teaching and traveling

Sunday was extremely uneventful. I slept in until 11:30, which was really nice, and didn’t actually get up until noon. I spent 25 minutes on the phone with my dad, and at 12 I took a shower. We had lunch (dhal and roti…as usual) around 1, and then I spent several hours dividing my time between facebook, packing, and writing a lesson plan for 2nd grade maths tomorrow! I also went to Lanka for half an hour or so by myself to run some errands. I bought two small notebooks – one for making flashcards of the Hindi alphabet, and one to keep in my purse to write things down while we’re traveling. Mamta has encouraged Alex and me to write down Hindi words we see so we can figure out what they say later. Exciting… On my errands I also bought a hairbrush and some pleasant-smelling honey/papaya face scrub stuff. I’m sure it sounds mundane, but the hairbrush is one of my most exciting purchases of the trip. Brushing my hair felt so clean and luxurious…yes, this is what my life has become. When I got back, I kept trying to pack. I had a hard time deciding between western clothes and my Indian clothes, because Indian clothes, especially in this heat, are exponentially more comfortable, but because the rest of the tour group will have just gotten to India, I’m afraid of looking like the awkward fake-Indian white girl in all the pictures if I only have kurtis and salwars. I resolved the problem by just bringing a lot of both kinds of clothes…I’ll decide later. Around 8, after much deliberation, Dost, Abhijeet, Alex and I decided to go to dinner at this somewhat sketchy looking establishment called the Hindustan Hotel, right near Ravidass gate. We had chow mein (it’s really good here), butter chicken, Handi (?) chicken, roti, and rice. Given the choice between roti or naan, I finally got to ask what the difference is. Dost explained that naan is made with flour, and roti (chapati) is wheat. We chatted about a lot of things during dinner, including religion, partition, and Abhijeet’s first crush. Dinner ended up being about 100 rupees per person – not bad, and the food was actually better, we thought, than it had been at the more expensive restaurant. After dinner, we walked up Lanka toward BHU, and I stopped at a stand to recharge my phone. I feel like I spend a lot on my phone, but it is so comforting to be able to call home whenever I want from wherever I am. It’s also nice to be able to be in touch with my friends here in India, like Harshita, Saloni, and Avi. Speaking of Avi, I booked my ticket to visit Bangalore Friday 23rd July to Tuesday 27th July. So exciting! I’ll be able to see Sanskriti, and hopefully Divya (both are other CMC friends) will train up from Chennai to spend the weekend with us! I’ll go there 12 days after getting back from the traveling we begin tomorrow, so I constantly will have things to look forward to from now on. This is a very good thing, as I have started feeling really homesick and wishing I could spend time with people at home. After we got back from our post-dinner walk, we skyped with Avi (!) briefly, and I worked more on packing, facebook creeping, and finishing my lesson plan. We also bid Nita ma’am, Nandani, and Amit farewell as they left to catch the train – they left for Delhi tonight, we follow 24 hours later.

After staying up really late Sunday night to pack and finish my lesson plan, I slept in a bit on Monday since there was no yoga. I ate breakfast quickly, but wasn’t sure what to do until 9:30, which is when I officially begin teaching for the day. I asked Irfana, and she told me I should just start the day with that class and help out until it’s time for math. From 9:30 to 10:15, I help Mitali and Rupali teach 5th and 6th grade math. On Monday, Mitali had planned to combine their English and maths lessons, so I facilitated while a group of 6th graders played scrabble. The math component was that the scoreboard pieces were organized by units, tens, and hundreds, so she used it as an opportunity to review the concept of place value. It was fun to teach them how to play scrabble, but less fun to try to keep them from cheating when they needed to pick new tiles. I helped all of the teams with making words, but there was a pair of boys who, after only 15 minutes or so of play, won the game with 67 points. For one of their words, they only played one letter – the x. They made the word ox, but were lucky enough to place the x on a triple letter score. I was impressed… Before the class activities started, we went around the room introducing ourselves, and Mitali was kind enough to write down the students’ names on the board so I could see the spellings. Mitali is one of the best English speakers of all of the teachers, and is especially excited by the materials I’ve brought, so she’s been eager to help me prepare them. I’m a big fan of hers. Something which I’m still getting used to as far as teaching the students is being called “ma’am.” “Good morning, Pyper ma’am.” …excuse me? Even some of the other teachers, who are older than me, call me that. It’s odd. After 5th/6th, Rupali and I went to the 2nd grade room, where we helped Mamta teach their math class. I’d created the lesson plan, but hadn’t realized that 2nd grade meant 2nd grade English competency. Language. Barrier. I felt badly because Rupali ended up running most of the lesson in Hindi, and my contribution was ultimately minimal. I got a lot of blank stares. Irfana told me later that day, though, to also keep in mind that they’ve just had summer, three months during which they heard little or no English, so it’ll take a couple of weeks but eventually they’ll be more communicative. After 2nd grade, I met Mitali to go teach 7th/8th grade math. She’d prepared the lesson plan, which consisted of a review exam to make sure they remembered what they’d learned the previous year. This class seemed to be the most respectful and willing to learn, which I really appreciated. After class got out at noon (half days until the DM – District Magistrate thinks the heat has died down enough to have students in school for full days) I went downstairs to the guesthouse and found Sunita organizing textbooks. I kept her company for a while, during which time we chatted a bit, and she told me, “you talk, I very very like.” She explained that she enjoys the opportunity to practice and improve her English. She promised she’d help me with my Hindi, too. It’s fun – I have both her little sisters, Anita and Prema, in 6th and 8th grades, respectively. After a few minutes, I went to get lunch, and Sunita joined Alex and me when we were about halfway done. At 1 o’clock, we had a meeting with the teachers and Irfana, and discussed the day a little bit. After our meeting, I took a quick nap until Hindi lessons at 3. I’m really enjoying learning Hindi…sometimes the language barrier with Mamta is a little difficult, but overall it’s really fun to be able to read some of the signs we see out and about. The script is also so pretty, it’s fun to write. After Hindi, I spent some time up in the centre finishing my flashcard notebook with the alphabet. I need a lot of repetition… When I went back down to the guesthouse, Pushpa had just brought tea. The snack was one which I really enjoy (don’t know what it’s called) but it is a little orange bread puff thing with onions and other spices in it. Sunita came in and had a few, and she said she was going to leave. I said, “See you next week!” which made her very perplexed. She asked why not tomorrow, so I told her we were going to go to Delhi. She said, “Oh, I very very miss you.” She ended up sticking around for about fifteen more minutes. We practiced a bit of Hindi, and she told me she wants me to come over to her house for dinner sometime. She says her mom is a great cook, but I’d be nervous about the sanitation issue, which makes me sad because I am so humbled by their family’s hospitality. When she finally had to leave, she gave me a hug. It was a long, clinging, thoughtful hug which almost made me cry. She is so kind and loving, but at the same time she has some of the saddest, most tired eyes I have ever seen. When she smiles, though, she looks genuinely happy. I’m really glad to know her.

I spent the rest of Monday afternoon and evening packing, listening to music, organizing my room, and basically just killing time until we were to leave for the train station. I took a shower around 10 and changed into clean clothes for our nine hour train ride. At 11:30, Irfana, Alex, Nawal and I left for the train station. Ramesh drove us, and the streets were really quiet, which was a nice change from all of the daytime noise, dust, and honking. We got to the train station around 12:20; Nawal’s train was scheduled to leave at 12:50, and ours at 1:20. The train station was one of the grossest places I have ever been. It smelled worse than any outhouse I think I’ve ever been in, and there were fat, creepy rats crawling around on the tracks and on the floor of the waiting area. To pass time, Alex and I practiced Hindi, which drew a bit of a crowd at one point. I was really tired, though, and every time I did something wrong, I got really frustrated, so I knew it was time to stop. I tried to read, but my eyes were too tired. I ended up spending most of the time zoning out, watching people walk around. At 3, Nawal caught his train. Shortly after, there was an announcement saying that our train would be arriving shortly at platform 6. We speedily walked up the ramps, over some tracks, and back down to the platform. We waited less than five minutes, and our train arrived. We boarded, and to my great satisfaction, each had bunks to sleep on. We made our beds, and promptly passed out for the majority of the train ride. We arrived at Delhi around 2pm, and I think I spent less than two hours of the entire train ride awake. Being on the top bunk, the AC was pointed directly at me, so I slept really well all wrapped up in blankets.

When we got to Delhi, Nawal met us on the platform. Our driver helped me carry my bag, and we trekked through the station to get back to his car. I was somewhat fascinated by the train station (it was nicer to be in one during the daytime, I think) but couldn’t help wanting to get out of there ASAP. Our driver navigated hordes of insane traffic and brought us to the restaurant where the rest of the group was having lunch. Alex and I shared papri chat (a personal Indian fave) and chow mein. We met the rest of the group, which consists of a Sheila, a Pomona art professor; Anne, a Scripps music professor; Andrew, a Boston U music professor; Maira, a CMC junior; Taylor, another U Chicago intern; and Mya, Britta, Katie, Kathy, Ben, and Cameron, who are all coming to Nirman from Kalamazoo College for a six month study abroad program. After lunch, we all got on the bus and headed to a site (I don’t remember the name) which Nita ma’am described as an Indian theme park of sorts. In truth, it’s a temple which was constructed in the past 10 years and is dedicated to some guy who, Nita ma’am explained, was worshipped as a god during his lifetime. To be honest, I really didn’t enjoy visiting this place. It was expansive and ornate, but for me, knowing that it was built recently and is essentially a tourist attraction really took away from any meaning it might have. After having visited Sarnath and all the temples around Varanasi, I have a hard time appreciating something which isn’t centuries old with ornate carvings done by hand. Also, I had been feeling overwhelmed by the development and comparative cleanliness of Delhi, so seeing this temple, which, though gorgeous, felt like a bit of a monstrosity, stressed me out a bit. After we wandered around the site for about an hour, we all met back up and Nita ma’am gave a short lecture on its significance. She explained that, over the past few decades, there has been a sort of revival of traditional Hinduism amongst the wealthier members of society. She said that before, the wealthier people had tended toward the secular, especially in their public lives. She called it a vacuum which left religion as a facet of people’s private lives. It was an interesting lecture, and I appreciated the new perspective she was giving me on this massive, modern temple structure that we were sitting at.

After she finished talking, we went back to the bus which took us to the hotel. We stayed at the Hans Hotel in Connaught Place, an area of New Delhi, near the center of the city. By the time we got through all of the Delhi traffic, it was about 6:45. We went up to our rooms, but planned to meet back in the lobby at 7:30. The first thing I did when we got to our room (I’m sharing with Sheila, the Pomona professor), after I stood there in awe of the air conditioning, mirrors, lamps, and marble floors, was take a shower. My first non-bucket shower in three and a half weeks! It was glorious. After my shower, I put on knee length black dress and a pink sweater, the most western outfit I’ve worn since purchasing Indian clothes. Sheila had a wakeup call scheduled for 7:30, so we went down to the lobby shortly after that. We ended up waiting until 8 o’clock for some of the group to come down. As it turns out, Amit had forgotten to inform the interns, professors, and study abroad kids that the plan had changed to 8. I wasn’t bothered by it since I’ve grown accustomed to the tendency for scheduling to slide here, but it really bothered a few people. The people who have just arrived in India will need to learn quickly that punctuality isn’t a huge part of planning here; otherwise they’ll get really frustrated quite frequently, which will take away from the experience. I am a bit apprehensive of trying to tell everyone what I’ve found out about what it’s like here, because I don’t want to come off as a know-it-all. The bus ride to dinner only took about 15 minutes. We ate at a restaurant named Mohi (Moti?) Mahal, which is located in Old Delhi. The group split into two tables, and I sat with Nawal, Nandani, Amit, Irfana, Kathy, Mya, and Cameron. We decided to order things to share, so Nandani and Nawal were in charge of choosing bread, Kathy and Mya picked out the vegetable dishes, and Cameron and I selected the chicken dishes. After we ordered, Nawal proposed that we play a game, and then told Irfana she should pick the game. She said he should, which ended up with all of us tapping our utensils on plates, water glasses, salt and pepper shakers…making music. I mostly enjoyed the distressed looks on the waiters’ faces. By the time we were done eating, it was evident that we’d ordered the perfect amount of food, and got to try lots of different things. After dinner, we drove around Old Delhi for a bit (past the Red Fort) and then went back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, Sheila needed to check email, so she went to the business centre. While she was downstairs, I watched a bit of TV (!!), finding some international news, VH1, and ESPN. Yay for familiarity! After a few minutes of that, I took a bubble bath. It was. So. Decadent. While I was sitting there, though, I thought about how many buckets worth of water I was sitting in, and began to feel guilty, especially when I thought about how unlikely it would be that, Sunita for example, would ever get to enjoy such luxury. This is an awareness that I’m definitely grateful to have developed, but it is definitely reflective of the old phrase “ignorance is bliss.” Around 11:30, I went upstairs and chatted with Katie and Mya for a bit in their room. I had planned on going straight to bed, but my mom encouraged me to go be social. It’s hard, because after feeling like an outsider for the past 3 weeks living almost strictly amongst Indians, I feel like a bit of an outsider amongst the Kalamazoo kids, since they’re all here for their long, study abroad program. I told Mya today (Wednesday) about feeling that way, and she told me I totally shouldn’t. We’ve been sitting together on the bus all day and have chatted a lot about books, Kalamazoo gossip, religion, and general observations about people. I’m a big fan of hers.

This morning, getting out of bed was brutal. I slept so well in the AC under proper bedding! At 7:45, I got up and showered (Sheila already had) and I got dressed in Indian clothes. Since we’re driving to Jaipur today, I figured I’d be exponentially more comfortable in Indian clothes. It was a good decision. Around 8:05, we went to breakfast, which was a big buffet. I feasted. Banana pancakes, chocolate cereal, a small sugar donut, pineapple, chicken sausage and fresh watermelon juice. It was delightful. They were showing the highlights of the Uruguay/Netherlands game on the TV, too, so I was doubly psyched. At 9, we met in the lobby, and headed out around 9:35. We went to Qtab Minar, a mindblowing site with the tallest brick minaret in the world, and an assortment of other really old structures, including the oldest mosque in India. Super cool. In the hour and forty minutes that we were there, we all took an absurd amount of photos. In the tomb area, there were two Indian women there who offered to take my picture. I knew exactly what they were doing, but figured “whatever” and resolved to only give then 10 rupees. One of them took my picture in a few different places, and they actually turned out really cool. She asked for twenty rupees, but I insisted ten. Shortly after, Kathy did the same thing, and then Amit came up and got upset that we’d paid her. I assured him that I knew what I was in for, but he was still bothered by it. I continued to meander around; I walked around by myself, which I really enjoyed. At one point, though, a group of about twenty creepy looking 20-something Indian men cornered me and one asked me to be in a picture with him. I was notably uncomfortable, and said no at first, but ended up saying yes and then they left me alone. It was pretty weird. A few minutes later, I ended up having about a ten minute conversation with an American woman from New York, who was out touring by herself while her husband was working. We chatted about what it’s like to be a tourist in India, and I really enjoyed comparing stories with her since she’s been here for long enough to be accustomed to things the way I am. Being with the new arrivals isn’t annoying, but it’s tiresome to keep hearing them exclaim about things which I’ve just grown used to. I understand their sentiments since I felt them too, but I’ve gotten so used to being amongst Indians and being the new kid, that it’s weird to be with people who aren’t used to things in India yet.

After Qtub Minar, we drove around for a while and then stopped somewhere for lunch. There was a mall or small, sketchy-looking restaurants, so Mya, Alex, and I beelined for the mall. Irfana, Nita ma’am, Nandani, and Nawal also opted for the mall. It turned out that the only open restaurants were KFC and Subway. Dost and Avi had told me that the chicken strips at KFC in India are actually really good, so that’s what I had. Alex and Mya followed suit. We also bought water bottles and soft drinks; I had Mountain Dew (what up, cupcake). While we were sitting in KFC, they played some really heinous remixes of American music, including Eminem and Evanescence. I couldn’t help but chuckle. After lunch, we went back to the bus, where we waited for what felt like a really long time for the rest of the group to come back. Since then, we’ve been on the road to Jaipur. We sat in horrible traffic leaving Delhi, and have stopped a couple of times for water/bathroom breaks. We’ve been on the road for at least 4 hours, and I think it’s supposed to be 1-2 more hours, even though it’s only a 180km drive. Mya and I have chatted on and off throughout the trip, and also made a pact to do our best to prevent Amit from taking pictures of us while we’re sleeping. He is such a character. I’ve also been listening to a lot of music, and finally caved on the homesickness (acute 2-0-sickness) impulse and listened to The Town by Macklemore. It feels so surreal to be on a roadtrip through India, listening to music I’d be listening to with my mom and sister if we were going to Montana. I’m also still enjoying discovering music on my ipod which I didn’t know I had, since Sam was kind enough to give me all his music during the pre-flight ipod fiasco on 10th June…which feels like a lifetime ago. I decided to get the laptop out to work on the blog so I don’t have to do it later, when I’m going to want to be enjoying the amenities of the hotel (pool! Internet! Satellite tv…which means Germany vs. Spain!). This is such a nice break/vacation.