Massive, Welcome to India Post!

The internet is really really slow right now because I am stealing it from some random person in the next building. I have lots of pictures which I will upload as soon as I have a more reliable internet source. I'm really sorry the post isn't as cool now that I can't upload the pictures. Trust me, India is surreal and out of this world!!

Success today is taking a “shower” with only one bucket of water and a pink ladle. Perhaps I’m just a nerd, but there is something inertly exhilarating about being able to stand over a drain that also sort of drains the leaky toilet (which is oddly named Slim Commander according to the engraving on the lid) after preheating the water heater a half hour before use, fill my 2 gallon bucket and proceed to lather, rinse, and not need to repeat. Much happiness. We’re currently staying in the YWCA of Delhi and will be until Wednesday.

The "Shower"

Me after my first "Shower"

The plane ride was an uneventful, joint stiffening experience. Because of the positioning of the jet stream, the pilot decided to reroute our flight plan to fly over Scotland, into Russia, down over Iran, part of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and finally descend into Delhi. Although we all traveled in the lowest class of flight possible, each seat back included a personal touch-screen television which gave each passenger the option to fry their brain a little with some trashy television (or not so trashy, just not in any way stimulating which is probably a good thing for that long of a flight) or watch the flight play by play which was a small map charting our transcontinental journey and giving up to the minute stats on flight elevation, outside temperature, and a countdown for arrival. The map had numerous layers of zoom which would display the topography of the landscape we were flying over as well as the major cities and landforms. Prague, Tehran, and Kabul are three cities I had never thought I would be flying over in my life, but there is a first for everything.

I passed the long journey watching a season of “The Office”, playing Tetris with the little videogame controller built into the arm rest, and trying really hard to watch something quasi-educational so as to not rot (ie. Rick Steve’s travel videos about Venice, okay not that educational) but fell asleep in the middle of it. Besides the bad television watching and an occasional nap, I spent a good portion of my time eating the seemingly endless amount of food the airline shoved at us. Yes, you read that correctly, “seemingly endless”. They provided two full meals plus something called a snack pack, all totally vegetarian and also pretty darn delicious. Dinner included paneer, yogurt, those fried ball things you get from India buffets that are covered in sugary syrup goodness, a dessert bar, dinner roll, lentil bean salad thing, and bottled water. The snack pack looked more like a gift bag but included a vegetarian tortilla roll up sandwich, bottled water, cookies, chips, and fruit. Breakfast was this weird but totally delicious potato thing with paneer cheese and a rice mixture, fruit, yogurt, and a bar of some sorts.

As far as arrival goes, my bags arrived totally undamaged and customs in India is basically a joke. We proceeded through customs before picking up any of our baggage meaning there was no possible way they would check what was actually inside your checked luggage. The man at the desk spoke very minimal English yet managed to ask what I would be studying in India before he would stamp my passport. Apparently I answered correctly and could pass (much like that wizard thing in Holy Grail right? WHAT is your name? WHAT is your favorite color….)

Our next step was to drag our mountains of luggage through the rest of the terminal and enter out into a massive crowd of shouting people all waving signs about various chartered tours, taxis, hotels, and who they are supposed to be meeting. Luckily for us, the man who was supposed to pick us up was right near the door so we didn’t have to search very long. The group of students I’m with all sort of sat in the same areas on the plane so we were able to get to know each other a little better. We also had some time while waiting for our plane in Chicago to do the whole meet and greet thing (it was quite obvious who was on the trip. When Ben and I first found our boarding gate, I was the only blonde person in the entire area. It was probably a hint about what would be to come, AKA some awkwardness). The other students were nice and we starting forming those silly but necessary bonds.

After boarding a bus with the giant label TOURIST on each side that made us all feel even more ostracized, we traveled through Delhi, arriving at the YWCA around 1:00 am Indian time. The YWCA is a pretty good sized hostel that looks kind of like a mental institution, yet is clean and feels safe. Each room has a double bed like thing that shares the cover blanket but each side of the bed has its own set of sheets tucked into the space in the middle of the bed. The room also has a bathroom with a bucket “shower” a little balcony, and a small television. In India, all the electric outlets are controlled by a switch so if one wants to use something plugged into the outlet, he or she has to turn on the switch and then turn it off after use which apparently saves energy.

The Hostel includes a giant breakfast every morning. After attempting to sleep for a few hours, getting woken up from the little sleep we did get by loud chanting/singing starting at 3 am and onwards, my room mate and I gave up and headed downstairs for food. We had a very liquidy porridge/oatmeal like thing (okay that sounds pretty disgusting but it was quite delicious), a very spicy potato dish with a curry like sauce, a scrambled egg that was very very thin and almost like an omelet without the filling, fried roti, plantains, bread, and chai. Sadly I feel like I’m missing out on an important part of India with my lack of ability to drink the chai, but hopefully someone somewhere will have some herbal teas.

After breakfast we had a couple hours to spare before our classes started so a group of us decided to walk down the street to visit the nearby Sikh temple. Once we got closer, we realized the chanting that we heard all night long was coming from inside the massive temple grounds and being pumped into the Delhi air via a large PA system. Sikh is a type of very humanitarian and welcoming religion. Their temples are open to the public and many temples serve a communal, free meal to whoever wants to partake every single day. Once inside the gate, I experienced my first real sense that we were foreigners and therefore an oddity. A group of about 20 people were congregated on the side of the road leading to the main temple, and every single one of them stopped talking and just stared at us as we tried to be culturally sensitive and understand and follow the customs going on around us without any of us really knowing what to do. It was weird, but not completely uncomfortable, to be stared at by so many people. Somehow one of the guys in the group who speaks pretty fluent Hindi found the foreign visitor office. They told us to take off our shoes and cover our heads (they provided some orange/saffron colored bandanas for those of us without headscarves) and then proceed. The temple and grounds are completely made out of white marble. We washed our feat at a little station and then walked up the cold white marble stairs to see a massive temple, reflecting pool, and hundreds of people. It was amazingly beautiful. The chanting was soothing, the reverence for which all the people around us held for the temple, the stairs, the water, everything really, was inspiring, and sights, smells, sounds were almost overwhelming. It was a really wonderful way to start off the day.

The rest of the morning was spent in orientation. After lunch at the hostel, we all loaded up into jeeps for our first Indian driving experience. I will never quite be the same after that. All traffic laws within India are basically suggestions. We always joke about the damn FIBs or Illinois drivers back in Wisconsin but they would be completely lost in all the people and eventually run down and then run over because they were going too slowly. There are no lane lines and cars weave everywhere on both sides of the street (Indian drive on the left hand side). It is common for three cars to be crammed into the space of two American lanes plus a small auto rickshaw and a motor cycle while all going about 40 miles per hour. Everyone is always, ALWAYS blowing their horn. Instead of an insult, it is a way of letting people know that they are coming up on one of their sides. Although it looked like a complete mess, the traffic doesn’t really jam up or get stuck. If there isn’t a way through, the drivers are creative and make their own path. Kind of a frightening experience. Our leaders told us that the rules of who has the right of way on the road are as follows: whoever is larger and faster has the right of way, whoever has the least to lose has the right away (so a Mercedes should yield to a rickshaw simply because they don’t want to damage their car), but cows have the right of way over all. India is an odd place…..

Before dinner, a small group of girls and I walked down to the market. Although we didn’t buy anything, it was really fun to look around at everything and get lost in the massive crowds. A group of us fought the jetlag and stayed awake for the presidential inauguration which we watched on BBC. It was fun experience to witness and brings hope to us all. I will be traveling again and without Internet for a few days as we make the trip over to Jaipur. I move in with my host family on the 23rd of January and actual classes start the Monday after that.

I apologize this is so long but thank you for weeding through my garble of words. I’m finishing writing this around 6 am Indian time (I still haven’t quite gotten over the time difference but was able to sleep for a good 5 hours tonight) so another apology for the eloquence I am currently lacking. I miss you all so much and think about you daily. I really appreciate all the little emails, facebook messages, and comments you’ve been leaving me, it really makes things easier and me oh so happy! Yes yes!

Much love to you all!