heureusement

8000 Miles Later

Christmas 2009 was rather distinct: traditional family celebration for the first half of the day and journey into different hemisphere for second half.

Newark -  Brussels - Mumbai

I made friends with the two people in my isle - Shristi from Nepal who studies computer science in Kentucky and Chirag from Mumbai who works for Deutshe Bank. By Brussels we were best of friends! Laughing and joking and taking pictures together. I’m glad I met them, otherwise the flight would have been very long and anxiety-ridden.

Mumbai

Made it to India but where is my suitcase? My missing possessions did not strike the people at the desk as anything out of the ordinary and they were not apologetic in the least. They told me that they would deliver the suitcase to me within seven days even though they had no idea what continent it was on. When I was just about done with the paperwork, an employee magically appeared rolling out my missing suitcase! Apparently it had fell in a hole. Oh. Ok. Chirag said goodbye to me at this point. He refused to leave until the problem was resolved even though this process took upwards of an hour - Indian hospitality!

I then proceeded to wait the seven hours until  my flight to Hyderabad. Once my bags had been x-rayed twice I was told to just leave the baggage I wanted to check by a wall. Suspicious, yes, but I had not choice. I then proceeded to a waiting area where it eventually became clear to me that I need to wait in line to take a shuttle to the domestic part of the airport. I briefly spoke to the guy ahead of me in line. He said “see ya there” before he got on the shuttle.  The 2AM ride through the was extremely eerie in the fog and dark - airport workers sleeping on the ground, empty planes illuminated from within, a sad trailer decorated for new years with a glowing paper star, glimpses over a fence of a miniature castle, mountains of suitcases, a meandering road created on the tarmac with barricades.

Forty-five minutes later I entered the sleek, bright domestic terminal which starkly contrasted with the dingy international terminal and its ghostly exterior. Much to my surprise, the guy I had spoken to in line waiting for me. It seems that the friendliness Chirag showed me was not an anomaly. He then proceeded to offer to buy me coffee. While he was at the counter, two people approached me and asked if I was with CIEE. Friends! Hooray!

I then went to check if I could be put on the earlier flight that the two CIEE students and my Indian buddy were taking. The woman at the counter informed me nonchalantly that my flight had been cancelled and I’d probably have to take a flight in the afternoon. An afternoon flight would mean spending at least twelve hours in the airport! After I asked why the flight was cancelled, she responded it had to do with the day of the week. What? She then told me to come with her, bringing me to another desk where militantly dressed men were writing in stacks of ledger books. She proceeded to take my boarding pass and disappear. Finally she returned and told me to follow her. With no further explanation, she led me through the security check to the front counter of the airport. She then left, the woman she put in charge of my issue then left as well. I stood among a crowd of other passengers until finally I was given a new boarding pass for the earlier flight. Whew. Mumbai likes to make things exciting I suppose.

Hyderabad

I was doubtful that our baggage and our CIEE taxi would arrive, but Hyderabad seems to have its act together. The ride to the school was extremely interesting. The airport is brand new and the surrounding area is under massive amounts of development. The countryside is rocky (probably the reason for the lack of resources in this area of Andrha Pradesh —> political unrest) and massive boulders are stacked on top of each other, forming a naturally made Indian stonehenge. Among these boulders are the skeletons of new buildings. The roads are just being built and men and women both were laboring by hand on this project. It was amazing to see women in beautiful, colorful saris on the job as construction workers - some of them transporting bowls of dirt on their head.

As we neared the campus things were more built up - we passed a Dominoes and a Subway! Despite some modernity such as a massive sports stadium, there were signs of extreme poverty: rows of tents roughly made out of multiple layers of tarps and shanties created with corrugated metal.

U of H

When we pulled up to the Tagore International House two men eagerly but silently took our bags and rushed them up a flight of stairs without a word. We were shown to our rooms and given a key to the padlock that latches closed the deadbolt adorning the door. And then? Nothing. No welcome speech, welcome packet, ice breakers, figures of authority… nothing! Just a bunch of kids hanging around in the common area to meet.

Everyone is very affable! I hope cliques don’t form because I really don’t know who my core group of friends would be as of today, the second day.

Anyway after a few hours of being completely neglected by the administration we had lunch in the dining room in the Tagore house (Indian food - very good) and went on a tour of the campus with a woman who did not introduce herself. Instead she collected our passports without explanation. The tour took two hours because the campus is massive and very dispersed. Some of the areas seem as if you are out in the wild. We came across a group of horned water buffalo grazing in the shrubs! Additionally, there are wild pigs and dogs roaming around eating the garbage that has been thrown into piles all over campus. The academic buildings have unusual 70’s architecture and are somewhat in disrepair. If this place existed in the US you would think it was abandoned. I suppose we simply have different standards of upkeep. As in the city, being on this campus makes me feel like I’m on the frontier. TCNJ seems utterly luxuriant in comparison.
We got back and my roommate and I passed out, unable to make it to the 7:00 dinner. This was a bad move because then I woke up at 3:00 in the morning and lay in bed for three hours worrying about various issues.

I felt much better once I could talk to people in the morning AND because we were given the expected orientation spiel and literature. They also gave us Indian bags, passport holders, keychains and are taking us to a department store where we can pick out two Indian outfits! Fun fun. After the orientation we were going to take a bus tour of the surrounding area but a mob of students had amassed at the front gates wanting to exit the campus to protest. Since the recent political unrest has targeted buses (lighting them on fire, throwing rocks at them) our bus driver decided to run away. All of this comes after it had been explained that while the bandh is in place, the University is not involved in the situation and everything is under control. I already knew the campus is involved because everywhere signs say Andrha Pradesh, someone has crossed it out and written Telangana. Additionally, during our tour, a group of men sat under a tent on carpets listening to a man and chanting “Telangana!”

Anyway, after about an hour of delay, a bus driver was found (I don’t know if it was the AWOL driver) and we commenced our tour. It was crazy. There were water buffalo walking nonchalantly through the street, vendors selling piles of old plastic sandals, flower garlands, piles of mangoes, people walking barefoot, construction everywhere, - sensory overload! Then we got out (I was nervous to do so!) and went into the train station to see it. A little boy beggar came up to us and gestured to his mouth, pulling on our wrists. He was very persistent but we have been instructed not to give to beggars as others will swarm us, creating an undesirable situation. Later another boy came up to us with an infant that was only a few months old. Yes, the baby may have been a prop to garner sympathy, but it worked. It’s one thing to see poor adults on the streets of New York, but children are a different issue entirely. All the people in the train station found us very curious. One woman was so excited to see us that she took a picture of us with her camera phone. I took one back and then she took another one of me taking a picture of her. It was a cute cross-cultural moment. It’s funny how foreigners are so unusual here. I saw no other non-Indians during the tour. Then we went to a grocery store and I got soap, a shower caddy, a magazine, and wall hanging all for 223 rupees which is equivalent to about $4.50. I hope more bargains await!

Sorry this was long for anyone who read this far - there was a lot to catch up on.