Day 1

Pow! 7 am frigid shower. I am such a cold water wimp, and when I turned on the water this morning I stood in the shower stall next to the stream of water willing it to warm up with my stare. After about 5 minutes of naked waiting, the shower won the stalemate and I began to stick one limb under the cold stream at a time. I was dancing just outside the water, trying to avoid full submersion. The mornings are quite chilly here, so by the time I finished my shower dance I was shivering, but the dry clothes and clean feeling are sooo rewarding! Last night I got in after night fall, and was honestly so weird, I don’t think I would have absorbed anything if I could have been visually stimulated. My impressions of the Tangore House (the international dorm at University of Hyderabad where I will be spending 4 of the 5 months I will be in India) changed drastically from the first hazy impression to now, a seasoned 24 hr student. It has 2 balconies, a common dining area, and a common room complete with Mr. Das, the dearest/most helpful computer aid in the WORLD! I will defend that claim.

The first 30ish pictures on my facebook from india are buildings on the university’s campus (including the Tangore House). They are wonderfully unfinished and well traveled! They are generally bright in color and feature a courtyard in the center…it makes me happy!

Ok, I am about to divulge my first true encounter with india. I wrote this down at 4:00 am Dec. 29, so please take that into account, but I wanted to give you guys a taste of what I really experienced yesterday (even though im discovering that no amount of words or pictures can describe or make India real).

Journal entry 12/29/2010

My first true look at India occurred yesterday roughly 6:30 pm. Orientation was supposed to end at 4:30, but Im learning that times and schedules are non-existent in Indian Culture. We were all exhausted and un prepared for what was about to take place. Madhri (our residential director) stopped our bus at a convenient store and let us buy necessities. As we stepped out of the bus , our birth into India began. To my left was a long horned bovine; to my right were a dozen parked motorcycles; directly in front was the neon glow of the convenient store beckoning us like moths to a flame. Anything to get out of the uncomfortable bustle of the streets. I remember thinking “just get away from these tummy unsettling scents.” As we ascended the steps in to the grocery temple, the flavor of India passed by our feet: a dog, a beggar with one leg and one nub, a lonely child. The store did not give relief from the scent barrage. We were allotted 10 minutes, and when we exited and produced 32 Americans on the curb it was quite comical. We looked so out of place! We stayed so tightly packed. The bovine ran past us and startled several of us. I touched its horn! We must have looked so foreign to them: white, western, terrified. Although there are a lot of people, they are always moving and never coagulate (like we were).