School

After getting back from the trip to Karnataka I’ve been getting back into the routine of going to school. School here is set up very differently than in the United States so I’ll try and explain it all, but fair warning it’s going to be a long blog.

I am enrolled in Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce and I’m in 11^th standard in the Arts stream (hopefully by the end of this post you’ll understand what that means). All of the exchange students are in this class and in addition to us with the Rotary there’s 3 girls from AFS, 2 from Italy and 1 from Thailand.

I have school 6 days a week (we have Sunday off) from 11:30-5. To get to school every day I leave my house at 11 and walk about 10 minutes to the main road (Paud Rd.) to catch a bus with 4 other girls, Tamara (from Mexico), Jaee, Aditi and Abah. The bus costs 10 rupees (16 cents) to get to SNDT, which is an all-girls college and the stop we get off at. From there we take a rickshaw (usually just over 20 rupees, or about 35 cents) to Symbiosis.

Symbiosis is on one of the main roads in Pune and after passing through a gate there’s a long courtyard, our favorite hangout spot, with benches on each side. To the right is the building with my college, Arts and Commerce, and the Law College inside. On the left is the canteen (or cafeteria) and housing for some students who live on campus and go to the school of Liberal Arts.

Each day we have 7 periods (one of them is free time) of 45 minutes each. I have my first period off so I don’t need to be at school till around noon. My classrooms are on the 5^th floor (also the top level) and we rotate in between just 2 or 3 rooms. Other than that the teachers come to the rooms for each new class. Most of the classes are just straight lectures and although we have textbooks we often just read straight from them and take notes on it.

The school system here is very different so here are some of the important differences:

- “College” in India is 11^th and 12^th grades (or standards as they call them here) and it is separate from School, which is 1^st to 10^th grades. At the end of 10^th grade students take really big board exams to determine what college they can go to. However their admission is based purely on what score they get on the test. Each college sets a score percentage (it changes slightly each year depending on how people do) and if you get above that then you get into the college.

-The score you have to get depends upon your caste. There’s a system that’s similar to Affirmative Action in the US where based on their caste they need a certain score to get into a college. For example, in order to get into Symbiosis (one of the more competitive colleges) some castes need to get scores in the 90s whereas others only need in the 60s. This definitely causes some resentment, especially when there's so much pressure to go to a good college.

-Because of this competitiveness and the sort of single shot to get into a good school basically all of 10^th grade (and often 9^th as well) is spent studying hard for the exams. Then when people get into 11^th all they want to do is relax and have fun.

-Attendance isn’t really compulsory (although we’re told that in order to pass you must attend 70% of classes) and often isn’t even kept track of so a lot of people just don’t go to class. Even the teachers don’t always come to school. My host mom explained to me that it’s a vicious cycle. Because they students don’t go to class or don’t pay attention the teachers don’t find it fulfilling to come to class so they don’t show up and if the teachers aren’t there students find it pointless to come to class and so it continues. However it’s not like in the US where if the teacher is gone we have a substitute. Instead that class is off and we’re free to do whatever. On multiple days we’ve found out in the morning that all the classes of the day are off and I have yet to attend a full day of school.

-While in “School” everyone studies the same subjects (except for maybe language) in “College” there are 3 streams: Arts, Commerce and Science. Sometime in 10^th standard everyone has to decide what field they want their career to be in and therefore what stream to follow for college. Considering in the US we don’t need to decide until junior year of University (College for us) this seems like a big decision for a 15 year old to make.

Based upon their stream there are certain classes specific for it. For example in the Arts stream I take: Geography (a lot like Earth science), History (of Maharashtra and India), English, French (there’s also German and Hindi), Information Technology (basically computers) and Economics.

Having school is nice because it adds some structure to my schedule and gives me something to do during the day. It’s also a really good way to meet people. In addition to the kids in our class I’ve made friends with people who have just come up and introduced themselves and asked me where I’m from. Jesus (from Mexico) and Audrey also somehow collectively know half of the people at Symbiosis so when I’m with them I invariably meet someone new. Though my fellow exchange students are my absolute best friends, I’m trying to make an effort to meet more Indian students and make some good friends.

After being enrolled in school for almost 2 months I’ve realized that I’m not going to be able to get a lot out of it. The classes happen too erratically and the style of teaching don’t exactly make the classes enjoyable when they do happen. Still, I need to be there during the day so my task now is to figure out what to do at school so that I can still get something out of it.

One place I’ve been going a lot is the school library. A nerdy as it sounds it’s air conditioned (a huge draw because for some reason it gets hotter in October here) and there’s a good collection of books. It’s very disorganized within the sections,but I’ve found the English section is basically all classics that my Mom has recommended I read at some point. Recently I’ve been picking a book to read (right now its Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude), hiding in a less frequented section (usually the finance and tax shelves) and reading for a half an hour or so.  I still haven’t had an English class (the teacher is also the Vice Principal) so I don’t know if we will have books to read. But in the meantime I’ve found some good bookstores (there’s a chain called Crossword that is heavenly) around Pune and I’ve already bought quite a few books, so I always have that to fall back upon.

I’ve also been hit with the reality of applying for college. Luckily because I took some online classes this summer I can graduate with my grade when I come back in June and I’ll be attending college next year. Unfortunately that means I need to do all of my college stuff here. I did a lot over the summer, but somehow I suddenly have less than 3 weeks to finish up my applications if I want to apply Early Action by November 1^st. Though I’m almost done my biggest stress is writing and finishing up my essays. I’ve started carrying around a notebook with me so whenever I get a chance I can try and get some writing done. At school my classes are on the top floor and there’s an outdoor walkway connecting the two sides of the school with a terrace in the middle. There’s chairs and tables there and with the breeze and shade from the roof it’s a great place to try and get work done.

I have found some of the classes that are actually worthwhile. Economics happens pretty regularly, the teacher takes attendance strictly and we have good discussions. I don’t know much about the particulars of economics, but she makes it interesting and really involves the class. My favorite class by far (though there’s not much competition) is French. It’s the first year of it for everyone else (my seventh) so it isn’t much of a challenge. However, the teacher is really good and pushes everyone to work hard. In just a few months I think they’ve already learned more than I did in my first 2 years. She speaks as much as possible in French and expects everyone to pay attention and be ready to read aloud with a semi correct accent. I don’t know if I will learn anything new, but as long as I get the chance to keep speaking French consistently I’m happy. Gustav and Hugo both speak French so sometimes just to liven things up I attempt to communicate in Franglais with them.

Right now exams are about to start for everyone else (we don’t need to take them thank goodness) so even less classes have being going on than usual. This past week I’ve been meeting up with the other exchange students and a few Indian friends who want to take a break from studying and just relaxing (in between reading and working some on college essays) around Symbiosis. After exams finish up (sometime around the 22nd) we have maybe a week of school until Diwali vacation, which is (brace yourselves) between 3 and 4 weeks! It gets even better. Right after that I’m leaving on a two week tour of Southern India with the Rotary, so I’ll get almost 2 months off from school overall! 

I think I've covered all there is to say about school. I don't have a big conclusion (or at least not one I've already said) so to close here's a low quality picture of school that I did my best to take really casually with my iPod. (My college is the farther one on the right)

Karnataka Tour

Firstly let me say that I’m sorry I haven’t written in almost a month. It’s been daunting to put down all of my experiences on paper, but I’m going to force myself to post at least every other week from now on. There’s so much going on that I really do want to share with everyone. That being said, let me dive right into the past week. It was the first trip for the students of my district and it was to Karnataka, the state directly south of Maharashtra. Though it went incredibly fast and I’m not sure how we managed to squeeze all that we saw into just a week, I had an awesome time.

Fourteen inbounds went on the trip, ten from Pune and four from towns nearby. Of the inbounds from Pune all but one went. There were Audrey and me from the US, Gustav and Hugo from Sweden, Bruno from Brazil and Tamara, Jesus, Ana, Grecia and Pato from Mexico. In addition to us 4 students from outside of Pune came along. Iury and Paola from Brazil, Peter from France and Leon from Germany.

We were able to jam tons of things into just 7 days and even though we spent a lot of time on the bus, we saw lots of great landmarks. The best way for me to show all that I saw and experienced in the past week is through all of the pictures (almost 500!) that I took, so here are a sampling with helpful captions:

We visited more temples than I can count

 

 We saw 3 different waterfalls

We went swimming in the ocean

We went white water rafting and to a natural Jacuzzi at a beautiful hotel in Dandeli

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We saw a Buddhist Monastery

I made friends with multiple cows, monkeys, a kitten and an elephant

Best of all I hung out with the coolest people on Earth

Some of the most fun we had was just all the exchange students hanging out together. When we weren’t in the bus on the way to somewhere we did have a lot of freedom to do what we wanted. Although we couldn’t really go anywhere (sorry Mom, no wandering around unknown Indian towns by myself) we still had a good time.

On the bus we ranged from dance parties (mostly to Brazilian and Mexican dance music) to everyone doing their best to sleep (mostly on top of one another since we had very little space). Each place we stopped was also an opportunity to take countless pictures (both serious and funny) of everything and everyone. We also were responsible for getting lunch and dinner on our own, so we usually all ate together. Dinner was mostly a full typical South Indian meal, but lunch was often a mix of snacks while we were on the bus. We must have consumed more chips, soda, candy and nutella in one week than I had the month before.

One day for lunch we stopped in a tiny village to get food. There weren’t any actual restaurants to get a real meal so we just bought whatever we could find. Hugo and I decided to try all of the different Indian chip like snacks we could find and so we bought probably 5 bags, combined them into a weird, oily and heavily spiced mix and ate them while sitting on the roof of the bus.

A lot of the eating was definitely experimental. We have our old favorites to rely on (my personal choice being Masala Dosa) but depending where you are (region as well as restaurant) dishes can be very different. Therefore it was always a bit of a gamble whether the Kolhapuri chicken would be delicious or would permanently burn our taste buds off. This mystery made it fun too though. At the canteen at school our choice of lunch is always Chinese Chicken Noodles, so each and every time that was on the menu during the trip someone would get it to compare it.

We also had fun comparing our experiences (in the city of Pune) with Leon, Peter, Iury and Paola’s (each of them in small towns). While they definitely envy the fact that all of us are together in a city they had to admit they have certain advantages. They are forced to make Indian friends and are more directly exposed to the culture, and they are able to pick up the language easier. Though I love my fellow inbounds in Pune and am very happy here, I am a little jealous of them.

Returning to Pune after this trip was a weird experience. The tour was like a vacation within this year-long trip. I had a feeling of coming back home, even though it isn’t my real home. Pune is definitely becoming familiar to me and I really love it, but I still really think of Edina as my home. Still, coming back and seeing all the familiar landmarks was comforting and I did miss sleeping in my own bed each night.

While I was on the trip my 2 month mark passed. During all of time I was on the bus I was able to reflect on my time in India so far. I realized not only how lucky I was that I was given the opportunity to be in India and travel around with such awesome people, but also that this year was without a doubt the right choice for me. Sure I felt nostalgic looking at pictures from Edina’s Homecoming and I’m sad that instead of getting cooler and the leaves changing colors it’s getting warmer and dryer here. But forcing myself out of my comfort zone and diving into a new culture has been the best thing I could do for myself. As I so eloquently told some friends back home “I miss you, but not in a ‘buying a plane ticket as we speak’ sort of way.” That’s probably the best way for me to sum up my feelings. I think I’m at a place that I hope I will be for college next year. I appreciate all of the great things and people at home, but I accept and am okay that I don’t have them at the moment.

I’ve been getting into a habit (I’m not sure if it’s good or bad) of ending my blogs on a deep and sentimental note so to change it up I wanted to say that I’ll be trying to write more about what’s going on and I’ll put up pictures (for those of you who can’t see the ones on Facebook) soon. I’m still trying to figure out how to balance staying in touch with people back home with my day to day life here, and I’m also trying to establish more of a routine so bear with me until I do. If I don't get back to anyone immediately know that I'm having the time of my life here and I'll try to use my blog more to keep everyone updated!