First Indian Paper Turned In!
Mode of Celebration: Trip to Chennai & Pondicherry
Friday, August 31, 2007
Shaadi Time!
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
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..jpg)
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…
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.
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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…
Saturday, August 4, 2007
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.
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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.
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.
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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 a.jpg)
nd 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.
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nd 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.JPG)
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.
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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. Thursday, August 2, 2007
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.
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.
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