Sunday, March 10, 2013

Livin' That Pondi Life


Over the past two weeks, I…
-Went to the Mahai Maham parade in Pondicherry, during which gods from Hindu temples all over Pondi were paraded down the street
-Had some unfortunate digestive issues and spent the majority of the week near the toilet
-Practically had a three day weekend as my classes ended at 10:30am Friday – found the atm on campus, got a coconut near the beach, and got a pedicure (for $7 US, great no?)
-Walked around Rockfort Beach in Pondi with Arun and checked out a nearby park as well as listened to some live Tamil music at the beach – there’s always something going on there in the evening. Had ice cream for dinner, yolo!
-Discovered (okay, the French girls told us about it) the most wonderful restaurant for European/American food near Auroville. Farm Fresh serves burgers, eggs, salad, sandwiches…all things that are no longer a common part of my diet! It’s also a small store, so after sharing a salad and a burger, Liz and I stocked up on the essentials: pasta, peanut butter, dates, and kombucha. We also went there for breakfast! Yum.
-Went into Pondi with two classmates, Swarna and Subhadra, and a couple of their friends for lunch. They are from Kolkatta in West Bengal so we went to get Bengali food – rice, dal (lentil sauce), a sweet sauce, vegetables, and spicy fish curry, it was delicious!
-Watched a crazy documentary about Indian feminism. Not the same issues as Western feminism, let me tell you...I was the only foreign student there but I wish there had been someone else, b/c I couldn’t tell if it was shocking to me or everyone
-Fell off a bicycle (note: it wasn’t moving) b/c my harem pants got caught on the back, so I fell off, ripping them beyond repair. Oops. Embarrassing, yes. Hilarious? Absolutely.
-Took my first midterm (internal here) in my Indian Sociological Perspectives class. Wrote 6 pages (bigger than US paper size) in an hour, then when I turned it in a classmate asked me, “is that all you wrote?” Uhhh…yes…?
- Visited an ayurvedic doctor and now have medicine that tastes like icing; after my trip this week I’ll be going back for an ayurvedic massage
-Went to the Rockfort Beach and then had dinner w/ my professor, Dr. Mili, her husband, his brother, wife, and daughter. It was really nice! I had a lot of fun – how often do you get to hang out with your professor and her family?
-Starred in a movie! Ok, not really - I was an extra in a Tamil film, so I sat in the sun all day and pretended I was a guest at a wedding. I got free food, a necklace, and 2000 rps ($40 US) as well as a Kingfisher beer – a good day, I would say, though I did get my first sunburn of the semester.
-Killed 3 cockroaches in a 20-minute period (Allison you should be so proud of me, the other girls were afraid but I was just like, yeah, that’s a huge one, lemme just smash it with my shoe!) and found one under my desk and didn’t freak out, just swept it outta my room

…and that’s what two weeks in Pondi are like. Basically. This week I don’t have half of my classes because the sociology department is going on a field trip (44 college students on a trip, oy vey). I’m going to travel around the state of Karnataka for a week with Marie-Cecile, who is from France. We’re going to Hampi and Mangalore, arriving in Bangalore on Saturday to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Then later this month I’m going to Ooty, a famous hill station in Tamil Nadu! Sorry for the lack of pictures - the water decided to cut out this morning in the middle of my shower and the wifi isn't working in my hostel so I'm currently in an internet cafe with shampoo still in my hair hahaha

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