vacation time!

Last week as we sat around rather bored in the common area, we decided it would be prime time to take a trip and what better place to go to than the beach. Minutes later we had booked a trip to Goa. I will spare the details about skipping classes and spending money, but it was a fantastic trip. Our friend is originally from Hyderabad but grew up in Denmark and apart from being a great friend, she is also pretty helpful. She had been to Palolem before so we were able to just wing it because she had a basic idea of everything. After a quick flight on Kingfisher Red (Kingfisher is to India but Budweiser is to the US, but was a little disappointed to find out they only served water on board) and an hour and a half taxi ride into the Goan mountains, we arrived at what was sort of like Panama City but classier, full of Europeans, and only slightly Indian. We stayed in little handmade huts that were literally just a bed with mosquito net and a wall separating that and the sink, toilet, and shower. They front porches had chairs and a table and a hammock so that was good times. Overall, each of us paid around 3$ a night and we only really slept there so it was all good. It was also conveniently located less than a minute's walk from the beach which was beautiful. Palolem was small enough to walk to either end of the beach and there were cool islands and mountains that we kayaked to one day (I like to kayak as much as anyone else, but the whole part about being on the ocean was not to good. I'll stick to land from now on). From our huts there were restaurants and bars and shops and numerous hagglers who followed you around all day. During the day the restaurants set out beach chairs and you can just chill, order a few drinks, take a nap; at night they pull those in and put out tables so you can eat and drink on the beach which was pretty cool. All the food I ate there was fantastic. It was a nice break from curry. We had spring rolls, french fries, hamburgers (BEEF!), momos (Tibetan dumbplings-my new favorite food), nutella pancakes, fried bananas with nutella (called filters for whatever reason), pizza, beef lasagna....I could go on. Since it's a tourist destination they have standards to live up to so all the food was good and our group only had minor stomach issues. There was a market just on the other side of our huts and they had everything. We basically bought new wardrobes because we packed Indian clothes and upon arrival see Europeans in bikinis and thongs. It was nice to be able to show beyond my elbows and knees. By whole new wardrobe I mean a shirt and some pants and a dress, people re-wear clothes pretty much every day which is actually a nice way to go about things. Not only did we have the same outfit, we avoided showers. We had a shower, but it just wasn't worth it. No one cares and it's not like we reek after five days so it all worked out. Shopping is exhausting though. It's a lot of the same stuff people are selling and people try so hard to get you to buy things and then when you find something you like you have to haggle the price down. I got some DVD's for 2$ so that was my shopping win for the weekend.
This trip made me realize two things about India. First off, you can't take anything for granted in India. Power, clean water, toilet paper, toilets in general, personal safety from riots and even the police (or especially the police), personal identity (it sucks to be a American female here), hot water, internet, well-prepared food...all things we have to think about. Second realization is that Hyderabad sucks. We were under the impression upon applying here that Hyderabad is one of the top Indian cities (it is...but only as far as population goes) and that it is well-developed and full of fun things to do. As this was our first trip outside Hyderabad, we didn't know any better than to just appreciate it for what it is. There is also this political mess going on about Hyderabad splitting into a different state, Telangana. I don't understand the whole of it, but I get it a lot better after seeing something new. Hyderabad has minimally paved roads, there is always construction going on, there is chaos everywhere and the poverty is out of control. Goa had wonderfully paved roads, established city communities (plus really cool old buildings-thanks, Portugal), the poverty wasn't as apparent, ect. It's not Hyderabad's fault it's an arid desert, but we do need help that we aren't getting from the government, hence wanting our own state to push change forward. Needless to say, we will be doing a lot more traveling. We flew this time but trains are are cheaper option. You get what you pay for and a 10 hour train ride does cut down on actual beach time, but we're already looking forward to exploring new parts of the country, especially before it gets to be unmanageably hot. Rajasthan, Pondicherry, Kerala, and Delhi are all in the lineup, which will of course be followed up to a trip to the Himalayas after the semester is over.
Apart from Goa, things are great here. We've had a lot of bandhs and canceled classes due to a murder at Osmania University (far from us, don't worry) and we've discovered we have dish tv, so there are many movies watched during bandhs because there's always a risk of police interrogation or transportation problems or nothing even being opened if we leave campus, so we just chill here. My Hindi is improving-I can read signs now...meaning I can pronounce them because Hindi makes a lot of sense and is all phonetic, but don't have the biggest vocabulary. It's strange to not have rehearsal. I only have 4 hours of dance classes a week and then a dance theory class and I'm finished after 5 everyday which is strange. Some of the girls are having a hard time picking up Kuchipudi so we get in some practice a few times a week, but I do miss the intense schedule I had back at Agnes. I have officially been in India a month. I haven't gotten sick and I'm not homesick so all is well. The first two weeks went by really slow and a few times I thought 'I have to be here for four months?!' but this month has flown by. We know the city pretty well and are working on making friends. That sounds lame, but it's hard to make friends here. It's not safe or socially acceptable to just go make some male friends if you're a white female. I have a few men in one of my classes from Burma that are really nice but beyond that it's totally different than at home. We get mixed reactions from the Indian girls. Some are jealous of the attention we get, some are really friendly, and some just don't want to be around the attention we get. Also women don't go out often so it's hard to find things to do. Going out for chai is always a good idea since it's a very social thing, or just awkwardly making friends in class. I went out with a guy who is Indian but grew up in Dubai and that was an experience. We went to the movies and we were both dressed in Western clothes and wow we got some strange reactions. He was really nice about it, but suggested we bring a big group of people next time because he wasn't used to and didn't like getting looked at. He also said he thinks a lot of Americans leave here with a certain ego because of all the attention we get. I think it's the opposite and is very humbling. I do not like the constant stares and weird people who want to shake my hand and people handing me their babies. I am not a celebrity and sometimes it's nice to sit and chat with someone or play with kids but by no means would I rather have that than just blending in. Anyway, he drove me back to campus after that and I was showing him around the massive 2,300 acres or something and we were followed by campus police. They didn't give us a lot of attitude but were still very rude and made us go back to my dorm and walked me to the door to make sure I went through it. However, I got a call from him later and he said they stopped him and made him get out of his car and physically hit him, tried to take away his keys, and arrest him. They took him to a holding cell and questioned him about why he was with a white girl, why we went down that road, why he was on campus, ect. They let him go, but that's still awful. There have been a few cases of American girls being raped so it was nice they came to check on me but after that was just uncalled for. There are a lot of very strange dynamics here....
anyway, onto pictures:
Our hut complex. Notice the luscious greenery.













Here is our backyard in Hyderabad. Notice the brown and uncared for land.










and a cute one of the roomie, Abby, and I out in the open ocean.

settling in

Even though we have a lot of down time, I somehow haven't had time to update. Where did I leave off...we went shopping around town and again at this awesome festival (I bought lots of presents). I did pretty good at bartering a few times but it's exhausting and sometimes it was just like whatever, it's still cheap, even though we were obviously getting ripped off. I met the tallest man in India (picture to follow) and he comes from a really poor family and has a lot of medical problems so he pays for medical bills by people paying to take pictures of him. While we waited for our henna to dry we sat and watched little kids play in a field. I'm not big on kids, but these little Indian kids are super cute. They come shake our hands and their parents take pictures with us. It's a little strange but we take pictures with them too so it evens out. That weekend we also went to Charminar which was exciting and a few palaces/museums which were interesting. That was our first food outside the dorm and it was pretty good and none of us got sick, which was the main concern. They had delicious fresh lime soda. I like sampling all the random snack foods and drinks-thumbs up cola and appy juice are my favorite so far and banana chips are good for snacking. I haven't exactly figured out my schedule yet, but I know I'm taking basic Hindi which I really like (and I'm not too shabby at it), Kuchipudi dance which is with all international students. The teacher is really cool and it's going to be half theory half practical and we do a mini-performance at the end. I talked to her since I'm more serious about dance and I might take lessons at her house, but the catch is that it's extra money and 10km from here. I went to the concept of Indian dance in textual tradition yesterday and I think I'm going to stick with it. She's altering the assignments for me since I don't speak Telugu or Sanskrit but a girl from the class is teaching me Sanskrit with diacritics so rather than translating material I just have to memorize it. I tried taking the advanced course in Buddhist philosophy but that teacher was way scary. I know a good bit about Buddhism but learned more conceptually whereas this class was about specific people and exact spellings of texts (again, I don't know Sanskrit so it was difficult for me). The worst part was the professor singled me out for every question and asked me the weirdest stuff. He was nice enough, but I don't think I could take that kind of pressure for the entire semester. I get singled out a lot in the textual dance class too, but it's friendly and not terrifying. We're trying to make local friends but mostly have made friends with the other international students who live in our dorm who are Phd students from the middle east. It's safe here and it's not scary going out, but it's always an adventure. We have to plan where we are going so we can specifically tell the auto rickshaw driver (most don't speak much English), decide on a price and stick to it, walk or bike two miles to the front gate, find a rickshaw which is never a problem because we attract a lot of attention, and drive at least 15 minutes into civilization and then repeat coming back. We took an adventure to the pharmacy which happened to be by a Domino's so we ate there. It was basically the same as home except the tomato sauce is a little sweeter and different, and was less than 100 rupees (2$) for a pizza and drink. I already think in rupees. I've adjusted to the traffic situation here. At first it was a little scary when a car drives by and I'm poking along on my fixed gear 20yr old bike, but everyone is very spatially aware and we have plenty of room. If you walk you often get picked up by some bus or offered a ride on a motorbike which is the scariest thing I've done so far. The weather is perfect. Some people are already a little sunburned and avoid the afternoon in the peak of the heat, but it's my ideal kind of weather and the clothes are much more suitable than jeans. We forget that it's winter here and babies are all bundled up and earmuffs are really in style now which is an interesting fashion statement. It does get chilly early in the morning and at night, but chilly as in maybe you need a sweater. There are so many dogs everywhere. Indians have a different attitude towards them and we see a lot of people kicking them and I just want to pet and feed them, but they are sick and have fleas and overall just not a good idea to touch. Today we had a really cute one (minus the fact that he was missing most of his hair and his face was covered in blood) and I think because we didn't kick him he followed us the entire mile to class and seemed pretty happy to be with us. There are pigs and dogs around our dorm and we often wake up to the sound of them fighting over food which is rather annoying. Even though we live in the middle of nowhere, I think it's better than being in the city. Less pollution, less noise, less people. There are Indian versions of a lot of American things that are pretty funny. We passed by a KFC and it was really fancy. Apparently it's really big here. Ben and Jerry's is called Ice and Jelly's. Cold Stone is called Cream Stone Creamery. Church's Chicken is Texas Chicken. Subway and Domino's stayed the same for whatever reason. It's funny that we bought traditional clothes and want to do really Indian things and everyone else is buying western clothes and try to act American. We get a lot of looks from women that are not nice when we wear Indian clothes but we get less attention from men which is a plus. So far everyone has been genuinely nice. There's no American front or deception. Like the girl offering to give me Sanskrit lessons. Unlike America where if something is supposed to be on time and is late, here it's just known and accepted that things don't run on time. India has a magical way of making everything work. I've had a little difficulty finding buildings and classrooms but always run into a professor or bus or something that takes me to exactly where I need to be. Like always, the dance department here gets the short end of the stick. The dance building (not a building, just a strip of rooms behind the art building) looks like a rundown motel. We squeezed 20 or so people in a tiny classroom with a chalkboard that was inconveniently shaped like a door. But no one complains and everyone has a positive attitude. They make the same kind of jokes we do about low budget complications. So overall, I've almost seamlessly adjusted to the Indian way of life and am having a great time. It's hard to believe I've only been here a week and a half. Our weekend plans are to go to a movie and hooka bar. Oh-I have a cell phone now. It's free for me to receive calls and texts so if you feel like calling me my number is +918142050254. The phones come with all sorts of popular Bollywood songs but we were told only weird people use them so everrrryone has the same basic nokia tune which I find funny for some reason.
until next time,
caroline