Well I am back from Nagpur, actually I have been back for around a week. It was well… different (the universal exchange student word that can mean just about what ever you want it to).
I am glad I got assigned to Pune I can tell you that. I did a lot of walking and I did learn how to eat rice properly with my hands (we don’t really do that in Pune). Yes, in India I guess I have never mentioned this; we eat food with our hands. I told this to my mother (as she told me her story about eating Indian food in London, and I laughed my head off), and she was appalled! We eat everything with our hands, or at least culture dictates us to, my host family is more into the western idea of using a spoon or fork.
After my original blog (I know it was really misspelled I did not have enough time for spell check or reading it over for that matter and it was a bit on the poor side. But at least you id hear from me!). I did witness some very fun things! First of all I have some New Years Stories!
New Years in Nagpur! Ringing in 2008, the Indian Way (LATE!)
My friends and I in Nagpur along with some of their Indian friends got tickets to the biggest party (family party at like a country club no not a Rave or anything like that) in Nagpur. It would be really cool we were told! Which it was, we all ha a great time dancing the night away! We were told by our Indian Friends who escorted us that this is the one day of the year (New Years Eve) where girls can dress up with well Western Ideals (meaning not wear a lot of cloths). And so most of us did just that… Chloe was a bit more dressed then the rest of us, and in the end nothing really mattered. So we go and it turns out everyone was in Saris, it did not help that Indians thought it was freezing outside, and the party was being held outside, lets just say we were a little underdressed. So we get their and their was dancing and fun party things (like housie (the Indian idea of Bingo, a bit stranger then bingo, but it works). We danced until midnight, and I thought it was really strange how they were not at all counting down the minutes till midnight, they did have a dj and an emcee, but they would never tell you the countdown! And when my watch stuck midnight, the dancing and partying was still in full swing (my watch is about five minutes fast, but only five minutes). THEY FINALLY DID A COUNTDOWN WHEN MY WATCH READ 00:17!!!!!! So we rang in New Years around 12 minute LATE!!!!! I could not believe it! But that really truly is India for you! Ringing in the New Year LATE!
A Little Less West Side Story, A Little More Bollywood
Alright this little adventure of mine is not for the light at heart, nor people who do not enjoy violence, this serves as a warning. When I was in Nagpur, we met up with some friends of the Nagpur IYE Students. The same ones who escorted us to the New Years Eve Party. Yes, they are Indian guys, which does not sound that bad to the western thinkers but as I sit in India I would be freaking out! Because as teenagers in India girls are NOT friends with guys unless there is a marriage prospect going on (I know weird right!). So New Years Day, we were hanging out with them at Mr. Beans (a local coffee house). And one of the boys points to another boy across the room, and tell us “We are going to beat him up.” We thought he was more or less joking, Indians, unlike us Americans, are generally not very violent in terms of fighting (not a statement on terrorism or other things I am talking about teenagers, they would not inherently hit someone or slap people like American teenagers do). So we laughed it off. As soon as the guy starts to leave, so do our friends, they follow him out for a confrontation. So as very nosey and curious Americans we follow them outside too. We see a small confrontation in Hindi, and we call over one of the other boys to translate what was going on, or interpret depending on which aspect you were looking at. So they begin talking and then more guys show up, and they pull out their mobiles. And about 3 minutes latter, the crowed of five guys has doubled and in five minutes the crowed of 10 has tripled. It was getting pretty crazy, they were blocked the road with all their bikes. So the original two were still talking. As our interpreter was telling us, one of the boys in the other group, had five of his friends and beaten up one of the boys in the other group. (We shall call them group A (the guys I like) and group b (the ones who beat up my friend the first time)). So Group A boys were beginning to line up and then all of a sudden they were agreeing on rules, you got ten punches and only two boys could be in the middle at a time. They even like choreographed dance moves to go into the fight, and then it began, it was not like an American lets beat the shit out of each other until we both turn to pulp. It was graceful, at the same time like watching a bollywood movie, funny as hell. In the end my Group A “won” as if you could say that. They lined up all the guys on the traffic median, and Group B, had to touch all of Group A’s feet (a sign of ultimate respect). There is more though, afterwards a “rougher” crowed showed up, and started beaten on Group A. So then Group A retaliated! They got on their bikes and rode to the police! Apparently they got the police involved and turns out they paid like rs. 500 (12.50 USD), to get the mystery Group Z boys beaten up by the police! Gotta Love India!
Tarre Zamine Par; Lets Beat Up Your Kid
In Nagpur I went to go see the latest Bollywood Flick, Tarre Zamine Par, or as I would like to call it, a comment on the shitty education system and parenting concepts of Indians like lets beat your kid! The movie in the end redeems itself, and has Aamair Khan in it (one of the more gorgeous guys in the world!). But what the general story is of this kid who probably has ADD and is dyslexic. So he cannot learn in the rigorous Indian school system, which is making them memorize mindless facts starting in the first grade. This poor kid cannot do it, he cannot read because no one will help him and he is dyslexic and he cannot figure out math because he I too busy making up stories about how number 7 can beat up number 3 in a fight (it is a great scene, the art director of the film is amazing!). So he ends up in school after school, also he gets kicked out of class or school all the time. One scene displays him getting kicked out and wandering around Bombay for a day, the scene work in the film is brilliant, it really shows Bombay’s highs and lows! But the kid when he does wrong and fails gets beaten, by both his parents, his neighbors, and his teachers. It is so wrong; the abuse of this poor kid is awful! In the end he ends up at a boarding school and ONE teacher recognizes his problem, which is just the fact he is dyslexic (speaking of dyslexic, that is a really hard word to spell, but autocorrect gets it every time). There are a good number of people in the world who have this problem and this is how they deal with it in India, it goes unrecognized by so many, and then when a kid cannot learn to read properly they just beat him and call him retarded! I was very sickened by the movie, and if the US ever showed this, half the audience would be so shocked they would not know what to do, and the other half would be on the phone with child services!
Now I am back to the Pune Life!
It is somewhat nice to be back. With my friends, with civilization, and with pizza. The bus ride back was pretty awful! I was in the last seat before the back, I had a stand alone “women’s seat” so I did not have some creepy Indian male sitting next to me. BUT behind me was a bed for the tour operator to sleep in and therefore my seat did not recline! I was so upset! It was awful! Then half way through the trip when the tour operator was sleeping all of a sudden this DRITY, HARIY, BLACK foot finds its way into my lap! It was so gross! At the same time my friend Eli (ok, ok, her real name is Eleanor, and I use Eli as Ellie, deal with it), called me and gave me a few suggestions of what to do with the foot that was in my lap, first was paint his toe nails, the second was pick off his toe hairs one by one, both equally painful, but I opted for option three, smothering it in hand sanitizer and then smashing it with my water bottle every time it moved, and IT STILL DID NOT MOVE! So I opted for the worst case scenario option, make a scene! Someone who was associated with the bus company came to the back of the bus, and I was like “foot! Foot!” and he not only woke the sleeping man up, but slapped him!
Now I am just chilling in Pune. I did accomplish something major though! I am very excited to announce that I finally received my school papers! After my term (semester) ended in December, I started going into the office of my college and requesting my transcripts for the first term. I begged everyday for weeks for them! And Jan. 8, I FINALLY RECIVED THEM! It is a very excited detail of my life in India, because I got something accomplished! I immediately sent them into my school back in the USA. And well being a cheap American, I do have a funny story about the shipping. At DHL if you are sending your paper work to a University you get 50% off on shipping. Well Homestead High School is not exactly a University (though students coming out of it think University is easy). So I convinced the DHL people, that there is a Homestead University. They checked their USA University register and could not come up with a Homestead University, and so I was like it is a small school, in Mequon, Wisconsin. It took a bit, but I convinced them and got 50% off on two day shipping (which is still an arm and a leg for two pieces of paper!). BUT this is my official transcript of my schooling here in India! I am putting in the picture of my transcript, go figure this is India and English is not really their forte, check out the document!
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