Somebody pinch me... am I really here?? (this is going to be a long one)

(Sunday night)

Every once in awhile the thought pops back into my head ‘I’m in India’.  What??? Am I really?!? Haha.  The thought of it blows my mind, not necessarily because it’s such a different and random place to be, but more so because I’ve dreamed of coming here for so long that I can’t believe I’m actually here.  It’s like a dream!

India is everything I always dreamed of and more (don’t hold that cheesy line against me).  Between flying to Atlanta, Dubai, and then here, I spent over 24 hours in the air—well worth it!

The trip was fine, everything went smoothly.  Unfortunately we were in the Dubai airport at night so we didn’t really get to see anything, but it was awesome.  There were so many different cultures there, and it was fascinating to me because I have never been to this part of the world before so all of the cultures were new.  This part of the world (the middle east/south asia) has such a mysterious vibe to it.  It’s like you can look at the people and just see in their eyes this mystery… something they are holding inside.  A secret, a past, a lot of pain and a lot of wisdom.  An understanding that I don’t think I will ever have.  In the airport we saw a lot of Muslims of course.  A woman walked past me.  She had everything covered apart from her eyes… you know, those headdresses that only leave open that rectangle for the eyes.  She looked at me as I looked at her and our eyes met for just a second.  I don’t know what it was but there was something about her eyes that grasped all of my attention in that moment and held me in.  Something mysterious and deep.  You know that feeling you get when you watch movies that are set here… with that beautiful but eerie music in the background and all of the people walking through the dirt roads.  That’s how it feels here.

When we flew from Dubai to India we landed first in Hyderabad and those who were leaving got off the plane.  The rest of us stayed for an hour while others boarded to head to Vizag.  I looked outside the window and kept exclaiming to myself ‘I’m in India, I’m in India, I’m in India’.  Isn’t that such an enchanting word? India. Ahhh. :)

We flew to Vizag and the plane made a full circle around the city in order to land.  It is BEAUTIFUL here.  Incredible.  It’s a jungle and a city and a coast all in one.  There are mountains and hills covered in thick jungly trees, with a beach and ocean and port filled with big ships, and then a crowded city full of color and energy.  We got off the plane and they almost didn’t let all of my camera gear pass through—haha.  They had to have 3 different people look at my passport and ask me questions as to why I had so many cameras and what I was going to do with them.  We finally got through and Doctor Nuckolls and Krishnayya were there ready to pick us up with big flowered leis to put around our necks.  As we drove to our house, my face was glued to the window.  The city and streets were just as I had always imagined… crowded and busy and completely crazy.  No one obeys traffic laws and there is not a split second of silence where a horn is not being honked.  There are motorcycles, cars, pedestrians, and of course rickshaws in the street all at the same time in any given moment.  The rickshaws they have here are called auto-rickshaws.. they are almost like little 4-wheelers or motorcycles with a car sitting area built on top, and they are used like taxi’s because they are fast but much less expensive. 

Vizag, and I imagine India in general, is such an enchanting place.   It is so colorful, energetic, and exciting.  There is movement everywhere you look.  You could sit and stare for hours and hours and never get bored, because you will always see something interesting. 

It is sensational in all forms… by that I mean it arouses all senses.  The smells, the sounds, the sights, the tastes, and the feelings.  The best way to describe my experience so far is to explain each one of them:

TASTE and SMELL: It smells and tastes like spices everywhere.  The food—as I imagined—has so far been my biggest challenge.  My very first meal in India, naturally, had to be seafood (I hate seafood, by the way. Haha.)  It actually wasn’t too bad though, it was just a shrimp curry and I managed to get it down ok.  After that was the worst part.  They gave me this thing.. in fact, I don’t even remember what they call it here in Vizag but in the rest of India it’s called Pan.  It’s this little leaf and rolled up inside are all kinds of spices… but like, sweet spices I guess you could say (apparently they also put tobacco in them).  You just pop the whole thing in your mouth and eat it.  Luckily one of the other girls here Emily had already eaten hers earlier and she warned me, and told me to chew slowly.  I popped it into my mouth and then with the first chomp an explosion of taste came, haha.  The only way I can describe the taste is that it tastes kind of like an indian perfume would smell like.  It wasn’t necessarily a bad taste, just so different than anything I had ever tasted and SO overwhelming that I literally had to stop myself from throwing up 4 times while I was eating it.  I chewed as slow as possible but it was almost unbearable.  I asked for some water and used the water to quickly swallow down the rest… and the taste wouldn’t go away after that.  I then tried to wash it down with this drink called Boost.. it’s kind of like ovaltine or malta, it’s really good.  But it was so hot that it totally burned my tongue.  When we went to bed later, my sweet mint gum basically saved my life to get the taste out, haha.  Here’s to many more similar experiences to come!!  What an adventure! (lunch today however was delicious by the way.  It was spicy… not too spicy but more spicy than I ever eat, and I think Dhurga our cook is probably toning it down to ease us in haha.  It was rice with chicken and goat and I ate most of it without any problem). 

By the way… have you ever tried to eat rice with your hand??  Yeah.  I had learned sometime before that they eat with their hands here (or should I say hand because the left hand is never used… that’s what they use to wipe when they use the bathroom haha), but somehow I had kind of forgotten about that.  I figured that we would use our hands every now and then when it was practical.  Nope.  They use their hands always!  Well, almost always.  For some reason they give us a fork for our dessert of fruit, but we eat our meal of rice and meat with our hand. Haha… that will take some getting used to!  Anyway… the food really is delicious, it’s just so different still that it will take me some time I’m sure before I absolutely love it.  I do however love walking through the streets and into our house smelling those indian spices everywhere… it’s awesome.

SIGHT: Like I said, the roads here are crazy.  Even crazier than Argentina—if you can imagine!  There are basically no laws and everyone just goes where they want.  You have to just be very aware of what you’re doing at all times in order to avoid accidents.  The people are aggressive and they don’t form lines… they basically just form crowds and get into wherever they’re going as soon as they can depending on how much they push haha.  All of the streets we have been on are paved… the city is actually more developed than I thought it would be.  The poverty hasn’t hit me yet, maybe because I haven’t seen a lot of it yet but so far it hasn’t been worse than anything I’ve ever seen before.  The streets are dirty but not any more than I imagined… they throw their trash on the side of the road here and burn it like they do in Argentina.  There are little shops and venders all over the place.  I haven’t seen many animals… only a few dogs, lizards, and a cow in the street—hah.  I hear though that every once in awhile there’s a camel that will cross in front of our house.  I guess in order to see more of the exotic animals like elephants and tigers you have to go a little bit further south. 

Our house is very surprisingly nice.  We live in a little town just on the border of Vizag (you literally go up the street a block and over one and it’s considered Vizag again) called Lawson’s Bay Colony.  It’s supposedly the richest area around here.  There are 2 floors plus a roof, and our rooms are on the 2^nd floor.  You take your shoes off before entering, which I love.  I am actually just hanging out in a room for now, because when Kelsey (another girl who spent the summer here) leaves next week I’m going to take her room so I can have part of the balcony looking over the street.  Her room also has a full length mirror and best of all—a real toilet.  Yep.. this is my current toilet. :)

Kind of a problem when I can’t pee squatting.  Is this too much info?? Sorry.  I just can’t.  I tried my whole mission.  Can’t do it.  Hahaha.  Its ok… at least it’s not 100% in the ground… there’s a little step there, you know, and I just sit on it instead of stand and squat hahaha.  Not too bad. J  The mattresses are on the floor—no real bed.  To be honest, I REALLY love it.  It feels so much more simple and organic, and I just might do this when I get home haha.  Here is my bed with my beautiful tent on top (aka mosquito net). 

I have really loved sleeping here.  And the best part… I have yet to find one bug inside the house.  For real!  The only critter I have seen inside (besides a few mosquitos at night) is a lizard, and those don’t bother me.

Unfortunately I haven’t gotten a chance to walk around a ton yet.  Jet lag is still killing me.  I’ll go to take a quick afternoon nap (they do a siesta here by the way which I also didn’t know) and I end up sleeping until 8:00 at night.  Tomorrow I need to force myself to go out instead of sleep so I can gradually get into a good sleep pattern here.  The nice thing is that it’s so easy to wake up at 6:00 am because the sun is already up.

SOUNDS: one of my favorite parts of India so far… are the sounds.  When I fall asleep I always wake up to all of these awesome sounds and remember again that I’m in India.  It’s usually a mixture between a dog barking, horns honking from the distance, our neighbor’s tv, clanking of dishes and washing buckets etc., and the Krishna temple across the street playing their ritual music that they do 3 times a day.  I am constantly hearing that Indian flute… gahh, I love it.  It all reminds me of any indian movie—especially Slumdog Millionaire—and all of the typical background sounds.  That’s how it really is here, I love it.  They speak Telugu here and I actually am very surprised at how little English I hear.  Most everyone speaks English but they don’t necessarily speak the whole language… I mean, most of them know how to communicate in it, but instead they all speak in Telugu and throw in English words here and there.  So in any given conversation if you listen closely you can pick out the English words and understand a little bit.  I am pretty sure they do that in all of India with whatever other language they speak.  I remember when I was learning Hindi I was surprised by how many English words were a part of their language… but I guess that’s what happened when they were ruled by England for so long.  We went to church and the nice teachers were constantly going back and forth between Telugu and English translating to make sure we also understood.  It was great.  :)

FEELINGS: well… what you literally feel here is humidity.  The heat has not been bad at all, but it has been definitely humid and sometimes it makes you feel a little claustrophobic because it’s hard to breathe.  I love it though, the humidity is great.  I don’t think the heat will be too bad while I’m here because summer is already passed.  As far as how I feel… I am loving every minute.  The culture is so extremely different that I am still uncomfortable and I love it.  With as much as I have studied about India and read and watched and heard and seen, I still am in culture shock!  Not because anything is really different… in fact, it is just as I thought it would be.  I guess I just still can’t believe that I am actually here!  Haha.  But it is amazing… seriously a dream come true.  Like I said, this place has such a sensational and mysterious feel to it.  It’s so different and interesting that one cannot help but wonder what’s hiding beneath all of the people here.  It really is enchanting.  A country so vibrant that I was drawn in way before I even came here (sorry Mom and Dad… I told you my India obsession wasn’t just a phase! Haha).  I don’t know what it is… but I think this place will never cease to excite me and leave me wanting more.  Now I can’t wait to go out and start uncovering those mysteries!  Real photos to come soon!