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!