The much-anticipated SECOND BLOG POST!!!!!

Hello!

Welcome back to Exchange Year to India, where I will be blogging about my exchange year in India!

I've been here for 3 days so far, and things are going well! My host family is nice, and I've been learning the Gujarati language and customs!

What I've been doing is writing in my journal frequently so that I don't forget anything I want to share with you all, so what I'm actually going to do is copy what I've written in my journal since day one of journaling so you all can see what's up. To provide a little context, my host family consists of my host sister, Grishma; my host brother, Manthan; my host mother, Mruga (who I’m supposed to call “Mruga Auntie” or just “Auntie”); and my host father, Jayesh (“Jayesh Uncle” or “Uncle”). Gujarati mixes a lot of English into it, so that’s where the words “Auntie” and “Uncle” come from, though they do have words for these in Gujarati and many of the other English words. However, some of the words are actually derived from English, like “daktar” for “doctor” and “toilet” for “toilet.” Here it is:

7/12/11

I leave in 9 days! Weird. I'm writing in a journal. That and taking lots of pictures are two things I really need to learn to do.

Learning Gujarati has been put on hold because I'm writing my Eagle Court of Honor script, finding speakers/Color Guard members for my ECoH, easing out of my job at Vector (hopefully a few people have taken the job I recommended them so that they can make some extra money for me while I'm gone), hanging out with friends, and now writing in this journal! I also just finished my first CD :D and an awesome pin design. I need to make sure I pack everything I need, get plenty of gifts, get my business cards, etc. I need to create a blog, too, but that can be after I get there. I also need to make sure I bring my Gujarati textbook and flash cards.

Oh yeah, I also need to finish Twyla's gift! Thank you, Twyla, for this journal. I think it will really help my exchange year. I'm a little curious about what your plane letter's going to say. Sounds pretty epic.

I hope all my great friends have great first years of college while I'm gone (or whatever other year they're having), and that we stay great friends. But I'm not even leaving yet, so I shouldn't get ahead of myself.

7/22                                          

It's hard to see because I'm in an unlit airplane at night, but I was bored and wanted to write in this.

I'm going to India! I'm pretty sure I'm wide wake, and yeah... I'm definitely currently on my way to the land of cricket and no toilet paper! I've already started eating like a Jain, and the food is great.

Yesterday I scrambled to finish packing and then went to O'Hare to catch my 3:00 flight to Newark, where I met up with the four other exchange students on my flight to Mumbai, which I am now on. While standing in line to get my visa checked and my boarding pass, I met a guy who’s headed to Vadodara just like me, because Vadodara is his hometown. Maybe we can meet up in Mumbai. On this flight I’m on now, I met a guy who is visiting Mumbai, and he told me a lot about India including things to see.

I’m a little worried about Mumbai airport, because from what I hear it’s very confusing, crowded, and possibly a little dangerous. I’ll figure it all out, though.

      Jains don’t eat anything that grows underground.

      But the Shahs do, so I’m good on the twice-baked potatoes…

7/23

I taught people some Hindi while waiting for my next flight at Mumbai

(Most of this page would be filled with Hindi characters that I was teaching them, and their transliterations in the Latin alphabet, because it was in my journal that I happened to be showing them these things and writing them for them to see.)

I still have 3 hours until my flight to Vadodara… We’re all journaling right now haha… That’s me, Hannah, and Erin. Just now, the Indian guy next to me burped extremely loudly. Hannah thought it was me and cracked up laughing, and once we established what really happened, we all cracked up laughing at Hannah. We are definitely experiencing jet lag. Speaking of which, I had to explain what jet lag is to them, and then Erin asked “but what is it?” so I said, “Well, in biological terms, it offsets your circadian rhythms,” at which point they gave me a blank stare. We are currently watching an Indian custodian try to take out the trash from a trash can. For some reason, he kept failing before he eventually got it, and we obviously couldn’t help but laugh because we’re a mess right now.

We can’t drink the water, and we had an entire conversation about being worried about diseases, but also kind of not wanting to care. Erin’s mom got her probiotics, which are living organisms that kill some of the unwanted pathogens, which she had discovered by having sent 2 other kids abroad before Erin. They’re supposed to work pretty well.

We also don’t want to do anything like brushing our teeth with the water. I wonder what the main thing I’ll be drinking is… Probably a lot of tea, but I can’t imagine tea being my main source of hydration, so I guess soda? As long as it comes from good water sources. They might have coke & Sprite & stuff…

I don’t really miss anyone yet, which could be because I haven’t gotten enough sleep or because enough tie hasn’t passed yet, or a combination.

Oh yeah, Anna’s plane letter was really nice! Thanks Anna!

We’re sitting right next to a window, and it’s raining a lot outside.  Yeah, it’s monsoon season! Planes are taking off now and then, and when they do it sounds like thunder, so it’s like a storm back home. I bet if I walked outside I’d realize there was a lot more rain than there would be at home, though.

Well, at some point they’re going to assign me a gate number (apparently they don’t always do that beforehand?), and in the meantime I need to get around to checking in my luggage. Erin mentioned that she wants to write in her journal every day so she can remember everything to blog about which I think is a good idea. So until next time!

7/23 still

Okay, now I’m on my short flight to Vadodara (AKA Baroda). When I meet my family, I will say “Kem chho?” and I’m not sure if I should do a little bow gesture thing, but I will just in case. I have already surprised them with myy Gujarati over Skype, but I hope to surprise them further when I meet them! When they ask me, “Kem chho?” (or “chhe”), I will say “kaas kaṃi nahi, huṃ United States-thee Gujarat jato chhuṃ!” which I believe to be the Gujarati translation of “Nothing special, I went to Gujarat from the United States!” and if that’s not quite how you’d say it, I think they’ll understand and will be impressed.

And I forgot to mention last time that I exchanged currency for the first time in my life! It was somewhat exciting. I now have almost Rs. 16,000.

23/7 still

Yeah so I switched the date to international style, which for some reason I didn’t think of before.

Quite a lot has happened today. Manthan and Grishma met me at Vadodara, but they were late because of traffic, so during the time that I was waiting, two people were very nice and let me use their cell phones (which everyone has, and which my host family will get me), the second of which was offered without my asking. Two other people went out of their way to ask me if I had a ride coming or otherwise showed concern, and there was also someone who gladly helped me form the sentence I was constructing earlier, and corrected one thing so it was perfect. Everyone is very nice!

And that includes Grishma and Manthan! On my way to  their house I discovered their hospitality while also observing the world around me. They had come prepared with food and rinks in the car (which was driven by a driver, by the way) and kept asking me if I’d had enough. I had been told not to drink the tap water, of course, and sure enough, the Shahs don’t do this either. They often carry around water that they’ve had purified, so I can drink their water, Of course, I still shower and wash my  hands in the tap water, so I do  need to be careful where I p7ut my  hands and, like, all of me. I’ve also been told not to use the ice in India, because it could carry pathogens, and the Shahs have not heard of this, so to be on the safe side I will not use it (not that I usually use it anyway, since my teeth are sensitive to cold) until, say, I find out that Gujarat has a special brand that is alright. Manthan told me that there are two brands of ice cream that are okay: Amul and something starting with “H.” any other brand, don’t eat it.

Grishma was helpful for the short time she was in the car, but after that she had to go to a RYE orientation conference, because she’s going to Italy! Which I still think is pretty cool…  Today I learned that she is the first Indian person ever to go to Italy through RYE, and she is also the only one going this year. She’s having trouble with her via because the Italian consulate doesn’t know “what category to put her in,” as Jayesh Uncle said. But she’s scheduled to leave 17 August. (Awww yeah, wrote the date the right way!)

So far, Manthan and Grishma are the best at English out of anyone I’ve met so far, other than one person on the plane to Mumbai who had lived in the United States for the past 30 years. Grishma and Manthan both have a very strong accent though, so I sometimes can’t understand what they’re saying.

Anyway, in the car ride home, I first noticed all the traffic. Driving in India is quite slow)and jerky because it’s stick shift and the roads aren’t very smooth) due to all the traffic, which consists of cars, motorcycles, the 3-wheeled-car-looking things whose name I forget (Later I found out these are motor rickshaws),  bikes, pedestrians, and cows, and probably more things I haven’t seen yet. For this reason, you don’t have to wear a seatbelt unless you’re in the front seat.

I also noticed how all the signs were written in Hindi, English, or Gujarati. Gujarati was probably more common than English or Hindi, but not by much. I practiced reading the signs that were I Gujarati or Hindi, but obviously couldn’t read fast enough for all of them, and most of the time I didn’t know what I was reading.

And then there were the things that didn’t exist back home. In addition to the strange traffic and the cows, I saw a camel on the side of the road, at one point a donkey too, and also a few stray dogs. They have pigeons in India, but also peacocks and peahens!

There’s so much to write about my time so far. On the way home, we stopped by the house of Mruga Auntie’s friend, who was also very nice, and who had a daughter going to Brazil through RYE! She only knows a couple words in Portuguese, so I told her I could help teach her if she wanted. I get the feeling that peo0ple in India assume people won’t follow up on their offers, though.

After getting home, I was shown around the house by Manthan, who helped me with a ton of questions I had, and shared every detail about India he could think of! Oh!!! But first!!! Mruga Auntie welcomed me into the house by placing a dot of bright red melted wax on my forehead and giving me some sweet powdery stuff to eat! It was so Indian! Okay, so after Manthan showed me to my room, we ate breakfast, which I had already eaten in the car but I accepted anyway, and then Manthan showed me around, including bringing me up to the roof, where he has a basketball hoop and a view of the neighborhood from above. It reminded me of Brazil. Then after awhile, for some reason we had another breakfast, so that was my third breakfast. None of the food is bad, and some of it is pretty good, and then some of it is amazing! Haha… They gave me tea that was really sweet though! I couldn’t finish it. There was some kind of wheat pudding type stuff that was also too sweet, but I finished that. They had actually pt less sugar just for me, and it was still too sweet. Nothing has been too spicy so far, and I don’t think it ever will be.

I keep discovering how infrequently these people say thank you. It is only ever said on the first occasion in a series of things done for you, and even then it is usually not said. They don’t have a problem with hearing it more often than they’re used to, but after I’ve settled into the household I think I will almost stop saying it altogether, which is a strange feeling. I had to stop writing in this journal about half an hour ago to have dinner (at midnight) and it was fantastic, and I said thank you 3 times during the course of it. In the United States I probably would have said it maybe eight times, and yet 3 was still almost overly polite here. I guess they just assume you appreciate their hospitality. At one point I said, “This food is great. Thank you,” and they were surprised that I would say such a thing, for two  reasons—one being that they do not har someone randomly say thank during a lull like this, and the other that this was not a very fancy meal at all! I can’t wait to have a fancy meal!

Here, they eat a medium breakfast, a large lunch, and a small dinner. In the U.S. most people eat large dinners, but I am more in line with Indian customs because I prefer big breakfasts. However, I seem to prefer Indian dinner food over their breakfast or lunch food, so that poses a mild problem…

They make sure I’m drinking lots of water, because much of what we do all day is sweat (there’s no air conditioning beyond air flow). They only other hardship here so far is lack of toilet paper. Get over it: I’m using my left hand. I wash my hands afterwards in the parasite-ridden water, of course. But seriously, this is all not a big deal. I’m not putting the tap water in my mouth or eyes (anytime I want to touch my eye for any reason, I use hand sanitizer first.) and whatever is left on my skin probably dies after awhile anyway. The people here have been washing themselves with this water their whole life, and that includes exchange students from previous years. There’s not much more I can do about, anyway.

Lastly, the Shahs of course are Jains, but they don’t take the part about roots very seriously. They eat roots. I will be able to eat potatoes, carrots, etc. here. This plus all the dal that we have every day for protein, plus beans and things like that, should make for a pretty good diet. And I have vitamin pills (thanks Mom!) to go with that.

I could go on and on with details, but I have to get to bed! They let me take a long nap because I was tired from the flights but I could still use some more sleep. Speaking of sleep, they told me their sleep schedule is to go to bed no later than 9:30 and get up oftentimes at 5:00. I will be waking up at 6:30 in the morning to go to Grishma’s orientation with them, but since other than getting up for dinner and journaling I’ve been sleeping since about 2:30 p.m., I think I’ll wake up before then.

Oh yeah, my bed is the size of two twin beds put together. It looks smaller than Queen-size, I don’t know if there’s a name for this size, but that’s what it is. Much bigger than my bed at home.

Okay I’m done writing. Good night!

25/7

Sorry I didn’t journal yesterday. Catching up on that: I went to Grishma’s RYE orientation and met the important people in her district, including Rajneesh and Devang (I don’t remember any other names.). Devang is a fun, lively character, while Rajneesh seems like a sort of stern, businesslike person, but someone welcoming still. On the way to this orientation, we stopped by the house of that same friend of Mruga Auntie’s (I don’t remember her name but I think it starts with “M”), this time with the husband there, whose name is Kiran, and who is a good friend of Jayesh Uncle’s. We drove them to the orientation because their daughter, Jeni, is in the same district as Grishma, and is going to Brazil.

Afterwards, we ate dinner, which was awesome, and then we played a board game that they like to play every night. It is morning right now, so I have to go converse & begin my day. I have to register with the police within the next 12 days, and we’re getting that out of the way today. Then I think I’m going to school.

*     *     *

Well, that wasn’t as planned. This is depressing. An old man who used to take care of Jayesh Uncle’s father slipped and fell on his head and died today. It’s been too long since I last got recertified for CPR, so I  didn’t try to do it. I really wish I had gotten it renewed recently. I did check for pulse and breathing, though, and he was not breathing and had no pulse. When they put him in the car, I helped carry the body, and I elevated his legs with pillows, but when he got to the hospital he was already pronounced dead.

(The bottom 2/3 of this page is filled with random things I was explaining to Grishma, which were more easily explained to her if written out.)

I taught Grishma about the West. We talked about schooling and dating (never thought you’d see those two words together, did you?). This was after we’d had enough time to absorb the shock of the guy dying.

Grishma taught me more Gujarati today for quite a while, adding many words and phrases to my flash cards. It was funny, though, because I’m better at writing in Gujarati than she is, and her cousin, who stopped by today, was joking about how I came to Gujarat to teach her Gujarati.

Okay, peahens sound like freaky ass cats.

I’ve been drinking a lot of water because it’s always hot here. We all keep a water bottle in our room and refill it with sterilized water whenever it’s empty.

Eating dinner in probably about 5 minutes!

                                                       *     *     *                               3 minutes later…

They have this weird habit of disappearing into their rooms without warning. I don’t know if it’s just them, all of Gujarat, or all of India, or what. It does seem that all the Gujaratis are obsessed with their cell phones. Every single time one rings (which is frequently) it is answered, or otherwise they will exit the room in order to answer it and immediately hang up iif it is during an important conversation (actually, I think Grishma is the only one who has done this.). They never just stop it from ringing.  I mean, it’s their way of life—networking and doing business—so I don’t think of it as disrespectful. It’s just something I’ve noticed.

Jayesh Uncle is off to the hospital to see his older brother, who went there because of chest pains today. This is just a coincidence that he and the guy who died were both there today; it’s not like this happens all the time here. Jayesh’s brother is supposedly doing well but is just staying so the doctors can monitor his condition.

Now it sounds like dinner time. Off we go.

                                                       *     *     *

I must say, I’m absolutely loving this so far, I think so are the Shahs. Though they answer their cell phones during dinner and never say thank you or please, they’re really amazing people, and not just the Shahs.

Today I met Jayesh Uncle’s older brother (different older brother), who came all the way from Bombay to here for dinner, and then I also met Rajiv, my counsellor. Everyone is always really impressed with my Gujarati and my ability to assimilate the culture so quickly. As Jayesh Uncle said, “We have come across many exchange students, but you are something different.” Obviously I have an age advantage, but I suppose that’s still a good sign. I explained to Rajiv that I think most of my culture shock took place in the U.S. as I was learning about the language and culture there. The biggest factors in the culture shock, I’d say, are the lack of toilet paper, the sound of peacocks and peahens, and how they don’t say please or thank you or abstain from answering their phones during meals or conversations.

So I didn’t go to school today, and I didn’t register with the police, but Rajiv said inn the next few days, once a few of the other inbounds have arrived, he’ll take us all to register with the police, and that not only will I start school tomorrow, I will also get a chance to teach younger students and sign up for any other activities I want to do (like learning sitar and classical Indian singing!). Furthermore, one of the new inbounds will be from Brazil, so I’ll get to speak some Portuguese! And! I will only be going to school for 3 hours a day, plus one hour of teaching! And! If I don’t like the school after a week or two, they’ll secretly enroll me in college!

AND!!! One thing they do here in India is, if you’re walking down the street and see someone you know in their house as you pass by, you can just say “Can I come for tea?” and they’ll let you in for tea, which sounds like fun to try.

AND!!!!!!!!!! It sounds like I won’t even have a problem with Queen of Angels Convent, because Grishma says though in most schools 11^th standard is sort of a joke year filled with slacking, in this school the kids apply themselves just as much as in 12^th standard, and they are also very nice and mature, unlike what she’s seen in other schools.

Um yeah so there’s also a club here that has a gym, a pool, squash, tennis, billiards, and other things, and it’s sponsored by Rotary, so I kinda get to go to that for free, every friggin day. I think that’s where my yoga class will be.

And I also don’t have to make my bed every morning or do any laundry (it’s actually kind of offensive to take on jobs you’re not expected to do sometimes, though I did insist that I have some kind of daily chore, so I’m setting the table and putting the plates away every meal.). I also don’t have to clean my room (sanitize it, that is; I do have to tidy it up.).

People keep offering me food and things to do and things like that. And the food’s amazing, and the activities are entertaining, and the company is pleasant.

At one point Grishma’s cousin was joking around about me wanting more jobs, saying if I want more to do, Grishma can help me out because she doesn’t like doing any work, and then I said, “Ha, aaḷsee chhe,” which means “yeah, she’s lazy,” and it took a while for him to realize a white person was speaking his tongue, but after a few seconds he pointed at me and started laughing, like “ha, aaḷsee chhe, nice job!” and Grishma glared at me, walked away, glared at me again, and then came back to lovingly scold her cousin.  It was great.

There’s quite a bit to write about, but I have to go to sleep! Shubh ratri!

                                                       *     *     *

26/7

Grishma’s name is spelled ગ્રીષ્મા, so it’s pronounced “Greeshmaa,” whereas I had been pronouncing it like ગ્રિષ્મ, which is pronounced “Grihshmuh.” Mah B. Manthan’s name I’ve been pronouncing correctly: “Muhnthuhn,” which is spelled મંથન. “Jayesh” I never knew exactly how to say, so I always said it somewhere between “Jaayaysh” and “Juhyaysh,” but it’s the second one: જયેશ. Manthan showed me how to pronounce “Mruga” from the beginning: મૃગા, “Mroogaa.”

They took me to my school today to talk to some teachers and determine whether I want to study science or commerce. Only a few were there and had to leave right away because they’re in the middle of testing. I’m going to start school on “first August”—their way of saying “the first of August.” But other than that we didn’t a lot of information; I just met a few people and learned where one of the bathrooms is. So I’ll have to come back before 1/8 to figure out my schedule. Right now it’s 11:35 a.m. (1:00 a.m. for you!). Grishma and Mruga Auntie are preparing food, Jayesh Uncle is in his room doing whatever he does there—work, I guess—and I’m in my room studying my flash cards and writing in my journal. Manthan is at the hospital; I don’t know what he’s doing there. He could be visiting his uncle or taking care of some health problem of his own. (In India, hospitals are used for minor health problems as well as serious ones. Basically, they double as a regular doctor’s office.)

Rajiv says he’s already tried calling around to set me up with a few really good music teachers and Gujarati teachers, but they aren’t picking up. But he’ll have answers for me tonight about those. Gujaratis are very efficient at getting things done once they’re on their to-do lists; the problem is getting things onto their to-do lists. I’m guessing that since Rajiv has dealt with many exchange students before, he’s used to setting up these classes for them, so I think is in fact taking care of it.

Writing in Gujarati is fun. Just saying.

The theme The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is stuck in my head because it’s Jayesh Uncle’s ringtone…

Jayesh Uncle’s older brother who I met yesterday’s name is Pradeep: પ્રદીપ.

My second host brother’s name is Manan: મનન.

Grishma/Manthan’s cousin’s name is Jainil: જૈનીલ.

I just found out that Manan is also their cousin, and that Jainil is also my future host brother, and is the brother of Manan.

And that brings us to right now! Right now, I’m drinking rose milk, milk with rose syrup mixed into it, while sitting in front of this laptop and copying down what I wrote in my journal. It’s 6:00 p.m., dinner is being prepared, and I am expecting to hear back from Rajiv any time.

That pretty much wraps this episode up. So as they say in Gujarat,

Bye!

New Blog

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my new blog! I will be posting in this once in a while during my stay in India so you all can have a little taste of what it's like to be there. Other than that, I may post a few Facebook statuses and Skype infrequently and whatnot, but the idea is to sever most of my contact with my home country so I can make the most of this exchange.

I am going to the town of Bharuch, in the state of Gujarat, via Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE). I leave in a week!! :) I'm going to stay there for about 10 or 11 months. I will be learning the language of Gujarati, and will be staying with a family of the Jain religion. I will be a vegetarian starting as soon as I set foot in O'Hare--no meat or eggs, but I will be eating dairy. The school I'm going to is called Queen of Angels Convent High School.

The photo at the bottom left is the design I made for the pins I'm bringing on my exchange. Those are for trading with other exchange students and putting them on each other's blazers. I can also give them to Rotarians and give them as gifts and whatnot. The orange, white, and green stripes with the blue circle in the middle are the flag of India; in the orange stripe, of course, is the US flag, and the other flags are Brazil (top right) and Sweden (middle left), because I'm half Brazilian and half Swedish (AKA Swezilian :D). Over the US flag is a music note because I love music, and at the bottom is the Chicago skyline. The back of each pin says "Rotary Youth Exchange rocks!"

My signature in this blog is "Eric" spelled in the Gujarati script. The Gujarati script is an abiguda, which is very different from the alphabet structure we use in the US. It's structured in exactly the same way as the Devanagari script, which is used for Hindi and other languages.

So now I've pretty much filled you in!

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.