Getting to know you

To start, I'd like to say that, while I've been in India less than five days, I already know I'll be wanting to come back after living here for nearly three months. Call me crazy, but I'm sure of it. What's odd is that I felt the same way about the Amazon when I left...I think that, while the world has been my oyster for so many years, it's finally becoming my home.

Today was our first day of class. I was reminded (by an outside-of-the-classroom discussion on the required text as well as a group of people fervently trying to finish said text) that this also brings the end of what's been an incredible summer. However, I'd like to think that summer isn't over until January. Until then, I'm exploring and getting to know the complexities of this kite-shaped country. So the other good news is that our Hindi professor seems awesome and our first professor for our meaty history and culture classes (first of three courses) seems like he'll be challenging us in a good way. As an example, someone mentioned Indian culture today and he quickly burst in with, "Culture- what do you mean by that?" In the words of the student, it's a word we like to hide behind.

Living off an American standard, it's incredibly cheap to function day-to-day in India. We went to lunch after class and I becoming accustomed to paying very little. You can get a decent meal at a restaurant with bottled water for a grand total of $2. This amazes me every time we eat out.

I also went a Yoga class today. The instructor, a woman in her late 30's, has been learning/teaching for thirteen years. She teaches in her house and it was a very interesting experience to see the inside of a Pune house. Her kitchen was L-shaped and rather large...I can only imagine the fantastic curries and chutneys that come out of it. The yoga lesson was extremely basic today, I'm hoping tomorrow will be more advanced. I did learn the proper way to say, "Om," which (little did I know) is made up of 3 syllables. The first is "Uuuu" the second "ooooo" and the final "mmmm." The resonation of these sounds and the vibrations from making them should travel up one's body starting from the belly button, making its way up to the throat and finally directly between the eyebrows.

I'm still adjusting to the time change (we all are) and I've avoiding napping today so I'm exhausted. Hopefully this means I can manage 8 hours tonight. Until tomorrow, my readers...whoever you are.