Chennai! (Or, adventures in sandstone, french traffic law, and the "Hindu Yes")

This weekend we (kevin, kelly and I) went to the city of Chennai (formerly Madras) the hometown of our Prof. Gajanan.

We flew. The Indian domestic flight experience is...well it makes you thankfull forhome.

The first two nights we stayed in a pretty cool hotel. The best part about it was that it was next to the super-expensive Sheraton. We went over there for dinner. It's all marble, and was the first time since ive been in India that I felt schleppy. We asked the receptionist about the restaurants.

"Well, we have two restaurants. The one on the first floor is Chinese and its very good, but the one on the second floor is the best restaurant in the world, so I guess you should go there."

Um Alright..

The "best restaurant in the world" was indeed something, but because it had prices to reflect its status we went with the Chinese place, which was very good. except i ate a green chili which was so hot it made my ears burn. who ever heard of that? the waiter brought me something made with yogurt and beans and that was much better.

That first day we went around with Gaj. Saw his old stomping grounds and what have you. The best part was the coffee.

What can I say about the coffee? It was the best coffee I ever had in my life. I didn't even know coffee could be that good. But there it was, coffee from the heavens. I must learn to make it!

We did a lot of shopping that day. Gaj took us to a place that his friend owned and they gave us a discount. Got some sweet stuff.

Then we went over to the big mall. We've been to places before that think they are malls but this place actually was. Had lunch with Gaj's family, his wife, 14-year-old daughter, and 10-year-old son. Then Mrs. Gaj took me shopping for Indian clothes and I did quite well.

Later we went back to Gaj's father's house. He is a lawyer so it was pretty nice. We did the tour and had some tea. We took Manu, the 10-year-old, on the roof which he was really excited about.

Then Gaj took Kevin shopping and he got a killer suit. Meanwhile Mrs. Gaj, Kelly and I went around in the market and Mrs. Gaj told us about the produce and what things are and what they are called etc. We saw them making great big flower chains.

The next day we (kevin, kelly and i, the Gajs stayed in Chennai) woke up early and got a driver to take us to Ponicherry, which is a former french colony down the coast.

On the way we stopped at Auroville, which is a "utopia" filled with western ex-pats trying to live in harmony with the divine. its super weird. They have a giant golden epcot ball for meditation. no one marries and no one with aids is allowed in... draw your own conclusions.

best quote, kelly; "We need to look for Amelia Earhart here"

Pondicherry is weird because it looks like France if India invaded.

We had a frustrating afternoon which involved our driver being detained for nearly killing two police officers by speeding and swerving and generally not listening to direction.

Here is where I will explain the "Hindu Yes" which is something we are constantly dealing with but specifically effected us this weekend..

Ask a question to someone, a driver, a hotel worker, a receptionist, someone on the street a yes or no question such as "do you know where this restaurant is?", "if we drop off laundry now, can we have it by tomorrow?", "can i use this atm?", "do you know where the post office is?"

they will wiggle their heads (think ear to shoulder) and say "yes" or "ok" and then walk away quickly if they can.

what that actually means is "i have no idea what you just said" or "probably not"

this causes problems.

especially with drivers. the public transportation here is difficult to navigate and frightening, so we take a lot of rickshaws and cars. when you ask someone to take you somewhere and they say they know where it is, then drive for about 10 minutes and start asking people it gets pretty frustrating.

that night in pondicherry after a series of frustrations we had dinner at a nice french restaurant filled with ex-pats. after some good food and french wine we were happy campers.

sunday we went to Mahalibalipuram, which is a set of sandstone sculptures from 500ad. they are pretty cool and show the port- cosmopolitan status of the town.

however, it draws a lot of indian tourists. some of whom, young men, had apparently never seen american women before and they followed us around like horny puppies. we hired a guide who was very informative but not helpful in shooing off our trail. the fact that it was 105 wasn't helping our patience with the situation.

after that we went to the beach for a while, then decided to skip everything else and go back to Chennai and catch up with the Gajs.

On the way back we put Sargent Pepper's in the car's CD player. On hearing "I get by with a little help" the driver said:

"This music is prayer?"
we laughed and said no.
"Church? This music is for Christ?"
"No," I said, "This is for John Lennon"

he was subsequently shocked by the rooster in "Good Morning".

Now we're back in Hyderabad. I don't think we're going to go anywhere this weekend, we'll hang around here and try to take in some more local sites.

Email me!

Taste the Thunder!

Coke isn't omnipresent here, but "Thums(sic) Up!" is. Its a cola drink and i know its spelled wrong. its advertising slogan is "taste the thunder!" and we say that all the time.

BAR ADVENTURES: (rated PG)

Friday night:

we went to a bar called "liquid". it was super weird. its in the ritzy neighborhood. its on the top floor of a tall building and the walls are all glass so it has a cool view. its a dance club, well its sort of an imitation of a dance club. they play really loud hip hop. there were a bunch of old white dudes there on business and its like look, if we wouldnt dance with you in pittsburgh we aren't going to dance with you just because we're in india. expensive drinks.

Saturday Morning:

we went to Charminar, which is the "Arc de Triumph of the East". Well its beautiful. It's four big turrets in the Muslim part of town, in old city. its surrounded by Mosques and by the Lad Bazaar which sells everything, but mostly bangels. i bought what is clearly a plastic necklack from a persistant little boy for 50 rps. its pretty. the languages change depending on where you are in the city. out by campus in the more rural areas its telegu. it town its hindi and english. in old city its arabic.

later we went to the state museum. it was alright... they had some very pretty stuff but frankly so do the streets. nothing was labeled. the most intresting part was that it was dedicated to the Mughal Kings, who subjugated the Nizham Kings of Golgonda Ft, who subjugated the Telegu people. All before they were subjugated by the British, of course.

next was Golconda Ft. Its a huge place, several miles surrounded by big stone walls. its been a for since before 900, but was home to the Kings of various varieties from about 1100 to 1600. Its a huge place, with palaces and mosques and guard stations. the stories about the place include great romances, coups, battles, and reigns of glory. it was home to poets and dancers and courts and hyderabad only came into being after the fort got too crowded. its an incredible place with layers upon layers of history.

we were there at sunset when the call to prayer came out from the mosques. it was amazing.

today, we went to a book store and then to a tea and hooka place. it was fun, but feels a little imperial..

now we've emerged from the begining when we jumped in without knowing what we were doing and found outselves on the dangerous, chaotic, poverty filled streets that were terrifying and and found the the air conditioned behind gate places that are easy. now it has to be our goal to find a medium, a vein where we can experience india as indians experience it, but also in a way that we can process it and feel at least mostly safe.

another week of school to follow! then we're leaving town! write me!

first weekend

http://pitt.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060751&l=d75cb&id=7410651

there, you can see all my pictures.

some facts about india you

may not be aware of:

1. here in hyderabad everyone speaks telegu and little english, yet all the signs and advertisments are in english

2. the power goes out all the time. american groan, but the indians dont seem to mind.

3. the way you navigate traffic is to honk your horn. our bikes have sweet bells on them that we use to torture each other.

4. cant get any chocolate. the only kind the sell is melted and weird and tastes funny.

5. they have giant snakes here. they will straight up eat you.

6. paris hilton is on the goddamn tv here. swear to god.

7. mustaches are in among indian men. all kinds of mustaches.

8. everyone is wild about this kind of board/billards game. we have dubbed it "flick the wood checkers in the nets with the plastic thing".

9. 8 PM Indian whiskey costs $2 for a reason.

Adventures

Yesterday we had our first adventure, it was me and 4 other girls and we went to Lingam Pali which is a little commercial district about 10k from campus. We took a rickshaw. There were two girls with us of Indian descant and one speaks Hindi so she negotiated. Once we were there they Indian girls negoiated for blankets (our main goal) while me and the other two white girls waited outside.... people stare at white people just standing around in american clothes but it doesnt really bother me.

we went into a sari shop and one girl tried a bunch on. I would up buying a shirt that i really like. (even tho it has mirrors on it, mom) and then we went around trying to find an alarm clock but failed...

by that time it was like 7:35 and we figured we wouldn' make it back in time for dinner. so we went to a restraunt that someone reccomended. er...

well, we got soft drinks which was fine. the indian girls ordered for us. mine had a hair in it and they sent it back. dinner for five cost about $3. er... given the demeanor of the place i was pretty nervous and def did not want to get sick in the first week. i wound up eating about 4 bites and giving up. on the way back we saw lots of cows in the road hanging out. that was cool.

last night we drank indian wine on the "roof terrace". the wine we had was like Manaschevitz..haha.

today after class we went on another adventure. we took a rickshaw downtown...yikes..

we went to the indian mall which is for rich indians. it was weird. sort of like a mall? well more like a bon-ton. except they had all these pictures with indian models doing "sexy"things, it smelled funny, and they had all these signs like "this is what you want!" I bought a water bottle. I can't believe i didn't bring my nalgene.

Then we tried to walk along the street... but there is no sidewalk and traffic is chaos so you are constantly in danger of getting hit and you are walking over rubble and beggars chase you.

so it was with some western guilt, but mostly justification because the thing was outright unpleasant that we retreated back into the mall. they had a movie theather. we wanted to see an indian movie but they were all in Hindi or Telegu without subtitles so we saw Oceans 13. Well.. I liked Oceans 13. No shame. It was the biggest screen and theater i ever saw. they had an intermission.

well, we've learned that next time we need to get a car and driver, which isnt that expensive, because coming back in the rickshaw was the scariest thing i ever did in my life. he wove in and out of traffic with little care for what was going on anywhere else. its basically a tin wagon, there are handle bars not a steering wheel and he just twisted and turned and went the wrong way in traffic up and back and in front of trucks... he got lost a couple of times and pulled over to ask people. it was harrowing. but.. we came back intact and entertained everyone at dinner with full body demonstrations.

we have homework due tomorrow. :( i dont want to do homework im in india... o yeah im studying in india. boo.

someone should email me: ljm22@pitt.edu

Life in Hyderabad, an Introduction

The first day we walked around campus a bit. It's extremely spread out and sort of in the woods. By "woods" i mean a landscape roughly equlivalent to the side of a poorly kept highway. Lots of trash, weeds, and barren dirt. Here and there in front of buildings it will be lushly landscaped and beautiful, but it looks sort of out of place with the general tone.

Yesterday we had our introductions. My stupid alarm didn't go off and so I slept in. For reasons in a rather complicated sititation, no one woke me up until everyone had left and then i had to jump. Joke's on them tho because I got to ride a motorcycle to class! One of the adminstrative employees gave me a ride the 1k to class. Helmetless, of course and wearing a skirt, but it was fun!

Introduction didn't tell us anything we didn't already know. There are kids here who aren't from the Pitt program, and they are really badly informed. They didn't even know what classes were offered and we had already registered. But..basically we are in the same classes, they just don't have the extras or the faculity supervision.

Our facuility supervision is Prof. Gajanan. He did his grad work at Pitt and now teaches at Pitt Bradford Campus. He is great. He lives in the building and eats with us and teaches my economic class. He is responisible for the Pitt kids. On the bus yesterday he was flirting with a female U Hyderabad Prof. and he said that he is "responsible for 12 children" and we were like "Hi, yes, 21-year-old children." So it goes. He is great tho.

After introduction we had a campus tour which was pretty much just walking around. The facilities are pretty much what you might expect of the developing world which is to say not much. The library was particularly sparse. The sports facility is a bunch of badmitton courts. Prof. Gajanan is going to teach us to play cricket.

Later we went into town and went to the Birla Temple. Wow!! It was amazing. First of all we took a bus which was crazy maddness. Then we walked through a sort of souvinier area, then up the hill.

The temple is on the top of a hill and its made completely of white marble. We had to take off our shoes, then we joined the processional just as the sun started to go down. You walk up a long set of stairs and then process quietly with the line around a set path stoping periodically at statues of Gods which are dressed in colorful clothing and decorated with flowers. The whole time there is chanting going on, played over the loud speakers. The sunset was amazing and you could see it setting over the lake and the giant Budha statue in the middle of it with the Hyderabad skyline lighting up around us. The whole place smelled of insence. It was so peaceful. The temple preists had long hair and robes and were very good humored to see stunned westerners in line. Little kids waved at us as we passed them.

It was so intricate and smooth, with scenes from Hindu stories played out all over the walls in big sculptures.

Then we took a bus back... less than peaceful... o well. the temple was great.

We are eating really really well. We eat four times a day, breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner. It's all Indian food, as you can imagine and its sooooo good. We haven't eaten anything the same twice, but I wish they would put the Indian names on what we are eating down so we can order it in restraunts at home. We eat in our guest house so everything is safe and the water is fine and everything.

The tea is chai and its super duper good. We drink it with dinner too.

So the worst thing that has happened so far was def that a mouse got in my room last night. I screamed and went into Kevin's room for the rest of the night. In the morning I told the house manager who looked absolutely stricken and embarassed. He told me to open my door and set a bunch of traps and put out poison and then we found out that the screen behind my air conditor had been open and thats how he got in. Well, thats closed. We are going to search my room for holes or signs of mice tonight. Yikes....ya.

Otherwise classes are getting started. Had econ today, and it was pretty much like econ at Pitt except the power kept going off. Soon we're going to go shopping for somethings. There are def some things I wish I'd brought, namely a thin blanket and shower shoes (why the fuck didnt i bring shower shoes). They gave us wool blankets which are wrong for so many reasons.

Anyway, thats the update. If your out there, comment!

And then, suddenly, we were in India

Our last day in London was really fun. We went to the top of St. Pauls and saw the great view, then went to the bottom and looked at the crypt, which was weird. Then we went for lunch in London City and then to the tower of London. The Tower was awesome, the beefeaters that give the tours are great. We could have spent a lot more time there (esp. cause we paid 13 pounds to get in) but it was time to go and catch our plane.

Back at the house Wendie made us a great dinner and we were on our way. O and she made us Prims, which is a drink with a kind of British Gin. It is awesome.

Went to the airport bar to drink more Prims, then we were off on a 12 hour trip to Colombo, Sri Lanka with a stop over in Male. It was long. Watched some movies. Ate some food. Slept. It sucked because it was 12 hours but you know, so it goes.

Had a layover in Colombo which was... intresting. Hardly any women in the whole place. Really glad Kevin was there. We played crazy 8s and watched cricket.

The last leg of the flight into Hyderabad was less than pleasant but not awful.

Then we were in India!!! wow!!!

Baggage claim was insane. Packed. We really really glad that all of our stuff came in. It's a little worse for wear, but o well. Its all intact. Got out to the waiting area which was chaos. Found our people from the guest house. Sat in the car for a long time waiting... we sang decemberists songs to ourselves.

Came back, wrote that post, took the best shower of my life and went to bed.

Today has been meeting and greeting. Tomorrow promises to be really exciting.

arrived

we have made it to hyderabad. it was quite a trip. it is late and we smell, but that is the update.

London! (Or how to see the Coldstream Guard without really trying)

We arrived in London yesterday around noon and set off to Wimbledon to the house of a family friend, namely my mom's college friend Wendy who along with her daughters I've known all my life. We took the tube, which was very much like DC, and looked eagerly out the windows and said "How European!" at all the small cars and chimneys and nice shoes, etc. in an unconcious effort to look like big dumb Americans.

Got right into town and had amazing luck. Went around parliment and tried to look for pages. Kevin thinks we may have seen some. Walked up Whitehall St. and looked at all the government buildings.

One of the most intresting differences that I've noted as been in the character of public art. Here, as in our national capitol there are many statues to various personages of various ages, but here I feel like they are fundementally more accessible. They have wrinkles in their clothes and funny hats and indignent/cocky expressions on their faces. Not as many of these "great men" as it were are on horses, they are right on the street with you and me and I can see the bags under their eyes. I like that.

We saw the Queen's Guard House which is an extremely old building surrounded by high fences. It made me want to gather the peasants and storm it.

We went into Traglagar Square and sat around the fountian for a while. Some guy went up to Nelson's Column, stripped naked and stood in a sort of crucfix position. He just stood there. The best part about it was that we noticed well before the other tourists who were sitting directly below him and so they just sat there, la de da, while some dude was naked. It was a pretty intresting scene as a crowd gathered, likely 1,000 people before the police came and took him away. He took a bow. We clapped.

Then we wandered around Picadilly Circus which is a huge mixed-use metro area with retail on every ground level. It's an NYC amount of people with georgetown or french-quarter new orleans (pre-flood) sort of set up if I may be so ethnocentric. Lots of shops of every ilk. Kevin and I wandered aroud for about an hour and a half just sort of taking it in.

Another point about Picadilly is that we almost died a couple of times because cars are coming from every which way and they are moving fast. We have learned the lights a little bit, but walking these streets would even be a challenge for great J-walker Montini.

Then we were standing under a monument to Waterloo making Napolean jokes when lots of horses started coming by. On horseback, 40 red-coats complete with bearskins marched down the street on their black stallions with their instruments. They marched into St. James park and began playing a concert. What??!?! Yes!!

We watched for free from the back. A crowd of about 2,000 was in the stands opposite us. This all was compeltely by accident. We watched them do a sort of mounted field-show with great sound. An old woman in blue was seated in a place of honor. Eventually the pipers and than other honor guards came out and we watched the British pagentery.

Leaving, we asked a cop if that was the queen.

"No," he said, "It's old Margaret Thatcher."
"Oooh" I replied.
"Actually she's been dead five years, but they filled her up with anamatronics, you know robot stuff, and they bring her out every now and then. They thought it'd be bad for the national morale if we lost old Maggie."

cheeky bobby, o cheeky bobby.

went back to the house and ate fish and chips. splendid.

today we went to the british museum. its the archive of the empire. the acropolis and the roseta stone etc. very cool. bog man off display. boo.

ate lunch at some korean place.

got very lost trying to go to St. Pauls. wound up watch street performers including opera. Saw Drury Lane but no one would sell us muffins there. Went elsewhere and bought muffins.

Generally wandered the streets, which was great given the weather. Went to London City and thought to myself a great deal about cross-cultural municipal boundaries. I am a nerd.

Came back here and took a much needed nap before going to dinner with our hosts and a pub in Wimbeldon. Very cool. Ate "Bangers and Smash" and drank enough Peno Gresisos to make me swoon. Whee!!

Tomorrow we see Westminster and Tower of London and then fly out in the evening. It's a whole lot of travel before we reach Hyderabad. More then!!

Pictures to follow.