Can I fit all the rest of it into one?

It won’t do justice to the last several weeks of my trip, but…let’s be realistic.  We both want this kept succinct. Here are some highlights from things:

Our parents took Erik and I on a trip to…somewhere. It’s on the border of the states of Bihar and West Bengal, but I never got the name. It was just a night, as sort of a gift to us. They’re so nice.

I smell mischief. 

There were so many geckos. I guess you could say it was a Gecko city really. 

The remains of a temple, 1400 years old. It just sits here; no guards, no fence, no sign, no preservation whatsoever. But that's the thing about India, this kind of stuff is everywhere. You don't need to preserve it. 

For a sweet and totally related vid: http://youtu.be/pmiwSymKp2E

I went to another Bengali wedding. Not much to talk about with these, other than the decorations. Believe or not…I just don’t get into that all that much. 

Don't worry. We know this bride....so well. 

Isn't that nice? Do you think my real parents get jealous of things like this?

For the story behind this, check out this sweet vid: 

http://youtu.be/ipjHJgE5Xz8

I spent $5 on a spa treatment:

http://youtu.be/7-fEF5jv_ZM

I went to Bodh Gaya, the Buddhism capital of the world. They have the original tree under which Buddha achieved enlightenment 2600 years ago.

This is the one

There are statues and things

And mountains that look just like the Lord of the Rings

I said good-bye to the girls at Loreto. That was…a bit difficult.

And now I’m leaving for Puri, and I relaxing couple days hanging out on the Indian Ocean. After that, it’s a just a few days of trying to fit in everything I missed, and I’ll be on the plane heading home. That’ll be weird…

Cross-Cultural Experiences: Homework

Doing homework in India has really changed the way I think about homework. That’s the value of cultural immersion: your whole world gets turned upside down. Some differences I’ve noticed.

1) Pencils are hard to find, but that’s ok, because I usually use pens anyway. None of my teachers require pencils for anything, so it’s fine.

2) Instead of writing papers about subjects in American school, we usually write about subjects from our Indian classes, which turns out to be mainly Indian stuff. Today I wrote an essay about…Indian stuff.

3) At school in the states, I can either do my homework in my dorm room, or in the library. Here, I have a whole variety of choices, such as my bedroom, the kitchen, or even the bathroom.

4) At school, it’s usually quiet. Here there are cars and dogs outside. I can’t really see them…you know…being inside the house, but I can hear them. Just another example of the many differences between home and living here.

In conclusion, you don’t need to leave the house to have a great cultural experience. 

Hyderabad

How do you summarize a five-day trip that happened a month ago in one blog post? Poorly I guess. We went to Hyderabad, a city in Southern India, known for its Muslim roots and booming IT sector (I know everybody assumes that India is full of IT sectors, but I hadn’t really seen a big one until now. And it’s quite shocking when you do). The city was a Muslim Kingdom until a few years after India gained independence, joining the new country in 1951. The city was formerly one of the richest cities in the world. So…that’s kind of cool. It’s an interesting mix of newfound wealth, very old wealth, Western influence, and conservative Muslim influence.

Those darn Indian Airlines and their stereotyping

"Yes, I'd like to order 3 dozen chandeliers please."

At a new high class business school, these men are literally cutting the grass with clippers. Like my brother Kevin always used to threaten me with/use as a comparison for my poor mowing performance. 

Marketplace under the Char Minar
For a sweet vid: http://youtu.be/JMbnVR-EAUw

I’ll just highlight some key…..highlights.

There was an incredible fort. Coolest fort ever. And here it is:

For a sweet vid: http://youtu.be/Ek66Xcb2Whs

Really old ruins. Don’t see enough of those.

Lots and lots of misguided advertising

Hey, way to be honest. 

Just a bit unsettling

So true. 

I went to an Easter Vigil mass in the largest octagonal church in Asia. The church was pretty small, so I had ignorantly assumed that the title came not from the impressive architecture of the building, but the fact that the race for largest octagonal church is Asia isn’t that competitive. Except the next day I saw a much smaller octagonal church. Ignorant Americans who think they understand Asia…psht. The ironic part of it all is that the mass was outdoors. Easily a thousand people there, with the front of the church covered in lights. At exactly midnight, the choir blared, all of the lights were turned on, and the bells rang without rhythm for a solid three minutes…in the middle of a neighborhood at midnight. But hey, they were just really excited. So was I.

At the mass I had one of my best conversations ever with a few young teenagers. They were asking us about America, I asked about their lives, etc. They one of the boys asked, “Do you watch any matches? WWE?” I cracked up, because I had just watched WWE in the hotel room the night before for…much too long. He asked my favorite wrestler, I said The Rock, of course. His was, of course, John Cena. Everybody here loves John Cena. I asked him if he was excited for the title bout between John Cena the Rock. It already happened in the U.S., but its being broadcasted in India in a few days. He’s ecstatic for it. He asked me if I prefer Raw or Smackdown. I said of course, Raw, and he thankfully agreed. I don’t know the difference. Then I asked him if he knows Jesse Ventura, and he said he does, but doesn’t much care for him. That was definitely the highlight of the conversation.

South India is much more similar to North India than I expected, but the reality is that wherever you go in India, you’ll find something new. The unfortunate thing about seeing India is it’s just so difficult to explain. 

Soccer Match

Ok, let's just pretend I've been posting things for the last month...its probably just your fault for not checking it enough.

I went to a soccer match. The teams aren’t important and the crowd was sparse, but here are the observations: 

·     Although not many people came, the fans were INSANE. I got so many hugs when we scored goals. Everybody threw garbage at the field when we tied.

·     IF it were an important game, I can’t even imagine what it would have been like. The stadium fits 120,000, the second largest non-racing stadium in the world. We got VIP seats, the best seats in the house (aka the only seats in the stadium that are seats and not concrete bleacher-steps) for $1.40 a ticket. The price goes down from there. 

·      They…were very fascinated that white people came to the match. We were the only ones there. After the game we were surrounded by a circle of at least 30, simply staring, about 10 camera phones taking pictures. We’re used to it.

·      Dogs on the field. No big deal. 

·      The vendor (that boy) was going through the rows selling cucumbers. The ultimate game-day snack. The crunching satisfies angry urges, and of course there are numerous health benefits that go along with it. I find it humorous to wonder what kind of things American fans, say for example fans at a Iowa Hawkeyes football game, would say about a cucumber vendor. 

  Conclusion: People everywhere get really crazy about soccer. They almost put my roommate and me on Viking’s Sundays to shame. However, it’s extremely clear that people here care much much more about Cricket. I just don’t get it. I never will. Cricket is the worst. That's the moral of this blog.

·    

Fun fact of the day

There are two today. You get a bonus fun fact, because every other day of my life I forgot to do one.

The city of Kolkata has roughly as many people as the state of Minnesota (5 million), in an area twice the size of Lakeville.

The metropolitan area of Kolkata has 3 times the number of people in Minnesota, in an area roughly equivalent to Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Eagan, Burnsville, Rosemount, and Lakeville combined (728 sq. km).

Pretty cool huh? I'll put actual things on the blog....eventually. 

The Intimacy of Cultural Immersion

The other day on the metro, a guy behind me rested his chin on my shoulder.

I know its crowded in there, but he had other places to go. It was his conscious decision to take our unintroduced co-commuter relationship to the next level. And I'm glad he did. 

Sweet Vids

If you like Youtube, then you'll love these! They form somewhat of a cross-section of my time in India here, except its a little heavy on videos from my most recent trip to Darjeeling. Either way. Here are all of the videos I own, in case you're interested:

Elephant Ride to the Amber Fort: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1buhM9_I66g

Child Ritual at Hindu Monastery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlGs8iEttD0

Indian Wedding Decorations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzENyioPiFc

Indian Wedding Ceremony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sgpkejtGvA

Ride on Cable Car (please ignore conversation): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiBAz2ZzXwA

Sunrise on Himalayas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8On3O1OiOo

A general sunrise video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q5ChmKhP9c

Super Cool bear fight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76k2KFHxEc4

A weird Indian version of Swan Lake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVK8J0OzxQc

My host dad's performance of Caesar (apologies for the sideways video):
                                                             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QV-a0oWDVY

A beautiful child's laughter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7qvtNNxpeQ

Darjeeling

A few days ago, we went on a weekend trip to Darjeeling. Darjeeling is a city on side of a hill (mountain), on the border of India and Nepal.

Quick Facts-

                ·      Elevation: 6710 ft.

                ·      Population: 132,000

                ·      Grows more tea than anyone I know…combined.

                ·      Kind of cold

Getting there:

       The thing about mountains is that they make transportation difficult. The thing about India is that ALL transportation is wacky to begin with. We rode the sleeper train a station 2-3 hours south of Darjeeling. The sleeper train has its pluses and minuses. Pluses: You travel in the middle of the night and sleep the whole way, so you don’t miss any daylight. Minuses: A justified fear of thievery, moderate solicitation from some less than wholesome individuals, and dozens of people snoring at the same time. In conclusion: I enjoyed the ride immensely.

Following the train came a couple hour-long vertical car ride up the hill (mountain). Its basically a perpetual series of hairpin turns on a one-lane road that serves two-way traffic. No guard rails or fences. The only defense against certain death is utmost trust in the driver. And he did very well.

View from the car window

The City:

            Darjeeling as a city is super cool. One of my favorite places in India thus far. I won’t go into it too much, but in a nut shell:

·      It’s on a hill (mountain). So that’s cool.

·      Very touristy. Very safe, lots of shopping, American Classic Rock, etc.

·      Lots of influence from Buddhism, Nepali/Tibetan culture, etc. That means everybody calls you “brother” and they sell dragons in every store.

·      Quaint buildings from British times.

Things we did:

·      Watched the sunrise over mountains both days. Breathtaking

-       Do adults really get up that early? By the last morning I swear I had literally died.

·      We saw Kanchenjunga, the 3^rd highest mountain in the world (28,169 ft.). It’s less than a thousand feet shorter than Everest. No big deal. Clouds and fog pose visibility issues, so I didn’t see all that much of the range. Apparently on really clear days, you can see Everest from the hill we were on.

·      Buddhist Temples

-       These are always cool. I’ll see many more before my time in India is up.

·      There’s a cable car that stretches over a valley. It was shut down 8-9 years ago due to an accident that killed several people. It just re-opened about a month ago. So we rode it. I figured I wouldn’t tell any of my loved ones until it was already over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiBAz2ZzXwA

(When you watch that sweet vid, try to ignore the chatter in the background. It was...inevitable.) 

·      Does anybody like tea? Mark Steingraeber? This is where it comes from.

·      Its cold in Darjeeling. Like 40 degrees during the mornings and nights. The difference between that and 40 degrees at home is that in Darjeeling no heater exists anywhere. That means cold sheets, cold faucet water, cold toothbrushes, cold toilet seat, etc. (I’m mainly focusing on the temperature of the hotel room…). I didn’t really bring warm clothes, because when people tell me its cold in India, I never believe them. This stems from my host-parents consistent concerned insistence that I “put on trousers” when its 65, so that I don’t catch a cold. Well….you win this round. Definitely caught a cold.

·      Many other things

                                          Etc. 

That’s it. If you ever make it to India, I suggested trying it out for a few days. If you have any questions, you can direct them to my email. Thanks.

Adam