Long time, few words.. first words of 2009

Belated welcome to 2009, Happy New Year, Happy Celebrations, and all that jazz! 

I see I haven't posted a word since late October '08, but I will try to remedy that by giving a brief update on happenings since then, and then try to update on a regular basis throughout 2009... 

2008:

My stay in India ended a week and a half after our group assignment was due. I had 4 days in Pondi before me and Lina travelled to Pune to visit a fried of Lina's. I stayed in Pune with Lina and her friends in Pune for a week before returning home to cold and snowy Norway to write my final assignment and celebrate Christmas and New Year with family and friends. 

Writing the assignment at home turned out to be quite a challenge as I had no proper workplace at home where I could concentrate. I still have to work with that, but now, 3 months later, I have adapted and adjusted potential workspaces to fit my needs a little better than they were back in November. 

In mid-December people started coming home for the holidays, Christmas and New Year came and went in a flurry of social arrangements and festivities, and then everyone left town again.

2009:

I stayed behind after the holidays, starting my jobhunting activities when everyday normalcy returned in the beginning of January. It also turned out that I lacked a course at the university to fill the requisites for my Bachelors' degree, so after some amount of bureaucracy I've acuired student status until the  end of the spring semester. Hopefully I've finished required amount of courses by the end of this semester's exams. 

And this is basically where I am now, in the middle of jobhunting and studies. As I expect the next months to be basically the same I expect to change some things in my blogging topics, rants, the nature of my writing, etc.

No way of knowing what it will turn out to become until it has become what it will be. 

Still wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2009! 

Week 7 & 8: Cancelled/rescheduled

Last week's blogpost is (largely) cancelled due to sickness and dehydration, and this week's post will disappear in the amassed workload; the groupwork assignment took a new twist while I was sick so now I have to start all over on something I wasn't really prepared to write (that much) about. 

Um, yeah, to briefly explain last week:

I just had the time to be "well" again for about 2 days, and then I ate something that didn't agree with me. After a heavy nausea on Wednesday I've been dehydrated and feverish throughout the weekend, slowly rehydrating and getting gradually better closer to Monday (food helped a lot), and I was back at school today Tuesday...

But on a nicer note, the Monsoon is here and temperatures are getting comfortable! I love the heavy rains and thunderstorms, it gives me a good autumn feeling. I've started reading stories with a friend at the rooftop in the evenings to hold onto this atmosphere.

People are getting restless here. It's the ten-week-crisis looming I think, assignment stress, and travel giddity. A lot of people have started talking (increasingly) about their after-Pondi-travels or about the return home. My plans are still not fixed, I'm still checking out the options as they appear, I've had about 6-7 ideas I've decided and then decided against. This time I've started asking for possible dates and price options etc. Looks like it'll turn out nice in the end...:)

Week 6; behind on blogging again...

(Warning: Long post!)

Yeah, another 2-in-1 update, the post for week 5 is here. 

The last post weren't posted earlier due to illness; I haven't felt too good/borderline sick, and then finally giving in I redefined my 'cold' to 'having a small flu'. I missed out on a great workshop on the topic of the Kashmir issue because I didn't have the energy to benefit from being present. The workshop was held in Auroville, and though I tried to go the first day I decided not to go the second day. I felt dizzy and tired by lunchtime and decided to go home, and instead of going to Auroville the second day, a friend and I went out to the study center, ate proper food, relaxed, and talked to the staff. 

Towards the end of the week I felt better, stating that I'm getting better but still not 100% back to normal. I decided not to join in on the Children's Day (taking a bunch of village children to an amusement park for a day) even though it sounded fun; I knew it would've drained me for all remaining energy leaving me reduced for another week or so. Not worth it. I did go to the costume party Saturday night, dressed as a Colonial times British lady. (I'll try to see if anyone got a picture of me...)

Sunday, went out for brunch with a friend and afterwards we roamed the warm streets of Pondi, enjoying the bright sunshine and the nice temperatures (which has dropped to a mere +30 Celsius), and the sounds and life in the streets occupied by the Sunday market. 

Despite illnesses (not just me) our group assignment was in on time. I felt quite accomplished when I had sent it. Friday became much better after 5 pm (the deadline), and in the evening me and Lina went to Banana Café - one of our alternative regular spots, where we sat talking with the chef (whom is also working at our study center) for almost an hour after eating.  

As for regular spots/hang-outs; we're up to 4 regular spots now; 
* Surguru - the best restaurant in town, both for food and prices 
* Banana Café - the best western food in town, and the cleanest (or: only clean) kitchen in town 
* Rick's Café - the best ice coffee and chicken baguette
* Coffee.com - internet cafe with nice atmosphere, tasty food, and wonderful tea.

In the beginning I lamented my friend's lack of interest in trying out new places, but by now I've accepted that these are the places to go, and attempts at going other places has resulted in bad restaurant experiences, leading me to believe we're not going to find better places than we already have found. 

Me & Lina has been talking increasingly with the staff at the study center, always exchanging greetings with the chef, talking with the manager's assistant and always greeting the other staff members with a smile when we meet them. Apparently we're more sociable than earlier batches of students. Makes me wonder what kind of people that must have been... But looking around at school, there's not many of the students that actually talk with the staff, although there are a few more than Lina and I.

Point of pride, come Monday morning; make sure to talk to the staff I danced with on Saturday to prove I'm different from the earlier batches - that apparently became (stereotypically) social when drinking, and then reverting to Scandinavian arrogance the following monday... Heard it before? (I have at least; same, but different.) Lina also voiced her relief that the Indians we danced with danced at a comfortable distance - in contrast to previous experiences.

So, in a week where I didn't do much, even skipping significant event like the P&C workshop and the Children's Day, I ended up having quite a lot to say anyway... even after 5 weeks in little Pondi!


ADDITION:

I forgot to mention the trip to the Cinema!

We had spent a day talking to Kavitha at the study center, and Thursday she brought me and Lina along to the cinema when se was taking a group of school children! Watching a flim (yes, that is how they say it here...!) in an Indian theatre was Absolutely, Fabulously, Fantastic Fun! 

We had a small "box" in the theatre to ourselves in the back of the theatre hall itself, and it was me, Lina and Deborah, Kavitha and her daughter, and her 15-20 school kids (all girls, in the age range of 10-14 I guess) in the box. The music was loud, the hero was popular and the heroine was beautiful, the romantic scenes was vividly graphic for being that decent (I don't know if I managed to get the correct impression into words here...), the girls sang along to the love songs, *squealed* when there was a scene with the hero and heroine together, and a fountain of confetti flew around our ears after an especially climatic (romantic but not sexual) scene. Definitely an experience in it's own right...

Week 5: Change of plans (backdated)

Power cut. And I feel small streams of sweat form up as soon as the ceiling fan stop working. Yes, ceiling fan, not air condition. No air condition in this apartment, no-no. Aircon makes you sick. I’ve had a cold for a week now, just because of an encounter with mild air conditioning. 

The power returned quickly today, after just a couple of minutes. Lucky, lucky. But it can also mean that the systems are instable and the power may be cut again at some point today. But we’re lucky here; I think it’s more than a week since we last had a power cut. 

My plans keep being changed. (Usually by me, fortunately.) This weekend I had planned to go to Kerala, but as I still have a cold I decided it would be too intensive for me to travel that far and that much with that many people at once at such a limited time. And thus, the first change of plans. So Lina and I were thinking of going to Ooty – until we learned we would need at least 4 days for any Ooty-trip frm Pondi. Second change of plans. We decided to stay home in Pondi for the weekend, perhaps take a daytrip somewhere, but mostly study. 

We’ve had an intensive week at school this week, up until Wednesday which was the last day before our long weekend. 

• Monday – lecture and then field trip to a Dalit village (village of people from the "caste-less" caste in India; the “untouchables”).

Dalit woman and her grandchild dressed up for having their picture taken:

 

• Tuesday – seminar for the whole class (usually we’re split in groups), then double lecture. Plus a lot of readings weighing on a student’s conscience. And errands in the evening, and a dance class I didn’t go to because of 1) errands making me late, and 2) still not well from the cold.

• Wednesday – Another day on double lectures, and lots of people leaving for Kerala. I wore khaki shorts and a casual t-shirt to school, and received the comment “Oh, how unusual to see you in Western clothes!” … has my wardrobe turned that much Indian? I hadn’t realized…

• Thursday – Went out for a morning walk with Lina at 5:45, we snuck out early to avoid the yoga instructor in case she came and admonished Lina for not going to the yoga class at 6:00. We walked to the beach promenade, had chai and watched all the people, including a weird French guy walking his marionette (“Ernesto” we were told) at the beach before he began his yoga exercise. We weren’t the only ones taking pictures of him, a crowd of locals had also gathered around. After returning home we meant to go to school and study, but lack of proper sleep brought about a slight change of plans, so we ended up staying home. 

Ernesto out for a morning walk at the beach:

• Friday – Actually went to school to study, and studied! In the evening there was a movie night at Kamachi, but I ended up changing my plans again, and chilled back home– surfed the net ‘til I slept.

• Saturday – slept long – café – blog/study evening – in my own company.

• Sunday - ..studying!!! Let’s hope this plan won’t change…

Missing Japan, listening to Jp. goodfeel music – genres changing with my mood. 

To Bangalore and back again

I haven't blogged (properly) for 2 weeks now. Why? First week I was too busy, so I assembled a picture-post in order to have something to post (see back-dated blog post here)

The next week I spontaneously joined a group going to Bangalore - forgetting to finish and post my blog post in the packing process as we left on my "blogging day".

Bangalore

Journey & Accommodation
I spontaneously joined a group going to Bangalore one evening before departure, ending up hurrying through necessary packing ad wrapping up stuff that needed to be done before departure. We travelled by night bus, a nice one, and arrived early at the guesthouse – 05:00… There had been a slight misunderstanding of when we were to arrive, so when we showed up at 5am our rooms were unprepared and quite dirty… We managed to arrange some mattresses and clean sheets and slept a couple of hours, and then we went into the centre of Bangalore for the day.

When we returned to the guesthouse in the afternoon the moods was much lighter and the experience was considerably better. We got the rooms cleaned, talked some more with the manager (whom turns out to be really nice), and the wonderful staff unexpectedly offered chai (tea) brought up to the room – free of charge!

Happy people!

Downtown Bangalore 
Shopping started in a mall, and then we walked up and down the main streets checking out the stores, ending up in a bookstore searching for useful literature to our group assignments in Pondi. I even managed to find an adapter/converter for my camera recharger (– which has Japanese prongs, and a suitable adapter; back home in Norway…), so now I’m finally able to take pictures again! (Happyhappyhappy!)

We had various experiences with the autos (remember the auto-rickshaws?); teaching us that over-eager drivers accepting low prices right away is not to be trusted. They take detours to stores they are affiliated with (tourist traps) to earn more money. At the shop they tried to sell me a nice pashmina shawl – incidentally an identical one to one I already had – and a quick question of the price revealed it to be 5 times the price of what I bought it for in Pondi.

Other experiences, always agree on the price first, and ask some locals to arrange the auto and the price for you if possible; they get much better prices than us obvious and oblivious tourists are able to arrange for ourselves. It might have a background in the poverty and high levels of competition in all areas in India, most Indians we come across in everyday activities (outside of the Study Center in Pondi) are opportunistic to various degrees. (Yes, this is a generalization and a very broad one at that…)

Safari
The second day in Bangalore we decided to go to a nearby Safari. Our guesthouse staff arranged two autos for us (and haggled the price for us), and off we went. It was almost an hour driving to the Safari (can’t remember the name of it, sorry), and then we arranged with the auto drivers that they would wait for us and take us home after a couple of hours –for the same price. Inside the safari we chose to take the Grand Safari bus ride (1hr) and climbed into the safari bus (not as exciting – nor as cute – as the safari buses in Beppu (Japan)). When we entered the bus the driver’s assistant placed us in the front seats, and while driving he took our cameras and took pictures (good ones) for us – for an expected tipping, of course. (We felt a little uncomfortable with the obvious difference in treatment, but as we –the girls in my group and I– believe everyone else in the bus (all Indian) assumed the assistant to do this for extra profit, the discomfort changed to a feeling of …apathy?) Anyway, the safari was really nice, and we were all relieved to see that the animals in the Zoo/Safari looked hale and healthy.

Bangalore (left) vs. Beppu (right)

 

Safari pictures, mine (left) and the driver assistant's (right)

 

New friends
Later the last night in Bangalore Lina and I went out to dinner with Lina’s friend Rohini and Rohini’s mother. They are the sweetest people on earth!! I fell so in love with the two of them. Even though it was the first time we met they asked if I would come along and visit their family in (some place I can’t pronounce) when Lina is going to, and when we said I would not be coming they asked us why! I hope I will get the opportunity to meet them again some time, they were absolutely lovely.

Return 
Even though we didn’t want to leave after meeting with Rohini and her mother, after only such a brief time, it felt good to be on the night bus back to Pondi when we finally settled in our bunks. We arrived home at 5am, good and tired, and slept away most of the day.