honeymoon phase

When most people talk about study abroad, the first warnings you get are about culture shock and something that they call the "honeymoon phase." It is safe to say that I have fallen into it... hardcore. It is amazing here. There are some things about Indian culture that I love (the chai, the colors that are EVERYWHERE, the incredible hospitality), and some things that will definitely take some getting used to (the traffic, the pollution - it's seriously horrible, something like smoking a pack and a half in one day everyday, and the incredible poverty) that will take some getting used to. I was going to give you  a detailed account of the last few days of orientation,but despite my best intentions, things have been so crazy that by the time we get back to our rooms I pass out early. I'll fill you in on the highlights and post a lot of pictures.


We kissed the ashram goodbye only to find out that our homestay is... next to the ashram! Out of all the places in Delhi. Hahaha, here are some pictures I took before we left:

Overall, the past few days have truly shown me how SIT has study abroad down to a science. It was the smoothest transition for the biggest lifestyle change I have ever seen. My parents will be happy to read that the program staff are extremely concerned about our health and comfort, and every detail is taken care of. While we were definitely roughing it in the ashram (bucket showers and sketchy sleeping bags), they were constantly handing us water bottles, asking how we had slept, and making sure we were eating alright.

In other news, I’m really mad at myself that I didn’t bring one of my three guidebooks to India (one from my Mom, one from Kirsten, and one from David). I have my little Delhi one from the airport, but considering we’re doing all kids of excursions, I’d really like the big one on North India from Lonely Planet. My host mom (I'll get to that) says there is a bookstore pretty close to here, so I am going to try to find it tomorrow.

On Friday we got to go to the program center for the first time. It is a gorgeous building in an up and coming neighborhood… and when I say up-and-coming, I literally mean up-and-coming: it’s currently under construction, and we are the first people in the building. The center is three floors and meant to be a house. It is absolutely gorgeous with cool stone and dark wood that will be so nice once it’s extremely hot outside. The main classroom is in the basement, the main floor is professors’ offices, and the upstairs has a giant sunroom that will be our library, a huge kitchen, and a dining room where we are served lunch. Every time we leave and come back there are major developments that take us by surprise. Today, for example, we came in to find window treatments and a huge fridge filled with fruit (FINALLY SOME FRUIT). Here are some pictures, including our marigolds and bindis they gave us on the first day as a welcome.

One of the crazy things about being surrounded by Indian construction is that the construction workers are from more remote villages in India, and bring their entire families with them during the project. They have built temporary housing around the neighborhood, and the kids play in the construction equipment and dust in bare feet. It's an incredible dichotomy to be taking a chai break from Hindi class and to have little kids covered in dust catch sight of us and wave through the windows. We have the luxury of tea cups (among many other things) while they have no shoes, no anything. You'll see 7 and 8 year old boys and girls holding their 2 and 3 year old brothers and sisters (whoah babysitters). And the incredible thing to remember is that they are the ones who are in a good position - at least their parents have jobs and can (hopefully) afford food. Here is the difference between taking a class on poverty at Tufts where outside the windows you will find college kids tossing a frisbee, and taking a class on poverty with SIT in India: outside the windows you'll find the real systemic problem at work, in the medium of little children calling "namaste diddi!!! hiiiiiii diddi!!!!!!!" (hellllloooooo sister!!). 

They tried to get us to do a cultural thing as a group every day during orientation.We visited Humayun tomb, saw some cool Sufi music (spiritual singing... in was cool for the first half hour of the hour and a half of needing to pee... unfortunately took away from the spiritual experience), and saw a Bollywood movie called 3 Idiots. The movie was great but kind of sad and like most Bollywood films SO LONG (over 3hrs!). We also went shopping for our first shalwar kameez (Indian clothing) and had a scavenger hunt in a market called New Friends Colony (it was a competition to find things like a copy machine and places where we could add more money to our SIM cards on our phones). Part of the scavenger hunt was finding a gift for the other group. Our gift to the others were bindis (jewels to wear between the eyes) and their gift to us was from a pet store - a fish! We've named him Maachli which is Hindi for.. you guessed it, fish. He is our SIT mascot.

The rest of orientation was less exciting... they finally got the kitchen set up and have been serving us meals instead of ordering in. This is my favorite teacher, Bhavna-ji, making fresh roti, which I hope to learn how to make while I am here!

Lunchtime:

We also have had a lot of classes on assimilating to Indian culture. We had a session with a mental health specialist, we talked about poverty in Indian and how to mentally cope with how constantly in your face the sheer dichotomy between the rich and the poor is (they don't have room to segregate them like we do in the states). We also have had intros to our classes (they look pretty rigorous, not gonna lie, but I am SO excited to get started!) and have had sessions on basic geography, economics, and politics on both Delhi and India as a whole.

My friend Molly and I moved into our homestay on Monday night, and had all of Tuesday to hang out with our family and adjust to life in what will be our home for the next 9 weeks before the next phase of the program when we will live on our own. Our mom and dad are a young couple oringinally from West Bengal/Kolkata, and are very modern and extremely nice. The dad, Avigit, works in software in Delhi, and our mom keeps the house but I think used to study zoology. We have a host sister, Aura, who is 10, and a host brother, Aurco, who is 4. They are ADORABLE! Yesterday (Tuesday) we went to Dilli Haat (the market from the first night) in the morning, and tried our hands at bargaining, and then in the afternoon went to Qutb Minar with the whole family. It's a giant park/HUGE tower that used to be 27 different Hindu and Jain temples before the Mughals took over, took the faces off of the carved Hindu gods and goddesses, and made it into a mosque! It is truly beautiful in the afternoon sun.

We also have a host dog. His name is Coco and he's a handful... well, he's huge, so he is several handfuls (Dogfuls? Pawfuls?). He jumps A LOT and we're getting used to fending for ourselves because we're not sure of which language he knows commands... Bengali? English? Hindi? Not at all? We think the latter.

Here is a picture of my host brother, Aurco, when he served me tea yesterday. He is incredible: he is fluent in Bengali and Hindi, and understands a lot of English. His mom, Jayoti, told him to become our Hindi teacher, so he has begun speaking exclusively in Hindi around us! Not that we understand anything yet... But when he was serving me sugar, I pointed to it and said "cini, haan?" and he replied "nahi! Sugar!!" Too impossibly cute. He also helped me decorate my Indian phone since all 18 of us have the same one! Aura helped too, and gave me a beaded string to use as a cell phone charm. Also, here's Aura, who wants to be a hoseback rider, an artist, a dancer, and actress and on and on and on... but for now, here is her AMAZING artwork:

Today was our first day of class! We were supposed to have a visit to the World Health Organization office in Delhi, but it fell through, which was a bummer. They are trying to reschedule. But we did have our first Hindi class! I am really really REALLY looking forward to learning some Hindi, even if it is mostly to stop getting ripped off at markets/all the time...

We went exploring after class today and visited Fabindia, a chain clothing store, and another small shop to buy notebooks and charge up our Indian phones with minutes. We also got to take three different modes of transportation: an auto-rickshaw, which basically looks like a turtle mated with a motorcycle (I'll post a picture soon), a regular rickshaw (pulled by a bike) and the metro. The Metro is gorgeous and new and has women only cars for extra safety, the rickshaw was... interesting... I definitely prefer the autorickshaw, which will be, I think, the way we get to class everyday (a half hour ride for Rs 100 = about 2 USD)

We were ripped off a LOT today... the good news is that "ripped off" by Indian standards means paying an extra UDS 50 cents for things. We're still learning what prices should be for items and transportation so these issues don't happen in the future (for example we paid Rs 50 = $1 for a rickshaw ride that should have been Rs 20 = $.45, AND he dropped us in the completely wrong place, definitely on purpose). It's a learning curve for sure, and learning some Hindi will definitely make shopkeepers think we know at least a LITTLE of what's up.

Oh, and I ran into a tree today. After walking through busy Delhi streets and taking autorickshaws and regular rickshaws (arguably not the safest activities) I do those safely and then walk straight into a... tree. Watch out for those trees in India.. you never know when they're going to strike. One second I was following the girl in front of me, the next I was on the ground in the street dirt with a giant bump on my head. Ewwwwww. I am pleased to announce that while the homestay shower is still not like home, it is more than a bucket! 

To end, here is a picture of the Indian sunset from the metro stop tonight. :) I miss people at home!! I'm usually on skype around 10am-noon EST; my skypename is "lkroart".

Love and Chai,

Laura

PS: There was a wedding procession in the neighborhood last night AND THE GROOM RODE PAST THE HOUSE ON AN ELEPHANT. Current elephant sighting count: 4 elephants. One week. That is all.

PPS: I showed Aura my album of pictures from home, of AOII, and of my friends and family. She promptly announced that she is definitely visiting, and wants to see all of that snow!