Information Dump!!

So since I have been working on adjusting to a new apartment, new city, new country and new side of the world and all, I avoiding blogging immediately. The other problem was that I am the only one in my flat (16 people) that cannot get internet! Woe is me. I blame my mac. But since my work is chill and I get internet here, I decided to still write. Now since I have been here for a week I would consider this post a bit of an information dump. So sorry for the length!

Arriving in Delhi...

Well, the first plane flight to Frankfurt, Germany was relatively smooth with no problems. Then when I was on the second flight to Delhi, the apprehension began. I soon realized I know absolutely nothing about India, and I was just going because I had a hunch I would love it. WHAT?!?! Who does that?? More evidence to prove that I am insane. Furthermore, I believe I am getting paid $80 per month for a 40-hour per week job, when I could make that much or more in one day in the US. Yep, I'm crazy.

After a small freak-out, I was able to sleep for the entire 7-hour flight (three seats all to myself!). Picking up my luggage was all too easy as well, my bags being the first out, so I went straight to the pay phone to call Aditi, the girl I had been emailing for the past few weeks in India. This did not go so well. I must have yelled "Aditi" on the phone to an Indian man at least 20 times until I finally gave up. I then tried calling Ambar, the guy who was supposed to pick me up, and this was much more successful. Unfortunately, he was stuck behind traffic because of an accident so I waited for about an hour. Once he picked me up we walked out to his car and I was confused when he entered the right side of the car and then of course it clicked. India+old British colony=drivers on the right side of the car and you drive on the left side of the road. This was only the first of many surprises. Once we started driving I nearly had a heart attack. While there are lines on the road, there may as well not be. No one pays attention to the lines and everyone beeps ALL THE TIME. Silence is rare to say the least.

So the first night I stayed at Ambar's house in his room which was sheer luxury in comparison to what was to come. His family had air conditioning and his mother brought be a huge blanket to sleep under. Little did I know that would be the last airconditioning I would feel for quite some time...

In the morning Ambar dropped me off at my flat (I did initially call it an apartment but considering all the Europeans call it a flat I decided to join the bandwagon) where I met Katarina and Evaline, two girls from Poland who I would be living with. I was a little turned off at first by them because they were already friends, although they were very nice, and they spoke more in Polish to each other than they did in English to me. But regardless, we decided to walk around to kill time. Considering I hadn't eaten since the first flight to Frankfurt, guess where we stopped first -- McDonald's. It was comforting in a bizarre sort of way.

I guess I should mention my first impressions of India/Delhi as well. Well to start, it smells. Very very very bad. And you can't see the sky. It is just gray. Pollution is ridiculous. After taking a short taxi ride and you scratch your skin, you can literally rub a layer of black dirt off. The apartment, on the other hand, is fairly nice. There is a living room and a kitchen, two small porches, and three bedrooms. Later that night our roomates moved in from another flat that apparently was infested with rats. So this new flat was certainly a step up, minus the cockroaches. I've gotten so used to them at this point though they're almost cute.

So there are 8 people living in my flat

Max from Sweeden
Angelos from Greece
Evaline and Katarine from Poland
Clara from Mexico
Yanos from Poland
Sunni from Singapore

..and of course, me. Our flat is great too because there is another AIESEC flat right across the hall so its really like I am living with 16 people. There there is a guy from Italy, two girls from the Czech Republic, a girl from Kazakhstan, a guy from New Zealand, a girl from Holland, a girl from Ukraine and most recently a girl from the US just moved in!

There are also 3 other flats within a 20 minute radius in Delhi - there are so many interns! I have also gotten fairly used to saying "what?" every other sentence as it is very hard to understand all of the accents. It is funny though because you hear English, Polish and Spanish spoken almost at all times. Polish, due to the three Polish people in my flat alone, not to mention the three others in other flats in Delhi, and Spanish is spoken between the girl from Mexico, the three people from Colombia, and Angelos and Mathew, the guy from Italy, can both speak Spanish as well. Its a bit annoying at times since I often can't understand what people are saying but it's not bad.

For right now, I will end with that, but I will write about everything else soon!