Hurray for the Wonderful People in My Life!
Today is my two week anniversary for arriving in India. Has it been that long? Has it only been that long? I’ll be heading down to Chennai tomorrow evening to visit two of my friends and our Bharata Natyam dance teacher and her family for a week and a half. I’m looking forward to it! There is a special place in my heart for South India – particularly Tamil Nadu. The culture and language have a certain… something… for me. How to describe it? There’s a richness, a warmth, a familiarity, an earthiness… Plus, I have a lot of memories connected with Chennai. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I arrived in India this time. It’s been 6 years! The last two times I spent in India were in Chennai/Madras (which is in Tamil Nadu), for about three months each time. I am also a huge lover of South Indian textiles and gold jewelry. I’ve been shopping around a little bit for gold earrings for my little sister, as well as noserings, and a pair of bangles for myself, and I just haven’t been entirely satisfied with the quality, selection, and style. Maybe I just can’t commit to any gold jewelry until I see the selection they have in Chennai.
I’ve been going through a bit of a helpless phase. I’m not sure helpless is exactly the right word… Apathetic, lackadaisical, listless – those are better words. Sometimes, when it comes to taking care of practical things for myself (like researching plane tickets, filling out forms, researching volunteer opportunities, planning a day out in a new place where I don’t know the language, figuring out how to solve the technical glitch in my ipod – things like that), I will procrastinate and find anything else to do to avoid dealing with it. Sometimes, not always. I mean, when it comes to helping somebody else do those things, I’m all about it, I grab the bull by the horns and get it taken care of. The world is my oyster… or the other person’s oyster… and everything is possible and I’m excited to help the other person figure it out. Doing it for myself is another matter entirely. Well, thank the baby Jesus for my dad! Yes, he’ll kvetch and give me a hard time about it. He’ll get all riled up and get on my case (“Why didn’t you do this days ago?! How hard is it to just look it up?! Geeze, it only takes a minute! What were you thinking?!”) but then, like the super hero dad that he is, he swoops in and pulls things together for me. Of course, I have to sit on the phone with him for hours on end, through the long silences of him doing research, listening to him bring up old stories of when I did something like this before, him repeating himself a bazillion times in every possible way that the English language allows to make sure I really, fully understand and consider ALL the possible options that could possibly happen in a bazillion different types of circumstances and how I would deal with the situation in every possible scenario (I’m not exaggerating, if you know him you totally know what I mean). And still, to this day, I’d rather sit through long hours of that instead of just taking care of it by myself? Somehow, yes. And, to clarify, I’m not always like this at all – but there are just some things and some times, that, yes, I absolutely would rather sit through hours of that than do it for myself.
And then it’s always fantastic to have a friend swoop in and help me out too. I mean, thank goodness for skype, and the internet, and the phone, and facebook, and social networking sites. Kudos to all the people who invented those things – you’ve really set the stage for making my life easier. Better? It depends on how you define better. Simpler? I would think not. Easier? Hell yes. Combine those things with an awesome friend = awesomeness! Thank you Ari for finding me all those super cool websites for travel buddies and volunteering opportunities! You’re the best-est ;-) I get overwhelmed when I have too many options: too many websites to choose from, too many plane tickets that are different prices to choose from, too much information on how to fix my ipod in the help menu, etc, etc, etc, etc. And then awesome people like Ari are like, “here you go, I looked it up, and here are four for you to choose from.” End of story. And, yay! I don’t have to know or even think about how there were actually 1000s of websites that came up in the search that I’m not looking at and that may actually be the one I’m looking for, and I’m missing out because I didn’t look at just one more – you know, that next choice, the one I didn’t look at.
Exploring Solo
So another thing I’ve been a little intimidated by and lackadaisical about, is getting myself out of the house and exploring on my own. I’m really slow in the morning, first of all – whether I’m feeling apathetic or not. And then by the time I’m about ready to get going, around noon, Rebecca comes home from her Bengali class at AIIS. So then I eat lunch with Rebecca and Abhijeet. Afterwards, I find myself in a sort of waiting limbo. Usually Rebecca’s figuring out her plans for the day, particularly she checks in to see if her and Abhijeet have anything they need to do. If she’s free, we figure what we want to do. So, we haven’t been getting out of the house till 2 at the earliest, sometimes not until 4 or 5pm. I’ve finally realized that I need to get myself out of the house, I need to make plans for myself and make sure I go out and see the sites and check out the neighborhoods for myself. Otherwise I just spend my time feeling indecisive and restless. To top it all off, I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone. It is much easier for me to go places with a friend and have a travel buddy: you get lost together, you share experiences and memories together, you eat together. The intimidating part for me is that I’m in a new city, surrounded by a language I don’t know, and I’m quite obviously not Indian either – so there’s no blending in when I’m craving a sense of anonymity. But, hurray, I have finally really started to go out on my own. It feels good to push myself out of my comfort zone and do things I am hesitant about and intimidated by. It also feels a little lonely. But at the same time, I also get to do whatever I want to do, for however long I want. I don’t always do that though… Anyway, there are pros and cons, and, who knows, maybe I’ll be a rockin’ fearless solo explorer by the end of all this.
The Metro System
By the way, they have this awesome metro system here in Kolkata. Yesterday, I was returning home from a solo outing on Park Street. It was around 6:30pm and the metro was packed. Not packed in the Western sense of the word. Not packed like sardines. Breathless, squished, absolutely immoveable, human body odor, can’t hear a thing, can’t see a thing packed. So packed that the woman next to me had her saree stuck in the door, that’s how pack it was. We were going along, and I couldn’t for the life of me keep track of where I was. Fortunately I asked somebody right in the nick of time when the Kalighat stop (my stop) would be coming up. I asked because I could not hear the announcement amid the din, which is normally perfectly loud and clear, by the way. I asked because I could not see the many many large signs when we got to each of the metro station stop along the way. I asked because I could not see any of the many many signs along the upper walls of the metro bus itself, which are usually very easy to see and written in clear English.
And I have no idea whatsoever how I got out of that metro bus when my stop came along. I am a tall woman as far as women go here in India. I am slender, but I am strong – I have those sturdy German bones that serve me well when the need to elbow my way through a crowd comes along. I got out of there, barely, and I am not a frail petite woman, like many Indian women can be. I mean, some of these women are just tiny, it’s amazing. People talk about being trampled for Black Friday in America? They have no idea. I cannot believe that people don’t suffocate while on the metro bus during rush hour. I cannot believe people don’t get trampled. I cannot believe that the metro bus doors don’t burst at the seams.
My New Friend
I met Abhijeet’s 10 year old nephew yesterday afternoon. He is the greatest kid ever. I wish I had met him sooner, then I would have had a little travel buddy to do fun things with like go to the movies, or the zoo, or the children’s museum, or the botanical gardens, or have yummy yummy ice cream with. I think I like kids so much because basically I’m a kid and I like doing kid things. Out of all the things to do in the world in one’s life, kid things are the most fun. For example, he and I spent the evening making all different kinds of paper airplanes. He speaks mostly Bengali and a little bit of English, actually quite a bit of English, but he doesn’t say that much to me in English. Even though I know he can, he’d rather just babble on to me in Bengali, with lots of hand gestures and make lots of facial expressions to help convey to me what he is saying. And I do the same with him, but in English. I am learning more Bengali already! After we made a few airplanes and flew them around a little bit, he decided he wanted to draw some pilots, cut them out and then tape them in the airplanes. After that he decided he wanted to make a paper airplane airport. So now we have this huge, carefully organized line of paper airplanes parked in my room here, all lined up and ready for take-off. After a lot of asking, and more asking, and prodding, and being annoying, I finally convinced everybody that we should all go see Puss In Boots 3D with him at the theater near here today. Hurray! I am so excited. I’m actually headed to the theater now, I have to buy the tickets there and then we’ll all go back together at 3:30. Going on the metro again, alone, going to a part of town I haven’t been before, alone. I’m proud of myself, I can do it!
Today is my two week anniversary for arriving in India. Has it been that long? Has it only been that long? I’ll be heading down to Chennai tomorrow evening to visit two of my friends and our Bharata Natyam dance teacher and her family for a week and a half. I’m looking forward to it! There is a special place in my heart for South India – particularly Tamil Nadu. The culture and language have a certain… something… for me. How to describe it? There’s a richness, a warmth, a familiarity, an earthiness… Plus, I have a lot of memories connected with Chennai. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I arrived in India this time. It’s been 6 years! The last two times I spent in India were in Chennai/Madras (which is in Tamil Nadu), for about three months each time. I am also a huge lover of South Indian textiles and gold jewelry. I’ve been shopping around a little bit for gold earrings for my little sister, as well as noserings, and a pair of bangles for myself, and I just haven’t been entirely satisfied with the quality, selection, and style. Maybe I just can’t commit to any gold jewelry until I see the selection they have in Chennai.
I’ve been going through a bit of a helpless phase. I’m not sure helpless is exactly the right word… Apathetic, lackadaisical, listless – those are better words. Sometimes, when it comes to taking care of practical things for myself (like researching plane tickets, filling out forms, researching volunteer opportunities, planning a day out in a new place where I don’t know the language, figuring out how to solve the technical glitch in my ipod – things like that), I will procrastinate and find anything else to do to avoid dealing with it. Sometimes, not always. I mean, when it comes to helping somebody else do those things, I’m all about it, I grab the bull by the horns and get it taken care of. The world is my oyster… or the other person’s oyster… and everything is possible and I’m excited to help the other person figure it out. Doing it for myself is another matter entirely. Well, thank the baby Jesus for my dad! Yes, he’ll kvetch and give me a hard time about it. He’ll get all riled up and get on my case (“Why didn’t you do this days ago?! How hard is it to just look it up?! Geeze, it only takes a minute! What were you thinking?!”) but then, like the super hero dad that he is, he swoops in and pulls things together for me. Of course, I have to sit on the phone with him for hours on end, through the long silences of him doing research, listening to him bring up old stories of when I did something like this before, him repeating himself a bazillion times in every possible way that the English language allows to make sure I really, fully understand and consider ALL the possible options that could possibly happen in a bazillion different types of circumstances and how I would deal with the situation in every possible scenario (I’m not exaggerating, if you know him you totally know what I mean). And still, to this day, I’d rather sit through long hours of that instead of just taking care of it by myself? Somehow, yes. And, to clarify, I’m not always like this at all – but there are just some things and some times, that, yes, I absolutely would rather sit through hours of that than do it for myself.
And then it’s always fantastic to have a friend swoop in and help me out too. I mean, thank goodness for skype, and the internet, and the phone, and facebook, and social networking sites. Kudos to all the people who invented those things – you’ve really set the stage for making my life easier. Better? It depends on how you define better. Simpler? I would think not. Easier? Hell yes. Combine those things with an awesome friend = awesomeness! Thank you Ari for finding me all those super cool websites for travel buddies and volunteering opportunities! You’re the best-est ;-) I get overwhelmed when I have too many options: too many websites to choose from, too many plane tickets that are different prices to choose from, too much information on how to fix my ipod in the help menu, etc, etc, etc, etc. And then awesome people like Ari are like, “here you go, I looked it up, and here are four for you to choose from.” End of story. And, yay! I don’t have to know or even think about how there were actually 1000s of websites that came up in the search that I’m not looking at and that may actually be the one I’m looking for, and I’m missing out because I didn’t look at just one more – you know, that next choice, the one I didn’t look at.
Exploring Solo
So another thing I’ve been a little intimidated by and lackadaisical about, is getting myself out of the house and exploring on my own. I’m really slow in the morning, first of all – whether I’m feeling apathetic or not. And then by the time I’m about ready to get going, around noon, Rebecca comes home from her Bengali class at AIIS. So then I eat lunch with Rebecca and Abhijeet. Afterwards, I find myself in a sort of waiting limbo. Usually Rebecca’s figuring out her plans for the day, particularly she checks in to see if her and Abhijeet have anything they need to do. If she’s free, we figure what we want to do. So, we haven’t been getting out of the house till 2 at the earliest, sometimes not until 4 or 5pm. I’ve finally realized that I need to get myself out of the house, I need to make plans for myself and make sure I go out and see the sites and check out the neighborhoods for myself. Otherwise I just spend my time feeling indecisive and restless. To top it all off, I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone. It is much easier for me to go places with a friend and have a travel buddy: you get lost together, you share experiences and memories together, you eat together. The intimidating part for me is that I’m in a new city, surrounded by a language I don’t know, and I’m quite obviously not Indian either – so there’s no blending in when I’m craving a sense of anonymity. But, hurray, I have finally really started to go out on my own. It feels good to push myself out of my comfort zone and do things I am hesitant about and intimidated by. It also feels a little lonely. But at the same time, I also get to do whatever I want to do, for however long I want. I don’t always do that though… Anyway, there are pros and cons, and, who knows, maybe I’ll be a rockin’ fearless solo explorer by the end of all this.
The Metro System
By the way, they have this awesome metro system here in Kolkata. Yesterday, I was returning home from a solo outing on Park Street. It was around 6:30pm and the metro was packed. Not packed in the Western sense of the word. Not packed like sardines. Breathless, squished, absolutely immoveable, human body odor, can’t hear a thing, can’t see a thing packed. So packed that the woman next to me had her saree stuck in the door, that’s how pack it was. We were going along, and I couldn’t for the life of me keep track of where I was. Fortunately I asked somebody right in the nick of time when the Kalighat stop (my stop) would be coming up. I asked because I could not hear the announcement amid the din, which is normally perfectly loud and clear, by the way. I asked because I could not see the many many large signs when we got to each of the metro station stop along the way. I asked because I could not see any of the many many signs along the upper walls of the metro bus itself, which are usually very easy to see and written in clear English.
And I have no idea whatsoever how I got out of that metro bus when my stop came along. I am a tall woman as far as women go here in India. I am slender, but I am strong – I have those sturdy German bones that serve me well when the need to elbow my way through a crowd comes along. I got out of there, barely, and I am not a frail petite woman, like many Indian women can be. I mean, some of these women are just tiny, it’s amazing. People talk about being trampled for Black Friday in America? They have no idea. I cannot believe that people don’t suffocate while on the metro bus during rush hour. I cannot believe people don’t get trampled. I cannot believe that the metro bus doors don’t burst at the seams.
My New Friend
I met Abhijeet’s 10 year old nephew yesterday afternoon. He is the greatest kid ever. I wish I had met him sooner, then I would have had a little travel buddy to do fun things with like go to the movies, or the zoo, or the children’s museum, or the botanical gardens, or have yummy yummy ice cream with. I think I like kids so much because basically I’m a kid and I like doing kid things. Out of all the things to do in the world in one’s life, kid things are the most fun. For example, he and I spent the evening making all different kinds of paper airplanes. He speaks mostly Bengali and a little bit of English, actually quite a bit of English, but he doesn’t say that much to me in English. Even though I know he can, he’d rather just babble on to me in Bengali, with lots of hand gestures and make lots of facial expressions to help convey to me what he is saying. And I do the same with him, but in English. I am learning more Bengali already! After we made a few airplanes and flew them around a little bit, he decided he wanted to draw some pilots, cut them out and then tape them in the airplanes. After that he decided he wanted to make a paper airplane airport. So now we have this huge, carefully organized line of paper airplanes parked in my room here, all lined up and ready for take-off. After a lot of asking, and more asking, and prodding, and being annoying, I finally convinced everybody that we should all go see Puss In Boots 3D with him at the theater near here today. Hurray! I am so excited. I’m actually headed to the theater now, I have to buy the tickets there and then we’ll all go back together at 3:30. Going on the metro again, alone, going to a part of town I haven’t been before, alone. I’m proud of myself, I can do it!
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