So....for ANY of you who are interested, here is Allies email about her time in India....WARNING, its long but really entertaining and held a surprise or two for me. So far, shes heeded my warning and is not married....Here it is, Allies perspective (typos and all) about India: NAMASTE!!! May I just say that I had THEE most WONDERFUL time in India! I am actually soso surprised because I was expecting India to be the greatest challenge for me. The first day in Kochi I had a field lab with my Development Economics class, which, despite it being an economics class, was actually really cool because my teacher is from India! We took a trip to a spice factory (as India is known for their spices and textiles) and to learn about the processes of spice extraction (not too thrilling) and the business side of their company. I’d have to say India is the most colorful country I’ve been to, and I love it! The view from the bus window was filled with bright, amusing billboards, multicolored buildings, painted buses, and INCREDIBLY gorgeous saris EVERYWHERE. AGHHH I wish people wore saris in America because they are so elaborate and beautiful and each one is like an expression of the wearer’s personality. Anyways, at the spice factory they gave us funny hair nets and masks so we could go into the factory itself. The inside of the factory wasn’t much of a sight, as it was just a bunch of metal pipes and other scientific spice shenanigans, but it was cool listening to how it is done! Even with our masks on, we were coughing uncontrollably from the high concentration of the Capsicum spice in the air (and I thought the air in China was rough!). At the end we got to taste some foods with their cinnamon, chili powder, garlic, capsicum, and a few other ones and it was really good, and really spicy. After we went to a hotel conference room to watch a presentation by India’s Centre for Public Policy Research about GMO crops in India. Can’t say I knew much about GMOs before hand, but it was really interesting to hear about how it affects their economy because 60% of India’s population gets their income from agriculture. At the end of the day we had a huge Indian-style buffet, and I was super nervous because it is not like the Asian food I’ve been eating the past few months and picky little me is not a huge fan of spicy food. Well… guess what… I LOVE INDIAN FOOD. It’s in a close tie with Italian and Mexican food, as they will always be near and dear to my hear, but that’s saying a lot. I ate pretty much EVERYTHING I was given all week and never had any complaints (neither did my stomach!). I had various sorts of curry, chicken, vegetables, lentils, more naan than anyone should ever eat in their lifetime, and lots and lots of ice cream, because boy was it hot! The second day my friends and I took funny looking three-wheeled taxis, or tuk-tuks, and went to the marketplaces! Shopping for souvenirs and gifts has not been the easiest in all of the countries I’ve been to either because of pricing or variety of goods that were sold, but they had the coolest stuff! We went to “Jew Town” which has streets of shops and contains a super tiny community of Jews in India (not a very popular religion here). They have the best shopping for tourist-y souvenirs like clothing, tapestries, art, pottery, woodwork, books, and everything else under the hot Indian sun! You would walk down the street and every shop owner would try to coerce you into their shop, and usually we’d comply, then they’d try and interest us in a bunch of different things. Sometimes we’d say it wasn’t quite what we were looking for and leave, but if we liked something, that was where the real fun began. Bargaining with these people was both funny and a great acting challenge! I like to think I’m a bargaining pro and this point. We shopped all day and I didn’t spend half as much as I would have in previous countries! I even bought my own sari which I am SO excited about! I’m going to have to make up excuses to wear it back in the U.S. because it’s so fun to wear! We ate at the first restaurant we could find and basically ordered every single flavor of naan on the menu (garlic, butter, cheese, stuffed vegetable, curry chicken, YUMMMMMM). Then we happily headed back to the ship with full shopping bags, full stomachs, and surprisingly somewhat full wallets! The third day we had to get up at 4 am for our 3 day Taj Mahal field program. Yay…. Much of the day was spent sleeping on the bus, then the plane to New Delhi, then back on another bus. After a long drive, we made some stops at mosques and temples. Some of them were relatively new and none of them were TOO significant, but they were awesome sightseeing and had some cool stories behind them. After another great lunch we went to the park where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated and his ashes were buried and stayed until sunset. It was a great ending to a long day. We ate dinner at our hotel which was great as usual and had a great nights sleep. The fourth day we woke up, packed our things up, and ate breakfast at the hotel before taking a long drive to Agra to see the Taj!!! On the way there we stopped at another relatively new temple and the Agra fort (an old, massive palace/mansion). Then… finally… we made it to the Taj Mahal! I have been extremely excited to see the Taj Mahal. Not only is it another one of the wonders of the world I get to see, but it is one of the most grand and beautiful manmade structures I have ever laid my eyes upon. And want to know something? Ignorant ol’ me had no idea what the Taj Mahal even was until about a week before we got to India! For those of you who are unaware like I was, no, it is not a religious structure. It’s ACTUALLY a mausoleum that an emperor had built for his wife to be buried in after she died. It to TWENTY TWO years for artisans to complete it. Talk about grand displays of love. My future husband better take notes. My friend and I had brought our sarees along with us because we thought it would be a fun idea to wear them at the Taj… only problem was we didn’t know how to put them on! They’re a mile long and all I know is you have to wrap them a million times. She went to the bathroom because she had to put on shorts underneath, while I tried to embarrassingly struggle to wrap it around my dress in public. Less than a second after I attempted to knot it around my waist, 7 Indian women came swarming around me to help me out. Next thing you know, I feel like Cinderella being dressed for the ball… or the Taj Mahal... while all of India is watching. They were so sweet and helpful, and we took some pictures in front of the Taj, and struggled to have a conversation of sorts before they tried to get me to marry and random Indian man, and then the next thing you know OH, LOOK AT THE TIME! GOTTA GO OVER THERE TO MEET MY GROUP! Hahaha! The entire time we’ve been in India, we have been receiving an exceptionally large amount of stares from the people here, especially the men... SAS had definitely warned us about it, and we never encountered anyone who has crossed any lines, but it was uncomfortable at first. After a while I kind of just felt like a celebrity, and because the Taj is such a huge tourist attraction, we got lots of Indian people that wanted to take pictures with us, especially after we put our saris on. Making my way to stardom, one picture with a creepy Indian man at a time. What we hadn’t been warned about by our ever-so-forgetful tour guide, was the family rules of photo taking in front of the Taj. When taking a picture with a random Indian man, I got yelled at by a security guard because I wasn’t related or married to him! Another one of my friends got yelled at for holding up a sign in a picture, another was yelled at for spinning in circles because they thought she was jumping, and then my friend Jeremy got TAKEN AWAY by security for taking a picture holding the Indian flag in front of it! After they explained to him you aren’t supposed to hold any signs in Taj Mahal pictures, ESPECIALLY the Indian flag, they let him go after confiscating the flag and deleting the picture, but it had us worried! While walking around, going inside the Taj (which isn’t much to see), and taking pictures, I noticed that a lot of people were staring at me and smiling and whispering. I was getting a lot of mixed signals, and I wasn’t sure whether or not they liked it, or me wearing it was a huge no-no. A group of about 12 Indian women came up to me to compliment me, and then after some unofficial sign language, they told me I had my sari over the wrong shoulder! Maybe the first ladies are better at wrapping themselves than other people? Well, next thing you know, I’m being stripped in public again by a swarm of excited Indian women as they wrap me up all over again. Then I walked and unofficial sign language-d with them for a while until they tried to get me to marry yet ANOTHER random Indian man! Is that the custom here? Wrap a girl in a sari, then find her a groom? Either way it was pretty funny and I had some pretty great interactions with a lot of the people there. All that being said, I and the BEST day at the Taj Mahal. After stopping for lunch, we went to a Bollywood/musical about the conceptualization/building of the Taj Mahal. I could have done without it because it was incredibly long, the dancers were a bit off, and we had to wear headphones to translate everything into English. After that was naan-stop naan for dinner at the hotel (so many naan puns were made this week), and bedtime! The fifth day we got up early to watch the sunrise over the Taj Mahal from the park that has a view of the backside of the building. Equally as beautiful! We made a stop at a marble workshop, where we got to see how they made marble pieces like tables, plates, and little elephants, but of course it was all rather expensive. Then, sadly, we had to get back on our bus for another long day of bus rides and plane rides back to Kochi. The last day we went back to the marketplaces so some people could get last minute souvenirs, then we at lunch by the harbor and watch the fishing boats pull in their nets for a good 2 hours. Then we made a few more shop stops before making our way back onto the boat. The nice thing about tuk-tuks is that instead of paying them, you can just ask them to take you to their shops. Essentially there are certain shops they can take their passengers to, and if we walk around in the shop for at least 5 minutes, they get a stamp for free gas. And if we buy something there, they make commission off of it. So, all of the tuk-tuk rides were free, so we would ride them around all day for fun and sometimes they’d let us drive them (if we weren’t on a busy street)! I’d have to say my time in Indian was a pleasant surprise. I expected not to like it at all, and all my expectations were blown away. It ain’t no sunshine and roses, there are a lot of funny smells, creepy stares, and one time I stepped in wet cement, but the people I met, the places I saw, and the food I ate were all unforgettable, and that is the best souvenir I can take away. Feeling more and more grateful with every new place that I go, every new friend that I meet, and every new form of carbohydrate that I eat. I am too blessed and so glad I can share it with you all. Yesterday we celebrated Neptune Day, which is Semester at Sea’s holiday for crossing the equator. We didn’t have class and were woken up by the crew members marching down the halls, banging pots and pans. The entire shipboard community (students, teachers, staff, craft, lifelong learners, children) met on the top deck and watched an opening ceremony where the entire crew dressed up like Greek royalty and the ship’s captain was “King Neptune” and his entire body was painted green, he wore a toga, held a trident, and had a mop on his head for hair under a plastic crown. Pretty funny, especially if you knew how serious he usually is. Then everybody had to go through the “Shellbacks” initiation ceremony where we got blue slime dumped on our heads, jumped in the pool with our clothes on, kissed a fish, and then got dubbed a Shellback. Makes no sense but it was fun! Also, it’s a tradition for people to shave their heads when we cross the equator, so half the boats guys and surprisingly A LOT of girls shaved all their hair off! I’m not bold enough to do that, so instead my friends and I got pixie cuts! Surprise mom! It’s short and cute. It’ll take some time to get used to but my hairs been growing like crazy so it’ll be back in no time. Looking forward to an exciting couple of days ahead of me. I get my Economics midterm back tomorrow, and I’m almost positive I aced it; we’re docking in Mauritus in 2 days and they supposedly have incredibly clear water; our Sea Oympics are coming up after Mauritius, which means a whole day of competitions between seas (hallways) and I’m pretty sure I’m doing the limbo; and South Africa in a week! Oh.. and I almost forgot, my 21st birthday is tomorrow!!! Which means lots of cake and my friend and I will be celebrating our 21sts with friends on a catamaran/snorkel trip! Pretty excited, and I promise to be safe around boats in the water mamabear! Talk to you soon! Allie
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:37:17 +0000
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