Halfway here, halfway home

This is about the halfway point for my time in Asia – I’ll be leaving India for Nepal in May, then flying back to India in June, then flying back to the U.S. a week later. 

To commemorate the halfway mark of my time abroad, here are some things I miss about the U.S., and some things that I do not miss:

I miss…

-Wandering around campus late at night with friends

-Freedom to go to friends’ rooms whenever, male or female

-Wearing less modest clothing [sometimes]

-Having access to an air-conditioned gym…ooh, also air conditioning

-Ecohouse silly times/environmental endeavors/gardening and cooking/friends

-Food: smores, mac and cheese, salmon and asparagus, chocolate chip cookies, eggs/a protein-heavy diet, kale, greek yogurt, apples

-Halloween, and excuses to wear costumes

-Western feminism

-Finding new American music, my radio show with Allison

-Netflix – mostly to watch documentaries though. Or Sherlock. Or Mad Men. Or Parks&Recreation

-Hendrix party culture

I don’t miss…

-Reality tv and the stupidity that comes with it

-American bump ‘n’ grind dancing

-Homework, stress, and work in general

-Dependence on cars rather than public transportation

-Everything being expensive

-How un-friendly people can be, in certain parts of the U.S. (compared to here at least)

-Hendrix party culture

Spring Break (of sorts)

View of Hampi from the top of the hill. Hanuman Temple, Hampi

 At the top of Hanuman Temple hill, Hampi

Vittala tempel at sunset, Hampi

 Lakshmi the temple elephant

 Lakshmi, again

 Part of the historic Hampi tour, monument made from one huge boulder

 15th century ruins, Hampi

Sanskrit on a stone tablet, Hampi

Marie goobering around, Hampi

Marie and I on St. Mary's Island, Malpe (with McChauffe, which she carries when she travels and takes pictures with it)

 St. Mary's Island, Malpe

Last week, half of my classes were canceled because the Sociology department was going on a 'cultural tour' aka educational field trip. So Marie-Cecile, a french classmate, and I decided to go on our own cultural tour of the nearby state of Karnataka. It was a whirlwind week of traveling, as we would spend one night on a sleeper bus traveling and the next in a hotel/guest house, staying in one place for a night before going to the next. We went to Hampi, Udupi, Malpe, Mangalore, and Bangalore. While it wasn't the most relaxing trip, I had a blast. Hampi was my favorite place by far - I wish we could have stayed there longer. Hampi is a World Heritage Site, and is surrounded by strange rock/boulder formations. The city itself has old monuments, ruins of 15th century temples and statues, and is one of the most laid-back places I've visited, full of Western backpackers and good food. At one store, I bought an embroidered camel leather purse but I didn't have enough change - so the shop owner told me to keep the purse and pay him later! (which I did soon after). Our first day, we crossed the river by boat and explored old ruins and went to a small temple at the top of a steep hill, from which we could see the quaint city beneath us, including the river and hills around it. After lunch at an Israeli restaurant we wandered around and stopped to get cake at a bakery before crossing the river and walking up a hill overlooking the main Vittala temple just before sunset. As we were eating our cake, I felt something wet on my head. I looked up, and realized that a monkey had just peed on my head!! It then tried to jump after us to get our cake so we ran away. Monkeys are vicious! The next day, Marie and I went down to the river to see the temple elephant, Lakshmi, about to take her daily bath in the river - we were a bit early though, so we just saw her before she took her bath (we had to leave for the bike tour at 8:30am). Then we went on a 4.5 hour bicycle tour of Hampi historic sites, which was fantastic. Afterwards we were pretty beat so we relaxed at a restaurant for most of the day.

The next day we arrived in Udupi by bus, where we wandered around the large Krishna temple in the morning with all of our backpacking gear before taking yet another bus to the nearby fishervillage of Malpe. After getting lost at the harbor, hauling our luggage for a while, we made it to the tourist boat leaving for St. Mary's Island. We hopped on and joined the 3 dozen Indian tourists for a boat ride to the island. Afterwards, we took a bus back to Udupi, then on to Mangalore. Once we got to Mangalore we tried to find a hotel - when I realized I had lost my passport copy (which I later found) and Marie didn't bring one...so we had to visit several hotels before we found one that would take us. Yikes. Good thing I had written down my passport and visa numbers just in case! We ended up having to pay more than we wanted to, but it was okay...in the evening we went to the mall to see a movie - the new Oz movie, my first movie in a theater in India. Also it was 3D...and it cost $3 US which was wonderful.

The next day, we decided to go to nearby Ullal Beach. As we were waiting for the bus to take us to the beach, Marie bought some sugarcane juice which was delicious. Then, we saw the bus coming - but it didn't stop! Marie gulped down her juice and chased after the bus, but it was to no avail - we had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. I cannot believe she ran down the street, chasing after the bus! After visiting the beach, we went back to the mall to kill time until our bus left for Bangalore that night.

We arrived in Bangalore at 5:30am, and met our friend Leon (poor guy, he stayed up all night and then had to wake up early to greet us, and it was his birthday!) at his house. Our time in Bangalore was really fun - one of the best weekends I'd had in a while. About 10 or so friends stayed at Leon's for the weekend, where his mom kept plying us with more home-cooked food than we could eat (it was all so good, though). We celebrated his birthday throughout the weekend, spending Saturday at his house with friends and family dancing and eating great food, and repeating the party the next day at his uncle's house, where we enjoyed Indian barbecue and a had another dance party (let me tell you, it's hard to dance in a sari). Indian birthdays involve the birthday boy/girl feeding everyone else cake, then they eat some. There's a lot of food, dancing, laughter, and love. It's great. I'm going to be traveling during my birthday, but I hope to celebrate with friends before I leave Pondicherry.

It was a wonderful week - I had a great time with Marie, and our friends in Bangalore. Marie also taught me some French - mostly incredibly useful phrases like "Bonne douche!" which means essentially "have a good shower!" (See, Amy, now I am fluent in French! Just kidding) This week is a bit like another spring break because classes have been cancelled for the rest of the week due to protests by Tamils in Tamil Nadu against the mass killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka. Hmm...my blog sounds like all I do is travel and hang out, which is moderately accurate. I did take a midterm yesterday though, so that's something, right? An official came into class as I was taking my test to say that classes were canceled, but I chose to finish my test before leaving for the day...

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

Oh, my. Mysore and Bangalore

Last Thursday, the four American SIP girls and I traveled to Mysore and Bangalore, arriving back at Pondicherry University Monday morning at 6:45, after which I went to my classes and then slept (until I decided to go into town to see a parade, that is).

Traveling there meant taking:
-A bus from Pondicherry University to the bus stand in Pondicherry (45 min)
-A private bus overnight to Bangalore (8 hours)
-A bus from Bangalore to Mysore (3 hours)

Traveling here is both hard and easy - easy in the sense that it's much cheaper than it would be at home, and I have more time/flexibility to travel during my semester in India than I would back at Hendrix...but it's also incredibly difficult. I'd never booked long distance buses/trains/etc or hotels before, and doing so in another country where the people you're talking to don't always speak English is challenging. Also our internet doesn't work very well in the hostel, so it's hard to even look things up online. It's worth all the stress, though - as soon as I get back from traveling somewhere, I start thinking about the next trip!

Once we got to our hotel in Mysore, we rested for a bit (two of the girls were sick! poor things) and then headed into the city for some sight seeing. Mysore is a tourist destination - for Indian tourists, not Westerners - and so the city is very green/full of nature, the roads are wider, the sidewalks are cleaner, there is less traffic, and people even wear helmets when they ride motorcycles! It's a beautiful city. We visited the Maharaja's Palace and explored the gardens, then took an auto-rickshaw to the top of Chamundhi hill, where we could see all of Mysore in the distance. Then, exhausted, we returned to the hotel for dinner (most hotels have restaurants attached) and I tried my first Indian wine. Result: something like sweet brandy mixed with rubbing alcohol. Bummer.

On Saturday, we hired a driver for a few hours (something I could NOT afford to do at home, but divided among everyone it came to $4 per person for 4 hours) and went to nearby Sri Rangapatnam, a historic fort. Once inside, we toured the Gumbaz tombs, Summer Palace, and the Ranganatha Swamy temple. Afterwards we split up, and Liz and I went to Cafe Coffee Day (think Indian Starbucks) before wandering around, exploring Mysore and shopping. We hung out in a park for a bit, where we got several stares - being the only white people around - and then went shopping! Mysore is famous for silk, sandalwood, and incense...and I might have bought too many scarves (6) but some are for gifts! So it's fine, right? We then walked to a nearby art gallery which was unfortunately closed.

We ran into an auto-rickshaw driver who called himself Master Blaster (I only speak the truth) who offered to show us the "real" Mysore. We went through neighborhoods and alleyways, stopping to see wood carvings being made by hand, Indian cigarrettes called beedi's made of leaves being rolled, an incense/essential oil shop, and finally a silk emporium. It was awesome.

Sunday, Liz and I took the bus back to Bangalore, where we hung out at a mall (A/C! Fancy, clean bathrooms with a bidet! A bookstore/coffeeshop where I bought a book about feminism in Tibet and a french press! Did I mention the A/C?) and then went to India's first microbrewery, the Biere Club, where we met up with Kara, Jackie, and Lauren. I'd never been to a microbrewery before...after that, we took a bus from Bangalore overnight to Pondicherry, where we arrived at the university at 6:45am. I had breakfast, went to my classes, and then slept...until I went into town to see a parade that occurs once a year, that is.

The five of us at Chamundhi Hill

Cheesin' outside of Maharaja's palace - beautiful place

The Gumbaz tombs

Mysore city square: it's a pretty well planned city, I was impressed!

A man doing wood carvings

Driving the Master Blaster auto-rickshaw! (Just kidding, I didn't really)

Wandering through the small alleyways containing woodworking shops, incense makers, etc.

The temple on top of Chamundhi Hill and the bustling market outside of it

Hanging Out In Hyderabad

 

First, let me say that I have gotten pretty awful about journaling. My bad. I’m going to blame it on being busy, which is a good thing! Classes have been finalized and by now I’m used to life at Pondicherry University. I take classes with masters-level Indian students, and in most of my classes I am the only SIP (Study in India Program) student, or there are one or two others. As I am the only American in my sociology class, I am really getting to know my Indian classmates. People here are incredibly friendly and (most) are easy to talk to. Classes are taught in English, but some people have a harder time conversing in English, or their accents are too strong for me to understand what they are saying – but I repeat myself and ask them to repeat themselves as well. The language barrier is just another challenge about being in a foreign country – I am constantly impressed by how many languages students here can speak (English, Tamil, Hindi, etc.). I know (some) French, so when the French exchange students speak in French I can follow at least half of what they are saying, though I can’t respond most of the time because they talk so fast!

On Thursday, Liz and I went on an epic adventure (note: by now you should know everything in India is an adventure, but this is the first time we planned a trip by ourselves) to Hyderabad to visit two friends from Hendrix, Gilly and Paige (population: 6 million, makes Pondi look like a cute little town). We rode on a semi-sleeper bus, which took 14 hours, and then took an auto-rickshaw to Hyderabad Central University (HCU) where Gilly and a friend met us at the gate. We were SO HAPPY to see them after our long journey! On Friday, Gilly, Liz and I went to a craft fair/market where we experienced the most laidback shopping of our lives (ok, in India at least). It was surprisingly relaxing – you have to brace yourself most of the time before going shopping because you have to haggle well and learn to ignore incessant shopkeepers’ calls. We also explored a sculpture garden nearby, which was really nice. That night, a big group of foreign students went to a nightclub called Liquids, which is in a swanky part of the city, Benjari Hills. They only played bad American pop music, and I found myself missing the Tamil beats and Hindi bollywood songs that I hear when I go to Ocean Spray in Pondi!

Being in the city was fun – it’s fairly more Westernized than Pondi, because it is much bigger and it’s farther north – the farther south, the more conservative/traditional it gets. So I brought what I would wear clubbing (an American shirt and harem pants, with sandals of course) and people – both SIP students in Hyderabad and the Indians at the club – were dressed more Western than me. Oh well! We also went to two malls so I got to fully experience the effects of globalization. We had Quizno’s one night and Papa John’s the next. The malls were huge. HUGE. Familiar stores, both Indian and American/Western, a movie theater…it was pretty overwhelming, even for mall standards! Liz and I (with the help of Gilly and GoogleMaps) decided to conquer the bus system, as it is much larger than the Pondi bus system and bus travel is way cheaper than taking an auto-rickshaw. Since it is hard to get around, and the city is so big that we didn’t always know where we were, we did about half bus travel and half travel by rickshaw – not bad for being in an unfamiliar city!

Saturday, Gilly, Liz and I went to Golcunda Fort, a 16^th century fort built to ward off Mughal invaders in the state of Tellangana, now Andhra Pradesh. We hiked around the bottom of the fort, which seemed to go on forever, before climbing up, where we could see the beautiful city of Hyderabad around us, stretching out into the distance. We wandered around the fort for a while, before heading back to HCU to rest for a bit. That evening, Liz and I went out with Paige and some of her friends. We tried to go to a live music performance but we couldn’t find it, which is how I ended up at my second Indian mall in two days! Sometimes in India you set out to find something, can’t find it, and end up getting pizza. It happens. Liz and I were really tired, so after dinner we took two buses back, arriving at the main gate of HCU right at Paige and her friends arrived by auto-rickshaw, which was pretty funny.

Sunday, Paige, Liz, and I, along with two other Americans from HCU, went to see the Charminar – a four column structure with minorets and a mosque. Surrounding the Charminar are pearl stores, as Hyderabad is the ‘City of Pearls’ as well as your typical Indian bazaar scene – stores and people on the sidewalk selling glittery bangles, colorful saris, perfumes, and antiques, among other things. I also ducked into a small Hindu temple, where a man put a red bindi on my forehead. In the afternoon, Liz and I rested for a bit and had tea with Gilly before we left.

That morning, I had called the bus company to change where Liz and I were boarding the bus from Miyapur to Gachibowli, which is 30 minutes closer to HCU. The man I talked to said he had changed it, but I called back in the afternoon to double-check. Not only did the man I talk to tell me the departure point had not been changed, he told me he couldn’t change it, and gave me another phone number. After calling that number twice with no answer, Liz and I began to freak out. Also, Liz called another number and they began speaking only Hindi. With enough time to get to Gachibowli but maybe not Miyapur, we went to the South Gate of campus to flag down a rickshaw, at this point fairly nervous about getting back to Pondi. We got a rickshaw, but then the guards at the South Gate of HCU wouldn’t let us go through the campus in the rickshaw to the main gate, so we take the long way around, which cost us double but still got us to the Gachibowli bus stop, eventually. We got out of the rickshaw at an intersection near the private bus companies, and asked several people until we finally made it to the right place. After talking to the person at the front desk, who assured us it was “no problem” to board the bus to Gachibowli, we calmed down, and waited for the bus to get there.

As we were waiting, we saw two familiar faces – two German women from our bus ride over to Hyderabad. They have been traveling around India teaching acroyoga, and we talked to them for a while before our bus arrived. Every time something terrible happens here, something equally wonderful shows up to balance it out. I love India and I hate it, sometimes at the same time. There’s no in-between with anything here. Most of the time, though, I love India. The bus ride back to Pondi was pretty uneventful – bus travel is far cleaner than train travel, it’s a bit like being on an airplane (your seat reclines, there is a/c, a terrible movie is playing) mixed with a rollercoaster (remember this is India, driving is different than in the U.S.). We arrived in Pondi around 8:15am, caught a bus to Pondicherry University, hopped onto the boys’ bus on campus around 9:15 (yes, some buses here are segregated by gender) so we could make it to our hostel in time to get breakfast, took an awesome shower, and made it to all of my classes except the first one, which began at 9:30. All in all, a great trip, only one major mishap, which worked out as things eventually do here, and I made it to four classes today. Next weekend we (the five American girls, including myself) are going to Bangalore and Mysore, which will be fun. After that, though, I’m going to take a bit of a break from traveling – it’s exhausting!

Gilly and I beasting at Golconda Fort!

 Some sweet sculptures at the sculpture garden!

 A view of Hyderabad from Golconda Fort!

Two tired souls, after climbing Golconda!

Golconda Fort. Amazing.

Paige and Charles in da auto-rickshaw.

Cool antiques and other junk at the bazaar near Charminar!

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)