The Journey Continues!

Hello! I apologize for being so out of touch recently. Something interesting you may not have known about south india: there is not enough power to go around. The electricity gets shared throughout the different neighborhoods throughout the day so on average, one area will only have 10 hours of power, leaving behind 14 hours of no power (each day). Luckily my home is right next to the hospital so our power is not cut- we have fans all day long!!! Most of my friends though are not as lucky. The other implication of this is that often when I have free time at school, the internet will not be working (if the power is gone, there is no internet). Anyway so it has been a frustrating bit of time but anyway, here I am!

About a week ago my program (SITA) went on tour to Kerala. This means that the 12 students (myself included), our two program assistants, andour  two adult program directors got on a large van and left Tamil Nadu for a week! Kerala is a neighboring state in south india but it couldn't be more different! Tamil Nadu (where I live) is very arid and dry and hot. It is on the south east tip of india. Kerala is on the south west tip so it borders the Arabian Sea. It is incredibly green, lush, and verdant. It is part sea coast and part jungle. We totally took advantage of the climate change. We went trekking in the jungle (it was a tiger preserve, luckily none of us were eaten!). We also toured a spice garden. We saw cinnamon trees, tumeric plants, ate desperately spicy peppers, touched rubber flowing from rubber trees and ran very quickly away from alarmingly large spiders. We were also supposed to visit a tea plantation but, due to a state-wide strike against rising petrol prices, we were unable to do this. However, we were still able to drive through the tea plantations. Oh my goodness! It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The tea is grown in these rugged hills where the hillsides are cut into large steps in order to support the tea bushes. The color green was so rich and deep that it seemed synthetic. The mist was pouring down over the whole scene. As we were winding around the hills on precarious mountain roads perched on cliffsides, I couldn't stop staring at all of the incredible scenes around us, we were trying to capture it with out camers but unfortunatly between the bumpiness of the ride and the reflective glass in the windows, nothing came out. I have found a picture on line that doesn't really do it justice but it is better than nothing:

We also went to a town called Fort Cochin which was the entry port for almost all the civilizations that conquered India in the past: Greeks, Portugese, Dutch, British. We visited the first christian church built on the sub continent by Vasco da Gamma. He died and was buried in the church for a bit until his family brought him back to Europe. Cochin is very touristy but very very beautiful. We walked past Chinese fishin nets which were selling the fish they had caught directly on site, a tea shop that had herbal tea!, and many jewlery and cloth stores. I have saved the best for last, we also were able to go RIDING ON ELEPHANTS! This was one of my favorite ways that I have ever spent 30 minutes. Elephants are such large, powerful, ethereal creatures. I sat up front where I could huge its neck the entire time. Our muhoot told us that they wiggle their ears only to display affection and play around- it serves no other purpose (rather like dogs wagging their tails). I realized that my elephant really liked to be scratched and petted so I just about rubbed my hands raw on her sandpaper skin trying to give her love. She was flapping her ears quite joyously. Basically we are best friends. I know that whole thing is a total show and gimmick- they get the elephants to do special tricks with their trunks and do fun poses with you while they take pictures on your camera. But honestly, I didn't mind one bit. Sometimes cheesyness just doesnt matter.

Tour was perfect because it gave us a chance to get away and relax. It was the first thus far in India that we have really been able to just let our hair down. In the beginning we were all still on our guard with each other. Then when we moved in with our host families there was even more dramatic adjusting to do. Even now I often feel like I have to be "on" at home making sure that I don't unintentionally violate social norms. On tour we were able to just kick back, take off the desperately annoying duppattas, and be relaxed.

Returning to Madurai was really amazing too because it felt so much like home. It was great to sleep in my bed again, have service, see my family, resume classes. Having a schedule and routine every day brings normalcy to a place where so much is foreign and bizarre. I think I am also aclimating to the heat because honestly, I was cold in rainy Kerala and thankful to return to the warmth of Madurai (although I am one of the only students who feels this way).

Life has continued on amazingly. There is still so much I want to blog about! I will make a list that I can return to in the future.

1- THE FOOD! Oh my goodness. The food is so unreal that I could describe it forever. I want to wait to get deeply into this topic until my camera/ computer connection is official and I can show pictures.

2- Religion

3- The clothing and style

4- The arranged marriage system

5- The veena/ yoga/ mehendi (my three expressive cultural classes. The veena is a very crazy looking and very twangy sounding guitar-like instrument that I adore. Mehendi is the art of applying henna (the brown paste that dies your skin).

6- All of the incredible people on my program! Know for now that I hold every single one of these 11 others on SITA next to my heart. They are all such strong, incredible, interesting and passionate people. They make my experience here richer in a million ways.

7- More about my family! I really couldnt imagine living with a more perfect host family. They are so wonderful to me in every way.

Alright that is all for now! I am safe and well and happy. I promise that I will manage to post pictures and videos soon. I send my love to all of you!

p.s. no time to proofread so please excuse any spelling errors!

Life in Madurai

The weirdest part of everything going on right now is how normal it feels. I have officially been living with my host family in Madurai for a week and already it feels like a century.

Madurai is wonderful. It is definitely my favorite cities out of the ones we have been in (plane landed in Chennai and we were had orientation in Thanjavor.) It is crowded but the people are so so kind. They are always more than willing to help when we are lost or confused and always want to know more about us (especially when we attempt to speak a bit of Tamil).

I have finally mastered cycling to and from school in the morning. It was rather more than terrifying in the begining. I have to take a route which brings me down many huge streets and across some atrocious right turns. I had this long complicated map with some landmarks rather than street names (many streets dont have names and if they do they are written in tamil... which uses a syllabic alphabet of 247 characters.) So the act of figuring out which way to go was itself a monumental task (even though i am quite the wizard of directions... cough cough). On top of this, the traffic is silly. the streets are packed with cars and motorcyles and scooties and buses and autos and other bikes and people walking and stray dogs. Trying to stay alive and not be mowed down by any of the vehicles whizzing their way like 2 cm away from you and outrunning the buses that move like whales through the streets is difficult enough without also having no idea where I am. Then i pull over and ask for her but the people i select may not speak very good english... after getting lost a few times though and maybe sobbing a bit- I finally figured out not only my way to school but what is on many of the other roads around the area as well- silver lining!

My host family is utterly sublime. I love them with all of my heart. My host mom (Srideevi- devi for short) is reallly cool. She is young and totally chill and helpful. She doesnt get stressed out easily or force food upon me like many of the others. She is funny and smart. Her two daughters (swastika- 11 and shrinidhi- 8) and SO cute. They love cuddling with me and playing, and exploring my things, and singing and teaching me how to dance (since I stink) and laughing at my attempts at tamil and basically just hanging out every sec of every day. Which is perfect until i have work to do... But they really make the host family experience so much easier because they offer me tips and constantly break the ice with new people and experiences. I love them so much. Then there is my Ammaa. I am literally obsessed with this woman- my grandma. She is very round and small and she has tiny hands and feet. She jabbers away at me in Tamil and is always smiling and laughing. She prasctically died when she saw my Toms with holes in them and spent all afternoon getting out tons of her shoes and trying to give them to me. Finally we found a pair and we threw away my old shoes. Unfortunatlye the shoes she gave me broke the first time i wore them... she was in a tizzy at this and avidly found me new ones. She also gave me a nightie (that is what they call the floor length night gowns that you sleep in here) and tried to give me tons of clothes. She always wants to take care of me. She giggles and shouts at me when I hold my hands together in respect protesting that I am her grandaughter and should do nothing of the sort.  I just wish i could put her in my pocket and take her to school.

School- classes are amazing. I love learning Tamil even though it is extremely difficult. All of my professors are amazing- smart, funny, approachable- just absolute gems. The classes are tiny- obviuosly no more than 12 students in any class since that is how many people are on my program. Oh Sita! You are literally the best study abroad program ever! I adore all of the other students on my program- such interesting, wholesome and adventurous people. I wake up every morning excited to beginning my day and (despite the cycling) feel nothing but elation until I go to sleep at night. Well, elation and exhaustion. The days are hot and cultural immersion is quite tiring.

Okay well i feel that I have barely scratched the surface of life here but at least you all have a tiny taste of what i have been up to! More to come!