Guess who's back

Well, I'm back in Pune. In fact I have been for a couple days but before you think I've been holding out on you, don't worry- I've been distracted by illness and paper-writing. And who wants to write a blog when they're writing a paper? No offense but...one can only have so much writing in one day.


The good news is that I locked myself in a coffee shop today for a period of seven hours and got a lot done. The bad news is that I leave India tomorrow and I still have a lot of packing and writing to do. 


So I'll update the blog about my trip in FULL as soon as Saturday rolls around- I'll be in Singapore then, mind you. After that I'll find myself in Thailand and Hong Kong so you best stay along for the ride! I'm betting it'll be a fun one. I would leave you with a picture but, as we all know too well, the internet is just too awful here to support those kind of shenanigans. 


Toodles for now!

Let me start by saying that the last paper I wrote that was of any significant length (10 pages) was about psychology...which is a science, in case you didn't know. My point is that I'm a science-y kind of gal and I rather like that. So, when it came to writing a paper about historigraphy (which I'm not sure I'm even spelling correctly), I didn't even know where to begin. Needless to say, it was a painful experience that I'd rather not relive but what's important now is that I did it and now I happily return to writing blog posts. (Well, at least until a couple weeks from now when I'll undergo the paper-writing process yet again- this time with a much longer paper as the goal. 20 pages?! GAH!)

Moving right along, our last few days in Pune were filled with last-minute errand runs and a realization that I quickly become addicted to lattes. One errand run was rather interesting because we ended up in a rickshaw in the pouring rain. I was lucky to be in the middle, but the two girls on the sides got soaked. I love how susceptible we are to nature.

On to Mysore! It's quite an interesting place, I must say. It seems more developed in some ways- the buses here actually have numbers on them and say what route they're on. I wonder if they actually stop to pick up passengers. Oh, I don't think I mentioned: people who ride public transportation here end up chasing the buses down and jumping off them while they're still in motion, for whatever reason long ago it was decided that buses should not stop for those getting on or off. Interesting move on Pune's part. 

While I do believe that a blog post without pictures is better than no blog post at all, I really want to save descriptions of the amazing places we've been seeing until I can post pictures to accompany them. Until then I leave you with a list of some exciting things that happened today.

First off, I saw a cow being milked. It was fascinating, I've never seen that happen before. I really wanted to ask the guy milking if I could have a try but I resisted the urge knowing communicating that I wanted to milk his cow would inevitably result in me getting kicked out of town if not worse.

Also, I got a sari. Pics to follow!

Happy Thanksgiving (early I know, but I might not have internet again until after then) to everyone in the states! Eat LOTS of stuffing and such for me. 

I AM ALIVE!

Dearest, darlingest readers,


I wanted to give you the quickest of notes to let you know that I am, in fact, alive and I haven't (and will not) abandoned you. Fear not, two papers and lots of travel have kept me away from you but (at least for now) I'm here to keep you up-to-date on my adventures in India. 


Tomorrow I promise (and this will not be a politician's promise) a lovely blog post detailing my past couple days in Mysore as well as the last few in Pune. We started on a trip this past Sunday that will take us to about six different locations in southern India over the period of two weeks, starting with Mysore and ending in Goa. 


Until tomorrow, my dears
Christy 

The Festival of Lights

Yesterday, while heading home from class, a group of us girls we were asked if we wanted to partake in getting henna. Henna, or Mehendi as they call it here, is a type of temporary tattoos that is commonly drawn on women here for festivals and weddings. One girl had her lower arms completely covered in a really ornate design--it was incredible. Some college students from a marketing college were doing a fundraiser and it was only Rs.50 (about $1) for a line. 

My good friend Laura gets her tattoo done

The designs varied for each hand and the artist wasn't using a stencil so I imagine she was just coming up with them on the spot. Very impressive I must say. Each design looked slightly similar but they were definitely all quite unique.


As we were finishing with the process of getting our tattoos, it started to rain. By the end when everyone had wet ink on their skin, the drizzle had turned into a downpour. We're talking monsoon level here. Oh, did I forget to mention that the Mehendi has to dry for at least 20 minutes? After that you can scrape off the black solid and see the orange dye underneath. Some women wait as long as five hours...and let me tell you after waiting 40 minutes, I can't imagine what those women do with themselves without the use of their hand(s). I guess before you get married you have a day filled with sitting and waiting for your tattoos to have their full incubation period. 


Luckily enough we called and managed to get the hotel to pick us up in a car but they pulled up right next to a raging river (the kind formed by the monsoon rains) so we all got soaked. When we got back to the hotel we had a special Diwali lunch and, for the first time, I ate an entire meal like an Indian. To clarify: Indians usually eat with their left hand in their lap, they never use it to touch their food or to shovel delicious morsels into their mouths. They do this because they have a different method of cleaning themselves after using the restroom that leaves them thinking this hand represents filth and should not touch food or maybe even other people for that matter. Anyways, I was quite proud of myself for managing to eat an entire meal (in which the hands are used with the puri or naan or other bread) with only the use of my right hand. 10 points for Christendor. 

These would certainly not be legal in the US

Now onto Diwali!! The festival of lights brought so much celebration and generally happiness, I've never experienced anything like it. We spent a lot of time setting of copious amounts of fireworks and sparklers, most of which I've never seen the likes of before. Why, you might ask...oh, right- because they are most commonly thought of as causing certain death in America. And perhaps this is very legitimate seeing as I did spend the whole time jumping away from things that looked as if they were on the verge of explosion. And of course, they were. While as far as I saw there wasn't anything that killed anyone, there was an incident with a passerby. We shot off this one explosion that sent sparks soaring extremely high. When they shot back to the earth one made its way directly into the purse of a passerby. She was very upset and came over complaining that there was now a gaping hole in her purse. hehe. 

Sparkler Shape!

After all the sparklers and celebration we enjoyed a lovely Thali dinner out with our professor, TA, and Hindi professor (they're quite the adorable trio).

Delicious thali dinner

 Diwali continues on until Sunday night so I want to leave you with another wish for a very Happy Diwali!!!

A design made of power on the floor of the entrance to our hotel

HAPPY DIWALI!!

I promise full details of our festivities and celebration in Pune tomorrow, but for now I wanted to wish you a very happy Diwali! It's the festival of lights for those of you who don't know and it's the biggest festival of the year in these parts. Think Christmas meets New Years- without those awkward six days in between. Well, I'm off to celebrate! Have a great one. 

Lights, camera, action! Mumbai and Pune in action

Those photos I promised....here they are! I blame our hotel's internet connection (or lack thereof) for the delay. 

early morning on the Ganges

The sun rises over the boats of tourists 

At a silk factory in Varanasi, making the VERY detailed silk hangings

Up close and personal: These patterns are memorized by the artists when they're youngsters. Tres impressive. 

Our weekend in Mumbai turned out to be pretty uneventful. However, I did have a very memorable near death experience. We were on an architectural tour of the city and we were making our way through a street that didn't seem to have cars. I was walking along chatting with someone and (seriously out of the blue) a huge SUV rushed by me--literally so close that my foot hit the tire as I attempted to move away. After some seriously deep breathing to blow off the adrenaline rush that immediately ensued, it was time to cross an actual street with cars going in every direction. I attempted to stay as close as possible to the group and somehow I managed to survive. Yes, I'm talking about crossing the street. If you're confused you should see these streets. They're completely terrifying. 


I had a really interesting experience today doing the very simple task of sending a package. Well, actually, because this is India, this process is going to take three days and hopefully I'll be able to actually send off the package. 


Day 1- I attempt to find the post office. No dice. I consider asking people on the street but I'm pretty sure they won't understand me. I can't say "post office" in Hindi yet.


Day 2- I found the post office. Excellent. Then I get some sort of form where I fill out the contents of the box, their value, and the to and from addresses. I'm also told that I must make three copies of this form. So I return to my hotel, fill out the form, get the copies made, then book it back to the post office. It's 4:30 by the time I get there. They close at 5. I walk up to send my package but then the postman informs me that I must get the contents wrapped, I can't just buy a box there. So I walk down the street and make the motion of packing a box to attempt to find this packing man I'm supposed to go to. Finally I find him; it's a bit hard to grasp that he's going to give me a box because he seems pretty busy selling coconuts. I'm serious. I convey to him that I need a box. Oh, did I mention this man has the hairiest ears I have ever seen in my entire life. I'm not sure how, but hair was growing (we're talking at least three inches in length here) from the outer edges of his ears. Back to the box. He picks up an empty box that's quite flimsy and a bit damp, which he then proceeds to fill with the things I'm shipping. He seals this box with some duct tape and I'm sure the operation is over. I'm very wrong. He then cut a large piece of cloth and covered the box with it as if it had been wrapping paper. At this point I'm thinking he'll secure that with tape and we'll be done. What really happens is, after selling some coconuts, he takes out a spindle of string. Ok, so he'll tie some string around the cloth. That's fine too let's just get this over with. But no. Then, I see it. He takes out a needle, specifically a huge needle. And yes, you guessed it, he proceeds to sew the cloth around my box. Then I wrote on the cloth "to" and "from" addresses. When that's all said and done he tries to fit the official form on the box and it's not looking like it will fit. Shouldn't that have been considered in the first place?? Of course by now it's five after 5pm and I can't send the box because they're closed. Hopefully tomorrow goes smoothly, for now the little box sits in my hotel room. Tune in later to see what goes down and if my box ever makes it's long journey. And I can't help wondering--is this what Julie Andrews sang about with the lyrics "brown paper packages tied up with string"? Because that process was definitely not one of my favorite things. 


Also, I discovered I can write in हिंदी (that says Hindi, but the script is actually called Devnagri aka देवनागरी) on the blog. Amazing! 

For whoever happens to be tuning in and hasn’t read the previous post, coming up is a telling of my adventures on our (our being the five other girls I was traveling with) trip to Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi. You've tuned in just in time to catch my tales of an Indian bus ride (sleeping train, to be exact) and my exploits in Varanasi. 

Choo choo train....So I realized that I've never been on a train before. Ok sure, I have been on that MetroRail thing that takes you from Disney park to the parking lot--but I'm pretty sure that doesn't count. So I had my very first train experience here in India. The train stations here are insanely busy; a perfect manifestation of how overpopulated this country is. (Oh jeez, I ended a sentence with a verb--English majors, look away!) So after weaseling our way around the station and finally arriving at Platform 9 (we stood between 9 and 10, unfortunately I couldn't find a magical wall to run through to get us to 9 3/4's but I'm pretty sure the Hogwarts Express doesn't stop in Delhi). Once we arrive at the platform, we wait. We were about an hour early so by the time 6pm rolls around we're ready to get moving. But of course the train is late. 2 hours late to be exact. Luckily enough, we meet a nice Indian family while waiting that help us find the right car when the train arrives. Mind you there's no announcement that the train is the right train and it seems impossible that we could have found the train car on our own. Our ticket said 1st class A/C but it turned out that the train wasn't equipped with such luxury so we were really in 2nd class A/C. 

The beds in this train were 6 to a section which means that two are parallel with a space between them, one perpendicular, and they're all topped off with another layer of beds (bunks). The problem is that the beds that are perpendicular are directly bordering the aisle, as in the general aisle that everyone uses to make their way around the train. We very unluckily ended up with six of these kind of beds. Did I mention these beds are also much thinner? I don't want to relive the experience in detail but let's just say I realized in the daylight that the toilet emptied out right onto the train tracks, there was a mouse or two meandering the train cabin, and I had a rough night mostly because there was no curtain to cover my bed so I slept on top of my bed with my knees nearing the aisle...and constantly being bumped by those selling things or going to the bathroom. Oh, and the windows were terribly useless. One of the reasons we decided to take a train was so that we could see the scenery of the countryside....but all I could see was yellow through the "window." I did manage the shape of camel at one point and I must say that was very exciting. The train went at snails pace and seemed to stop constantly so we arrived to the station in Varanasi four hours late. Alas. 

Our time in Varanasi was very interesting, to say the least. We took two boat rides (not a motorboat) on the revered Ganges River--one at night and one the next morning to see the sunrise over the Ganges. It was a much wider river than I had imagined and, at sunrise, it was extremely crowded with people bathing in it at every possible area on the river's edge. 

People immersing themselves in the Ganges

We also paid a visit to the Crematory (via our boat on the river), which I found fascinating. Everyone is cremated here and there ashes are then sprinkled into the river. This process allows their remains to be "purified," so only those who are already pure are not cremated. In this category are kids younger than 10, pregnant women (because they're housing such children), and holy men (monks). These parties are tied to a large rock and sink to the bottom of the Ganges. There is a particular set of families that attend to the crematorium, and only these families are authorized to do so. The men of the families of the deceased come to watch the cremation (the body is wrapped up in foil, we saw one sitting on a set of stairs near the eternally-burning fires), but the women of the family are not allowed to attend as they are clearly too fragile to witness such things. 

I'll put up some more pictures on Sunday night (my time) but now I must rush to my Hindi quiz and then to Mumbai for the weekend- it'll be our second field trip there. Have a great weekend!