Its been awhile since I've blogged. Sorry.
I'll have to keep this brief. Not one of my better qualities.
A couple weekends ago I we went on a group trip to The Sundarbans. Its a Mangrove Forest Reserve, meaning the trees adapt to having their roots submerged in salt water. If trees aren't exciting enough for you, there's also crocodiles, poisonous snakes, birds, Gangetic dolphins, sharks, mudskippers, lots of monkeys, and Bengal Tigers. Everybody goes to see the tigers, but it turns out they're nocturnal....and don't come to the river's edge to wave to tourist boats as they pass by. Fun fact though: they will hunt and eat humans. Not just for protection of young or territory, but for substance. 30+ people die in the reserve every year from tiger attacks. Sometimes when sailors anchor on the river at night to sleep, tigers will swim up to the boat, get in, find a human in bed, and grab him and take him away. I wasn't scared though, I had fire. Everybody knows Shere Khan is terrified of fire. Another fun fact: there are supposed to be around 70 tigers in the Sundarbans, which is like....the majority of the population worldwide. They expect them to be extinct within 10 years. I always think of extinct species as things like the Dodo or the Woolly Mammoth. Its weird to think it'll be something that I grew up seeing in zoos.
Not keeping it brief at all. Shoot. The wildlife was cool. Sitting in the boat was nice. I didn't see snakes or tigers or dolphins or sharks, but there were lots of mischievous monkeys, and really enormous crocodiles. Oh, and the bathroom in the boat was a little box attached to the back of the boat, with a bucket (for wiping) and a hole that empties directly into the river. It wouldn't be an Adam Kunkel blog post without some sort of commentary on pooping conditions.
I went to Chinatown the other day. Turns out Chinatown isn't very much like Chinatown's in other places. Its probably pretty similar to actual China. There were some really great restaurants, a lot of tanneries, and a lot of filth. We did a lot of snooping, and got a lot of suspicious looks, because tourists don't really come to Chinatown. There are piles of hundreds of goat-skins waiting to be pressed by the giant wheels in the tanneries (they looked like the sliding boulders in Crash Bandicoot). The water is blue from dye, or maybe bacteria. Its almost as if....the Chinese in Kolkata formed an ethnic settlement but didn't bother to build enormous pagodas or decorative dragons. The nerve.
Everybody told me that when I go to India, I HAVE to see an Indian wedding. So I did, and when I got there, snuck my way up to bride and groom, and carefully took pictures while they recited their Sanskrit vows, the thought occurred to me: "......isn't this a wedding? I shouldn't be here." Definitely shouldn't have been there. But I got some neat pictures. To those of you who want an Indian style wedding, start collecting flowers now. If you're looking to replicate the hat....I would suggest a confectioner. Pick me up one while you're there.
When we got our housing assignments, Erik and I were told "your family has an active and energetic extended family." I had assumed they were talking about physical fitness, but when I found out they just throw parties a lot, I was alright with that too. A party with extended family in Kolkata means: lots of food and beverages (don't get too excited), strictly intellectual conversation (I'll chime-in.....in a few minutes), and a mandatory display of singing/dancing/acting/anything else from each attendee (are you familiar with juggling?). At the last one, there were 7 American students there. We all went, one by one, performing talents. I juggled melons. We had 2 dancers, 2 singers (one was a Louis Armstrong impression that nobody understood....), a whistler, and Erik played piano throughout. Then my host-brother and host-father did back-to-back solo performances, one a dialogue from Caesar and one a speech by Henry the fifth (if I had done "V", it would have looked like Henry V., and that could be anyone). Antarin yelled and screamed and jumped on furniture and made babies cry and almost made me cry. Ranjit's was much less uncomfortable. I failed to realize that filming videos sideways won't work like taking pictures sideways, but the audio is too good to sacrifice. When I get home, I owe you a neck massage for craning your head sideways.
For a video: http://youtu.be/-QV-a0oWDVY
I went to a ballet last night, but it wasn't really a ballet. It was an Indo-French low budget twist on "Swan Lake." I don't even know enough about ballet to make a sarcastic remark, so I'll just post the video. I did see an old white woman with a queen-like dress, tiara, and an enormous diamond necklace. Fairly sure I saw her carrying little glasses on a stick. That's when I knew that even if it wasn't THAT much of a ballet.....it had to have been pretty close.
For a video: http://youtu.be/oVK8J0OzxQc
In a few days, my host brother Antarin leaves forever, to teach Urban Planning in a University in Ethiopia. Its going to be very different here without him. If you could just listen to this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnQ8N1KacJc) and look at this picture of the family napping, I would greatly appreciate it.
Love,
Adam
I'll have to keep this brief. Not one of my better qualities.
A couple weekends ago I we went on a group trip to The Sundarbans. Its a Mangrove Forest Reserve, meaning the trees adapt to having their roots submerged in salt water. If trees aren't exciting enough for you, there's also crocodiles, poisonous snakes, birds, Gangetic dolphins, sharks, mudskippers, lots of monkeys, and Bengal Tigers. Everybody goes to see the tigers, but it turns out they're nocturnal....and don't come to the river's edge to wave to tourist boats as they pass by. Fun fact though: they will hunt and eat humans. Not just for protection of young or territory, but for substance. 30+ people die in the reserve every year from tiger attacks. Sometimes when sailors anchor on the river at night to sleep, tigers will swim up to the boat, get in, find a human in bed, and grab him and take him away. I wasn't scared though, I had fire. Everybody knows Shere Khan is terrified of fire. Another fun fact: there are supposed to be around 70 tigers in the Sundarbans, which is like....the majority of the population worldwide. They expect them to be extinct within 10 years. I always think of extinct species as things like the Dodo or the Woolly Mammoth. Its weird to think it'll be something that I grew up seeing in zoos.
Not keeping it brief at all. Shoot. The wildlife was cool. Sitting in the boat was nice. I didn't see snakes or tigers or dolphins or sharks, but there were lots of mischievous monkeys, and really enormous crocodiles. Oh, and the bathroom in the boat was a little box attached to the back of the boat, with a bucket (for wiping) and a hole that empties directly into the river. It wouldn't be an Adam Kunkel blog post without some sort of commentary on pooping conditions.
I went to Chinatown the other day. Turns out Chinatown isn't very much like Chinatown's in other places. Its probably pretty similar to actual China. There were some really great restaurants, a lot of tanneries, and a lot of filth. We did a lot of snooping, and got a lot of suspicious looks, because tourists don't really come to Chinatown. There are piles of hundreds of goat-skins waiting to be pressed by the giant wheels in the tanneries (they looked like the sliding boulders in Crash Bandicoot). The water is blue from dye, or maybe bacteria. Its almost as if....the Chinese in Kolkata formed an ethnic settlement but didn't bother to build enormous pagodas or decorative dragons. The nerve.
 |
| I mean I know there's not a lot of money to go around, but try to meet me halfway. I just want to see this. Is that too much to ask? |
Everybody told me that when I go to India, I HAVE to see an Indian wedding. So I did, and when I got there, snuck my way up to bride and groom, and carefully took pictures while they recited their Sanskrit vows, the thought occurred to me: "......isn't this a wedding? I shouldn't be here." Definitely shouldn't have been there. But I got some neat pictures. To those of you who want an Indian style wedding, start collecting flowers now. If you're looking to replicate the hat....I would suggest a confectioner. Pick me up one while you're there.
For a video: http://youtu.be/_sgpkejtGvA
For a video: http://youtu.be/-QV-a0oWDVY
 |
| Storytime with Ranjit |
I went to a ballet last night, but it wasn't really a ballet. It was an Indo-French low budget twist on "Swan Lake." I don't even know enough about ballet to make a sarcastic remark, so I'll just post the video. I did see an old white woman with a queen-like dress, tiara, and an enormous diamond necklace. Fairly sure I saw her carrying little glasses on a stick. That's when I knew that even if it wasn't THAT much of a ballet.....it had to have been pretty close.
For a video: http://youtu.be/oVK8J0OzxQc
In a few days, my host brother Antarin leaves forever, to teach Urban Planning in a University in Ethiopia. Its going to be very different here without him. If you could just listen to this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnQ8N1KacJc) and look at this picture of the family napping, I would greatly appreciate it.
Love,
Adam
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