...almost March?

Hello!
I apologize for my awful, awful discipline on recording and reflecting upon my trip. I don't know why it's so hard for me to do! Maybe it's because I feel that I don't want to take the time and really process all the things I've been seeing and doing...or that I don't really know how to. I'm realizing more and more how comfortable I'm getting here, and how different it's going to be when I get home. The beginning of March basically marks the half-way point of my trip. I feel like I've been here forever, but at the same time I feel like I just got here. 

I'm savy at lots of things now--eating with my hands (with only the right hand of course), showering with a bucket, being stern with taxi drivers, flagging down autos, hopping on and off metros, speaking in class so that my professor understands my accent (usually that means pronouncing every consonant including your "t's"--that's something Americans aren't good at), navigating around Kolkata, sleeping on an extremely hard and lumpy bed, and not screaming when I see a cockroach in my bathroom. What I'm not used to yet is the heat. It is so hot! And it's only getting hotter... this is like mid-July weather. I'm going to die. 

I've started Yoga! Me, Katie, Ashley, and Kathryn have yoga 3 times a week at 6:30pm. This nice man named Jamal comes and teaches us yoga for an hour. It's so great! I'm not very flexible but I'm getting there :) We haven't had a regular week of school since we've been here. Either because of holidays, excursions we're taking, or a professor cancels class...we just haven't had a set routine yet. I'm starting to really believe we never will have a full, normal week of class. I'm okay with that. 

I'll give you an update on some of the things I've been doing! 

A few weekends ago, we all were invited over to Madhu and Munu's house to have a party and try on their saris! It was so fun!  Saris are so much fun to wear! They each have like a billion of them- most women do, because you never "grow-out" of a sari because it's one long piece of fabric (like 6 feet) that you wrap around you in a special way. You wear a blouse and a petticoat beneath the sari itself. You tuck the sari into the petticoat. The picture below shows me in a sari. The gold shirt I'm wearing is the blouse. Madhu actually gave it to me because she doesn't fit into it anymore. I guess all I need to buy is a sari to go with it... :) But it was so fun to hang out with the whole group and I love wearing saris.

Katie, Ashley, Brynn, Michael, Kathryn, and I went to College Street last Saturday. We got off on M.G. Road Metro Stop and made our way to College Street. The first thing we visited was Presidency College (Madhu, our program director went to this prestigious college). We walked in the campus and took a look around—it looked like a great school. Then we walked past all of the bookstalls- they lined the streets! It seemed impossible to find anything unless you were to go for a specific book in mind, and even then, so many of the books were for engineering, business, microbiology. The only thing that I bought was a map of India to hang on my wall :) The only question is how I will get it home... Anyway, one of the things that made College Street so historical seems to be the bookstalls, which sounds to me, have been compromised and diminished over the years. Yet despite this, I was fascinated by the intelligence of the area. Numerous colleges (quite famous colleges) find their home on this street. We walked past Calcutta University, Hare College, and the Hindu College. We even managed to find and order coffee at the famous College Street Coffee House. I’m glad I went, but overall the significance of the location seems to be more historical and nostalgic than anything interesting in the present day.

Katie and I visited the Indian Museum last Sunday after Kia and Danny’s play (yes they were in a play!). We paid 150 rupees (Indian tourists only had to pay 5...) and set about exploring this vast museum displaying almost everything possible about India’s history-Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Geology, Zoology, Botany, Egyptian displays, and more. The museum’s website says that it has over one million specimens on display. I believe it; if we would have taken the time each room deserved, we could have spent an entire day in the museum. It was information overload. I like to think that this museum is the way it is because of the great diversity that is found in India. They couldn’t be selective on say, the “geology of India” because there’s such a diversity—so instead they include every rock ever found in Indian soil.  In any case, I enjoyed seeing a 4,000 year old mummy and a huge Blue Whale skull.

We had a three day weekend this weekend so we planned a TON of things. The entire group ventured over to Tagore’s family house. We got of the metro at Girish Park and walked a ways until we found our destination. It was a really fascinating, old building. I always like to think about the days that people actually lived in these huge mansions. We convinced the ticket counter man that we were in fact, students at St. Xavier’s, so we got the student discount and headed into the museum. It was pretty interesting to see the rooms Tagore and his family lived in. We’ve heard so much about him, visited Shantiniketan, and now getting to see his house was great. I loved walking through the art that his family produced—amazing! 

The same day some of us visited Missionaries of Charity- Mother Teresa's Mother House. It was incredible. We were able to see the room in which Mother Teresa slept and the building in which she worked. There were nuns everywhere, because this place isn't just a historical museum- it's a living, working convent! The coolest thing we were able to do was celebrate mass surrounding Mother Teresa's tomb. Every Friday at 4:30 they do it, and it was such a powerful experience. At the end of mass, we all got the chance to be blessed by her relics and kiss them. I consider myself so lucky to be able to say that I've been to the Mother House. I plan on going back for Mass again. It's incredibly easy to get to. 

Yesterday (Saturday) Katie, Ashley, and I took the long trip over the Howrah Bridge to see the famous Botanical Gardens of Kolkata. It was beautiful! This area was a nice break from the dirty and noisy streets of Kolkata. It was very hot in the sun, but I enjoyed it anyway. The most fascinating thing was the Great Banyan Tree. I was expecting a huge singular tree, and instead it was a forest! I was so amazed at the sheer number of roots existing in that tree, and even more fascinating—the original trunk doesn’t even exist anymore! It is 250 years old with 2800 prop roots covering an area of 1.5 hectares. Pictures will come soon. After that, I got my first Bollywood movie experience. Some of us went over to Danny and Michael's house and we watched a movie called "3 Idiots." So great! But they are 3 hours long. Turns out I love Bollywood movies.

Today Katie and I are taking it easy. We had quite the weekend of being on our feet and riding tons of public transportation which can get very exhausting. I've got some homework to catch up on and a nap to take. We'll see if I can fall asleep with the noise that is perpetually filtering through the walls from the street. Kids are playing cricket literally right outside my window. 

Well I miss all of you, I'll be home in a little bit more than 2 months! Crazy! 

Love from Kolkata, 

Elizabeth 

Pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=1580822962161&id=1283280278&aid=2075647

Happy February!

Nomoskar! (That's hello in Bengali)

Wow it's hard to believe that it's already February and that I'm over a quarter of the way through my semester here. 

Earlier this week on Tuesday we got back from North Bengal! We visited 2 places- Chilapata, which is in the tea garden region (you've heard of Darjeeling Tea?) and Neora Valley, which is 6000 feet up and in the foothills of the Himalayas. We saw wild Elephants, Rhino, Bison, Peacocks, and other crazy animals I thought I'd never see! The area was unbelievably gorgeous. I didn't realize how much I missed nature, quiet, and just green everywhere. No horns honking, polluted air, or garbage in the street. It was beautiful. I took a lot of pictures too! On our way up the mountains, we passed through many villages. It was interesting to see the facial features of people changing as we went further north- from Indian looking to more east Asian- Nepali looking.  But wow it was a good trip, good to get out of the city and be together as a group again. Some of us really want to go back and travel further north to Darjeeling. We'll see if that happens.

But I guess it's good to be back in Kolkata. It was nice to be "home" again and settled, but I did not miss the noise, smells, and chaos. Our host family was clearly pleased to have us home again though. A few highlights from this week:

-We went to the Kolkata Book Fair on Wednesday. It is one of the largest book fairs in the world. It felt like the MN state fair without the delicious food everywhere, so that was missed. But basically publishers from all over came and sold books- books of all types. It was really interesting!

-We made chocolate chip cookies and brownies!! Me, Katie, Brynn, and Ashley have been really wanting to bake and show our host mom, Arundhati how to bake sweets, so we did a test run and wow did they turn out great! We had to do some innovating though- for example, they don't sell brown sugar, baking soda, or chocolate chips in India. Talk about crazy! So we used honey instead, and a substitute for baking soda called Kabar soda. We bought like 10 chocolate candy bars and broke those up to make chocolate chips. Also, most Indian kitchens do not have an oven, instead they have a fancier (a big bigger) toaster oven that heats up to like 300 degrees Fahrenheit (that was another thing- we had to convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius). We did like 9 cookies at a time, and they were soooo delicious! Our host parents and brother just ate them up (literally). The brownies also turned out well.

-It was our host brother, Vinayak's 13th birthday on Friday, so we celebrated with a family dinner and eating cake. That was really fun to hang out with the family so much this weekend.

-This morning we made scrambled eggs! (another thing Arundhati claims she "doesn't know how to do"). Turned out really tasty.

We've started school for real (sort of). This has been so crazy. We haven't had one regular week of school. The problem is, Madhu has had the hardest time trying to translate CSB/SJU's credit policy to St. Xavier's and it has turned out to be a huge mess. I'm not complaining because I know it has been really stressful for Madhu and I don't exactly mind not having a ton of class, but we're all wondering when things are going to be regular! For example, next week we don't even have a full week of classes because of a Hindu holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday called Saraswati Puja. It celebrates the goddess of learning. Apparently we have to wear yellow or a sari if we have one. I'm excited!

Well that's all for now! I've added more pictures, so check them out!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071419&id=1283280278&l=aca18c7206

Love you!

Elizabeth

Off to the Himalayas!

Hello!!

I'm realizing more and more every day how many of you actually check in on my blog...it motivates me more to continue updating it. I think this every week thing is working out well :) It's so hard to commit to detailing my experiences here when so many truly indescribable things happen to me on a daily basis. It's both hard to process and even harder to record sometimes.

Anyway, we leave for the foothills of the Himalayas tomorrow morning! We come back on Tuesday. I'm excited for a break and some nature. There's so much "city" here- noise, dirt, people- I'm looking forward to getting away.

Two nights ago my roommates and I made dinner for our host family! I (I did a lot of it) made STIR FRY- my absolute favorite meal ever to both eat and make. It's "winter" here and things that are in season are snap peas, green bell peppers, onions, garlic, broccoli, mushrooms, green beans, carrots, and eggplants. It's like the farmers market in JULY! I was in heaven the first time I walked by the nearby vegetable market. Seriously, heaven. So when I found out that Arundhati (our host mom) had soy sauce, I was all over it. And guess what? They loved it! I was so happy. Arundhati also wants us to teach her how to make pasta (because she claims she's not very good at it) as well as banana bread. Two very simple things that we are excited to teach her how to make. And that also means that we'll be getting a taste of home too, which is much needed here sometimes.

Another thing on my list of things to write about tonight are the EXTREMES here. We encounter such major extremes every day and it's exhausting! For example, we go to the shopping mall, a movie, or to school and I feel like I'm in the US, but I walk outside and there are beggars and street vendors and temples 20 feet away. There's no happy medium! Another example- I'm either privileged and honored (like at school) because I'm white or I'm treated like crap by taxi drivers, shop owners, or men in general. Can't I be normal?! That's one thing that I'm getting used to, but still unnerves me sometimes- we just cannot blend in. Everywhere we go we get stared at. I was shopping with one of my Indian friends yesterday (yes I've made Indian friends) and she said- don't you get sick of everyone staring? And I realized that I don't even notice it anymore. So strange.

I got henna, called mehndi here, the other day on my hand! I'm pretty pumped about it. Hindu brides traditionally get them for their wedding! But now, anyone can do it. The darker it is on your skin, the more your husband will love you (apparently). But I do have to say, my mehndi is pretttty dark :) It stays on for about 2 weeks. I'm including a picture of my hand.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071419&id=1283280278&l=aca18c7206

Okay it's time for me to go to bed! We have to get to the airport tomorrow morning pretty early for our one hour flight to the foothills of the Himalayas. The place we are going is called Chilapata- if you wanted to google it.

I'll update more when I come back. I love you all!

Elizabeth
 

Being a woman stinks, being sick stinks, but India is still amazing

Hello!

So much has happened! I've been in Kolkata for (let me check...) almost 2 weeks. I'm here! Kolkata! 2 weeks is a LOT of time for so many things to happen. We've sort of started school. We've gone to class but it doesn't really count yet. We go to a college called St. Xavier's College, which apparently is the best college in India. It's so strange, college feels like high school. There are bells, you have to ask to go to the bathroom, the professors (which you have to call "sir" or "ma'am") are strict, they yell at you for talking in class, you get your cellphone confiscated if they even see it, the guys have to wear collared shirts and we can't wear t-shirts with writing on it...it's crazy. But it looks like next week, we'll start having class and homework for real. For now, we just feel like the dumb Americans walking around the college looking lost. I will post pictures of the school soon!

My host family is WONDERFUL. Our mom's name is Arundhati, our dad's name is Sujoy, and our 12 year old brother's name is Vinayak. We (who's we? My roommates Katie, Ashley, Brynn, and I) live in a fairly big house in South Kolkata. They are very nice and warm people, they make us great food, and our mom even gives me a hug sometimes! To be honest, it's been hard to adjust, but we're lucky to have such a great family. They both are in public relations, work from home, and seem to be pretty wealthy. Sujoy is wonderful about helping us get around the city. Literally every time we walk out of the door to go somewhere, he draws a map for us. Reminds me of my own dad... :)  They're super into homeopathic medicine, which is completely new to me, and kind of weirds me out. But I've actually tried some when I was sick a few days ago, and I haven't died!

Below is a picture of me and my roommates in our new Kurtas! We wear these a lot, as do many other Indian women. 

On to the title of this blog:

First of all, being a woman here really stinks. We get taken advantage of every day (almost) by taxi drivers. I guess we've only been here a week, and we're still getting to know our way around, but they always drive us around to get the meter up.  Sometimes they won't even listen to us and just charge us a bunch of money (which in american dollars isn't even that much, but still). As a feminist, and as a woman in general, this can get very annoying. I want to be able to speak their language and tell them off, but sometimes facial expressions work well enough.  More on this later, but do know it is getting easier because we are starting to know our way around.

Second of all, being sick in India stinks too. I won't go into too many details, but the food, the water, the smells, really mess your stomach and digestive system up. Since I've been here I've been on multiple antibiotics. When we were still traveling I got a urinary tract infection, and recently I might have an intestinal infection... it makes everything so much harder. India is hard enough, but being sick...wow. The good thing about being sick in India is that they had out medicine like it's candy. As long as you know the name of the prescription, you can go to almost any pharmacy (and they're all over), ask for the specific medication, and they'll give it to you, and usually for very cheap. For example, I got 40 pills yesterday for 28 rupees, which is roughly 75 cents. Crazy! Going to the doctor is also very cheap, unfortunately I had to find that out here too. But good news, crossing my fingers, I'm feeling better. Although the hypochondriac in me is worried that I'll have a chronic disease the rest of my life, but I've been told I'll be fine.

So what's my daily schedule like? I get up, we eat breakfast (served by the servants--super weird that our family has servants), then we take a taxi to school. The taxis are relatively cheap here when you have four passengers. To get to St. Xavier's, it's about 40 rupees, divided by four is 10 rupees, which equates to roughly 25 cents. Then we go to class, walk around, find lunch on the street in between classes or hang out with either our CSB/SJU people, or the rare Indian friend. We make our way home (by taxi), which is a different way home than getting to school because at certain times of the day the directions of traffic change (talk about confusing) and then we have tea around 5 and then dinner around 7 or 8.

There's so much to tell! What's weird here? So many things. Showering is hard. They don't usually shower by a shower head, but by pouring water over yourself by a bucket. It's just more incentive to not shower...but it's getting easier. Sleeping is hard, because the beds are not spring mattresses, but stuffed 2 inch mattresses. Lumpy and hard. But again, I'm getting used to it. They eat super late (most Indians eat around 10 or 10:30) and when you're in a restaurant you order for the whole table, not just yourself. There is noise around you ALL the time. There is never a moment of silence. During the day there's honking and yelling and music and construction, during the night it's dogs and cows mooing or barking. Again (yes again), I'm getting used sleeping right though it or talking over it. I can't imagine how I'm going to feel when I get home and things are so quiet.

Speaking of home, because the food is just so different here, we've been craving american food BAD. Ritz crackers, mac and cheese, peanut butter, chipotle, popcorn, cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, swiss, anything!) wheat bread, pancakes, spaghetti, chips and salsa, fresh vegetables (I want to make stir fry!), and so many others. Having said this, we can get some of it here- for example, Katie and I bought some Skippy peanut butter in the "gourmet" section of the grocery store, and they do sell fresh vegetables on the street that I could fry up and maybe find some soy sauce to put over it. But it's just not as accessible.  Then I remember, I'm in India. :)

I'm in INDIA! It's really crazy to think I'm half-way across the world. Chatting with people back home it's so weird to go to bed when my family is waking up, or to wake up when they're just going to bed. The passage of time is amazing.

Well with that, I will conclude my blog. I miss and love you all, sincerely. I love the comments, so keep them coming. Send me an email and I'll reply too! It's good to hear from home.

Love,

Elizabeth

P.S. I've included a link to my pictures on the right of this blog post but here's the link again:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071419&id=1283280278&l=aca18c7206

Happy viewing!

Off to Kolkata!

Hello Friends!
2 days ago we went to the Taj Mahal! Wow was that amazing. You know the coolest part? I can now say that I've been to the Taj Mahal. The worst part was the 8 hour bus ride through VERY, VERY bumpy roads from Delhi to Agra. I will post pictures when I can!

Yesterday we spent the day in Delhi and got to shop! We went to this place called "Fab India" which is basically like the Gap of India. Madhu and Munu helped us pick out some fashionable Indian clothes. I got 2 Kurtas. Google them! 

TODAY we are off to Kolkata. I'm so excited to finally be there and get settled. We will meet our host families tomorrow. I'm kind of nervous, but also very much looking forward to it. Sorry this is so short but I have to pack up and head out to the airport now!

Love you all very much!

Elizabeth

Namaste!

Namaste from India!
Wow have I had quite the trip over here. I haven’t had time to blog since the moment I arrived we’ve been whisked away somewhere and have limited Internet, not to mention little time to write a decent blog post. Abbey and I had troubles getting over here from the beginning. We were scheduled to leave on the 26^th, but due to a dumb blizzard on the east coast, our flight was delayed until the 28^th. It was disappointing, but on a positive note, I had some “bonus time” with my boyfriend Pat and my family. Abbey and I left successfully on the 28^th—we left from the MSP airport and had a layover in Toronto and in Frankfurt before getting to our final destination of Delhi. This was my first international trip, and I was luck to be traveling with someone as experienced and laid back as Abbey. Despite my wonderful travel partner, the trip over was extremely stressful. Turns out my reservation from Frankfurt to Delhi was canceled, but Abbey’s wasn’t. After talking to two very (and surprisingly nice) German airport ladies, we were reassured we’d probably still get on our flight to Delhi even on standby. We waited and slept on in the airport, and eventually did get on the plane: the last two seats. Talk about stressful. For those who know me, when my plans are changed and I’m tired, I am not a happy person, but I think Abbey’s presence calmed me down immensely. No tears were produced on the trip over. Along the way I met quite a few people, but my favorite was an Indian woman I sat next to on the flight to Delhi. We talked the whole way and even exchanged emails.

When we arrived at Delhi at 2am, we were met by a horrifying smoggy smell and LOTS of people. After waiting what seemed like hours to get our bags, we were picked up by a man named Rajiv and were taken through the dirty streets of Delhi to our Guest House. Madhu (our program director) met us there and wow it was good to see a familiar face. I got a hug I longed for, which again, for those who know me, was so greatly appreciated. Abbey and I got only a couple hours of sleep before we had to get up, eat breakfast with our group (it was good to finally see them) and get on our bus to go to the airport (yes, again) and take a flight to Jodhpur, which is in the north east of India. We spent five days in this area of India, exploring this desert region. We spent 1 night in Jodhpur and then left for Jaisalmer. This was such an interesting place!! It was so dry there and wow, the women’s clothing is beautiful. So colorful. Madhu explained that the bright colors are worn to counter the brown sand that is all around. We spent New Years Eve in a Mandir Palace—a palace that was converted into a hotel. AKA super nice. We all got dressed up and had a dinner with the rest of the residents on the roof of the hotel. It was a nice way to spend New Years Eve, but I definitely missed some people at home… The next day, we went on a camel safari in the desert one of the nights. We all expected to be roughing it—sleeping in tents, not brushing our teeth, etc. But to our surprise (including Madhu’s) it was super touristy and super fancy. Running water and a queen size bed in each tent. Considering Jaisalmer hasn’t seen rain in 10 years, this was disgusting. We all did our best to not use the water, but it was still kind of shocking. It is important to keep in mind that we are the guinea pigs—next year will be completely different. This was such an obvious and really interesting sign of the kinds of things tourists who come to this area expect—running water, meat, electricity, etc (in the desert!). We came back to the main part of Jaisalmer the next day and were able to spend some time walking around the city. I bought some things, but WOW is it crazy to get just hackled by the shop owners. It was extremely overwhelming at first, but I somehow got used to it. We’ve been learning some Hindi and Bengali words, and we’re having a great time using them. This area of Jaisalmer is super interesting. It is a living fort. Its miles of streets inside this fort that people still live in; their families have lived there for hundreds of years. We spent some time over the next few days wandering around—very fascinating.

Well, this is all for now! I love all of you! I’ll write more when I get to Kolkata.

Love, Elizabeth