February 19th, 2013 – Rabid Dog

Such a great night’s sleep. Except I had crazy malaria pill dreams…typical malaria Monday. Went to breakfast at the hotel: eggs and toast. Then we took autos over to our classroom and had a lecture on transportation in Ahmedabad. Then we had a culture and society class and then well deserved lunch.

After lunch, we split up into different groups for a neighborhood visit. My group went with a lawyer and a translator to a neighborhood where many riots took place in 2002. There was massive violence against Muslims in this area, so we met a few residents and learned a little bit about the history of the Hindu – Muslim relationship. We also saw a ton of cows, goats, and monkeys in the neighborhood. When we got back, the man at the front desk of the hotel shuffled us all into one room (which happened to be my room) because there was a rabid dog roaming the hotel and biting everyone. So our whole group was chilling in our room, waiting for them to kill the dog. Very sad. After everything was safe we ate dinner. The food here is much sweeter than in Delhi. I kind of miss the spice.

The real neighborhood day is tomorrow!

February 18th, 2013 – What is exercise?

Finally arrived in Ahmedabad! There were autos waiting for us at the station to take us to our living quarters for this part of the trip. Our rooms are AMAZING. There are three of us to a room which has a king sized bed, another bed, couches, a kitchen, a tv, and a really nice bathroom. Did I mention that our rooms are amazing? And the weather here is really hot, which is a nice change to the semi gross weather in Delhi. There is less traffic, but still way more than anywhere in the US.

We ate lunch at our classroom at 1pm today. The classroom is about 15 minutes away at St. Xavier College, and it is very cool to be on a college campus. After lunch, we had a small break, so some of us hung out with the college kids and played cricket. We had a lecture at 2 about a brief history of Ahmedabad, and then another lecture at 3:30 about urban development in east Asia. After, we headed back to our super amazing apartments. One of my roommates is about to become a certified zumba instructor, so we did some zumba in our room. Then a few of us went for a “run” for like 10 minutes around the neighborhood, and then realized that dogs and cows chase you when you try to run, so that plan failed. Then we ate dinner at the apartment with everyone and did some work. Going to bed early tonight!

February 17th, 2013 - AHHHHmedabad

Woke up early this morning to walk over to another host family’s house to interview their host dad for a school project. Then came back and did some homework and packed for Ahmedabad. We hung out with our host family and we plan on seeing them again when we come back to Delhi. Our host cousin picked us up around 3 and drove us to some random office in the middle of nowhere so that we could meet the rest of the group before heading to the train station. He then carried my 300 pound suitcase up like 6 flights of stairs…what a great person.

We had some tea and snacks and left for the train station about an hour and a half after getting there. We got to the train station around 7 for our train that left at 8. The train station was absolutely insane. A million people everywhere. We had to push our way through in order to get to the gate, and then finally went onto the train. What a spectacle. Each train car had 6 beds (3 bunk beds). We were all semi-close together, but there was at least one person (in my case, 3 people), in every car that were not from our program. We still found a way to hang out with each other and bond. The train ride was 14 hours through the night, so we bonded for a while and then went to sleep…aka tried to go to sleep but didn’t really sleep. I had to keep my back pack with me on the tiny top bunk because these trains are known for theft. SUPER FUN.  

February 16th, 2013 – The Indian Disney World

I did homework all morning. It was rainy outside, so it was a good homework day. At around 11:30, Jill and I headed to the mall to buy dresses to wear later…because we both didn’t bring any with us on this trip. Then we met up with other people at a restaurant called Barbeque Nation, which is located inside an old nightclub. It is all you can eat food for about 10 dollars. So delicious, but I got so full after. After lunch, we came back home to get ready for the night.

We were supposed to go to “The Kingdom of Dreams,” which is a very famous show in a neighboring city. Apparently, Americans want to do two things when they come to India: see the Taj, and see the Kingdom of Dreams. Unfortunately, the show was sold out, but we still went to the building and ate dinner. They had different restaurants representing the different cuisine in the different states of India. The building itself looks like a gigantic palace (kind of like Magic Kingdom). We will go back in our last week of Delhi and try to get tickets. After dinner, we headed to a club with our host family’s cousin and friend (same people as yesterday). It was so much fun!!

Heading off to Ahmedabad tomorrow…so I might not have internet for a while. But I will keep writing and post when I can!

February 15th, 2013 – Youngsters

Class again! Went over to class the same way we do every day. We had a learning community in the morning. We walked over to a garden and sat alone for 15 minutes, which was SO NICE. I think everyone missed alone time. Then we reflected in small groups, and then came back together and did a very positive and uplifting activity – something that we all needed. Then we went off to a panel about hunger and nutrition in India. There was a very famous economist there (Amartya Sen), so that was exciting. And it was at a University (Indian Institute of Technology), so it was cool to be on a college campus.

We came back home after and did some homework and drank tea. Then we got ready for the night…we went out with our host family’s cousin and his friend. First, we all went out to dinner at a nice restaurant in a hotel. Then we went to a club, which was pretty empty but started getting crowded later on in the night. It was very classy, no one was smashed, and everyone was dancing and having a good time. It was really great to see what young people do in Delhi, and this was the first time that I was able to see it. 

February 14th, 2013 – ValenWHINE’s Day

Today was autonomous study day, which means that we have the day to catch up on work. In the morning I worked on my mapping assignment, and then headed over to another home stay house to interview people for another assignment. We didn’t get much work done over there, but it was a lot of fun. At around 2pm we went over to the mall to eat lunch at the food court. I had subway…I was craving American food…I know it’s bad, but it was delicious. We even got fro yo after.

Then we came back here and debated what to do for the rest of the afternoon. The entire group wanted to all go out to dinner together for Valentine’s day, but getting to the restaurant in the dark and then getting home after what happened yesterday was not something I wanted to think about. Jill and I debated what to do for a really long time, and without cell phones to coordinate with others, it was harder to make a decision. At 7pm we decided to go, so we got in a 45 minute auto and headed over. We found the restaurant and had a lot of fun, but after it took us about 45 minutes to find an auto that would take us back, and it cost about 5 times the amount that it should have. Not worth the effort to go out to meet people at night. Lots of whining went on. But the boys bought us all flowers when we got to the restaurant…so it was semi-worth it?