Hindi word of the day: सफेद (saphed - white)

I dedicate this post to Miss Julie Platt, who nagged me so much that I broke down and agreed inspired me to have a study abroad blog.

Rohan once said to me, "I've realized recently that you are really white." I would like to point out that this comment was inspired by his purchase shortly beforehand of the book Stuff White People Like from an Urban Outfitters, which is perhaps the whitest thing ever, especially for someone who isn't technically white. I do have to concede, though, that he was right; I am a gigantic coffee addict (#1 on the Stuff White People Like checklist) I hate Ed Hardy (#124), I am obsessed with This American Life (#44), and I am currently traveling in a "third world" country that is mostly vegetarian where I will be interning for a non-profit organization (#19, #32, and #12).

Hi, I'm American.

But since arriving in India, I've started to understand my whiteness on a whole new level. I've never before been forced to be so aware of being white. On my walk to school, which takes about 45 minutes, I am constantly stared at, and not just by children--white-girl watching seems to be a all-ages form of entertainment. This is usually fine on the way to school, when I'm freshly awake and showered, ready to take on the day, but on the way home, when I'm exhausted and just want to zone off while I walk, it becomes a challenge. I never realized how much mental energy it takes to be stared at, to stand out so glaringly, but when I'm walking home after a day of classes and adventures around Pune, I find it impossible to zone off.

This is Fat Dog. I see him every time I walk to or from school. He is the only one who doesn't stare at me.

Christie, Rebecca, Kate, and Julia getting photographed at Parvati Temple. We get asked if people can take our photos all the time.

Sometimes this can be overwhelming, but most of the time I'm able to remind myself that this is part of the experience of being in India, that this is why I came. And I definitely prefer standing out and feeling like an alien while walking along Karve Road (the road that takes me to school) than existing in the bizarre bubble that has been created in the more modern parts of town, called Koregaon Park and Camp. Last weekend, Pooja and a few other buddies took us to see these parts, which many of them consider the "cool" part of town. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I found was basically American shopping malls, American grocery stores, and fancy Italian restaurants. First of all, the entire culture felt different--there were advertisements for bikram yoga (an American interpretation of yoga which I love but felt really weird seeing in India), street vendors selling the kind of stuff you'd see on Venice Beach in LA (rice necklaces, keychains with names engraved on them), and white couples buying Nutella and loaves of French bread from the grocery store.

Burger King? (Koregaon Park)

But what really threw me off was the concept of it all: Why would white people come to India just to seclude themselves in a bubble that is essentially a western version of India? And why would Indian kids want to consume an American reinterpretation of India? I was in a really strange mood when we got back from Camp. It was actually a relief to be stared at as I walked down my street. In my Issues in Political Economy and Development class on Friday, we spent most of the class discussing what "development" means--why are some countries considered "developed" (the US) and some are considered "developing" (India). Pooja (who's in the class) said that she thinks that when everyone has access to education and basic needs like food, India will be developed, like the US, because the US provides these rights to its citizens--which of course elicited a giant "NUH UUHHHHHH" from every American in the class. Without a doubt, many Indian teenagers idealize the US in a way that suggests all the Hollywood, Coca-Cola propaganda has pretty much worked.

Sayali and Pooja nommin' on some Subway sandwiches

On the other hand, there are plenty of kids who reject the Westernization of their culture. Christie took me to a meeting she'd heard about at an organization called Open Space, which addresses social justice and queer issues in Pune. About twenty students were there, mostly Indian but also a few kids from the United World College and one German boy who was volunteering at a youth organization in Pune. First, an amazing guest lecturer spoke. He was trained as an architect but now helped build schools (that the kids who went to the school designed) out of recycled materials and mud. He basically argued that cement and so many modern building techniques we use are just unnecessary for most projects--and that there can be a lot more community-building and value in using other methods. Afterward, we discussed what the word "modern" means to us. The kids who spoke were amazing and so insightful and really seemed to value their roots in a way I found inspiring. I hope I have the opportunity to meet with them again.

The speaker at Open Space--amazing. On the screen behind him is one of the schools he helped build.

After I left the meeting, I met up with Amy and Kelsey, whose buddy, Sayali, had invited us to a mehndi ceremony for her sister, who's getting married on Sunday. Weddings are a three-day event here (Actually, the number of days varies depending on what part of the country your family is from--a Punjabi wedding is different from a Maharashtrian wedding. My aai said her daughter's wedding was ELEVEN days. She's going to show me photos.). The ceremony was incredible--we danced all night, got our hands henna'd, and ate delicious food. My face hurt so bad from smiling that I actually had to force myself to stop. And Sayali's friend Niha told me I was a good dancer!! (I know you don't believe me, but I swear to god I'm going to come back and blow you all away.) We were welcomed completely and kindly, and even though I felt foreign, I still felt like I fit in. It was a spectacular night.

In related news, I have decided I am henceforth only dating Indian boys in order to guarantee that I will have an Indian wedding (sorry to disappoint you, Max).

MEHNDI CEREMONY!!!!

Sayali (red) and her sister, the bride (green)

Amy, Kelsey, and Sayali

Dance party

All the girls know the dances to most popular Bollywood songs by heart and can do them on the spot in sync with each other. I asked Sayali if they ever practiced and she said, "No, we just watch the music videos so much we know all the dances."

Gettin' henna'd.

The final product.

And, to conclude, puppies of the day:

Hindi word of the day: सीखना (seekhna - to learn)

If you've been e-mailing or facebooking me, you're well aware by now that I'm just as in love with India as I expected to be. The colors, the music, the people, the food, the clothes (don't worry, Mommy, I haven't spent too much money)--I love living here. But I think what I'm loving most right now is (get ready for the cheese) how much I'm learning. It's the things I wasn't expecting, the surprises, that I'm finding most satisfying. And there are plenty of things to learn.

At home, even the basics are vastly different. My host parents' apartment is definitely modest, in comparison to both my house in the US (duh) and to the host houses of a lot of other students on the program. I sleep on what is basically a thin, hard pad on a table. I shower using a bucket and a faucet with a small hose on it. I use a squat toilet. And my host parents have had to hold my hand through many adjustments--my baba (dad) had to show me how to flush the toilet and how to lock the door when I leave in the morning, my aai (mom) had to show me how to fold my blankets so that my bed looks neat and how to keep my clothes "properly" on the dresser.

Luckily, they are the kindest, most patient people I've ever met. Despite my apparently delayed mental capacity (who has to learn how to flush a toilet?), they are always happy to show me how to do things correctly and to tell me it's not a problem when I apologize for failing once again. Everybody on the program seems to like their families, but I think I got placed with truly special parents. Apparently the girl who lived with them last semester started sobbing when she left and still calls them to talk.

Mera bistar - my bed. This is the pad on which I sleep.

Mera kamra - my room.

Squat toilet!

My aai showing me how to make buttermilk.

Eating here is definitely a learning experience. It probably comes as no surprise to most of you that I am a huge fan of eating with my hands, which is how Indians eat at home. I'm still working on it (My aai always offers me a spoon even though I'm determined to learn. She says it's fun to watch me try). Learning to eat the food here is also a challenge--while Marathi food isn't as heavy and creamy as the North Indian food we're used to eating at Indian restaurants in the US, people here still consume what seems to me an extraordinarily large amount of food. I'm still adjusting my eating schedule to figure out how to not be constantly over-stuffed. At every meal I eat at home, my host mom says, "You eat so little! When you go home, you will be so thin, your mother will say, 'Why didn't you feed my daughter?'"

Stefan learning to make a sweet lime soda.

To make sugarcane juice (nom), they literally jam a few sticks of sugarcane into a machine that squeezes them through wheels and drops the juice into a bucket.

 

One learning experience that's more stressful than I thought it would be is shopping. If you've seen my closet(s) at school, you are fully aware of my love for shopping. But here, shopping is a different story. For one, the crowds, especially on weekends, are out of control. In the popular shopping areas, you move around by pushing the people in front of you. The language barrier is also a big challenge--bargaining, something I'm usually good at, is tough when people either don't know the language or pretend not to in order to cheat a few extra rupees out of you. That being said, it's still incredibly fun to wander through the stores along Laxmi Road or try on kameez in Hy Fashion.

Emily adventuring in Hy Fashion, an awesome and fairly cheap salwar kameez store.

One person helping me immensely with all of this learning is Pooja, my "buddy." When we first arrived at the Program Center in Poona after orientation, we each got matched with local Indian students called "buddies" to show us around Pune. I got matched with Pooja, who is, in one word, amazing. Pooja is one of the sassiest, most outspoken people I've ever met (which is saying a lot, coming from me). She's hilarious and blunt and she has an answer for every question I can think of. Pooja is upper-class, very wealthy, and grew up speaking English. Some of her quotes:

• As we passed a cafe on our first tour of the streets around Fergusson College: "There's class-distinction in India . . . We wouldn't go to that cafe."
• On dating in India: "We don't have one-night stands, but boyfriends and girlfriends and pre-marital sex, all that is okay."
• On the man who made me Facebook friend him while he watched over my shoulder in an internet cafe and then proceeded to send me three messages asking if I would get coffee with him and a wallpost asking if I got his message: "He's a creeper. He can't even speak English. 'U like to be coffee with me?' Find an educated boy."

Pooja has essentially become the buddy of everyone on the program. She hangs out at the Program Center all the time and invites everyone along on our adventures. She's also given me a list of Bollywood movies I need to see which I'm going to get started on as soon as possible.

Pooja, who was very unsatisfied with this photo because she was in her gym clothes.

One thing I'm learning surprisingly well is Hindi! My Hindi teacher is awesome - she's an old woman who speaks in Hindi to us a lot of the time and is explaining SO many things that I just never understood in Hindi class at Wes. There are two other kids in the intermediate Hindi class--Priyanka, who is Gujurati and speaks fluent Hindi but is learning to read and write, and Christie, whose Hindi prof at Northwestern was apparently awesome and has quite a bit more knowledge than I do. Nonetheless, I'm catching up quickly and learning a ton each day. Yesterday, I had a small (very small) conversation with a rickshaw driver in Hindi. I realize this would not be considered an accomplishment to most of you (especially Ian), but for me, it felt huge. I'm stoked to see how much I can learn in the next four months!

My first entire page of Hindi!

Pretty soon I'm going to be learning one of several "Cultural Expressions" the program offers us for free. Yesterday, we got to see the introduction presentation, which showed us all the choices we had. The performances were amazing--we saw incredibly talented professionals perform karthik (a classical Indian dance), tabla, an amazing instrument that was basically a xylophone of porcelain bowls filled with water, classical Indian song, violin, and Bharata Natyam (another classical Indian dance). The two I'm probably going to choose (yoga and bhangra), though, weren't performed for us.

Karthik--a classical Indian dance.

This duo was amazing--they did a call and response with the porcelain bowls and the tabla that blew all of our minds.

I don't really know how to conclude a blog post, but basically I'm just incredibly excited about all the things I'm learning. I heard feedback that my last post was a little unsatisfying, so let me know if this one is better/too long/boring, etc.

Here are some other photos that don't really fit in this post but I wanted to share anyway.

PUPPY! There are adorable puppies everywhere, most of whom are ferile.

The welcoming ceremony at the Program Center. Shaila gave us all a red powder bindi and circled a special candle in front of our faces.

Rangoli, sand artwork, in front of the program center.

 

The main building of Fergusson College, where my Hindi class takes place.

Motorbikes parked along Laxmi Road.

The view from my Hindi class window.

Hindi word of the day: स्वागत (svaagut - welcome)

Well, I'm here! I left my camera at someone's house for a while, so I have now accumulated enough stuff for two separate posts.

I arrived at the Mumbai airport at midnight, snuck past a security/customs guy because I'd lost the little rip-off part of a form I didn't realize I was supposed to keep, and headed outside where I met the program director Uttaraa and another girl on the program, Julia. We got driven to the hotel which provided our first taste of Indian roads (INSANE), met a few of the other girls on the program in the restaurant, and headed up to bed. This was the view from our hotel room in the morning.

The man at the building across the way watering flowers.

Julia preparing to head out for our drive to Durshet, the hillside retreat where we recovered from jet lag and had orientation.

Traffic in Mumbai

No ropes! Construction workers we saw on the drive.

After a two-hour drive, we arrived at Durshet. It's basically summer camp--cute little cabins and beautiful scenery.

Exploring Durshet

GIANT BEETLE

The day after we arrived, a bunch of Indian students arrived for what seemed to be their version of Outdoor Ed. They invited us to join them for a dance party that night which was INCREDIBLE. They taught us some awesome Bollywood moves which we proceeded to fail miserably at. 

Best introduction to India ever. 

The next day, we went on a hike to a tribal village near Durshet. 

One of the little girls in the tribal village.

We learned how to remove rice from its husk in the traditional way.

The women go to the village well a few times a day to get water.

Okay they're kicking me out of the program center because it's closing time which means no more internet tonight, but I'll update again soon (maybe tomorrow?) with more on my arrival in Pune.

Hindi word of the day: सनस्क्रीन (pronounced "sunskreen")

I figured I should know the word for sunscreen before I left for India, since it's going to be vital to my survival while I'm there (as a result of both my natural state of extreme pastiness and the doxycycline I will be taking daily to prevent malaria, an antibiotic which has the awesome side effect of increasing sun sensitivity). As you can see in the photo above, I am packing quite a few bottles of sunscreen, but I still have a feeling it would be good to be able to ask locals where I can buy more. Then again, it might be naïve to think I'll be able to find any sunscreen in India--I don't think they have a lot of Irish (faux)-redheads there. Either way, sunscreen in Hindi is--big shocker--"sunscreen." So hopefully I won't have a problem remembering it, like I did with "thank you" (if you haven't heard that story, ask me).

This is what five months' worth of doxycycline looks like.
Yay for total antibiotic resistance within the decade!

The other thing packed into that Ziploc, as you might have noticed, is Purell. Lots and lots of Purell. While I'm a huge sunscreen addict (like the adage says, a sunscreen a day keeps the freckles away), Purell is something new for me. As most of you know, I'm not exactly the most germophobic (I subscribe to the five day rule) person in the world and antibacterial stuff kind of freaks me out. Nonetheless, I have been strictly instructed that if I don't want to be constantly vomiting and or/dying in India, I have to be vigilant in my use of antibacterial hand cleanser. So I'm going to give it my best shot--wish me luck.

Pune (pronounced Poon-ay, previously Poona) is a college city 
home to about 3.5 million people.  

Anyway, I leave tomorrow morning for the 24-hour voyage to Mumbai (previously known, and still commonly referred to by many Indians, as Bombay), India. I'll be picked up at the airport by someone from the program, spend the night in a hotel with the 29 other students on my program, and then be taken to an orientation program in a little camp-y, retreat-y place between Mumbai and Pune (not pronounced "poon," Erica), the city in which I'll be spending my semester. 

The Wikipedia image for Pune

Most of you probably already know all this, but I'm going to spend a few sentences on what I'll be doing for anyone I haven't told. I'm on a program called Contemporary India: Development, Environment, and Public Health (not affiliated with my college, Wesleyan University), studying development, environment, and public health. I'll be taking classes like Environmental Issues, Issues in Political Economy and Development, and Intermediate Hindi (theoretically--they might hear my Hindi and bump me down a level. Insert Max retort: "Or they might smell you and kick you out of the program altogether."), as well as interning at an NGO or local company to which I have yet to be assigned (hopefully addressing genetic modification and agriculture).

The program center at Fergusson College, 
where my program is based

 I'm staying with a host family who I just learned all about a few days ago--the Gokhales, all vegetarians (yaaayyyy!). I'll hopefully have time to spend a post talking about them when I meet them. After the program is over, I'm hoping to travel with my friend from Wesleyan, Aviva, who's going to be doing a similar program up north in Jaipur. 

Me and Aviva. A completely unnecessary photo but one 
that makes me happily nostalgic for Earth House.

If you're curious what got me interested in India in the first place, watch my favorite Bollywood movie, Kal Ho Naa Ho. (If you've never seen a Bollywood movie, though, prepare yourself for the epic melodrama which is a fundamental part of Bollywood and Bollywood's role in Indian culture). A teacher I had in high school, Katie Zonoff, first introduced me to this movie when I had her for both World Religions and American Studies. At the same time as I was blown away by the film, I was also captivated by Hinduism, which we were studying in World Religions. Basically I got hooked on researching India and continued to do so when I graduated, taking several classes on both its history and literature in college and learning (if you can call it that) Hindi. 

aaawwwmmmgggzzzzz <3333

I'm not sure how much internet access I'm going to have in Pune, but I'm aiming to update this blog once a week (is that too ambitious a goal for someone who swore I would never have a study abroad blog?). I'll also try to respond to e-mails and Facebook fairly regularly, but no guarantees. Feel free to send me letters, though! The address is:

Katherine Yagle

The Alliance for Global Education

Bungalow No. 3, Fergusson College

Ladies Hostel Gate, FC Road

Pune 411 004

Don't send anything expensive though--there's a good chance it will be removed from the package before it reaches me.


Well, that's all for now. The next post will be from India!