malarone dreams and kuchipudi weddings

(wrote this around last monday when the power was out and just realized i never posted it so here ya go)
Ok so part of India is the Malaria pills and each one has different side effects. I’m on Malarone and its only side effect is intensely vivid realistic dreams. To help with it Started with me at wal-mart talking to Stephen in the movie section and I leave because I needed to meet this guy for a date. I was at this fancy restaurant with this odd guy AND his parents. He was tall skinny and blond with a thin face and a mousy voice the kind of guy who annoys the hell out of me and not even remotely the kind of guy I would ever date in a million years. his mother was acting like we were already getting married and gonna “make babies”. My parents were sitting at the next table giving me strange looks.
I eventually got up and excused myself to the bathroom. I get there and all of the sudden im in this dress. Which was ok with me since it was an Indian bathroom (meaning a whole in the ground to pee in and a faucet next to you to rinse ur hand with after u wipe with it). The faucet wouldn’t turn off and my shoes were getting really wet and felt slimy and then the door turns into a curtain and is blowing open. There is this 9 year old girl dancing around the bathroom in this strange dress and she has this evil face and she turns to me while I’m squatting and tells me my dress is too short. I stand up and tell her to go back to her parents and leave adults alone and she starts playin with the hem on my dress and tellin me it’s too short then skips away with this evil smile. My mom runs in and asks me what I did to this girl and I was so confused and then she saw my wet shoes and turns around and gets a new pair out of a dispenser.
So my parents leave and I go back to the date and this kid is actin even weirder so I tell them I was sorry but I needed to leave I was feeling uncomfortable and that this guy shouldn’t call me again. The mothers face was so disappointed and the dad started laughing. I got up and took the bus home (not strange except that doesn’t happen in crystal lake).
I get home and my mother is hanging the phone up and my dad has a very strange expression on his face. My mom is smiling though and says “ash that was steve he called to see if u had studied for a test and was upset when I told him u had, and I asked if he was in the class and he said no just knew u needed help studying.” My dad asks ”what was with the singin deb?” she responded “Oh…well. Steve needed me to sing while he spoke because he doesn’t like the thought of someone listening on the other end of the phone it was strange but I kind of enjoyed it” and then I woke up very confused and looked around expecting to be in my house.
Now mind you this entire dream was in real time and all of my surroundings were exactly like they should be with very few things popping out of nowhere or things that don’t belong. It always weird’s me out when they are that real. There are times they are so real I stand up and go do things when I wake up and I have no idea why I did them and then I realize it was what I had been doing in my dream.


Ok so last Thursday was the cultural show for SIP students which meant I had to perform on a stage (I hate being on stage I prefer being behind it if u know me u’d know that one). So we have to get there at 2 for the show at 7 (supposed to be 6 but its india we start when we’re ready and when people show up. so we get out make-up done and they glue our eyebrows and that was annoying. But the make-up was intense and everyone kept telling my my eyes looked crazy because I have really light eyes and the make-up was jet black. So we eventually go to put on costumes….that was a mess. They had taken our measurements and well lets just say the top to my costume wouldn’t fit the smallest girl in our group, she had too much boobs for the costume….oh it was really very funny for about 5 mins. Then 5 of us realized after we tried on all the tops that none of us could fit in them and we started to stress a little. The guys called and had the company send new costumes and sumana flew off the handle when the guy had said he was at the gate and hour before and 5 of us still weren’t in costumes. So we had the guys do our hair which was a long braid and very heavy head pieces. We didn’t look like ourselves as u can see in the picture. We kept asking if who we were talking to.

Eventually 15 mins before we were going on the costumes showed up. so I got to put on a top and by this point im stressed and annoyed and ready to give up and go home so I can study for the final I had in the morning. So I put on the top and it’s too small and I was like tiff this thing has to fit and she goes ok this is gonna be uncomfortable but we’ll make it work. So we started shoving my boobs into the top and we couldn’t stop laughing for like 5 mins it was too funny, eventually we got 3 out of the 7 clasps to shut, since it was covered by another piece of fabric we decided it was ok and just moved on. It was too funny. So we did the performance and I of course freak on stage and messed up aaaaa lot and apparently no one noticed but I did really bad from what I do when I’m not on stage.

So after the show we went to dinner in this tent outside the SIP building (it looked really pretty) and the food was GREAT they had kabobs and this pasta that I went for thirds on no lie. It was such amazing pasta, especially compared to anything I had ever had here for sure. And they had punch it was yummy.
This weekend didn’t get too much sleep with studying for the exam after the cultural show and then the power and a/c being out for most of Friday night and most of Friday itself, which in a 106 degree weather is like a death sentence.

Sunday we went to the wedding for our Kuchipudi teachers niece (well the reception) and it was sooo strange. the men were all in jeans and women in pretty sarees. and all we did was sit around for 2 hours and talk to each other. we had gone in cabs because it was pretty far from campus and it was night time and we only had them for 4 hours so when they finally opened the buffet line we all gobbled up some food and had to leave quick to get back within the 4 hours. to be honest it was pretty and when i get pictures from tiffani (i left my camera card in my room by accident) i'll post some of us all in our sarees.
Love you all and miss you can't wait to get home and see you
Ashes

SUMMER JOB!

So ok not on the India topic but one I'm very excited about. I have a job in San Diego this summer! starts in late June to early August (possibly overlapping RA training a few days but I don't have dates for either yet). I will be living with my BFF Nancy on University of San Diego's campus running the housing and activities for their English Language Academy. We throw welcome parties with pizza and a dj, bring groups to sea world, disney, universal studios, LA, show them around San Diego to the beaches malls and the zoo. All of the groups that come in are international from Italy, France, Serbia, Taiwan, and maybe China and Japan. The only thing I have to worry about is getting my plane tickets there and back, which my sister-in-law has covered being awesome and having a voucher she can't use being in Norway and all. (PS if you don't know kolie or haven't had a conversation with her yet...you should she pretty much rocks my socks!)
Speaking of international, I will be on the International floor next year in my building as one of the RA's and I have a male co-RA and i'm very excited about it. I think that maybe I'm gonna end up in some sort of Study Abroad line of work. Hopefully on the College part helpin kids figure out Financial Aid and getting answers to how things are run through the school, since it was such a hassle for me I would love to make it easier for other people now I know what can be done better.

I'm very excited about the summer! I'm happy I'll have a while at home before i leave too. I miss home a lot right now it's not even funny. 36 days and counting. Love and miss you all Ashes

Hi guys
So random stuff that's been going on. Went out on friday with the girls of AIFS and Sumana to go saree shopping and ended up doing that and quite a bit of goofing around. We went to a large saree shop and they didn't have what we were looking for so some of the girls just bought a bunch of fun random stuff. So we went to lunch at this buffet place and they had a chocolate fountain and amazing bread aaaand POUND CAKE!!!!!! it was warm pound cake too....i had a few too many pieces but it reminded me of my momma and aunts so I didn't really care. After lunch we went to a fabric shop, i wanted a simple saree and buying simple fabric and getting it tailored was the best way to do that. So I found some great fabrics and will get it tailored this week at sumana's tailor shop. the fabric for the top is a burnt orange brocade and the skirt fabric is a bright blue chiffon it's going to cost me under 20 dollars for the fabric which is about 8 meters of fabric and for tailoring, seriously love things like that.
But we spent forever in the fabric shop and i plan on returning, why because fabric is crazy cheap here and i can get it in sooo many colors! so i've been in a good mood since the fabric shop. After that we went to a pearl and silver shop, didn't see anything i was interested in, it was all pretty but not something i would want to bring home with me from india really.

Today I also had a great conversation with a resident from fall semester. He told me how much he respected me and looked up to me for being able to have the courage to travel abroad. He said he remembers how many things I don't have over here when he starts to feel selfish or gets annoyed with food at Trueblood he just reminds himself of all the things he actually has. He couldn't wait till I get back so we can hang out and he wants to know everything i've learned. I was so touched. I talked to this resident and told him how things were going over here when he asked but for him to tell me he wanted to be more like me and strive for the strength I have I can't explain that feeling. it reminded me why being an RA is one of the best and most rewarding jobs in the world. I didn't know that this student thought of me as more than the girl down the hall who could fix his light in the bathroom for him and who told him his bathroom was disgusting and needed to be cleaned during health and safety inspections. it's amazing how much you can touch a person's life without realizing it and it made me feel really great. I seriously love my job as an RA and wouldn't trade it for anything, there are moments like this that give you the type of rewarding feeling that I'm not sure you find in other jobs. I love my residents and can't wait to get back to my job next fall, i'll be on the international floor and that will be that much more rewarding and i can't wait! I'd like to throw a shout out to Carol Blade and Smitty for getting me to be an RA couldn't be a better job in the world for me right now.

Ready to go home

Hey guys so I've gotten to the point in the semester where I'm just ready to go home. I'm exhausted of India, mentally emotionally and physically. It gets really exhausting having to argue (bargain) prices everywhere you go with practically everyone. Everyone is constantly taking pictures of the "white people" and asking you "what country?" and because I'm a female men stare even more and cat call, not that this doesn't happen at home to some extent but it's very different here because the cat calls are at the "easy white women" not just at another woman walking by. I don't really know how else to explain that. Here is an article written by a girl that went to Europe but it will give you an idea of how the world sees american women (if you haven't read the article yet that is) http://www.minnpost.com/globalpost/2010/03/08/16460/did_mtv_pave_the_way_for_amanda_knoxs_guilty_verdict . Women never talk to us, and the only men that care to try and talk to us are creepy guys tryin to see if everything they hear about american's is true (not in a good way), and the other men are almost afraid of us.
I'm really sick of eating rice and dal all the time. I got a few packages from home with snacks and dehydrated food and not gonna lie it was so nice to see familiar food that i knew wouldn't make me sick. Me and a few of the other girls were talking and decided i'm probably allergic to one spice that is used often, the only problem is that it's impossible to figure out what spice it is that makes me sick because they use so many in everything. I have found a few things to eat but they get relatively old quickly. I miss having Italian one night and the next having mexican or whatever. I miss the variety of food we eat in the states, i'm bored with food and it's getting hot so i tend to just eat less and less, not great but i'll figure it out somehow, the trail mix i just got will help for sure.
I'm really ready for things that are familiar and not to feel like i could break down into tears at any moment.
Most people are sick of me "complaining" and hearing me say the same things over and over again about how i really don't like being in india, well i'd like to just say i wish i didn't hate being here so that i wasn't constantly feeling the same way. it's very lonely to be in another country alone. yes there are other american's around but you can't just call your mother when you want to hear her voice in the middle of the day because she's asleep or when she's not she's probably working. you can't walk down the hall and talk to your best friend about your day and not have to explain who everyone your talking about is. and we have meals all together at the same time every day so it's not like you can call a friend who has the same break from classes as you and go grab lunch with them. not only that but there are no places to go and have a quick lunch. no fast food which is fine but that's not exactly what i'm talking about, i mean like you call someone and go grab a sandwich or soup from panara or something. which they don't have either of those here at least not like we would at home. I also miss being able to order food or go get food late at night when i'm hungry, and by late sometimes i mean like 10pm. i also don't like eating dinner at 7pm i'm always hungry by 5:30 or 6 and have to find something to hold me over.
I'm just ready to be at home where i don't have to stay inside most of the day because its too hot to go outside, and be home where there is rain! i miss snow and rain. and to be honest i miss the sun being the color i think of when i think of the sun, not this red color, which can be pretty but it's not a comforting color to me. I miss wearing american cloths, not that i don't wear some things but it's too hot to wear it if your planning on being outside for longer then 10 mins. i miss going out with my friends to a party or to go dancing and not having to think about if my legs are covered and if i brought a scarf to cover my head if i feel like i need protection. (the scarf and the burka are almost like the indian version of pepper spray believe it or not, and the women wearing them are looked upon with more respect then the woman without one)
I miss wearing a dress and not feeling like i'm showing too much skin. I really miss dressing up, putting on make-up and straightening my hair while dancing around to music and goofing off with my friends before we go out for the night on the weekends. now we can do these things here on the weekends too but honestly as i've said before i feel very very uncomfortable at a bar here, there are very few women and men feel like it's an excuse to stare even more and make rude comments. pretty much i go out and feel horrible about myself all night and constantly have to watch my surroundings and i hate that feeling. I'm not saying i don't pay attention at home either because i do it at home too but here it's almost to a paranoid level.

So i'm wiped out and very very sick of india and the person i am here. i want to go back home where i don't feel so objectified and like an outsider that no one will talk to when i leave my room. i miss having a bed that doesn't hurt my body and i'm ready to call a pizza place and just have them understand what i'm saying THE FIRST TIME i say something.
So to those of you who want to know how i'm enjoying india there you go. I can't really stand being here and i'm ready to be at home where i can be me and not worry about everything around me all the time. If you want to come to india and experience it please do, the only word of advice i have is to not come for 4 months until you know you love it here. this is a culture and a place you either love or hate and when they told us that at the beginning of the semester i was like "god i hope not cuz i hate it right now". they weren't kidding, so come for a short period of time and if you love it come again the next time for longer. to anyone who comes to india i really hope you enjoy it and love the experience. i personally can't tell you i loved it but i am meeting new friends, mostly people from the states, who i will have experiences to last a life time and there are times of laughter and fun. unfortunately for me they don't out weigh the bad at this point so i'm ready for home.
love you all and miss you
ashley

ps for those that don't know i have 44 days left. i leave hyderabad on May 5th and I leave Dheli at midnight or so on the 6th. i get home around 10:30 thursday May 6th. I will be going late the 7th to ISU for kathy's graduation on the 8th and then from there on the 9th or 10th (not sure which yet) I will be heading down to SIU for the week and graduation of all sorts of people. I will also be going through reverse culture shock, but i guess best place to do that is at school where i spend the most time.

Hampi

Ok so Last weekend I went to Hampi with Anna, Melissa, Tiffani, Carol, Margret and Stacy. We had fun and ate a lot of good food. The first day we got there before sunrise and watched the sunrise from the courtyard of the hostel we stayed at Shanthi. It was a cute little place we had mosquito nets over our beds and community bathrooms. Not too bad other then we all were wishing for AC because it was SOOOOO hot. the indians we talked to were even saying it was hot.

So we checked into the hotel and then we went and saw Lakshmi the elephant get a bath in the river. After that we crossed the river and climbed tooo many stairs to the Hanuman temple, monkey temple. it wasn't really worth it if you ask me. When we finished that we went to lunch at a resort type place on the same side of the river as the temple and had interesting food. but the staff was funny and they played backgammon with us and showed us magic tricks and then played johnny cash music which caught us all off guard and made us laugh. In the afternoon we checked out some temples close to our hotel and checked out some of the shops on the main strip. We had dinner at a pizza place and everything was good but apparently anything with spinach in it, the girls who had it looked as if they were going to die from the taste... it was a good thing three of us got regular o;d pizzas and they ended up being bigger then we thought so we shared.
the next day we got up early and went to see some of the famous temples with a very interesting rickshaw driver Mr. Paul and his buddy. Mr. Paul is a jack of all trades and was a night guard at our hostel, a rickshaw driver and he also sold stuff at a shop, we never saw the shop though. half way through the day most of us decided it was too hot and we were sick of seeing temples. so we went back and had lunch and then went shopping and got some nice stuff, i got a dress, jewelry and some sweet pants. After the other half of the girls came back from seeing their temples we all gathered up books and things to do and went and sat in the shade by the river.
that was an interesting experience we met a woman from england, and then a couple the woman was from new york and the man was from some where in canada but i don't remember where. Let me tell you i loved the new york woman if for no other reason then she had and american accent which was sooo nice. it gets exhausting people not understanding what your saying. after that we went to a nice restaurant for dinner and we all had random foods some indian foods others had pasta and such. (all of the restaurants we ate at that weekend we sat on the floor by the way, it was a tourist area and apparently tourist think indians always sit on the floor and eat)that night tiffani apparently got sick and Mr. Paul took care of here and told her he would take her to the hospital if she needed to. the next day we took it easy and spent most of our morning before we had to go for our train sitting at breakfast. it was a place outside that over looked the river and it was quiet and away from the busy part of town.
we got on our train that was an hour late, they never seem to be on time for whatever reason. then we stopped somewhere and we had to wait for another train to pick up our cars and take us back to hyderabad.... we sat there for 5 hours! we hung our and met a british guy from london and he was reading some book about a ashram that people go to have sex. well that made for an interesting encounter with some indian men who saw him reading the book, we all were tired and sick of talking after abotu 2 hours. these indian men apparently thought this old english man was taking 6 american women with him to this ashram, it was really awkward for us because the whole situation showed how indian men think american women are easy and it was really awkward. he finally got them to leave and we were happy that his train was leaving before ours to go to a different place. we got back on the train and got back to hyderabad.
as always the rickshaw drivers were driving us nuts. we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do but they wouldn't leave us alone. i eventually after 10 mins was fed up (mind you it was 5am at this point) and freaked out at them, i was like ok enough, you all need to leave if we need you we will come find you thank you. one guy kept going and i was like sir that includes you goodbye thank you. they were offended but there are times when i get really sick of worrying if offend someone and at 5am i really didn't feel like caring if they didn't like us because of it.
we eventually got rickshaws that had meters in them through the police that apparently higher rickshaw drivers, in other words they were government rickshaw drivers. So we had one extra person, your supposed to have 3 we had 4 in ours, the police officer told us to pay 10 rupees over the meter for the extra person. we get back to tagore and the meter said 160 or something like that so we went to give him 170. he was like no 300 and we started to argue and one of our lovely gaurds walks over and starts arguing with him. and he eventually told us to just set the money down and go inside, not sure what the gaurd told him but he wasn't happy that we paid what the meter said. it was an interesting situation and so very typical of rickshaw drivers.
Other then that not much has happened, went to hard rock with ashley and kristen this week and it was yummy. also went out to a club last night, i really hate clubs here, men are creepy and there are never very many women. not only that but half way there i got a splitting headache so i wasn't happy all night. but it was something to do and considering there are only 10 sip students here this weekend we all went out together last night. oh well just reminded me why i don't go out here and just won't do it again.

HOLI

Hi all sorry it's been so long since i've written but I haven't felt like i've had much to say. So this past weekend i was in aurangabad again with AIFS this time. We stayed at the lemon tree hotel and when i walked in it was very 1950's i felt like i should be in a beautiful dress with cool luggage and a hat. there was a pool which was my favorite part i miss water soooooo very much. it was a patients trying trip though for sure, it's hard to go on a trip with people you are told your traveling with. it's just not as fun as choosing your travel partners. the food wasn't that great but not much i can do about that. one night we went to this restaurant and i've never eaten so fast in india before and when we were done they retty much shooed us out. but when we went outside there was a puppet show and they had a lady who did henna for us so all the girls got it done (minus kristen who wouldnt speak to anyone and no one knows what that was all about). we went to the slounge in the hotel and played pool and had a drink one night which was fun. then we came home and got back monday morning and had breakfast and put on a white shirt and black pants to go play HOLI!!
So Abhishek brought colored chalk and a bunch of his friends and we ran around throwing chalk and water on each other. it was really funny and an absolute blast! after that we walked back and I skyped nancy who was like you are doin toooo much wow! and then i skyped craig who is a friend of jim's that i talk to a lot cuz he never sleeps and him and his roommate were confused and apparently a bit scared cuz i looked like a monster. but it was a lot of fun and after 2 showers i'm still a bunch of really funny colors.
Holi is a festival to welcome summer and there is a story about a goddess but i dont know it so sorry about that. it was such a blast and for sure something to play in the states although it would not be played in march it would probably be played in june on the first day of summer whenever that is.
ok that's all i have for now next weekend i'm going to hampi so i'll have more to write i'm sure.
love you all and miss everyone madly

First test

So today I had my first test. Let me tell you something about me and this test. First off the test was simple he gave us the three questions on the test the week before so we could study only what was necessary. Great wonderful.... except that my motivation level for the past few weeks has be zero, zip, nada! So I found everything and anything to do other then study. SOOOOO i finally get to last night and realize I have no choice at this point, i HAVE to study. So i end up just writing out what i want my answers to look like...pretty much write my notes in paragraph forms and then I made note cards off of that. well get to class today and i'm like man i'm never gonna remember any of this...i don't know how but i felt like i wrote my notes directly onto the paper. I was impressed with myself...just thought you all should know that. oh and tests here are just essay tests usually but they want pages of information. which well i write a lot at home so i think i'll be good. the Indian students told us somewhere between 6-8 pages aka fill up the blue book. i got about 7 pages so i'm pretty happy with it. apparently though a lot of American students have never taken essay tests before and they were all really confused and couldn't figure out how you write so much... thank you SIUC professors for essay tests as much as I hate them, I'm one step ahead of a lot of students on tests here in India.
Although I lucked out too this semester because the majority of my teachers dispise tests and think it tells them nothing about what's in your head so we have papers and power point presentations instead...ok i can do that.
ok not much else goin on here had a red alert bandh on saturday but nothing happened. Friday went to an ashram, spiritual center focused on meditation....wellll they were spiritual all right. I think i shall call them a cult. not all ashrams are like that but this one man those people were nuts and im not sure how many times the guy told me to repeat...I AM A SOUL! crazy people seriously. and sunday melissa stacy and i went to the mall and i got some much needed clothing...i can't tell you how often i do laundry here cuz i don't have much clothing with me (on purpose) so i tend to have to wash often. oh and we went to the book store and wellllll i got a nickolas sparks book but they didn't really have a young adult section...which tends to be some of my favorite books to read and i didn't know half the authors so i just kinda gave up. i think i might get some books on amazon and have them sent here. there are some books in the common room but most are about india and or they are really sad or things i'm really disinterested in reading. so we'll see that's all i got for now.
miss you all and love you lots.

Chai

Social Science Canteen

Ok so I was just talkin to the brotha man and realized I have never told you all about tea time. Well first of the sayin here is any time is chai time. So if you want tea you can just go to one of the many canteen's on campus. So a cantene is kinda like a road side kitchen for snack foods and most importantly chai. Now when i say we are gonna have a cup of tea it's not like at home where we have mugs...we use the little tea cups for tea.

F-Hostel Canteen


So everyday in our building we have tea time from 4-5:30 i believe and you have chai and biscuits or crackers depending on the day and sit around and chat with whoever showed up. topics go anywhere from starting up a book club to travel planning. today we talked about how dresses never fit and had the oh so common debate about which is better little boobs or big ones .... always entertaining. it's different then meal times when people are either sitting for a long time eating or running in eating quickly and running off to class. if you show up to tea time you have nothing to run to or be done at the moment so you just sit around and talk.

Now the next question i'm sure is on your mind is it anything like chai in the states...well it's tea. but ultimately it's pretty different... and they both are good in different ways. Chai here is first off very sweet. But unlike at home it's not made from a chai tea bag or mix. u start with boiling water and put different spices in it and let them flavor the water first. then you add hot milk and then you put in a black tea bag and sugar in the end... that's what i remember when i asked how it was made at least. the tea bag goes in last because otherwise you end up with straight up black tea which has a bland flavoring to it. if you let the seasonings boil for a few minutes the flavors are sucked out into the water. you can control how strong the tea is as well if you add the tea in last, some people don't like their tea as strong although unless you are making it yourself you take what you get.

Most of us are addicted to chai time and watch our clocks for 4 to roll around maybe it's the caffeine and maybe it's the lack of anything else to do but either way chai time is my favorite time of day for sure.

Sumana said she was going to teach us to make it at some point and abhishek gave us a recipe in the last email so if you would like it i'd be happy to send it to you and u can try it out.... or wait and i'll make it for you when i get home.

North Campus Jai Telangana
We also had a bunch of telangana painting show up on the roads on campus. there was a rally last weekend about it but i haven't really heard how that went. the day trip we took last weekend to warengal is where the rally was supposed to end on sunday. we went on friday tho so nothing hug was going on other then people stopping traffic and singing some song, but if they were asked to moved they didn't get angry or anything they just moved. we also drove through osmania, which is where most of the students pushing the telangana movement are at but it was calm and we didn't have any problems.


South Campus Jai Telangana

Love and miss you all

Modern Indian Art

Ok so adding to yesterday I got the power points from modern indian art and i came to the conclusion... I really like Thomas Hickey as an artist. I was saving a few of the pictures to my computer to attempt to upload them on to this here blog and every picture I saved was by thomas hickey.

This one is Thomas Hickey, "Portrait of Colonel Colin Mackenzie, Surveyor-General of India with his Attendants” Oil on Canvas, 1816.


Thomas Hickey, “Jemdanee Bibi of William Hickey"
Oil on Canvas,Calcutta 1787

Oh a Bibi is a Dancer/Harlem lady and these women were the only women in society at the time who would show their faces in public. they were exotic and captured the british males attention. many bibi's became mistresses or wives to the british officials. the marriages were not condoned by the churches however so the bibi's and their illegitimate children were ostracized usually. Many of the officials had family's back in England as well.


Thomas Daniell, “The Nautch”
Watercolor, 1810
(not Hickey but still very beautiful... very different from hickey's style too being that it is focused ont he entire picture of an event and not just on a single person)


Thomas Hickey, "Portrait of Muizuddin, Son of the defeated and Slain Tipu Sultan of Mysore?"
Oil on Canvas, 1801

Just thought i'd share some good art with you all enjoy

Classes

So it's Tuesday and that means woman's studies and Modern Indian Art. My two favorite classes, especially since woman's studies actually met today! Ok time out, why do you spell especially with an s? i always spell it with an x which i decided is how it should be spelled. time in so woman studies rocks my sock she pretty much told us today we are going to study a little of all indian women culture and its history and focus on things we decide are interesting, she'd rather not make us learn about things that bore us. plus she doesnt believe in tests so instead we are going to each have 2 power point presentations, on one of the topics that interest us, and a paper. i think i can manage that ha! I like the power point presentations since there are only 5 of us in the class its really just us teaching us each other what we know, which is my favorite way to learn, I don't like to read it cuz it takes forever and i have to re-read a lot and lectures get boring but conversations give you the knowledge you are actually going to remember because you are interacting with the information....more teachers should teach like that, a lot of us would get so much more out of it.

My modern indian art class is kinda the same. she lectures a bit more and likes essay tests (which i like cuz even if you don't know the exact thought you can tell them what you do know and get some points) but she uses pictures to talk about what she's teaching (good thing since we are talking about art) but she also has us teach ourselves what to see in the paintings. like today we were looking at portraits and she showed us three very different styles and had us tell her what we thought the stories for each were...and we actually got really close to the actual stories based on colors and small cues in posture and other objects. Mind you half the time i feel like im the only student responding to her questions but that's ok im learning more then the kids chillin thinkin someone else will answer, and i believe the point of having classes is to learn. She is also a teacher in the US ever other semester so her class is....STRUCTURED!!!! she just got back to india from last semester in the states and it's lovely, she articulates her words so we know what shes saying and she gives us a study guide of what she's going to talk about that day. its so wonderful.
so needless to say my tuesdays and thursdays are really nice and my classes are enjoyable.
now monday and wedensdays are well monday and wednesdays. kuchipudi dance is frustration...i cant move my hips and im not good at keeping them still apparently since im always getting yelled at for moving my weight back and forth, im not the only one the girl who studied in africa does it too and so does the latino chick so i dont feel so bad. but monday we did this move that we jump on our toes and lets just say my joints hurt in my legs from doing it. and my feet are very unhappy about me stomping on them soo much.
and my afternoon class migration and diaspora is a joke. its the only class that only fills that time frame and doesn't clash with any of my other classes. the other day we were learning about african diaspora and i felt like i was in second grade history learning about the triangle slave trade...why did we spend time on that? and we talk about the US a lot in that class. i mean i get that there are a lot of different people in the us but im not in that class to learn about the us! he said in a few days we are gonna focus more on indian diaspora but i have a feeling that will be a joke too. hes kind of hard to understand some days too. he was trying to explain the test which is an essay test and i was so lost...it was good the other 6 sip students understood cuz i was havin a hard time understanding him that day.

other then that i dont know much nothings really going on around here. telangana protesters were told to keep the protests peaceful the other day by the police (i read it in the paper when i stole mr.das's chair (he's the guy who runs our building)) but other then that nothings happening with that as far as i know. started reading my sister's keeper, its sad but i like the way the author writes the story from different characters points of view in each chapter. it builds characters well and you see things that other characters might not point out, kinda cool.

Weekend Trip and the past week events

Hello everyone! All the bandh's and such seem to be done and it's calm around here again. So this past weekend I took a trip to Aurangabad, Ajanta and Ellora Caves with four other girls Melissa, Tiffani, Rachel, and Ming. They were beautiful! Buddha got a little boring toward the end though not gonna lie, pretty much saw Buddha in 3 positions in about 27 different caves. But the carvings and paintings (where they were still intact) were beautiful. The Hindu temples in Ellora took my breath away, literally. I walked into the first cave number 16 (where we started since it was right at the entrance) and had to stop because I needed a min to take it all in. Sorry it took so long for me to blog I’ve had a bit of lack of motivation this week to do much at all.
Not only were the caves beautiful but the landscape was fabulous! There were GREEN TREES! In Hyderabad the trees don’t seem to be as green and beautiful actually they appear to be almost dead. It was a nice break from India when I looked at it, kinda like going to the Shawnee forest and hiking, beautiful and calming.

We ended up leaving early for train ticket reasons and left around 930pm on Thursday night. When we got on the train we found out that we had no idea how to read the tickets when someone asked us why we were in their seats. Well the ticket master came and let us all stay in the seats we were in and the other people took our seats...no big deal...happened on the way back too even though we thought we were in the right place ah! So there were two guys who sat and talked with us... and a bunch of people who stared at us, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that. the one guy was in the air force and never said where he was going, but left his number for Maaya (Rachel’s fake Indian name and back story, Indian mom American dad) and told her he would wait on her call... she has a boyfriend who's from Calcutta but studies in the states, I’m not a fan of people lying unless we are in a situation where we feel uncomfortable, this was not one of those times. The other guy was studying to be a medical tech somewhere in England. He was on his way home for his brother’s wedding. It was nice because the guy who studies’s in England had a different perspective and was talking to us like we were people and not "amazing white skinned people". We eventually went to bed and well needless to say we froze! It was so cold with the wind coming in the windows...even with them closed it didn’t do too much. Not only the wind but because of the lack of humidity during the day the temperature drops drastically at night here, it’s kind of nice not gonna lie (unless you’re on a train).

So we got to Aurangabad around 1:30pm. Ming Tiffani and I went to see the Aurangabad caves and the other two went to see the mini taj mahal (seems to be a lot of mini taj's around this place). We checked into our hotel the Shree Maya. It was pretty nice had some bugs that came out at night but it was pretty clean and can't complain too much. We went walking to look for something to eat for dinner after that and ended up eating Chinese food and getting snacks at this sidewalk food court place. It was fun and the food was, well it was Indian Chinese so it was as good as we could expect.


The next day we went to Ajanta and took a cab, we bargained with him the night before for 2 days one to Ajanta and the other to Ellora... I’m actually good at bargaining with people but it gets exhausting. So Ajanta had some caves with paintings still intact but I really only got pictures of the landscape because my camera doesn't like to take pictures without flash. We stopped at the last cave to rest and eat some snacks and all of the sudden we heard "HURRY!" and saw a bunch of school children running in our direction. At first we thought they were excited about the cave but when they surrounded us and sat real close saying "photo? Photo?" we realized that they were excited about the white girls not the cave. So the teacher took their picture with us and then suddenly yelled "My turn everyone move" and sat right between us. It was really funny. Men take pictures on their phones a lot too, usually from far away and it's really creepy. Women on the other hand will come up and ask to take pictures with us and hold our hands or put their arms around us. I'm not much of a fan of being watched or having pictures being taken of me, especially without my permission. But oh well guess I just deal, and I don't mind when they ask me for a picture but if they just take them I get annoyed. Tiffani made a great analogy, "we're like zoo animals always being watched." my responds was "oh hey look they're moving again everyone look!" she's right and now it’s our running joke.

We also climbed up on the cliff (there was a path we didn't free climb or anything) and just walked around for a while. We eventually ran into a little village. There were some women cleaning cloths in the river and Ming asked if she could take pictures and the ladies said no, come to find out they didn't understand her at all. So we weren't going to go into the village but Rachel decided it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we must go (I agreed with her but at the same time I felt it was selfish of me to barge in on people’s lives because of what I would get out of it.) We went into the town and the women were a blast! One girl brought us bhindi's and there was a boy (looked about 12 but was 16) who spoke Hindi and English as well as marati (local language). The boy talked with Rachel, because she gave a fake Indian name and had a whole back story (not a fan of her doing this I feel like lying is gonna get her and the people with her in trouble) and she speaks Hindi, which he was more versed in. There were children watching the rest of us and the girls had brought us all some of the best tea I had ever had. There was a little boy with a kazoo type instrument who brought over a puppy and set it between Tiffani and I and pointed at it until we pet the puppy who immediately went back to its nap. One of the women cut Rachel off to tell the boy something and he turns to me and said" she says you have a beautiful face" that made me feel really wonderful and the woman standing behind me kept playing with my hair, they were very sweet and beautiful!
There was one of the cutest little boys I’ve ever seen there too, he would hid behind his mothers leg and look at us and see that we saw him and run away. Then he would come and get a little closer and see us looking and run away, biggest smile on his face so very cute. The three girls in Katack (type of dance) did a little dance for the women and children who love it! Then the boy showed us the local temple and had us pay respects to the ancestors and put ashes bhindi's on us (like Ash Wednesday). Apparently he showed Tiffani where his grandparents were buried too. It was a very cool experience and then he brought us down to where the cars were parked through the woods on the local path and not back through the caves...really cool.

That night we went out for dinner and stopped at a local place and had some pretty good Indian food surrounded by locals. We also went to the Food mart next to our hotel to get snacks for the next day and yet again Rachel used her fake name Maaya with the owner who became a "friend" as did his kids and the neighbor boy.

The next day we went to Ellora. We walked in and the first cave in front of us was cave 16 so we walked in and I stopped dead in my tracks it took my breath away! I felt like I shouldn’t be in kakies and a tshirt, it was like when you walk in you should be looking ur best and should run into many other beautiful people… ran into a beautiful woman and flipped the tables and asked to talk a picture with her and her daughter. The woman was very excited I wanted to take a picture with her as if she couldn’t believe I was even remotely interested in her. It was cute and I was happy she said yes. After we spent like an hour in cave 16 we walked up to cave one and started from there. At cave 5 we ran into this group from Alabama’s rotary club. They were a blast we ran into them periodically throughout the day. The teacher that was with them blew my mind and I really just wanted to sit and talk with him the rest of the day. He reminded me of papa you could just see and hear the passion in him. He was a geography professor at the University of Alabama. He asked where we went to school and our majors and I said Anthropology and he said that was his undergraduate degree and that he fell in love with Geography is junior year in college and went to grad school for it. He had taken a trip to Guatemala one year in college with his buddy and they went from the University of Texas (his almamator) to Guatemala city and hit every archeological site in between. It sounded great and he told us about how he took his wife to cancoon because when he had been in college it was beautiful and now it’s taken over by teens and college tourists. This man made my day and I decided that I’m not going to have a job unless I love it as much as this man did; it made having just a job look so unappealing. He was such a cool professor he was probably in his early 70’s and just had such amazing stories. I was dragged away needless to say for lunch.

So eventually we got back home went to dinner at like 5pm which is really early here but we had to be up at 3am for our train so early dinner was a good idea. So we ended up at a restaurant and had some really odd pizza like deal. It was good but certainly not what I would call good pizza. We stopped and got ice cream at this guys shop who told us the girls who had gone to the caves the weekend before had been at his shop for dinner all 3 nights they were there. He was excited that more of the American students had shown up at his place. He also made some black current lasi for Ming who made us all have some and it was sooo good. He was really happy we liked it. After that we stopped at the food mart one last time for snacks to eat on the train. The owner asked us to stay and have tea with him and so we did. Then he got really creepy and asked Maaya (Rachel) and Melisa (who’s dad owns a food mart type place in the states) for their addresses and emails. So they both gave fake addresses and Melissa gave her email so that he could contact her and she could put her dad in contact with the guy if he wanted. He then wanted pictures of us which was fine since they were on his phone and blurry as could be. Then he took pictures of Maaya and made it his phones background… really creepy. So of all the things Rachel lied about she told the guy what time our train was leaving and he showed up at the train station and she acted like she didn’t know him. So he walked over to the three of us on the other bench and started talkin in Hindi which we couldn’t understand and looked pretty mad. He eventually went to the other side of the train station and watched us until a train came between us and when it left he was gone. It was really freakin us out and really frustrating because Rachel had put us all in this situation with all her lies and trying to make people interested in her. I would much rather be the American that people see but know very little about. I have no reason to lie to them and I really don’t want to bring any more attention to myself then necessary. Not sure I want to travel with her again, not really sure what else she could be lying about and that bothers me a lot.
But the trip was really fun and the last night we watched Flubber and fell asleep pretty early before we went to the train station at 3am. While we were on the train we slept as much as we could and it wasn’t nearly as cold… I think part of it was that we put on a lot more cloths this time. When we woke up and were just sittin around talking we kept hearing a little kid. I look around and there is a mom and her daughter sitting right behind us. They were super adorable. The baby kept waving and cooing at us when she could catch our eyes. So the mom eventually walked over and asked to sit with us for a while. She was very sweet I believe her name was Sandja and the daughters name was Jenavie. They were really fun Sandja turned music on her phone and Jenavie danced around for us, she wasn’t more than 14 months or so. Yes kids are growing on me people and it’s no longer and if I have kids a when and with who now. India’s kind of made me miss having kids around, and not just around but kids I can play with and the like. Not sure how my patience level is with them at this point but I have a feeling after this trip I’m gonna be a much more patient person.

In the last week I haven’t done a few things. I went out on Wednesday for Riane’s 20th birthday to a Mexican restaurant, not really Mexican food like I would like but it had Mexican flavors which was great. I also had a kiwi daiquiri; made with real kiwi’s it was delicious! I shared it with everyone at the table because I didn’t think something so delicious should be kept to myself… they all really liked it too. We also told the waiter it was her birthday and they were super sneaky and asked us all our names and how to spell them and then asked where we were from and such. So none of us thought anything of it until we were getting ready to pay the bill and they came out with a cake with her name on it. it was really great and the waiters sang with us…there were only 3 other people in the restaurant then us. I was missing my cloths that night though because I didn’t have anything that was worthy of wearing for a birthday so I ended up getting creative and put on jeans and a tank top and then used my new scarf to cover my shoulders and it looked really cute. I really wished someone had been on skype that night because I was a bit upset no one saw how cute I was back home.
Yesterday (Friday) Sumana took us to her friend’s house to learn how to make an Indian mean. It was pretty good lots of fresh ingredients and my fingers are still yellow from the turmeric I put on the chicken. We made Chicken and rice and this yogurt stuff I didn’t like and roties… really easy delicious bread I will have to make for you all. Sumana also said that later in the semester she is gonna teach us some things and she was gonna drag her mother over to teach us how to make some golab juman (delicious desert…super rich). Something I finally realized that’s been driving me nuts about this country is that nothing is ever CLEAN! When we were at this woman’s house all I kept thinking was man if I just had a rag and some cleaner this place could look beautiful. Oh well just makes me appreciate recycling bins, trash cans and people who keep their things clean… oh and people who wear deodorant make my day… much less some smell good (that’s what jim calls cologne and it makes me smile so I now use it)
Then last night a bunch of people went to the chocolate room! I had a brownie sundae and after I ate it I was in heaven it was so good and I realized I had only once chocolate since I got here. Then I slept in this morning (which means I got up for breakfast and went back to bed because even if I don’t like anything else the rest of the day I know I will enjoy breakfast). We had banana oatmeal yesterday (my absolute favorite and I wish we had it more often) and this morning we had banana cinnamon pancakes! If we added nuts to them they would be the perfect pancakes!
So this week I’m hoping we will actually get to start my women’s studies class, with the bandh’s and my teacher having family emergencies we haven’t had class yet. I can’t wait though it should be a great class. Although the first reading, that the three of us taking the class decided we should read so we can just jump in when we start class is taking me a bit of time to read. It’s about Sati, which is when a widow either throws herself on her husband’s pyre or burns herself after her in-laws have harassed her horribly. It’s a horrible practice and has been outlawed for years but still happens occasionally. Back before the british got involved it was seen as a heroic and honorable thing to do. It meant that you were devoted to your husband and were loyal to him while you were married. If you didn’t commit sati you had to shave your head, which we found out from our cooking teacher was because hair makes the head beautiful and since you are widowed you should be undesirable and therefore shave your head to make yourself not look beautiful. You also were accused of causing your husband’s death and being unfaithful to him. It’s really messed up and I had to stop reading it for a few days because it was making me nauseas to read. I understand its importance to the class but it’s hard to digest the fact that women actually did/do this. If you want to read the article here is the link, it’s a good read but be prepared for it to be difficult emotionally to grasp. If you hit PDF up in the right hand corner the article will open Adobe Reader as if you were reading it in word. It’s easier than reading it by clicking the next page thing on the Jstor website. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2760461?cookieSet=1

Ok all have a great week and I’m gonna try and be better at keeping u with this so they aren’t so long.

Telangana BANDH

OK so last night went to a bar for Karaoke, it was pretty fun! Some people got really drunk which was so stupid if you ask me. First off it's a Tuesday. Second off your foreign. third most of you are females....lets just add drunk and see what happens, nothing good can come of that if you ask me.
On the way back I saw that the Telangana tent had been moved from shop com to south campus closer to the hostile area...allyn said it had something to do with exams for classes that were going on before christmas and people needing to have it in a more convenient place. I also noticed that the students who are relay fasting (some fast at night and others during the day...a joke in itself and is making a joke out of something meant to be serious) took a break for the holiday...pretty sure your cause doesn't stop because it's a holiday. Apparently another student lit himself on fire committing suicide for Telangana, I believe I was told the number is 168 now. Come on now people besides getting people's attention what is killing yourself doing? You aren't being prosecuted like you would be in some places so it's not like some horrible torture is happening that death would be more effective. Oh and the politicians who are on a hunger strike who are going to the hospital for IV's are killin me...it's not a hunger strike if you are getting the nutrients to stay healthy...the whole point is that your supposed to protest by being starved... i don't get it really at all but it worked for ghandi...and he did it the right way without an IV.
For those of you that don't know anything about Telengana I can attempt to tell you what I know and excuse me if it's not a 100% correct let me know if you know I'm wrong and I can fix it in the post.
OK so Andra Pradesh is the state that I am in. There are three regions the Coast with a lot of resources, fertile lands and the like. Telangana area in the south where Telugu (language) is most prevalent. And the north which was always apart of Andra but has less resources. There are very mixed feelings about the state splitting into Andra and Telengana but one side thinks it's a bad idea because Telengana won't have enough resources to support itself and the people will suffer. the other side thinks that Telangana needs to be separate because they are a different people. Telangana means land of the Telugu people which is where the language originated I believe. the protesters are the young group and a few powerful authority figures and teachers.
Right now there are a handful of students on campus who are fighting for Telangana and there are signs that say Andra Pradesh but it's crossed out and Telengana state is written over it. Quite interesting.
Ok so there is a lot more to this and i'm not entirely sure about the rest so I would say just look u Telangana on google and see what comes up because it would be better at explaining it to you.
But today the protesters ordered a BANDH on Hyderabad which shuts down the city. So our classes are going to continue but it the teacher lives off campus there is a very great chance they won't make it to campus. Shutting down the city includes not only stores, and restaurants but also cars moving and trains and possibly moving people. If you are moving or driving you will be asked to stop and not go any farther, aka stranding you where ever you are and if you attempt to keep going your car will be stoned by the protesters. Pretty much don't leave campus. Hopefully this BANDH won't last all week because I want to go on our trip but if it turns out we can't then that's ok too. Cuz if you can get out of town chances of getting back in might be slim if this unrest is still going on.
Let me know if you need more info on this and I will talk to Ragany, Abashek, Sidath, or Paval and see if I can't get more info about it.

Weekend stuff

Hi people,
So this weekend I did all sorts of things. Thursday night I went to a dance/light concert that was really cool and you'll have to skype me and ask me about it because I'm not sure I can effectively write about it.
Friday during the day Sumana and her family came to Tagore and Vicrim (her husband)attempted to teach us how to fly indian kites... we weren't very good at it.
Saturday day was a very lazy day and at night went to see Zakir Hussain and 3 other very good musicians. Although after a while the show got really boring and I started counting ceiling tiles and such. The sitar player was apparently the youngest famous sitar player and he was really fantastic.
And sunday I sat around and took a nap and then went to the mall. the first rickshaw driver didnt know where he was going so we ended up ditching him and taking another rickshaw diver... it took us about 2 hours to get to the mall about 15 mins max from campus. When we got there ashley wanted to go shoe shopping and we went to like 4 different stores before we found a place with her size. then we went to hyper mart and i got some tea (forgot the sugar oops) and candles (forgot the matches or lighter oops) and got some almonds and ritz type crackers and a few other things to snack on since meals are so spread out and i always get hungry. and theeeeeeeeen we went to the hard rock cafe and got french fries and a CHEESE BURGERS!!!!!!!! loved it and then we had a hot fudge brownie sunday for desert and they were sooooo amazing. I seriously missed meat so very very much. Although tonight we had lamb which was actually really good (and light as far as lamb goes) minus the bones that were still in the meat (annoying but oh well).
Today went to class and read zodic sign stuff and had a random conversation with my nancy. And now I'm gonna go watch a movie... I'm very happy I decided to bring as many movies as I did because people are always looking for movies...they ran out of bollywood movies that we have in the lounge and they got super excited that I had like 20 movies.... putting them in the visor cd holder things was a brilliant idea on my part :-)
Next weekend I am going on a trip to Arjanta and Ellora with Melissa, Rachel, and Ming. So that should be fun. it's a place with a lot of temples in caves. Buhdist, Hindi and Islamic temples i believe. you should all look up pictures on google...beautiful!
ok well gonna go watch a movie Love and miss you all very much!

Last day of classes on Week 2

So we don't have class on Thursday because there is a festival called Makar Sankran/ Pongal. Not sure what it is but Sumana said something about flying kites. Sounds good to me! We are also planning on possibly going to a dance performance and for sure going to see Zakir Hussain, a famous sitar player who is apparently really cool to watch.

So I think I finally have my schedule figured out:
Breakfast at 8am everyday
Lunch at 1pm everyday
Dinner at 7pm everyday
Monday's and Wednesday's: Kuchipudi Dance (Traditional Indian dance of Andra Predesh) from 10am-12pm and Migration, Diaspora and Transnationalism from 2-4pm
Tuesday's and Thursday's: Woman Studies (Indian Woman based, History and Sociology mixed) 11am-1pm and Modern Indian Art (Art History class) 2-4
Friday's NO CLASS!!!!

Just found out about the woman studies class yesterday and there are only three of us in the class. It doesnt start till the 21st though because we don't have class thursday and the teacher is out doing something at another college next week Tuesday. I also don't have Art history at at all next week because the teacher is going to present her friends art work at their almamater. Her friend finished the art but died a few months ago so they are doing the show in her honor. So next tuesday....NO CLASS!

Kuchipudi dance is kickin my butt. there is a lot of stamping and squat like movements... gotta stretch my muscles out before and after really good cuz i get really tense. But the teacher brought us tiger rice (tamerine) today and it was really yummy...and now my stomach hurts... like most of the time when i eat.

today it's kinda gloomy out and i think it might be sprinkling a bit...its nice and cool so i'm a happy camper. I'm also debating if i want to go to my diaspora class today, the teacher isnt there but he is leaving a film for us to watch. i probably will go cuz otherwise i dont have anything to do. plus i have to go to the SIP building to turn in my course sheet (just says what i'm taking so they can tell the teachers who is for sure taking their class)

so i dont know if i wrote about this before or not but the brooms here are really funny. i'll have to get a picture. they look like hay tied together so it sits at different lengths all the way around the short pole. the women that clean with them have to bend over to sweep, i can't imagine the back pain.

I really really want a cold glass of cows milk, some sharp or cheddar cheese, some plain yogurt with frozen raspberries and granola on top, a burger and fries, mac n cheese (or easy mac), fetachini alfredo, and some taco's (with all my favorite fixings, beef, corn, rice, cheese, hot sauce, re-fried beans, and black beans)if i could have any of the above listed things i would be a really happy camper. I mean don't get me wrong chicken is good but i like to change it up a bit.

I'm working on getting my address here for those of you who are asking. I have no idea how the mail works here none of us have gotten anything, then again im not sure anything has been sent to us.

oh so i have a new drink you should all try it was really yummy. we had it the first day in hyderabad and i totally forgot about it till just now. it's lemonade with club soda...simple but really good. they put a cherry in it for color and it looked nice but i feel like a raspberry would have looked nicer because of the color contrast between the soft yellow and the rich red. the cherry was almost too bright.

Oh and I am putting up people's schedules on my wall so I know when i might be able to get a hold of you. so if you want to send me your schedule for classes, work, working out, ect. I will put it on my wall and it will be pretty and colorful too :-) Nancy's is up there right now under mine and they look very nice.
otay bye people love and miss you all!

Survived week two in India

Yesterday was pretty good and today is full of drawing/journaling for class and attempting to figure out how to compare and contrast poems i don't really understand for another class

yesterday we went to see a Hindi Bollywood movie and Abashek and Ragany (finally got her to spell it for us lol) translated it for us...well what we couldn't get from body language and the general scene going on. There was a lot of suicides in that movie as funny as it was there were some really morbid moments...u always saw the people kill themselves, either hanging or jumping our of windows...quite intense.
and then we went to a Hindi mosque and Ragany told us a bunch of stuff about Hinduism that none of us knew. oh and her birthday is the day after mine so i have a birthday buddy...its exciting. Oh and she's a lot like me and a huge feminist and started a students against sexual harassment movement on campus...needless to say she's just what i needed. Oh and before she left she did the hugs all around bit like i do at home....i love hugs it was nice to know people actually do that here! we also went to eat at a boardwalk like area and then took a really fast (way faster than we expected) boat right around the little lake with a very large Buddha in the middle (picture the statue of liberty as a Buddha in a lake not an ocean.) talked to my mom for a bit and then my roommate went to bed and i tried to go to the common room to talk to my aunt and the wireless wasnt working so i'll just have to talk to them another time.

So yesterday we went to the market in the afternoon and it was seriously sensory overload! there were people cooking all sorts of idk what's, and colors over all over everything, puppet shows going on and people walking in every direction, and people yelling yes madam yes? as in come look and buy things. my favorite is when they say just look no buy... that's how they try and sucker you into something... which works on a few friends. although i helped my roommate out she wanted some earings and the guy wouldn't come down in price and he wanted 50 rupees...abashek said don't pay more than 20... well i didnt want to insult the guy so i said 30 he goes can't be done 45 and is 35. he said no and i said ok ash lets go and the guy goes ok 40 i said no that's ok and the guy was like okok 35 you take... from 50 to 35 rupees i think i'm gettin the hang of this a little. then we watched some of a dance show theater thing that was pretty different, love the live performances they are entertaining.

AND then we went to see Cricket. there is a tournament going on on campus with like 34 teams playing. Abasheks friends were playing so we went and watched. we also met some of his friends, girls! and not only were they girls but males and females hugged and had physical contact we were all a little excited about this since up till then men and women didn't look at each other and barely spoke to one another. Ranagy one of the girls sat and talked to Allyn, Riane and I and she explained cricket to us since we hadn't seen it before. I think that Sumana has an assistant so that her SIP (Study Indian Program) students have a way to meet other students on campus, because it's really not easy to make friends when men will stare at you but unless another male introduces you they won't talk to you.and women make up like 1/8 of the population on campus so it's hard to find women much less women who will talk and want to be friends with an american, who is looked at as "easy" by most of the population.

End of the first week

Well all it's been an interesting week. Its been a rough one too. I've really missed home and the things there. But I'm trying to stay positive and be happy. Classes, minus the Diaspora Class, are going well. My Gay Indian Literature class is going to be a blast the teacher is a hoot, he's gonna be a hard teacher but i figure only that class is really going to be a huge challenge. I need to find one to replace the Diaspora class and then i'll be set. I have friday's off and they try to do that with international students so we can travel if we like. Tonight we are going to the market and maybe to a coffee house. tomorrow we are doing a town tour and going to see a movie called The Three Idiots, it will be in hindi so sumana is going to translate it for us. But it's supposed to be really funny. Wednesday night the girls and I went to the mall to buy indian cloths because western cloths were making us too warm in the heat. We also go a PIZZAAAAAAA. i don't think i've ever been so happy to see a pizza in my life! it was really close to a pizza from home...with pepperoni's and all! I look really cute now too lol. I'll get pictures when we are out tonight and try and post them for you all to see.

I'm still working on getting along with food here, they use a lot of spices in everything and my stomach really hates it so i try to eat bland foods, or as bland as they get foods but it's really hard when you just go to the mess hall and they give you whatever they made for the night. Although they always have deserts at lunch which are great and ice cream or pudding at dinner. I also know i can always eat dal (lentils) they are chili hot a lot of the time but at least they don't make me sick. I think on sunday there is going to be a hiking excursion on campus with abasheck sumana's assistant). And next weekend will be a 4 day weekend because we have thursday off for sivarachi i believe (hindu holiday). Abasheck said him and a bunch of his buddies are putting together a scavanger hunt on campus for students to have something to do.

Meeting people is very difficult here. men don't really talk to women much, they are very social and touchy feely with other men however. Women are very hard to come by on campus and they don't really talk much and they dont really have physical contact that ive seen. i really miss physical contact and i really miss having people to talk to, the american students are starting to get to know each other in the building but by the time the days done we all want to hop on our computers and skype people.

Ok i'll write again in a few days hope everyone is well and fine Love you and miss you all!

Finally In India!

Hello from India. So i've been her a little over a week and the best word to describe this place is...INTENSE! my senses are a bit over stimulated. But it's a beautiful country and most of the people will go out of their way to do something simple if you ask...and they understand you.

The first week here was very shocking from the moment we got on the air plane. it was huge with tv's in the back of the head rests and 9 seats to a row. when we got off the plane to the airport it was a little after 5 here and we walked outside to what we thought was a foggy night. come to find out form surrender (travel agent who traveled with us)that is was actually smog. Dehli was probably the most polluted place i've ever seen. we went outside to walk around and tried to talk pictures but you couldn't see what we took pictures of because the flash just lit up the smog. I told my parents that if i had been going to school in Dehli i would have wanted to go home, easily my least favorite place on earth up to this point. We stayed at a very sketch YMCA hostel for that night and it was just sketchy. oh and the driving my goodness people just drive where they please and honk constantly in Dehli, well all of northern india from what ive seen. we saw all sorts of things and I have about 750 pictures from the first week. when we left Dehli for Agra i was very excited to breath fresher air. the day we left i woke up and felt like i was breathing from an exhaust pipe and my lungs were very unhappy.

oh and that ride was oooohhhh 7 hours and i threw up the whole time. thank god i thought to put ziplocks in my backpack before i left. don't know why i put them there but i was happy i did. Agra was beautiful but still rather smoggy but at least i didn't feel like death anymore and the Taj Majal was very pretty...although i think the red fort was 20 times more beautiful and fantastical. So over the first 6 days i saw so many forts and mosques and the like that i don't remember all their names at the present so i'm gonna have to figure that out and if you want to know later i can tell you. So agra had a very relaxed city feel i compaired it to madison Wisconsin i think in how laid back it was but it still had many things going on and people all over. the hotel there was my favorite the bed was like memory foam and it was quiet and comfortable.

we left agra and we left for jaipur and ended up on the road for 12 hours. the main road was blocked by protesters so we had to take the long way...the very long way. at about 6ish we stoped at a truck stop for our driver to rest and for us to have tea (the food wasn't safe for us) it was probably the best chi tea i have ever tasted. Now when we drink tea we compare it to that. the hotel at jaipur (park prime) was very classy had three restaurants and nice rooms and somewhat comfy beds.

On new years eve there were parties and dj's in all three restaurantes. we went to the pub called henry's and ate out on the terrace where there were fountains and the food was arranged beautifully! while waiting to eat we danced to the bollywood/american house music playing and acted goofy. then we ate and then danced some more. after dinner when we danced there were a lot more people, the americans were the only 6 people on the dance floor dancing with girls and guys mixed. after a while tyler the only guy in our group tried to dance with some indian girls but instead of dancing with him they turned and started dancing with us and blcoked him out of the circle... the indian guys all joined him and we danced girls in one group and boys in another...it was very interesting. Some of the girls we danced with are in the picture at the top of this entry and they were very fun. there were also people of all ages out on the dance floor kids from about 7 to adults in their 60s maybe older i'm really not sure. it was very fun. oh and the indian girls our age made me laugh too becuase the 6 american girls tried to dress indian to fit in and the indian girls were dressed very western club like....showing way more skin then i thought would ever be appropriate in India. Sumana our AIFS director later told us to compare these girls at the clubs to the Indian paris hiltons with lots of money and private drivers. the partys like we were at are expensive for indians and therefore only the well to do go to the clubs and the like.

the next day we went back to dehli for the night and then the next morning we sat in the airport on delays because of weather. we finally got into hyderabad around 3 and sumana was there to great us. she is fantastic and sweet and very much a mother figure. she lived in the states for a long time so she gets many of the references we make and understands the things we miss. so sunday we woke up and had orientation with sumana in the morning and then she took us to lunch at Our Place in town. it was an upscale indian restaurant with great survice and good food.

speaking of which me and indian food don't get along there are so many spices that when i try to eat certain things i get nauseous and or get sick. it's really no fun and i'm hoping it will change. breakfast is always safe with granola and hard boiled eggs and banana's. they eat at funny times too 8 for breakfast 1 for lunch and 7 for dinner...the dinner is too late for me im always famished. i've also been eating peanut butter and granola bars from my room and i found goldfish crackers at the hyper mart(walmart equivalent) to tide me over and to keep something in my system. they have a pizza hut in town im hoping to get some pizza soon because i miss american food a lot a lot. sumana also said a few of the hotels serve red meat which i miss desperately.

after lunch sunday we went to the hyper mart for basics we needed like adapters for our laptops and other odd ends we all needed. then that night i got my internet hooked up and got on skype with my family and jim. I was very happy to see everyone and hear their voices...you dont realize how much seeing a familiar face means till you dont have one around.

The next morning we had class and trying to find all the buildings on campus took us all morning and we ended up missing our class. at 9 buuut we made it to the one at 10 because it was in the Tagore International house...thats where i live! It's a house split in half boys on one wing girls on the other ...the rest of campus is boys on one side of campus girls on the other. we are the only students allowed in the building other then the main lobby. you can't get into the building at all without a Tagore student with you. we have four guards 24 hours a day at our doors which is nice and it makes me feel really safe. at the front gates there are also guards so you can't enter campus without having a pass or a student with you.

I have a week to "shop" for classes and so far I am set on 3 Kuchipudi dance from 10-12 on Monday's and Wednesdays, Migration, Diaspora and transnationalism Monday's and Wednesday's 2-4, and third Modern Indian Art Tuesday's and Thursdays 2-4. I am going to try out two others that will fill my thursady mornings History of Architecture Tuesdays 9-11 Thursdays 9-10 and Friday's 10-11 or Gay Indian Literature Tuesdays 11-1 and Thursdays 9-11. I'll Know by Friday afternoon my exact schedule.

I think that's about it for now we are taking a bike tour of campus this evening at 5 when it starts to cool off so we will finally know where things are located and not feel like complete freshman anymore.