Yesterday was our first Sari shopping adventure. We were invited to a wedding next weekend (!!!) and needed the proper attire for the occasion. Katie Jo took us to Udapi and first stop, Bridal World. Seemed appropriate. As soon as we entered, there was a flurry of commotion and sales members appearing out of nowhere. The shop was fairly large and stocked floor to ceiling with saris on saris. The associates eagerly started yanking the fine cloth from the shelves, tossing them hastily on the counters, telling us how nice they were. They showed us all sorts of varieties and materials. They were quick to our demands for colors and styles. It was so overwhelming, I froze, not having the faintest idea what color I wanted it to be or what designs I enjoyed. As people started finding options they liked, the women in the shop helped wrap the brilliant fabric around their wastes, finishing by tossing the material over their shoulders so we could all see the finished product. It was fantastic. Frantic. Beautiful. I finally settled on a bright purple chiffon with gold embroidery and sequins. There was no denying it was beautiful, but there was just something about it I didn’t love. Something didn’t feel right. I put it off to the side in case and again dove into scanning the walls for an interesting color to examine closer. People were starting to pay and soon it was only two of us left at the counter, associates buzzing around us, telling us which ones to buy. Under the pile of fabric that had accumulated on the counter I caught a glimpse of a brilliant blue. I pulled it out to find it was multi-colored, the top blue with simple beautiful gold designs and the bottom, the color of sand with deep blue and gold patterns. They wrapped me up in it and I stood in front of the group tilting my head, asking for their opinion. One of the men tied the purple sari around his body and we stood side by side for a vote. It was almost unanimous. Blue it was. As I went to the counter to pay, I felt more and more sure about my decision. By the time I took it to the tailor to get the blouse made, I could not wait for next Sunday when I will finally have the chance to wear it and to see everyone else in theirs. It was a whirlwind experience, but something I wouldn’t dream of leaving India without doing!
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Last night Lauren’s roommate and a few girls we had met from the communications school invited us out for Karaoke at one of the local bars/clubs. It was a small place that was hazy from all the lingering cigarette smoke, but by the end there were tons of people crazily singing along to the American hits on the Karaoke machine. It was a great time! No, I didn’t sing, but maybe next time! It’s every Wednesday at this one venue so I am sure we’ll be back! This week we had our first taste of classes at Manipal. I am taking five classes: maternal and child health, epidemiology in developing countries, global health problems, contemporary Indian culture, and Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine), and thinking about auditing a sixth in surveillance of infectious diseases. Because we had Monday off for Republic day, I haven’t been to all my classes yet, but the ones I have been to were great! Our classes so far are just with our group. While I would have liked them to be with other Indian students I think this also gives us a unique opportunity to engage with the material and with the professors who have so much experience in their fields. We were told that Indian classrooms were not particularly participatory, they would be composed primarily of PowerPoint presentations and we should expect little to no discussion and opportunities to voice our own thoughts. So far though, that has seemed completely contrary to our experience. Our professors seem eager to hear our thoughts, answer our questions, and engage us more in depth, though there are still plenty of lectures.
We also have visits to various public health sectors throughout the area every Friday with our faculty, where we will have the ultimate opportunity to engage with the material very practically. This week is our first visit and we will be visiting a primary health center. I’m particularly excited for our later visits to a DOTS (treatment for TB) center in Udapi, a surveillance of communicable disease center, integrated child development services center, and a visit to a cashew factory to learn about occupational hazards associated with the processing of the cashews. I imagine I’ll have many more updates about classes as they earnestly get underway, so stay tuned! Monday was India’s republic day, the day the constitution was signed 66 years ago. We spent the morning at the KMC greens, behind the dining hall, watching the parade and celebration. Each different school within Manipal had a marching squad who paraded around the greens. At the end they were awarded prizes. There was also a singing performance and a dance. After the celebrations we piled into a small van and drove about an hour and a half to a Jain mutt (a mutt is a learning center in the Jain religion). Jainism is a religion in India, with followers around the globe, though percentagewise it relatively small compared to other Indian religions. We waited around for about an hour listening to the singing and music until Swamiji (the name of a position similar to monk) was ready to see us. He talked to us about Jainism and allowed us to ask any questions. From what it sounded like it is similar to Buddhism with features of Hinduism and some unique elements. They strongly believe in non-violence and living a life of compassion. He gave us all blessed coins to take with us and we took a group photo before leaving. We ate a quick meal at the mutt and then saw the thousand-pillar temple right around the block. The temple is over 600 years old and is famous for its 1,000 pillars, each completely unique. A guide showed us around the temple and explained to us many of the unique carvings. We then piled back into the van and then went to this enormous Jain statue. Every twelve years at this time there is a ritual bathing of the statue, which that just so happened to be this year. Although we didn’t actually get to see the bathing (unfortunately it took place at night) we saw the statue, all the decorations, and the thousands of people from all over India that had come to see it. In the evening we met up with a bunch of students from the communications school at a local restaurant called Coffee Valley for dinner. They were super fun and we had a great time getting to know them. We also talked about seeing a Bollywood film together in the next week or attending Karaoke night at a local club on Wednesday. On Sunday we went on an excursion to St. Mary’s Island, an Island located just off the coast in the Arabian Sea. We took a bus to Udapi and another bus to Malpai before hopping on a ferry to the island. The island was small but beautiful. It has some of the most unique basalt formations found in the world along with Madagascar, suggesting India and Madagascar used to be connected before the continents shifted. The island is one of the only places in the area it is safe to swim because the rocks break the waves and the riptide is not as strong. Most people don’t swim though, but rather they wade in the water and hang out on the shore. There was not much shade so it was pretty hot. We all eagerly got in the water but wore full clothing to be culturally appropriate. The water felt so good and we spent at least an hour just floating in the waves. We wandered around the island a bit afterwards taking pictures and enjoying the scenery before hopping on the ferry back. We had lunch in the upstairs of the dining hall on campus which is more food court style with a variety of different types of food including a subway, a Mexican(ish) type place, a pizza/pasta place, a few Indian food places, etc. It was the first “non- Indian” meal any of us have had since being here and although all the food was not what we were used to at all, it tasted so good. We rested for a few hours after lunch and then four of us met up to attend a Sikh religious service called a Gudwara in the evening. The service was a lot of singing and reading and was really cool to be a part of. Afterwards we had a community meal with the other people attending the service in the lower floor of the building and got to speak with people sitting nearby. When it was over we were kindly invited back for any other services, which take place every Sunday evening.
On Saturday we met early to take the city bus into Udapi. We wandered the streets a bit until we reached a restaurant where we enjoyed buns (a lot like Kenyan mandazi’s) and dosas. Afterwards we walked to a nearby Krishna temple, thousands of years old and famous in the region. Festival carts lined the streets outside the temple and cows wandered about. The Krishna idol in the temple is “dressed up” in various ways depending on the day or time of year. Today he was dressed in a suit made entirely of diamonds. While you had to peer at it from a distance behind bars, it was incredibly beautiful. We circumambulated the structure and painted powder on our foreheads. Outside it looked like some big event was starting as people began to gather. From the festival cart sacred coins, fruit, and other things were thrown into the crowd. Soon the mass of people began to drag the cart through the streets, preceded by a huge elephant dressed in a colorful blanket. We were lucky to be there on a day when so much was happening!
Afterwards, we saw the cow stable before catching rickshaws to Big Bazar, the Target(ish) of Udapi. I bought four new kurtas, a pair of balloon-like pants, and a new towel (my travel towel just wasn’t going to cut it). We then rode back to the art gallery to drop off our stuff for the rest of the day and have the artist we met last night draw us our own individual pictures. He drew me picture of Ganesha, the elephant God. It was amazing to watch him draw it, you can just see how incredibly talented and visionary he is. After the gallery we walked about fifteen minutes to another nearby temple where the head of the Ayurveda department who will teach some of our classes was having a Puja done. He was recently promoted to head of the department and wanted to receive good blessings and clear obstacles from his path. We watched the ceremony and then joined the crowd for a traditional meal served on banana leaves. The food was much different than the Indian food we had eaten before. We ate with our hands and tried tons of new dishes, most of which were delicious. Later, we took rickshaws to a law college in Udapi to hear a talk by a human rights organization about doctor patient relationships, primarily doctor negligence and patient rights. Our rickshaw driver got lost on the way there and didn’t understand English so we waited by the side of the road for someone to walk by who knew English and could translate our directions. Fortunately though, Katie Jo called and had someone on the line that could explain it in Kannada, the local language of Karnataka. The talk was extremely long and a lot of us were forcing ourselves not to fall asleep in the beginning, but he brought up a lot of interesting points. When it was finally over we took the bus back to Manipal for a much needed break and dinner. The next few days were made up of orientation, lectures, filling out forms, applying for SIM cards for our Indian phones, getting student ID’s, medical cards, etc., learning to take the public bus and auto-rickshaws, shopping for basics, touring the campus, eating at a variety of Indian restaurants around the area, and trying out the food in the mess (dining hall). My favorite dish so far is the Chandra Masala (or chickpea masala).
We met with some geopolitics masters students, who are located in the building most of our classes will be held, and got to know them in an speed-dating type setting. We also visited an art gallery in Udapi, the next nearest town, where we got Bharatanatyam dance performances from a group of young girls, a presentation from the owner, his photographs of India, and a chance to walk around the gallery. By Friday we finally got our class schedules! I am taking global health problems, epidemiology in developing countries, Ayurveda – traditional Indian healing, contemporary Indian culture, and maternal and child health. I think I will also audit a class in Indian dance three days a week. Fridays are reserved for public health field visits around the area with our faculty. I am super excited for all my classes, especially Ayurveda! Throughout the week everyone in the program except me (knock on wood) got really sick, and three ended up in the clinic/hospital for IV’s and anti-nausea shots. After that everyone has been pretty cautious with food. One afternoon we had a really long break in our schedule so Alexandra and I headed out to explore the town. I bought a phone charger for my Kenyan phone so I could use that here and then we wandered up and down streets stopping at stalls and in stores. I bought a nice kurta, though it seems like it might be too big. We also bought a fresh coconut off the street to share. As we wandered we stumbled upon a park near the Old TAPMI building (where most of our classes our located) and we went inside to relax. In the shade, the day was actually quite lovely. We sat on amphitheater steps for a while and enjoyed the beauty for a while. That night we went back to Aditi, the art gallery in Udapi, for a performance by a famous artist, Chitra Mitra, who painted a huge canvas in just a few minutes. It was really fun to watch and see his work in the gallery. He is excellent at every single medium! The night was a bit restless but I felt rested by the time my alarm went off at 7:45 the next morning. We headed downstairs and enjoyed an Indian breakfast with the other alliance program students. I finally got to meet the six other girls that would be joining me at Manipal University this semester. After breakfast we grabbed our things and headed back to the airport for our flight to Mangalore. After the flight we took an hour and a half bus ride to Manipal but the air conditioning on the bus had broken and the windows wouldn’t open so it was a scorching ride. We had to stop half way to get some fresh air and cold water to cool us down. When we finally arrived we went to a hotel to enjoy tea and meet with some of the Manipal faculty before getting to go to our hostels. My roommate wasn’t around when I arrived so I unpacked my things in the empty dresser and made my bed with the blanket and sheet left on my desk. The beds are horribly uncomfortable, but overall the room is really nice. It’s a lot like a dorm room in the US but has its own bathroom and little kitchen counter area. I put up all my pictures and then hung out with my next-door neighbor, another girl on my program, until we met Katie Jo at six to do some shopping. We all wanted to buy some kurtas (long Indian shirts) to wear around. We stopped by a shop just a block or so away from the hostels but no one really found anything they liked. We grabbed a few rickshaws nearby and headed to another nearby part of town to try a few other shops. We were mostly unlucky, but I loved the rickshaw drive! That is something we never would have been able to do in Kenya. Afterwards we dropped by the hostels once more to put stuff away and then wait for the bus to dinner. All of us were so tired though we were practically falling asleep standing up. Dinner was nice and we met up with three students from University of Miami who are studying here for the semester as well. After dinner, back at the hostels, I finally got to meet my roommate. We only talked for a minute or so but she seems really nice. After a quick shower, I fell right asleep. The flight ended up actually being pleasant after I got moved to a window seat at the last moment (hurray!). The plane had a great selection of movies and I watched a few before falling asleep. I forced myself to wake up two hours before the flight landed, so I wouldn’t be too off the time zone change, and then watched another movie until we landed. I met Katie Jo, our resident director, at the airport along with two other girls before heading to the nearby airport hotel to spend the night. I roomed with another girl who would be on the Manipal program and though it was late, neither of us was particularly tired since we had slept during the flight. We chatted a bit and watched some Hindi Disney Channel before finally going to sleep.
After my visa finally arrived and I managed to pack four months worth of things into a 34 pound backpacking backpack, a small carry-on duffle, and my school backpack, I was finally ready to go. My whole extended family threw a going away party for me and my cousin who will be going to Portugal last night at my house. It was the perfect goodbye after a great break. My family came with me to the airport this morning and waved goodbye for a solid ten minutes as I went through security right up until I boarded the train to my gate. I already miss them a lot, but I am more than excited for this new adventure. Although I just found out I have a middle seat from Newark to Mumbai, a 15 hour flight, which is less than exciting. If I make it through, next time you'll hear from me I'll be in India! Goodbye! And wishing everyone the best next four months! Keep up with my blog for details about my semester and updates on what I am up to.
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AuthorAmerican University Student studying abroad in Kenya and India and wandering the world Archives
May 2015
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