India Ink: It's Time to Celebrate!

Disclaimer: It's a long one!

Wednesday 6/13/12

This morning, most of us went to the “track” at the college and “ran” this morning. The track is just a fenced in area filled with weeds and soccer/cricket fields, and my running isn’t much of running because I don’t like to run. We have to run there because if we run out on the street, stray dogs will chase us. It was hotter at 6am than I thought it would be, so I basically just jogged and did some off-ice training/aerobics-type stuff. Today was a pretty similar day to the ones before in the clinic, but we collected 9 samples today! We spent the morning in the clinic and the afternoon in the lab. Today was the first day that I tried to take a nap in between clinic and lab because today was the hottest day, so I was very exhausted from the heat. When I got to the lab, my stomach started to feel bad and within a matter of minutes I knew – my Indian journey had truly begun. After a long search for a good bathroom – too long – I had to run back to the lab because there was no toilet paper. No one had any emergency pepto on them, so I had to just cross my fingers that everything was going to be ok and it was just going to happen once. When I got back, I was still feeling ok, so I think it was a one-time incident. Let’s hope it doesn’t return! Today is Pamela’s birthday and one of the guy’s from the lab as well (Ganesh). We had cake in the lab earlier on, and then we threw a birthday party for dinner with Pizza, Pop, and Cake! It was great to party American style! The pizza was pretty good, too! It tasted pretty close to American pizza and the cheese was great since I’ve been missing it so much. The difference was the toppings – the only meat we had was chicken, and there were peppers and spices that made some of the pizzas a whole lot spicier than we usually eat in America.

The birthday celebration in the lab

Two of the pizzas we had for dinner - they look similar to American pizza

Thursday 6/14/12

We woke up around 5:00am to shower and get ready for the wedding. Dr. Kunnan’s wife came over to teach us how to wrap our sarees because, as Americans, we are lost. I still have no clue what she did! Hopefully it will make more sense the next time so that I can do it again in the US (although, when am I going to wear a saree in the US?)

The wedding was at 7:00am. We arrived, and we had to dip our fingers in sandalwood, rose petal shavings, and sugar. You threw the sugar in your mouth, and rubbed the others in your palm so that you smelled good. Everyone who attended was given a rose when they walked in. We found some open seats, and I thought that maybe the ceremony hadn’t started since there were people still coming in, people up all over talking to each other and being loud, and a bunch of people up on the stage. I was wrong, though. The ceremony had started at 7, and the bride and groom were surrounded by the most important people on stage – most of which were paying attention. All of the guests were busy talking amongst themselves and it didn’t appear like they were paying any attention. I was corrected that they are paying attention; they just know the rituals so well that they know when to pay attention and when to talk to everyone else. It seemed rude to me, but it’s just a different culture. There was live music that would blast extremely loud when there was an important part of the ceremony. It was extremely loud, and then the guests were still trying to talk to each other above it – it literally just seemed like mass chaos and disorganization, when really it was completely normal. The bride and groom (especially the bride) did not really look all that happy to be there. Dr. MohanKumar said that there have been rituals going on for a couple of days, and they have had to fast, so they’re probably just tired and hungry.

All of us girls in our Sarees

We had breakfast in a different room, so we left the ceremony while they were still on stage – people just trickle out during the ceremony to go eat, so everybody does not eat breakfast at the same time like I was expecting. Breakfast was served on a big banana leaf and there was a ton of food that they just kept serving out. I couldn’t eat much because there was so much, and a lot of it was spicier than I was used to. We also didn’t have any utensils to use (we’ve been spoiled at the hostel with a request for forks and spoons), so it was strange to actually eat solely with your right hand. You eat with your right hand in India because, well, you are supposed to wipe with your left hand. (And on the subject of wiping, if I didn’t mention this already, Indians don’t use toilet paper – they just rinse with water). After breakfast, it was time for us to leave, although the ceremony would go on all day. There was a lunch later, and then an elaborate dinner that night. I hope the bride and groom at least got to eat dinner with everyone!

We went back to the hostel, took a nap until lunch. After lunch, we did some shopping at a jewelery showcase center – they had silver, gold, and platinum. I really wanted to get some platinum since I heard it was sooo much cheaper in India than in the US, and it is, but it is still WAY out of the budget for a college student! Too bad =(. We came back to the hostel, packed for our village trip to Thanjavur.

Our trip to the bus station – at 8:00pm – was INSANE! I swear every person in Chennai was out and about – cars everywhere, people everywhere, bikes everywhere – it was the most crowded I’ve seen so far. We had never been out at night, and it was a million times crazier in the night than in the daytime. And, it was way scarier because you can’t see as well. We arrived at the bus station early, so we had to stand around for 45 minutes. It was crazy busy, and full of dirt and trash – I was scared to put my backpack down because I thought it might pick up a disease! The buses don’t have bathrooms, and it was a 7 ½ hour journey, so we all used the bathroom before we left. It was 3 rupees to use the bathroom! That was different. And it was a hole in the ground! Not worth the 3 rupees. The bus was a full-sleeper which was literally cubicle “beds.” On one side of the bus, it was single beds and the other was double…so that would be awkward if you were travelling as a single and you ended up being seated in one of the beds that was a double bed, and you were forced to sleep next to someone you didn’t know. I slept ok on the ride, but it definitely wasn’t a great night’s sleep.

Friday 6/15/12

We arrived in Thanjavur around 5:00 am. We checked into our hotel, and we got to nap until 8:00. I didn’t have an alarm clock and I ended up getting a room all to myself, so I didn’t really sleep because I was nervous about not waking up in time. Plus, my room was on the side of the hotel where the train went by every 45 minutes, so the noise didn’t help.

I’ve decided that there is no sound-proofing in India, and that India is one of the loudest places I’ve ever been. The birds are EXTREMELY loud at the hostel – they scream, they don’t tweet or caw. The car horns never ever stop. And some have little tunes to them – totally unnecessary! I will be sooo excited to come back to the US and not have horns blowing every second of every day! And the music – it is always extremely loud, which is fine, but it gets to be too much sometimes.

After breakfast, we went out into the village and visited about 8 farmers and sampled their cows. All of them were very receptive to us, and one even wanted to sing a song for us and give us tea. It was great to get out into the villages and see a different way of living than in the city. I really enjoyed it out there – it seemed peaceful and quaint. Living by the basics and enjoying life. We tried an un-ripe mango, sweet coconut milk and the inside of coconuts (I, surprisingly didn’t like it – it didn’t taste anything like coconut and it definitely wasn’t sweet!) I had a personal pizza and ice cream for lunch. This pizza was definitely different than American pizza, but was pretty good. The ice cream was different too – it was fluffy – almost like moose, but it was cold so it was very good. We had a few hours to burn, so I went back to the hotel room and read and kind of napped. For dinner, we all ordered at a restaurant. I ordered cream of mushroom soup, green salad, and a piece of cheese naan, which is basically flat bread with cheese. This was the safest, most American thing I could find on the menu that I knew I could eat. The cream of mushroom soup was fresh mushrooms chopped up in watery broth – no cream about it. The green salad was not lettuce – it was chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions – plain. The cheese naan did not taste like it had any cheese in it. I guess I’m just used to cheese quesadillas with a ton of cheese in them. Then it was bedtime, and I slept with earplugs in.