Okay, so it's clearly been over a month since I blogged and in fact it has been so long that IHP has come to an end, but it didn't feel right not to write a final entry. So obviously I won't be able to capture most of what happened in the last five (?) weeks, but I'll try.
The IHP program in South Africa was the hardest and the most rewarding for me. I have loved Cape Town and found it to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, physically and otherwise, but also seen firsthand the devastation that Apartheid brought to so many of South Africa's people and the effects of those policies that, while themselves no longer in existence, continue to permeate every inch of Cape Town and beyond.
Part of the program was to spend 10 days in Zwelethemba, a rural black township about an hour and a half from Cape Town. Coming in the middle of the program, my time in Zwelethemba taught me the realities of what I'd been learning about in our classroom back in Cape Town--the arbitrary poverty created by the government intended to exclude and alienate one race for the sake of another. Though the people of Zwelethemba were some of the most welcoming I've ever met, it was impossible to ignore the striking differences in quality of life and availability of resources in Zwelethemba as compared with affluent Cape Town. In Khaylitsha, a township right outside of Cape Town where we spent considerable time, it is even more obvious: most people live in shacks, and the rate of HIV infection is as high as 80%.
Cape Town is also one of the first places I've been that I've felt unsafe in my surroundings. Even in India, where they warned us of all of the dangers that lurked around the corners, I felt safe walking the streets at night with just one other student. There was a sense in India that you were never really alone-Bangalore never really got quiet. In Cape Town, we were told never to walk in the neighborhood where our host families lived-the Bo Kaap-after 10pm, even with a group of students. A number of us got mugged or nearly mugged (myself included), some in broad daylight. There is the sense that there is such desperation in this city that it is every man for himself. I started to feel like everywhere I went, there was potential for something bad to happen to me. That's a feeling I've never really had to deal with before, and though I really do love this city, I'm not sure I could ever give up my sense of security in order to live here.
I did learn more on this part of the program that I think I did anywhere else, and there are endless things to see and do here. Though most weekends we spent in Cape Town were consumed with work, we did manage to get out to the Old Biscuit Mill market-a great outdoor market on Saturday mornings-and to Cape Point on several weekends. At the end of the program we spent four days in Malmesbury, a beautiful town outside of Cape Town with nothing but mountains for miles.
A little over a week ago the IHP group departed, while I stayed for another couple of weeks to spend time with Deacon, who flew in a week ago, and my family who lives here in the Bo Kaap. It was really hard to say goodbye to the group-some of the best friendships I have made in my life and the only group of people I've ever really been a part of that care about the world in the way I do. Traveling with 32 interesting, engaged and engaging people was one of the greatest experiences I've had, and I'm really sad that it's over. I'm also sad that my traveling experience is essentially over, and that this is the only time I will probably be able to see the world through the lense of IHP. It didn't really feel like my abroad experience would ever come to an end, and I..really wish it hadn't.
Having Deacon here has been really fun though, and I've had the opportunity to do all the touristy things I didn't get to do with IHP. So far we're gone up Table Mountain, visited the aquarium and planetarium, seen the penguins at Boulders Beach, spent the day at Kirstenbosch-botanical gardens that would be really amazing were it summer-spent a few days in a wine town visiting vineyards, and spent time with a few IHPers who are still in Cape Town. Monday we fly to Port Elizabeth to spend three days at a game reserve to hopefully see the big 5! Winter is just setting in in South Africa, so I'm getting excited to go home to summer, do my laundry, and not feel like a guest for the first time in almost five months. For now I am trying to soak up the last days of my wonderful abroad experience!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Goodbye China, Hello South Africa!
So since I last blogged I have left China and am now in South Africa, where I think I might stay for the rest of my life. But first things first.
Since I last wrote we had our last few days in Changsha on case studies. Case studies in China were not exactly as organized as they were in India. That is to say, they were a giant disorganized mess. Our group did "school health" or at least we tried. Essentially we were not allowed to enter any of the schools in Changsha, and we had no contacts, and everyone in China speaks Chinese, and our "translator" was a complete joke who I'm pretty sure didn't even attend CSU. So we made a lot of stuff up and then presented on some information that was basically useless and made no conclusions. But it was a fun three days, as the sun was out for the first time since we'd been in China and we basically did nothing and hung out outside. So that wasn't so bad.
For the last week, we visited "rural" China which in fact was not rural at all. In fact when we opened the bedside table drawer of our hotel room (which came with TVs, showers, queen sized beds, and bathrobes in the closet) we found the Changsha Regional Phone Book. So in conclusion rural China was a joke, we stayed in a REALLY nice hotel with a bar and we did field visits and worked on country papers. Because we'd intended to have an actual rural experience and the country coordinators had clearly not gotten the message, IHP did manage to arrange an actual rural visit for our last night, and we stayed in an almost equally nice hotel in a more rural area. We didn't actually do any rural visiting though, just walked around and had an academic synthesis session in the evening. The next morning we took canoes through some really cool caves! And walked through the caves which was awesome even though it was pouring rain, thanks China. Then we drove back to CSU, had our evaluation session, packed up our stuff, finished country papers, Barbara and I had one last delicious Chinese dinner consisting of bread and jam in the pouring rain as we walked back from the internet cafe, stayed up way too late and got up at 5am the next day to leave China behind for South Africa!
Friday morning we took a short flight from Changsha to Hong Kong where we spent the day. A few of us met up with Zack's girlfriend Sarah, who lives in Hong Kong now and showed us around for most of the day. It was amazing to be in a city where people actually spoke English and simple things weren't really complicated and the food wasn't soaked in oil. For example, the first thing we did when we got into the city was take the outdoor elevator up the mountain to a cafe called Life, which was all vegetarian and organic ie HEAVEN. We had an amazing lunch of grilled vegetable sandwiches with sweet potato fries and salad-SALAD! Yes this is about to turn into a food blog because not eating Chinese food has turned out to be one of the best things that's ever happened to me. For the rest of the day we walked around, did some shopping, took the ferry over to Kalhoon and did some more shopping, had some delicious Thai food for dinner, and got on the train back to the airport just in time for the communists to have one last laugh and delete our entire group's booking on the flight to Johannesburg. So after many many hours of confusion (and a few group members wandering off inexplicably) and the possibility that those of us not booked on the group flight out of Cape Town in May (ie me) were going to be spending a few more nights in China, we finally boarded the plane to South Africa for our looooong journey.
After fifteen hours of flying and the realization that I'd prefer never to see an airport again in my life, we finally arrived in Cape Town. The first thing we did was drive to an organic farm and cafe called Millstone Cafe for lunch and a short orientation-quiche, salad, fruit and I knew I was going to love this country. After that we checked into a backpackers in Sea Point where all the rooms were named after animals that I'm hopefully going to see before I leave! We had the rest of the day to explore Sea Point and a bunch of us went down to the waterfront to have an amazing dinner with some amazing South African wine. Cape Town is without a doubt the most beautiful city I have ever been in, and everyone is so amazingly friendly and everything is so easy and the food is so delicious, I've been in love since pretty much day one.
Sunday we walked around some more and had a delicious breakfast of smoked salmon and homemade lemonade-I did say this was going to turn into a food blog-and then went to our country coordinator's house for dinner and orientation. Monday morning we started classes at a church in the Bo Kaap where our homestay families live. We had a really fascinating guest lecture come and talk about South African history and watched a movie about Apartheid. South Africa is such an interesting place to be studying health and it has such an amazingly complex history that I'm so excited to learn more about. Monday afternoon we had a walking tour of the Bo Kaap and then I met up with my REAL family who live just around the corner from my host family! Seeing them was amazing-they have an adorable house that overlooks the entire city and has a great view of Table Mountain (although pretty much everywhere in the city has a great view of Table Mountain) and it was so so nice to have some real family for the first time in three months. That night we went for dinner at their friends house in Sea Point and they dropped me back off at the hostel, where a bunch of us stayed a few extra nights because there was a slight mixup with our homestay families.
This week we've visited a township and an HIV clinic and had a number of really interesting guest lectures. On Wednesday afternoon we had a workshop with this organization called One Man Can, which is an organization working toward ending domestic violence and HIV. It was really really inspiring-led by two men who had both experienced domestic violence in their families and have been working for most of their lives to stop it from happening in South Africa. On Thursday after classes a bunch of us climbed Lions Head, which is close to Table Mountain, to the top where at sunset we could see the full moon and the sun setting simultaneously-and of course an incredible view of Cape Town. Basically this city is like too incredibly beautiful to be real.
Wednesday we moved in with our homestays! This time I am living with Sami and Heather, two of my good friends, so I'm happy about that. Our family is very sweet-there are four kids (three of them under 8) and a bunch of extended family. It is quite a small house and the three of us share one tiny bedroom, so that is kind of challenging, but our mom is wonderful and sarcastic and told me my hair was stunning and so I like her already. Her kids are crazy and enjoy climbing all over us, but for the most part they are cute so its manageable.
Today the entire group took a trip to Cape Point, which is claimed to be the southern most tip of Africa but is actually only the south westerly most tip of Africa, whatever that means. Along the way we stopped at an outdoor market where I continued my fruitless search for flip flops as I have given up on the one that was left behind in India. Cape Point was a short hike up to a lighthouse where the views are amazing. The only problem was some too-friendly-but-not baboons who stole some salads out of our hands. After Cape Point we were planning on stopping at Boulder's Beach where there are African penguins, but apparently in the winter season (winter! What a joke) they close early so we missed those. Tomorrow a group of us are going to get up early to hike up Table Mountain and then take the gondola down so we have time to do homework. I've never gotten so much exercise in my life!
Cape Town is my new favorite place in the world and I am so so happy to be here and in fact think I might not ever come home. I am so so glad I extended my trip for a few weeks so I'll have some time to just be a tourist and see all of these places I probably won't have time to see in my last remaining weeks of the program. I was a little worried by the end of China that I was getting kind of burnt out from traveling, but South Africa has totally revived me. Monday we head to Zwelethemba, a rural township, for ten days, then back to Cape Town for the last week and a half of our program! I cannot believe how fast this time has flown by and I am trying to stretch each day out so that it never comes to an end!
Since I last wrote we had our last few days in Changsha on case studies. Case studies in China were not exactly as organized as they were in India. That is to say, they were a giant disorganized mess. Our group did "school health" or at least we tried. Essentially we were not allowed to enter any of the schools in Changsha, and we had no contacts, and everyone in China speaks Chinese, and our "translator" was a complete joke who I'm pretty sure didn't even attend CSU. So we made a lot of stuff up and then presented on some information that was basically useless and made no conclusions. But it was a fun three days, as the sun was out for the first time since we'd been in China and we basically did nothing and hung out outside. So that wasn't so bad.
For the last week, we visited "rural" China which in fact was not rural at all. In fact when we opened the bedside table drawer of our hotel room (which came with TVs, showers, queen sized beds, and bathrobes in the closet) we found the Changsha Regional Phone Book. So in conclusion rural China was a joke, we stayed in a REALLY nice hotel with a bar and we did field visits and worked on country papers. Because we'd intended to have an actual rural experience and the country coordinators had clearly not gotten the message, IHP did manage to arrange an actual rural visit for our last night, and we stayed in an almost equally nice hotel in a more rural area. We didn't actually do any rural visiting though, just walked around and had an academic synthesis session in the evening. The next morning we took canoes through some really cool caves! And walked through the caves which was awesome even though it was pouring rain, thanks China. Then we drove back to CSU, had our evaluation session, packed up our stuff, finished country papers, Barbara and I had one last delicious Chinese dinner consisting of bread and jam in the pouring rain as we walked back from the internet cafe, stayed up way too late and got up at 5am the next day to leave China behind for South Africa!
Friday morning we took a short flight from Changsha to Hong Kong where we spent the day. A few of us met up with Zack's girlfriend Sarah, who lives in Hong Kong now and showed us around for most of the day. It was amazing to be in a city where people actually spoke English and simple things weren't really complicated and the food wasn't soaked in oil. For example, the first thing we did when we got into the city was take the outdoor elevator up the mountain to a cafe called Life, which was all vegetarian and organic ie HEAVEN. We had an amazing lunch of grilled vegetable sandwiches with sweet potato fries and salad-SALAD! Yes this is about to turn into a food blog because not eating Chinese food has turned out to be one of the best things that's ever happened to me. For the rest of the day we walked around, did some shopping, took the ferry over to Kalhoon and did some more shopping, had some delicious Thai food for dinner, and got on the train back to the airport just in time for the communists to have one last laugh and delete our entire group's booking on the flight to Johannesburg. So after many many hours of confusion (and a few group members wandering off inexplicably) and the possibility that those of us not booked on the group flight out of Cape Town in May (ie me) were going to be spending a few more nights in China, we finally boarded the plane to South Africa for our looooong journey.
After fifteen hours of flying and the realization that I'd prefer never to see an airport again in my life, we finally arrived in Cape Town. The first thing we did was drive to an organic farm and cafe called Millstone Cafe for lunch and a short orientation-quiche, salad, fruit and I knew I was going to love this country. After that we checked into a backpackers in Sea Point where all the rooms were named after animals that I'm hopefully going to see before I leave! We had the rest of the day to explore Sea Point and a bunch of us went down to the waterfront to have an amazing dinner with some amazing South African wine. Cape Town is without a doubt the most beautiful city I have ever been in, and everyone is so amazingly friendly and everything is so easy and the food is so delicious, I've been in love since pretty much day one.
Sunday we walked around some more and had a delicious breakfast of smoked salmon and homemade lemonade-I did say this was going to turn into a food blog-and then went to our country coordinator's house for dinner and orientation. Monday morning we started classes at a church in the Bo Kaap where our homestay families live. We had a really fascinating guest lecture come and talk about South African history and watched a movie about Apartheid. South Africa is such an interesting place to be studying health and it has such an amazingly complex history that I'm so excited to learn more about. Monday afternoon we had a walking tour of the Bo Kaap and then I met up with my REAL family who live just around the corner from my host family! Seeing them was amazing-they have an adorable house that overlooks the entire city and has a great view of Table Mountain (although pretty much everywhere in the city has a great view of Table Mountain) and it was so so nice to have some real family for the first time in three months. That night we went for dinner at their friends house in Sea Point and they dropped me back off at the hostel, where a bunch of us stayed a few extra nights because there was a slight mixup with our homestay families.
This week we've visited a township and an HIV clinic and had a number of really interesting guest lectures. On Wednesday afternoon we had a workshop with this organization called One Man Can, which is an organization working toward ending domestic violence and HIV. It was really really inspiring-led by two men who had both experienced domestic violence in their families and have been working for most of their lives to stop it from happening in South Africa. On Thursday after classes a bunch of us climbed Lions Head, which is close to Table Mountain, to the top where at sunset we could see the full moon and the sun setting simultaneously-and of course an incredible view of Cape Town. Basically this city is like too incredibly beautiful to be real.
Wednesday we moved in with our homestays! This time I am living with Sami and Heather, two of my good friends, so I'm happy about that. Our family is very sweet-there are four kids (three of them under 8) and a bunch of extended family. It is quite a small house and the three of us share one tiny bedroom, so that is kind of challenging, but our mom is wonderful and sarcastic and told me my hair was stunning and so I like her already. Her kids are crazy and enjoy climbing all over us, but for the most part they are cute so its manageable.
Today the entire group took a trip to Cape Point, which is claimed to be the southern most tip of Africa but is actually only the south westerly most tip of Africa, whatever that means. Along the way we stopped at an outdoor market where I continued my fruitless search for flip flops as I have given up on the one that was left behind in India. Cape Point was a short hike up to a lighthouse where the views are amazing. The only problem was some too-friendly-but-not baboons who stole some salads out of our hands. After Cape Point we were planning on stopping at Boulder's Beach where there are African penguins, but apparently in the winter season (winter! What a joke) they close early so we missed those. Tomorrow a group of us are going to get up early to hike up Table Mountain and then take the gondola down so we have time to do homework. I've never gotten so much exercise in my life!
Cape Town is my new favorite place in the world and I am so so happy to be here and in fact think I might not ever come home. I am so so glad I extended my trip for a few weeks so I'll have some time to just be a tourist and see all of these places I probably won't have time to see in my last remaining weeks of the program. I was a little worried by the end of China that I was getting kind of burnt out from traveling, but South Africa has totally revived me. Monday we head to Zwelethemba, a rural township, for ten days, then back to Cape Town for the last week and a half of our program! I cannot believe how fast this time has flown by and I am trying to stretch each day out so that it never comes to an end!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Xia wu hao!
So I have been in China about two weeks now and I can say with quite some certainty that it is the creepiest place I have ever been. Maybe it's coming from India where everyone seems to care about everything, but the lack of interest in what the government has done and is doing to this country is really astonishing. My host mother doesn't know about the voting process or how the government is elected, she doesn't know what happens to people who don't have health insurance, she openly told Shannon that she doesn't care about those people because those people aren't her. No one seems to question Mao and the rise of communism, even though his policies killed thousands of people. Even our host grandmother, who lived through the rise of Mao and the cultural revolution, thinks he is a great man because he united China into the People's Republic. To me and Shannon it's like not knowing about the Holocaust, but when you consider that these people have never left China and that everything is censored by the government, its almost understandable how they could be so completely unaware of all of the bad shit that went down in the last fifty years of China's history. Also I know that there are people who are anti-government, and who do have ideas about Mao that haven't just been fed to them, but we aren't being exposed to them on IHP and that's pretty frustrating. But still, coming from the US where everyone questions everything and having spent six weeks in India where everything the government does is scrutinized, it feels really creepy to be in a place where people just accept the way things are unquestionably. The government's one-child policy is going to have serious future health implications but no one seems to want to talk about it. No one on my trip has been able to get a straight answer from any of our guest lectures about a health issue or group of people who may be being left behind. You can't email a US senator from China, and you can't do internet research on things that reflect negatively on the government.
It's also kind of creepy that I now realize how much China could and probably will take over the world at any moment.
Despite all of this, I am really enjoying being in China if for no other reason than it is so completely different than any place I've ever been. Our host family is really nice but really overbearing and paranoid about everything-like me walking across the street by myself at 8pm. Their daughter is ten, does math olympics and is an amazing pianist. All of their energy goes into raising the one kid they're allowed to have. Like she has a schedule for each half hour of each one of her days and it's taped to the dining table. Only our host mother speaks English, but she speaks it pretty well, so its been pretty easy to communicate. They live in this giant housing area called Sunshine 100 where all together 30,000 people live, and its like an assisted living community without the assisted part. Every apartment as far as we can tell is the exact same, and in the middle of this complex there is a swimming pool and a basketball court and an entire building dedicated to selling units in the complex. We live about ten minutes from the campus of CSU (where we have our classes) but Changsha is not a walkable city at all so every morning we drive to school with our family. I feel like I have so much less freedom here than I did in India, which is weird because I expected China to feel much more western and comfortable, but it's exactly the opposite. Where in India I felt like after a couple days I was on my own to get adjusted to the city and learn my way around, I am barely let out of my host family's sight here. Which reflects that they care, obviously, but is also frustrating because I've been living on my own for quite some time now and have learned adequately how to dress myself and at what temperature I like my showers, but my host family still feels the need to tell me these things each morning.
Changsha itself is not what I'd call a remarkable city, though I don't mind because the point of this trip is not to be tourists. Last night we did go karaoke-ing as a group which was really fun, except the room was tiny and all the songs were put to these bizarre videos of this one woman walking by a river with sailboats as the backdrop. We also attempted to BYOB but the only alcohol in this country-besides Bud Light-appears to be sake, which is rice wine that smells and tastes strangely like a traditional Chinese dish appropriately called "stinky tofu." So..that's kind of a disappointment, as I have yet to reap the benefits of my non-US legality (except at the India farewell dinner, but that's a story for another post, maybe one that my parents aren't reading). Barbara and I did pick up some pretty sweet trucker hats, though, which plus a big bottle of budweiser really made me feel like I was representing America.
This past week we've been visiting hospitals and schools and had various guest lectures who have more often than not read off powerpoints full of statistics about American health problems. The language barrier is turning out to be much more significant here than in India, as was expected, but it really kind of impedes our ability to get information. Plus of course no one wants to say anything bad about the government, which is maybe why instead they just say bad things about America. Which is fine, we deserve it. Last Thursday we did visit a middle school (which in the US is high school) attached to CSU, and they're really into ping pong here, and we saw what I think was the makings of the Chinese Olympic ping pong team in action. I kind of thought ping pong was a joke, but these kids were serious-they were like the most athletic people I've ever seen. And they made me play against one of them, and needless to say the dusty ping pong table in my basement did not prepare me for the experience.
This week we also all got treated to traditional Chinese foot massages, which were sort of like full body massages except the point was not to make you feel good, rather to beat all of your muscles into submission. It actually felt really good, despite the fact that some of us couldn't walk very well for a few days after and that the two Chinese women who worked on me and my friend Victoria were definitely making fun of my hair in Chinese. In China my shaved head definitely does not fit in, I've already had two women tell me on separate occasions that I look like a little boy. Great.
The farther I get from India the more I want to go back. I definitely felt this way when I left too, but the longer I think about India and the more comparison I have with China the more I feel like there's just so much of India I didn't experience, and six weeks was way too short. Besides really missing my host family and really missing the city, I am just fascinated by the whole country and am feeling very envious of people who are spending their whole semester there, or even their whole semester anywhere, because I feel increasingly like I gave up something pretty significant by choosing a program that moves around as much as IHP does. And I love all of the new experiences I am getting and I am so excited to be in South Africa for a few months, but I just really loved India and really felt at home there, and it makes me really sad to think I might not get to go back for a long time.
Anyway, I'll stop complaining now as I really have no right to. China has been an amazing experience so far and I know it will only get better as we get deeper into the country. I also know that I will go back to India and that I'm lucky to have had such an incredible experience in a really incredible country. So I'm off to go embrace communism and Mandarin, which we have been learning every morning and which I am still pathetically inept at. But hey, wo shi ge mei guo ren! (I am only an American!)
It's also kind of creepy that I now realize how much China could and probably will take over the world at any moment.
Despite all of this, I am really enjoying being in China if for no other reason than it is so completely different than any place I've ever been. Our host family is really nice but really overbearing and paranoid about everything-like me walking across the street by myself at 8pm. Their daughter is ten, does math olympics and is an amazing pianist. All of their energy goes into raising the one kid they're allowed to have. Like she has a schedule for each half hour of each one of her days and it's taped to the dining table. Only our host mother speaks English, but she speaks it pretty well, so its been pretty easy to communicate. They live in this giant housing area called Sunshine 100 where all together 30,000 people live, and its like an assisted living community without the assisted part. Every apartment as far as we can tell is the exact same, and in the middle of this complex there is a swimming pool and a basketball court and an entire building dedicated to selling units in the complex. We live about ten minutes from the campus of CSU (where we have our classes) but Changsha is not a walkable city at all so every morning we drive to school with our family. I feel like I have so much less freedom here than I did in India, which is weird because I expected China to feel much more western and comfortable, but it's exactly the opposite. Where in India I felt like after a couple days I was on my own to get adjusted to the city and learn my way around, I am barely let out of my host family's sight here. Which reflects that they care, obviously, but is also frustrating because I've been living on my own for quite some time now and have learned adequately how to dress myself and at what temperature I like my showers, but my host family still feels the need to tell me these things each morning.
Changsha itself is not what I'd call a remarkable city, though I don't mind because the point of this trip is not to be tourists. Last night we did go karaoke-ing as a group which was really fun, except the room was tiny and all the songs were put to these bizarre videos of this one woman walking by a river with sailboats as the backdrop. We also attempted to BYOB but the only alcohol in this country-besides Bud Light-appears to be sake, which is rice wine that smells and tastes strangely like a traditional Chinese dish appropriately called "stinky tofu." So..that's kind of a disappointment, as I have yet to reap the benefits of my non-US legality (except at the India farewell dinner, but that's a story for another post, maybe one that my parents aren't reading). Barbara and I did pick up some pretty sweet trucker hats, though, which plus a big bottle of budweiser really made me feel like I was representing America.
This past week we've been visiting hospitals and schools and had various guest lectures who have more often than not read off powerpoints full of statistics about American health problems. The language barrier is turning out to be much more significant here than in India, as was expected, but it really kind of impedes our ability to get information. Plus of course no one wants to say anything bad about the government, which is maybe why instead they just say bad things about America. Which is fine, we deserve it. Last Thursday we did visit a middle school (which in the US is high school) attached to CSU, and they're really into ping pong here, and we saw what I think was the makings of the Chinese Olympic ping pong team in action. I kind of thought ping pong was a joke, but these kids were serious-they were like the most athletic people I've ever seen. And they made me play against one of them, and needless to say the dusty ping pong table in my basement did not prepare me for the experience.
This week we also all got treated to traditional Chinese foot massages, which were sort of like full body massages except the point was not to make you feel good, rather to beat all of your muscles into submission. It actually felt really good, despite the fact that some of us couldn't walk very well for a few days after and that the two Chinese women who worked on me and my friend Victoria were definitely making fun of my hair in Chinese. In China my shaved head definitely does not fit in, I've already had two women tell me on separate occasions that I look like a little boy. Great.
The farther I get from India the more I want to go back. I definitely felt this way when I left too, but the longer I think about India and the more comparison I have with China the more I feel like there's just so much of India I didn't experience, and six weeks was way too short. Besides really missing my host family and really missing the city, I am just fascinated by the whole country and am feeling very envious of people who are spending their whole semester there, or even their whole semester anywhere, because I feel increasingly like I gave up something pretty significant by choosing a program that moves around as much as IHP does. And I love all of the new experiences I am getting and I am so excited to be in South Africa for a few months, but I just really loved India and really felt at home there, and it makes me really sad to think I might not get to go back for a long time.
Anyway, I'll stop complaining now as I really have no right to. China has been an amazing experience so far and I know it will only get better as we get deeper into the country. I also know that I will go back to India and that I'm lucky to have had such an incredible experience in a really incredible country. So I'm off to go embrace communism and Mandarin, which we have been learning every morning and which I am still pathetically inept at. But hey, wo shi ge mei guo ren! (I am only an American!)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
CHINA!
Ni Hao!
Okay so Chinese keyboards tend to switch randomly back and forth between English and Chinese..so we'll see how this goes.
So. I am in China. But before I was in China, I was in rural India and then on "spring break" in India, both of which were pretty amazing. In rural India we stayed at a weird commune place called Kanavu, where none of us really knew what was going on. We slept on straw mats on the floor and it was freezing, and probably the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done. Kanavu is kinda like a boarding school but it's run by young people, in their 20s, and there are only like 20 people in the whole place. Basically they do nothing but sustain themselves, and we had classes and collected firewood and helped gather rice and were kinda weirded out by the whole experience. But it was a pretty beautiful setting and a big change from Bangalore. For the second two nights of our rural trip we stayed in Kalpetta, which is a tiny town a few hours from Kanavu. There we stayed in what was probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in, but maybe it was just because we had just been using squat toilets and sleeping on concrete. We stayed at Green Gates resort, which not only had western showers and air conditioning, but actually had a POOL, which really isn't that cool in the US but after sleeping among cockroaches seems amazing. At Green Gates we had amazing food and wrapped up the India program before departing for vacation. We had a day of academic synthesis around a really beautiful lake and then a day of evaluation of the entire India program, and then we set off on spring break 09!
There were seven of us traveling together for the vacation, and we stayed the first night in Green Gates again so that we could get up at 5am and travel to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary..where I was promised a tiger but did not see one. In fact, in our three hour safari we saw exactly one elephant, three types of deer, and some monkeys that I could have seen outside my window in Bangalore. But it's ok, I am determined to see some exciting animals in South Africa. Then that day we drove to Alleppey in a private van, which was an eight hour drive. Once we got to Alleppey--which was by far the single hottest place I have ever been in my entire life--we checked into a little guest house run by these adorable people who made us banana pancakes for breakfast every morning. Besides the excruciating heat, Alleppey was a cute little town and we stayed there for the next day. On Saturday we walked around and went to the beach, where I dipped my feet in the Indian Ocean! So now I can cross that one off the life list, just have to find a way to the Artic and then I'm all set. On Sunday morning we got on a 24-hour houseboat, which we took through the backwaters of Kerala. It was the definitely the most relaxed I've ever been. Monday morning after docking the boat we got on a bus to Cochin, a town about an hour and a half south of Alleppey. Being on the Southern coast, Cochin was also among the hottest places I've ever been in my life, and was super touristy. We stayed in a cute guest house and ate Italian food and sought out every Western restaurant we could find. It was nice to have a break from Indian food but it was really weird to be in a town where there were clearly more white people than actual Indians, and it just made me realize how different my traveling life has been before this trip. As we sat poolside at a friend's hotel I couldn't believe that the people sitting around me had bothered to come to India just to sit by a pool in a resort town; for the first time in my life I feel like I've actually experienced real life in a place different from my home, and I really can't imagine doing anything different.
Tuesday night was the end of our break as we boarded an overnight train back to Bangalore. They say you haven't experienced India until you've ridden the overnight train-and if that's true I guess I really had not experienced India up until that night. We slept eight to a "compartment" which really weren't compartments at all, competed for the bed with the fewest cockroaches, and dealt with our fair share of drunk Indian men. All in all though I think traveling in India by train was a really valuable experience, just in case life in Bangalore was getting too cushy.
Wednesday night we had our farewell dinner where we all gathered with our homestay families and said goodbye. It was a really sad night because I realized that I may never see my homestay family again, and though I do hope they stay in touch, it's weird to leave a family that you are a part of and think you will never be back again. Nikhil wanted to take us dancing, but alas the Indian nightlife shuts down far too early. Thursday Barbara and I ran around the city trying to get everything together, including writing our country papers (whoops) and trying in vain to send packages home. Then Thursday night we boarded a midnight plane to Thailand and then to Beijing, and after a looooong day of travel arrived in China!
The first few days in China we spent in Beijing, in a guest house near downtown. I didn't have high hopes for China but Beijing turned out to be an incredible city and I wish we had had more time to explore. On Saturday we climbed the Great Wall, which was amazing. Apparently the Chinese believe that "you are not a great man if you have not climbed the Great Wall" (or something like that) so thank god I am a great man in their eyes. After we climbed up it there was a toboggan slide down, which is both the creepiest thing I've ever seen and also the most fun I think I've had on this trip.After that we had our first Chinese dinner which was surprisingly really good. On Sunday we visited an urban planning museum, Tiananmen Square and walked around the city. Sunday night a few of us went to the Olympic Village, which was all lit up and even though its probably the most touristy thing you can possibly do in Beijing, it was really cool! Beijing has been totally transformed by the Olympics, like its such a clean city now and everything is really neat and everyone has apparently been trained to smile and say hi to visitors. Of course almost no one speaks English, so we didn't exactly talk to people, but that's ok. On our last day we visited the Forbidden City and had a final lunch of delicious dumplings, as dumplings are unforunately not served in Chansgha.
Monday night we boarded another overnight train to Changsha, this time slightly nicer and lacking cockroaches. We arrived in Changsha early on Tuesday morning to rain and cold. Basically we were told that Changsha is known for its "not-so-nice climate," and we have since confirmed that to be true. The whole time we have been here it has been rainy and cold, and I really really miss India and the warmth. In Changsha we are staying for another few days on the campus of Central South University, in a guest house that is essentially a hotel. It is sooo weird to be back on a college campus but really great too, it feels like home. The campus is really pretty, minus the rain. This is where we will be having our classes for the next two weeks, but we move into our homestays on Friday. I am living in this homestay with another girl from Brown named Shannon who I like a lot and who enjoys cuddling almost as much as I do, so I'm pretty excited about that. Changsha was described by the Lonely Planet guidebook as "just another drab Chinese city," and so far it is definitely not as cool as Beijing, though it is pretty populated (6 million people) and a real city which is not what I expected. So far its been kind of gray and damp, but I actually don't really mind, because at least for now its something different. And we only have three weeks in China, so I'm sure by the time I get tired of the rain we will be heading to South Africa. We seem to be the campus celebrities here, yesterday we had an opening ceremony where all these reporters came and we all had to stand up in front of them and introduce ourselves. And there is not just one but two gigantic banners hanging around campus that say "Welcome US IHP Students," soo..that's kinda weird but cool. So far everyone is really friendly, though most people speak absolutely no English so that will be pretty interesting. We eat all of our meals in this banquet hall where they serve us ten times the amount of food we could ever eat, which is nice of them except that I really really miss Indian food.
This has officially been the longest blog of my life so I'm going to end it here, but I will try to update again soon. Keep sending me letters! (And by "keep" I mean "start" because I've gotten no mail since I've been here)
Okay so Chinese keyboards tend to switch randomly back and forth between English and Chinese..so we'll see how this goes.
So. I am in China. But before I was in China, I was in rural India and then on "spring break" in India, both of which were pretty amazing. In rural India we stayed at a weird commune place called Kanavu, where none of us really knew what was going on. We slept on straw mats on the floor and it was freezing, and probably the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done. Kanavu is kinda like a boarding school but it's run by young people, in their 20s, and there are only like 20 people in the whole place. Basically they do nothing but sustain themselves, and we had classes and collected firewood and helped gather rice and were kinda weirded out by the whole experience. But it was a pretty beautiful setting and a big change from Bangalore. For the second two nights of our rural trip we stayed in Kalpetta, which is a tiny town a few hours from Kanavu. There we stayed in what was probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in, but maybe it was just because we had just been using squat toilets and sleeping on concrete. We stayed at Green Gates resort, which not only had western showers and air conditioning, but actually had a POOL, which really isn't that cool in the US but after sleeping among cockroaches seems amazing. At Green Gates we had amazing food and wrapped up the India program before departing for vacation. We had a day of academic synthesis around a really beautiful lake and then a day of evaluation of the entire India program, and then we set off on spring break 09!
There were seven of us traveling together for the vacation, and we stayed the first night in Green Gates again so that we could get up at 5am and travel to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary..where I was promised a tiger but did not see one. In fact, in our three hour safari we saw exactly one elephant, three types of deer, and some monkeys that I could have seen outside my window in Bangalore. But it's ok, I am determined to see some exciting animals in South Africa. Then that day we drove to Alleppey in a private van, which was an eight hour drive. Once we got to Alleppey--which was by far the single hottest place I have ever been in my entire life--we checked into a little guest house run by these adorable people who made us banana pancakes for breakfast every morning. Besides the excruciating heat, Alleppey was a cute little town and we stayed there for the next day. On Saturday we walked around and went to the beach, where I dipped my feet in the Indian Ocean! So now I can cross that one off the life list, just have to find a way to the Artic and then I'm all set. On Sunday morning we got on a 24-hour houseboat, which we took through the backwaters of Kerala. It was the definitely the most relaxed I've ever been. Monday morning after docking the boat we got on a bus to Cochin, a town about an hour and a half south of Alleppey. Being on the Southern coast, Cochin was also among the hottest places I've ever been in my life, and was super touristy. We stayed in a cute guest house and ate Italian food and sought out every Western restaurant we could find. It was nice to have a break from Indian food but it was really weird to be in a town where there were clearly more white people than actual Indians, and it just made me realize how different my traveling life has been before this trip. As we sat poolside at a friend's hotel I couldn't believe that the people sitting around me had bothered to come to India just to sit by a pool in a resort town; for the first time in my life I feel like I've actually experienced real life in a place different from my home, and I really can't imagine doing anything different.
Tuesday night was the end of our break as we boarded an overnight train back to Bangalore. They say you haven't experienced India until you've ridden the overnight train-and if that's true I guess I really had not experienced India up until that night. We slept eight to a "compartment" which really weren't compartments at all, competed for the bed with the fewest cockroaches, and dealt with our fair share of drunk Indian men. All in all though I think traveling in India by train was a really valuable experience, just in case life in Bangalore was getting too cushy.
Wednesday night we had our farewell dinner where we all gathered with our homestay families and said goodbye. It was a really sad night because I realized that I may never see my homestay family again, and though I do hope they stay in touch, it's weird to leave a family that you are a part of and think you will never be back again. Nikhil wanted to take us dancing, but alas the Indian nightlife shuts down far too early. Thursday Barbara and I ran around the city trying to get everything together, including writing our country papers (whoops) and trying in vain to send packages home. Then Thursday night we boarded a midnight plane to Thailand and then to Beijing, and after a looooong day of travel arrived in China!
The first few days in China we spent in Beijing, in a guest house near downtown. I didn't have high hopes for China but Beijing turned out to be an incredible city and I wish we had had more time to explore. On Saturday we climbed the Great Wall, which was amazing. Apparently the Chinese believe that "you are not a great man if you have not climbed the Great Wall" (or something like that) so thank god I am a great man in their eyes. After we climbed up it there was a toboggan slide down, which is both the creepiest thing I've ever seen and also the most fun I think I've had on this trip.After that we had our first Chinese dinner which was surprisingly really good. On Sunday we visited an urban planning museum, Tiananmen Square and walked around the city. Sunday night a few of us went to the Olympic Village, which was all lit up and even though its probably the most touristy thing you can possibly do in Beijing, it was really cool! Beijing has been totally transformed by the Olympics, like its such a clean city now and everything is really neat and everyone has apparently been trained to smile and say hi to visitors. Of course almost no one speaks English, so we didn't exactly talk to people, but that's ok. On our last day we visited the Forbidden City and had a final lunch of delicious dumplings, as dumplings are unforunately not served in Chansgha.
Monday night we boarded another overnight train to Changsha, this time slightly nicer and lacking cockroaches. We arrived in Changsha early on Tuesday morning to rain and cold. Basically we were told that Changsha is known for its "not-so-nice climate," and we have since confirmed that to be true. The whole time we have been here it has been rainy and cold, and I really really miss India and the warmth. In Changsha we are staying for another few days on the campus of Central South University, in a guest house that is essentially a hotel. It is sooo weird to be back on a college campus but really great too, it feels like home. The campus is really pretty, minus the rain. This is where we will be having our classes for the next two weeks, but we move into our homestays on Friday. I am living in this homestay with another girl from Brown named Shannon who I like a lot and who enjoys cuddling almost as much as I do, so I'm pretty excited about that. Changsha was described by the Lonely Planet guidebook as "just another drab Chinese city," and so far it is definitely not as cool as Beijing, though it is pretty populated (6 million people) and a real city which is not what I expected. So far its been kind of gray and damp, but I actually don't really mind, because at least for now its something different. And we only have three weeks in China, so I'm sure by the time I get tired of the rain we will be heading to South Africa. We seem to be the campus celebrities here, yesterday we had an opening ceremony where all these reporters came and we all had to stand up in front of them and introduce ourselves. And there is not just one but two gigantic banners hanging around campus that say "Welcome US IHP Students," soo..that's kinda weird but cool. So far everyone is really friendly, though most people speak absolutely no English so that will be pretty interesting. We eat all of our meals in this banquet hall where they serve us ten times the amount of food we could ever eat, which is nice of them except that I really really miss Indian food.
This has officially been the longest blog of my life so I'm going to end it here, but I will try to update again soon. Keep sending me letters! (And by "keep" I mean "start" because I've gotten no mail since I've been here)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Bye bye Bangalore...
So this is my last post from India...as well as my second..which is sad I know. But even more sad than that is the fact that this day marks my very last one in Bangalore, as tomorrow we head to Kerala and then to "spring break" and then to CHINA!
Last Sunday we all left for our case studies in various places in rural India. My group of 7 traveled to a tribal school and hospital where we stayed for two days, and then to Mysore for a day. The tribal center was in the B.R Hills, about six hours from Bangalore, situated in the very beautiful mountainous countryside. The tribal center was started in 1979 by Dr. Sudarshan, who came to visit our group in the weeks prior to the case study. Basically it was started because there were thousands of tribal people living in the mountains in that region who had no access to health care or education. The school and the hospital were started mainly to cater to the Soliga tribe, but since the 80s have attracted hundreds of different tribes. The school has 200 students ages 5-15 living on campus, and another 300 commuting. The kids take English, Hindi and Kannada classes as well as math, social studies and environmental science. They also get up at the crack of dawn every day to do farm chores and work every afternoon on the farm. The kids were really cute and really liked us, though they didn't speak much English-the 12 year old boys did, however, speak enough to tell Barbara that she was "beautiful like a tiger." On Monday night they had a big bonfire and they all sang and danced for us, after which we sang and danced for them, and I made a complete fool of myself doing an interpretive dance to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" which was unfortunately captured on video. We also walked 6 km with them to gather firewood in the afternoon, which they do every day to cook their food over. On a side note whoever in the United States thought it was a good idea to do things in Fahrenheit and miles while the rest of the world does everything in the metric system was really stupid, I can never understand distances or temperatures here. Other adventures at the school included getting up at 6am to hike and see the sunset, trying to find tigers in the woods early in the morning (no tigers, but we did see a buffalo!) and eating raggi balls, which are balls of millet that you are supposed to swallow and they're supposed to satisfy you for an entire meal. Which..they didn't. On Tuesday we left the school and traveled to Mysore, which was the original capitol of Karnataka state and so the king's palace is there. We got there too late to actually go in the palace, but we snuck some pictures in from the back before being chased away by the guards. In Mysore we also saw a mental institution and a technology resource center where there was an Asha training taking place. Asha's are community health workers, selected by the government, who work in villages to oversee the health of their communities. They didn't speak any English either but insisted that we sing them the song we'd sung to the kids, so I once again made a fool of myself. It's nice to have no dignity.
Wednesday we returned from case studies and had the day to prepare our presentations. Of course we spent like ten minutes doing that, then proceeded to eat ice cream and watch movies until dinner. Thursday we had our last classes in Bangalore, had case study presentations and talked about our trip to Kerala. Tomorrow morning we leave for Kerala, which is on the Southern coast of India and is supposed to be beautiful, if a bit touristy. The first two nights there we will stay at another tribal school as a whole group, and the second two nights we are staying at what is apparently a pretty nice hotel. Then Thursday our vacation starts! We are not sure of our plan yet but a group of us are thinking about staying in Kerala, traveling to Cochin which is supposed to have nice beaches and spas, and generally relaxing. Not that I really deserve relaxation, as I've pretty much done no academic work since I've been here, but hey.
We return from vacation the following Wednesday morning and that evening have a farewell dinner with all of the homestay families. Then Thursday we have the day to pack and ship stuff home and then we have a midnight flight to China! I can't quite believe the India program is ending, it feels like we can't possibly have been here that long. I am excited for China and new surroundings, though with the thought of leaving I am already feeling homesick for my Indian homestay family. I have loved my time in India but feel like I really just scratched the surface of the country, and there is so much I haven't seen or done. I guess before I came here study abroad always seemed endless, and it always felt like I would have time to do everything, but now at the end of February it is already slipping away and I have no idea if or when I'll ever be back in India. I would never trade my experience for a traditional study abroad, but in some ways I do feel cheated as I get ready to say goodbye to a family I have come to feel a part of and a city I am just beginning to settle into. I have not yet had time to get tired of the warmth, the food or the constant chances to get hit by a rickshaw, and those are all things I will miss (maybe not the last one) as I move on. These five weeks have flown by faster than I thought possible, and it is just hitting me that a major component of my semester abroad is about to be over.
For the first four days in China we will be in Beijing, and then we take a 20 hour train ride to Chansha, a city south of Beijing that I thought was rural but apparently has six million people in it. I will try to update as soon as I can from China, though I may have wasted away eating six cups of white rice a day and nothing else. Cross your fingers that doesn't happen until I've written at least one blog!
Also, not that any of you are doing this (except you, Mom) but don't send any more letters to India because they won't get here in time. So when you sit down to write your lengthy letter about how much you miss me, send it to China!
Last Sunday we all left for our case studies in various places in rural India. My group of 7 traveled to a tribal school and hospital where we stayed for two days, and then to Mysore for a day. The tribal center was in the B.R Hills, about six hours from Bangalore, situated in the very beautiful mountainous countryside. The tribal center was started in 1979 by Dr. Sudarshan, who came to visit our group in the weeks prior to the case study. Basically it was started because there were thousands of tribal people living in the mountains in that region who had no access to health care or education. The school and the hospital were started mainly to cater to the Soliga tribe, but since the 80s have attracted hundreds of different tribes. The school has 200 students ages 5-15 living on campus, and another 300 commuting. The kids take English, Hindi and Kannada classes as well as math, social studies and environmental science. They also get up at the crack of dawn every day to do farm chores and work every afternoon on the farm. The kids were really cute and really liked us, though they didn't speak much English-the 12 year old boys did, however, speak enough to tell Barbara that she was "beautiful like a tiger." On Monday night they had a big bonfire and they all sang and danced for us, after which we sang and danced for them, and I made a complete fool of myself doing an interpretive dance to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" which was unfortunately captured on video. We also walked 6 km with them to gather firewood in the afternoon, which they do every day to cook their food over. On a side note whoever in the United States thought it was a good idea to do things in Fahrenheit and miles while the rest of the world does everything in the metric system was really stupid, I can never understand distances or temperatures here. Other adventures at the school included getting up at 6am to hike and see the sunset, trying to find tigers in the woods early in the morning (no tigers, but we did see a buffalo!) and eating raggi balls, which are balls of millet that you are supposed to swallow and they're supposed to satisfy you for an entire meal. Which..they didn't. On Tuesday we left the school and traveled to Mysore, which was the original capitol of Karnataka state and so the king's palace is there. We got there too late to actually go in the palace, but we snuck some pictures in from the back before being chased away by the guards. In Mysore we also saw a mental institution and a technology resource center where there was an Asha training taking place. Asha's are community health workers, selected by the government, who work in villages to oversee the health of their communities. They didn't speak any English either but insisted that we sing them the song we'd sung to the kids, so I once again made a fool of myself. It's nice to have no dignity.
Wednesday we returned from case studies and had the day to prepare our presentations. Of course we spent like ten minutes doing that, then proceeded to eat ice cream and watch movies until dinner. Thursday we had our last classes in Bangalore, had case study presentations and talked about our trip to Kerala. Tomorrow morning we leave for Kerala, which is on the Southern coast of India and is supposed to be beautiful, if a bit touristy. The first two nights there we will stay at another tribal school as a whole group, and the second two nights we are staying at what is apparently a pretty nice hotel. Then Thursday our vacation starts! We are not sure of our plan yet but a group of us are thinking about staying in Kerala, traveling to Cochin which is supposed to have nice beaches and spas, and generally relaxing. Not that I really deserve relaxation, as I've pretty much done no academic work since I've been here, but hey.
We return from vacation the following Wednesday morning and that evening have a farewell dinner with all of the homestay families. Then Thursday we have the day to pack and ship stuff home and then we have a midnight flight to China! I can't quite believe the India program is ending, it feels like we can't possibly have been here that long. I am excited for China and new surroundings, though with the thought of leaving I am already feeling homesick for my Indian homestay family. I have loved my time in India but feel like I really just scratched the surface of the country, and there is so much I haven't seen or done. I guess before I came here study abroad always seemed endless, and it always felt like I would have time to do everything, but now at the end of February it is already slipping away and I have no idea if or when I'll ever be back in India. I would never trade my experience for a traditional study abroad, but in some ways I do feel cheated as I get ready to say goodbye to a family I have come to feel a part of and a city I am just beginning to settle into. I have not yet had time to get tired of the warmth, the food or the constant chances to get hit by a rickshaw, and those are all things I will miss (maybe not the last one) as I move on. These five weeks have flown by faster than I thought possible, and it is just hitting me that a major component of my semester abroad is about to be over.
For the first four days in China we will be in Beijing, and then we take a 20 hour train ride to Chansha, a city south of Beijing that I thought was rural but apparently has six million people in it. I will try to update as soon as I can from China, though I may have wasted away eating six cups of white rice a day and nothing else. Cross your fingers that doesn't happen until I've written at least one blog!
Also, not that any of you are doing this (except you, Mom) but don't send any more letters to India because they won't get here in time. So when you sit down to write your lengthy letter about how much you miss me, send it to China!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Nearly a month later....
Ok, I am the worst blogger ever. Basically there is no way I can use lack of internet as an excuse, but life has been so busy these last three weeks that I haven't had time to capture it all. But I finally found a motivator, which is that my only alternative is research for a paper that I don't want to do. So here we go.
Our first stop on IHP was Geneva, Switzerland, which was....well, cold. Basically the point of going to Geneva was that its where some of the most signficant governmental organizations are located (in terms of health care), and we visited the UN, the WHO, and a couple of NGOs related to health services in the city. We also visited the Red Cross museum and some other stuff that I literally can't remember. A lot of the people in my group really didn't like Geneva, but I thought it was a cool city, very European with a view of the alps everywhere you go and Lake Geneva right down the street from our hostel. And the tram is free! But everyone speaks French and I don't, so that wasn't cool. We stayed at a hostel that served the exact same breakfast every morning--bread and butter and corn flakes. I ate a lot of chocolate and cheese and got to relearn the wonders of sleeping in a bunk bed. Some of the places we visited were interesting, but a lot of them weren't, which was kind of a letdown. I was sort of envisioning we'd get an inside look at the UN and the WHO, but we basically got the same treatment that a random person off the street would get. But it was a nice way to get to know the group & learn all about the dangers of drugs and culture shock.
After ten cold days in Geneva we left for Bangalore! Everyone pretty much fell in love with the city on the spot, and not just because it was 80 degrees and..not in Switzerland. Basically Bangalore is the craziest place I've ever been. There are no traffic laws whatsoever, and no one driving a rickshaw or a two-wheeler or a car or a bus seems to have a problem running you down if you get in the way. We spent the first few days in North Bangalore, at a seminary college, which was a weird experience, as there were signs all over the place recommending that we all take Jesus into our hearts. And we had to be really quiet, which was quite difficult for a group of 33. Some of us had also recently discovered Bananagrams, which is like the best game ever, but requires a lot of shouting. We explored the city & the famous MG Road, which is cool except to get there you have to risk your life a few more times than I would have liked.
On our fourth day in India we moved into our homestays. We are all paired with one other student, and I am living with a girl named Barbara, who is from Colorado and goes to Brown. I also lived with her in Geneva AND sat next to her on the plane from Germany to India, so needless to say she is wonderful and we have become good friends. Our host family lives in South Bangalore, which is where most of the families live and near where our classroom is. Our host family is amazing. We live with Gita and Ram, who are a couple in their late 50s-they are like my relationship idols. They met while they were both volunteers at an earthquake relief camp and are the cutest couple ever. Deacon will think I am being patronizing when I say that, but I really mean it and I am not saying it just because they are old. Anyway, they have two kids, a 31-year old daughter who lives near them and a 24-year old son who lives with them. Barbara and I have become good friends with their son Nikhil, and want to take him back to the US with us. He has already promised to fly us back to India when he gets married, which hopefully will never happen since both me and Barbara want to marry him. Anyway, they live in a flat in an apartment building right next to a primary school, and there is a giant field next to their apartment building where there are always hundreds of kids playing cricket. Our host father is obsessed with cricket and tennis, he is always asking us if we know the score of the game the previous night, which obviously we don't, seeing as I still can't even figure out how cricket is played. Their apartment is small but very cute, and has a great view of their neighborhood which is a lot of colorful buildings very close together. Barbara and I share a room and a bed, and we have our own bathroom but it has a squat toilet and Barbara refuses to use it so we mainly use their Western-style bathroom which has a real toilet and a shower. Gita and Ram both cook, which they thought we would think was really weird until I reassured them that my own mother can barely boil water. They are a really sweet family, but it is really hard to get work done in the evenings because all we want to do is hang out with them and play pictionary or watch a Bollywood movie. Last Thursday we went to a wedding reception with Gita and Nikhil and one of Gita's friends, whom she described to me and Barbara as "a fatty," (we were later informed by Nikhil that Indians never say such things about each other, that is "just Gita."). The wedding was huge, and when we walked in we realized that we would have to stand in line to wait to go up on stage and be photographed with the bride and groom...which was awkward seeing as we neither knew them nor were actually invited to this wedding. Barbara's blond hair and our obvious status as the only white people in the room made us quite the pair. Then we ate delicious free food off banana leaves and Nikhil kindly told us that everything we were eating was chicken or meatballs, even though Hindi weddings never have meat at them, because everything we were eating basically tasted like chicken. For wedding souvinirs we got coconuts! And bags that say the names of the people who were getting married that I am going to treasure forever.
Another piece of news that some of you know and some of you don't believe is that I shaved my head! I was going to do it the first day in India but I was told that it might not be culturally appropriate, so I had to check with my host family first, who said it was fine but who also thought I was crazy for wanting to do it. Which was also the reaction of the guy who actually shaved it off. But all in all I think everyone who made fun of me agrees that it actually looks good, and I still look like a girl, and I never have to shower again! But I definitely get a lot more stares from people on the street than I did before, and yesterday I met another host father from the program who told me that he assumed I'd lost some kind of bet or else I never would have done it. But I am glad I did! And Barbara is convinced it has already grown some, and thus will be back to its original length in May, but that is clearly not true.
Friday night we went to a play with Nikhil, and in between sets they started playing Justin Timberlake...sometimes I feel like I am in India and other times I feel like I am in the US. A lot of things in India have become really westernized, and at times it is weird to see Gossip Girl on my host family's television, but there is also a lot of resistance to western influence. For example, the right-wing party in Bangalore is attempting to ban the celebration of Valentine's Day, because they feel it represents the encroachment of the west...but on the other hand, they all love Obama and American music is everywhere and people walk around in all these American brands. It's a weird clash of cultures, especially coming from the place that is having its influence over India.
I am going to gain at least 200 pounds being here, my family feeds us ice cream and chocolate and chapati with honey every three hours, plus they are always complaining that I don't eat enough so I feel compelled to eat a lot, and they have also already told me that one of their goals is to have me leave India visibly fatter than when I got here. Which does not seem like it is going to be a difficult goal to reach.
Anyway, we have this last coming week in our homestays, then we go to our case studies, then to Kerala for a few days and then we have a week of vacation. Our plans are not finalized yet but a group of us are hoping to stay in Kerala for vacation, which is on the coast and is supposed to have amazing beaches. We are hoping to relax on the beach and get ayurvedic massages and generally do nothing, which will be great after the intensity of a city in which breathing is apparently equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Then we leave for China! It is really unbelievable how fast time is going by on this trip, we are already nearly halfway through the India program...
Well although the exchange rate in India is currently 49 rupees to 1 US dollar, internet aint free so I am going to sign off, especially because I am probably writing this to myself and maybe my parents. But I will try to update again before too much time passes and if you are still reading this, well, I am impressed.
Our first stop on IHP was Geneva, Switzerland, which was....well, cold. Basically the point of going to Geneva was that its where some of the most signficant governmental organizations are located (in terms of health care), and we visited the UN, the WHO, and a couple of NGOs related to health services in the city. We also visited the Red Cross museum and some other stuff that I literally can't remember. A lot of the people in my group really didn't like Geneva, but I thought it was a cool city, very European with a view of the alps everywhere you go and Lake Geneva right down the street from our hostel. And the tram is free! But everyone speaks French and I don't, so that wasn't cool. We stayed at a hostel that served the exact same breakfast every morning--bread and butter and corn flakes. I ate a lot of chocolate and cheese and got to relearn the wonders of sleeping in a bunk bed. Some of the places we visited were interesting, but a lot of them weren't, which was kind of a letdown. I was sort of envisioning we'd get an inside look at the UN and the WHO, but we basically got the same treatment that a random person off the street would get. But it was a nice way to get to know the group & learn all about the dangers of drugs and culture shock.
After ten cold days in Geneva we left for Bangalore! Everyone pretty much fell in love with the city on the spot, and not just because it was 80 degrees and..not in Switzerland. Basically Bangalore is the craziest place I've ever been. There are no traffic laws whatsoever, and no one driving a rickshaw or a two-wheeler or a car or a bus seems to have a problem running you down if you get in the way. We spent the first few days in North Bangalore, at a seminary college, which was a weird experience, as there were signs all over the place recommending that we all take Jesus into our hearts. And we had to be really quiet, which was quite difficult for a group of 33. Some of us had also recently discovered Bananagrams, which is like the best game ever, but requires a lot of shouting. We explored the city & the famous MG Road, which is cool except to get there you have to risk your life a few more times than I would have liked.
On our fourth day in India we moved into our homestays. We are all paired with one other student, and I am living with a girl named Barbara, who is from Colorado and goes to Brown. I also lived with her in Geneva AND sat next to her on the plane from Germany to India, so needless to say she is wonderful and we have become good friends. Our host family lives in South Bangalore, which is where most of the families live and near where our classroom is. Our host family is amazing. We live with Gita and Ram, who are a couple in their late 50s-they are like my relationship idols. They met while they were both volunteers at an earthquake relief camp and are the cutest couple ever. Deacon will think I am being patronizing when I say that, but I really mean it and I am not saying it just because they are old. Anyway, they have two kids, a 31-year old daughter who lives near them and a 24-year old son who lives with them. Barbara and I have become good friends with their son Nikhil, and want to take him back to the US with us. He has already promised to fly us back to India when he gets married, which hopefully will never happen since both me and Barbara want to marry him. Anyway, they live in a flat in an apartment building right next to a primary school, and there is a giant field next to their apartment building where there are always hundreds of kids playing cricket. Our host father is obsessed with cricket and tennis, he is always asking us if we know the score of the game the previous night, which obviously we don't, seeing as I still can't even figure out how cricket is played. Their apartment is small but very cute, and has a great view of their neighborhood which is a lot of colorful buildings very close together. Barbara and I share a room and a bed, and we have our own bathroom but it has a squat toilet and Barbara refuses to use it so we mainly use their Western-style bathroom which has a real toilet and a shower. Gita and Ram both cook, which they thought we would think was really weird until I reassured them that my own mother can barely boil water. They are a really sweet family, but it is really hard to get work done in the evenings because all we want to do is hang out with them and play pictionary or watch a Bollywood movie. Last Thursday we went to a wedding reception with Gita and Nikhil and one of Gita's friends, whom she described to me and Barbara as "a fatty," (we were later informed by Nikhil that Indians never say such things about each other, that is "just Gita."). The wedding was huge, and when we walked in we realized that we would have to stand in line to wait to go up on stage and be photographed with the bride and groom...which was awkward seeing as we neither knew them nor were actually invited to this wedding. Barbara's blond hair and our obvious status as the only white people in the room made us quite the pair. Then we ate delicious free food off banana leaves and Nikhil kindly told us that everything we were eating was chicken or meatballs, even though Hindi weddings never have meat at them, because everything we were eating basically tasted like chicken. For wedding souvinirs we got coconuts! And bags that say the names of the people who were getting married that I am going to treasure forever.
Another piece of news that some of you know and some of you don't believe is that I shaved my head! I was going to do it the first day in India but I was told that it might not be culturally appropriate, so I had to check with my host family first, who said it was fine but who also thought I was crazy for wanting to do it. Which was also the reaction of the guy who actually shaved it off. But all in all I think everyone who made fun of me agrees that it actually looks good, and I still look like a girl, and I never have to shower again! But I definitely get a lot more stares from people on the street than I did before, and yesterday I met another host father from the program who told me that he assumed I'd lost some kind of bet or else I never would have done it. But I am glad I did! And Barbara is convinced it has already grown some, and thus will be back to its original length in May, but that is clearly not true.
Friday night we went to a play with Nikhil, and in between sets they started playing Justin Timberlake...sometimes I feel like I am in India and other times I feel like I am in the US. A lot of things in India have become really westernized, and at times it is weird to see Gossip Girl on my host family's television, but there is also a lot of resistance to western influence. For example, the right-wing party in Bangalore is attempting to ban the celebration of Valentine's Day, because they feel it represents the encroachment of the west...but on the other hand, they all love Obama and American music is everywhere and people walk around in all these American brands. It's a weird clash of cultures, especially coming from the place that is having its influence over India.
I am going to gain at least 200 pounds being here, my family feeds us ice cream and chocolate and chapati with honey every three hours, plus they are always complaining that I don't eat enough so I feel compelled to eat a lot, and they have also already told me that one of their goals is to have me leave India visibly fatter than when I got here. Which does not seem like it is going to be a difficult goal to reach.
Anyway, we have this last coming week in our homestays, then we go to our case studies, then to Kerala for a few days and then we have a week of vacation. Our plans are not finalized yet but a group of us are hoping to stay in Kerala for vacation, which is on the coast and is supposed to have amazing beaches. We are hoping to relax on the beach and get ayurvedic massages and generally do nothing, which will be great after the intensity of a city in which breathing is apparently equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Then we leave for China! It is really unbelievable how fast time is going by on this trip, we are already nearly halfway through the India program...
Well although the exchange rate in India is currently 49 rupees to 1 US dollar, internet aint free so I am going to sign off, especially because I am probably writing this to myself and maybe my parents. But I will try to update again before too much time passes and if you are still reading this, well, I am impressed.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Write me?
So in order to be exactly like Kailah I have decided to keep a blog while I am studying abroad with IHP in Switzerland, India, China and South Africa. I will be gone from January 16-unknown date in May, so in order to miss me less you should write to me. Most likely I will get bored/not have enough internet access to maintain this, but at least it's a place to publish my addresses so you all can get started on those letters:
In Switzerland (Jan 16-Jan 27):
IHP c/o Geneva Youth Hostel
28-30, rue de Rotschild
1202 Geneva-Switzerland
In India (Jan 28-March 6):
IHP c/o Environmental Support Group
105 East End 'B' Main Road
9th Block, Jayanagar
Bangalore 560069 INDIA
In China (March 6-April 3):
Abby Mays c/o Li Xinhua
International Exchange and Cooperation Office
Central South University
Changsha, Hunan 410083
People’s Republic of China
In South Africa (April 3-May 7):
IHP c/o Chris Colvin and Natalie Leon
For: Student Name
7 Alfred St.
Observatory 7925
Cape Town, South Africa
In case this wasn’t clear you should put my name before all of the addresses. I won’t have my phone/skype/my computer/even really my email, soooo you should all write me letters, but they will take at least 10 days so plan ahead!
In Switzerland (Jan 16-Jan 27):
IHP c/o Geneva Youth Hostel
28-30, rue de Rotschild
1202 Geneva-Switzerland
In India (Jan 28-March 6):
IHP c/o Environmental Support Group
105 East End 'B' Main Road
9th Block, Jayanagar
Bangalore 560069 INDIA
In China (March 6-April 3):
Abby Mays c/o Li Xinhua
International Exchange and Cooperation Office
Central South University
Changsha, Hunan 410083
People’s Republic of China
In South Africa (April 3-May 7):
IHP c/o Chris Colvin and Natalie Leon
For: Student Name
7 Alfred St.
Observatory 7925
Cape Town, South Africa
In case this wasn’t clear you should put my name before all of the addresses. I won’t have my phone/skype/my computer/even really my email, soooo you should all write me letters, but they will take at least 10 days so plan ahead!
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