Although I have realized my life in India is not as astronomically different than I had expected, the last several weeks have been marked with small victories that I celebrate on an individual level and equally small frustrations that I try to remember are fairly normal in the "third world."
Last week was my very first week of classes in India! and by week I mean three days because we don't have classes on Fridays (to make room for public health kids' field visits, which I get to attend without doing the assignments!) and Monday was off for independence day. I hit the ground running Tuesday morning with my contemporary indian politics class and later that day I had Environment and Development Communication. The politics class is an hour every day because the Indian students are getting four credits, but we're only getting three, despite having to be in class four hours a week. I signed up for this class more out of obligation than interest, figured it'd be a good idea to have at least a minimal understanding of the politics in the country I'm inhabiting. Learning about the foundations of the Indian constitution is fine, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting deeper into current events, especially with the huge anti-corruption movement going on right now. Most of my classes have potential to be great and I'm already enjoying all the connections I'm finding between all my subjects. If you're curious, the other classes I'm taking are Environment and Development Communication (so far, kind of an overview of my LSE course), Ayurveda (traditional Indian healing), Indian Philosophy, Contemporary Indian Society (this class is with all 8 students in my program and our professor is our resident director), and Cinema in India. I don't know what came over me, but I registered for six classes and may be in over my head come finals time, but I can't help but think that this is the only time I'll ever be studying in India so I really feel like I should take advantage of all the knowledge my professors here have to offer.
One thing I've really come to realize this week is, at least on an individual level, how normal my day to day life here really is. I bought a coffee maker after 7 long, tiring and expensive (cappuccinos aren't cheap) days, I accepted that coffee just generally makes me a lot happier and that I don't need to cut myself off in the name of cultural immersion. So here I am, walking to class, listening to my ipod and drinking coffee out of my fancy new Manipal thermos and I can't help but think that in the field of higher education, there is no developed or undeveloped, that the field of academia is a class of its own. The students here have access to pretty much everything a college student in the US would find and degrees here are accredited across the world. That being said, although being in a "college town" is something of a phenom for India, it's proving to shape my experience into something even more special. The professors that work here are proud of Manipal and excited to show it off to American students because only several thousand American students are ever studying in India at one time. Thus, my classes require a lot of work, but on the other hand, my professors are extremely invested in making sure that the students on my program and I are having a good experience here in India, while learning a lot. Today I went to talk to my politics professor about a class I had missed due to scheduling miscommunication and he ended up talking to me for over an hour and sending me out with a book to read from his own collection. I am starting to realize that this focus on providing me and my fellow american students with a well-rounded education on Indian society, politics, history and language is a major goal of the geo-politics professors who have taken it upon themselves to ensure that we will return home with a proper/informed Indian point of view, something that is still hard to find in the US. So although there are a lot of differences between my life in India and the US, things like seeing street dogs, almost running into cows, handwashing clothes and wearing pants in 90 degree weather have already become the norm and now I'm ready to face the less obvious, culturally engrained differences.
During the months leading up to my semester in India, I was mentally preparing myself for loads of challenges and frustrations, many of which have yet to manifest. A lot of people had told me I would get sick, sweat all the time, get harassed, etc etc. So far, the challenges I have faced have been fairly "first world." For example, the air conditioning unit for my building is centrally controlled, but the building is not finished, so to avoid wasting loads of money running it all day, it's only on during the times when most students are home. Although this has lead to a somewhat tropical feeling in my room sometimes, I also have a ceiling fan so I think I'll survive. Hot water is a similar situation, it's run with solar panels, but during Monsoon season there isn't enough sun, but with the rains receding, so is the frequency of lukewarm showers, again, not life-threatening. The final frustration I've started to feel in India is significantly less tangible, but for that reason, all the more irritating. Despite being at a very progressive university dense with intelligent, modern thinkers, there still exists something of an American Stereotype that's very hard to shake. It seems that being from the US means one is often clueless of his or her surroundings. In several of my courses, the first class session was spent providing an "introduction to India" and even going so far as to show us a map of India and point to where Manipal is, as if we had no idea when we got on the plane to come here. Also, several Indian students have asked me if I am going to miss hamburgers, because you can't get them here. Little do they know, I will not miss hamburgers at all, because I do not eat them. Pass the naan please.
As far as victories go, it's been a matter of climbing up the learning curve. While there have been plenty of times when I've felt like I'll never truly fit in here, which might be true, but they've balanced out with the times when I start to feel like I can make it on my own. On my first day of classes I got out the door pretty late (shocking, I know) and wasn't positive where the building was, so I hopped in a rickshaw and made it in less than five minutes, my first time doing this alone (a week and a half later it's become something of a bad habit). I've also become accustom to dodging across streets in front of every sort of wild Indian vehicle. Another victory that I already addressed was easily adjusting to the food. It's been no problem and, although food at the mess hall has already started tasting a little bland, I'm really looking forward to exploring some of the restaurants in Manipal, not that there's very many. I've also practically mastered washing clothes by hand. Although there is someone in my building who does laundry for us, he/she has had some of my clothes for almost a week now so for things I need more imminently, handwashing is the answer. I couldn't have felt like more of a silly american sitting in my room with a clothes line going over my head so my clothes could dry under the fan. Finally, clothes! I had started getting frustrated over the clothes I had bought fitting poorly but last weekend, we made the trek to Mangalore and found much more success. We found a mall that was almost eerily like any mall in the US and went to a store called fabindia. I spent over an hour going through all the kurtas (tunics) and patialas (baggy pants) that were all made from the most amazing fabrics. There were dressing rooms and lovely employees helping us the whole time and after hours of exhausting shopping, we grabbed some food at the food court and set out (unsuccessfully) for shoes and bangles, as it started to rain and we decided to call it a day.
This weekend will be pretty relaxed, tomorrow we're taking a field trip to the fishing industry in Udupi. It should be interesting and probably kind of smelly, but we're going to be seeing parts of both the organized and unorganized economy (fishers/packers), so I may learn some things. As a sidenote, I don't know how many of you have heard anything about the Anna Hazare/anti-corruption campaign going on right now in India, but today when I was walking back from class I ran into a march of about two hundred adolescent students in their school uniforms in support of Hazare. It's pretty crazy how widespread Hazare's support has become, apparently no individual has had this kind of following in quite some time in India. Check it out if you have a chance and aren't being hit by earthquakes/hurricanes/any other natural disasters!
p.s. check out the link on the top of the page for some more pictures
Last week was my very first week of classes in India! and by week I mean three days because we don't have classes on Fridays (to make room for public health kids' field visits, which I get to attend without doing the assignments!) and Monday was off for independence day. I hit the ground running Tuesday morning with my contemporary indian politics class and later that day I had Environment and Development Communication. The politics class is an hour every day because the Indian students are getting four credits, but we're only getting three, despite having to be in class four hours a week. I signed up for this class more out of obligation than interest, figured it'd be a good idea to have at least a minimal understanding of the politics in the country I'm inhabiting. Learning about the foundations of the Indian constitution is fine, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting deeper into current events, especially with the huge anti-corruption movement going on right now. Most of my classes have potential to be great and I'm already enjoying all the connections I'm finding between all my subjects. If you're curious, the other classes I'm taking are Environment and Development Communication (so far, kind of an overview of my LSE course), Ayurveda (traditional Indian healing), Indian Philosophy, Contemporary Indian Society (this class is with all 8 students in my program and our professor is our resident director), and Cinema in India. I don't know what came over me, but I registered for six classes and may be in over my head come finals time, but I can't help but think that this is the only time I'll ever be studying in India so I really feel like I should take advantage of all the knowledge my professors here have to offer.
One thing I've really come to realize this week is, at least on an individual level, how normal my day to day life here really is. I bought a coffee maker after 7 long, tiring and expensive (cappuccinos aren't cheap) days, I accepted that coffee just generally makes me a lot happier and that I don't need to cut myself off in the name of cultural immersion. So here I am, walking to class, listening to my ipod and drinking coffee out of my fancy new Manipal thermos and I can't help but think that in the field of higher education, there is no developed or undeveloped, that the field of academia is a class of its own. The students here have access to pretty much everything a college student in the US would find and degrees here are accredited across the world. That being said, although being in a "college town" is something of a phenom for India, it's proving to shape my experience into something even more special. The professors that work here are proud of Manipal and excited to show it off to American students because only several thousand American students are ever studying in India at one time. Thus, my classes require a lot of work, but on the other hand, my professors are extremely invested in making sure that the students on my program and I are having a good experience here in India, while learning a lot. Today I went to talk to my politics professor about a class I had missed due to scheduling miscommunication and he ended up talking to me for over an hour and sending me out with a book to read from his own collection. I am starting to realize that this focus on providing me and my fellow american students with a well-rounded education on Indian society, politics, history and language is a major goal of the geo-politics professors who have taken it upon themselves to ensure that we will return home with a proper/informed Indian point of view, something that is still hard to find in the US. So although there are a lot of differences between my life in India and the US, things like seeing street dogs, almost running into cows, handwashing clothes and wearing pants in 90 degree weather have already become the norm and now I'm ready to face the less obvious, culturally engrained differences.
During the months leading up to my semester in India, I was mentally preparing myself for loads of challenges and frustrations, many of which have yet to manifest. A lot of people had told me I would get sick, sweat all the time, get harassed, etc etc. So far, the challenges I have faced have been fairly "first world." For example, the air conditioning unit for my building is centrally controlled, but the building is not finished, so to avoid wasting loads of money running it all day, it's only on during the times when most students are home. Although this has lead to a somewhat tropical feeling in my room sometimes, I also have a ceiling fan so I think I'll survive. Hot water is a similar situation, it's run with solar panels, but during Monsoon season there isn't enough sun, but with the rains receding, so is the frequency of lukewarm showers, again, not life-threatening. The final frustration I've started to feel in India is significantly less tangible, but for that reason, all the more irritating. Despite being at a very progressive university dense with intelligent, modern thinkers, there still exists something of an American Stereotype that's very hard to shake. It seems that being from the US means one is often clueless of his or her surroundings. In several of my courses, the first class session was spent providing an "introduction to India" and even going so far as to show us a map of India and point to where Manipal is, as if we had no idea when we got on the plane to come here. Also, several Indian students have asked me if I am going to miss hamburgers, because you can't get them here. Little do they know, I will not miss hamburgers at all, because I do not eat them. Pass the naan please.
As far as victories go, it's been a matter of climbing up the learning curve. While there have been plenty of times when I've felt like I'll never truly fit in here, which might be true, but they've balanced out with the times when I start to feel like I can make it on my own. On my first day of classes I got out the door pretty late (shocking, I know) and wasn't positive where the building was, so I hopped in a rickshaw and made it in less than five minutes, my first time doing this alone (a week and a half later it's become something of a bad habit). I've also become accustom to dodging across streets in front of every sort of wild Indian vehicle. Another victory that I already addressed was easily adjusting to the food. It's been no problem and, although food at the mess hall has already started tasting a little bland, I'm really looking forward to exploring some of the restaurants in Manipal, not that there's very many. I've also practically mastered washing clothes by hand. Although there is someone in my building who does laundry for us, he/she has had some of my clothes for almost a week now so for things I need more imminently, handwashing is the answer. I couldn't have felt like more of a silly american sitting in my room with a clothes line going over my head so my clothes could dry under the fan. Finally, clothes! I had started getting frustrated over the clothes I had bought fitting poorly but last weekend, we made the trek to Mangalore and found much more success. We found a mall that was almost eerily like any mall in the US and went to a store called fabindia. I spent over an hour going through all the kurtas (tunics) and patialas (baggy pants) that were all made from the most amazing fabrics. There were dressing rooms and lovely employees helping us the whole time and after hours of exhausting shopping, we grabbed some food at the food court and set out (unsuccessfully) for shoes and bangles, as it started to rain and we decided to call it a day.
This weekend will be pretty relaxed, tomorrow we're taking a field trip to the fishing industry in Udupi. It should be interesting and probably kind of smelly, but we're going to be seeing parts of both the organized and unorganized economy (fishers/packers), so I may learn some things. As a sidenote, I don't know how many of you have heard anything about the Anna Hazare/anti-corruption campaign going on right now in India, but today when I was walking back from class I ran into a march of about two hundred adolescent students in their school uniforms in support of Hazare. It's pretty crazy how widespread Hazare's support has become, apparently no individual has had this kind of following in quite some time in India. Check it out if you have a chance and aren't being hit by earthquakes/hurricanes/any other natural disasters!
p.s. check out the link on the top of the page for some more pictures
No comments:
Post a Comment