I'm in India, and I'm safe.
It's been SUCH an exciting day! I got here yesterday morning, early. After shopping around for a hotel room with the field facilitator (a fellow BYU student, but one who has been in the field before), we crashed for an hour before going to pick up one of the other students (I was the first to get there, nice and early at 5 am!). Then we all went shopping! Yay! I have a...oh dang...I've forgotten what it's called...but the local outfit that's not a sari. In the north it's called salwar camise, but it has a different name down here. Anyway! We found a shop, and we have our first outfit being made. We hope to pick it up today! As of right now, I'm still wearing the same skirt I put on Saturday morning (though I have different shirts, thank goodness. And I did buy the local pajamas...exciting. Like an Indian moo-moo. Kylie, you will LOVE it!)
There's been a lot to get used to. Many very new noises and very new smells. Many women buy strings of jasmine to put in their hair (I'd never noticed how very strong a fragrance it had before I noticed it above all the other smells). All the vehicles on the streets seem to feel the need to simply announce that they exist every few minutes, with a quick honk of the horn. The horns are all somewhat...cute-sounding, and together with the put-put of the rigsha's, and the yelling, and crows...it's all quite...new. I'm really adjusting well though, and am not bothered by any of it yet.
Well...ok, almost not bothered. Those anti-malarial pills are killer! I made the mistake of taking one BEFORE going out to breakfast, and let me tell you...all the way walking over to the little restaraunt, every smell suddenly churned my stomache. It's funny, there's an oddly sour smell that I hadn't picked up on yesterday.
The road system is quite unique here. There are two sides to all the major roads, with a clear division. This is heeded. Any lane markings aside from the one seem to be entirely disregarded. It seems that so long as you're on the correct side of the road, it's a free-for-all. Which works incredibly well. There are raod occupants of every size. Trucks and busses, actual cars, rigshaws, LOTS of little motorcycles, bikes, even pedestrians and sometimes dogs, all find their way through the road. They are incredible drivers. I wonder if the majority of stunt-drivers in the movies are Indian? In any case, they like to clump, and around any point where traffic slows or stops, traffic suddenly becomse a jigsaw puzzle, and it's every person's duty to find where they best fit, and they squeeze in wherever that happens to be.
The train is insane! Even tokyo trains, as often as they are compared with sardine cans, have nothing on the trains here in Chennai! Whenever possible, we look for the specifically designated women cars of the train. Even I feel more comfortable with those. It gets VERY packed.
I showered this morning! With my nifty bucket. It's been a while, and it was more difficult than I expected. In japan, they often showered with buckets, but when they did, they had little stools to sit on. I find it easier that way. I had to re-cleanse myself a few times before I got all the spots I'd missed (for Letitia's knowledge and comfort: I have not yet had to give up my toilet paper).
Oh! The rain! It's funny what little things in America we tend to take for granted (like toilet paper, for one)...such as drain systems. It rained yesterday. It POURED yesterday. And when it did, the streets were immediatedly ankle-deep in muddy, garbage-filled water (the trash is tossed into piles on teh side of the street and collected from there). You just have to not think about it and trudge on. Though, apparently many Indians think that if you get your head wet, you will get sick. so many of them seek shelter when it rains. However, with the millions of people that live in this small city, all shelter was very full, and we had things to do. so we trudged.
It's been SUCH an exciting day! I got here yesterday morning, early. After shopping around for a hotel room with the field facilitator (a fellow BYU student, but one who has been in the field before), we crashed for an hour before going to pick up one of the other students (I was the first to get there, nice and early at 5 am!). Then we all went shopping! Yay! I have a...oh dang...I've forgotten what it's called...but the local outfit that's not a sari. In the north it's called salwar camise, but it has a different name down here. Anyway! We found a shop, and we have our first outfit being made. We hope to pick it up today! As of right now, I'm still wearing the same skirt I put on Saturday morning (though I have different shirts, thank goodness. And I did buy the local pajamas...exciting. Like an Indian moo-moo. Kylie, you will LOVE it!)
There's been a lot to get used to. Many very new noises and very new smells. Many women buy strings of jasmine to put in their hair (I'd never noticed how very strong a fragrance it had before I noticed it above all the other smells). All the vehicles on the streets seem to feel the need to simply announce that they exist every few minutes, with a quick honk of the horn. The horns are all somewhat...cute-sounding, and together with the put-put of the rigsha's, and the yelling, and crows...it's all quite...new. I'm really adjusting well though, and am not bothered by any of it yet.
Well...ok, almost not bothered. Those anti-malarial pills are killer! I made the mistake of taking one BEFORE going out to breakfast, and let me tell you...all the way walking over to the little restaraunt, every smell suddenly churned my stomache. It's funny, there's an oddly sour smell that I hadn't picked up on yesterday.
The road system is quite unique here. There are two sides to all the major roads, with a clear division. This is heeded. Any lane markings aside from the one seem to be entirely disregarded. It seems that so long as you're on the correct side of the road, it's a free-for-all. Which works incredibly well. There are raod occupants of every size. Trucks and busses, actual cars, rigshaws, LOTS of little motorcycles, bikes, even pedestrians and sometimes dogs, all find their way through the road. They are incredible drivers. I wonder if the majority of stunt-drivers in the movies are Indian? In any case, they like to clump, and around any point where traffic slows or stops, traffic suddenly becomse a jigsaw puzzle, and it's every person's duty to find where they best fit, and they squeeze in wherever that happens to be.
The train is insane! Even tokyo trains, as often as they are compared with sardine cans, have nothing on the trains here in Chennai! Whenever possible, we look for the specifically designated women cars of the train. Even I feel more comfortable with those. It gets VERY packed.
I showered this morning! With my nifty bucket. It's been a while, and it was more difficult than I expected. In japan, they often showered with buckets, but when they did, they had little stools to sit on. I find it easier that way. I had to re-cleanse myself a few times before I got all the spots I'd missed (for Letitia's knowledge and comfort: I have not yet had to give up my toilet paper).
Oh! The rain! It's funny what little things in America we tend to take for granted (like toilet paper, for one)...such as drain systems. It rained yesterday. It POURED yesterday. And when it did, the streets were immediatedly ankle-deep in muddy, garbage-filled water (the trash is tossed into piles on teh side of the street and collected from there). You just have to not think about it and trudge on. Though, apparently many Indians think that if you get your head wet, you will get sick. so many of them seek shelter when it rains. However, with the millions of people that live in this small city, all shelter was very full, and we had things to do. so we trudged.
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