The monsoon deserves its own blog post.

Every day, in the time before dinner, the hotel burns a kind of fragrant incense. Somewhere between smoky and bitter, though not unpleasant, the smell permeates the whole building and comes in plumes up the stairs and out the front door all at once. I found out the smoke kills mosquitoes and have started to welcome the unfamiliar, heady scent. Today the effect is heavy as monsoon clouds descend upon the city and the light begins to fade. The humidity in the air hangs expectant of the rain to come—the past two days have ended in downpours like I’ve never even imagined.

The rain begins slowly but quickly builds to a sheet of falling drops. It crashes down with a force I never knew rain could build and in such quick succession you’re unprepared to suddenly be caught outside. The rain is warm at first, a caress on your skin like silk. It falls straight down in sheets so thick you can’t see across the street. Soon the streets are full of rushing water, creating canals with currents strong enough to encourage motorcyclists towards the sidewalk to avoid being swept away. Soon the balconies and sidewalks are slick with water, soon water is sliding off of every roof and soon you are soaked to the bone. The flashes of lightening and crash of thunder, so bright and loud they could wake you out of the deepest sleep begin. The lightning flashes three, four, five times in a row bringing the streets to full daylight in an instant. Then it is gone and replaced by a clap of thunder that could make you jump out of your skin. Last night it happened between about 2 and 4 am, and Allison (sleeping next to me this week in the hotel) saw me sit straight up in bed and within seconds joined me, both of us just stared in wonder at the falling rain, wondering how in the world the sky could hold so much water.

The rain clears out the air, if only for a little while. If it rains late in the evening or overnight, you wake up the next day and there are waves of mud like sand that's been washed by waves on the beach all over the streets. The cobblestone sidewalk, already an adventure interrupted by huge tree roots and areas where it simply disappears, becomes treacherous. The stones are slick with rainwater, hours after it's rained. Any sun at all and the water begins to evaporate, leaving a hazy fog in all the streets, lingering in the branches of the trees. I can't imagine a more complete humidity, instantly making your body sheen over in sweat. Even when the heat isn't bad, it's impossible to escape. I'm adjusting to it, but it's interesting--especially coming from Colorado, aka the land with zero humidity. Rickshaws are a relief from walking to the ACM office from the hotel, the only breeze in this country seems to originate from racing along the streets in one.

I have to go now, but I wanted to thank you all for reading and also let you know that my massage was fantastic (and I fully intend to get another one in the very near future).

Namaskaar! (Hello!)

It is very hard to believe I have only been here for a few days!

I feel like I'm starting to adjust to life here very quickly, but I think the westernized hotel is a very easy way to help me to adjust. The group is also bonding really quickly, so I feel like I know the personalities of my other ACM-ers fairly well. The group is very congenial, and we like to go out together. Though I am loving getting to know everyone, I am anxious to move in with my home stay family this Saturday because I know that it will be nice to spend more time with Indians and exploring places on my own (this is mostly why I haven't posted any pictures yet--I haven't had time to go out and take pictures on my own and I don't want to carry it everywhere with me yet).

The past few days have been a long and tiring blur, though I know that here I will constantly be running from place to place in hopes of keeping up with all the things I want to do! I hope that in the next week I will experiment on a bike (though the traffic is a little unnerving). There are dozens of heavy old cruiser bikes in oily gray you can buy here for about $20, or rent for 20 rupees/a day, which is only about $.50 a day. This is only one example of the way prices seem so skewed from normal. Later today, I am getting a 50 minute full body massage for 250Rs, or $5. What?! It is funny that many things seem to be "expensive," even though when you think about translating the prices they are almost nothing at all. The only truly expensive things are cell phones and American products (we saw a Nike store up the road). Ben bought a Snapple at CCD (Cafe Coffee Day, what seems to be the Starbucks of India) that cost 120 Rs, more than 5 times the cost of some of the meals you can get on the street, or about $2.40. [As a reference, $1 = approx. 50 Rs, though of course it's changing every day].

Yesterday we started classes. All the staff here in India seems incredibly knowledgeable about all facets of things we might be interested in. We began with a lecture on the colonial influence in India, and I was surprised to find that the book I've been reading recently (Life, Inc.) is actually very informative on this topic. This was followed by a chaha (chaha is Marathi for Hindi chai, or essentially tea. Here is is served seeped very strong with lots of steamed milk and sugar, between 3 and 5 times a day for about 15 Rs in the hotel or 2-5 Rs on the street) break. Then we had Marathi class. Sucheta is the teacher for Marathi, and the language is incredibly fascinating and I love her class! She is a fantastic language teacher with lots of experience teaching Marathi to American ACM students. We are learning useful phrases and verbs and the script slowly, which is very interesting. Sometime soon I hope to post a more linguistic blog entry about my Marathi studies so far, but I think for now I will just start incorporating some Marathi phrases into my posts.

The afternoons have been full of shopping, or what are essentially outings to practice crossing the street. This is a bit like Europe on steroids, and there isn't such thing as "pedestrian right of way" I've enjoyed so much at CC. You have to sort of run/jog across the street in gaps between bicycles, motorcycles, vespas, cars, busses, and rickshaws all going at different speeds and swerving around one another (oh, and on the left of course). I'm sure I will be deathly afraid of traffic for weeks after getting back to the United States, where here I'm sure I will be honked at and run into if not paying attention.

Shopping is interesting, because we are quite aware that people are trying to rip us off and get us to pay more. I'm interested to start learning Marathi and prices a little better from living with my family so I can get things for the "actual" price. I know it seems stingy, but I'm going to be here for another 18 weeks or so and want to save my money as much as possible. I'm saving off on most of my shopping for later, though I'm already excited to start buying textiles and clothing here (particularly scarves, which are absolutely beautiful).

I have to go, because like I mentioned I am about to get a massage from a massage student coming very soon. I will write more on specific topics soon, and hopefully in the next week or so get a chance to post a few pictures of my life here in Pune. I also bought a cell phone yesterday and will be getting it activated tomorrow, so I will send my number to many of you in the near future so we can potentially talk on the phone (for 6 Rs/minute) sometime soon. Love to you all!!

Indian plane food? Not so delicious.

Because I'm not really sure how to start this blog entry, I guess I'll just say that to begin with, I'm safe, happy, and loving India thus far. Now, I'll back track, and tell you about the 20+ hour journey it took to get me all the way here....

We left my house around 8:45 am on Friday morning. This was probably a little early in retrospect, but anxiety forced us out the door and down to Grandma's a little early. My brother was working that day, so he and I said our goodbyes in the kitchen after the obligatory family photos before my departure. We picked up my grandmother, then made a pit stop at the jewelry store where my ring was getting repaired. They didn't open until 10 and we were there around 9:45, so we just sat around and talked about how the employees didn't seem to care that we were clearly in a rush.

When we arrived at DIA, we obviously expected to say goodbye before security, but a thoughtful Continental employee let my family come out to the gate with me. We bantered a bit with the security guys and ate a very American lunch at Panda Express. After exchanging a few dollars for Rupees (about $7 worth, or 250 rps) and giving 50 of the Gandhi-adorned notes, we finally made our way to the gate. A short while and a few thousand pictures more and I was saying goodbye to my parents at the gate.

The flight to Newark was very uneventful. I took a dramamine and slept for about an hour, and made friends with the New Hampshire teenager and 20-something Manhattanite I was sitting next to. Once we were in Newark, I found a pay phone to call my parents, since my beloved (but tragically, American) Blackberry is still sitting on my bedside table back in Evergreen. I had to pay an entire dollar for a three minute conversation, which seemed more than ridiculous--not to mention obsolete, I actually got a few stares from New Yorkers trying to figure out why a girl, clearly in her 20s, was using a pay phone. Then it was time to find my gate, and typically, it was on the opposite side of the concourse (even though I flew into gate C113 and departed from C98).

The flight attendants were checking passports and visas when I got to my gate, so I joined the throng of passengers. Soon, I was joined by Liz, another girl on my program who was taking the same flight. We verified our passports and travel documents with the crew and then found somewhere to sit. A few minutes later, Nate, another ACM-er, joined the party and we all chatted while we waited for first class to board. I quickly found my seat, an aisle in an exit row and right behind the bathrooms midway through the plane, and settled in. I popped two more dramamine before stowing my backpack above me, and before I knew it, we were off. Because it was trans-Atlantic, and I may have the worst luck on flights ever, I was seated next to the obligatory crying baby on the plane. It was hard to be irritated though, his parents were young and looked as though they would be soon introducing him to family in India and were very apologetic for his crying.

Thanks to dramamine and a lack of lights, I got a nice 8 or so hours of sleep on the flight. The total time on the plane was about 14 hours, so I watched a few movies on the private touch-screen viewers they had for every seat. The rest of the time was spent draining the energy on my now-dead iPod and solidifying my sleep patterns with American time zones. As a side note... Indian plane food? Not so delicious.

The flight ended surprisingly quickly, and with breakfast, despite the fact that we arrived around 8:30pm Mumbai time. Liz, Nate and I found one another relatively quickly and made our way to customs. We were greeted, immediately off the plane, by uniformed Indians carrying machine guns and wearing surgical masks. That's right--H1N1, swine flu, has hit India. There have only been a few cases so far, but most of the locals are taking extreme measures to prohibit the spread of the flu as much as possible. Obviously, in a country like India, the masses of poor in slums are easy targets for large numbers of infected individuals in only a few weeks. All of the customs agents were also wearing masks, and we were forced to fill out forms assessing our H1N1 risk along with regular customs forms. Many Indians debarking from the plane were also wearing masks and protecting younger children.

Besides the surprising factor of the surgical masks, customs was very easygoing. We were ushered through fairly quickly and found the process surprisingly easy. The hardest part was finding our bags in a throng of people from our flight crowded around the carousel. And then...

Welcome to Mumbai. The last hour or so of easygoing airport officials did not prepare me for the sensory overload that is outside the Mumbai airport. The first thing that hits you is the heat, the humidity. It was instantly overwhelming and you could feel it on your skin long before making your way outside. Sometime during your first breath of 'fresh' Mumbai air, the volume hits you. Hundreds of Indians are crowded around gates keeping them from overcrowding the door leading outside. Many of them are waiting for family members or waving to friends arriving from some flight. Most of them are working for hotels or touring companies, holding signs with Western names on them that they would shake excitedly if I looked at them. Nowhere could Liz, Nate and I find a sign denoting that ACM students should follow them, we stood around looking sufficiently lost.

A friendly Indian airport worker was quick to our rescue, as he pointed out another student looking for our same group. Allison had been traveling for two weeks prior to the program's start by herself, and was meeting us at the airport. Once we were all together in a group, we decided to simply stand still and let the directors find us instead. Soon, Gene, Sucheta, and Aaron (the other CC-ite I had never met) were wandering towards us, and suitable introductions were then made. Soon we were following the rapidly disappearing backs of Indians from our hotel in Mumbai towards the van taking us to check in. The drive was incredibly stressful, that's all I can really say about it. There seem to be no rules, other than that you should generally drive on the left side of the road and usually stop at red lights. Honking seems to be the way of directing traffic around here, a way of signifying to cars and motorcycles that you are about to pass them on the right in the same lane they're currently driving in. Turns are tight and maps are nearly unreadable, but the drivers seem cool and collected and more than prepared to drive in what I can only see as utter chaos.

The next few hours were mostly uneventful. I got to hang out with the other kids in the program, which was a welcome rest from the long, solitary silence of the flight. Soon, Ben and Garrett joined us from their flights that got in around 11pm, and then eventually we were joined by Sydney and Logan, who both got in around 1am. Soon enough we had the whole group together in one room and were making introductions. Of course, to our American brains (except for Allison, who's accustomed to the time zone already) the middle of the night seemed like the middle of the day, so 3am after a shower turned out to be an acceptable bedtime. I only slept for about 3 hours, using this morning as time to catch up on a little reading and enjoy some Indian TV (which is an amazing mix of Hindi and English).

This morning, we were treated to Indian breakfast at the hotel, which was an interesting experience. A little later, we were repacked and jumping into a bus for the 3 hour trip to Pune. The ride was a good experience, and overwhelming in a lot of ways. It was a chance for more bonding with the rest of the group, as well as observation of the outer limits of Mumbai and the countryside on the way to Pune. I was surprised and amazed at the miles and miles of slums that lined the expressways, so obviously wracked with terrible poverty. These lean-tos quickly gave way to miles and miles of the most beautiful forest I've ever seen. We are, quite literally, in the middle of the jungle here.

Now that we're checked into our hotel in Pune, we have regular internet and comfortable beds. I have to go now to a meeting with the doctor about staying safe and healthy in this H1N1 scare, as well as digestive and traveling health in general. I hope to hear from you all soon, and happy travels to those of you who haven't left yet.

Down to the wire

It is officially less than a week until I leave for Pune.

I don't really know quite how to feel at this point. Amazingly, this trip is not quite real yet... I think it probably won't be until I'm actually getting on the plane!

I'm in the beginning vestiges of packing. The first step is laundry, of which there is a lot to do. I've been sort of gathering a lot of my stuff I don't need on a daily basis off to one side of my room. I think I'm going to officially start packing this coming Tuesday. Tomorrow is my going-away party, hosted by my parents, and then I'm helping out with my dad's business on Monday. That and I'm mostly afraid that if I start packing too early, I'll finish too early, and then have nothing to do from Wednesday until Friday. Which, when I type it out, doesn't seem like much time at all, but know from experience that two days when you're completely overwhelmed with nerves is really not the most fun thing to do. I'll be much happier if I actually have something to do (and packing, and then re-packing to double check everything) will keep my head somewhat occupied.

I can't believe it's almost time for me to leave! Here I am, making plans and last goodbyes to people I won't see for months. It's funny to think that in any other era I would be, for the most part, completely cut off from all the friends and family I'm leaving here in the U.S. But thankfully, the interwebs provides quite an easy way to talk to everyone.

I guess I'm off to go hang around the house for a while. Lunch with a friend this afternoon!

3 weeks, and counting!

We're getting down to crunch time! It's been pretty crazy over the past few weeks, and I've done a lot of preparations recently for this whole thing.

I started out by buying some new clothes. The ACM packet mentioned that we should wear lose clothes, no spaghetti straps or short shorts. Not that I generally wear that kind of thing anyway, but my mom and I went on a quest to find more "appropriate" wear for being abroad. We ended up with some cute button-up shirts that look like I'm going on a safari and a bunch of guys' shorts, since I couldn't find any bermuda ones I liked in the girls' section. With my dad, I bought a pair of seriously cool Chacos, that I think will be great for walking around in, and a new backpack for the longer travel I'll be doing near the end of the semester. I've tried it out bringing it to Colorado Springs a few times to visit campus, and so far, I'm loving the size and shape of it.

My mom has been spending a lot of time looking at international insurance, and getting freaked out by options created just in case my body needs to be shipped back to the United States. Awesome, right? We went to the bank today to let them know that I would be traveling, and a teller told me about her brother's year-long trip to India. She joked with my mom that by the time I came back she would probably be completely grey-haired with worry. I called Verizon today to make sure they knew I was going as well, and it turns out they're actually very helpful when you want to suspend your account for six months. Instead of keeping my American cell phone with me in Pune, I'll be buying a phone abroad and using that instead. Maybe today is just my lucky day, but so far, everyone has been helpful!

I also called Continental, because I was starting to get worried that the sketchy Indian company I used hadn't sent me a copy of my ticket yet. Turns out, I am definitely on their passenger manifest and will, in fact, be flying to India on August 14. That is a relief, to know that I have a seat on the flights.

I also finally filled my Malaria prophylaxis, which is a relief. I also got away with a steal! Apparently King Soopers has the kind that I'm taking on their $4/month prescription list, so I got 160 pills for like, $30. My mom and I were expecting this to be more like $200, so it was pretty cool when the whole thing turned out to be only about $40. We flipped out a little bit and the pharmacist was seriously confused. I think he thought we thought it was super expensive, so he was trying to reassure us that it was indeed only $30 for the Malaria pills. Wow!

There are very few things I have left to buy. I need to find out what I need to get in terms of voltage converters and plugs for India. If you have any advice on this front, it would be greatly appreciated. I only need to plug in a few things (camera battery charger, computer), but they're expensive so I want to make sure that I don't fry them the first time I go to plug them in on the subcontinent. I am also anxiously awaiting a meeting where I'll be awarded a $1000 scholarship for my time abroad! I'm very excited about this, as my summer job hasn't turned out to be quite the cash cow I expected.

Now, all that's left is to buy gifts for my host family, finish reading my two books for India, (Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry and India: From Midnight to the Millenium by Shashi Tharoor) and take my Typhoid vaccination! Oh, and pack, of course! :)

Visas, passport pictures, and more.

A few days ago, we started the quest for my visa to be in India for six months. The whole process seemed simple enough: fill out this form online, print it, then mail it to the consulate in San Francisco (the closest consulate to Denver, apparently). That being said, it was of course not easy.

I started off the day by working at 5:30 AM. Waking up at like 4 was brutal, but once I was up it was alright. Loooong morning serving breakfast to old people, then I came home, totally beat. My mom's first suggestion was that we deal with the whole visa thing. Of course, this seemed like a good idea since I thought it would take a total of 10 minutes, running to Evergreen. I was wrong.

First, I double checked all my information against the packet that ACM sent, regarding how to answer the questions on the questionnaire. That packet turned out to be very helpful (thanks Heather!). There were what I assume are normal questions to ask while applying for a visa, but many of them were phrased strangely. I also had to enter a 5 line address for the program director in Pune, which I never would have known without it. Anyway, so after double checking all the info online, I then printed three copies (just in case), and double checked the info again as per my mom's request. Finally I checked the checklist.

Not only do I need the form, and my actual passport to be sent in (with emphasis on both being SIGNED), I need a Money Order for $150, proof of my residence, two passport-sized pictures, and a letter from my program saying I was accepted. I promptly asked my dad what a money order is, and he struggled to remember for a few minutes before telling me to google it, haha. It was the perfect reaction--who actually uses money orders these days? ... the Indian consulate.

We took care of the pictures first. We went to Walgreens, since it is close and convenient. The thing about getting your picture taken at Walgreens is this: the people act a little strange while taking your actual picture, and they don't use a flash. So I'm standing in front of this white pulldown thing, and the lady goes to take my picture. I smile, but then she says to relax my face. I try to do this, but don't really want to stop smiling. She shows the picture to me, which is very dark on the screen (especially under the white florescent lights at Walgreens), and I just accept the picture since I can't see it. We order ten copies of the picture, in 2x2 size. We need two for the visa, one for ACM, and four for the Pune Police. That leaves us with 3 extra copies that I'm sure I'll need. Anyway, so after about 10 minutes, the pictures come out. The lady shows them to me, and what has come out is a washed-out picture of me smiling in a bit of a sarcastic way. She had used the computer to lighten the image and my expression is just priceless. I hope that's the expression I can wear if I have to deal with the Pune Police... sarcastic, not terrified.

Anyway, once we had the pictures and all this nonsense assembled, we went to Mailboxes Etc. to mail the whole thing off. We thought they might do money orders there, but they didn't, so we walked a ways to King Soopers. Turns out, to get a money order (which is basically a notarized check that you don't have to wait to clear), you have to use either cash or a debit card with a pin number. I can guess that this is because they want to make sure that the money order will clear on the other side, not get bounced back to them. Long story short... my mom's card didn't work, and neither did mine. Finally, I had to try my Well's Fargo account, which I only use at school and had a whopping $1.59 in the checking account. There isn't a Wells Fargo near my house, so we had to drive to Denver to put enough money in the account so that it would clear.

Yeah.

The whole ordeal ended up taking more than two hours, but I'm glad we got the whole thing off. My mom laughed as we finally pulled into my driveway, saying this was probably just an early taste of Indian bureaucracy. She's probably right.... I can't wait!

Two months and counting!

I leave for India in exactly 2 months.

I just bought my plane ticket the other day. My mom and I, in an effort to find the cheapest ticket for the itinerary I need, bought the ticket from a slightly sketchy Indian website. I hope I actually got a spot on the plane. I have to fax them these forms (TO INDIA, what!) before the weekend is over. I'm slightly confused but I hope it will work out. This plane ticket was also officially the most expensive thing I've ever bought. Almost $1,300. Oyy. I am officially broke.

I'm also officially starting to get nervous. Having a plane ticket makes the whole thing a lot more real, somehow. I just can't believe that I'm actually going. Me. To India. For six months. Whoa! I'm off to go start filling out paperwork, I'm sending in my visa application this week! :)