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.