Off to Bharuch

Tomorrow morning at 5am two of my classmates and I will travel to Bharuch City. It will be my first Indian train ride (so many first times!). This will also be the first time that I step foot outside of Ahmedabad within Gujarat. I am delighted, and I can't wait to begin to get a feel of the countryside. In Bharuch we will stay in a little Parsi hotel.

Today we visited Gandhi's ashram and it was lovely. The heat is unbearable today, as everyone waits for the relief of rain that has not yet come to Gujarat, but it was very interesting to see the historical site. Gandhiji's writings in Gujarati are completely illegible, unfortunately, but I will get some of his typed writings so that I can work on my reading skills (which aren't too bad!).

We had our first test today and I was reminded of why it was so significant for me to pass my generals exams (I am ready to be done with tests!). It was extremely frustrating!

The weather reports say tonight the rains will come, together with thunder and lightening, we'll see.

The Police Commissioner

My classmates and I have been waiting for one of our program coordinators to take us to register with the police. Yesterday was our day. Before we left the office where our classes are held we were told that we would need for our 'landlords' to come with us to the station in order to verify where we are living. Having read a few novels about Indian bureaucracy, I had an immediate image of how this might play out. Fortunately, by asking around we figured out a way around this (bringing a letter written by our host families along with a bill to prove their names and addresses). We went to two different stations and finally succeeded in getting the paperwork. We returned today with the paperwork and all went smoothly, but our next task is to return to the commissioner's office on Monday for 'interviews'. I don't have any idea what this commissioner might want to interview us about, but no matter what it will be a learning experience. Tomorrow we have our first Gujarati test. I'm happy to say that in reading and writing I have come a long way already, but in speaking I am not yet at the level of a small child.

Gujarati Dinner for 45

First off I have to say how childishly delighted I have been to see animals of all kinds in the middle of the city. Camels pulling fruit stands, families of monkeys traveling down the road, goats and cows. The monkeys were especially surprising because they are very big, grey with black faces. They don't seem at all interested in me, but I keep a safe distance nonetheless. My host family's house has a roof top garden in pots and a bathtub with small trees in it. In the late afternoon when I read there I find myself watching falcons, hawks and ravens circling overhead.

Last night my family had 45 people over to the house for dinner. Over the past week I have pretty much caught up to the Gujarati I knew by the end of last summer, but this doesn't mean that I am in any position to make small talk in groups. I decided to take the party as my starting point. I was perfectly useless and spent hours smiling and speaking in english with a few people. Everyone was very nice, and some older men and women teased me (which it seems to me is a very good thing), but in the end I could only promise the crowd that I would speak much better the next time we should meet. The food, by the way, was unbelievable as usual. The highlight was the ice cold mango juice, which is almost like pudding.

This morning my classmates and I had a cooking class at our teacher's house. It was wonderful. As a cook myself, I was delighted by the unfamiliar cooking instruments, methods and spices. I will have to write down everything I can recall when I reach home. By Monday I will be sure to finally get some pictures up!

Day to day

Veja embaixo para uma entrada em portugues!

I am happy to say that I have recovered from my illness, though I am knocking on wood as I write this. The dinners that I have shared with my host family have been delightful: a mixture of hindi, gujarati and english in front of a table of delicious homemade treats. Beautiful breads with ghee, several kinds of vegetables, chutneys (wow - the super spicy garlic chutney is out of this world!), buttermilk, and a delicious mixture of rice and lentil cooked together to perfection. The daughter in law of the family makes me breakfast in the morning and sits and watches me eat it. We chat about films, food, etc. I wake up every morning very early, I suppose because I am not yet settled in to the 11.5 hours difference between here and the US.

Yesterday after class the four of us students went shopping. Mostly they were humoring me, because I had only one kurta to wear. It was quite the spree; I bought five lovely kurtas (long shirt with short sleeves), three pairs of pants that took some getting used to, and two dupattas (long scarves). I am set for the summer! Later, at home, I set to the task of washing my clothes. It is so so very hot that washing my clothes was nearly as fun as playing in a broken fire hydrant. And on top of that, my clothes dried in minutes!

I haven't managed to take many photos yet, and the internet is not nearly as convenient as I would like, but I will hopefully get some up by the weekend.

I am starting to settle in to the pace of urban India, and I can see that I will begin to like it over time. By far the most difficult part is how much I am missing Sage.

Agora, me desculpe amigos que nao leem ingles. Nesses primeiros dias eu estou achando morar na India bastante dificil: passei super mal no inicio, esta fazendo calor muito pessado (45!), e simplesmente estou tendo muitas experiencias novas todo dia. Da para ver que eu vou gostar cada vez mais de estar aqui, a coisa que ainda me faz triste e saudades da Sage. As aulas sao boas e estao melhorando todo dia, mas a lingua e bastante dificil e muito diferente. Leio e escrevo, mas falar e outra coisa. Vejo muitas similaridades com o brasil - tentarei descrever as mesmas no curso do tempo que estou aqui. Se quiserem deixam mensagens como "comments". Um grande abraco a voces!

Just the Begining

Just after I wrote my entry yesterday I became violently ill. I spent the entire day in my hotel room with what must have been food poisoning. Fortunately, I seem to be more or less better today. Though I still feel rather weak and sickly. I went to my host house for the first time today and it seems strange and interesting. It is an apartment on the 8th floor of a large, and seemingly run down building in which live a couple in their 60s, their son, a grandmother, and I have seen two maids so far. I have a small room with a bed and a closet. On the inside the apartment is airy and bright, and has lovely decorations. Dinner tonight should be a major test on my language skills, and it will be my first homemade Indian dinner! We had our first classes today and they went well. I am begining to remember what I learned last year. Oh yes, and I also rode a rickshaw for the first time today!

First moments in Ahmedabad

Walking from my hotel to the nearby internet cafe just now I felt as though I was making my India debut. I was noting people taking note of me, particularly women, and feeling the harsh sunshine on my face for the first time. I arrived in Gujarat this morning filled with anxiety, a bit of fear and some excitement as well. I had to take long deep breathes as I rode into town from the airport. I tried to remember my first arrival in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 2001. That city also felt intimidating and so very foreign to me. I remember that it seemed anything but beautiful and friendly. Less than two years later that city was a second home, and it came to be my favorite city in Brazil.

Tomorrow I will meet my host family and I am trying my best to be calm about it. I have no idea what to expect, no idea how it will feel, but I am trying to gather all of my charm, patience and humor for what is to come. I am also looking over my notes from last summer's Gujarati course in Madison and hoping that I will be able to make it to the intermediate level tomorrow in my placement exam. I am delighted to see the great progression of my work over the course of the eight weeks of that class.

I can't wait to start taking photographs to include here. There are so many new sites and sounds and smells! I am sharing a room with another Gujarati student and very much enjoying her company. She has come to India many times and was in Gujarat 10 years ago. She does very interesting historical work on cotton and textiles. I am happy to have her to tag along with this first little while.

Monsoon and my arrival

I have arrived, and apparently the monsoon season arrived along with me. There have been several delicious down pours already today and the air is thick and warm. More than once I was drenched and dry within 10 minutes. I haven't seen much of Delhi as of yet - we were in orientation in a conference center all morning long. The little I have seen reminds me a lot of some parts of Brazil. I am in a nice enough hotel with western toilets, air conditioning and such, so I am more than comfortable. After orientation my fellow Gujarati students and a Kashmiri student and I briefly toured around and did a bit of shopping. I bought my first kurta, pants and matching doopata (pictures to follow) at Fab India. Apparently there is another Fab India in Ahmedabad. The store is filled with what seems like every possible shade, pattern, color and size of Indian clothing for women. I could spend hours trying to find the most interesting combinations. I found a pleasant outfit that I think will be both conservative enough and that doesn't make me feel like a fool to wear. Tomorrow is when the real adventure begins. I leave the hotel at 4am for my flight to Ahmedabad. It seems we will be staying with host families, though that part is still very unclear. My spoken Hindi is a bit sad, but I understand more than I had expected. At the moment I am in the office of the hotel with a few Indian men typing away and taking phone calls - there are very nice and speak very slowly to me. I wish I could understand well enough to get the jokes that they are constantly exchanging. I am trying to stay awake long enough to get myself some dinner.

In a week I'm off

Next Friday I am off to Delhi for two days and then straight to Ahmedabad. I have very little idea of what to expect, no idea what to wear, and no idea whether I will be staying with a host family or living in a flat with the others in my program. I have been watching the weather report for weeks and reading the only existing guidebook on Gujarat. Apparently the rains are coming soon and I can expect 85-107 degree days.