India is definitely chaotic. People tell me I’ll get used to it (I suppose I have to get used to it!) but I’m not sure. The horn honking starts around 7am, and it’s ubiquitous. Kids will play in the streets, and there are vendors calling out their wares, and the ever-present animals. I’ve gotten better at walking down the street. It’s sort of a religious experience. I just have to let go and trust that everything will work out. Probably it’s good for me to learn that, but I wish I didn’t have to learn it under such crazy circumstances!
I moved into my host family yesterday. They’re nice, and they have made me feel welcome, though it is a bit awkward what with the language barrier and all. They speak pretty good English (the husband is a doctor and the wife is a professor), and their son actually speaks better English than Hindi. But my Hindi is apparently not so good, or at least my listening comprehension is terrible, so I really struggle to understand what they say. So, it’s awkward, but moving into *anyone’s* home would be awkward in the beginning. Hopefully it will get smoother over time. Every other day there is a laundry person that comes to take our laundry, and brings it back the next day, ironed. Whoa. But apparently we can’t send any undergarments, as that’s not ok by india’s conservative norms.
Today I should be able to get a cell phone. Apparently in India one has to have a “permanent address,” two copies of a passport photo, and assorted other paperwork to get a cell phone. I have no idea why, except that Indians seem to have a fondness for excessive paperwork. I’ll be glad to have a phone and will send out the number to anyone who wants it, just in case you feel like calling to the other side of the world.
Yesterday we went cloth shopping, and I bought some beautiful fabric that I am going to have tailored into several Indian outfits. I don’t know what I’ll do with them when I return to the US, but all the clothes and jewelry and scarves here are so colorful and beautiful it’s hard not to buy a lot all at once! In India the labor for tailoring clothes is far cheaper than the fabric, so getting clothes made just for me is relatively inexpensive.
The neighborhood kids are all very curious about the white American woman staying on their street and I get stares every time I leave the house (which, okay, has only been a few times). At some point I’d like to talk to them, but they all talk so quickly I can never understand what they’re saying.
Otherwise, not much is going on here. We have our first real class tomorrow, so hopefully there will be lots of homework to fill up my time. Otherwise I just sit around missing Madison and my friends and family.
