Oh how I needed a night of luxury.

So I think it finally hit me yesterday on my way home from work – I love it here! Not that I haven’t enjoyed the past 3 weeks, but it was difficult for me to adjust to so many new things in such a short time period. But now I feel like I’m at home. It’s a good feeling I have to say. I also have a hunch this mostly had to do with the fact that I am finally not sick anymore, and I learned how to cook for myself. Success!

To top of my feeling better, I had a rare night of luxury. Recently I found out that a girl I work with at Cornell was here for the summer living with her dad in New Delhi. So we had tried to meet up for dinner before but we realized we lived about 45 minutes away from each other so it was put off a few times. But finally last night she just let me know her driver (crazy, I know) could pick me up at my flat and drive me to her dad’s house for dinner. Works for me!

I should mention that in India it is very common to have maids, etc. since labor is ridiculously cheap in comparison to the US. While in the US you are considered very well off if you have a maid, here people have maids that clean the house, maids that clean the bathroom, cooks, drivers, you name it. I mean, even we have two maids and we’re all poor haha.

So back to my night… her driver picked me up at about 8:15 PM and drove me the 45 minutes to her dads house. The trip was basically magical. To start, the car was comfortable and had AC, luxuries I only dream of here. Then, I don’t think the driver honked his horn once! I was incredible impressed! In my safe little bubble of a minivan it was quiet and peaceful.

So once we got closer, we pulled into a gated community and then drove up the beautifully landscaped path to Sarah’s dad’s house. So nice!! Then when I went in the house I nearly passed out in amazement. The house was stunning. Not only did he have a flat screen, but the décor was beautiful and there were those gorgeous handmade rugs everywhere. After saying hello, Sarah introduced me to her friend who is spending the summer with her and gave me a tour of the house. First we went outside which was to die for. His pool is the size of our 8-person flat. Maybe 3 to 4 times the size of my pool in Arizona. Then there were flowers everywhere and a garden and he even had tennis courts in the back! To top it off, he has an entire side house where all of his 22 workers live. So crazy! Upstairs, Sarah and her friend both had their own room as well.

After that we just were talking for a while about what I was doing here and what they were doing. They are both working at different places and her dad works at an infrastructure firm that does projects all over the world. Needless to say he is a well-traveled man. He has been living in India for about 8 years now ever since he has had the job. Specifically I believe he said he was some sort of water engineer. So he knew a bit about Arizona and he had studied the way we get water there not too long ago.

Then we sat down for dinner. Their cook had made Thai food (as if they night could have gotten any better) and it was fantastic. We even had crepes for dessert!! It was fun talking to them too. Her dad knows a ton about India since he has been living here for so long. He is also really into energy and feng shui, I think. Not actually sure what to call what he was interested in. But he was talking about energy holes a lot and how the cats like them. The fact that one of their cats will be having 4 kittens any day now also pretty much sealed the deal that I would be returning.

Then as I was about to leave they were nice enough to give me some leftovers. So I had something to eat at work today! And it was fish and shrimp too, nonetheless. Then I was just joking about how I miss coffee and the best they have here is fake Nescafe coffee. Then her dad proceeded to grind me coffee beans and let me borrow his French press. So I had two cups of coffee this morning along. I finally feel alert!

The good news continued this morning as well. I was offered a counselor position via email for the A-Town (University Anytown) at U of A right when I get back. That means I come back to AZ late on the 6th and I will drive to Tuscon the morning of the 8th for counselor training. While this schedule seems a bit intense I’m incredibly excited. While it stinks that I wont be able to spend time at home for too long before I go, I still will have a week after that I suppose. It is just one of those things that you can’t turn down. Hopefully my parents won’t be too mad – sorry Mom!

Seeing Sarah’s house really tied it together in many ways. There is such a huge income gap here and incredibly inequality. While Indians who are more wealthy say they are the “middle class” there is really not much of middle class as much as I see it. It exists, yes, but the extremes are quite, well, extreme.

Still not sure what I’ll be doing this weekend. I think I’m a bit too hesitant to get back into one of those buses again to go with people to Pushkar. If not I can always see some places around Delhi that I haven’t had the chance to yet and maybe go with Maria to a village and a yoga class on Sunday. Guess I should figure that out tonight.

More soon of course! Atchaa.

Three Weeks?!?!

I cant believe it has already been three weeks! Sometimes I think the time is going by so quickly here and at other times the summer couldn’t be moving slower. I don’t think I’ve ever been seriously homesick in my life before, minus maybe once or twice when I first went to Cornell. But usually new situations that I put myself in are pleasant enough that I don’t need to go home right away. I mean, I only go home for winter break during the school year and most people go home at least 3 times if not more. Thus, I thought I would be mentally prepared to go straight from Cornell away for the entire summer. Turns out I underestimated India. No matter how much I learn here, sometimes I just want a cheeseburger, AC and a television.

Essentially, I realized that I have been living a fairly low-class lifestyle in India. Our flat doesn’t have AC, I take the bus to work and I’ve been on the verge of starving. Most middle class Indians in Delhi all have AC flats, many have drivers if they don’t own their own cars and of course and no relatively wealthy Indian would ever in their right mind take the buses here. As for the food situation, as much as I loved it the first few days, I can’t so much as look at chapatti now without feeling nauseous.

So I have decided to start living a little better. Instead of living off of toast and watermelon, I’m going to start cooking (gasp!) and see how that works for me. I also got a long overdue pedicure last night with Kylie (Canada) and Josephina (Samoa) and that helped a bit.

Overall, I thought I would be able to handle India because I had heard so much about it and I just came back from a third world country, Nicaragua, so I should be able to handle anything. Plus, Nicaragua was anything but a shock for me. I felt completely comfortable there and I was fine living with people who were very poor. What would be so bad about seeing slums in India? Well to start, in Nicaragua I fit in right away. We were a group of 15 Americans doing a service project where foreign groups go all of the time. The Nicaraguans were not shocked that we were there. Here, they are a bit more shocked. And the people who are poor are a bit more …real. At the bus stop, and this is a usual occurrence, groups of poor children who look like they haven’t bathed in days, have tattered clothes and no shoes, see me (or rather see my skin) and head straight toward me. Seeing slums in India and getting repeatedly poked by poor Indian children who are begging for money is a bit different.

But after this weekend was over I think I am doing a bit better. Just a moment of weakness I think. And everyone here I talk to says that they hated the first month. So really it’s a matter of time before I become a bit more accustomed and comfortable.

As for this weekend, I, along with 26 other AIESEC people, went to Corbett National Park. Apparently it was the last weekend that we could go to this park as well because when the monsoon season hits the entire place has to shut down for 2 months because of the river. So the troops left at about 8 PM on Friday night to board our overnight bus. It was kind of funny actually that so many of us went because we were able to get an entire bus to ourselves. Reminded me of a bizarre school trip.

And while the bus ride may have started out smooth, that lasted for about 10 minutes. Imagine the crappiest bus you can driving on dirt roads and roads with potholes with a dodgy driver for 8 hours straight. We would all be trying to sleep, when all of a sudden we are woken up by the sound of heads hitting the ceiling. Not to mention, since horns are like candy in India, the guy used the bus horn at least once every minute if not more often. And this wasn’t your average car horn. It was more like… WEEEWOOOOWEEEWOOOWEEEWOOOOWEEEEWOOOOO. Something similar to an ambulance on steroids.

When the bus trip from hell was finally over, we rolled out to the hotel at 5:30 AM and prompty started our safari at 6 AM. Oh joy. And while this was supposed to be a tiger safari, we all already knew the tigers were pretty much nocturnal in the summer so we didn’t get our hopes up and just laughed when a highlight of the safari was a rooster. I’m kidding, but really we saw a few cool things. Lots of peacocks, some cool birds, deer and monkeys everywhere. The best was when a monkey stole this lady’s lunch at the rest stop. Monkeys are intense when it comes to food.

After that we all crashed for about 4 hours in the hotel and then hit up the pool! It was very nice to actually swim for a bit and to lie out and tan. And in the words of Jana, the girl from Kazakstan, “Good thing you lay out in sun, you were very white before.” Well as long as she’s happy.

The food also wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was the best Indian food I’ve had here yet. There was even lamb for dinner!! At night we had a party, all 27 of us which was fun too.

Then bright and early in the morning I woke up for my 7 AM elephant safari. On the way there (the surprises never end) Kylie asked the driver if he could turn on the radio since it was about a half hour drive. He replied that it was broken and proceeded to tell us it was because he flipped the car three times the other day. After repeating what he said to make sure we weren’t just misunderstanding him, he then told us it was just because he was drunk driving and it wasn’t a big deal. Of course, I said “Well you know you shouldn’t drive drunk” (obvi). Then he laughed and said everyone driving at night in India is driving drunk and it was completely normal. He said he lost his license 4 times already but he just goes back and gets a new one. Oh you know, no big. I also learned at you can get a prostitute in the town we drove through for an average of 30-40 rupees. Good to know they go for under $1 here.

One we got to the elephants it was pretty cool. There were four of us per elephant and we did about an hour or so safari through this forest. We saw a lot of wildlife there as well and elephants poop the size of a coconut. Lovely. Pretty neat though seeing them so close – not your average zoo trip!

The way back from Corbett was the most painful 7-8 hours of my life. This is when the homesickness really kicked in. All I have to say is you can’t pay me to get on a bus for longer than an hour in India. There isn’t enough money in the world.

Right now I’m just back to work (after taking a day off of course to recover) and back to my normal business. I handwashed my clothes for the first time last night after I was given lessons by Angelos (Greece). This was of course after he made fun of me for being a spoiled American and only ever using a washing machine. We jokingly butt heads a lot but more on that later…

Must go! They are calling me at work! (They call me Zill by the way).

No big deal just saw the Taj this weekend..

I can’t believe I have already seen the Taj Mahal and I am only 20 years old! I always thought of the Taj as something I would only maybe see, if I was lucky, by 50 or so on some long awaited trip to India. I feel pretty lucky right now!

So our trip began early Saturday morning. Since we were all first timers to the whole riding a train in India thing, (Kylie, Allie, Maria and I) we neglected to print off our tickets assuming that they could do that for us there. Wrong. We also only arrived about 30 minutes early. So after standing in a long line that eventually told us we needed to stand in a different line, we only had 15 minutes left to go before our train left at 7:10 AM. After running around and panicking for 5 minutes, we found an “Enquiry” station where the man working there looked at our PN numbers and wrote down where we were sitting. With 5 minutes to spare we ran on the train.

Now 2nd class trains in India are not like anything in the US. To begin, there were maybe twice as many people on the train as there were seats. I’m not sure how that works since when you by a ticket you are buying a particular seat (I assumed). After we made our way to our specific seats, there were men sitting in the seats. So we pointed out that those were our seats and fairly quickly they stood up and let two of us sit there (probably knowing they weren’t their seats if they had tickets at all). At this point two of us had seats and two of us were standing.

There was one man trying to be helpful but he must have asked us to show him our tickets 20 times. And of course we repeated to him that we didn’t print off our tickets, we don’t have a printer, but the guy at the Enquiry station had written down these seats. In the two other seats that belonged to us, there were two Hindi women who refused to budge. When they brought out their tickets, we looked at them and of course they said D4 seats 8, 9 and 10 while they were sitting in D5 seats 8, 9 and 10. We tried to explain this to these women but of course, as I mentioned before, they did not speak a word of English. So we were sitting in their seats, and they were sitting in our seats, and we didn’t have the tickets to prove it. We tried to explain that this car wasn’t D4 but that was royally unsuccessful.

In the end Kylie and I sat in the seats for 1.5 hours and then switched with Maria and Allie for the rest of the time. We were also yelled at every 20-30 minutes in Hindi. But other than that I guess the train ride wasn’t too bad.

Once we arrived in Agra it was wonderful! There was a man waiting right as we walked outside with our names on a sheet of paper. Then we were taken in an air-conditioned car (!!!) to the Maya Hotel. I’ve never been so happy to see a crappy suburban with AC. Once we got to the hotel we all passed out for a while in our room which also had AC.

For the rest of the day in Agra we were repeatedly hassled by rickshaw drivers. If we thought it was bad in Delhi, this was just ridiculous. Two steps out of the hotel and there were at least 5 drivers offering us a ride to the Taj, a tour, etc. etc. At one point we actually were cornered by three auto rickshaws and drove up around us in the shape of a triangle with us in between. After that we basically just yelled “nahi!” at everyone who approached us.

After dinner that night we met a rickshaw driver who said he could take us to see a night view of the Taj. We wanted to see this especially because it it supposed to be lucky to see the Taj on a full moon. Kylie was convinced it was a full moon that night but in reality we were just one day off (so close!). So we broke all the tourist rules and got a ride from this driver into this small town where we got out and walked down a pathway. And there we had a beautiful view of the Taj from the back with the almost full moon. It was something you really can’t capture with a picture. After that we snapped a few pictures with the holy man, the officer with a gun and the rickshaw driver before heading back.

Then on Sunday morning we got up at 5:30 AM to go to the Taj Mahal (finally!). We chose the sunrise because even at sunset the heat would be unbearable. Plus, the lines are shortest at 6 AM right when the gates open. On the walk up to the main entrance there were monkeys everywhere. Considering I neevr got to see monkeys in Nicaragua like I wanted to so badly, this was definitely a treat. At the entrance, we all went in and payed the tourist fee (Rs. 750) vs. the price you pay if you are Indian (Rs. 10) and walked through the main gate. The sight was beautiful. I was worried it would be like the Grand Canyon, beautiful but a bit too hyped for my liking. Instead, it was as glorious as I imagined it, it was almost if it wasn’t even real. After taking a few funny pictures, we eventually gave into one of the “guides” who took us to all the best spots to take pictures. So we walked around and saw the Taj from basically every angle possible.

The Taj itself is supposedly “the greatest testament to love” as the Mughal Emperor at the time, Shah Jahan built it in the memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. That is right, the Taj took 22 years to build and over 20,000 workers, all for the tomb of his wife. Now that is love. The detail inside was magnificent. Nothing was painted, the flowered designs were all formed from different types of beautiful colored stones or gems. I also felt pretty cool knowing some Arabic because the walls on the inside of the mausoleum are partially decorated with Arabic excerpts from the Qur'an. But in general the inside was the closest we got to a letdown because the Taj is massive beyond belief, yet when you get inside it just seems small. I wanted to see like a grand ballroom, bedrooms and a magnificent kitchen, but it was really just a tomb. Probably my favorite part of the building was how it sparkled at the right angle.


At about 9:00AM when we left, we realized we had until 7PM (when our train left) so about 10 hours to kill. There are a few other things to see in Agra like Agra Fort, the Baby Taj and a temple or two but all for at least another Rs. 250 and we weren’t willing to pay that after seeing the Taj Mahal. So to kill time we ate breakfast and then went with one of the rickshaw drivers (who was endlessly pestering us) to go to a few shows for what he promised would ony cost us Rs. 5 each. We were well aware that all of these drivers were on commission to take foreigners to various expensive shops, but at this point we just wanted something to do. I actually was relatively successful, buying two scarves that I really like. Allie found a good bedspread too. I find that I am already getting great at bargaining. The trick is to never look too attached to something and always be able to walk away. I got the scarves for about half the beginning asking price (yes!).

Then later, despite us protesting, the auto rickshaw man brought us to a carpet shop. So we got to see someone actually weaving a carpet on a loom which was really interested. We then proceeded to go into the big room where the workers presented us with at least 15 rugs. Even though the rugs were at least Rs. 20,000 (about $40 USD) the man was a little shocked we didn’t want to buy any. Well, considering we didn’t want to come in the first place don’t be so shocked!

For the rest of the day we killed time at a coffee place, eating lunch, and finding a place to print out our tickets. With our tickets the train ride back was relatively painless. Although I cringed everytime a guy would walk past screaming “CHAI” which was about once every 5 minutes or less.

Overall I would call the weekend a success! It was nice to get away from Delhi for a bit, and being in an incredibly touristy town allowed me to appreciate Delhi so much more. In other news, I just found out that Sarah, a girl a work with as a tour guide at Cornell is in central Delhi until August! What are the chances?! So we are going to try and meet up on Thursday for dinner. I am also psyched for this weekend for our Safari trip that one of the people I live with organized. Funny how I am more excited for the pool at the hotel than the safari though…

An Overview of What I have Learned Thus Far…

1. It’s HOT here. The weather is almost unbearable. And not only is it hot, but we do not have air conditioning in our flat (yes, I will be referring to it as a flat from now on) AND there is no air conditioning at our work. I am not surprised considering the foundation I am working for is a new branch and they are worried about conserving money. So essentially, I am sweating 24/7. However I had a small confidence boost about the situation at work. Seema, one of the Indian women I work with, came up to me on my second day of work and asked me what I did to make my face so shiny. When I told her it was just because I was sweating… she didn’t believe me! She was convinced that I was taking medicine to make my face “glow” and that she had been paying Rs. 1000 per month to get her face to look like that. Well I’m glad at least one person thinks I look good as I melt away.

2. They weren’t kidding when they said people would stare at me. At first it was mild, but I think that is only because I was a bit oblivious. In general, 80-90% of all heads turn when I walk down the street. Maybe 25% of this attention is amusing. I mean, who doesn’t like being able to capture the attention of any person they want to? Some times it is also very amusing. For example, I was taking an auto rickshaw (small taxi-like contraption) to work one day and there were about 5 boys walking on the side of the road about 100 m away. I was looking at them and as soon as one saw me he immediately shook all his friends and they all started pointing at me. This was adorable because they all started waving as I was laughing and waving back. Good thing I was in a taxi though and the traffic started moving again because I think they decided to head right toward me.

3. Sure Jill, everyone speaks English in India! False. I thought sure, India, at least I wont have a problem communicating with people. The reality is, a small minority speaks fluent English, namely the upper middle class and above. A decent number of people speak very broken English who are in the middle class. As for the vast majority of India, not a word of English. So when I am buying food, no one understands me. Taking a taxi… no one. Numbers are usually okay, but I have resorted to learning some Hindi words and of course, hand signals.

4. The food. At first, the food was incredible! All the Indians at my work were surprised when I said I loved spicy food. Essentially what they eat here every day are chapatis (or some variation) which is like a thicker version of a medium-sized tortilla. Some are made with potatoes, and some just flour, sugar, etc. Then you can eat a variety of spicy mixes. These are all vegetarian too. Then you rip off the piece of chipati and use it to pick of one of the vegetarian mixes. No silverware. Also! (this part is my favorite) Everyone eats off of everyone else’s plates! You don’t even ask! Now that is my kind of culture. Unfortunately, I cannot look at Indian food right now because I feel sick (probably getting used to the high levels of spices) but hopefully that won’t last too long…

5. Toilet Paper. Indian people do not use it. End of story. I paid Rs. 55 (aka about $1.10) for one roll. One roll! Still not sure how they don’t use it yet…

6. Clothes. Soon after I came here I realized I had brought all the wrong clothes. Thinking I would be working in an office, I thought it would be safe to bring my western business attire – ohh was I wrong. And here it is okay to show your midriff as saris expose that area of the body… but your knees? Oh absolutely not! Shoulders? Never. So needless to say I need to buy a few more things to wear.

In other news, it’s Friday! So I will be heading off to Agra tomorrow with Kylie, Ali and Maria (the North American crowd) to see the Taj!!! Can you believe it only costs $2 to get there by train and $6 for a hotel? I hope it has some decent air conditioning…

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!