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.