Life in India is full of unexpected surprises and there's a calculated rate of things going to the way you plan .001% of the time. For this reason, making any sort of plans outside of 'winging it' is comically useless.
Now, here's a crash course of my Indian life from the last 2 weeks:
We traveled to Bombay with Alliance for a three day trip to learn more about the financial and economic center of India. For the most part though, we struggled to stay awake through three days of lectures in the basement of a YWCA. In my opinion the best meeting was with Gandhi's great grandson. It was interesting to see his formed identity outside of this monumental legend of a relative. His parting words being that celibacy is not the path for him confirms that he has chosen to take his own path outside of that chosen by his great grandfather. We then took a trip to visit Dharavi, the largest slum of Asia. Although interesting, it still felt intrusive to walk through someone's community, taking pictures like their lives were some sort of exhibit.
The following weekend Annelise, Jill and I took a weekend trip to Delhi and then Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Going off of the other students reactions of Delhi being an aggressive town difficult to navigate through, we hired a driver to take us from touristy spot to spot. Seeing the Taj Mahal on Sunday was one of those moments that made every Indian challenge and struggle worth it. It was the most majestic, enchanting, breath taking man made structure I have ever seen. Although I was disappointed to find out it's not one of the 7 Wonders of the World, it definitely lives up to and surpasses every expectation.
Coming back to Pune after that trip was challenging considering it was our first full week of classes since we've been here and now most of my free time is spent procrastinating over the six reports and three presentations I have due within 2 weeks (eeeek!). Although it seems like a lot of work, the prompt for the majority of these reports is, 'Write 10 pages about a topic we've covered in class.' So basically, 10 pages worth of my interpretation can't be that difficult.
This past weekend I attended my first cricket match- India vs. Australia. Although I'm glad I went and was able to grasp a basic understanding of the game, here are the basic phrases that were on repeat through my head during this 8 hour match: 'I wonder if I'll pass out first from the heat, lack of water, or ball that keeps being hit into my section.' 'Why didn't I bring sunglasses?' 'It's only halftime?' 'Why are they opening my water with a screw driver?' 'No, I don't want to take my picture with you, I see you fitting me into your selfie pic.' 'It's really awkward being on the jumbo screen for this amount of time.' 'Wow, is this game really still going on?' 'Why is that player laying down in the middle of a game?' 'I think the referees are Canadian mountain men.' 'Why does no one where gloves?' 'Is this game really still happening?'
And as expected, being white girls in Indian jerseys warranted us a spot in the sports section of today's paper:
Now, here's a crash course of my Indian life from the last 2 weeks:
We traveled to Bombay with Alliance for a three day trip to learn more about the financial and economic center of India. For the most part though, we struggled to stay awake through three days of lectures in the basement of a YWCA. In my opinion the best meeting was with Gandhi's great grandson. It was interesting to see his formed identity outside of this monumental legend of a relative. His parting words being that celibacy is not the path for him confirms that he has chosen to take his own path outside of that chosen by his great grandfather. We then took a trip to visit Dharavi, the largest slum of Asia. Although interesting, it still felt intrusive to walk through someone's community, taking pictures like their lives were some sort of exhibit.
The following weekend Annelise, Jill and I took a weekend trip to Delhi and then Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Going off of the other students reactions of Delhi being an aggressive town difficult to navigate through, we hired a driver to take us from touristy spot to spot. Seeing the Taj Mahal on Sunday was one of those moments that made every Indian challenge and struggle worth it. It was the most majestic, enchanting, breath taking man made structure I have ever seen. Although I was disappointed to find out it's not one of the 7 Wonders of the World, it definitely lives up to and surpasses every expectation.
Coming back to Pune after that trip was challenging considering it was our first full week of classes since we've been here and now most of my free time is spent procrastinating over the six reports and three presentations I have due within 2 weeks (eeeek!). Although it seems like a lot of work, the prompt for the majority of these reports is, 'Write 10 pages about a topic we've covered in class.' So basically, 10 pages worth of my interpretation can't be that difficult.
This past weekend I attended my first cricket match- India vs. Australia. Although I'm glad I went and was able to grasp a basic understanding of the game, here are the basic phrases that were on repeat through my head during this 8 hour match: 'I wonder if I'll pass out first from the heat, lack of water, or ball that keeps being hit into my section.' 'Why didn't I bring sunglasses?' 'It's only halftime?' 'Why are they opening my water with a screw driver?' 'No, I don't want to take my picture with you, I see you fitting me into your selfie pic.' 'It's really awkward being on the jumbo screen for this amount of time.' 'Wow, is this game really still going on?' 'Why is that player laying down in the middle of a game?' 'I think the referees are Canadian mountain men.' 'Why does no one where gloves?' 'Is this game really still happening?'
And as expected, being white girls in Indian jerseys warranted us a spot in the sports section of today's paper:
And even more expected, I'm the one with my eyes closed..
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