Intro to India

I'm going to preface this with I love America.

 

The past four days have been filled with nothing but worry and craziness. I am very excited that I am doing a tour to Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi rather than figuring it out on my own like some people are doing. Even this has become somewhat stressful. So to start out, our flight leaves at 7:30 AM on March 7th. Which means in order to allow us ample time to get together, get taxis, and catch our flights, we were supposed to meet in Tymitz Square (the reception area on the ship) at 4:30 AM. So this plan sounded wonderful until a few things popped up. One of them is that there is a curfew in the port area from 12 midnight to 8 AM meaning that no one can be in the area at this time and we would be restricted to the ship. And then they said that since this is an industrial port, we are not permitted to walk through the port area, plus India is on high security risk. So they have a shuttle running all day from 8 AM - midnight we're told....except we need it to run 24/7 so they tell us they'll work on it. As of this morning at about 10AM we still hadn't heard whether there would be this shuttle service and had no idea what we were going to do. So the kid who set up the tour said he would scout out some hotels and we would just stay in one of those overnight. Except there's one problem....there's a Cricket World Cup game being held in India tonight....so all hotels are most likely full. I left the ship this morning not knowing how I would get to the airport or hotel or even meet up with my group. I wasn't going to wait around all day for news. So I left the ship just a tid but frenzied.....more like SO scared!!!! But as Chris always says...everything falls into place and works out in the end! I tried to keep that mindset all day....and sure enough there is a 24/7 shuttle and we're meeting in Tymitz Square at 4:30 AM. Thank God that logistical nightmare is over. This little blurb doesn't even give justice to the amount of worrying I have been doing for the past 4 days.

 

Anyways! Within the first ten minutes of being off the ship, I was driving a rickshaw through the streets of India....yeah you read that right....not sitting in a rickshaw but DRIVING one. If you don't know what a rickshaw is, it's this taxi thing with three wheels. One wheel in front and two in the rear. It can fit 5 people MAX if you're squished in and one person is sitting all cozied up next to the driver. The steering wheel is in the middle and it's like a 4 wheeler...you twist the handle to rev it and the more you twist it, the faster you go. These things are wild....when you're in one of them they drive SO close to the other cars that you could honestly "pick someone's nose" as Kerry said. They swerve around through traffic. The two other girls who Kerry had been on a trip with before, as well as Kerry, also drove the rickshaw. We were laughing and smiling the whole way. There were random shoes in the road that you had to swerve around, goats, cows, children, bikes, mopeds...so crazy. It felt like you were in a racing game like Mario Kart and it was so unreal that we were like..."Wouldn't it be hilarious if a little box popped up for you to drive through and get points?!" The inside of the rickshaw on the dashboard had these stickers of different Gods....many of them which we had learned about during preport. We really just wanted to go to this market but we were warned that rickshaw drivers end up hanging on to you and taking you everywhere...even places you DONT want to go. Sure enough....that's what happened.

 

Our first stop was the ATM. Of course my card didn't work in it. What else is new?! And then I tried another card that worked....not realizing later that I got out 500 Rupees and not 5000. 1USD=45 rupees. So basically I got out around $10. Awesome.....I really hate foreign ATMs. We drove by the beach....no bikinis in India. And then we drove to this store to buy Saris...the pieces of cloth that Indian women wear. The cloth is about 3 meters long. We were the only one's in there looking at beautiful cloths, silk, etc. and then ten minutes later, BAM. SAS kids everywhere. There were probably about 30 of us huddled into this store. Then we were taken by our rickshaw driver to another store. All of them are nice and sell beautiful cloth, crafts, jewelry etc but it got to the point where it was just STUFF. It became really overwhelming. And when we would ask our driver questions.....you couldn't understand his English at all and then he would get frustrated at us.

 

Next he stopped the car along the streets. The streets by the way are crazy. People everywhere, crossing the streets. There are no lines on the road and traffic lights are actually just recommendations to stop and don't actually mean...."hey there's a truck full of hay about to plow your little dinky rickshaw over so you should stop here." The most intense driving I have ever seen. There are many old homeless people on the streets and for the most part the public sphere is very male dominated. You don't see too many women walking about unless they are with another man or if they are working in the stores. There were tons of fruit stands and men on bicicles with basically a table atttached to the front, selling watermelon.

 

So back to my actual story...we stopped along the side of the street and were led into this store. We were told to take our shoes off.....considering there is poop and trash and dirt on the streets....I really wasn't keen on this idea. But handed over my filthy Nikes and stepped into the streets in my white socks. We were led into this Hindu temple where hundreds of people were gathered around. Most of them were just talking but had many fragrant flowers all around them. We were told that it was a big marriage day. We wanted to get pictures so we gave our driver our camera and then about 20 Indian's got into our picture and were SO excited to have their pictures taken with us. Then a lady said "I give you my address and you send me picture from America" so that's what we did!

 

I've gotta say....my feet were BURNING on the ground. I had socks on....remember most of these people are walking around barefoot. I'm really not sure how they do it. And I was constantly jumping over puddles of who knows what. I decided to think of it as water...but I'm pretty sure it was urine. Then we were shown this pond that had a ton of catfish in it and fed them bananas which was gross. I hate catfish. We saw some cows in the temple too. Cows are sacred in India so I guess that's why they were there? I don't know...By this time we were hungry so our driver took us to this vegetarian restuarant. We realized we didn't have hand sanitizer. The one thing you NEED in India. And then we remembered in India you eat with your hands....yikes. We ordered some rice which was super gloppy and camewith other spices, curry, peppers and hot sauce. Luckily it was served with a spoon! It was incredibly spicy. And I could feel the food going right through me.....thank goodness I remembered to take Pepto Bismol this morning.

 

After that we were taken to store after store after store. We really just wanted to go to an open air market but I guess those don't exist here in Chennai? And there were SAS kids everywhere you looked. When you realize that all the rickshaw drivers all go to the same places you ralize they have a system. They take you to the stores of their friends and relatives. You end up buying stuff and after all 800 SAS kids have been there, they've made BANK. It's so obvious that they've just set us all up. I got exhausted from shopping and I was tired of looking at the same stuff over and over again....I'm not a "stuff/worthless souvenir" kind of person like so many of these kids are. I was worried about how I would get with my tour group for tomorrow at that point and really just wanted to go back to the ship. So we drove there, where I was getting dropped off (the other girls stayed on). I handed the guy 200 rupees and he just looked at me and said too little. That's the price he told us at the beginning of the day! I couldn't believe it. I only had 500 and I need some for tomorrow! So this was the first time during this entire trip where I literally broke down and held back tears as much as I could. Kerry ended up covering me and I figured out how to check in with the scary port guards, find the shuttle, and get back on the ship.

 

This study abroad program was seriously made for me. It's so nice to be able to come back to a place you know is going to be the same, where it will be Americanized and safe and feel like home. Seeing the sign for a 24/7 shuttle and checking my email to find out that we really are leaving from Tymitz square was the icing on the cake after a long stressful, busy, dirty, day. It felt like the Amazing Race all day. Crazy!

 

Pray that the rest of my time in India goes just a little bit smoother for me.....I sure would like it too! That's what you get when you travel though.

 

Thank you to everyone who is reading these blogs and leaving such positive, uplifting, awesome comments! They make my day, they really really do!!!

 

That's all for now....I'm sure I'll have some crazy stories after I come back from my TRIP TO THE TAJ MAHAL!!!!!