Independent Travel

Hi everyone! I don't know if anyone is checking this anymore, but I thought a quick 'hello' was in order. First, happy 17th birthday to my little brother Neil! Right now I am sitting in my hotel room in Aurangabad. Today I went to see the Ajanta caves, which are Buddist cave carvings and paintings from several centuries BC. Very interesting. I am waiting around to catch a train tonight back to Mumbai, where I will have a few hours to kill until I board yet another train to Udaipur. I will be meeting up with two of my girlfriends in Udaipur to celebrate my 21st birthday. It will be nice to see them. I can't believe that I will be back in the U.S.A. in 9 days. It is very surreal. I am sad to be missing Christmas preparations. I hope all is well.
Love & miss, Sarah

Namaste Hyderabad

In about an hour I will be leaving Hyderabad for the last time during my study abroad experience! I took my last final exam this morning, I packed my bags this afternoon, and tonight I am out on my adventure! I can't wait to get out there on that open road... I had my fortune told last night and I was told that I will always be roaming. I think that man knew what he was talking about. I love you all and I will see you one month from today!

Happy Diwali!

नमस्ते! दिवाली कि शुब कम्नाये!

Happy Diwali! This weekend is Diwali, the festival of lights. Diwali is the celebration of the return of Rama to Ayodha after his 14 year exile (read the Ramayana for more information). Diwali is like the 4th of July - you get to play with firecrackers and sparklers. The entire guesthouse was decorated with white lights and tiny terracotta pots holding flaming oil. We set off a ton of fireworks. Can you believe they trusted me to light the first one? We also had lots of sparklers. Fireworks in India are a little different than in the states. Many of them don't shoot into the air, but rather spray sparks for a 2 to 4 foot radius on the ground around them. They are beautiful, but I think probably a lot more dangerous. It was a very fun festival and solidified my love for Indian celebrations.

Malaria

Malaria is something that is discussed frequently among the SIP students. There are mosquitoes everywhere. We are constantly swatting at them and squashing them on each other. We are always applying more and more DEET - we're all going to get diseases in a few years or our kids are going to be born all funny.

Malaria pills are another aspect of the fun. There seem to be at least a dozen different pills available. There are two general types, ones that you need to take at the same time every day and ones that you need to take once a week at the same time. Most people are on the daily pills, but I am taking the weekly ones. There are problems with both. People are always forgetting to take their pills every day. Whoever remembers at dinner is always yelling in the dining room "take your malaria pills!", but even then, people often forget before they make it back up to their rooms after dinner. The problem with the weekly pills are that they can make you go insane ... literally. There have been many cases where weekly malaria pills have led to people attempting to commit suicide or experiencing other forms of mental distress. The only side effect that I have experienced from taking mine is very vivid dreams. Every Wednesday night, when I go to bed after taking my malaria pill with dinner, I have the most incredible dreams. They are long and complicated, colorful and bright, full of my favorite people (some who I haven't thought about in years) and excellent witty dialogue, and very memorable. Personally, I enjoy my 'malaria dreams', but I know other people here who really don't - sometimes their dreams are scary.

But the worst thing about malaria, and the reason that it has been on everyone's mind so much lately is that one of the most wonderful people here has it. My friend Sam (the blonde girl to my right) was diagnosed with malaria. She has been so sick for the last few weeks. The medication that the doctors gave her to treat the malaria didn't make her feel better. When they did more diagnostic tests on her, they concluded that the malaria led to her contracting hepatitis. She is being flown back to the states tonight. We are all hoping and wishing with all of our hearts that she feels so much better so soon. Travel safely Sam! We will miss you soooooo much!

Random Guest

A little Indian boy, maybe 8 years old, just wandered into my bedroom. He doesn't speak English or Hindi, only Telugu. I don't know who he is or why he is here. All I can understand is that his name is Sri Raj. He is standing here with his hand on the back of my chair watching me type on the computer. I don't know what to do with him, so I just gave him a Vermont sticker with a moose on it. He just wandered out. India never ceases to amaze me!

Monkeying Around

Meet the monkeys who steal my clothes...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the SIP students at the University of Hyderabad!
You might think that being in a country where they don't celebrate Halloween would put a damper on our celebrations, but you would be wrong. I think it was one of the best Halloweens I've had. We dressed up (I was a candy corn), we had a jack o' lantern (made from a papaya, of course), we had pizza and dosas, we had real candy, and we watched Interview With A Vampire. It was a lot of fun.

NGO Trip

Last weekend I went to visit a NGO about an hour and a half outside of Hyderabad. This NGO works to eradicate child labor in Andhra Pradesh and get the children into school. We went to visit one of their bridge camps for girls. Basically, the idea is that the organization goes to the parents of the children who are not attending school becasue they are working and tries to convince them to send their children to school. If that doesn't work they go to the village panchayat, or the village elders, and secure their help. The problem is that even once the parents have been convinced to let the children stop working and attend school the children are really far behind in school. Some of the girls who are fifteen years old have never been to school. So, the NGO set up bridge camps where they send the children to catch them up to their grade level in between 6 months to 1 year. It is amazing that they can get 7th graders who have never gone to school on grade level in only 6-12 months. They send the kids to bridge camps outside of their home villages to ensure that their parents can not decide to take them out of school again. They have made great progress thus far in AP. Now they are focusing on children ages 0-16. From birth to 5 years old they concentrate on ensuring that the children are being properly cared for and fed. From 5-13 years old they concentrate on making sure the kids attend class every day. Starting at 13, they start giving advice on college and job fields the children may be interested in.

The camp that we visited is for girls. There are 120 girls currently living at the camp. We went and met with the head teacher of the camp and the people that run the NGO. Then we walked around the camp and went into the classrooms to meet the girls. We had translators with us so that we could speak with the girls - although some of them spoke English or Hindi, most only knew Telugu. The first little girl we met was three years old. She was adorable and friendly, bubbly, and happy. The camp director had her tell us her story and it broke my heart. The first thing that she said to us was that she doesn't have a family. Her parents are dead so she went to live with her uncle. But he didn't want her. So, he sold her to a rickshaw driver .... for 5,000 rupees. When the rickshaw driver decides he doesn't want her anymore, he sells her to a school teacher who brings her straight to the NGO where she now lives. Her uncle SOLD her. For the equivalent of 125 US dollars. Can you imagine? Can you imagine knowing, your entire life, that you were worth $125? That that was how much you were worth to your family? Nothing has ever hurt to hear as much as this little girl's story. It puts everything into perspective. If this little girl can be happy even though her family sold her, what right do any of us have to complain?

The rest of the trip to the NGO was similarly moving. We went into one of the classrooms for 7th grade girls. We played Hindi to English word games with them. Then they sang for us. We sang for them and taught them different dances - the hockey pokey, the electric slide, the macarena, etc. Then they taught us a Telugu folk dance. It was clear that they were thrilled that they were in school now and getting the chance to learn. They were so happy that we had come to visit. They gave us hugs and asked us our good names. After an excellently spicy lunch, we took a quick walk through the village to peer into the public school there. We asked the girls there what they wanted to be when they grow up. I am proud to report that two want to be doctors, one wants to be an engineer, and three want to be teachers.

I don't know how to describe everything that I learned at that NGO. It was an incredible experience. It was so sad to hear about the lives of these gorgeous little girls, however, it was heartening to see that someone is helping them. It's not enough though, it's not nearly enough...

The First Snow of the Year!

Actually, although it is now the "cold" season in Hyderabad, it is still too hot to believe. So, last weekend the SIP Guesthouse manager Mr. Das, some of the other SIP students, and I went to Snow World. Yes, Snow World! This is a theme park time attraction where Indians can go to experience snow for the first time. They give you coats, gloves, wool socks, and boots. Then they unleash you in a room full of fake snow. The Indians were going crazy! It was more fun to watch them than to play in the snow that was really more like ice shavings. At the end of the hour I was frozen to the bone - and it was only 45 degrees in there! That's proof that I'm going to freeze to death when I get back to hanging out in hockey rinks in NY.

P.S. - Snow in Hindi is बर्फ (pronounced 'barf'). So it could be said that we went on an excursion to Barf World.

Yogi

ॐ

Monkey Thieves!

नमस्ते मेरे दोस्त! आप कैसे हैं? मैं तीक हूँ।
I've been telling you about the monkeys that sometimes live on my roof for the last few months. Here is the best story yet. This morning I woke up early. I have lots to do in the next two weeks because they are the last weeks of classes for the semester and I wanted to get an early start. First, I did all of my laundry - by hand mind you. And hung it outside on the clothesline to dry in the sun. Then I walked across campus to use the ATM so that this afternoon my suitemate Whitney and I can go to Laad Bazaar to do some bangles shopping as a relaxation break from all of our school work. As I was walking back to the SIP house I ran into a gang of between 15 and 20 monkeys. They were climbing on the roof of the house, swinging from trees around the house, and walking along the path to the front door. As I cautiously worked my way toward the door they all stopped what they were doing and stared at me. As I got closer, they started to hiss at me! I ran inside. On my way upstairs to my room, I remembered that my clothes were outside drying. Kevin was in the common room so I told him about the monkeys and jokingly said that I hoped they wouldn't steal my clothes. He opened the door to the roof to check on my clothes and as he did, one of the baby monkeys swung down from a tree and grabbed my Colgate Raider Nation t-shirt from the clothesline! Kevin screamed at the monkey and it dropped my t-shirt onto the roof. Only one of my shirts was left on the line, everything else was gone - distributed around the rooftop and hanging off of the balconies. Kevin took a bucket of water and started throwing water at the monkeys. We recruited Sam to wave a stick at them. Under Kevin & Sam's cover, I collected my clothes. I don't think anything is missing, but I can't be quite sure because ALL of my clothes were out there. While nothing appears to be missing, the clothes that I reclaimed from the monkeys do have little monkey handprints all over them. I'm very glad that I came back when I did. Those silly monkeys, everyone loves monkeys and thinks they are adorable, but when you live in India you realize how mischevious, and dangerous (the attack at the orphanage), they can be! Hope this story made you smile!

Go 'Gate Hockey!

The seasons have just changed in India. The monsoon has just finished and the dry season has begun. The change in the weather has caused many people in our group to get sick, myself included. I didn’t feel good this weekend and was very tired so I didn’t accomplish much at all. This weekend was also the beginning of another new season - the college hockey season.
The highlight of my weekend was getting up at 4:30 Saturday & Sunday morning to watch the Colgate Men’s Hockey Team play via internet. They won both their games. They looked good and I was very excited. It is amazing to be halfway around the world and be able to watch hockey live. Oh technology! Good luck with the rest of the season boys!

Goa

Last weekend 6 of us went to Goa for the weekend. Goa is an absolutely gorgeous little state on the West coast of India. It is incredibly lush and is full of beaches on the Arabian Sea. We had a great time. We spent a lot of time relaxing on the beach working on our tans. One day we even found a completely deserted beach and were able to have some quiet time to ourselves. It was nice to be in an atmosphere where we could relax in bathing suits and not worry about offending anyone. Although one old Indian man did videotape us, but there’s always one who causes a nuisance. The water was surprisingly warm and very salty. I’ve never really been to an ocean where you can swim. I had a lot of fun splashing in the waves and trying to walk against the undercurrent, which was very strong.
We also spent a morning hiking up the cliffs behind the beach to an old fort. The view from the top of the fort was amazing. Climbing over the ruins of the old fort was a nice adventure too. It felt good to get some exercise considering how much excellent seafood we ate during the weekend! One night we went to an organic restaurant where I was able to get homemade pesto! You can imagine how happy I was.
One day we went to the Sahakari Spice Plantation. We took a tour of the plantation and had lunch. The food was tasty and in abundance. We also got to try firewater (cashew fenni), which packed quite the punch. It was very cool to walk through the jungle and see all of the spices growing. It was my first time in the real jungle and I loved it. Our guide was very informative and taught us lots about how spices grow and how they can be used. She let us taste these tiny chilies that were the hottest thing I have ever tasted in my life. They put habañeros to shame. There were also two baby elephants at the spice farm that we were allowed to pet and play with. They didn’t feel like I thought they would – their skin was very soft, but covered with long bristly hairs. The plantation was actually incredibly environment friendly. They had cows that they milk and they also collect the methane from the cows to fuel all of their cooking. Additionally, they have huge compost piles that they use as all of the fertilizer for the spices. The people at the farm were so hospitable. They kept giving us fruit, food, drinks & even gave us free t-shirts when we left.

Packages

This is what happens to packages that are sent to India. First, if they arrive at all, they arrive at least 2 weeks later than they are supposed to. Secondly, when you pick them up at the post office, they look like they have been opened, put in a fire, dropped in a puddle, and then stepped on by an elephant. And everything within them looks like this (these used to be Cheez-Its):

Thanks for the package Mum! It was delicious & very useful!

See Dad...

...the elephants love me!

Rickshaws

If you ask anyone to describe their time in India, I guarantee that they will tell you about autorickshaws. I love them, I would love to buy one and bring it back to Colgate with me to ride around in on campus. Autorickshaws are like tiny open air taxis. They are everywhere and they will take you practically anywhere you want to go - for a price. Rickshaw rides are insane. Rickshaw drivers will drive their rickshaws into the smallest little spot at top speed. They weave in and out between huge trucks and speeding vehicles. Some rickshaws have music, which they blast LOUDLY. Techincally, you are only supposed to have 3 people in each rickshaw. This rule is rarely, if ever, followed. We tend to jam as many people in a rickshaw as possible. The maximum I've had in one rickshaw was 8 plus the driver. Rickshaw drivers are also insane. They almost never know where you want to go, but they will tell you that they do. Then they will drive around asking everyone where they should go. The great thing is, that you always eventually end up where you want to be. Because we are white, and thus the rickshaw drivers think we are incredibly rich, they are always trying to rip us off. They usually tell us that a ride will cost between 2 and 3 times what it should. This leads to a long, frustrating bargaining process. They are always surprised when we look at them and tell them in Hindi exactly what we KNOW the price is supposed to be. We are always angrily telling them that we live in Hyderabad, we know how much it should cost to go places and we know they are trying to rip us off. It is always incredibly amusing when you arrive and they tell you that because there was traffic, you need to pay double. That is when you laugh at them, tuck the money in their shirt pocket and walk away. All in all, rickshaw rides are an experience that you can't fully understand unless you've been in one. I hope you all get a chance to experience them once in your lifetime.

The Orphanage

नमस्ते! Sunday I volunteered at an orphanage in Hyderabad with several other SIP students. It was an amazing experience. I am going to continue to go for the rest of the semester every Sunday that I stay in Hyderabad. The orphanage houses 250 boys and girls. The girls range in age from 5 to 18. The oldest boy, however, is 12 because once they reach 12, the boys move across the city to a different orphanage. There are 6 Indian women in charge of taking care of the children. The children speak a mixture of Telugu, Hindi, and English. I had a blast counting with them in English and in Hindi (great practice for me!). When we got there, the kids immediately swarmed us. Sundays are their free play time so we played with them in the yard of the orphanage where there is an old playground. Every five seconds one of the little kids was yelling "Didi, Didi!", which means 'older sister'. They all wanted us to watch everything they were doing. They are so strong, they climbed all over the jungle gym and swung from all the poles. We played circle games - Duck Duck Goose, The Hokey Pokey, Head Shoulders Knees & Toes, etc. - with them too because the ladies in charge really want them to learn English. Mostly they just wanted to hold our hands or climb all over us. Really, there was only so much that we could do with them due to the language barriers. I was surprised by how happy the children all seemed. I know that it was play time and that they were excited because they had 'strange white people' to play with, but they seemed generally happy. They were so tiny though, which I am sure is a side effect of improper nutrition. Their clothes were so old and worn - holes everywhere. None of them had shoes. I absolutely fell in love with two little 5 year old girls. They were beautiful, with big expressive eyes. They were more shy than some of the other kids, but they walked around holding my hands and showed me how they could hang from the jungle gym bars. I'm so excited that I'm going to be able to continue to volunteer there every weekend. It makes the children feel good and it makes me feel good too.

Hindi Lesson for the Day: Numbers, so you can count with the orphans too!
1 एक ek
2 दो do
3 तीन teen
4 चार char
5 पंच panch
6 चह chey
7 सात sat
8 आठ ath
9 नौ nau
10 दस das

Ganesha Chaturthi Festival

Yesterday was Ganesha Chaturthi Festival! Ganesha is the elephant-headed god. He is the god of auspicious beginnings and good fortune. He is the son of Shiva and Parvati. He likes sweets and his bahon (animal companion) is a rat. He also just so happens to be my favorite Hindu god. The Ganesha Festival marks the beginning of the Hindu festival season in India. Legend goes that Ganesh is the first god to be worshiped each year because when his head was cut off and replaced with an elephant head (in a misunderstanding), his mother Parvati was very upset and crying so Shiva promised that Ganesha would be worshipped before all the other gods. The Hyderabad Ganesh festival is one of the biggest in all of India. It is a big deal, people come from all over. The festival lasts for 10 days. They make enormous statues of Ganesha and then on the last day of the festival, they immerse the idols in Hussain Sagar, the lake in the middle of the city. Huge crowds gather to see the statues being submerged. Because of security reasons, we are not allowed to go see this happen.


Yesterday there were Ganesh festivities all over campus. At the SIP House we had a small shrine set up for Ganesha. The kitchen staff also gave us prasad. Prasad is the blessed food that is leftover after the god has taken his fill of the offerings that he receives. It is very auspicious to eat some of it. There were also larger idols of Ganesha at the Student Canteen and the Dance Auditorium. When we went to the canteen, we were given coconut milk and sweets. One of the boys in charge there gave us cum cum for our foreheads (the red powder that makes the bindi). Then we poured a bit of rice covered in turmeric on our heads and threw the rest at the idol of Ganesha. The boy told us that the rice on our heads was very auspicious and said that we had to go see the moon that night because there is a story about Krishna and Ganesh and that somehow seeing the moon with rice on your head will bless you. He also took our picture with the idol - very embarrassing. It was so much fun to celebrate Ganesh festival.

Hindi Lessons

नमस्ते! आप कैसे हैं? Namaste! How is everyone? I have learned how to type in Hindi script on my blog! So now, if anyone is interested in Hindi lessons, I can start to teach everyone a little bit. Let me know if anyone is interested. For today, I'll teach you a few useful phrases:
नमस्ते Namaste - Hello/Goodbye
आप कैसे हैं? Aap kaise hai(n)? - How are you?
मैं टीक हूँ Mai(n) tiik hoo(n) - I am okay.
आपका नाम क्या है? Aapka nam kya hai? - What is your name?
मेरा नम ---- है Mera nam ----- hai - My name is ------.
जाओ! Jao! - GO AWAY! (useful for people harrassing you on the street)

Visa Extension

Everyone please cross your fingers! I went to the police station today and was told that I may be able to extend my visa! So there is hope ... I would say there is probably a 1 in 3 chance of it actually happening, but that is much better odds than I was told before today. So, let's all hope that the police man wasn't lying to me just to make me go away and that sometime in the next two weeks I will have a 16 day visa extension so that I don't have to change my plane ticket and come home early. Not that I don't miss everyone SO much, but I love India and I want to stay as long as possible!

Lists

An Ongoing Work-in-Progress

Things I Miss Most About Home:
- Chocolate
- Bagels
- Marley
- My Roommates
- My Big, Crazy Family
- Hot Showers
- Washing Machines
- Peanut Butter
- Salty Crackers
- The Cruiser
- Fixed Prices
- Textbooks
- Walking Places
- Cheese
- Pesto
- Steve, the trainer, & Crew
- Touching in Public Without Getting the Evil Eye
- Having Power 100% of the Time
- Flushing Toiletpaper
- Moving Without Sweating

Things I Can't Believe I Lived Without for 20 Years:
- Chai Time
- Masala Munch
- Naan
- Autorickshaws
- Indian Bananas
- Temples
- Morning Yoga
- Laad Bazaar
- "Madam, Please Come"
- Sideways Headbobbing
- Short Kurtas
- Ganesha
- Vasuji
- Paneer
- Tikka & Tava
- Chak de India
- Tongue Scrapers
- Steve, the papaya tree, & Monkeys
- Telugu Waitstaff
- Hindi Script
- Hot Pink Toiletpaper
- SIP House Chat Masala Fries

Places People Have Thought I'm From:
- Amrika (America)
- England
- Canada
- France
- Germany
- Belgium
- Russia
- Kazakhstan
- Tamil Nadu, India

The Blessing

Last weekend CIEE took a trip south to Chennai, Pondicherry, Mamallapuram, Auroville, and Kanchipuram. It was a fun filled weekend, where we attempted to cram way too much into 4 days. Highlights of the weekend included the following:

1. The Blessing: In Pondicherry, I was blessed by an elephant! On our free afternoon a small group of us went to the Ganesh temple. Ganesha is my favorite Hindu god, he is the remover of obstacles and the god of auspicious beginnings. He also holds a special fondness for writers. Ganesha is depicted as having the head of an elephant and the body of a man. At his temple in Pondicherry there was a real elephant performing blessings. To be blessed, you had to pay the elephant. You put a 2 rupee (the equivalent of 5 cents US) coin in one of the holes of his trunk and then bowed your head. Once he received your coin, the elephant would raise his trunk and tap you on your bowed head. He was surprisingly gentle for such a big guy! He was beautifully decorated with powders painted on his face, and huge jingling silver anklets.

2. The Beach: On our way back to the airport in Chennai for our flight home, we stopped for lunch at a seaside resort just outside Mamallapuram. The resort overlooked a beautiful beach on the Bay of Bengal. The beach was empty except for our group. The sand was white and full of gorgeous shells. The water was clear blue and surprisingly warm. The sky was clear and the sun was warm. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. I could have stayed there forever, relaxing.

3. The Baguettes: Pondicherry used to be a French colony. There are several great things about this. For starters, the town is set up like a French village. That means that the streets a. are set up on a grid system with blocks and b. have names. However, the greatest thing about an ex-French colony is the food! We had such amazing French food - including baguettes, salad with mozzerella, and chocolate crouissants.

First Indian Paper Turned In!

Mode of Celebration: Trip to Chennai & Pondicherry

Shaadi Time!

Last weekend, we went to Kurnool to go to our program director Kavitha's wedding! Kurnool is 5 hours away from Hyderabad by bus. We hired a bus to take us there, but it was a seat short so Tessa, bless her soul, had to sit on the floor in the aisle. We stayed at the only hotel in town and they only had five rooms avaliable - which meant that there were four people to a room, or rather to a bed.

On the morning of the wedding, the 19 of us girls had to put on our sarees. If this doesn't seem like a big deal to you, you obviously have no idea how to put on a saree. It made it more complicated that only three girls in our group had ever put sarees on before. Luckily, Tessa came to our room at the crack of dawn to help us get dressed. We paired off and, following Tessa's instructions, dressed our partner. As Alessandra was wrapping me in yards of cloth, I started to feel very sick. I ended up throwing up into the shower bucket, half-dressed, while she held my saree around me. Luckily, I felt better afterwards. It took between 20 and 30 minutes to put on a saree. It's a complicated process and I have tremendous respect for anyone who does it by themselves every day.

When we added all of the bindis, bangles, gold earrings, necklaces, and makeup to our saree outfits, I think we all looked amazing! It was incredible to see everyone dressed up so traditionally. I wasn't the only person to think so, people came from all over town to see the white girls in their sarees. We were an incredibly amusing sight for everyone. Some girls even had 'aunties' insist on fixing their sarees, but Tessa was so good that even the aunties couldn't find anything wrong with the way I was wearing my saree.

The wedding was very interesting. Kavitha looked gorgeous. She was accessorized to the max. She and her fiancee were seated on a flowered dias with a Hindu priest (a fat, shirtless man) at the front of the hall. The room was full of people, but they were chatting among themselves and watching us more than they were paying attention to what Kavitha was doing. It was difficult to see what was going on during the ceremony. At one point, Kavitha and Anand had to tie bracelets on each other. They also poured rice on each other's heads, which is apparently supposed to bring fertility to the marriage. They pressed their palms against the other's forehead and held that position for a few minutes. I missed some of the ceremony because some of the women 'kidnapped' some of the girls and I. They had us watch their little babies while they changed into fresh sarees. All of the children were so cute! I especially loved the little brothers who were around 5 & 7 years old who came over to me, shook my hand, said "please madam, may I know your name?", and then asked for my 'autograph'. At the end of the ceremony, the priest yelled something and everyone in the crowd threw rice covered in tumeric at the newlyweds.

After that, it was feast time. There was a ton of tasty food. After that, we went back to the hotel to change quickly and start the drive back to Hyderabad. It was an amazing weekend and I'm so glad that Kavitha invited us. I wish her and Anand completely happiness for their future together!

Indian Style

I had an ephiphany last weekend. I had been talking to an Indian man while I was walking around Mamallapuram looking at carvings in caves. We had talked about how I was a student in Hyderabad and had been in India for about a month and a half. After looking at all of the carvings, I went to his shop - just to humor him. He asked me to sit on the floor while he showed me his artwork. So I sat down crosslegged. He looked at me and said with a huge smile, "Aaah, you are so Indian already! You sit in the Indian style, yah?" Cue epiphany. The phrase "to sit Indian style" doesn't refer to Native Americans, it refers to the people of the Subcontinent! So, whoever told Mum & the rest of the teachers that they had to start saying 'sit criss-cross applesauce' to avoid making a derogatory comment was misinformed.

Happy Independence Day!

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Partition that gave India its independence! Sixty years ago at midnight last night, the self-governing nation of India was born. It is amazing to think how young India is compared to most other countries. I find it especially difficult to fathom the fact that there are a significant number of people still living in this country that were alive during the British colonial rule and who were old enough at the time to participate in the struggle for independence.
Today is a national holiday, which means that we got the day off from classes. While there was a parade at the parade grounds in Secunderabad, Hyderabad’s twin city, and a few other cultural events taking place in the city today, we were told that most Indians simply enjoy their Independence Day quietly and privately. Since it is one of the few national days off from work, many people spend it at home with their families or grocery shopping. Most of the city is closed today. This was a great day for us to have off because all of the CIEE students, myself included, have lots of reading to catch up on and since the city is closed we don’t have many excuses not to do it (although I have found one – blogging!). It also happens to be gorgeous outside today. My suitemates and I spent part of the morning laying on our rooftop sunbathing while we read.
This morning we had a little Independence Day celebration in front of the SIP Guesthouse. Our yard was decorated with streamers and flags in the colors of the Indian flag – orange, white & green. The flag was ceremoniously raised by Rani, one of the CIEE students of Indian descent, on a pole garlanded in the flag’s colors. Then a coconut was broken on a rock at the foot of the pole and its milk was sprinkled around the flagpole. The Indian staff sang the national anthem and saluted the flag. Then we were each blessed with a smudge of kumkum, a red powder, on our foreheads.

Random Thoughts and Happenings

It’s time for an update on my random thoughts about, and experiences in, India. So here goes a sampling of what’s going on in my brain, prepare yourself.

1. Shopping here is an experience – it can go so well and it can be incredibly frustrating. Yesterday we went to Hyderabad Central, which is something like a gigantic Indian Macy’s, to buy sheets. One of the frustrating things about shopping is that everyone views us as rich white tourists, which I suppose we are to them but we really aren’t – we’re poor white students. As we walked around trying to find sheets we had about 12 Indian salesmen shoving sheets in front of our faces. It was too difficult to think, let alone decide which sheets we liked. The only really good thing about our shopping experience yesterday was that they were having a “Happiness Sale” where everything in the store was 10-50% off. Shopping on the street can be lots of fun. Bartering is a blast except that we know that no matter what price we finally get them down to they are still ripping us off because we are foreigners. It’s okay though because it’s so cheap that I would feel bad insisting that I pay even less for such beautiful things. There are specialty shops for everything here including, but not nearly limited to: car waxes, condoms, leather whips, buckets, and sweets made from pure butter (called ghee). People on the street will try to sell you anything. Little kids especially will try to get you to buy things that are often a. dirty b. broken c. something that is for the opposite sex (not something you would give as a gift) d. something that would never fit you or e. something that you would never want or consider buying … ever. At tourist spots and other areas that see a heavy flow of people, these hawkers are particularly persistent. We have had them follow us all the way down streets shoving bent Taj Mahal postcards in our faces. A few crafty ones have even made it a few steps onto our bus before being physically escorted back off by our bus drivers and Ram Krishna. A quick aside: buses all come with two drivers, but only one wheel. I have yet to figure out what the second driver is for.

2. We have been to some truly fabulous restaurants during our two weeks in India. It is interesting to note that many of the best, and fanciest, restaurants here are located in hotels. In fact, some restaurants are called hotels, which is confusing because they do not have rooms for guests. Street vendor food is supposed to be amazing, however, CIEE policy is that we can’t eat off the street for a month after arriving. The idea is to give our stomachs time to acclimate to India before taking a chance on the sanitation of the street carts. After how sick I’ve been for the last week, I’m certainly not going to argue with the policy. I think it is interesting how many Chinese food street vendors there are. I know we are technically close to China, but Indians hate the Chinese (long disputes and unrest over territory). We have good food at the SIP Guesthouse. They try to provide us with a variety of Indian food and they make sure they dull down the spice level enough to let us eat without burning out our tongues. They also throw in the occasional American favorite like pasta, mashed potatoes, or french fries – which were absolutely amazing. They also occasionally give us vanilla ice cream for dessert that tastes less like ice cream and more like cool whip. Our favorite part of lunch and dinner at the Guesthouse is our drinks. For the most part, all we drink here is bottled water, but at lunch and dinner we get what is basically a shot glass of Sprite (lunch) or Fanta (dinner). We enjoy this more for the jokes it creates, “I think I’ll take my shot of Fanta on the rooftop terrace this evening, do bring it up to me” for example, than for the soda itself. The wait staff is incredibly amused by us. They find our inability to eat with our hands correctly (oh yes, there is a correct way to eat with your hands) and our timid tastes of new foods wildly humorous. Most of them don’t speak English well and their response to most of our attempts at telling them something is to laugh and refill our water glasses. We have also tried a few new foods from the grocery store. Dad would be particularly fond of PJ’s find – the garlic pickle. Pickle here has nothing to do with a cucumber, but rather refers to different kinds of spiced vegetables. The garlic pickle comes in a glass jar and is basically cloves of garlic drenched in a very spicy red sauce. We’ve been digging out the cloves and eating them as a snack, but I’m sure you’re supposed to put them on something or eat them with a meal. The boys and I think they are amazing, but everyone else is convinced they are absolutely disgusting, an opinion that I believe is based mostly on how gross they look.

3. Indian postal addresses are amazingly entertaining. I was speculating with some of you before I left what Near Ladies Hostels meant in my mailing address here. Turns out, we were correct. Near Ladies Hostels means just that, the SIP Guest house is near, or close to, the Ladies Hostels on campus. By far, my favorite address is Past the Big Tree. I do not envy the postman. Another thing is that there are no good street maps. We were given maps of campus, but they include only about half of the roads on campus and not even ¼ of the buildings. It is a much better idea to ask someone on the street how to get to where you are going than to attempt to follow any map.

4. Animals and insects are abundant here. I’ve been showing my country girl roots – explaining the difference between cows and water buffalo. Although, the cows here are nothing like those back home, they are much bigger, skinnier, and many have humps on their backs. In fact, all living creatures seem to be bigger than back home. It is like we are in a nuclear zone where everything has mutated into a larger form of itself. The bats have over a foot long wing span. Worms and millipedes are 8 to 12 inches long. Even ants are enormous. There are stray dogs everywhere. Water buffalo and cows are everywhere also. They just wander around randomly and at night they go to sleep in the middle of the road. This causes major traffic jams because no one can make them move because the cows are sacred and thus, can sleep wherever they want. There are lots of monkeys too. We have been specifically warned not to try to play with the monkeys because they will attack. There are really beautiful birds here. I love these white and beige ones that hang out with the water buffalo, I’m not sure what they are but they look a little like herons. Downtown you will see the occasional person riding a camel down the road, which Vasu’s son assures me is a much more comfortable ride than an elephant. There are lots of geckos. This one was in our common room the other night.

5. I think that I finally have a set class schedule. I am taking Basic Hindi, Indian Diaspora, Indian Society I: Approaches to the Sociological Study of Indian Society, and Religion and Politics in Modern India. The first two classes are put on by SIP and the last two are regular classes at the University. It was a major hassle to select classes. First, only one of the classes that I pre-registered for is being offered this semester. Secondly, many of the classes that are being offered that sounded interested have class timings that conflict. You know how at ‘Gate there are set times that classes meet? That is so not true here. Classes can meet at whatever time the professor wants them to. So most classes start on the hour and end on the hour. This is a problem because this is a huge campus and if you have back-to-back classes in different buildings, like I do, you might not make it there in time. Another issue with selecting classes was that Colgate was being a pain about what classes I could get credit for. There were two great dance classes that I was excited about, but Colgate wouldn’t give me credit for either of them. Did I mention that classes officially started two weeks ago? So when we went to our classes with Indian students, they’ve already had four or five classes. That is aggravating and embarrassing. You know how I hate to be behind. And it’s not like we can slip into a class for the first time unnoticed and then go talk to the professor after class about joining. Oh no, everyone notices when we walk into a classroom. My Indian Society professor was priceless when he noticed I was there. When he got to class he walked directly to the chalkboard and started talking without looking around. Then, when he turned to look at the class and saw me, the neon-white girl, he stopped in the middle of his sentence and just looked at me for a second before continuing. For the rest of the class he kept mentioning ‘our foreign friend’ when he asked people to elaborate on their answers – he wanted to make sure I understood the concepts of caste. He was very nice, but his accent is difficult to understand. I spent part of the class copying notes off the girl sitting next to me. My Religion and Politics professor is great. His accent is completely understandable; he went to grad school in Philly. His lectures are interesting and he jokes around about the number of foreign kids in the class (there are like 25 of us and 7 Indians). Apparently, no one buys books for their classes in India. Instead, the professor, who you are supposed to call ‘sir’ or ‘madam’, tells you what to read in class and then you go to the library or online to look for it. If you find it, you have to bring it to the Xerox man and pay him to make a copy of it for you because there’s probably only one copy and it needs to be shared with the entire class. Although this is the biggest hassle ever, the good thing is that this is going to be a very cheap semester book-wise. Syllabi don’t really exist so there really is no reading ahead. Also, the way that grades are comprised is a little different. 60% of your final grade is the final exam. The other 40% is made up of your best 2 out of 3 papers/exams during the semester. This is going to be interesting.

Well, that was the longest blog post ever. Hope all is well in the states…

Our Fearless Leaders

There are three people here in India who are responsible for everything we get to do. Vasudeva, Kavitha, and Rama Krishna lead us fearlessly through the sensory overload that is India. I would never have made it past arriving at the airport in Delhi without them. They are amazing and I am so glad that they work with CIEE.
Vasuji (Vasu is short for Vasudeva and ji is a term of respect in Hindi) is the Resident Director of CIEE in Hyderabad. He has a Ph.D. in Sociology and has been a practicing sociologist in the past – we had an excellent conversation about sociological theories over dinner one night. Vasu is a very caring, thoughtful, reflective, and soft-spoken man. He never loses his calm, even when all of us students are careening out of control with worry and stress because nothing is going the way we thought it would. He is teaching a non-credit course on self-awareness, critical thinking, and meditation that I can’t wait to take. Vasu always listens extremely closely to what you say and asks genuine questions that make you feel important and understood. He also enjoys coming up with funny ways to tell us important things – see the picture where he is using a puppet to tell us about health issues for us in India. I feel that I will learn a lot from Vasu over the next 4 months. Vasu also works kind of as the Indian equivalent of adult male friend that I've grown used to having due to hanging out with Steve & the Colgate Hockey coaches so much during the school year.
Vasu’s family is also amazing. His wife is gorgeous and extremely hospitable. They have two children – an 11 year old son and an 8 year old daughter. Ardjun, his son, and I had a wonderful conversation last night. He is very inquisitive; he asked me all about my favorite places, cars, computer games, hobbies, books, animals, etc. He also gave me a quiz about Harry Potter, which I am pleased to report I aced. At the end of our conversation he invited me to be his friend and shook my hand to make it official. Vasu’s daughter is a shy, little pixy. She is very cute. She helped me pick out my desert at the restaurant last night – she told me I could have a brownie and a piece of chocolate cake because that is what she was having.
Kavithaji organizes practically everything for CIEE in Hyderabad. She is a little stressed out right now because she is getting married in 22 days! We get to go to her wedding, which I am wicked excited about. While she works for CIEE, Kavitha is also a Political Science Ph.D. student at the University of Hyderabad. This is helpful because she knows many of our professors personally and is able to help us get in touch with them. I love watching Kavitha while she interacts with our bus drivers, ticket men, security guards, restaurant staff, etc. because in a society that is so dominantly patriarchal, it is awesome to see such a tiny little woman be the kind of boss that makes everyone around her snap to attention. Kavitha is innocent and smiley. She loves to ask us questions and enjoys when we teach her Spanish. Kavitha makes us laugh because she some of us by names that she thinks are ours, but really aren’t. For example, of the four boys in our group, two are named Andrew. One of them, she calls Sheppard – which is his last name. The other Andrew she calls A. Hesh, which we think is her pronunciation of H, because his last name is Hart. It is very endearing. Kavitha knows how to get things done, which in India – a country where getting anything done is a minor miracle – is extremely helpful. I’m glad she’s working for us.
Rama Krishna is like the CIEE assistant. He is named after two Hindu gods, Ram and Krishna – this is relatively funny because the CIEE secretary is named Krishna Ram. (Note: Last names come first and first names come last in the traditional writing of Hindu names.) Krishna is 22 and a Political Science Masters student at the University. He is the most adorable Indian man ever. He does all the grunt work for us. Kavitha orders him around, he’ll disappear for awhile, and when he comes back he’ll have bought us all bananas or something like that. Also, our first few days on campus he herded us around everywhere – he was like a walking map. Basically, my entire knowledge of this campus comes from Krishna. Krishna is always smiling. Since he is basically the same age as us, he loves hanging out with us. We taught him how to play Hearts on the train and he loved it. He asks lots of questions and explains many different aspects of India to us. Indians tilt their head from side to side to show their agreement, Ram Krishna does this very often and in the most adorable way ever. We all love Rama Krishna and are very happy that he helps out with CIEE.

Fusion 9

Last night we had a cultural evening with our ciee study group. First, we had a fusion band come and play for us at our house. Fusion music is a mix of classical Indian music and Western music. The band had six members each playing a different instrument. The classical Indian musicians played the sitar, the tabla, and a violin played in the Indian style. The Western musicians played the electric guitar, the keyboard, and a drum pad. The music was very enjoyable. My favorite part of the performance, however, was watching the musicians. The way they interacted through their facial expressions and body positionings while they were playing was amazing. It was almost as though they were acting as much as they were playing music.

After the musical performance, we went to a restaurant/bar called Fusion 9 - "fusion" was the theme of the evening. This is a very popular place in Hyderabad because it is swanky, has good multi-cultural food and music, and many foreign visitors like to hang out there. The food was some of the best I have had in India. We started with an assortment of plated appetizers. The chicken kabobs that were particularly amazing. Then we had a buffet with an assortment of Indian, Chinese, and Western food. We were all thrilled to have brownies for dessert - we've all been craving chocolate. As an aside, don't worry about our drinks in the picture, they are virgin pina coladas. Although, there doesn't seem to be a documented legal drinking age here. It was a great evening out.

Traveller's Sickness

For the last 60 hours I have been dealing with my first experience with traveller's sickness, which any of you who have had a similar experience know is not pleasant. Basically, I felt like I was slowly dying. This morning, however, I am starting to feel like a human being again. At breakfast I was even able to eat a bowl of cereal, which was so much more delicious than the water and white rice I've been attempting to eat for the last 2.5 days. The only perk of being so sick was that I got to try some Indian medication. They were these little squishy green transparent balls and they are called something pearls. They taste like spearmint and they are supposed to make your stomach feel better. They were more fun to play with than effective at healing the stomach. There are no pictures from the last few days because, even if I had some, you wouldn't want to see them. That's all for now. I'll write again soon.
P.S. - Thanks to whoever called! I'm sorry I missed your call. I'm getting a cell phone tonight so I will give out that number soon.

SIP Guest House - My Indian Home

I am living on the campus of the University of Hyderabad in the Study in India Program (SIP) Guest House. The campus is huge – 2,300 acres of land, which figures out to about one acre per student at the university. The campus is so large that it is a project to get anywhere. The Guest House is located in a good place for me to get to my classes (about a 10 minute walk to each one), but if I want to go to the bookstore, stationary store, or the atm it is a 30-45 minute walk. The SIP house is nice – very nice by Indian standards. There is a dining room downstairs where the kitchen staff cooks 3 meals and 1 tea a day for us. We also have laundry facilities, water coolers of purified water, a tv room, a computer lab with 5 computers, air-conditioning, and wireless (which only works off and on and only downstairs). Like all of India, the power is very temperamental in the SIP house. For example, last night we lost power four times.
I have a single room, which also happens to be one of the nicest rooms in the house. I have a double bed, a mirror, a bedside table, a fold-up table and chair that act as a makeshift desk, a closet, and small bookshelf. My only complaint is that my walls are very bare (hint: anyone kind enough to send me something to hang on the walls to make my room look less like a prison cell will be placed at the top of my favorites’ list). I also need to go sheet shopping because my bed only came with a woolen blanket and it is much too hot for me to sleep under that. There is a huge padlock on my door. We are encouraged to lock our rooms whenever we leave them, but it seems sort of paranoid because we also employ three security guards. I share a bathroom with three other girls. The bathroom is sort of interesting. The toilet can not flush toilet paper so we have to throw it in a trashcan that is changed daily. There is no shower stall, the water just falls on the floor and then eventually goes down a drain in the floor. The sink also drops water straight onto the floor (although I don’t think this is supposed to happen). The four of us (Whitney, Kelsey, Alesandra & I) also share a little common sitting room and a rooftop balcony. I can’t wait to start doing my reading and yoga out on the rooftop. All in all, I think the SIP Guest House will serve as a nice home base for the next 5 months.

Police Registration, Medical Forms & More Paperwork

One of the major obstacles to getting anything done in this day and age is paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork. Ridiculous amounts of paperwork. In this way, India is no less demanding than the United States. First, the Indian government requires visitors to fill out forms. For all people who have a visa for more than 180 days, they must register with the Indian police within 14 days of their arrival in the country. In order to register, you need passport photos. But they are not standard size passport photos, they are stamp size photos. So upon our arrival in Hyderabad, we had to pay a man to take photos of us and print them in stamp size. Then the police require you to fill out two seperate forms. One is two pages, the other is four pages. What nosey people! They asked incredibly personal questions about religion, finances, lifestyle, etc. And they asked the same questions over and over again. To top it off, they are incredibly picky about the way that you fill out the forms. You must write in all capital letters. You can not cross anything out. You can't write over any lines. You need to write the dates in a particular way. We spent an entire morning filling out these forms. Then the University requires various forms. We needed to fill out information cards to get student ids (which required passport photos of stamp size again), medical forms, and forms to take books out of the library (which required standard size passport photos). It was a mess. By the end of the day I can conclude that 1. paperwork is the most aggravating thing in the world 2. people can't follow directions.

General Musings on Delhi

My first five days in India were spent in Delhi, the capital of the country. Delhi immediately immerses you in the thick of Indian culture and life. There, there is no escape from the good or the unsavory aspects of the country. Here are some of my general musings and reflections on my stay there:

1. Indian men - a very different category from any others that I have previously encountered. They are utterly fascinated by American women. Everywhere I go, the men stare at me openly. Many go beyond that and attempt to interact with us. Mostly it is harmless, but aggravating attempts at conversation - they address us as 'madam', 'boss', 'american lady', 'ma'am' and other semi-entertaining names. Some, however, feel the need to touch our 'lovely white skin'. Other ploys to create a connection include waving hysterically, making kissy faces, and picking up little kids and practically shoving them at us. It doesn't help that we are traveling around in a group of 19 white girls and 4 white boys. It is impossible to blend in.

2. Indian women - they are absolutely beautiful. Generally, I think their faces are gorgeous. Additionally, they wear amazingly colorful and fun saris and salwar kameez. They look so much more alive than Western women. In fact, I think that Indians know how to live better than Westerners do. They are less concerned about doing everything as quickly as they can and more concerned with enjoying every moment of their day. I like it.

3. You all know how much I crave cleanliness. It is next to impossible to stay clean in India. First, in Delhi it is unbelievably hot and humid. When I got off the plane at 9:00 pm it was 104 degrees out. Basically, the moment you wake up in the morning and move for the first time, you start to sweat. It is undeniable and unavoidable. Secondly, there is a lot of refuse and just general dirt all over the place. Random piles of bricks are everywhere in Delhi, I have yet to figure out why they are there. Because it is monsoon season, there are many puddles full of dirty water and various other things that may be living in the water. If you ever come to India, remember to NEVER touch the outer walls of buildings or fences. Men pee on walls and fences everywhere, and anytime of day. There are also flies everywhere. They climb all over you. There are also an incredible amount of people in Delhi. It is impossible to avoid bumping into others while walking around.

4. I had my first experience with true monsoon season on my third day in Delhi. A couple of the girls in the group and I went out to lunch together at a restaurant about 15 minutes from our hotel (I had probably the best meal so far there - a delicious fish tikka). When we walked out of the restaurant it was raining lightly. About a minute later it was downpouring. I have never experienced such an intense rain in my life. We ran down the streets of Delhi to our hotel, laughing hysterically. The people taking cover under awnings stared at us - probably thinking what stupid Americans we are. Apparently, the wet look is very hot in India right now. Two sets of men took pictures of us as we ran by. By the time we got to the hostel, we were completely soaked through. Minus the puddles it leaves, I think the monsoon is great.

5. We went to the Gandhi Museum in Delhi one afternoon. It was nothing like I expected. It was incredibly high tech and interactive. While it was interesting, it was hard to reconcile in my mind with who Gandhi was. I did enjoying seeing where Gandhi spent the last 40 or so days of his life, where he was shot, and his grave. My favorite part of the museum was the peace gong out back.