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