Wanderlust!

Roughly 40 hours after leaving  my home in Texas, I headed to my apartment complex in Bangalore, India. I took a cold shower, laid down for two hours, and got up to go to campus for my first day at school here. It’s only been two days, but I feel like so much has already happened, so excuse me for writing short and choppy in the rest of this post.

First impressions upon arrival in India:

It (Bangalore, at least) doesn’t smell...well not as much as I thought it would.

Crazy-ass traffic. There are no lanes, no apparent rules, constant honking, and the way people cross the street reminds me of Frogger. Yesterday when we were on a bus, we hit a guy on a motorcycle. Apparently this is no big deal.

Overload of people. Enough said.

Lack of infrastructure. There aren’t paved sidewalks, so you have to constantly look where you’re walking. There are paths that would be sidewalks in America, but here they are comprised of random chunks of concrete strewn over broken pieces of metal and large holes in the ground.

Stray dogs. They’re everywhere, and they’re absolutely adorable, but get no love :(

Trash. It’s all over as well.

Thus far:

I moved into my apartment. When we first arrived in the middle of the night/early morning, the keys to our apartment weren’t working, so we were temporarily put in another unit. Neither of the bathroom doors closed (I don’t mean locked; I mean they would not close...awkward) and one of the sinks didn’t work, but my bedroom was pretty big, fairly clean, and had a nice desk and closet. The following night, we were finally able to move into the unit originally assigned to us, and I guess it was a trade-off quality-wise. Now both the bathroom doors close and lock, but I have a smaller room and it’s definitely not as clean. My desk and closet are also much smaller and crappier, but I have a much nicer view out my window. The lock on my bedroom door is broken, so when I go to sleep at night, I have to stick a pen through a shaft to keep the door from opening. The apartment has a living room furnished with a cabinet unit, tube TV, wicker couch, two wicker chairs, and a bed…I think it’s a substitute for another couch? Our dining room has a round glass table and four chairs (but there are five of us), a small fridge, and a washing machine (which isn’t placed against a wall, so you have to climb over its cords and water line to get into one of the bathrooms). Then there’s a shrine area and a small kitchen unit complete with water filter. We have three bedrooms (two doubles and a single – mine), two bathrooms, and two balconies. Without going into detail, I’ll just say that I miss western-style bathrooms a lot!

I’ve tried some food. Before coming here, I was afraid India wouldn’t have a lot of sweets/dessert foods, but I have been proven vastly incorrect! There are many places to get ice cream and a place called The Chocolate Bar, which has everything from 8-inch 3D chocolate statues of the Taj Mahal, to chocolate pizza, to a fairly impressive list of chocolate-flavored shots. Yesterday the program director took everyone out to lunch at a hotel restaurant buffet. A couple of the foods were too spicy for me, but most were okay….different, but not bad. In a couple hours, my roommates and I are going to go get breakfast at the school café, so hopefully that will be good.

The power and internet black out constantly here. Last night we lost power for a couple hours (thankfully we all brought flashlights), and the power has gone out three times this morning in the hour I’ve been awake. Yes, it’s frustrating, but it’s part of the experience. We also have crap-tastic internet, so I’m writing this blog on MS Word and I’ll copy+paste when the connection comes back on.

We’ve toured the school campus and had our orientation. Campus is pretty nice and very clean compared to the rest of India, and there are some gorgeous views from the higher floors. For orientation, a group of girls in the hospitality management program here made us all hang-strung jasmine and rose leis.

I rode in my first rickshaw to go shopping at the mall and it was actually a lot of fun. The drivers try to overcharge foreigners, so we have to haggle to get the price down. “Meter haki” means “run the meter” in Kannada (The local language here), and the drivers are shocked when white girls know the term. So far we’ve been able to get the fair down to 20 INR (roughly 50 cents). I’d have to say the most memorable part of my first ride was when the rickshaw came to an abrupt stop because a cow had suddenly decided to cross the street, and our driver reached out to touch the cow’s ass as it passed by. Most stores and the entrance to the mall have guards who check your bags at the door before you enter (like a coat check). Stores also have different doors fro entrances and exits.

I start class on Friday. I’ll be taking:
-Contemporary Politics and the Economy of South Asia (the class I’m getting credit for)
-Survival Hindi
-Service Learning – we will be going of trips to rural villages and doing volunteer work
-Bollywood Dance – yes, I am taking an Indian dance class! At the end of our study, the class (about eight or nine of us) will be performing in the auditorium at a cultural festival in front of 2,000 people.

I could write a lot more, but I think I’ll do that in my journal tomorrow. I will be spending the day (10am-6pm) sitting in the police station to get a residential permit as required by Indian law. Does this process include a bribe? You betcha.