Lots of things have happened since I last posted. While I'd love to let my narrative skills run-a-muck, for the sake of time I'm going to let pictures do the talking in this post. Though I'm not sure that my photography skills are on par with my story telling...you be the judge.

As I mentioned in my last post, AIIS took us on a field trip to Sanganer to see a cloth dying and paper making factory. Here are some pictures from that trip.

Now, would you prefer send your shipment via Camel or "Goods Carrier" Truck?

Jessie and I took a trip to Dharamsala/ McLeod Ganj in Himachal Pradesh. Dharamsala was a small mountain village until the British started to use it as a hill station. Basically, men of rank and means would send their daughters and wives to Dharamsala during the Indian Summer so that they could escape the heat and enjoy the beautiful mountains. Interestingly, the word "Himalayas" means "house of snow" in Hindi/ Sanskrit. Currently McLeod Ganj, which is 5km north of Dharamsala but essentially the same town, is the headquarters of the Tibeten Government in exile. As a result, the town attracts a great deal of Tibetan refugees and western backpackers alike.

I did spot a Chinese tourists in the Tibet Museum. The museum documents China's systematic aggression towards Tibet and honors those injured and lost in the struggle. I really felt for him. I remember how difficult it was for me when I first visited Wounded Knee and was faced with the atrocities committed against Native Americans by my own US Government. It's not as if I'm directly responsible for what's been done to the Lakotah, nor is the Chinese tourist directly responsible for what's happening in Tibet, but one can't help but feel a great deal culpability. From my limited experience studying in China, I found that Chinese people don't question the actions of their government as we do in the US. I admire the Chinese tourist because he sought out disconcerting knowledge when he could have remained in the comforts of ignorance.

Okay, back to happy thoughts. Jessie and I stayed in the Green Hotel. The room, food, and service was everything we could ask for. The whole town has a great view of the mountains. We basicly just enjoyed the atmosphere, ate a variety of different cuisines, made friends with other tourists and locals, shopped for Tibeten handicrafts, and saw Tsuglagkhang, the Dalai Lama's complex which included his residence, the Tibet Museaum, and a beautiful temple. Actually, it may by my favorite Bhuddhist temple yet, which is saying a lot considering how many I visited in China and those I've seen in India already.

We also went paragliding, which didn't work out too well for me. However, it did give me an opportunity to visit the clinic in McLeod Ganj where they care for Tibeten Refugees and TB patients. I'm doing just fine thank's to the nice Doctor there, and I would recommend paragliding to all interested. It's very cool!

Here are some pictures from the McLeod Ganj portion of the trip:








Next, we were off to Amritsar, the holy sight of Sikhism. After McLeod Ganj, Amritsar seemed hectic and hot. However, the Golden Temple is AMAZING, and we found some other cool sights to enjoy as well. We visited a Hindu cave temple which was not a cave at all. In fact, the temple was reminiscent of a carnival Fun House. We also traveled to the border crossing between Pakistan and India to witness the daily closing of the border ceremony. To say there in animosity between Pakistan and India is an understatement. The entire event is a crazy piece of theater between guards on respective sides who essentially mirror each other's movements. On the Indian side there is a MC who gets the crowd going, shouting patriotic slogans and intuits across the border. It was like being at a sports game where the rivalry between the teams is great.

Golden Temple

Crazy Hindu Cave Temple

India-Pakistan Border

I have lots more to share, but not the time to do it right now. Lots of love,
Shelly

Lots of Nonsense

Hey Everybody,

Sorry it's been so long since I’ve posted. I usually post over the weekend because my professors don’t give us weekend homework. However, the weekend of the fourth I went to Delhi to celebrate. I intended to post early the following week, but things got a little rough, and I spent this weekend recovering. Nevertheless, I’m here now! As I said, I went to Delhi to celebrate the 4th of July. I took the Rajasthan State Bus with a couple of people from school and stayed with Jessie in a hotel downtown. It’s hard to find good values on hotels in Delhi. Either they’re cheap and really crappy or super super expensive. But Jessie did a good job, and our hotel was actually pretty good. It even had a really cool bar & restaurant. I had Beijing Duck, and it wasn’t bad. On Saturday night, The US Embassy hosted a huge celebration (this was the point of the trip). However, Jessie and I got a little confused and actually ended up at the wrong party!

The real party was held at a baseball field/ swimming club that the embassy owns in the diplomatic enclave of the city. As neither Jessie nor I actually registered with the embassy upon arrival in India, we didn’t actually get invitations to the party. A friend jut posted the RSVP info on my Facebook wall, so I just RSVPed hoping the conformation email would have the address. It did not. We knew the party was being hosted by the American Consular Service Department, which, according to GoogleMaps, has its headquarters in the American Center in central Delhi. We knew that we might have the wrong address, so we sent out early to check it out. After about a 15min walk, we got to the American Center. There was a huge line outside and lots of balloons and streamers. "Yay!" we thought to ourselves, "we're in the right place." When we got to the security check, they asked for out invitations. We told them we had RSVPed online, so they checked out passports and let us inside. At this point I was starting to notice that everybody else was Indian. I thought this was a little curious, but I just assumed they were Indian Americans. Then we got inside, and they gave us a little quiz to fill out. Here's an example question: "The American flag has 13 red and white stripes. What do they represent: a) the 13 basic human rights and democratic principals, b) the 13 original colonies, or c) the number of US territories." Jessie and I filled ours out, and turned them in. Then an Indian man came up to us and asked if we were American and could help us with his quiz. His questions were a lot harder, and we actually gave him 2 wrong answers! So, here's what I learned about American History while in India:

1-Francis Scott Key only wrote the words to the anthem. The tune is actually a traditional British drinking song.

2-We don't sing the 2nd and 3rd versus of the Anthem because they are offensive to out British allies.

While I probably should have realized we were at the wrong party at this point, I didn't. We got some paneer pizza and sat down in the auditorium. Then the US Cultural Attaché got up to give a speech. It was the most awkward speech ever! The high points included:

1-The Indian national anthem is more beautiful than the American national anthem

2-India and the US share a special bond because they both kicked out the British

3-While the US is the oldest democracy, India is the largest. However, India truly has democracy in its soul because ever transition of government since Independence has been peaceful (this is only true if you ignore the plane crashes and unlawful arrests).

I wasn't particularly offended by his speech, but I know a lot of Americans who would have been, especially on the 4th. This is when I realized that we might be at the wrong party and started texting my schoolmates to see where they were. However, at this point The Assistant Cultural Attaché came on stage with all the correct quizzes (there weren't many) and started picking them out for raffle prizes. When she drew my name, I stood up to get my prize, and she said "Well, she (meaning me) better have gotten the quiz correct." At this point I was convinced that we were at the wrong party! However, a solo concert immediately started. We were sitting in the middle of the center row, so there was no way to discreetly escape. The music wasn't bad, but I really wanted to get to the correct party. After a polite amount of time had past, Jessie and I snuck out. We spent about 5 whole minutes laughing at ourselves, and then took a taxi to the correct party, which was awesome! Real beef cheeseburgers, ice cream, apple pie, fireworks, an Uncle Sam on stilts, dance music, western style toilets, and full bar tended by cute Marines who hit on us all night.

The rest of the weekend Jessie and I just walked around Delhi. We’ve both already seen most of the major sites, so we just went to the old city and enjoyed the craziness of the bazaars. On Sunday we visited a mosque and a Hindu temple. Both were beautiful. On my way to the bus station we also visited the secretariat and the president’s abode. Theses are probably my favorite sites in Delhi because of the way traditional aspects of Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist architecture are fused with British Imperial Style.

We got back to Jaipur late Sunday night. I didn’t sleep well Sunday night, Monday night and Tuesday night we didn’t have electricity, and it was 90+ degrees even after sunset. The problem with not sleeping well is that it leaves your body venerable to getting sick. I haven’t been sick yet, and I’m trying really hard to keep it that way. Wednesday, I basically slept all day, so then I couldn’t sleep at night. Finally, Thursday I got a good night’s sleep. As a result, I had a great day Friday! A couple of friends and I went to a beautiful hotel pool (they let non-guests pay to use it until 4pm), then went downtown to walk around. We met more people for dinner, and all in all it was fun night.

On Saturday we went on a field trip to a township that use to be outside of Jaipur, but, due to urban sprawl, is now inside of Jaipur. We toured a cloth dying factory and saw both screen printing and hand block printing being done. We also toured a pottery factory and hand-made paper factory. All the places were actually crazy cool, and not totally focused on having us buy stuff. I ended up buying a hand block printed piece of fabric the size of a full bed. (They don’t really use sheets here the way we do. They just buy various blankets and light cloths, putting one or the other down as a bed cover, depending on the season, and using the other as a blanket). I wasn’t intending on spending very much money, but I totally fell in love with it. The pattern includes paisley, elephants, and camels; the three things that make me think of India. And it was in all my favorite shades of blue. The pattern was circular, which means that it takes more skill to hand-block print it, which means it was more expensive than other similar items. However, I was already in love and couldn’t get excited about any of the other prints. I was complaining to Andrew that I spent too much money on it. He asked how much, and I said it was about 25USD. He laughed. From the way I was complaining about/ justifying my spending, he thought I had spent like 100USD on the fabric (which I might have done in the US if I was being silly). It’s crazy how being here has changed the way I think about the value of things.

One final thing before I have to go: It still surprises me a little that a factory in India could be nothing more than a bunch of people working out in a field with a few basic pieces of machinery. Being from a country where labor in the most expensive input in production, things seem so backwards here where the cost of materials far outweigh the cost of human labor.

My midterm break starts today. Jessie and I are off on a week long trip to Dharamsala and Amritsar. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some pictures along the way.

Fireworks...

So it's wedding season in Jaipur. Planting doesn't begin in Rajasthan until after the monsoon passes, so the traditional wedding season occurs from mid May to mid July. I haven't actually seen a wedding yet, but I've heard them... Fireworks are a key part of the wedding celebration, and presently some are exploding right outside my window. They're beautiful, but loud. They've been going off intermittently for about 20 minutes, and I expect them to go on much longer. Hell, if it was my wedding, I'd want fireworks all night long!

Also, a friend told me that Hindu marriages last for seven reincarnations. That's something to think about.

Check out this article about Wedding Lingerie Fads. Note, the article is dated September because in other parts of India the wedding season is in the Fall. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lifestyle/Trends/Lingerie-fads-this-wedding-season/articleshow/3448479.cms

If I remember, my next post will be about comparing the incomparable: China and India

School Week

My Ride! This is the auto-rickshaw I take to school everyday.

Today marks the conclusion of my first full week of classes at AIIS. Let me start by saying that my AIIS professors are amazing teachers and individuals. I have two teachers: Vidhuji and Rashmiji. Rashmiji is working on her PhD in Hindi at Jaipur University. She has two sons, 10 months and 6 years. Vidhuji has a PhD in English. He’s the only AIIS teacher who learned Hindi as his first language. When Vidhuji was born, his father insisted that every member of the household spoke only pure Hindi around him, not any regional dialects of Hindi. Apparently everybody listened because Vidhuji was 14 when he first started learning a regional dialect of Hindi and English.

Not only is AIIS super selective about who they hire, but they require that their instructors take language-teaching training course before they start and continue to take training courses while they are with the institute. For his training last year, Vidhuji went another AIIS sight and learned Urdu. Grammatically, Urdu is almost identical to Hindi, but Urdu is written in the Arabic script and draws a lot of vocabulary from Persian. When we were struggling to learn the Devanagari (Hindi) script, Vidhuiji kept us from getting discouraged by saying things like “The script is hard. Even the Hindi teachers struggled when we were learning Urdu. It’s hard, and look how well your doing!” I was nice because I really felt like he understood what we were grappling with. (I say were because we finished learning the script Wednesday. I still need practice, but a least it all doesn’t look like scribbles anymore!)

At AIIS, we have 4 hours of instruction starting at 9am. However, each hour is considered its own class, and, because it’s India, our classes are nicely punctuated by tea breaks (काय अवकाश)।On a particular day, we may spend the first class reviewing from the day before, the second class learning something new, the class hour practicing what we just learned in small groups, and the fourth class doing some exercise that reviews several things we have learned. Vidhuji and Rashmiji draw-up a weekly schedule, but they are really flexible. Every day they ask us what we want to work on, and if we want to spend extra time on something or another they’re completely obliging. On top of our normal instruction, we have personal tutorials twice a week for an hour. What we do in the tutorials is totally up to us. I’m planning on reading a book out loud. At first it will just be to practice sounding out the words, but eventually I’ll actually be able to understand the story.

This trip is unlike any of the other trips I’ve taken because I’m entirely focused on learning the language. Though I took Chinese classes in China, I also took two business classes, and I never really intended on pursuing my Chinese learning after the trip (not to say I didn’t enjoy learning Chinese because I did and it inspired me to learn Hindi). Because I’ve been to Jaipur before, I don’t feel like I need to rush out and see all the major sites. Plus, afternoons here are well over 100 degrees, so rushing anywhere is out of the question. On top of that, nightlife in Jaipur is basically non-existent. Moral of the story, I’m content just going to my homestay or a café after school and studying.

The trip is different in that it’s the first time I’ve done a homestay (picture at right is the Bhatia's house) . The whole idea behind a homestay is that you have a chance to use your language skills and you get more insight into the culture. In looking forward to this trip, I was definitely most excited and most nervous about the homestay aspect. So far, my homestay experience has gone well. I've gotten use to my room and the Guru hanging in it, so I no longer feel trapped when I spend time in it. I’ve also been spending more time in other parts of the house, which is nice and gives me a chance to observe the family/ neighborhood. All the family members have started opening up and I guess I have begun to let my guard down a little. The only negative thing that has happened was when Mrs. Batia told us that Internet was going to cost 500INR/ month rather than the 300INR/ month we had previously agreed upon. When we questioned her, she said it was because she realized that one of the three of us didn’t have a laptop and wouldn’t be paying. It kind of pissed me off, but, at the same time, 500INR (~10USD) is not a very great amount of money and it’s not worth causing tension over. And really, considering that I’m really well fed, don’t have a strict curfew, and have unlimited use of AC and WiFi, I’m much better off than some of my classmates and shouldn’t complain.

The one surprising thing about doing a homestay is that even though I'm living with native Jaipur-eans, I feel insulated from Jaipur to a certain degree. As I said before, I don't do a lot of sightseeing, and I'm nowhere near being conversational in Hindi. On top of that I take all me meals at home or school, and don’t really have to shop for anything but cloths or souvenirs. As a result, I’m not forced interact with my neighborhood or the main part of the city very often. In China, I had to take to the streets because I lived in a dorm and needed food, and getting food was how I got over a lot of my discomfort. In this case, I’m no longer uncomfortable in Jaipur, but I’m not comfortable either. Granted, I haven’t been here very long. I’m planning on trying out the yoga classes at the women’s college down the road, so maybe that will help me integrate more.

It rained this week!!!!! On Wednesday, Hailey (also in my homestay) and I decided to go get a fresh lime soda after school. The café we were headed for is about an 8min walk from our school. By the time we arrived there we we’re both swimming in out own sweat. “Has it been this hot here the whole time and I just haven’t noticed?” I asked. Haley and I agreed that it was in fact our hottest day in Jaipur yet. We got home around 3pm, and around 4pm I looked outside my window and realized it was dark outside. Weird. About 10 minutes later I realized that dust was settling on the keyboard of my computer and the electricity had gone out. I walked out to the porch, and the air was totally saturated with dust. I’ve never seen anything ever close to a sandstorm, so to me the relatively small sandstorm (it only lasted 30min) seemed like the end of the world. But then it rained, and everybody was happy.

However, I learned today that the rain we had this week is not the start of the monsoon. In fact, the monsoon is running late.

This weekend I’m going to Saharia Organic Resort with two other AIIS-ers. Jessie is coming from Delhi to join us as well. You can check out their website: www.sahariaorganicresort.com. They have a pool and camels to ride, so I’m, anticipating good times.

Me wearing what I think is called a Kurta
standing outside of school.

Street Temples and Jewlery

The Indian visa system is very inconsistent. According to their official publications, all student Visas are valid for a year and require the visa holder to register with the local police. However, just about all the AIIS participant's visas were issued out with different restrictions. Some people have six month visas, others 9 month, and other 12 months. About 10 people had to register with the police in Delhi, while about 20 of us had to register with the Jaipur police. While filling out the forms was tedious (everything had to be done in 4s and have a picture attached), actually going to the police station was relatively painless (for India especially). The police station is in the Old City, so we took a 15 min auto-rickshaw ride from the school and just dropped off our forms with the secretary. Apparently they'll deliver them in a week. This may seem like a tedious story about nothingness, but that's exactly what makes it exciting! Stuff like this never goes easily in countries like India. For example, getting a SIM card for my mobile phone required a two page application, a letter from my school, a copy of my visa and passport, and three passport photos. Even after I got all the paperwork together, the salesmen took over 30min to give me the SIM and half a day to activate it.

Anyhow, after the police station a group of us walked around town. The streets here are dusty, smelly, and loud; full of cars, auto-rickshaws, real rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, mobile merchants, as well as people just loitering about. A crazy place to walk around, but kind of fun too. However, thought my travels here and in China I’ve discovered that the craziest streets typically hide an entrance to a temple, monastery, or shrine. While being hassled to buy bangles we spotted an entrance to a temple. Entering the temple was like stepping into another world. All of a sudden you’re in a beautiful building and everything is quiet.

after walking through a small alley we see this!

There were about 20 people in the temple having a service. Luckily we showed up at the very end, so we were able to talk to some of the followers. The temple is 300 years old (new for India). It use to belong to the government, but a few years ago the government gave it to a group called Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan. They are followers of Guru Maharaj Ji, have temple all over the world (including US), and a website http://divyajyoti.org/. They were thrilled to talk to us, especially after they found out that some of us spoke Hindi.

Afterwards we stopped in a couple of shops not far from the temple. Jaipur is known for semi-precious stones, and a lot of jewelry factories are located in this region of India because of its history and cheap labor. I spent a while in a jewelry shop talking to the manager. I was looking at rings that were outside my price range, but not extravagant (200-400USD). We started talking about how long his family had been in the jewelry business (30 years), and then he started showing me more expensive pieces (10,000USD+), and then he took me into the office and opened the safe which held pieces costing upwards of 50,000USD. Everything was so beautiful, and I don’t even like jewelry all that much. Anyhow, I had a good chat with him about how his family runs the business. His Uncle is in charge of everything, he runs the store, his brother runs the factory, and his cousin lives in Milan to arrange orders and keep plus on the international market, his aunt and other cousin are in charge of designing the jewelry, and other family members to the other jobs. As he put it, “its good working with family because when the business does well everybody does well.” Honestly, I think the majority of business in the world happens because of familial and clan relationships.

Settling In

Jaipur

The past few days have somehow managed to be both tedious and eventful. Our group made the move to Jaipur. For some reason, our itinerary demanded that we leave at 5:30am to make the four-hour journey. An extra hour was added to that journey when we stopped for an 8am tea break—totally necessary by Indian standards. When we arrived in Jaipur, we dropped our belongings off at the hotel, and continued on to the AIIS institute. The institute is at a brand new location, so it was exciting for every body to see it. We took lunch, had a very brief orientation (again), and than sat around for about 4 hours. Considering we’ve been awkwardly chatting with each other for the last few days, we’d been up since 5, and we were waiting to go visit our host families, waiting was torture.

Nevertheless, It’s all panned out. I’ve stayed two nights with my host family. They live in a middle-class neighborhood in a nice house. The house has a semi-open courtyard in the center and three stories built up in a square around it. The parents and their 13year old daughter live on the ground floor; the maid and paternal grandparents live on the second floor with me; and the two other AIIS girls live on the top floor. It’s a little weird to be a guest in the home of people you don’t really know at all. There are all these little social nuances that I don’t really pick up on, and anytime I need anything I have to ask one of my host parents. Even though they speak good English, communicating exactly what the issue is can be a little challenging. However, the daughter, Nicky, is really friendly. Last night we played Chinese checkers and tonight we just sat around and had a silly chat about music and TV.

Yesterday one of our professors explained the linguistic origins of Hindi. India is what scholars call a multi-lingual society, meaning that people speak more than one language on a daily basis. For example, One of my teachers speaks to her mother in lat in Gundrati, her husband in Hindi, and her son in English. There is also a fair bit of code swapping between languages. For example, a homestay parent once asked an AIIS student what the English word for “road” is. He had been using “road” his while life thinking it was a Hindi word. After the lecture, I felt both doomed and excited. Doomed, because what’s the point of learning Hindi when there are so many different dialects and even an Indian person needs several languages to get through her day. Excited, because Hindi is so perfectly phonetic that it can freely adopt any word, and, once I’m good with the language, it will be a fun language to express myself in. I’m not sure how all this will end up fitting in my life plan, but I do know that Hindi’s crazy and India’s crazy, so I’ll probably end up somewhere slightly crazy in the end.

Today was my first day of real classes at AIIS. Doing something other than eating and talking was very refreshing. So far, the teachers are really good at explaining the language and responding to our concerns. Hopefully these methods will continue for the rest of the summer.

I’m definitely still settling into India. I don’t love my room, and the homestay thing is still awkward. The sounds, smells, and people are overwhelming at times. And I’m not sure what I’ll do with myself once I have a free weekend. At the same time, I had a lot of these same feelings when I was in China, and I ended up loving it there.

Delhi

June 14, 2009
Delhi

All my roommates are jet lagged, so they woke up bright and early this morning. As a result, I couldn't stay in bed much past 6:30am. On the up side though, I was very prompt for our 7:30 Indian breakfast that featured lots of delicious dishes that I don’t yet know the names of (but I will!).

Using Hindi in everyday life as I’m learning it is going to be a challenge for me. For example, even though I know the word for tea in Hindi and can pronounce it correctly, I didn’t use it at breakfast today because I was worried about sounding stupid. I need to find a way to get over this if I’m going to be successful at learning Hindi in the next 10 weeks.

Because of a screw-up with her program, Jessie stayed the night at the AIIS guesthouse. I’m really glad we got a little extra time together. She took a cab to her homestay this afternoon. I hope she’s settling in well.

AIIS held orientation this morning. All the AIIS students going to Jaipur, Lucknow, and Punjab are here now. It’s nice to meet more people who will be studying in Jaipur too. I’m a little nervous though because I just realized that most the people I’ve clicked with so far are going to other language-learning sights, which means I won’t see them all summer. Hopefully I’ll find some friends in Jaipur.

Orientation today was much more relevant and enlightening than the orientation we had in DC. I learned a little about how India’s democracy is set up. Notably, the Indian constitution actually has affirmative action laws written directly in it. For example, a certain number of legislative seats on both the national and local levels are reserved for women and for untouchables. We also got some good health advice from an Indian doctor. Unfortunately, I had a really bad stomach ache all morning. Hopefully I do better the rest of the trip.

This afternoon I went to Qutab Minar. It was one of the first sites that I visited when I came to India the first time. I remembered a lot more about the site from my first visit than I expected. Looking back, I never expected to come back to India after my first visit, so being here is a little surreal. At the same time, this visit is nothing like my first because of all the travel experiences I've had since that first scary & shocking visit. After living in China for 4+ months, India is a lot more comfortable.

Here's a picture from Qutab Minar. (There will be more once I figure out how to upload faster)



If you want to check out AIIS their website is http://www.indiastudies.org/. I'm in the Hindi Language Program.

Lots of Love