Fools on the Hill

Yesterday Arpita and I went to Pavarti Hill. It's an area with about 5 colorful temples on top of a hill with an incredible panoramic view of the city. We just wandered around and almost got lost in the tall grass, but it is definitely one of my favorite places in the city so far!

The derpiest goats on the face of the planet. They were acting normal until I got the camera out, then they were all blergh

I can see my house from here! (kind of...)

Mehendi, Mehendi, Mehendi!

A couple days ago I got my first Indian mehendi (aka henna)! As annoying as it was when it was drying, it turned out awesome. I got it on both sides of my left hand and just the top of my right.
It's so wonderful! I'm definitely planning on getting more after this one fades.

finished product! 

And as a bonus: here's the semi-related song that I've been obsessed with since being accepted

Like you actually thought I'd stay in one place

I've FINALLY put together travel week plans!! Flights are all books so at least we have a definite outline of the schedule even though hotels and other activities have yet to be planed.

The Alliance program sets aside 9 days for the students to travel anywhere in India their heart so desires. 

I'll be travelling with a group of 5 other girls to....

- Varanasi! One of the oldest cities in the world that today is a major pilgrimage site for Hindus and Buddhists. Because of these things, it's apparently being like hit over the head repeatedly with 10 tons of culture. I'll also be there on my birthday!! 

- Agra (aka the Taj Mahal place)- I think it goes without saying that any foreigner visiting northern India is pretty much obligated to visit here. But I'm still excited none the less! We'll just be taking a day trip there and try to see the Taj early in the morning before the tourist crowds get there.

- Jaipur: Once again, an obligation to go, but it's for sure an obligation that I am anticipating the most! There will be fort visits, lots of shopping and most importantly ELEPHANT RIDES! 

- Pushkar: The camel capitol of India. While we're missing the huge Camel Festival the area is famous for by just a couple days, we're still managing to take a mini camel safari into the desert. Champagne  and Sunsets, here we come! 

- Udaipur: Called "India's Venice" by tourist agencies/blogs. Marketing ploy aside, this place is said to be incredible and a perfect last leg of our trip. 

On top of all of this, weekend trips are also in the works! Places I really am interested in going to are: Goa, the Ellora/Ajanta caves, Amritsar, and Mumbai. 

If anyone has any suggestions/tips/advise about any of these places, like things we should do/see or places we should stay don't hesitate to let me know!

In other news, the much-anticipated Ganpati festival starts tomorrow! More updates on that later. 

Weekend Warrior

For my first real weekend in Pune, I decided to get out of Pune. The city is surrounded by this gorgeous mountain range called the Western Ghats that a lot of people go to and get away from the grime and the grind of city life.

Saturday I went with a couple of friends from the program to Sinhagad Fort, which is a 1-2 hour hike up a mountain. We took a bus, making it our first hectic, confusing experience with the Pune bus system. Once we actually found the right bus (we couldn't actually make out where the buses are labelled), we got on and it was clear that it doesn't get ridden by many white people since we got more stares than usual. Despite all of that it was super fun. I spent half of the ride hanging on for dear life by the open door. Anywayyys Sinhagad Fort was super cool. It rained a lot (surprise, surprise), but it was a gorgeous trek! The very top was foggy so we couldn't see the overlook from there, but there were plenty of other points that we could see fantastic views!

Eerily mist fort ruins

FIRST MONKEY SIGHTING! 

Sunday a some people from my program went on a waterfall repelling trip with a group of students from Fergusson College who are in this outdoorsy club. It was a lot of standing around waiting, but the breath taking scenery and adrenaline from the actual repelling made it all soooo worth it! 

The waterfall! 

It went from terrifying to exhilarating right around here (photo cred: Arpita Aneja)

 All the way up top! (photo cred: Arpita)

 Success!! (photo cred: Arpita)

The most peaceful hill/valley ever

On another note, today my host dad asked about my day and I said "normal" for the first time. Adjustment yayy! 

First Impressions

Finally all settled in Pune!!

I haven't actually taken many pics of the city (sorry, Mom) but I will soon.

After less than two weeks, here I already feel like it's been an eternity. I've done so many things I just would not have though of doing back stateside. Like waterfall repelling, seeing things that predate the discovery of America, signing up for a dance class, agreeing to take random pictures with complete strangers who don't even speak my language, put a hand out in front of a moving car not knowing if it will stop or not, and bargaining for jewelry.

Rule #2 of India living is that everything is a little victory. Crossing the street is a big freaking deal. Getting successfully across is enough to make your day! Avoid a beggar in the streets? You initially feel like a horrible, horrible human being, but really you are a champ. Bargain for a lower price? Treat yourself to some fantastic Indian ice cream, girl, you win at life!

Rule #1 of India is that the Rules of India are made to be broken.

Oh, hey India

Why hello there! Long time no type.
Sorry about that.
We didn’t get internet access for a while. And THEN my very independently-minded laptop decided that it did not like India and went to sleep for a week. AND THEN my charger went m.i.a. for a weekend. Whoops!

Anyways, I’m in India now!! Super crazy. I have tons to put here so instead of making everyone read one huge post, I’ll break it up.

(written 8/28):

One word to describe everything so far: UNREAL    

     The actual 15 hour flight wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. The seat next to me was empty and there were 170 movies to choose from. Plus I was so ecstatic to be FINALLY going to India that not even the screams of the small child sitting behind me could dampen my spirits. After jetting across 41% of the Earth’s surface, we landed in Mumbai and went right to the hotel (after our first mind blowing interaction with urban Indian traffic).

.

The road we took out of Mumbai went through the slums. It was so strange seeing images you’d usually see in pictures or TV in real life. Leaning corregated metal shacks and piles of trash would have dominated the landscape if it were not for the people. Highlights were seeing my first Indian cow just chilling at the side of the road and watching some women in bright saris wading through the highly polluted water doing God knows what. Eventually the city scape faded into the monsoon green Western Ghats, which is and incredible mountain range.

Idea is everywhere in India. My phone and internet are powered by them

        Durshet was incredibly gorgeous! It earned the nickname “Indian Summer Camp.” There was lots of information given to us in a variety of meetings, but we did fun things too like visit a Ganesh temple and learn folk games/dances from village women who worked in the Durshet kitchen.

                 Durshet room  

Ganesh Temple by Durshet 

The best part of Durshet was when we went on a trek to a tribal village further up the mountains. Everything was so unbelievably green (with the exception of the mud and other unmentionable substances) because of the monsoons.  We saw the well and women balancing an insane amount of water jugs on their heads.

 She's carrying 3 water jugs on her head! So impressive! 

Getting water/posing for the US student paparazzi

The woman in the back is not as impressed with my India Skillz as I am (photo cred: Jen Attig)

Then a women taught us to unshell rice and grind it into flour. One of my many new India skillz. This women is absolutely amazing! She’s about 65-70ish years old and doesn’t have a single grey hair on her head. Grinding the rice for 5 minutes gave me blisters and sore shoulders, but she’s been doing it for 60 years.

Grinding rice into flour 

 Unshelling the rice: harder than it looks 

Apart from this, we spent a majority of the time at Durshet bouncing between 3 buildings for orientation meetings. Mostly it made us even more excited to get our new lives in Pune started!