Wednesday

Okey dokey. It’s Wednesday and I feel like blogging. Today has been an exciting day. It started at 6:20 when I woke up with 2 of my flatmates, Annie and Alison, and we decided to head to this stadium we’d heard about. We took an autorickshaw to Mangala Stadium and it was soooooo awesome. There were so many people walking around the track and a few running and people doing stairs and situps all around this track. It’s 400 meters around which I was thankful for since running miles on a 200 meter track can get old so much faster. We started to run and Alison and I were together for a few meters and then she wanted to go her own pace and she had her ipod so I moved forward. I ended up falling right behind this guy who reminded me of Coachy a little bit. I paced off of him for a mile and then moved alongside him and we stayed that way for 4.5 miles. He told me about 2 miles in that he had already done 28 laps but he had more to go and so I decided to just finish with him. I was so happy that he was there because it was the perfect pace for coming to running and it felt so good. I know it’s only been 2 weeks since I’ve run, minus the 1500 last Saturday, but the run this morning gave me a much greater appreciation for the sport. It felt so good to be out there again moving my legs and getting into the swing of things. It was early so it wasn’t really hot until the last mile or so. I know I need to drink more water and liquids to stay hydrated. I hope that I can make it to the track w/ my roomies a few times/week and this trend gets started. Because mmmmm hmmm, it felt good : )
After running, I came back and got to skype with Candace which was very fun as well! Then after class in the morning and lunch we had a guest speaker discuss Disaster Management. It was very interesting. He talked about what the students could do when they became a social worker when a disaster strikes and how people can prepare. I don’t know if at Juniata Disaster Management is part of any of the social work classes but I think it should be. Next I went to another field placement exposure. I may end up going here. It was a place for senior citizens to go in the day time for recreation and such. Monday, Wednesday and Friday is yoga in the morning for 45 min or so. Also they have some sport which they are practicing for and then the place also does home visits and medical care. I’m not sure what I’d be doing there exactly but I may end up going there. Lastly, I went back to college and watched a game of ‘cub-aaad-ee?’, give or take. It's: Khabadi. But it kinda looks like wrestling played on a volleyball court type thing in sand and there are 2 teams. Each team has 6 people. The one guy from a team is sent over to the other side and they have a certain amount of time before they have to go back to their side. In that little time they try and touch the other team with their feet or hands and the team tries to tackle them without letting the person touch the line in between their 2 sides. If you didn’t understand any of that, it’s totally understandable because that is just the part I could pick up from watching the guys at school play for an hour and a half, there are any more rules I couldn’t follow as well. Either way, it's pretty fun to watch, just add music. They are so quick on their feet and it's like dancing and they get so pumped. Then again, maybe that's just the boys at school. who knows anymore?
Yesterday I got a sweet Henna tattoo on my arm. The girls at school like to do it and so they drew sweet ones on all the Americans. Not all Indians get Henna on them and some only get it right before they are married so their husband can find it. It’s ‘hidden’, although I feel like if they are covered up with their dress over much of their body, having a hidden Henna tat wouldn’t be too hard. Speaking of tattoos, no mom, I am not getting one, but I totally could if I wanted one! Hahaha They are so much cheaper here. It’s kinda ridiculous how cheap they are, like 500 rupees, depending on the conversion rate, about 12 dollars. Ha!
Classes have been going pretty well. They are definitely different than Juniata, that’s for sure. My one class discusses Indian social problems and so far we are talked about beggars and prostitutes and it’s interesting to hear the way they are teaching it. I’m glad we have to take this class (it’s the one class that BCA makes everyone take) because I would never get such an inside look at JC. We talked about how if prostitution became legal then it would become better because they could be in charge, not a pimp, have their own hours, say no if they wanted, have labor laws apply and solicit in their own place. I never thought about it like that and I don’t really know where I stand on the issue but it gets you thinking. We read 5-6 articles from various newspapers on the 2 sides of prostitution and all of them agreed that child prostitution was horrible but they were split on adults.
I hope you all are having a wonderful week. Keep smiling, running, laughing and eating chocolate :) Love to you all!

mary made another video...

mary made another video of our pictures and some videos from the 2nd-ish week up to today :)

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=429202980351

Auflauf in India?!

I have been in India for 2 full weeks now and it's finally beginning to sink that I'll be here for a little while. Robert left us today to head to New Delhi and then back to the States. We are officially on our own now. I have about 3 months left which seems short since that means I've been here for 2 weeks already but long in the same sort of sense.
Two of my flatmates got sick this morning and we think it's from drinking the ice in our drinks last night. They are doing much better it seems than they were this morning. So two down-three more to go. Oy vey. Before the girls got sick, we did have a good dinner at a place called 'The Village' and I think if it were in America, many girls would get proposed to there. It's outside with the breeze flowing in, it has a nice fountain, palm trees overhead and it's classy enough. But the best part was the menu. Annie (my roommate, she lived in Germany for a year) was looking at the menu when she screamed 'Shut Up!'. We all glanced over quickly. "They have mmdmdfmsdm" I couldnt hear her or understand her because she was so excited. "They have auflauf"!! At this point we were both in shock and smiling nad laughing and sooo excited. I had never seen it on a menu before and was no expecting to see it there at all but it made my day. It made me think of the farm and Omi & Opa and eating a delicious, non-spicy meal :) Needless to say, we didn't order it because we didnt think it would go well with the dosa bread, rice, spicy chicken and whatever spicy fish sauce we were ordering but Annie and I have full intentions on going back there.
Before the food last evening we went to a cultural event where we got to see a few dances and hear songs that are from the Mangalore history. It was very interesting and fun to see. Tomorrow the 5 of us girls and 2 students from Roshni are heading to a few communities so that we can write a paper on the NGOs and how they are imapacting the lives there. I think that is for my Weaker Sections Class.
Recently we also went to a hospital where they have all sorts of centers and a huge chapel and a rehab center as well. We got a tour of the rehab center and it was really neat. They had all sorts of people working in there but they were making little toys and designing bags and cloths that people buy to hang on their walls. Those people put so much effort into their work. I could totally see them sending their stuff to 10,000 villages and in fact Alison asked if they sold their stuff overseas and they said they were trying or at least looking into it so maybe they will.
We got to see the solar eclipse today! Did any of you? Many people here it seems are very superstituous about it and some schools didn't have school because they didn't want their children to go outside at all today. Shanthi nad Joselyn told us that they let their kids stay inside and watch a lot of TV today because they didn't want them outside.
Well, tomorrow is the NGO visit and then Sunday is church. I think we are going to one right next door with Ajith, Robert's nephew, and hopefully it won't be 3 hours long like last week. I think I have another interesting week next week as we are on our own, in India nad taking classes and I suppose, possibly starting field placement :) So much to do. I hope you all continue to live up the cold and ice for me, a break from the heat would be nice every once in a while but I usually can get that from a nice chocolate ice cream slab so no worries.

City of Mangalore :)

So I’m in the city of Mangalore. Wow. I have officially signed up for all 3 of my classes nad I am taking: Indian Social Problems, Community Organization & Dev. and Weaker Sections of Indian Society. I’ve been to a few classes so far and they seem really interesting. In my weaker section class we are learning about the Indian Constitution which I never thought would interest me but we are talking about certain articles which pertain to social work such as one which says that untouchabiltiy is prohibited and one that says that child labour in hazardous places is not allowed for children under the age of 14 nad bonded labour is not allowed. Their semester started Decemeber first and so we have some catching up to do in all of our classes however Robert and Joselyn, the 2 main guys in charge of us, say that their semesters start out much slower since Christmas falls near the end of it. Somehow that is supposed to make sense. I don’t really understand because if I’d missed 2-3 weeks at the beginning of the semester and then 2 more weeks in January, I’d be a mess and it’d take me forever to catch up. These guys claim that we’re gonna be just fine. I’m taking their word on it. I know I have a presentation and paper to write for my Weaker Sections class and a paper for my Community class but other than that I think we mainly just have to catch up on lecture notes. That is what I plan on doing next. My field placement is still not finalized but I think I will be working at a school for at least part of my 15 hours/week but I’m not sure about the other half yet.
I am adjusting to everything fairly well thus far I think and I’m glad that by next week we should have some sort of schedule going. The food is not getting less spicy but my tongue is either losing taste buds, using ones that have not been used except to find out that I couldn’t handle spicy stuff before or both. Somehow though, the food is getting better and my mouth is getting more used to it all. Also living in a city is easier. The noise was never a problem because I can sleep through a lot. My housemates all talk about the yapping dogs in the night but I have yet to hear them. Also horns beep here more than any other place I’ve been too-all day and night long. It makes a nice melody. We are becoming regulars at a little shop across the street from us where we often go for tea, the Clay Oven, a nice restaurant near our house and Grace’s Ice Cream Shop, right near the school. We’ve decided we want to become regulars at a few places so that they can help us out if we ever need it and because it’s nice to have a place where they know you and whatnot. The shop across the street is funny though because it’s called a Juice nad Ice Cream parlour and so silly us ,went to get ice cream there the other night and they said they only have meals and tea. What?! Hahaha yeah, we asked a few times and we have yet to figure out if they actually have ice cream and just couldn’t understand us or if they really don’t have ice cream.
The city is smaller and so it’s easier for me to get around but it’s still a city and I’m still a country girl. Guys and girls as well, stare at us a lot because we are the only white people around here-I think I’ve seen maybe 10 other white people in this city besides us, in the last 10 days. Also the other part we’re getting used to is our electricity and water in our flat. They both go off alllllll the time at our house. Seriously, all the time. But I always feel very spoiled when I think about how inconvenient it is because there are a lot of people without it at all or who don’t have air conditioning at all. It puts things into perspective.
Anyways, tomorrow we have 1-2 classes and we are visiting one more school that I may go to for field placement and then I think we may also go to a nearby stadium by bus (first experience on a crazy Indian bus) and check out the track. Then Thursday is a holiday so no classes! We are going to the movies in the morning I think and then some cultural event at night that we are supposed to attend. Friday and Saturday might be field placement depending on whether or not I have finalized it yet. We’ll see. I hope you all are having beautiful snow-filled days….one of those sounds really good right now…today I had 2 chocolate milkshakes to help get cold….hahaha and maybe to get my chocolate and calcium fix :) Love you all!

Youtube pictures...

Ok, so the one girl in our group, Mary, decided to make a video of our first week. She tried to get the music working but couldn't so listen to your own. I'd suggest some slumdog millionarie songs to go with the India themed pictures but there ya have it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um-6s_tvXSg

Sports Day & Church

Okey dokey, so it’s a Sunday afternoon in January and I’m sweating. Who woulda thought? If someone had told me a few years ago that when I studied abroad it would be in India I probably would have laughed. Germany-probably. Russia-maybe. India-well I never even considered it until the end of my search. Although somehow I am sitting here in our common room near the Kannkanardy Junction in Mangalore India writing to you all. This trip I imagine will be filled with ups and downs and turns that I never saw coming. It’s such an interesting place and most of the time I love it but it still comes with the good, the bad and the ugly.
Saturday was a good day! Every year the school holds a sports day. Something I never thought I’d be so excited to hear. They had track events and more. I was thrilled! It was slightly and by slightly, I meanly largely different, than any track day I’ve ever participated in but it was so much fun. The day started out with the students splitting into their 6 respective teams. They were divided by whether they were a 1st, 2nd or 3rd year and then each year was split into 2 groups: BA and BSW. They marched around the 200 meter track each team with a solid color flag all following one leader with the school flag. There was a small school band playing as well on the bleacher-type things to keep them going. They got in front of all the professors, the few students who didn’t participate and us, the Americans who didn’t partake in the march. So they lined up and sang their school song nad raised their flag and introduced their guest of honor, a previous professor of the school. Then they had a torch. Yes, a torch. 5 students ran it around the track and then planted it next to the track. It was great. Next they let a dove free to start the whole day off. Sadly, there were a lot of hawks flying around and right after they let the poor dove go, a hawk started chasing it and I’m pretty sure the bird only got about 5 min of flight until it was breakfast. So the games began then…
They had done all the throwing the day before and I think the jumps as well since I didn’t see any of that going on. They had the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 meter runs as well as tug-of-war, skipping 100, walk 600?, 2 relays and a lemon walk. Alison, a fellow BCA girl was a sprinter in HS although she runs longer distance now but she ran the 100 meter sprint and got 3rd place. I should have run the 800 since the winning time for girls was a 3:38 but I was never really into fast races and it was at the beginning of the day and I didn’t realize they didn’t train and that I was probably more in shape than the majority of the girls there. The one race was the skipping 100 and they skipped rope while running for 100 meters as the one race. It was fabulous to watch-also another fun one to try out but we couldn’t figure out what they meant but skipping race or whatever they were calling it so we just watched. The teachers did a lemon race which is like our egg race but they use lemons here. They walk about 25-50 meters with a spoon in their mouth and a lemon on the spoon. All the students loved that. The 1500 was the last race before tug-of-war. They ran the girls and guys together, there were 9 girls and maybe 15 guys. It went off around 11:30 and it felt like a hot end-of-the-track-season meet. The sun was shining and it was plenty warm out with the humidity high. They are not into running consistent paces I soon realized after the whistle went off. It started out soooo slowly I was not prepared. So I ran up with the guys and trailed off the lead guy. The first 2 laps were very slow-slower than my 10K pace I think. Then he slowly picked it up and then with about 3 laps left we were going much faster. The last lap he took off and so I did too because another guy was coming up fast behind me. I ended up getting either 2nd or 3rd overall, first for the girls. It was so great because even though I know none of the them really ever train and whatnot, it was my first time ever getting first so that was exciting  Next was tug-of-war and Indians are some of the most intense tug-of-war-ers I’ve ever witnessed. It was freaking awesome! I took part in 2 of the 3 rounds and the third years ended up getting 2nd place I think for it. It was a lot of fun and Alison and I are going to try and go back to run on the track before classes if we are allowed. It was on the police grounds kinda far away so we’ll see but hopefully.
This morning I got up earlyish and went to church with Annie and Alison. Annie had gone last week with Robert and so she had met the Pastors daughter nad so she met us halfway there and showed us the way. Church started at 8:45 and went until 11:45! I was not expecting that at all. Although strangely, it didn’t feel that long at all which I’m very thankful for. The service was mostly in Kannada, the main language of the city, although there was some English in it too. The pastor had a translator for the sermon which was slightly less than 30 min I’d say and I’m glad that was translated because it was pretty good. It was a penecostal church and I’ve never been to a Pennecostal service in the US but from what I’ve heard they are loud and sing a lot in the US and they do the same here. Praise the Lord and Alleluia are the same in both languages and so that I could always understand. The songs were awesome nad if I end up going to that church more than I want to ask for the songs. They sang some in Kannada, one in Hindi and a few in English. It was really awesome because they sang ‘Here I am to Worship’ and it felt so cool to know the song from back home. Also today they had a mega offering because the church was built 2 years ago and so they are still in debt and today was big day to give apparently. The pastors son was playing keyboard and another boy was playing guitar and it was cool to listen to all the voices and them playing. Another interesting thing was that they all take their shoes off before entering (they actually do this in many places) and the guys and girls sit on opposite sides of the church.
So that has been my past few days. I should be starting classes sometime this week although Thursday is some holiday so no class then and field placement will start either this week or early next week I’m thinkin. I hope you all are sledding lots and getting your skating in for me since there is no way that I am going to be doing that. I wish you all a wonderful Sunday.

First week already?!

I am alive and safe…and some of you may be surprised but I’m also very full-not starving  I have been in India for 6ish days and it feels like a very long time and yet also a very short time. It hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m studying abroad here since we have only been to one class and that was just to sit in. We have been on exposure visits for our field placements but I don’t know if I’m going to choose any of the ones we’ve been to yet. Everything is slowed down over here. I’m thankful that I am an easy going person or else I may have burst by now. So let me see what I’ve been up to…
The trip started off with loooong plane rides. It was good bonding time with the other BCA girls (Alison, Annie, Emily & Mary) and Robert (our BCA director). We all hit it off right away which I was very happy about. 2010 came when we were flying over the ocean and the whole plane cheered a little bit but nothing too exciting. I feel like ever since we got off the plane in Mangalore everything is filled with color and contrast-I love it so far!
We went to a zoo type place on Sunday and we saw a lot of interesting animals as well as riding an Indian elephant!! Who’da thought that within the first week in India I’d be on an elephant?! All 5 of us girls hopped on the same one and a little boy led us around. Guess how much it cost? Ohh about 50 cents/person. And we could videotape and take pictures the whole time for free and no forms of liability were signed….welcome to India. We also went to a Hindu Temple and St.Alyousius (spelling may be wrong) and got tours at both of those places. The Hindu Temple was very elaborate and neat to look at all of the statues of gods they had everywhere. St.Alyosius is a Catholic school and church-the ceiling was painted with very elaborate murals of the stories of Jesus.
We went to school and got a full tour and met with the principal who is very nice. The school is so quaint and full of trees and such but very different than a college in the States. Compare Juniata to Roshni and you’ll find many differences. For instance, we are trying to pick our 2 elective classes and so Joselyn, the head director type guy for us, told us to look at the time table and look at when our classes would start and try to find when we could do our field placement. They have the ENTIRE schools class schedule on one paper. For college. Now I know it’s much more specialized and it works for them but it’s different. Also Indians run on IST-that’s Indian Standard Time-or as they joke-Indian Stretchable Time. They don’t worry about time except for classes and appointments.
Food. I hit a PR (personal record) for eating spicy food consecutively. Friday morning we ate at our hotel (where we stayed for 4 days until our flat was ready) and ate spicy food for breakfast. So 3 meals on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday-I had spicy food at each meal!!!! Whoaaaa! Be impressed! The girls learned fast that my tolerance was not as high as theirs but I still try everything and eat a lot. At every meal we have either bread or rice-the bread is all very tasty-I’m trying to figure out what the different names mean though. And then we have what they call gravy. Everything else basically is gravy. It’s a meat or veg dish in a sauce. Overall it’s all very good-just spicy 
Running….yeah. About that. So far I have not been able to run because we have been busy every day getting adjusted and we don’t know where/we\hen we can run. BUT Saturday is sports day and I am signed up for the 1500 as that is the longest distance they have…it may be really ugly. Also the fitness type lady is going to hopefully find us and talk to us on Saturday and Alison and I can find out where we can run and when! Alison was a sprinter in HS but now she runs distance. We were boty very excited when we found out that we both really really wanted/needed to run while here.
I feel like I have done so much and we have so much that we are going to do while here. So far I really like everything a lot. The autorickshaws are so fun to ride in , the chocolate is tasty and the people are kind. WE just moved into our house yesterday and we are trying to figure out the internet but I think we will soon and then I can update more regularly. Although not having any cell phone or internet connection for a week was kinda nice. We got our cell phones about 3 days ago and opened bank accounts but we don’t have ATM cards or SIM cards yet….oh India…so we can’t use them just yet but contact with the world is coming. Right now I’m at the school computer lab…signing off. Love you all!