Field Trip

I love field trips, and I think it is safe to say that everyone loves field trips. Field trips in the United States are fun, but I am pretty sure that field trips in India are better, way better.

On Friday we took a class field trip instead of having lecture and it was SO fun. We drove from Manali to Naggar, which was about 40 minutes away. We started off our day by visiting the home, artwork, and personal art collection of Russian artist Nicholas Roerich. I was interesting to see the blend of Russian and Indian culture both in a personal and professional setting. My favorite thing about Nicholas Roerich was that he created a flag known as The Banner of Peace.

From GoogleImages

Each circle within the flag respectively stands for art, religion, and science, and they are all surrounded by the infinite border of culture. 

After we visited his home and artwork, we were able to see the Castle of Naggar. The Castle was awesome! When we got there we were surprised with a group of people playing music and dancing. I am sad to say I did not take any pictures or videos of the scene, but trust me, it was awesome. We then ate lunch on the balcony of the castle, and had amazing views while eating traditional Indian food for lunch.

From GoogleImages

As you can see, the view from our lunch table was quite exquisite. After lunch came the real excitement, though. We went to a cheese factory! Yup, that's right, we saw mozzarella cheese being made by hand. Ok, so you probably don't know this about me, but I love to cook, and have actually made mozzarella cheese at home before. Even though I knew how the process worked, it was still super fun to watch on a larger scale. We ended up buying a Kilo of fresh cheese, which is about 2.2 pounds, and our hotel made us pizza with the cheese we bought! Yum! 


Today is a lazy day, mostly because I have a lot of school work to do. 10 page paper, ya dig? My teacher's family came to Manali a week ago and I have been super distracted playing with her kids (3 and 8). Also, since I know she is going to read this, I'm loving it and it's fun and I am not complaining about it :). 

Family Life

Something that has always been incredibly amazing to me is that children, literally, are the future of our world. Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit an orphanage, Dar-Ul-Fazl Children's Home, in Manali to see what it was like and interact with the kids. 90 children live and go to school on the campus, and an additional 100 children come for school every day. I assumed I would be extremely sad and depressed while visiting an orphanage, but I am happy to say that it was actually quite nice and pleasant there. All of the children seemed relatively happy, and even told us that they considered each other family. Something incredible, at least to me, is how music can unite people from opposite sides of the world. We sang songs with the children at a big assembly which was really fun.

Girls at the Assembly  

Boys at the Assembly 

I tried to upload a video of the singing, but my blogger doesn't like videos, unfortunately. 

After visiting the orphanage, I had the opportunity to go to the Day Star School and interview a group of tenth graders. For my research project, I have decided to study the daily life of adolescents in India, specifically in Himachal Pradesh. I met with a group of six students, four boys and two girls, all ages 14 and 15. I had to remind myself that I was still in India, because they sounded similarly to American teenagers. 

You may not know this about me, but I went to a rigorous private high school in Los Angeles. The children at my school and the children at this school in India all had very similar ideas and worries. The teenagers told me that their biggest stress is school. They wake up between 530-7am and study before they head off to school - normally a less than five minute walk from their home. The school day if from 8:55am - 4:05pm. After school, they study and maybe watch television before they go to sleep. There is not much interaction with their parents - they only talk to their parents about school, never about anything more significant. I will share more about my research when I have finished my paper, but here is a little taste of what I am doing. 

What Do I Stand For?

Being in India has made me grateful for the opportunities I have been granted by growing up in the United States. When you see the struggles and grave lives of the majority of the population in India, you cannot help but want to do something about it. One will inherently want to make a difference, it is impossible not to feel both compassion and depression while comparing your life to the lives of others. Part of me wants to go off and save the world, but a bigger part of me knows that anything I attempt will only reach a very small portion of the population. I, myself, may only be able to help one person.

Do I think that I will be coming back to India to make a difference here? No. But this has got me thinking, what do I stand for? How am I going to make a difference in my chosen career path? I am going back to the United States on July 7th, and am almost immediately moving to New York to start my masters program at Columbia University. I will be studying school counseling and mental health counseling at Teachers College. I hope that someday I can help adolescents conquer their fears and inhibitions in order to become the best versions of themselves possible.

So, what do I stand for? I stand for equality - I believe that all individuals should receive equal pay for equal work regardless of gender, race, and religion. I believe that no man can own a woman, and no woman should face domestic violence. I stand for love - I believe that all individuals should be free to love whoever they wish to love, a family with love is the best kind of family. I stand for kindness - I believe that one must exert less effort to be nice than to be mean, a smile can turn around a person's day even if you are unaware of it at the time. I stand for health care - I believe there is no reason for a child to not receive adequate vaccinations to ward off infectious diseases. I stand for education - I believe that an educated individual can make a difference in this world, regardless of chosen life path.

Cover of Some Nights by FUN. 

So, what do you stand for? Comment and let me know. 

I Love School

First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack of posting the last couple of days. My internet accessibility has been rather spotty and I have not had access for long enough to finish my post! So here it is.

But really, I love school. I can not describe how excited I am to spend the rest of my life working within a school. Let me back up a few steps. Today, we went to go visit a school, The Day Star School, in Manali. It was a Christian day school for grades K-10. I think it is very interesting that the private schools in India end at grade 10 instead of grade 12. We were able to tour this school and get acquainted with their facilities. I was extremely impressed with what I saw. They had a library complete with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys (among more scholarly books). We were shown the Biology, Physics, and Chemistry labs that were reminiscent of labs one would see in the United States. The school is also equipped with an indoor swimming pool and outdoor play area. The most impressive part of the school, however, was the facilities for special needs students. There was a whole room filled with learning aids available for not only special needs students in the school, but within the community as well. Just to give you an idea, the room contained a trampoline, swing ladders, and eye charts among many other learning aids. So cool.

Library!

Swimming Pool!

Kids at recess!

Study abroad trip with 10th graders in Manali!

My favorite thing about the schools was this poster hanging in one of the hallways.

I think it is a beautiful sentiment. The school is a Christian school, yet promotes being a good and honest person above all else. I really appreciated this poster and felt as though the children attending this school were being brought up to respect all different types of people. 

I was able to meet the school counselor, who is actually from Chicago. I will be interviewing him next week for my research project here in India. I hope to learn what adolescents are struggling with here in India compared to in the United States. Our classes here have helped me understand families on a more global scale than I previously had. Being culturally competent is a struggle for many people around the world and is a challenge for me as well. Sometimes I am worried that I am making a bad impression on Indians for all Americans, so I am trying very hard to be extra polite, stay on the LEFT side of the street (there are no sidewalks here), and to not talk about how much I would like to eat red meat. 

This weekend is a free weekend for us here in Manali. The majority of our group went on an overnight hike, but, if you know me, you know that is not my style. I really enjoy having a bathroom available to me. And I am going camping in August so I am saving up my stamina until then. Three of us decided to stay here at the hotel and do a little exploring on our own. Well, we ended up going to the "spa" and getting pedicures. It wasn't really a spa, which is why I put it in quotes. It was a little... unsanitary. In addition to getting a pedicure, I also got henna on my feet! IT IS SO AWESOME

MY FEET!

Well, I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend in the US, and I will blog more soon. 

Wait, I Have to Study?

Being in India has been great, except that I totally forgot I needed to study. And do homework. Let me tell you that this has been a challenge. Something exciting did happen today though, I officially registered for my first semester of classes at Columbia! YAY!! I have registered for Theories of Counseling, School Counseling, Ethics in Counseling, and Foundations of Counseling. I am so excited I cannot wait for the fall! I only have 2 classes on Monday and 2 classes on Thursday, so we will see what I end up spending my time doing.

I have really enjoyed doing yoga here in India. I have been doing it every other morning, which I am happy with. Yesterday I did a shoulder stand. I was happy I could do it because I thought I would fail for sure. I hope I am able to continue doing yoga in New York, as long as I can afford it.

I have realized that four weeks is an incredibly long time to be in a foreign country. I think it would be different if we were traveling around, but three weeks in a tiny traveler town might give me cabin fever.  Today, I really want to go back to the US, but I hope it will be a fleeting feeling.

Sense of Adventure

Yesterday, I tried very hard to be brave and adventurous, but it turned out to backfire. Womp.

I decided it would be a good idea to dye my hair with henna, in order to give it a reddish tint. How brave of me, right?

That is what I was expecting, but unfortunately, all I got was a wasted four, yes four, hours with henna in my hair and it is still the same brown as before. I was quite disappointed, to say the least. 

In other news, yesterday we went down to the school to set up a tour. I was excited to learn that they have a school counselor from Chicago who worked in the US and is now working in India. I am looking forward to interviewing him and creating my project around his work. I am meeting him tomorrow so I will post more about that when I have more details. 

Yesterday I was also able to pick up my jacket! Which was exciting because it was so cold! 

Um, hello, how cute is this $13 USD jacket?!? 

The Swing of Things

Yesterday was our first day of "normalcy" here in India. I woke up to do rooftop yoga, which was super hard. We then had our first lecture for the study abroad course. It was more of a group discussion than a lecture, which was really enjoyable. We just talked about pretty much everything I have been blogging about, so I won't go in to detail here.

After lunch we went to go get a tour of the Lady Willingdon Hospital in Manali. It is a mission hospital that, while small and rustic, was truly quite impressive. I'm not a huge fan of hospitals, so I didn't really enjoy the tour very much, but I did find it interesting. Part of our class here is to conduct a research project and write a 10-15 page paper about our research. Almost everyone on the trip is pre-med, and as you all know, I am not. While we were at the hospital we were told that they have two social workers that go in to high schools and counsel teenagers on any issues they might be having. If you know me, you know that is EXACTLY what I want to do with my life. I hope I am able to shadow those professionals and make that the focus of my research project. I will definitely keep you updated on that front, but don't you worry, I won't post my ten page paper on the blog.

Now I know this might surprise you, but it is cold in Manali. I was as surprised as you probably are right now. I didn't bring a jacket with me to India in the summer, who would? Don't get me wrong, it's not super cold, but it gets down to the 60's, which is pretty chilly without a jacket. So, long story short, I am having a jacket made for me. Yup, that's right, I got to pick out my outside fabric, inside fabric, and style. It is being made to my measurements, and I am only paying $13 USD for it. What!?! I'm really excited about it. I am getting it today so I will be sure to post a picture of me in it, it is going to be really cute.

During dinner, I felt as though I was experiencing a scene from The Lion King.

All of a sudden we heard loud noises coming from the street and we looked over and there was literally a stampede of sheep and goats. 

Yup, a real live stampede. 

Takin' it Easy

I promised that I would blog every day (as best as I could), so even though I don't have that much to share I decided to post today anyway. I decided to take it easy today, as you can tell from the post title. I was feeling a little under the weather and a little sad today so I didn't want to be too adventurous. So, What did I do today?

1) I did my laundry. I know what you're thinking, and no, I am not bragging about putting my clothes in the washing machine (although sometimes that's a big accomplishment for me). I had to hand wash all of my clothes in a bucket with woolite packets and then lined dried everything.

2) I started reading Harry Potter 5 today, which is also a big accomplishment for me. Last summer I decided to read all 7 Harry Potter books but only made it through the first 4. So now, about 9 months after finishing number 4, I read about 200 pages of number 5. And yes, I like it and can't really put it down. If Vicky is reading this I know she is really excited and proud.

3) I laid in a hammock. Yup, I'm in paradise.

4) I ate American food :) we got veggie burgers for dinner (my stomach is SO happy)

5) I did some homework. I almost forgot I was on a study abroad trip, whoops.

I hope I have more interesting things to share in the days to come!

When in Rome

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? Well I guess the same philosophy applies to India as well, at least for me. I know this might be hard to believe, but I woke up at 6am this morning (probably because I fell asleep at 9pm last night) and did rooftop yoga at our hotel at 730. It was amazing. I have never really done yoga before and I am incredibly inflexible, but it felt amazing to just be in the fresh air over the mountains taking everything in, including the actual practice of yoga. Our instructor is a pretty young man who has an incredibly deep, soothing voice, that made me relax almost instantly. The most amazing thing is that we only have to pay $2-$4 USD per class, say what?!? In the US it would cost $15-$20 USD for a yoga class and that is what we will pay for an entire week. I hope I stay with it and getting up at 7am does not become to big of a challenge for me.

As I have already told you, our hotel overlooks the Himalayas and it is so breathtaking. It is quite smoggy though, so taking pictures is a bit of a challenge.

I walk outside of my door at the hotel and this is what I see from all directions :)

If you know me, which you probably do if you are reading my blog, you will understand if I say that where I am right now reminds me a lot of the lair, which I mentioned in an earlier blog post about running outside. I am so excited to be spending the next three weeks here.

Expect the Unexpected

One thing to keep in mind while traveling is that no plans, no matter how well played out, are not foolproof.

In my blog post yesterday I forgot to mention the lighter and funnier things that were happening to me while in India. I did not know this, but the type of toilet we use in America is called a "western toilet," meaning that there are other types of toilets around the world. Who knew? Anyway, it was suggested to me to do an entire post on the world's different toilets, but I'll spare you and just talk about Indian toilets, commonly referred to as squatty potties.

From Wikipedia

Now let me explain this to you. You are facing like you would on a western toilet, putting your feet where the textured marks are on either side of the hole. Then you squat all the way down to your feet, and go to the bathroom in the little hole. The most mind boggling thing to me is that it flushes! I assumed all holes in the ground toilets were merely holes in the ground. I guess I was wrong. In any case, I am proudly telling the world that I successfully went to the bathroom in a squatty potty. 

Moving on. This morning we woke up at 4 in the morning to catch our flight that left Delhi at 6:40. This is where the drama begins. You know how in America and on most flights you are allowed to check a bag up to 50 lbs? Well, on this airline they said we could only have 30 lbs. WHAT? No one told us that. So as we are checking in to the airport as a group we find out that our baggage is over weight and we need to pay a fee of 11,000 rupees. This is about $200 USD. As you can Imagine, all 11 students start to shove everything they can from their checked baggage to their carry on baggage. 

We get to our gate, and our flight has been delayed, but the airline cannot tell us how long it will be. Long story short, we flew on a teeny tiny airplane (2 seats on each side with propellers on the wing) that was filthy. And by filthy, I mean there were cockroaches on the plane along with a wasp. It was disgusting. When we got to the Manali airport we were waiting for our baggage when we were informed that our luggage was not coming. Not only was our group's luggage not on the plane with us, but NOBODY'S luggage from the flight was on the plane with them. As you can imagine, there was mad and furious chaos in the airport. Our luggage is  scheduled to arrive to our hotel tonight, and I really really hope that mine is there! All of the gifts I have purchased for people so far are in my bag. *crossing my fingers*

Now we are in Manali, a beautiful small city in Northern India. The best thing about Manali so far is the weather. It is so beautiful outside, in the 80's with no humidity. It's supposed to be in the 60's at night. I should be out exploring now but I'm so tired I decided to take it easy. I will post some pictures tomorrow after I have gone exploring a little bit. 

Happy Weekend! 

Varanasi

Ok readers, brace yourself for my longest. blog post. ever.

For the last three days, I have been in Varanasi. For those of you who didn't click on my handy little link there, I will tell you a little about Varanasi. It is one of the oldest cities in the entire world. It is also known as Banaras, which is considered to be the more spiritual name for Varanasi. It is located on the Ganges river in Uttar Pradesh.

That's enough history, now I will share my experiences there with you. We arrived in Varanasi at about 11am on Tuesday - and just so you know it was about 117 degrees Fahrenheit as it was every day we were there. We were staying at a guest house at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) because my teacher is very good friends with a professor there. When we first got there we had a lecture about the water supply in India, which is in great demand and not enough supply. After the lecture we went to the guest house to get out bearings at the hotel.

Yup, that's right. All nine girls slept in one room very reminiscent of Madeline. This experience was - interesting - but I think three and a half years or sorority life has prepared me, if for nothing else, this type of living arrangement. It ended up not being so bad. 

There are many pathways down to he river in Varanasi that are referred to as Ghats. We went down to on of the ghats to see the Aarti ceremony that occurs every day at sunset the first night we were in Varanasi. I do not know that it is fair to call it a ceremony because it does not signify anything, so maybe it should be considered a tradition? Anyway, Aarti is a state sponsored activity where every night at sunset flowers with candles in the middle are floated in to the river. We learned that while this is beautiful, it only occurs to bring in tourists to raise money. I was incredibly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people at this particular Ghat. Not only were there people minding their own business, but there were also an insane amount of child beggars. It was incredibly depressing to see the poverty and how it was effecting people on a daily basis. 

After my first full day in Varanasi, I was fairly certain that I wanted to end my trip early and just head home. It was hot, smelly, sad, and just generally uncomfortable. 

On Wednesday we were able to sleep in late, up until 8am, but I could only sleep until 4:30. My teacher's friend, Dr. Sanjay, came to give us a lecture which was incredibly interesting. He works at BHU in gender studies and runs an organization called MASVAW, Men's Action for Stopping Violence Against Women. It is run out of BHU and targets men to educate them in a way they have never thought of before. They have coloring books for young children to teach them that men and women should be treated equally as well as similar tools for adults. For grown men they have playing cards and each card has a different message printed on it such as "real men don't beat their wives," "real men know safe sex is pleasurable sex," and "real men can have any sexual orientation." I think these cards are amazing and I think they would be extremely helpful in America as well. It was interesting to me to see how different countries can all have similar social problems. 

Later on Wednesday we went to Sanjay's home to meet his wife, Madhu. She works at a different university in India teaching teacher education and also focusing on gender issues. I kind of wish I could take a class with Madhu, I think it would be interesting and related to what I want to do with my life. After we talked with Madhu a Sitar (Indian guitar) player and a Tabla (Indian drum) player came to their home to play for us. Since I can't really describe what I saw, I have a video here. Ok, so the video wouldn't upload so here are a couple of pictures.

This morning we woke up at 4:30 to do a sunrise boat ride on the Ganges. It was so beautiful and amazing it really made me appreciate Varanasi in a way that I really couldn't before. 

We all even took turns "rowing" the boat. 

Now we are back in Delhi for the night, and tomorrow we will go to Manali for the remainder of our time here in India. I hope to blog more often with consistent internet access. 

Taj Mahal

As promised, here I am posting again! So excited, but the bad news is that I probably won't post for the next few days. Ok, updates. Today, I saw the Taj Mahal - and it was awesome.

And that's Charlie - he's a boy on my trip and when I said, "Who wants to be in a picture with me?" he said, "I do I love being in pictures!" So that's how I got a picture with Charlie at the Taj Mahal. I really don't want to sound like a pretentious snoot, but while the Taj was beautiful and amazing, it wasn't as wondrous and truly awesome as I was expecting it to be. When something is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world, I think we are automatically expecting something truly breathtaking. So when I got to the Taj Mahal, I thought, wow, this is beautiful, but I was expecting something a little different. Don't get me wrong, it was really awesome, but I wonder if I went to Egypt and saw the pyramids, would I think - hey look, it's just a triangle coming out of the sand? 

A lot of things about India are strange to me. I have been reading May You be the Mother of 100 Sons by Elisabeth Bumiller, and a lot of things have shocked me. Although this book was written in the 1980's, my teacher assured us that most of the issues discussed in the book were relevant today. Most of the issues are women's issues, and include everything from a lack of education to sex-selective abortion and false stereotypes. So many things in India are so different from how the are in the US, which I suppose is to be expected. 

Things that shocked me today: 

1) Families of 4 riding on motorcycles - and only the father was wearing a helmet 

2) All the women are dressed nicely, mostly in saris, and look as though they should be going somewhere fancy even though that is their daily wear

3) When driving in India, honking the horn is a courtesy to let the car in front of you know you are coming, it is not rude at all 

4) Everyone here drives like a maniac and it's completely terrifying 

5) People manage to survive, and even thrive, in temperatures reaching 115 degrees (I did not fare so well)

6) There are monkeys AND cows just hanging out everywhere 

Something that really hit home with me is that things can change if everyone is given the opportunity of an education. A huge problem in India is that women are not educated because they are not seen to be as worthy of an education as their brothers. Being here, even though it has only been one day, made me realize how lucky I am to have received an education and the opportunity to study abroad. Also, it made me think back to when I read Half the Sky, and it made me appreciate Circle of Sisterhood more than I already do.

Ok, well I have to get up in 6 hours to fly to Varanasi for the next three days. I'm not bringing my computer, so I will update you as soon as I can.

The Runner Goes To India

Hi all,

Sorry I have been absent from the blogosphere for a while. I successfully graduated from college- WHAT? I know. I have decided to spend my summer studying abroad in India. I know, random random. All year I have been working on an honors thesis with a faculty member in the Family Science department and she was leading a study abroad trip to India, so I clearly decided to join. I know it sounds random studying abroad when one has already graduated, and to be honest it is.

We left Dulles at 5pm on June 9th and arrived at our hotel in Delhi at 11:30pm on June 10th. Talk about a mind-fuck. So now it is midnight and we are waking up at 6am to go see the Taj Mahal tomorrow. I am VERY excited about it. I will keep you all posted on my happenings in India and as long as I have WIFI I will post!

Happy Summer!