Okay first week in India officially over! Sooo much has happened already, but I'm always so busy that it's hard to find the time to sit down and write a blog post!
Probably the most important thing this week was that I started my homestay on Sunday! I am living with a very sweet Indian woman named Sunita, but as a term of respect I call her Sunita-ji. She is a widow, but has one son who is 28 years old and actually lives in D.C.! I'm not entirely sure what he does, but I think he is a software engineer? Definitely something to do with software. Anyways, her English is very good and she is incredibly sweet. She is sort of quiet right now, but everyday I think we all (there is another girl on my program also staying with her) open up a little bit more. I was sort of expecting a loud and large Indian family, so it's definitely a different experience, but I think it's actually sort of nice to have a little bit of quiet in such a wild city. To talk about the city a little bit, it's CRAZY! I am having trouble finding the words to describe it. Delhi is sort of similar to the larger cities in China, like Shanghai or Tianjin, in that there is definitely a huge discrepancy between the modern and the traditional/the middle and lower classes, but the contrast is even more extreme. It is truly a city of opposites. Even just in my immediate neighborhood, there are dirt roads with huge slabs of brick and rock in them (making it impossible to traverse them by vehicle at a speed greater than 5 miles per hour) connected to very busy paved highways. I live in a middle-class gated community, but there is a slum literally a block and a half down the road. There are people walking around in formal business attire and people wearing traditional Indian clothing of varied quality. It's really very interesting. I was talking with one of the program faculty, Guy-ji, about modernization in India, and he said that just ten years ago there were barely any cars on ANY of the roads, and now it can take 1.5 hours to get to my house from the program center during rush hour (especially if it's monsoon-ing) when it should only take 15-20 minutes. Guy-ji said that India is developing so quickly that the government just can't keep up. He said this applies mostly to Delhi though, and probably Mumbai, and that once you leave the major cities the rest of India is just as it used to be. China is definitely much more modernized.
More about the city: the animals! There are TONS of dogs wandering around everywhere. I'm actually very glad that I made the choice to get the rabies vaccine. Actually all of the dogs have been very tame and calm and not at all aggressive, but just the shear number of them is intimidating. I have to consciously try to not walk into them. It's quite sad since there are so many of them without homes, but most of them actually do not look overly malnourished, just dirty, so that's good I guess? And some people do have them as pets. I've seen a number of people out walking their dogs. Okay so that was the dog section, but there are also cows, monkeys, birds, and dragonflies! And normal flies. And mosquitoes. I haven't seen too many monkeys, but today there were three by the program center roof, and one of them had a baby!!! So cute. Apparently you are not supposed to look a monkey in the eye because they are mischievous and will attack you, but it's very difficult not to stare back when the monkey is staring at you, sort of like how it's hard not to stare back when the people here stare...Also there are swarms of dragonflies and flocks of hawks everywhere. Yes, hawks. Strange. I have at least three mosquito bites to date despite my religious application of toxic deet (which is probably worse for me than malaria, Dengue, and Chikungunya combined. Chikungunya, for those of you who don't know, is a disease that just recently came over from East Africa and apparently the symptoms are a fun combination of malaria and Dengue!). Here's to hoping those malaria meds stay strong! The flies are also very annoying, and the ants are huge! No giant cockroaches yet though, looking forward to my first encounter with them.
So back to the homestay. I live with Sunita-ji and Natalie, and we live in a two-story house (which is not true of all the students on the program) with beautiful white marble floors (which is apparently in everyone's house, even those staying in two-room houses--maybe because marble is cool? and also white is easy to spot the dirt?). Downstairs there is a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen which are all connected, and then there is a door to a bedroom and a bathroom, which I think maybe used to be the son's room. Natalie and I are in a room upstairs with two twin beds, a desk, and a door to a balcony, which has a screen so we get some fresh air at night. There is no air conditioning, but we have a nice ceiling fan, and except for my first night here the sleeping temperature has not been too bad. It has been raining a lot, which apparently does not always happen this late, so it's actually cooler than normal I think, though incredibly humid! Haven't done laundry yet because I want to make sure my clothes will actually be able to dry! Luckily I've purchased a few Indian kurta (I feel like I blend in more..probably false but maybe at least people appreciate that I'm trying? It's much easier to get a rickshaw when wearing a kurta) so I can last a few more days.
Probably the most important things to mention about Sunita are that she paints and (more importantly) is an EXCELLENT cook. Amazing. Not that I have eaten anything here that I don't like (though my stomach does not always like things), but her food is really impeccable. We usually have two dishes each night between the three of us and then chapati. She makes everything herself, including the chapati, which are actually surprisingly easy to make--will definitely bring these home. They are just water and wheat flour! She is Hindu and veg, so we've had delicious baingan bartha (Punjabi style eggplant), aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower), daal, paneer, and paratha, amoung other things whose names I cannot remember. Unfortunately I'm so distracted by the food that I consistently forget to take pictures of it, but I have all of September and October to remember! Sunita-ji has also promised to teach me how to make things, and I hover around her in the kitchen watching her make things, so I will be bringing home many recipes. I also signed up for cooking as my practical study, so I will have 7 cooking classes to look forward to! Sunita-ji has this beautiful tray with little bowls full of brightly colored spices, which I also need to remember to take a picture of and learn the names of the spices. The food here never disappoints.
So I've already written so much, but there's still so much more ah! We went to a Bollywood film called Bodyguard on Tuesday. It was completely ridiculous, as expected. A wealthy girl's parents are worried that she will be kidnapped while at school and sold into prostitution in Thailand (??) so they hire a bodyguard for her who has an overweight sidekick who wears great shirts like, "I'm in shape, round is a shape too" and "Six pack coming soon." The girl is annoyed about having a bodyguard follow her around so she of course decides to call his cell phone and pretend to be a secret admirer, because that's what people usually do. Then she ends up falling in love with him but for unclear reasons she can't tell him. They encounter the bad guys and almost die, but then he runs to the train station. Her best friend runs after him and pretends she was the one calling him, and they get married and have a child. Five years later the best friend kills herself because she is depressed about what she did, and leaves a notebook for the child explaining things. Then Bodyguard and the kid return to wherever the main girl is and it's magically okay that Bodyguard's wife died and he loves the original girl and it's a happy ending. Quality film with some quality singing, dancing, and jokes.
I RODE MY FIRST RICKSHAW. And many since. IT IS CRAZY. like you are in this tiny, three-wheeled vehicle made basically of thin sheet metal with no windows or doors and you go along on Delhi roads (which are full of potholes and bricks and mammoth puddles during monsoon) at around 40-50 mph, weaving between buses, cars, motorcycles, cows, dogs, pedestrians, and other rickshaws with lots of honking. There basically are no traffic rules. People will usually stop for lights on main roads, but many roads have no names (including heavily traveled ones). The lanes are not really even guidelines for where you should be so much as what you should attempt to remain somewhat parallel to. It's rare to see any sort of vehicle that actually drives in a lane. So it's a pretty exciting commute to and from school. Actually it's very exhilarating (and can be nice to have the wind blowing over you as you relinquish all traffic-related fears). I haven't remembered to snap a pic yet, so here is what a rickshaw looks like. You always have to bargain with the drivers to get the price it really costs to get to where you want to go, since all the meters in Delhi are broken or rigged.
We started real classes on Wednesday, and we already have so much work! But the subjects are interesting, and Hindi is so much fun! But lots to memorize! Still struggling to read the script. Individual letters are no problem, the hard part is stringing them together to actually read the words...
On Wednesday there was a bombing on the steps of the Supreme Court, which is very sad news. I think the official count that I last heard was 9 killed, 42 injured, but that might have increased by now. Our professors have asked us to lay low this weekend with the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11. On Wednesday night there was a 4.2 earthquake about 100 km from where we are in Delhi, so I felt that right when I was going to sleep! I actually wasn't sure what it was since I wasn't aware that there are earthquakes in Delhi, but apparently they come every 2-3 years, though I don't think they are very big. It was startling, as we are on the 2nd floor and everything was shaking fairly violently! Afterwards all of the birds outside started chirping loudly, not common at 11:30 PM.
Well this is incredibly long. I know there was more I wanted to say but I think I'm too tired right now! Oh, I signed up for yoga (which happens to be with a teacher who's fairly famous in India?) which we've had the past two mornings at 7 and it has been great. It's nice to have something that's sort of familiar in a strange place. I'm also starting to love my group and feel like I'm getting to know them all a lot better. I finally got my Indian phone to work, so more exciting things will hopefully happen soon! Also, we have a travel weekend coming up soon and a group of us are hoping to head to the hill station Nainital in the Himalayan foothills, famous for its beautiful lake. We have to check out train tickets, but hopefully it will work! If not, we might head for Shimla.
I will try to post again soon, lots of love to all!
Mujhe Hindustaan pasand hai (not sure if this is right)
Clare
Probably the most important thing this week was that I started my homestay on Sunday! I am living with a very sweet Indian woman named Sunita, but as a term of respect I call her Sunita-ji. She is a widow, but has one son who is 28 years old and actually lives in D.C.! I'm not entirely sure what he does, but I think he is a software engineer? Definitely something to do with software. Anyways, her English is very good and she is incredibly sweet. She is sort of quiet right now, but everyday I think we all (there is another girl on my program also staying with her) open up a little bit more. I was sort of expecting a loud and large Indian family, so it's definitely a different experience, but I think it's actually sort of nice to have a little bit of quiet in such a wild city. To talk about the city a little bit, it's CRAZY! I am having trouble finding the words to describe it. Delhi is sort of similar to the larger cities in China, like Shanghai or Tianjin, in that there is definitely a huge discrepancy between the modern and the traditional/the middle and lower classes, but the contrast is even more extreme. It is truly a city of opposites. Even just in my immediate neighborhood, there are dirt roads with huge slabs of brick and rock in them (making it impossible to traverse them by vehicle at a speed greater than 5 miles per hour) connected to very busy paved highways. I live in a middle-class gated community, but there is a slum literally a block and a half down the road. There are people walking around in formal business attire and people wearing traditional Indian clothing of varied quality. It's really very interesting. I was talking with one of the program faculty, Guy-ji, about modernization in India, and he said that just ten years ago there were barely any cars on ANY of the roads, and now it can take 1.5 hours to get to my house from the program center during rush hour (especially if it's monsoon-ing) when it should only take 15-20 minutes. Guy-ji said that India is developing so quickly that the government just can't keep up. He said this applies mostly to Delhi though, and probably Mumbai, and that once you leave the major cities the rest of India is just as it used to be. China is definitely much more modernized.
More about the city: the animals! There are TONS of dogs wandering around everywhere. I'm actually very glad that I made the choice to get the rabies vaccine. Actually all of the dogs have been very tame and calm and not at all aggressive, but just the shear number of them is intimidating. I have to consciously try to not walk into them. It's quite sad since there are so many of them without homes, but most of them actually do not look overly malnourished, just dirty, so that's good I guess? And some people do have them as pets. I've seen a number of people out walking their dogs. Okay so that was the dog section, but there are also cows, monkeys, birds, and dragonflies! And normal flies. And mosquitoes. I haven't seen too many monkeys, but today there were three by the program center roof, and one of them had a baby!!! So cute. Apparently you are not supposed to look a monkey in the eye because they are mischievous and will attack you, but it's very difficult not to stare back when the monkey is staring at you, sort of like how it's hard not to stare back when the people here stare...Also there are swarms of dragonflies and flocks of hawks everywhere. Yes, hawks. Strange. I have at least three mosquito bites to date despite my religious application of toxic deet (which is probably worse for me than malaria, Dengue, and Chikungunya combined. Chikungunya, for those of you who don't know, is a disease that just recently came over from East Africa and apparently the symptoms are a fun combination of malaria and Dengue!). Here's to hoping those malaria meds stay strong! The flies are also very annoying, and the ants are huge! No giant cockroaches yet though, looking forward to my first encounter with them.
So back to the homestay. I live with Sunita-ji and Natalie, and we live in a two-story house (which is not true of all the students on the program) with beautiful white marble floors (which is apparently in everyone's house, even those staying in two-room houses--maybe because marble is cool? and also white is easy to spot the dirt?). Downstairs there is a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen which are all connected, and then there is a door to a bedroom and a bathroom, which I think maybe used to be the son's room. Natalie and I are in a room upstairs with two twin beds, a desk, and a door to a balcony, which has a screen so we get some fresh air at night. There is no air conditioning, but we have a nice ceiling fan, and except for my first night here the sleeping temperature has not been too bad. It has been raining a lot, which apparently does not always happen this late, so it's actually cooler than normal I think, though incredibly humid! Haven't done laundry yet because I want to make sure my clothes will actually be able to dry! Luckily I've purchased a few Indian kurta (I feel like I blend in more..probably false but maybe at least people appreciate that I'm trying? It's much easier to get a rickshaw when wearing a kurta) so I can last a few more days.
Probably the most important things to mention about Sunita are that she paints and (more importantly) is an EXCELLENT cook. Amazing. Not that I have eaten anything here that I don't like (though my stomach does not always like things), but her food is really impeccable. We usually have two dishes each night between the three of us and then chapati. She makes everything herself, including the chapati, which are actually surprisingly easy to make--will definitely bring these home. They are just water and wheat flour! She is Hindu and veg, so we've had delicious baingan bartha (Punjabi style eggplant), aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower), daal, paneer, and paratha, amoung other things whose names I cannot remember. Unfortunately I'm so distracted by the food that I consistently forget to take pictures of it, but I have all of September and October to remember! Sunita-ji has also promised to teach me how to make things, and I hover around her in the kitchen watching her make things, so I will be bringing home many recipes. I also signed up for cooking as my practical study, so I will have 7 cooking classes to look forward to! Sunita-ji has this beautiful tray with little bowls full of brightly colored spices, which I also need to remember to take a picture of and learn the names of the spices. The food here never disappoints.
So I've already written so much, but there's still so much more ah! We went to a Bollywood film called Bodyguard on Tuesday. It was completely ridiculous, as expected. A wealthy girl's parents are worried that she will be kidnapped while at school and sold into prostitution in Thailand (??) so they hire a bodyguard for her who has an overweight sidekick who wears great shirts like, "I'm in shape, round is a shape too" and "Six pack coming soon." The girl is annoyed about having a bodyguard follow her around so she of course decides to call his cell phone and pretend to be a secret admirer, because that's what people usually do. Then she ends up falling in love with him but for unclear reasons she can't tell him. They encounter the bad guys and almost die, but then he runs to the train station. Her best friend runs after him and pretends she was the one calling him, and they get married and have a child. Five years later the best friend kills herself because she is depressed about what she did, and leaves a notebook for the child explaining things. Then Bodyguard and the kid return to wherever the main girl is and it's magically okay that Bodyguard's wife died and he loves the original girl and it's a happy ending. Quality film with some quality singing, dancing, and jokes.
I RODE MY FIRST RICKSHAW. And many since. IT IS CRAZY. like you are in this tiny, three-wheeled vehicle made basically of thin sheet metal with no windows or doors and you go along on Delhi roads (which are full of potholes and bricks and mammoth puddles during monsoon) at around 40-50 mph, weaving between buses, cars, motorcycles, cows, dogs, pedestrians, and other rickshaws with lots of honking. There basically are no traffic rules. People will usually stop for lights on main roads, but many roads have no names (including heavily traveled ones). The lanes are not really even guidelines for where you should be so much as what you should attempt to remain somewhat parallel to. It's rare to see any sort of vehicle that actually drives in a lane. So it's a pretty exciting commute to and from school. Actually it's very exhilarating (and can be nice to have the wind blowing over you as you relinquish all traffic-related fears). I haven't remembered to snap a pic yet, so here is what a rickshaw looks like. You always have to bargain with the drivers to get the price it really costs to get to where you want to go, since all the meters in Delhi are broken or rigged.
We started real classes on Wednesday, and we already have so much work! But the subjects are interesting, and Hindi is so much fun! But lots to memorize! Still struggling to read the script. Individual letters are no problem, the hard part is stringing them together to actually read the words...
On Wednesday there was a bombing on the steps of the Supreme Court, which is very sad news. I think the official count that I last heard was 9 killed, 42 injured, but that might have increased by now. Our professors have asked us to lay low this weekend with the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11. On Wednesday night there was a 4.2 earthquake about 100 km from where we are in Delhi, so I felt that right when I was going to sleep! I actually wasn't sure what it was since I wasn't aware that there are earthquakes in Delhi, but apparently they come every 2-3 years, though I don't think they are very big. It was startling, as we are on the 2nd floor and everything was shaking fairly violently! Afterwards all of the birds outside started chirping loudly, not common at 11:30 PM.
Well this is incredibly long. I know there was more I wanted to say but I think I'm too tired right now! Oh, I signed up for yoga (which happens to be with a teacher who's fairly famous in India?) which we've had the past two mornings at 7 and it has been great. It's nice to have something that's sort of familiar in a strange place. I'm also starting to love my group and feel like I'm getting to know them all a lot better. I finally got my Indian phone to work, so more exciting things will hopefully happen soon! Also, we have a travel weekend coming up soon and a group of us are hoping to head to the hill station Nainital in the Himalayan foothills, famous for its beautiful lake. We have to check out train tickets, but hopefully it will work! If not, we might head for Shimla.
I will try to post again soon, lots of love to all!
Mujhe Hindustaan pasand hai (not sure if this is right)
Clare
I want food pictures!!! You're making my mouth water so much.
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