One Small Step

I took the bus home from work today BY MYSELF. And I didn't get lost. (Although I came uncomfortably close to getting hit by a bus).

One small step for man, one giant leap for me :)

Lesson #3

Fast food in general - not a good idea.

Fast food from KFC in India - worst idea ever.

No work for me today.

My Oh Mysore

So my first weekend in India I took a day trip to the nearby city of Mysore.

After a three hour bus ride to get there, we hired a rickshaw for 200 rupees (about $4) to take us to all the sites and wait for us while we explored them. First stop was Chamundi hill, to visit a Hindu temple dedicated to the goddess Chamundi, known as the Chamundeshwari temple.

It was my first trip to a Hindu temple. There were three lines that you could wait on, the free line (no payment to enter, which was quite long), the 20 rupee line and the 100 rupee "express" line. We were pressed for time, so we took the 100 rupee line. After removing our shoes, and once we managed to push our way inside, we saw an idol of a goddess about 30 ft away that people were bowing their head to before being ushered outside again. We asked if we could get closer, since we had paid the most expensive ticket, and a security guard brought us to the closest part before the gate separating us from the idol. There a man in a white robe resembling a toga had a bowl filled with powder and incense. He put red powder on our forehead and then burned the incense/candle in front of us, so that we could wave the smoke toward ourselves to purify our surroundings. It was very relaxing.

On the way out, the security guard who had ushered us to the front asked us for a bribe. While we were still in the temple. Aaaah India.

The outside of the temple was even more interesting than the inside. Cows were relaxing lazily under the sun as passersby patted their heads and even hugged them. Monkeys ran across the pavement before sitting in the shade around the side of the temple. One cow was particularly sweet!

Next stop was a sandalwood factory, where they made small and large figurines and jewelry from sandalwood, which is pretty famous in southern India. Sandalwood has been valued and treasured for many years for its fragrance, carving, medical and religious qualities. After the factory, we had lunch in a traditional south Indian restaurant (which was delicious!) before heading over to the main attraction in Mysore - the palace. This was the official residence of the royal family of Mysore. The inside of the palace was beautiful, lined with traditional paintings and furniture, with intricate designs in the walls and ceilings.

Outside the palace, there was a man on an elephant that you could give a donation to before being "blessed" by the elephant. This, my friends, was by far the best part of the trip.

Once we had seen the palace, it was time to head back to Bangalore. On the bus ride home, I stuck my out the window as we passed small cities and towns on the way back, while warm and humid air whipped against my face and hair, and people on motorcycles outside honked and smiled. I felt such an exhilarating feeling up my spine - I felt alive.

Lesson #2

Never, I mean never, leave chocolate unattended in your bag while in India (or probably in general), no matter how clean you think the place is. An army of ants will descend upon it as soon as your back is turned, thus causing you to scream like a little girl as you wack your bag and try to reclaim it from the mass of critters. I don't think I will ever look at a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup the same.

Plus, Italy should be embarrassed with their performance today. At least USA made it through.

Riding along in a Rickshaw

So where was I?

I'll admit I had a bit of a breakdown after that first day. Everyone warned us about culture shock and I really did feel prepared coming over, but you really can't know until you get here. The combination of the noise, heat, terrible pollution, and the severe claustrophobia I experienced made me want to pack my bags and go straight home. The morning and evening commute alone are enough to drive a person nuts. Luckily the guesthouse and work tend to be calm within this massive chaos, so I've since recovered from my moment of weakness. Slightly.

In other news, on Wednesday I took a rickshaw for the first time!


So the process of finding a rickshaw (or rickshaw wallah to be more precise) who will actually take you where you want to go without a hassle is more difficult than you may imagine. We waited at the corner for a good 10 minutes trying to find one to take us to work. Now I don't mean to say that rickshaws just ignored us, on the contrary, at least 5 stopped. BUT once they heard where we were going (to the center of Bangalore during morning rush hour) they would just shake their heads and drive off. When one finally did say he would take us it was only because we agreed to pay him 20 extra rupees. I've since noticed that it is rare to take a rickshaw without ultimately yelling at the driver. Either he wants to overcharge you and not put on the meter, or even if he does he may mess with you and the meter will go way faster than it should. I love taking the rickshaw with my roommate though, she knows how to play the game. She obviously looks like a westerner so they always try to overcharge her, but she yells or walks away and bargains till she gets a good price.

Actually riding the rickshaw is quite an adventure though, its pretty exhilarating in fact. I have to keep a scarf over my mouth though because the fumes from other vehicles are too much to bear. I probably should be more worried about crashing and safety issues, but I'm really not. I think being a pedestrian is way more scary. Below is a link to a video I recorded when on a recent trip outside the city (which I'll write about later), but the rickshaw experience is quite similar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_pKiemjEak

Work is going well so far, I am expected to do quite a bit in my first week which is both good and bad. I'm still in a post-thesis slump where I don't want to do much of anything, but I guess it would be worse if I were bored. And the work has to do with researching solar technologies that could benefit India, so its pretty interesting. When I first saw my boss she walked right by me, which I took as a compliment since she didn't immediately recognize me as an obvious foreigner. She was pretty surprised when I finally introduced myself!

Everything has been ok in terms of food so far as well, the only complaint I have is that all the meals served to us at work and the guesthouse are vegetarian! Not to mention that lunch and dinner are pretty similar - rice with something spicy. Turns out that breakfast is often spicy as well, who knew. I've gotten used to having a constant burning sensation on my tongue. But I'm constantly hungry soon after I eat, I need some protein! My former roommate back in Boston would agree. On the plus side (ha....ha) maybe I'll lose a good ten pounds.

Busy Busy Bangalore

So Tuesday was my first real day outside of the guesthouse, and what a day it was.

Got up early to catch the bus with my roommate since I had no idea how to get to my job. Oh I wish it were as simple as just knowing what bus number to look for. First off, only some buses actually have numbers, the rest have text in Kannada (the local language of the state) so its almost impossible to recognize which one to go on. The only way to be sure, I discovered, is to ask the bus driver and if you're lucky he'll understand and wait for you to get on. The most interesting thing I noticed was that the bus separated men and women - women sit in the front and men in the back. Then a conductor goes up and down the bus asking for your destination and issuing you the ticket.

If only one bus could get me to work. I'm not that lucky.

We got off at the first stop and had to transfer to another bus. This involved running across two lanes of traffic during morning rush hour - I almost got hit by like 3 buses and 5 rickshaws - only to have to follow my roommate and run onto a moving bus! Yea. Apparently that doesn't only happen in movies.

Work was pretty uneventful the first day, my boss was out so I didn't have much to do but read some articles. After work, my roommate came with me to buy some Indian clothing. As modern as Bangalore may be in comparison to the rest of India, I still prefer to not stick out as a westerner. I bought some kurtas (pic below - basically a loose shirt that falls to just above the knee) and some loose pants (including red ones! I thought about orange with sequins, but I had to draw the line somewhere). The shopping also included me bargaining for the first time (I only got 100 rupees off, but hey its a start).As I was exiting one of the shops, I was stopped by an Indian security guard and asked to show the receipt for my purchases. Of course, my roommate had just passed him and he didn't ask her at all (I should also mention that she is blond and blue-eyed). Naturally I couldn't find it and was getting all flustered, and my roommate came back and yelled at him for making such a ridiculous request. He smiled (I guess he agreed) and we just walked away. Did I mention my roommate is badass? Maybe I'll be that badass after three months, we can only hope.

First Impressions

So after my long nap due to jet lag (which I still have not recovered from) I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood with my roommate to find local supermarkets. It had just rained (currently monsoon season).

Lesson 1: Don't wear flip flops after heavy rain in a muddy area

The streets (although paved) were transformed into mud rivers and the flip flops served to catapult bits of mud all over my backside. Classy.

After returning to the guesthouse to clean up, the guy who lives/works there made us dinner. He is young (probably late teens, early 20s) and his job is to always be at the guesthouse, to clean up and make us dinner. He is from Nepal and speaks no English, and he sleeps on the floor of the living room. He can't leave the guesthouse for longer than 10 minutes at a time since no one has the key to the place so he must always be available to open the door day or night. Its very strange, I feel bad for him, he spends all day watching TV and he's literally confined here.

The night was uneventful, aside from the 5 inch millipede I found racing around the bathroom. Yea that didn't go so well. It was the middle of the night so I had to silence my squeals as I murdered it with my flip flops (yes the same ones). Needless to say I did not sleep well that night, visions of tiny legs danced in my head.

Coming soon - first day of work.

Arrival

So after a trip that overall lasted over 24 hours (and which included the spraying of insecticide on the plane from London to Bangalore which is apparently common practice), I finally arrived in India. After going through customs, I picked up my baggage and made my way outside of the airport around 5am praying that my driver had actually come. Since it was so early I wasn't subject to the massive groups of people that normally wait outside the airport, but instead a long line of Indian men carrying signs and waiting. It was an awkward process, the signs mostly were just pen on paper and so I had to make my way down the line one by one looking for my name while they all stared. I quickly became aware of the fact that I was the only woman who had ventured outside alone, but I told myself to appear confident as I refused others who asked me if I needed a ride. I finally (and thankfully) found my driver and we made our way over to his taxi.

The trunk was extremely small and so I was going to suggest he put my massive suitcase in the backseat with me, but instead he just placed it on top of the car with just four very shallow bars and a flimsy latch holding it in place. This was my first worry, as I kept looking out of the rear window expecting to see my suitcase fly off the roof into darkness. Once I realized how people tend to drive here, I became much more concerned with just getting to the guesthouse safely! I felt like my driver was fairly good, but this doesn't mean much when traffic rules don't seem to apply to the rest. Apparently it is common practice to drive anywhere on the road you see fit, with little regard to lanes. More than once we were in a lane facing head-on traffic before swerving back to the left lane at the last minute. You don't need to just worry about cars, but bikes going opposite traffic and pedestrians crossing the street at random intervals. It is no wonder that drivers here use their car horn liberally, practically every time they pass another form of transportation.

I finally made it to the guesthouse which is very basic (I don't have a blanket!) but sufficient. I am currently sharing a room (which I was not expecting) with a French girl who is leaving in a few weeks and the living situation may or may not be temporary. But it appears fairly clean, with a Western style bathroom, and I have wi-fi so I can't really complain :-)

After sleeping for a good 10 hours and waking up at 2:15pm I am spending some time getting settled...first day of work tomorrow.