Things!

25-09-2013

I realize that my last post was rather heavy (and also lacking in personal adventures), so here comes a lighter and hopefully less serious post about my life.

Where to start? I am currently in my room with my Christmas (or Diwali) lights on, and my fan on full blast. My favorite thing to do after class is come home, take off my Indian clothes, and lie under the fan in a tank top and underwear for several minutes. I would say that it is a guilty pleasure, but it is almost necessary to keep me from dying from heat, or something like that.

All drama aside, things here have been settling fairly well. I have been here for over a month, and am finally working my way to a routine. There are still things that I find surprising, in both positive and negative ways. For example, the other day I was walking to a café when a man riding a bicycle passed me. Attached to his bicycle was a wide cart, and on the cart were tied about eight goats. Yes, tied. They were all on their bellies with their legs underneath them, and tied down to the cart and to one another with a piece of twine. None of them looked particularly distressed; in fact, they looked around with curiosity, almost seeming to enjoy their private carriage. I regret that I didn’t have my camera with me, because I doubt that I will ever see anything like that again. On the flip side, there are also unpleasant surprises, like rickshaw drivers following you for blocks, asking if you need a ride and unfazed when you yell “NO!” at them in Hindi. These people aren’t usually dangerous, but man, are they a bother. I have a serious need for some Hindi expletives, or at least some rude hand gestures.

Things with my host family are going well, though the family conducts itself in a way that I am entirely unfamiliar with, and often don’t know how to function in. Our host mother, Sarika, cooks dinner for everyone, and serves us (and often our host sister as well) dinner around 7:30 every night. We are expected to just sit and wait for our food to come on round silver plates, and after we finish we put them in a bin on the floor. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her eat, for she waits until her husband gets home (around 10:00 or 11:00, I believe) so she can serve him and then finally sit down to eat as well. Our grandmother seems to wait as well, though she is a mysterious force in the home, yelling Hindi and giving us meaningful but indiscernible looks as we eat our food.

A woman comes every day to clean all the dishes and clean the house as well, so our host sister, Riti, has not been brought up to be neat. Quite the opposite, really. She is also incredibly destructive, to a point where I have no words left to say. Last night she sang us a song about poop, finished her dinner and threw her plate on the ground, wiped her face and hands on a newspaper and then on a doll, then proceeded to pick up the doll and use it to hit me on the head, an activity she seems to find particularly rewarding. Well, as long as one of us is having fun it’s okay, I guess. She seems to hit me out of affection or some other strange emotion, or at least that is what I’m telling myself. Still, I do like her a lot. She is smart and silly and fun, as long as she is breaking her own things and maybe taking a break from violence.

School has continued to be frustrating, though it has been inspiration for some very good doodles. I have talked to several people about the class format, but nothing has seemed to change much. I think the problem is that so far I have been respectful and sweet and quiet. It’s time to let the real me out! Of course, I will still broach the topic respectfully, but I need to be firm and quietly angry. We’ll see if I can channel that. I tend to be the “good cop” in situations like these, but I think it’s about time for a role change.

We are in the middle of week five, and our semester is only fifteen or sixteen weeks. During week eight we have a week-long travel period, and two weeks after that is our independent travel weekend. When we get back from that, we will have only about a month left. While India has been confusing and hot and scary, I really am enjoying myself here, and I will feel strange leaving.

Well, those are my ramblings for today. Thank you for putting up with them. Stay tuned for next week, when I will relate my soul-bearing origin story from ordinary shmuck to formidable superhero!