin with the other members of the IISAC group and our program director Sunny Luke for a 9 day tour of South India. We’ll be visiting spice plantations in Kerala, going on an elephant safari, and learning how to properly wear traditional Indian clothing such as sarees and salvar kameez, After the South Indian tour, we will move to the hostel at Pondicherry University and sit in on different classes for the first two weeks until we decide which five courses to take.

A few days before I was supposed to fly to India, I got a pretty bad cold/viral thing, and so the day of departure rolled around and I had a fever of 101.9 fahrenheit. My concerned parents asked me if I was positive I wanted to leave now, if I should go to India a few days later, etc. and I had a nervous moment – I’m sick before I’ve even left, should I go? Should I stay? – but then realized of course I was going, and headed off to the airport, my backpacks and duffel in tow. The 24 hours of travel that followed were pretty uneventful…I mostly slept on the planes and watched movies, though meeting up with Liz in London was wonderful. We got to Chennai and by the time we had gotten through customs, picked up our luggage, and used the squatting toilets (note:success) it was about 2:15am. We then went on a 2 hour terrifying journey to the hotel in Pondicherry…the drive was the scariest car ride of my life, for sure. I was tired but too excited/scared/sick to fall asleep. Also driving in India is very different than driving in America – drivers constantly honk their horns, there don’t seem to be speed limits, and bikers, autorickshaws, cars, buses, and trucks squeeze past each other really fast, weaving in between cars in ways I did not think were possible.

The next few days were a bit of a blur. We walked around Pondicherry some, exploring both the Tamil side and the calmer French quarter. We tried several South Indian dishes – which are different than the Indian food I’m used to eating in America, which is often North Indian. The most common breakfast foods in South India are things such as idily, which are white rice patties that you dip in a variety of sauces, ghee roast, hollow bread that you dip in different sauces, and purra dosa, fried bread that you – you guessed it – dip in different sauces. Lunch typically consists of thalli, white rice that comes with ten or so sauces. You pour the sauces in the rice and eat everything with your right hand. There is something oddly satisfying about eating with just your right hand, and not using silverware. For dinner we have been eating naan with palak paneer (equivalent of saag paneer in the US), gobi Manchurian (cauliflower dish), or mixed vegetables. Dinner is probably my favorite meal of the day. Also, coffee and tea is always served with cream, and the tea/coffee itself is extra concentrated. You can buy a small cup of chai tea at achaiwalla stand for about 7 rupees (8 or 10 cents). [Note: not everything in India is anywhere near this cheap! For some reason the chai is, though.]

Today was very busy. We got our student visas registered at the Indian consulate in Pondicherry, and then explored the city some. We went to a small aquarium, rode a tiny train in the Pondicherry Botanical Gardens, drank coconut milk from a coconut bought on the street, visited a Catholic church (Very interesting, but the Jew in me did not know where to go or what to do. Anyway.) and a Hindu temple, and went to the beach before having lunch and resting for a bit. The Hindu temple was really cool – I gave a small offering and was blessed by agni (fire). To do this, I brought my hands near a flame and then moved them towards my face, then a man put a red dot on my forehead. Vendors outside of the temple are all hawking their wares, though, and if you show interest at all they will follow you and pressure you into buying things, and once one vendor starts others will follow. Haggling is the norm, though, and I haggled a chain of elephants down from 150 rupees to 50 rupees, or a dollar.

This afternoon we went to Auroville, a completely sustainable community in between Pondicherry University and the city of Pondicherry. It’s very calm and quiet there – it reminded me a lot of the arboretum in Dallas. Auroville attracts a ton of tourists, both Indian and foreign. A huge golden dome is the central point of interest in Auroville, a community that doesn’t believe in religion but rather a single, unifying divinity. Not sure how this concept is actualized, but I intend to find out! After checking out a gift store and sipping some guava juice, I saw a bulletin board with information about volunteering in Auroville. There are ways to get involved with organic farming projects, education and outreach regarding green/sustainability issues, and working with animals. I’m going to settle in a bit to Pondi first before I volunteer, but Auroville is super fascinating, and it’s just a 20 minute bike ride from school so I would love to volunteer there and see how this religion-less divine thing works in real life. 

This is a typical thalli, before rice has been served. You pour the sauces over rice and eat it!

A cow eating from a trash can in the street. First thing I saw when I left the hotel our first day here. Cows are sacred, and people let their cows roam around during the day.

Namaste-ing (see how I made that a verb? Nice one, aye?) at the Pondicherry Botanical Gardens

The motto/basic philosophy behind Auroville

The golden dome at the center of Auroville. Auroville is beautiful!

Leaving tomorrow

Tomorrow, I am flying from the Dallas/Fort Worth airport to London, where I will have a 2 hour layover - during which I will reunite with the wonderful Liz - and together we will fly from London to Chennai, India, arriving at 1am Indian time. (Which is...1:30pm Dallas time? 12:30pm? Something like that.) Everything that I need from home for the next five months has been packed into two bags, a large backpack and a duffel bag. It's weird, trying to compress the things you think you'll really need (contact solution, Dr. Bronner's soap, pictures of friends, and meds upon meds, among other things) into two bags, but I made it work. I'm an efficient packer, I think.

In other news, I am currently fighting off a cold. Or severe dust allergies. I'm hoping to feel completely better tomorrow. I'm not too worried about it, though I wish I had gotten sick earlier. Oh well.

It doesn't feel like I am really leaving for India tomorrow. A few of my friends who have gone abroad already said it didn't hit them until they were on the airplane...maybe that will be the case for me, too. I'm spending my last day at home hanging out with family, reading...it just feels like any other day, though. Now that "going to India" is a reality rather than simply an idea, I am getting a bit nervous. But also excited. I've read so many different blogs and articles about traveling to India - as well as following currents news - that I feel like I have so many different perspectives telling me what going to India will be like, I need to just let go of everything and not have any expectations. Which is easier said than done...but we shall see.

Once I get to Chennai, I will travel to Pondicherry with the other students from my program. We'll spend a few days in Pondicherry, and then we will be taking a nine day tour of the neighboring states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. I'm really looking forward to it!

In case you were wondering where Pondicherry was...it's super south, next to the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala (arrow).

(Also, I realized I liked the format of blogspot blogs much better than the tumblr I had created. It's easier to read and looks better, I think! So this is my blog from now on, not the tumblr version...)

Elephants in Jaipur. My trip to India will be complete as long as I get to see elephants/play with elephants/touch an elephant…

An Introduction of Sorts

Well hey there. I’m Leala and I’m studying sociology and environmental studies in college. I’ll be spending the spring semester (January to May) in Pondicherry, India - it’s really far south and it’s a smaller town on the eastern coast of India, next to the state of Tamil Nadu.

Why India? I became really interested in public health in the past few years - specifically food access and water sanitation, and researching clean water policies/ideas was what originally led me to India - and I knew that I wanted to study abroad somewhere that wasn’t ‘Western.’ There’s so much going on in India. So many cultures, chaos, color…I kind of wanted to go somewhere completely outside of my comfort zone, too. I’ve only been outside the U.S. twice - once to French speaking Canada and another time to Israel. Also, I think studying abroad in India would allow me to have a completely different experience than if I just visited. There are tons of other things that draw me to India - yoga, elephants (apparently 50% of the wild Asian elephants are found in India, who knew?), Hinduism…not to mention I really, really like spicy food.

I made this blog so that friends & family can stay updated while I’m in India in the spring…nothing is really happening yet, though. I got a ton of shots when I was home for Thanksgiving break, my plane leaves Dallas on January 7, and I’ll get to Chennai, India by the 9th. Right now I am waiting on the official acceptance letter from Pondicherry University so that I can apply for an Indian visa!