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).
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.
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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.
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| 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).
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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.
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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.
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| 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!
This blog is hideous visually (much like yourself.) Have fun I guess.
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