In India!

Me at the Delhi Airport at 9:30pm IST

Well I'm here now and it's wonderful! There's a new experience around every corner and it's exhilarating! The people are so kind and helpful (well, only here in Vizag). My traveling partners and I had one heck of a time dealing with Indian Air once we were in the Delhi Airport. It was a difficult trying to communicate. The English is British English spoken with an Indian accent. To say yes they wobble their heads back in forth, which to me means.. eh, whatever or yes no. Trust me, they mean yes. Aye caramba!

But all is well! I'm in my home here in Vizag. I love it! It's new and exciting. It's kind of like your typical low scale surf town except with an Indian twist. It's intriguing and laid back (South India as a whole is more relaxed than Northern India - similar to the United States North v. South comparison).

Professor Charles Nuckolls, our program director.

Today we got our internet (obviously) and we went on a walk around the Colony (our area). We stopped in on this children's school where they were having a celebration! It was in honor of the prosperous harvest and of plenty. The cow (and anything from it i.e. urine, feces, milk) is a symbol of prosperity and plenty and was used a great deal to demonstrate symbolism in the celebration.

The festival has many days, but the children at the school did all of the daily celebrations at once because the school would be on holiday during the celebrations. They danced and sang all while giggling at our presence. One little boy even came up to one of the students and asked if we were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we said yes and then he asked if he would see us on Sunday. It was fantastic! There’s a more detailed view of the photos on Facebook.

The food is amazing! I’ve only disliked one thing and it was candy, so I don’t feel bad. Breakfast usually consists of toast and fruit, nothing big. Lunch is a larger meal and consists of rice and a plethora of curry/ main entrée options. There’s usually always fruit and, of course, WATER! We have to drink lots of it. I can’t tell that the humidity will probably kill me. Indio is nothing compared to this! (And it’s not even hot yet!)

My roommates are Kelly Hacker and Amy Drake. They are a majorly fun time! Kelly and I share a room and Amy has one to herself. It’s just the three of us to our house which is two stories with a ground floor and a roof (which is spectacular). There’s a kitchen, but due to a break in a couple of months ago there’s no fixtures (faucets, knobs, etc.) so we don’t use it. There’s three open rooms that we don’t use at all. Basically the space is much too large for us and there should be more people here, but it’s grand all the same.

We’ve been chilling so far today and soon we will be off to see the beach and explore. Hopefully I’ll be able to deem it worthy to be swum in, but I’m afraid, after Dr. Nuckolls brief description, that I might find that it is less that satisfactory. Tomorrow Karuna has promised us that we will go downtown and get henna packets and bangles so that we can participate in the festival as well. Get this bangles are approximately 1 Rupee a bangle. (1 USD = 45 Rs.) OH MY GOSH! Amazing!

With love from India,

Jaci