Firstly, let me assure everyone that I am still alive. I haven't been run over by a rickshaw (yet, there's still time and I've been taking more risks lately when crossing the street) or run off to explore India by myself. I have however changed families, successfully applied for college in the United States for next year and spent a wonderful Christmas and New Years here in Pune.
Of course there's still the amazing trip to Southern India (oops, almost 2 months ago!) that I haven't talked about. For now I'll just mention what I'm doing and how I'm feeling and tomorrow and this weekend (promise, promise, promise!) I'll post pictures and stories from my trip and Indian christmas!
Right now as I write this I am also watching a Hindi movie called De Dana Dan. It's from a few years ago and my host mom said it's a good one, but right now I understand basically nothing (though it doesn't help that I started it in the middle). There's a lot of physical humor so I'm kind of laughing along, but trying to pick up words and phrases.
New Years day was my 5 month anniversary of arriving in India. Which basically means I'm half way through my stay here. I have graduation on June 9th and I want to be back a little before that, so I'll leave here in the first week of June. With this realization came a bit of a crisis when I realized all that I have and, more importantly, haven't done. So, with this in mind I've made a few goals for what I want to do. I'm going to spend my next (now only a little more than 4!!) months here learning even more about Indian culture, making more Indian friends, attending college more regularly and learning more Hindi and Marathi.
So far it's going alright. College is as boring as ever but as I've mentioned before there's a good library and always some friends around. Plus most Indian students are as bored as I am so we can at least complain to each other! Now I have dance practice going on regularly for the Rotary District Conference on February 8th. We'll be performing the dance we did in October as well as two new songs. This time they're Bollywood!! This means, a more exciting costume, amazing music but also faster and more challenging dances. The songs we're dancing to are "Badtameez Dil" from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and "Nagada Sang Dhol Baje" from Ramleela. (Link for the lazy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II2EO3Nw4m0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLIQzxgFeNE) For the dance we'll be wearing an outfit like those in Ramleela; a long skirt, blouse and odni (scarf). I'm especially excited because we're getting them stitched and we get to keep them!!! Who knows when I'll wear them (except around the house when I'm bored), but it'll be a nice souvenir of my time in India. I'm really enjoying the dance, though it's getting hotter here and after dance practice we've been running to a frozen yogurt place, or anywhere air conditioned really, to cool down.
A quick note on Bollywood. I haven't seen nearly as many Bollywood movies as I wish but so far they seem to all include dancing, singing and a love story. Because of this Indian movies are exciting and overwhelming (just like India itself!) but there's not much of a range in types of movies. It's difficult to have a good horror movie or political thriller when there's at least one obligatory full cast dance number. On the two songs we're doing. Badtameez Dil is about two friends who love each other but won't admit it. I haven't seen it (yet! I'm definitely buying the DVD when it comes out) but I believe this song is from the wedding of their friend when they reunite. Ramleela is quite literally an Indian Romeo and Juliet.
Back to my goals! My new project has been Hindi and Marathi. I realize that I've barely talked about the language(s) here. First of all there really is English everywhere. All educated people speak English and most are very close to fluent if not perfect. Other than this many regular people (shopkeepers and rickshaw drivers have a good basis of English). Enough to communicate a little with. And English is so, so intertwined with Marathi and Hindi! A lot of words are only spoken in English and the Indian translation is half forgotten. (Note: my past host mother, Rashmi, liked to tell how when my host brother was young and learning English he one day asked the English word for "newspaper", not realizing that it wasn't a Marathi word!) Anyway, the point is I'm not really forced to learn another language in order to live here. Of course I've picked up words and phrases (though a lot of it is food or food related). The exchange students have created a strange mix of Latin slang ("no mames" meaning sort of "no way!" and "filho de puta" meaning "SOB") and Marathi/Hindi phrases ("nunther" meaning later and "musta" meaning "good"). It's strange, but fun and silly!
Anyway, back to my attempts to learn a language. So far my biggest pride is my reading. Marathi and Hindi both use the Devanagari script. Though there's a few differences in letters, they're practically the same. Since I've arrived I've made an attempt to read the signs outside on the road. There's lots of advertisements and signs for different stores which offer lots of material to practice. Now I know basically every letter (all 12 vowels and 35 consonants). My reading is slow, but according to Indians even for them it takes a bit to read. Even though I can read I don't yet understand most of what I'm reading. Though in my first 5 months I've picked up enough Marathi to understand (with some context) most of whats going on I still don't understand the grammar much and I can't speak very well. So, I've decided to go back to my Hindi book I used with my tutor last summer. I had given it to Audrey, since she was focusing on Hindi and I on Marathi, but she's been using her own materials so she was happy to let me have it back. I've started back at the very beginning with practicing reading and writing. It's much easier now that the writing is more than just a weird mix of symbols. Because I'm in an all English school (where the kids are all fluent) I don't have a chance to learn much there. My Indian friends think it's fun and sort of silly to teach different phrases (usually not very polite ones...teenagers are teenagers everywhere!) but to actually learn it'll be a test of my focus and will power.
So, that basically summarizes my goals. I don't want this to be too long considering I am planning to post each day this weekend (I still have to talk about Christmas and the South India trip!) To close, I want to talk about how I feel here now. Pune is my home. I don't feel totally Indian (difficult when I'm pale as snow and still get stared at on the street) but I truly, truly love India!!! The food, the clothes, the culture, the scenery, the people, the art, the language, the history, the traffic! Everything! And I feel so at home here. I know all my favorite restaurants, shops and roads. I can (usually successfully) argue with rickshaw wallas and now I cross the road with confidence. India is just...it's my home. It's what I'm familiar with and it's what I really love. I can't even think about how I'll have to leave in just over 4 months. I suppose it's better to be loving where I am than to be really home sick. But it'll make the transition back to Minnesota harder for sure.
When I think about going back to the US part of me is excited. I miss having an oven and being able to bake without checking the microwave every 2 minutes (a sad reality for me). I miss sledding in my backyard and ice skating with my cousins. I miss late night Perkins feasts with my friends after (American) football games. I miss being able to hug my little brother and argue about clothes with my sister. But when I realize that no longer will I be living in the richest and most diverse culture in the world or traveling all over one of the largest cities in India (with confidence finally!) by rickshaw or most of all that I won't be with all of my incredible friends and living with my host families...I don't think I ever want to go back. I've adapted to an new way of living and I've created a whole new life and it will be near impossible for me to leave it.
So for now, I'm throwing caution to the wind and jumping into a rickshaw with some Indian friends and exploring the greatest place on Earth.
Chalo!
Elisabeth
Of course there's still the amazing trip to Southern India (oops, almost 2 months ago!) that I haven't talked about. For now I'll just mention what I'm doing and how I'm feeling and tomorrow and this weekend (promise, promise, promise!) I'll post pictures and stories from my trip and Indian christmas!
Right now as I write this I am also watching a Hindi movie called De Dana Dan. It's from a few years ago and my host mom said it's a good one, but right now I understand basically nothing (though it doesn't help that I started it in the middle). There's a lot of physical humor so I'm kind of laughing along, but trying to pick up words and phrases.
Tamara, Pato, Audrey, Raj (he was in MN last year!), Jesus and Me. Tam, Audy and I had just given our presentations to our club
New Years day was my 5 month anniversary of arriving in India. Which basically means I'm half way through my stay here. I have graduation on June 9th and I want to be back a little before that, so I'll leave here in the first week of June. With this realization came a bit of a crisis when I realized all that I have and, more importantly, haven't done. So, with this in mind I've made a few goals for what I want to do. I'm going to spend my next (now only a little more than 4!!) months here learning even more about Indian culture, making more Indian friends, attending college more regularly and learning more Hindi and Marathi.
Adorable kids in my former society. We climbed the huge hill behind my house together and had a lot of fun
So far it's going alright. College is as boring as ever but as I've mentioned before there's a good library and always some friends around. Plus most Indian students are as bored as I am so we can at least complain to each other! Now I have dance practice going on regularly for the Rotary District Conference on February 8th. We'll be performing the dance we did in October as well as two new songs. This time they're Bollywood!! This means, a more exciting costume, amazing music but also faster and more challenging dances. The songs we're dancing to are "Badtameez Dil" from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and "Nagada Sang Dhol Baje" from Ramleela. (Link for the lazy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II2EO3Nw4m0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLIQzxgFeNE) For the dance we'll be wearing an outfit like those in Ramleela; a long skirt, blouse and odni (scarf). I'm especially excited because we're getting them stitched and we get to keep them!!! Who knows when I'll wear them (except around the house when I'm bored), but it'll be a nice souvenir of my time in India. I'm really enjoying the dance, though it's getting hotter here and after dance practice we've been running to a frozen yogurt place, or anywhere air conditioned really, to cool down.
A quick note on Bollywood. I haven't seen nearly as many Bollywood movies as I wish but so far they seem to all include dancing, singing and a love story. Because of this Indian movies are exciting and overwhelming (just like India itself!) but there's not much of a range in types of movies. It's difficult to have a good horror movie or political thriller when there's at least one obligatory full cast dance number. On the two songs we're doing. Badtameez Dil is about two friends who love each other but won't admit it. I haven't seen it (yet! I'm definitely buying the DVD when it comes out) but I believe this song is from the wedding of their friend when they reunite. Ramleela is quite literally an Indian Romeo and Juliet.
Audrey, me and Tamara in our Indian beach wear in Konkan!
We drew a not very geographically correct map (with our flags inside!) on the beach
Back to my goals! My new project has been Hindi and Marathi. I realize that I've barely talked about the language(s) here. First of all there really is English everywhere. All educated people speak English and most are very close to fluent if not perfect. Other than this many regular people (shopkeepers and rickshaw drivers have a good basis of English). Enough to communicate a little with. And English is so, so intertwined with Marathi and Hindi! A lot of words are only spoken in English and the Indian translation is half forgotten. (Note: my past host mother, Rashmi, liked to tell how when my host brother was young and learning English he one day asked the English word for "newspaper", not realizing that it wasn't a Marathi word!) Anyway, the point is I'm not really forced to learn another language in order to live here. Of course I've picked up words and phrases (though a lot of it is food or food related). The exchange students have created a strange mix of Latin slang ("no mames" meaning sort of "no way!" and "filho de puta" meaning "SOB") and Marathi/Hindi phrases ("nunther" meaning later and "musta" meaning "good"). It's strange, but fun and silly!
Sahil and I made pancakes!!
Our finished dish. We put both chocolate sauce AND maple syrup on them!
Anyway, back to my attempts to learn a language. So far my biggest pride is my reading. Marathi and Hindi both use the Devanagari script. Though there's a few differences in letters, they're practically the same. Since I've arrived I've made an attempt to read the signs outside on the road. There's lots of advertisements and signs for different stores which offer lots of material to practice. Now I know basically every letter (all 12 vowels and 35 consonants). My reading is slow, but according to Indians even for them it takes a bit to read. Even though I can read I don't yet understand most of what I'm reading. Though in my first 5 months I've picked up enough Marathi to understand (with some context) most of whats going on I still don't understand the grammar much and I can't speak very well. So, I've decided to go back to my Hindi book I used with my tutor last summer. I had given it to Audrey, since she was focusing on Hindi and I on Marathi, but she's been using her own materials so she was happy to let me have it back. I've started back at the very beginning with practicing reading and writing. It's much easier now that the writing is more than just a weird mix of symbols. Because I'm in an all English school (where the kids are all fluent) I don't have a chance to learn much there. My Indian friends think it's fun and sort of silly to teach different phrases (usually not very polite ones...teenagers are teenagers everywhere!) but to actually learn it'll be a test of my focus and will power.
This mehendi took nearly 2 hours to do. Audrey deserves a lifetime supply of Nutella for waiting for me the whole time!!
So, that basically summarizes my goals. I don't want this to be too long considering I am planning to post each day this weekend (I still have to talk about Christmas and the South India trip!) To close, I want to talk about how I feel here now. Pune is my home. I don't feel totally Indian (difficult when I'm pale as snow and still get stared at on the street) but I truly, truly love India!!! The food, the clothes, the culture, the scenery, the people, the art, the language, the history, the traffic! Everything! And I feel so at home here. I know all my favorite restaurants, shops and roads. I can (usually successfully) argue with rickshaw wallas and now I cross the road with confidence. India is just...it's my home. It's what I'm familiar with and it's what I really love. I can't even think about how I'll have to leave in just over 4 months. I suppose it's better to be loving where I am than to be really home sick. But it'll make the transition back to Minnesota harder for sure.
Coconuts for sale on the road. I've gotten so used to seeing them!
When I think about going back to the US part of me is excited. I miss having an oven and being able to bake without checking the microwave every 2 minutes (a sad reality for me). I miss sledding in my backyard and ice skating with my cousins. I miss late night Perkins feasts with my friends after (American) football games. I miss being able to hug my little brother and argue about clothes with my sister. But when I realize that no longer will I be living in the richest and most diverse culture in the world or traveling all over one of the largest cities in India (with confidence finally!) by rickshaw or most of all that I won't be with all of my incredible friends and living with my host families...I don't think I ever want to go back. I've adapted to an new way of living and I've created a whole new life and it will be near impossible for me to leave it.
So for now, I'm throwing caution to the wind and jumping into a rickshaw with some Indian friends and exploring the greatest place on Earth.
Chalo!
Elisabeth
Me on the beach in Konkan. Possibly my favorite picture of the year....so far!
