the events of 9.6.09 as chronicled in my journal.

i am officially a part of a family, which is thrilling considering that me and the rest of my SIT group have been living from guesthouse to guesthouse--travelling nomadically around delhi and jaipur like nomads. we, not really. we've obviously been well taken care of with SIT, but it's nice to have a long term home to come back to.

right, so-- my family! my host brother picked me up from the school and took me to my place of residence for the next two months, aka his mther house. he and his wife and son (named aadhi--i'm obsessed with him) all live with his mother, mridul ji. my host brother has obviously done well for himself-- he owns a buisness that ships products to a variety of countries. his wife, who by the way is 7 months pregnant and due december 10, is a french teacher/jewelrey designer-- a real renaissance woman. their son aadhi is 4 and i am actually his new, constant playdate. we played for a good 2 hours last night trying to assemble a massive toy called "roboreptile".

i enjoy aadhi's company for several reasons: a) he's hilarious and sassy. b) he's trying to learn english so he doesn't expect me to speak hindi to him, not that i could if i tried. and c) our conversations aren't awkward because we both know that we can't understand each other. so basically, we talk in our native languages to each other at the same time. unlike the uncomfortable silence/pause/lull that occurs in a conversation when two people speak the same language, aadhi and i chatter constantly...despite the fact that both of us have zero idea as to what the other is saying.

mridul ji, my host mother is an extremely educated woman who teaches law at the rajasthani university. she's been a window for 2 years and it's still a mystery to me how her husband passed. she's a quiet woman who is very much interested in academics, meaning that i really have to use my brain when i'm talking with her. as you can imagine, my intellect only stretches so far each day, leaving me speechless--more like conversationless--in the face of mridul ji's interests. not to mention that when i get nervous, aka all the time around my host family, i forget how to talk, so a lot of my social interaction with the family is me smiling at aadhi, regardless if what he's doing even merits a smile which THEN makes me look like a CREEP. mridul ji's mother in law also lives in the house. she's so, so sweet and always talks to me, but she's 90+ years old, is blind in one eye, an speaks broken english. this means that i can only catch every other word she says. take this morning for instance-- she was talking to me and all i heard was "black man" and "mexican", leaving me very confused as to what conversation we were having. but they are all so, so nice and happy to have me invade for 2 months.

more importantly, today marks the first of many days in which i was lost beyond belief. yeah. big time. the saddest part was that i was literally a bock away from my house the entire time. here's the story-- i left the house today because a) i was sick of being awkward, and b) i needed to recharge my cell phone mintues. so, mridul ji and her son drove me to the mall which is legit a 5 min walk from their the house-- they were on their way to temple. so, being the thinker that i am, i really didn't pay attention to how we were getting from the house to the mall. it was 10am and i told mridul ji that i would be back in a few hours. i was meeting my friend amanda at the mall becasue her host family lives in a nearby neigborhood. SO- i met up with amanda and we boy around for a few hours, feelign more and more like the minority every second.

let's talk about that. have you ever been the minority in an environment? i mean physically speaking-- you are obviously different becasue of the way you look? i've been to cuba, mexico, and europe and have certainly gotten a few stares but NOTHING like this. the whole caucasian, blonde thing is really making me an obvious foreigner. and yes, the white skin does work for me in certain ways. according to azim ji, indians automatically associate white skin with wealth and high class. but in a place where i just want to work and live alongside with everyone as a student, my appearance definitely hinders teh equality and normalcy i'm looking for. everyone is so caught up with me being american. everyone also probably thinks that i'm a big sloot because in bollywood movies, the permiscuous girls are always white.

SO, after a few hours of amanda and i being looked at like pieces of meat, i get a call from mridul ji. she sayd that they've been waiting for me and are ready to eat lunch. GREAT first impression catherine. i apologize profusely and tell her that i'm on my way. as i'm speed walking out of the mall, i realize that i'm pretty clueless as to how to get home. i don't have the full address with me, but in my head i've got the following phrase: "C-363 pradham marg". hoping to stumble upon the neightborhood, i walk back and forth and up and down and left and right trying to find this damn house. i wave off all autorickshaw drivers because i'm determined to get there all-be-self and i'm convinced that my house is just around some bend, somewhere.

well, it wasn't. i knew i was in the right area, but could not for the life of me find the house/street. after passing many a sketchy looking group fo men, i finally decide to ask these 2 guys on the side of the road for help. sidebar: when i don't know the native language, and when i think that people can't understand my english, i tend to shout. i have a feeling i broke some eardrums when i yelled "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH????" at these 2 men. i normally feel quite dumb when i do this, but when one of them answered "Yes", i felt like a real idiot. he and his friend debated for a while on how to get there (i assume because i have ZERO idea what they're saying). one of the men told me "Come" and i followed him down the street to a family clustered around some bikes. he talked to them in hindi/urdu and then turned to me and said "C-363. are you certain?" it was then that i convinced myself that i had made up the number in my head and i was never going to make it back to aadhi and the roboreptile, but i just nodded "Yes" instead.

he talked to the family for a bit longer and then a young boy from the family stepped forward and said "OK? follow." so then, i start following this child around the neighborhod, wondering how an infant would be able to find me home. i started feeling pretty helpless and decided to use what little hindi i knew to boost my confidence and restore some sense of dignity. "apka nam kya he?" i asked him, meaning "what is your name?" "abu," was his response. instead of asking him if he knew that he shared the same name as the monkey in aladdin, i told him that my name was ,"kommal." while we were having this pleasant exchange, we passed by a group of neighborhood boys, who started laughing and saying things to my helpful little abu. i assumed it wasn't good when i saw him lower his head, and wanted to give him all my rupees on the spot for being such a dumb american. but he was a trooper--as soon as we rounded the corner, and it was socially acceptable to talk to me, he was my pal again. three more minutes of walking and we were at my homestay. i gave him 200 rupees and a huge high five and walked up to the front door. keep in mind that it was close to 103 degrees outside while i was a lost sheep, a.k.a. i looked like a hot mess when i rang the doorbell. aadhi answered the door while shoving cake into my mouth, and i knew things would be alright.

tomorrow marks the first day of school, which i am very excited for. it will allow for less awkward interactions with my family. i need to learn hindi asap.

the word, mother bird.

hey world.

things are still going swimmingly in jaipur. actually, there better than swimmingly because we're now going on day 7 of my abroad-ness and i have yet to get sick. knock on wood.

VERY exciting things have happened/are happening today. a) OUR HOMESTAY FAMILIES PICK US UP. OMGOMGOMG so exciting and terrifying. i've been working on my conversation skills/topics all week long. and get this-- neither the students nor the homestay families know who they're getting paired with. it's a totaly surprise until we meet at the school this afternoon. b) i received my hindi name today, aka the name that my teachers, homestay family members, and fellow students will refer to me as. what is it, you ask? komul. it means "soft", which i like to think of as a term that highlights my personality, not physique. ha. anyway, that's my name and i really dig it, primarily because it's extremely easy to pronounce. i swear, the hindi names of a few of the other girls in my program are nearly impossible for me to say.

allow me to expand on that point-- speaking hindi is a workout. legit. a workout. the language uses so many different sounds in each WORD. i'm worn out after our hindi drills. furthermore, with the slightest mispronunciation of a character, a word can take on an entirely different meaning. i'm waiting for the day when i tell my homestay mother that loved the toilet instead of dinner. i'll be sure to let you all know when that happens.

anyway-- i believe i left you all at the edge of a cliff in anticipation talking about my school. the SIT location in jaipur really is beautiful. the school is situated on a side street off of a busier road. the floors are entirely marble--seriously, everywhere you walk, you're walking on these impressive slabs of marble. our school is two stories-- the first floor holds the main classroom, the professor's lounge, an office, and the kitchen. the other two classrooms, a library, and azim ji's office are on the second floor. also on the upper level is a stunning terrace that looks out over the neighborhood. it's complete with straw chairs, potted plants, and a treadmill. yes, a treadmill. this is where we eat lunch everyday and i can honestly say that i don't even notice the heat because the setting outside is so pleasant.

also, i am 100% obsessed with the SIT staff that i've met thus far. they all are so, so smart and, more importantly, they're focused on giving us the most enjoyable experience possible.

--alright. got to end this early. HOMESTAY FAMS HAVE ARRIVED.

lylas,
cf

hey, india.

NAMASTE. i have indeed arrived, much to the doubt of my family and friends who didn't hear from me for several days after i boarded that big, fat plane to delhi. speaking of, before i get into my adventures thus far in das land de curry, i need to brief you on my plane ride. firstly, i'm pretty sure that i wasn't in a plane-- more like a mammoth in the sky. literally, the biggest vehicle i have ever seen. secondly, i'm fairly certain that i was a hibernating animal in my past life due to the fact that i slept for all but one of the 13 hours it took to get to the other side of the world, aka india. that, or my new sleeping habits can really attest to the power of xanax. i have no doubt that xanax (and adderoll) were created by the gods. perhaps krishna or shiva if we're talking hinduism. thirdly, i knew i was incredibly unprepared even before i boarded the mammoth. not only had i forgotten my hindi textbooks in new orleans, but i had also opted not to take pills to prevent an infestation of malaria in my body. the books i can have shipped to me, but i severely regret the decision to NOT prevent malaria as i now look at my bitten, lumpy arms in the internet cafe.

ANYWAY, i arrived in delhi exactly a day after i departed for delhi. i was slightly greasier and more frazzled upon meeting azim ji (my academic director), rama ji (my homestay coordinator), and pavna ji (my language teacher) in the airport, but still overwhelmingly excited. sidebar- guards armed with ak47s and customs agents armed with swine flu masks are NOT the most welcoming signals. there were some of my first images of the delhi airport. moving on-- as previously stated, i, along with the other 4 SIT students on my flight, were greeted by azim ji, rama ji, and pavna ji and escorted to the ymca hostel in central new delhi. there, i met the other 14 students in my program (all girls) and quickly fell asleep again, as if i hadn't woken up from half-a-day's sleep just a few hours before.

we spent the next 2 days exploring delhi-- visiting ghandi's memorial, cruising around the bazaars and markets, and eating more curry than a human body (or mine at least) can handle. i am quickly realizing that i will not be losing weight here despite my dislike for curry because they use more butter than paula deen in their cooking. aka yumalum. ok- back to delhi. i found that a lot of the laws in delhi, especially the driving laws, are merely suggestions. cars, rickshaws, bikes, camels, donkeys, cattle, and monkeys are literally commuting in every direction. it's quite the free for all and would make most nauseous and/or fearful for the continuance of his or her life.

delhi was amazing, but jaipur is even better. we arrived in jaipur, the location of my study abroad, after a 7+ hour bus ride down a highway that had similar traffic "laws" as delhi. currently, we're going through orientation at the school which, by the way, looks more like an italian villa than an educational building.

well--let me just leave you here on the edge of your seat. we're going to see a bollywood movie right now (!!!) and i've got to peace. i'll try and get to an internet cafe later today and finish up the details of my life thus far in india.

lots of love to all,
cf