Santiniketan

Sound unfamiliar?  Well that's where I went with the group from CSB/SJU last weekend: a famous village called Santiniketan.  Only a four or five hour drive away from Kolkata, Santiniketan brought the group more interaction with the culture of West Bengal.

Saturday's highlights took two forms: shopping and watching a dance.  We visited a weekly market for handicrafts.  The hand-made jewelry, clothing, bags, and other beautiful items forced us to see everything before making any decisions.  Fortunately, everything was remarkably inexpensive.  One pair of earrings cost me only 10 Rupees, which is less than 25 cents in America!  We just wish there had been more time before we had to leave for a dance.  We went to a small, rural village to see a performance of a traditional wedding dance.  The dancers only perform this dance, unique to this particular village, at weddings and upon special request from visitors.  It seemed that the entire town gathered, partially to see the performance and partially because they were as interested in us as we were in them.  Upon leaving, we visited the Amar Kutir Society for Rural Development, a one-time refuge for Indian nationalists that is now famous for its leather products.  By the end of the day, we were "shopped out" but quite content.

Sunday brought more academic experiences.  After a visit to terracotta temples, we ate a traditional Bengali street breakfast.  Then, we visited the sites that made Santiniketan famous: sites related to Rabindranath Tagore.  Although unknown in America, Tagore is extremely famous in India as a poet, writer, artist, composer, playwright, actor, educator, and more.  Tagore's writings and speeches greatly influenced the Indian nationalist movement, although he often disagreed with Gandhi.  In addition, both India and Bangladesh selected songs by Tagore as their national anthems.  We saw a museum about Tagore and walked through some of his many, architecturally artistic houses.  But my favorite part was the school.  Tagore began a high school and later a university on the belief that school should be interesting and based on student motivation to learn rather than on teachers force-feeding information.  As part of this, classes occur outside in nature when possible.  I marveled at the circular benches under trees that even included chalkboards.  Then again, our frequent requests to work outside in my Educational Psychology class last spring suggests that this concept should not surprise me.  Something about being outside just makes learning a bit more enjoyable.  Tagore's school is by no means an academically superior educational institution, but it certainly encouraged greater efforts to make learning enjoyable in Kolkata's schools.

The trip to Santiniketan was by no means as exciting to write and read about as some of our earlier adventures.  On the other hand, I loved our weekend and would have enjoyed more time there.  But, alas, we had to return to Kolkata for that funny little thing called class.  Sometimes, it takes a few reminders to recall that we are in India for STUDY abroad.  And an eighteen credit course load is certainly nothing to sneeze at when we also wish to make friends and explore the city...

At this point, I have a request of readers.  Do you have any questions regarding life here in India or other factors of my trip?  If so, I would love to answer.  Just comment on any blog post or contact me through another means of communication.  I may respond directly or turn your thought/question into a topic for a blog post.  After all, I want to share that which interests you.

Fun in Kolkata

I’ve already told you a bit about the more program-oriented elements of my stay in India—the host family stay, St. Xavier’s College, and service at the Loreto Day School.  But what do my friends and I do for entertainment?  Here are a few things we have been up to lately:

Shopping: Of course, we love shopping, especially as we grow new wardrobes more suitable for the warm weather and Indian culture than our Minnesota wardrobes.  At New Market—ironically, New Market is the oldest market in Kolkata—or Gariahat Market, we can find pretty much everything for what we consider reasonable prices.  But we risk paying far too much for low quality items, as sellers immediately recognize us as foreigners.  When we want to avoid this hazard with the knowledge by paying higher prices for high quality items, we frequent South City Mall.  This five-story mall also makes a fantastic hang-out spot when we just want to get out of the house.

Eating Out: This is a more challenging activity due to its expensive nature, but we enjoy eating out, especially with our new friends from college.  Lunchtime favorites include chicken egg rolls (a very different food from what Americans think of as egg rolls) and veg-cheese grilled sandwiches, although I must admit to also trying food at a McDonalds very unlike its American counterpart.  We have also visited a fantastic Chinese restaurant, a delicious Italian restaurant, and more.  Just remember: even non-Indian foods have a strong Indian influence such that they are quite different from what we are accustomed to.  The spaghetti you ordered may just be extremely spicy!

Special Events: We have been to three special, once-a-year events.  Xavotsav in January was a three-day arts festival at St. Xavier’s.  All colleges here have a festival of this sort, but St. Xavier’s has the largest in Kolkata, if not the largest in India.  With a variety of music and dance competitions for college students from around India, Xavotsav was quite the experience!  Then, the beginning of February brought the Kolkata Book Fair, the largest public book fair in the world.  We went two days, looking at books in stands for publishers and distributers alike.  I may just have bought out the Penguin Publishers stand if it hadn’t been for the fact that anything I buy needs to get back to Minnesota one way or another!  Finally, last weekend was the weekend of Sufi Sutra, a music festival during which musicians from around the world played Indian classical music.  We went on Sunday evening and enjoyed ourselves despite the resulting plethora of mosquito bites.

Yesterday brought a variety of fun.  The group from CSB/SJU took a boat ride on the Hooghly River.  We saw a different view of the city and stopped at the Sri Ramakrishna Temple, a collection of Hindu temples.  Then, Bekkah and I visited a new friend from St. Xavier’s.  We ate aloo (potato) bharatas (a type of flatbread) before going for a walk and shopping at a mall called Hiland Park.  I laughed at the mall’s name, but this smaller mall made for a great time.

Of course, this is just a snippet of the various activities my friends and I have been up to.  We have been quite busy, which is just fine in my book!

The Jungle Post

Sorry that I have not posted in so long!  Expect more frequent posts in the future.  For now, I hope an overview of my trip to North Bengal can make up for the two week silence.

I guess the best way to begin may be to explain where we went.  The term "North Bengal" probably doesn't evoke excitement nearly as much as a different way of defining our location last weekend: the Himalayas.  We (the group from CSB/SJU) left last Friday morning on a flight from Kolkata to Bagdogra.  From there, a long ride in three vehicles brought us to a two night stay at the Chilapata Jungle Camp followed by two nights at the Neora Valley Jungle Camp.  We enjoyed our stay enough that Tuesday's return trip to Kolkata came altogether too quickly.

Our first location, Chilapata, rests within a wildlife preservation jungle.  We arrived at night, so all we knew was that our cottages were on stilts and surrounded by dense vegetation.  An early morning safari brought us a better view of the wonderfully green jungle.  I loved seeing the trees and other plants.  This led me to take many photos, which I hope to share soon.  We also saw wild elephants and rhinos!  They were hidden behind vegetation and difficult to make out, but we saw them!  In other highlights from Chilapata, I tried my hand at fishing with a bamboo fishing pole, mostly to say that I did.  Then, six of us biked to some villages.  We were able to follow paths too narrow for cars, from which we saw a variety of facets of everyday life in these rural communities.  In all, it was the perfect bike ride as part of an excellent few days.

Next, we drove for a few hours to the Neora Valley.  We passed countless tea plantations before beginning the winding roads into the foothills of the Himalayas.  The fog was too thick to allow for visibility of the snow-capped peaks and the passageway to China (yes, we were that close!), but we did see villages and beautiful hills.  My first impression was that it looked just like textbook pictures of Nepal, which makes sense in a community so close to the neighboring country that their primary language is Nepali.  The best part of our stay in the Neora Valley was a long hike down to one of the most remarkable waterfalls I have ever seen.  The site was fantastic!  We were exhausted by the time we were done hiking, but the view was well worth the effort!  Other highlights from the Neora Valley included: a short exploratory hike off the main road, visiting a Buddhist monastery in the nearby town of Lava, late-night conversations while huddled under blankets for warmth, and trying a local beer (non-intoxicating: children drink it) made with millet.  The Neora Valley was COLD, but well worth the visit.  Thank goodness the political tensions eased just long enough for us to experience it!

I know that's a lot of information to take in with one blog post, but we were busy!  Most people in the group did not even find a chance to shower during the five days of constant activity!  I say that not to make you think that we were disgusting, but to show how constantly on-the-go we were (I showered once, but it was too cold at night and in mornings).  We loved the food and drank probably close to our body weight in masala chai, a tea beverage similar to what Americans call Chai Tea.  I am happy to be back and able to sit (and warm up!), but I'll always have fond memories of this fantastic trip!

In other news...
MORE PICTURES!

I have another PhotoBucket album up!  These photos include pictures from our trip to Agra (the Taj Mahal) and my first few weeks in Kolkata.  Just click HERE for 75 more photos from my amazing experiences in India.  Enjoy!

I Feel Comfortable

As I walked along Park Street the other day, it occurred to me that I actually feel comfortable living in Kolkata.  I don't mean this as a tourist might say that she feels safe or able to enjoy a two week vacation.  I mean that Kolkata feels like a comfortable place to live.  At this point, I know how to get around to some of the more important places (school, shopping, and my host family's home) and feel less of an outsider than my physical appearance might suggest.  After all, people recognize immediately that I am not a full-time resident whose family has lived in India for generations.  But I feel like I am no longer a tourist, bound by maps and disoriented at every turn.  In fact, after two weeks in the city, I finally have something resembling a routine.

My friend Bekkah and I live with an Indian couple in South Kolkata.  Shantanu and Rashmi live on the third and fourth floors of his family home.  Bekkah and I share a bedroom with two single beds and two closets.  Next to the bedroom is the bathroom.  The shower head only has cold water, so we fill a bucket with warm water to shower, but it works.  The shower and connecting pipes are also where the maid washes our clothes every day after sweeping the floors.  It was certainly an unfamiliar experience to see a maid cleaning the floor for us as we slept and hand washing our clothes!  The other room that we use frequently has a couch, a few chairs, and a desk for homework.  Bekkah and I enjoy living here.  Shantanu and Rashmi are very kind and generous people who always try to provide good food and good experiences.

I attend St. Xavier's College for classes.  The school is only a short walk, an auto-rickshaw, and a metro ride away from the house where I live.  It is considered the best college in India from what we have heard.  However, I am more interested in the comparisons so easily visible between my college experience in Minnesota and college at St. Xavier's.  Students here stand when their professors enter the room and when speaking, addressing professors as "sir" and "ma'am."  They also spend more time each week in class, although they do not receive nearly as many assignments to complete outside of class.  In all, I take eighteen credits worth of classes:

• 4-credit Study Abroad Seminar: Our trip director, Professor Madhu Mitra from CSB/SJU teaches a class that looks at India through Indian novels
• 4-credit "Perspectives on India": Dr. Sweta Ghosh from St. Xavier's teaches a class on the history and sociology of India
• 2-credit Bengali: Learning the Bengali language with a professor from St. Xavier's
• 2-credit fine arts: We will attend a variety of performances and workshops to learn about art, especially folk art, of West Bengal
• 2-credit Service Learning: We will work with students at the Loreto Day School (one of the reasons why I came to India) and reflect on our experiences
• 4-credit International Relations: I am taking an International Relations class with fourth-semester political science students at St. Xavier's.  In addition, I will write a dissertation relating to international relations.  My plan is to probably write something relating to the changing relationship between the United States and India, especially with regards to their foreign policies.

So there you have it: a bit about my home and school here in Kolkata.  After all is said and done, Kolkata is in the process of becoming a new home to me, a good thing considering that I will be here for another few months.

Picture Time!

At long last, I have finally begun to load photos onto the internet.  In fact, I have created an album on Photo Bucket (a photo sharing site) called India Begins.  This album includes photos from Sunday, December 26 (the day we left Minnesota) through Wednesday, January 5 (the day we returned to Delhi from Rajasthan).  I should warn you, though - the album contains 181 photos out of a desire to share everything.  It may be more worthwhile for you to pick and choose photos to look at based on their previews.  I also hope to upload photos onto Facebook for any Facebook friends to see in an album that will have fewer photos.  But for now, I will let my pictures tell you a bit about my story so far.  They are random and many, but you are sure to find something interesting.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Namaste (Hello) everyone!  I am finally now in Kolkata.  However, before I describe my unbelievable experiences here in my new home, I should first provide some sort of quick update on the end of the more "vacationy" part of my stay in India.  For some unknown reason, last week seems to fit quite well with the popular phrase, "the good, the bad, and the ugly."

The Good: Our Adventures
We (the group from CSB/SJU and I) have had some amazing adventures.  I detailed some in my last post, ending with a rocking New Year's celebration.  On January 1, we continued to welcome the new year in unbelievable fashion by riding a bit further into the desert.  Why?  We went to a camp where we rode camels.  Let's just say, I prefer to ride horses any day.  Camels are taller and much bumpier, no pun intended!  However, the view of the sunset over the sand dunes was completely and utterly unlike any sunset I have ever seen.  None of my pictures do it justice!  Then, we returned to camp for dinner and a cold night's sleep in huge tents.  No, really huge tents.  They really weren't tents in any way except for the fabric walls.  Each had a double bed, a variety of other furniture, and a complete bathroom with toilet and shower.  Talk about waste!  It's a tad confusing whether to consider it good that tourism provides income to a desert community in the midst of a long drought or whether it wastes valuable resources!

After more adventures in Jaisalmer and a long trip back to Delhi, our next big adventure was a trip to Agra.  Yes, just like any other self-respecting traveller in India, I saw the Taj Mahal.  To be honest, I really don't know what to say about it.  It was very beautiful, but everyone already knows that.  The detailing is impeccable.  It is unquestionably the most extravagant mausoleum I have ever seen in my life, probably because it is one of the most expensive of modern history.  After the Taj, we visited the Agra Fort.  It was also very beautiful.  If we weren't "forted out" already, to quote another member of the group (this was our fourth fort in just over a week), we would have loved the detailed architecture.  We also would have appreciated the intelligence behind a two-moat system with an water moat and a jungle moat filled with lions and tigers.  As it was, our strongest memories will probably be the adorable monkeys at the entrance.  They were so funny!

The Bad: Illness
I have heard that everyone gets some sort of illness from travelling to India.  This became true for our group when people began experiencing stomach cramps and other complaints.  Some people had primarily food-induced issues, while a contagious cold also entered the group.  When the problems got to me in Agra, everything hit at once.  It was horrible!  I could not keep food in me and ended up going probably almost 72 hours without solid foods!  Worse, I had to stay at the hotel all day on Thursday, missing our last day in Delhi!

Fortunately, I am better now.  I visited a doctor on Friday, making for an experience in itself.  There was almost no wait, and the visit was only around $14 including consultation, a quick IV, and prescription medicines.  I don't know anything about how qualified the doctor was or the quality and cleanliness of the hospital, or anything like that because, well, I was a tad distracted by being sick.  On the other hand, maybe that's a good thing.  Further discussion would beg debate over public/private health care, an issue that I have not researched enough to argue.  Just know that I am better now after a miserable illness.  And now that I have Internet for the first time since Friday, my parents can stop worrying.  My poor parents had to wait four days knowing nothing but the fact that I was sick and had been to the doctor!

The Ugly: Us
No, this is not self-deprecating.  Thank goodness we have moved into semi-permanent homes in Kolkata, because the entire group had become a bit...well, if not quite ugly, let's just say worn and smelly.  In addition to the illness that hit almost everyone, we faced a rather grueling travel schedule.  One day involved a five hour bus ride from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur followed by an overnight, thirteen hour train ride from Jodhpur to Delhi.  The day after our return to Delhi brought thirteen hours round-trip of travel from Delhi (6am) to Agra and back (midnight).  It was fun to see the countryside, and the sleeping car of the train was an experience.  On the other hand, it left even the healthy exhausted.  With the packing and repacking, I twice ended up styling my hair without a hairbrush.  Fortunately, there were showers, even if occasionally cold or broken (we will be bucket shower experts by May).  In a final experience under my "ugly" category, nobody did laundry during our travels.  By Saturday, the only clean clothes worn were those purchased during Thursday's trip to Fab India!

So, hello Kolkata!  I came to you smelly and unhealthy but quite pleased by our adventures.  The past two weeks of travel were unforgettable!  Now I need to relax.  Time to unpack (check), begin classes (tomorrow), and develop a routine (soon, I hope).  The world traveller is settling down for the most subtly wonderful part of study abroad: integration into a non-American culture.  Blog posts from here may not be as flashy, but they'll reflect the true depth of my experience.  To all back in America or elsewhere: namaste (goodbye)!

Crash Course in India

I left Minnesota over a week ago, and I honestly am not sure if I have woken up from this very long dream.  In other words, life has felt unreal, to say the least.  So please bear with me as I attempt to summarize and reflect on what I have experienced up to this point.

First of all, the flight: um, wow.  The flight from Minneapolis to Paris actually went quite well.  I discovered that my cousin Laura and her fiance Seth happened to be on the same flight, travelling for a choir trip.  Talk about a coincidence!  Then, the last thing I saw of Minnesota as we rose above the clouds was the Metrodome, in all it's collapsed-roof glory.  However, things took a surprising turn in Paris.  Our 10:30am flight was rescheduled to 10:30pm and then to 8am the next day, thanks to mechanical errors.  After maneuvering the maze that is Charles de Gaulle airport towards a shuttle to the courtesy hotel, my friend Bekkah and I decided to visit the city.  After all, how many opportunities does a girl get to visit Paris without paying for a hotel?  We met up with two other young women also stranded between flights and split the cost of a taxi into the Paris.  Although only wearing thin jackets in freezing weather (we wouldn't have needed coats in India, where we were supposed to be!), the group saw the Arc de Triomphe, strolled the Champs-Elysees, ate pastries at a cafe, rode the metro, and saw the Tour Eiffel.  It was a fun but cold night!  The next morning, after a three-hour delay, we took off for the flight that finally brought us to Delhi, India after midnight on the morning of Wednesday, December 29.

Our first day in India was basically a crash course in India.  We encountered children begging for money as we entered the bus.  Then, as we rode into Delhi, we saw the extremes of the city: wealth next to poverty, modern technology next to cows (yes, cows are everywhere!), clean houses next to piles of garbage.  We first visited the India Gate, a memorial to fallen soldiers.  Then, after lunch at a coffee shop, we toured the Red Fort, built in the 1600s by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.  Both were interesting, but the real lesson came next, with a tour of Old Delhi.  We went down incredibly busy alleys with shops selling goods, people pressing all around, and motorcycles barrelling through.  I have never experienced such chaos, not even at the State Fair or on the Target Field concourse!  As to crossing streets, let's just say that I have never felt so unsafe yet safe all at once.  There are cars everywhere, meaning that crossing the street is sometimes a matter of walking between vehicles, and yet drivers always stop in time.  I have yet to see evidence of a car accident.  The day ended with Kabobs - yum!

Our next day (Thursday) brought a flight to Jodhpur, a city in the state of Rajasthan.  We visited Mehrangarh, a beautiful old fort.  The detailed carving on sandstone in the fort was unbelievable!  I found it interesting that the builders carved ornate screens in place of windows that allowed people to see out of rooms but not into rooms while allowing sunlight in.  This was especially important for the cultural expectations that women remain away from men's eyes.

Friday began with a five hour bus ride to Jaisalmer, a city farther into the desert (and closer to Pakistan, but never too close!).  There, we spent the night in an old palace, half of which still houses Jaisalmer's royal family.  We celebrated the new year at a special party in the palace.  There was music and entertainment in the form of Rajasthani dancers.  The food was good, and we danced quite a bit.  Overall, the group made sure to begin the year with a bang...literally.  At midnight, the lights went out and fireworks went off.  Everything was about as far from my usual Minnesota celebration of the New Year as I could imagine: no coats, desert rather than snow, in another country, and the ball would not drop for another 10-1/2 hours!

Now that I have thoroughly bored you with more details than you care to know, I should end this post for the time being.  Hopefully, I can fill everyone in on the rest of my time in the desert soon.  I also hope to share pictures when possible.  For now, I should sleep in preparation for tomorrow's 6am bus ride to Agra.  Taj Mahal, here I come!  And to everyone not in India, Namaste!