Saturday, September 10th

So yesterday, I read a book. And today, I read another one. In all honesty, that's not all that strange for me; however, neither of them had anything to do with Classics, so it's pretty impressive. Except for one or two chapters in one of them... but that's not important.

The book yesterday was Train to Pakistan for my literature class. It kind of had an Of Mice and Men feel to it. The only characters you really like and sympathize with end up dying some horrific death that they don't even understand the meaning of at the end. It was kind of a downer, but a really good book... totally worth the $2.00 we each paid to photocopy it (copyright laws here are kind of fuzzy and books are hard to come by).

The book kind of talks about the idea of mob mentality and the sheep-like tendencies of people. It also shows how a person can twist religion into something evil and use it to guide the simple pious to do awful things in the name of a god.

The second book that I read today is basically a book on Indian music. It was much more cheerful and upbeat. It had a really interesting section on how the Indians view Alexander the Great and his attempt to conquer the world. It also talks about the Romans and their spice trade in Kerala (which is where I'm going in November... I'm even more excited about it knowing that it has some Roman history to it). But beyond the classics stuff in the music book, it had lots of helpful information on the history and structure of Indian music.

We had a meeting about independent study projects yesterday. We're slowly realizing that the answer to anything is always “yes” at ACM. The question of “how long does the paper need to be” is replied with “yes. You should write a paper.” When you ask “when should I do this,” the answer is “yes, you should.” It's not very helpful.

For some reason, my phone is not charging me right for my phone calls. I'm supposed to be paying 5 rupees a minute for international calls and texts. So far, I've called home for 20 minutes, texted Jolie and called her on her birthday for five or ten minutes, texted Yemna, and I've made some local calls here... and I've been charged 40 rupees. I'm not going to complain because I'm definitely getting the better deal in this case, but it's kind of weird. If anyone wants it, my number is (91)9552760453.

Friday, Sarah and her host-sister showed up at my gate in the afternoon, so I went with them up into the Pune foothills. It's kind of surreal to be up in the foothills of the mountains, looking out over the city. Pune is huge. And, apparently, I live within walking distance of the city limits. Just a short five minute walk and we were outside the city, up in the foothills of the mountains. I think by now I'm kind of resigned to the fact that no matter where I live, it's going to be in the boonies. Also, they have roadside corn stands here where they fire-roast corn and then rub it with lime and masala. It's really good. I'm not really a fan of corn, but I'll eat just about anything when it's lime flavored, and corn with lime is quite tasty.

Sunday, September 12th

Last night I went to a musical performance in honor of Ganesh at the community center. A lot of the ladies from the complex dressed in nice sari's and sang. There was a drummer and a lady was playing an instrument similar to an accordion. It's not covered in my handy dandy guide to music, so I have no clue what it was. It sounded cool, though.

Today, for breakfast, I had oatmeal and something that reminded me very firmly of bird suet. It was kind of like a popcorn ball, only instead of popcorn, all kinds of seeds and grains were rolled into it. It tasted good, though, and that's all that really matters, I guess.

I need a haircut. My hair is getting close to chin length. Another girl cut her hair into a pixie before she came to India, too, and she's constantly lamenting the loss of her hair and wishing it would grow out faster. My hair's already long enough that I have to pin it back every day, and I can't stand it. Today, I actually french braided my bangs back to keep them out of my face. That hasn't been possible in nine months.

Tonight, I'm supposed to go watch a Ganesh play in the community center. I wish we were learning Marathi more quickly, because I rarely have any idea what's going on in things like this. I mean, I know how to say “I want some food,” and “how much does it cost,” but anything beyond that is so far beyond us.

For lunch today, we had chole (chickpeas). As a side, we had curd... I'm not a fan of curd. There are very few things that I've had so far that I've disliked, and I'm pretty sure 95% of the few I have disliked have been some form of dairy product. Like buffalo milk yogurt. I'm all for trying new things. I tried it. I even tried it twice to make sure. I just really really dislike the stuff. Curds are also something I just can't do here. And I guess I shouldn't be that surprised because I'm pretty picky about what types of dairy things I eat in the US, too.

Things I miss from the US:

1. 
   
   Vinegar – I think I average a bottle a month in the US. It's been a month. I'm about 16 fl.oz. behind.
2. 
   
   Cold water – it's all room temperature here because warm water is good for you.
3. 
   
   My car - it's very frustrating to have to rely on rickshaws to get me where I'm going. I basically can't be out past 7 because I can't get home after that unless I want to walk three miles in the dark.
4. 
   
   Latin – so, technically, I still have Latin here in the form of a grammar book and the first six books of the Aeneid. But it's different to sit and read it on your own time than it is to read it on your own and then sit in class for a couple hours every week and get feedback on the convolution of your grammar.
5. 
   
   Internet – I get it weekdays from about 8:45am til I leave ACM at about 2. Sounds fine? That very inconveniently coincides with when I have classes from 9 til 1:30.
6. 
   
   Toilet paper – if it's not in your purse, you're out of luck.
7. 
   
   Knowing where I am when I wake up in the morning – there's always a moment when I'm really just not sure where I am and why it smells like incense. It's a very disconcerting moment.
8. 
   
   Cooking – I love the food here, but I haven't gone this long without cooking for myself since I was eleven and I went veg.

Program tonight: first of all, Hindu equivalent of Halloween. Little kids dressed up as things like pumpkins and vegetable vendors and fairies. Not cool: they sang the Barney song.

Then there was a play that my aai was in, but they only spoke Marathi, so I have no idea what was going on.

Daily words of wisdom from Einstein!!

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones - Albert Einstein

Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. --Albert Einstein

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. --Albert Einstein

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. –Albert Einstein

Happy Birthday, Jolie!!!

Well... today went about like yesterday did as far as luck. Classes went fine, but we had a two and a half hour window of time from 1:30 to 4:00 between classes and painting our Ganesh idols. That seemed like plenty of time to run down to the !dea store and charge our cell phone minutes, so that's what Alina and I did. However, unlike all the other people who did it yesterday, we tried to do that, and it didn't work. So the workers sent us to the main branch of the !dea company. We got a number (160) and waited... and waited... and waited. We sat there for over an hour before we even got to see an attendant. And once we got to the attendant, it was another hour before she figured out what was wrong.

Then, she told us to wait fifteen minutes and sent us back to the minute-recharge station to put minutes on our phone. After twenty minutes, Alina's phone was ready to have minutes added to it. Mine wasn't. So Alina went home, and the nice man at the minute-recharge place went with me to the main branch store to figure out what was wrong. They did some stuff to my SIM card, said to give them 500 rupees ($10) and I'd have minutes on my phone within thirty minutes.

At 5:15, I got back to ACM to paint my Ganesh. At 6:30 I was done painting Ganesh, and I still had no minutes on my phone. So I walked back to the phone recharge place and asked what was wrong. They made some calls, refunded my money, fixed my SIM card, took my money back, put minutes on my phone.

At that point, it was 7:00, right around the time I was supposed to be getting home. So I went to get a rickshaw... and I just have bad luck with that. So I tried for a while to get one, and there was another girl on the corner with the same problem, and we started talking... Her name was Richeta (or something similar to that) and she's a software technician in Pune who has family in Chicago. After ten minutes or so of no rickshaws even thinking about stopping for us, we started walking together in the direction towards our homes, hoping we'd find available rickshaws along the way. After an hour of walking, trying to find an available rickshaw, and calling my host family to tell them I'd be late, Richeta finally found a rickshaw-walla willing to take me to Paud Road. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have managed without her tonight, and it's things like that that restore a little bit of my faith in humanity. She really had no reason to help me, a stranger... a foreigner... but she did. And not only did she keep me company and make the walk with me, after an hour of searching, when she finally found a rickshaw, she directed him to take me home instead of taking it herself.

So, I finally got back to my host family's at about 8:30 tonight. I have blisters on the bottoms of my feet from all the walking... I missed lunch because my lunch break was spent in the !dea store, so I ate a ton of food for dinner. I watched my aai cook dinner, and we talked about spices and what we use in cooking. It was pretty nice. Also, as an appetizer, she gave me a plate full of salted limes. I think normal people would probably be a little displeased with this, but as the kid who used to (and still does when no one's looking) sit and eat the lemon slices that come with water at restaurants, I was pretty excited about it.

Also, today, I received an invite to a book launch today. Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, the gay prince of India, is launching a book, and our Lit professor hooked us all up with invitations. I'm actually kind of excited about it.

Flash Monsoon!

So, since I got here, there's been a dry spell in Monsoon Season. It's sprinkled a few times... It even rained lightly for four days straight. But there's never been any serious raining going on. We've all gotten kind of lax about carrying raincoats and umbrellas.

Today, it rained. I left ACM for my violin lesson and it was bright and sunny, so I didn't even consider the need for a raincoat. My lesson was an hour long, but even when I left my lesson for my thirty minute walk home, the sky was only little overcast with a light mist. And then it started actually raining. And then I stepped in cow poop. And then I fell in a mud puddle. And rickshaw drivers are having some sort of strike, so very few were out... and those who were out didn't want to go to Paud Road. However, after crossing a street to ask a rickshaw-walla if he would take me to Paud Road, a motorcycle drove through a huge puddle next to me and sprayed muddy gross water all over me.

So I walked... thirty minutes... through a monsoon... without any rain gear. Bad life decision. I look like a drowned, muddy rat right now.

Also, my school bag is not waterproof. Thankfully, my notebooks full of classwork and my important documents and my money soaked up all water before my computer got wet, though. Be grateful for the small things.

I actually wouldn't have minded the rain if I hadn't been carrying a bag full of electronics. I've been kind of paranoid about that ever since the incidents in Turkey when it was pointed out to me ever so forcefully exactly how much electricity and water dislike each other. But if it hadn't been for that, I'd have been okay with getting drenched and muddy. It's been a while since I've gotten to play in the rain and jump in mud puddles. At least a week...

We've been here almost four weeks. We just have about 2 and a half months left, and 2 weeks of that is going to be spent on our break and not in classes. That's kind of a cool thought, because I'm about a fourth of the way through my India experience. And in a month and a half, I'll be leaving for travels around southern India. However, on the downside of that, in less than a month and a half, I'll be presenting my independent study project by playing a recital of Hindustani music... that's quite daunting considering the fact that I can currently barely play more than scales.

Today was our first day of our elective class. I'm in the class on Indian literature, and I'm quite certain that it's going to be a very interesting course. Our teacher is an openly gay Indian author who seems very liberal. Homosexuality is currently illegal in this state of India, so he calls himself a criminal. In class today, he told us that he believes heterosexual people seem to have a “naive belief in monogamy.” He also told us that he thinks that students in India are “too respectful of their teachers.” Also, we have to find and read two books by next Wednesday, and a five page paper on those books will be due after next Thursday's class. Monmouth's low standards have not prepared me for such things. On the plus side, books are dirt cheap here if you can find them. That's a rather big “if,” though.

Today for dinner: pav bhaji. pav bhaji is basically a mushed vegetable stew served with bread. I ate two full bowls of pav bhaji with two dinner rolls. I then had a bowl full of dal with a cup or two of rice. And I had about half a stuffed eggplant. Also, there were two or three chapatis involved. I didn't really realize it until yesterday, but some of the other people on this trip are getting lectures about how they need to eat more, Indians don't waste food, and they should never leave anything on their plates. Do I ever get that talk? Noooo. I get the talks that say, “you know... if you don't like it, you really don't have to eat it,” and “you can tell us if you don't like the food; our feelings won't be hurt if you don't eat every single thing we give you.” Basically, my family is shocked at precisely how much the American girl can fit in her belly, and they expected me to hate their food.

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh. ~Nietzsche

Duct tape is like the Force. It has a dark side, it has a light side, and it holds the Universe together. -- Carl Zwanig



Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos were lightning, then he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor and shouting "All gods are bastards." –Rincewind

Violin!

Important news of the day: I have a violin now. I'm excited. Now, if only I knew how to play Hindustani Music, I'd be set.

The getting of the violin, I must say, was a very unexciting experience. I called Rama, the Suzuki teacher who offered to loan me a violin for the semester. She said she had to leave her house in thirty minutes, but gave me her address and said to get there as quickly as possible to get a violin. So, I spent the first five of those thirty minutes waiting to talk to our resource person, Anju, and the next five getting directions to the address I was given.

Sidenote: I should probably explain how addresses work here in India. Think of how girls tend to give directions... you know, the whole “next to the McDonalds” or “go straight until you get to the bridge” or “the one with the red mailbox”? Well, that's basically what addresses here are like. My current address is something like “Ved Vihar Colony, near Ved Bhavan Temple, off Paud Road, in Kothrud, Pune.”

So basically, I was looking for an apartment complex across from a Yoga Institute off a big road. Anju drew me a map, so I had a basic idea of where I was going. Then, since it was a mile or so away, I had to get a rickshaw... Let's just say, that's not so easy at three o'clock in the afternoon when you're across the street from an elementary school full of kids wanting to go home. So that wasted another ten minutes of my thirty minute budget. Then, there was the ten minute rickshaw ride where the rickshaw-walla dropped me off at the Yoga Institute. So I wandered around some random Indian street for a few minutes before eventually finding the sign with red letters directing me to the right apartment complex to find Rama and get a violin.

Lesson of today: brown time is kind of legitimate sometimes.

Emily and I totaled things up this morning... we're spending about $20 a week on transportation. It's a little bit ridiculous. I think we're the farthest people from our ACM program site, and it costs us about $1.50 to get from our colony to school every day... then we have to make the same trip back every evening. I'm very glad she and I live in the same place, because at least that lets us halve the costs.

Today, we got our train tickets for our two week break. I'm currently the proud holder of four train tickets from Pune to Bangalore, four tickets from some other city to Pune, and a bill for about $80. I'm not sure exactly how all the conversions work, but I'm pretty sure that's a ton cheaper than it'd be in America. I looked at train tickets from Jefferson City to Monmouth once (that's maybe 500 miles worth of travel), and the tickets were around $90 per person. We're going to be traveling close to 3,000 km, and the total for four of us is going to be less than that. I get the feeling I'm gonna go totally broke on this trip because of all the money I'm saving.

Now, we just have to figure out how to make it from Bangalore to Ernakulam in the span of fourteen days. I'm pretty excited to travel, and I'm happy with my travel buddies. Laura, Sarah, and I are always the ones that are off climbing trees or finding the way back to waterfalls and things like that, so we're all kind of on the same page about what we like to do. And Bill's a boy who speaks Hindi... and both of those things come in handy in India. And he was planning on staying in Pune for the two weeks because he was too shy to ask to be in anyone's group, so supervising our elephant rides and tree climbs has got to be more interesting than that. Also, we all tend to be fairly unconcerned with what we're doing during the travel. There are a lot of people who are trying to fit everything they can into the two weeks... taking overnight trains and sleeping on them so they can maximize their daylight. And they're trying to see all of northern India, hitting Delhi, Dharamsala, Agra, all of Rajasthan, etc. all in two weeks. I kind of feel like by trying to see everything, they're not really going to see anything. They're going to be so busy traveling that even when they're at places like the Taj Mahal, they'll be too worried about catching the next train to really appreciate it. I mean, when you compare it to the United States, it's like trying to see the entire eastern side of the country in a couple of weeks. Can you imagine a trip where you tried to hit New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Charleston, Atlanta, Miami, Disney World, Baton Rouge, all in less than two weeks? I can't imagine that being anything but stressful, especially when you factor in being in a foreign country and having to find the right train stations and deal with all of India's bureaucracy.

Our two week break is going to be more like spending a couple of weeks in one state (Kerala), traveling around to all the cool places in one region. We won't see as much of India, but we're definitely going to see what we see more thoroughly and less hectically. And we're going to ride elephants. We're also mostly avoiding the big cities, so that in itself should slow the rush down a lot.

After two entire weeks of our complaining that we have no idea where we live in relation to each other and everything else, ACM finally provided a map of Pune. This map has each of our colonies marked so we can see who lives near us and where we live on a map. This would be great, except Emily's and my colony is apparently too far in the outskirts of Pune to be on a Pune city map. I started at ACM and mapped our route home... Patrakar Nagar, right on some other street, right onto Law College Road, right again, right onto Karve Road, merge onto Paud Road... follow Paud Road for a while... pass Sarah and Liz's colony... go further on Paud Road............. and then there's no more map. It's like in the movies at the ending credits when you keep waiting for someone's name to show up, and it just never does. David lives off the map, too, but he at least has his name and a little arrow pointing the right direction. It's just unfair.

Cell Phone Update, Week 4:

I have my police registration.

I have my cell phone.

I have my SIM card.

I have no minutes.

For the last seven years or so, I've been keeping a list of all my favorite quotes. I think I'm gonna start ending my blog with random quotes from my list because it seems like after all these years, I should do something useful with them. And, since I have 88 more days in India and around 200 quotes, you're getting more than one a day! Lucky you! I hope everyone likes Nietzsche and Tolkien, because they're pretty dominant in my list.

There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle. –Robert Alden



When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults.



He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche



The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
~ J. R. R. Tolkien,

Mmm... Clay.

September 6^th

Today's accomplishments:

1. I made a clay statue of Ganesh. He was pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
2. I ate about a quart of rice at dinner.
3. Actually, that's about it. But my host family was pretty impressed at the way I was packing down the foods tonight.
4. Oh! I also shaved my legs. One of them at least. But it's kind of an accomplishment.

We had a workshop today and we learned how to make Ganesh idols for the upcoming festival. Working with my hands always tends to relax me, so this is coming at a pretty good time. I've missed clay and ceramic works since high school. The sense of accomplishment once your done is always so rewarding, and just basically playing in the mud is fun, too. On the downside, the purpose of these Ganesh idols is that once you make them, you return them to the waters they came from... i.e. we toss 'em in the river once they're done. Somehow, that doesn't seem like it's going to be nearly as therapeutic.

Today, I took yet another step towards realizing how much of a classics nerd I am. We have to write journal entries for our Contemporary India course, and tomorrow's entry is supposed to be about caste systems. We're basically just supposed to talk about what we're learning in class (caste systems) and what sort of relations we can find to it in our lives. So, without really considering the implications, I started writing about Plato's Republic. Apparently, when normal people get that sort of prompt, they don't immediately come up with a comparisons to a book from a couple thousand years ago.

This is the river that fills the Daulautabad Fort moat.

This is pretty much the most beautiful place I've ever been.

So... four days and 342 pictures later, I'm back from the Ajanta and Ellora Caves. We spent about 16 hours of it on a bus.

Our first stop on the trip was to the Daulautabad Fort. It was pretty impressive. It was basically a medieval Indian castle, founded in the 11^th century A.D. Generally, I start to lose interest in historical things when it's too far past Jesus, but I couldn't help but be fascinated by this castle. I'm very much a Classicist, so I have to admit, I spent a lot of time comparing it to what Rome would have had... and I'm not quite sure what I came up with. Rome and India seem to have had completely different ways of thinking. In Rome, they kind of had the philosophy that they'd build a very huge, very pretty wall. If you were not intimidated enough by that wall, Rome had a huge, undefeated army that probably already conquered you while you were contemplating the pretty wall. The Daulautabad Fort was kind of set up on the principle that they built a wall... and if you got past it, there was another wall... and then 59 trick doors that led to empty space... and then there was a trip-step to add some chaos to your ranks... and then a couple of moats with random places designed to make you fall into them... and then there was a labyrinth (complete with bats... it was amazing... Daedalus would be proud) that tricked you into fighting your own men... and then you'd find a staircase leading to a small defense that would pick off one by one anyone who hadn't self-destructed yet. There were just two entirely different ways of thinking.

Our second day, we took an 2 hour bus ride to Ajanta where we looked at a bunch of cool cave-temples. There was an amazing waterfall that some of us hiked back to see. That was pretty much the most epic experience ever.

Day three, we saw some more cool cave temples at Ellora, and then I took a really long nap.

Day four, we spent six hours on a bus. Again.

That waterfall in the other pictures?  This is me behind it.

Castles in the Air

Tuesday, I Think It's Still August, But I'm Not Really Sure What the Date Is, 2010

Two nights ago, I met with my first example of Indians who disapprove of us being here. I went to a puja (basically where they give a religious offering), and one man started grilling me with questions about why I was here. When I said I was here to study culture, he basically said that I was just going to form my own uninformed opinions about things I know nothing about and then go back to the US and spread my prejudices. Good times.

Yesterday after class, we went to a place called Choki Dhani. It's pretty much a theme park, and the theme is Rajasthan, India. There were dancers and musicians and puppet shows and a tightrope walker. People did mendhi/henna on us, and we got to ride a ferris wheel. When it's not wet and rainy, they give camel rides, too. It would have been kind of cool if it hadn't been just sad. You can always see in a person's face how they feel about what they're doing, especially when it comes to music and dance and things like that. And when you looked at the dancers, there was no joy from what they were doing. Mostly, there was just worry and pain mixed with discomfort. It's awful to think that that's just how these people live... doing the same unpleasing thing every single day just to survive. And despite that, they're so much better off than so many people here. No matter how unpleasant or trying their job is, at least they have one, and have a steady income. As wonderful as the dancers and performers were, I couldn't really enjoy watching them knowing their hearts just weren't at all in it.

And it was too wet for camels... sad day.

I miss Latin. I'm also a nerd. I don't think I've ever really realized how weird some of my interests are. When I'm at school, it's totally normal to pull out a Latin book for some reading because when I'm there, I'm always in some Latin classes. However, Sunday afternoon, when I pulled out my Latin grammar textbook and read a hundred pages or so of it for some fun reading... not so normal. It just kind of hit me then that I have some weird taste in reading materials.

I've had Don McLean's Castles in the Air stuck in my head for the last few days. I really like it at the moment. He's an interesting change from my normal Regina Spektor/Rob Thomas playlist. I kind of wish I had more Don McLean on my iPod. I only have about five of his songs. :(

Curate ut valeatis,

Anne