The Last of Us

Or at least, the last of me in school.

It's true, this is my last year of college, and I'll be graduating in a week. A WEEK I TELL YOU! Yeah, I'm pretty shocked too.

For the past five years, I have gained higher education at Brigham Young University. For the first two years of my college career, I worked towards getting into the Advertising department here. My application was rejected, and I realized that I didn't really have the time to try and apply again. I switched my major from Pre-Communications to Anthropology and I realized that I should have probably started here from the beginning.

My first class was Anthropology 101, and I just feel in love with learning about so many different cultures, lives, and just realizing that while I thought I had an open mind before, it'll be nothing compared to how wide my mind is open now. I also realized that I needed a job, and my TA, Stefanie, suggested that I apply to be a Anthropology 101 Teaching Assistant. I did, and it was suggested that I wait for one more semester before applying again. I did so for Fall Semester 2013 and I got the job. And it's a job that I've had and loved ever since.

I then started to prepare for my field school. I knew that it was something that I needed to accomplish
in order to get my degree, but it wasn't something that really hit me till Winter Semester 2014 when I started to getting ready. I would be leaving my husband, my home, and my country, for three months to study cross-caste marriage in Visakhapatnam, India. Richard would be recently graduated and looking for full-time work and I would be leaving him. Not only was it hard for me to do, but it was also something that I realized that I can do. I can live outside of the country, and I can do what I'm supposed to do as an anthropologist. I can do what it is that I have been training to do for the past year!

I came back to realize that I only have a year of school left. A year left before I would be done at BYU. I analyze my data, and start to get everything ready for my senior thesis. This time is now...I'm finishing up my senior thesis, and I realize that these past five years have been all for this moment.

This little moment where I will walk across that stage at 8:00 in the morning and receive my diploma (cover...actual diploma will be delivered in 4-6 weeks in the mail @.@). It's so strange for me to think that just a few years ago I was getting married, and just a couple of years before that I was just graduating from high school and heading straight to college. I really can't believe that I'll be graduating in just a little over a week.

This has been a whirlwind ride, but it's a ride that I would do over again. I love going to school, I love learning, and I there are things that I never would have been able to do, unless I went to BYU and made my major Anthropology. I never would have gone to India, I never would have presented my research in UCUR, or the Utah Conference in Undergraduate Research, and I never would have discovered my love of teaching.

I have loved my time here at BYU and if there's one thing that I can say to upcoming students is take advantage of all that your college allows you to do. But most of all, enjoy your time at college to grown and figure out just a little bit more who you are. This is a time to learn. Why not learn who you are inside?

Talk to you later,
Ashley

I'm Officially Back From India!

Yep, it's amazing! I am back in the USA and I am so happy to be back! Super excited, I know, but I just am. I loved India and I loved it a lot, but I am SO happy to be back home!

So, first things first. My trip up to North Delhi. I haven't told you guys about that, and I have got to say that it was the most exciting and wonderful thing to happen on my whole trip to India. Yes, it is partially cliche, but this is the truth. I got to see so many wonderful and amazing sights, and I did it all within about 8 days. It was a long and hard 8 days but it was worth it to see all that I did as well as do all that I did. And seeing as I have a lot of pictures and places to cover, I had better get started. And just as an F.Y.I., it may take a few posts to do so.

First day - Delhi

Our first day of the trip, we took a flight to Delhi. A cool thing about Air India - they'll feed you on every flight! Doesn't matter that the flight is only a few hours long, they'll still feed you something, whether it be a full fledged meal, or just some peanuts and a drink. They'll still feed you. It's pretty cool!

Anyway, our first day in Delhi, we go to some really amazing sites! We ended up splitting into two groups by accident, and my group ended up in going to the museum at The Martyrdom of Mahatma Ghandi. It was an amazing place to see. It was at the site where Ghandi took his last steps. We could actually take the pathway that he did before he was shot.

After the Ghandi Museum, my group then headed to the Lotus Temple. It's a beautiful place. It's a temple that was built in the shape of a blooming lotus. It was wonderful. We didn't go inside, as we didn't think we were able to without paying a fee, but we we able to wander around the outside and it was a noisy quiet atmosphere, but it was surprisingly spiritual. It was one of my favourite places that we visited while in Delhi.

Jamie at Iskcon Temple

After we had explored the Lotus Temple, my group decided to head off. That's when we got a call from the other group to see where we were at. When we explained that we were at the Lotus Temple, we decided that we would wait there and meet up with them in order to decide when and where we would meet up for dinner. Once that was decided, my group headed off to visit another temple that we could see from the grounds of the the Lotus Temple. It was an Iskcon Temple. Now that was an interesting place.

Now, it was time to start heading to meet the others up for dinner. This was the complicated part. We were to meet up at the mall, this HUGE mall! but the thing was, we're in Delhi, we honestly have no idea how to get around nor how far places are to go to them or how much rickshaws would be. So we took a rickshaw, then the metro (my first time ever taking the metro!), and then another rickshaw. Though, by the time we got to the mall, it was too late for dinner. So we only had time to grab some fast food, and then head back to our hotel.

I gotta say though, for our first day in Delhi, it was a pretty exciting day. And it was a very hot day. But I got to say, it was an exciting first day.

Day Two - Delhi

Our second day of our North India trip and our second day in Delhi. We packed our bags, as we were heading out that night to visit Amritsar the next day, and we headed off to enjoy our day. We started off to Starbucks for breakfast. A double chocolate chip frappe and a double chocolate chip muffin. It was so delicious!!!

Once we had our breakfast, we split into groups again, and took rickshaws to see the India Gate. Now, that
was great! It was built in the form of the conquer's gates, one of the most famous ones being the one in Rome. It was built as a memorial for the Indian soldiers that have fallen in wars over the last 75-ish years. It was an amazing site to see. It was also there that we got to buy these cool little flying toys. Cool thing, they were very cheap. Bad thing, one of the guys that sold them, he WOULD NOT LEAVE US ALONE! It was bad, we were literally plagued by him, till we finally decided that it was time to leave and start the long walk to the President's House. That was a fun time. We just walked along the grass all the way up to the President's house, talking, eating Popsicles, and just enjoying all the time that we had to walk around. It was pretty fun actually!

Once we were done seeing the President's house, it was time to head to the train station. We needed to make our sleeper rain to head to Amritsar. There wasn't a lot to do once we were on the train, other than to talk and then sleep while we could. We had a while before we would be in Amritsar.

That's all that I'll talk about for now, I'll continue this in my next post!

Talk to you later,
Ashley

Live Fish Pedicures and The Fault in Our Stars!

Hi again...sorry that my last post had some negative vibes coming from it. I didn't mean to be negative, I just wasn't very happy nor very occupied with my time, so it all came out badly. But I promise that this post will be much happier! Much much happier! :)

So, happiness number 1: I got a live fish pedicure last week! And it was pretty funny! Let me explain why. What happens, with a live fish pedicure is that you go to the salon, and you have to roll up your leggings (because that's really all people wear here instead of pants), wash off your feet and remove all jewelry. The "removing of jewelry" part was a bit more complicated for me as I have anklets on that are harder to get off than normal. So, after a bit of struggle to remove said anklets, I then had to walk over to where the fish tank was and then stick my feet in the water.

Now picture this, you see the tank of fish, and they're little fish, almost like the minnows you would see in a river or a creek. You stick your feet in the water and they literally swarm your feet. And it TICKLES!!! Holy
crap does it tickle. Like, someone grabbed your feet and just started dragging their fingers along the bottoms of your feet. Only it's just to the point where you can stand it, you just giggle and laugh a lot.

So yes, the fish swarmed and tickled and made my feet wonderfully smooth. It was kind of cool. They just ate the dead skin cells off my feet and it was a pretty cool experience. Is it one that I would do again? Probably not. Was it worth it to do just this once? Hecka yes!

Also, while I was at the salon, I got my eyebrows threaded. Now that was interesting. I actually liked that more than I do plucking my own eyebrows. You literally just sit back while a woman takes a thread and just pulls the hair using the string somehow, I have no idea how, and your eyebrows look amazing afterwards. Like, really amazing!

Funny story though, all while I was there, I had several of the Indian ladies asking me if I wanted a wax, once they saw how hairy my arms were. I would kindly say "no, thank you." and they would just give me this funny look, like "are you sure?" It's like they almost didn't believe me. But yeah, I'm totally fine with my hairy arms. Having smooth arms kind of freaks me out. I shaved them once, in like 7th grade. Never. Again.

So there are those things. Happy thing number 2: I just saw "The Fault in Our Stars"!!! And it was amazing and I want to own that movie! So good! So, for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, let me educate you for just a little bit.

"The Fault in Our Stars" is an amazing book written by the also amazing author, John Green. It's this amazing
love story between two cancer patients, yes, it sounds cheesy, but it is NOT. It's extremely well-written and one of my favourite books ever! So, when I heard that the movie adaption for this book would be premiering on June 6th, I was estatic, as I was/am in India, so I would be able to see it when it premiered. Now imagine my disappointment when I look on the website for the premiere date, and see that there is none. No premiere date for India. Anywhere, in India, for that matter. I was really disappointed. But I got over it, told myself that I would see it when I got back home, so it gave me something to look forward to when I come home. Then imagine my surprise, when last Saturday, Jeannie, the wife of Stephen, the only other anthropologist on this study abroad, showed us that "The Fault in Our Stars" was now playing in theatres. Jamie and I got so excited that we immediately made plans to go and watch it this Monday, which was yesterday. And let me tell you, I am so glad that it did decide to come to India. It was an amazing movie, and I was teary and cried for about half of it. And I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Yep, those have been my happy things of this past week. And they have been wonderful. All that I've really been doing now is just typing up my notes from interviews, and just making sure everything is ready to go for our trip up North. Yep, we leave this coming Sunday for North India and I am so excited! It's going to be great! And I'll be sure to take lots and lots of pictures, cross my heart. :)

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

Trunky Feelings and Telugu

You know it's been either a very boring week or a very exciting week if I'm writing twice in the same of a few days...I'll let you guys try and guess which it is.

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Time's up! Guess what? Those of you that said boring, you win virtual cookies and my my adamant sympathies for playing my game...I'm really this bored.

I'm also getting slightly trunky. Trunky as I want to get home really soon. I would love to be home right now. I have learned a lot about myself while I've been here in India, but I've also learned that I would love to be home right now. I miss my home. My work has slowed down a bit, I haven't had a interview in a few days, and I haven't been doing much of my work. This is not a good thing, as that means that I am falling behind in what I should be doing. But I seem to have lost a little bit of my enthusiasm for doing my work. This. Is. Bad. I need something to spark my interest in my work again and I really have no idea what to do. Maybe I should buy another movie to watch that has Hindu marriage ceremonies. I have already bought one and watched it. It was pretty good to watch actually. Slightly cheesy, but good. It made me smile and laugh and react to the people in the movie.

I can actually tell you how bored I have been these past few days. I've been watching a lot of youtube videos. More than I usually would, especially when I only have so much data on my Internet stick that I use here to have Internet on my laptop. There is this girl, her channel is called NerdyandQuirky, and she is HILARIOUS! Her and the Vlogbrothers have been awesome now. And I have just been fricken' LAZY these past few days. One way I know that I am super lazy right now is because I have a Telugu quiz in the morning (hence, the second half of my title today) and I. Am. Not. Studying. I'm horrid. I should be studying, I shouldn't be on my blog, creating a new blog post, and I definitely shouldn't be watching youtube videos. Yet, what is it that I am doing? I'm creating a new blog post and watching youtube. I fail at this part of life right now. Horribly.

And this is Mumuksha. I love this kid!
I seemed to have become a backup baby-sitter
for him this past little while, which I do not mind
AT ALL! Love this little boy!

Good news though, due to my trunkiness, I know how many days I have left here in India. I have literally 30 days left here in India. Yes, this sounds like I have a lot of time left, and I keep telling myself "You can do that later, you still have a long time before you go home, just enjoy your time here." and yet, another day will go by and I haven't really done anything of note. It just may be that I have gotten used to being in India and so I no longer feel the need to wander around my neighborhood, or go do things, or anything else like that. And that it just a horrible attitude for me to be taking! You want to know why?! Because who know when I'll ever be in India again?! I should be out in the world doing things that I won't have the chance to do again. But what do I do? I sit my apartment all day, reading my Nook. This just may be because I've hit a rut and I'm being really lazy and just really don't want to do anything. This is also a horrid excuse. I shouldn't need excuses as to why I haven't done anything that would be a good memory or something that I can tell my family I have done when I get back to the U.S.

Alright, I will say this about my time here. I haven't completely wasted my time here. I have done some really cool and crazy things, like riding in a rickshaw (which people call "autos" here), as well as ride on the back of a scooter. I have never done that in the U.S. I have also learned how to bargin, at least a little bit. The reason I have learned how to bargin is that you have to bargin for rickshaws in order to, you know, not get completely ripped off for being a white person. Also, another cool little fact that I have learned about myself and talking with Indians here. I apparently look like an Indian. Like, if I could actually speak Telugu or Hindi, I would blend right in. Sadly, I do not speak any of these languages...so I don't blend in. Well, I do, but then I open my mouth and English just pours out of my mouth.

A girl who helped me with an interview. Her name is
Srisha. She's a great girl!

Wow...this was just a weird...weird post. I'm again sorry to those of you who actually read this, there's just no rhyme or reason to what it was that I was trying to say or write here. But good news, there is something of an actual update in here, somewhere. So yeah...enjoy your reading and enjoy your summer, where ever my wonderful readers are!

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

Again...It's Been a While

Yes, yes, I know...I know...I've been crappy at keeping up with this blog, but give me some slack. I've been writing in my journal that I have here in India with me, as well as writing up field notes, so I may not always write to write again online. So yeah, just deal. Anyway, just want to let you all know that I am indeed alive and that this past week has been great actually. And I'll tell you why. :)

I haven't gotten a lot of interviews this week, but those that I have gotten have been so full of information and so amazing and just interesting! that I don't regret not having a lot to do. Relatively speaking anyway. I still have a lot to do, but it's just been so interesting and just so amazing!

Just some thoughts though, that I think I at least need to write down. First things first, leaving in another country...it's a bit like madness! Such a different culture, different food, and just everything is different. But it's a good thing, it's been stretching my mind as well as my opening my mind to other things that I would have never expected in this life. Don't get me wrong, this is a great experience! This has been an excellent experience for me and I am lucky and happy to have done this! Wow...so many exclamation points....

Thought number two: sometimes, there are personalities that don't quite mesh together the way that people want them too. Yes, these people can be the nicest, kindest, more adorable people in the world, but there's just something about them that will rub you wrong. And you have no idea what it is, but they will just rub you wrong. It can, and is, super annoying to deal with it. That's the thing about this Study Abroad for me. I have learned that there some very annoying people in the world, and you just have to deal with it. Even if that very annoying person is yourself. And it has been me, I can tell that I have been very annoying at times, as well as been very annoyed at others. I will say this though, I have learned how to better work with others, at least a little bit.

And my last thought: I have a little over 4 weeks left. I am ecstatic that I will soon be home with Richard and my friends again, but I am also a little sad that I will be leaving those people that I have made friends with here as well. Like the girls in the house, Durga, Gowri, and Sailaja. They have become my friends and I don't want to leave them. And I can't forget Mumuksha. He's Durga's baby boy and I have grown so attached to that little boy that it's going to be hard to leave. It's one thing to say that I'll be a little glad to leave India. It's a completely different thing to say that I'll be glad to leave these wonderful people behind, which I won't be. I feel like I've come to know them in such a way that I don't want to leave them. But I'll have to. This chapter of my life will be closing soon and so I'll have to. This has been an amazing chapter!

I know that I sounded really depressing just now, but trust me, I'm not. I glad to have been able to come to India and to experience something that will both further the use of my education as well as make me a better person in general. At least, I hope that is what will happen.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

Indian Movie Theaters

Yes, movie theaters here are amazing as there is air conditioning! Hallu-fricken'-lulla! Anyway, I will explain why I am talking about Indian movie theaters today.

The reasons for today's topic is that we went to see a movie today and this has been our third one since we've been here. There are some interesting differences between movie theaters here, and movie theaters in America, and this is the reason why I'm writing about this. We had gone to see How to Train a Dragon 2, and it was really good. We've also seen a Telugu movie called Manam. I recommend that you try to and find some way to watch it. And we had watched in Telugu without English subtitles, so we were unable to understand the more complex implications due to the language barrier, but we could get the basic idea of what was going on thanks to wonderful acting, body language, and many other things. So, yes...try and watch this movie! The first movie that we had actually watched here was the last X-Men movie that came out around the end of May, X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Now, first things first. You know how movies, in the past, were really long and a big event and you had intermissions and things like that? That had carried on here in India. Movies here, no matter the length, have intermissions. We didn't know this! We were watching X-Men, and it was at a really great part, it was building up to the climax of the movie! And...the movie stopped, the lights came up, and people started moving around and started talking a bit. We all, at first, thought that the power had gone out and the back-up generators had kicked in, as by this time we were used to the power going out. But then people started to talk even more and going out in droves! We were so CONFUSED!!! But then we realized that people were coming back, and that people didn't seem at all worried, and that's when it kicked in that we were in an intermission. We had never experienced an intermission...in a movie theater...ever! So, that was definitely something that was new and interesting to experience here about movie theaters.

Another thing, Indians here are very concerned about the dangers of smoking and alcohol. Like, really concerned! When when watching X-Men, you know how Wolverine smokes cigars so much? Well, everything he did, a big sign would show up on the bottom of the screen saying "Smoking/tobacco use is injurious to health." This also doesn't happen in the United States, and it was just really interesting to see that happen. This also happened in Manam, when there was drinking going on the screen, a small series of words in Telugu would show up in the lower left-hand corner basically saying "drinking alcohol is injurious to health." This also doesn't show up in American movies, but I think that these two things should be considered for American movies, if only in small letters in bottom corner of the screen.

Oh! and getting into the movie is process as well. You head into the movie theater, and you have to be screened, to make sure you not carrying any dangerous objects. Or cameras for that matter. And you know how here in America, you not supposed to sneak food into the movie theater but the majority of people do anyway? Well, that would not fly here. Your bags are checked and so there is no sneaking in food...not all at.

So yeah, that's all I basically wanted to talk about, the basic differences of Indian movie theaters vs. American movie theaters and it's all very interesting. Just some things to think about.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

Marriage and Dating...What Can I Say?

Yes, I doing marriage and dating as my blog topic today, but for a really good reason, I promise.

So, as you should all know by now, I'm in India. Without my husband no less. Now there are two more girls that are also without their husbands. For the last bit, there is a married couple here that are here. Now, so we have three single members, a girl with a boyfriend, and all the rest of us who are married. My research deals a lot with marriage, as I am studying marriage traditions of the castes here and so this will sometimes lead to my informants telling me about how they met their prospective husbands/wives. Something that you should know about the culture of India is that there is no socially sanctioned form of "dating" here. Like, you do not date. That is not what you do in order to decide if you want to marry someone. Your parents will arrange who you will marry, and for the most part, you will not know who that person until you are married.

So, Oliver, one of the single guys here, we've been teasing about having Rajalakshmi match him for a Hindu marriage while he is here. We only do this because we get such a great reaction out of him and he'll play along with it too, it's great! Anyway, as we were doing this today, the subject of dating came up and then Westen started asking Rajalakshmi about how love marriages came about, so I got called in to handle this part of the subject, due to my previous research as well as the few interviews that I got before I changed my subject. I'll have to say...no matter what I said, they were confused on how people got to know each other before they got married, especially with love marriages. But I explained to the best of my ability, and they seemed intrigued by the idea that there was no dating here in India. It's socially forbidden to do so.

Comparing this idea to what it is we do in America, it is two VERY different worlds of love. Here, in America, we date, we hang out, we do so many things! just to find the one person that we could find that we could picture ourselves living with the rest of the our lives. It's an interesting concept, when you think about it. We, as humans in America, do these strange activities with other members of our own species in order to figure out if we want to, basically, mate with them. In India, the parents choose who you will mate and then the deal is sealed. Done and done. There's not a big fuss made out of it, they agree to the marriage and the marriage is set and then they get married.

I know that this may seem like a strange topic for today, to reflect on marriage and dating. Forgive me though, with me missing Richard as well as talking about marriage and dating and then having several girls here without their husbands and then a married couple. All on one trip. Marriage and dating comes up a lot with us.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

It's Been a While...

Yeah, I'm sorry guys, it's been a while since I last wrote on here. I apologize for those of you that have been looking forward to hearing all of what it is that I've been doing and all it is that I am excited about. But I've got to be honest with you...there really hasn't been a lot that has been going on with me these past few days. I haven't had any more interviews, I haven't been able to move forward in my study, or anything else for this has been going on. But we've been going to some pretty good views and places to visit. So I've been able to get some great pictures at least!

Like yesterday, we all went to a dance performance. Now that was super interesting. It was an old classical Indian style of dance called "kuchipudi". I would recommend that you look it up, as it's really cool. The story of the dance was about a young girl married off to an old man for a large dowry. This happened a lot in the classical age of India, so it was an interesting performance. And throughout, there wasn't any talking, not a lot anyway. What there was, was done by the singers of the performance. It was really amazing! I loved watching it, sadly, I was unable to enjoy it as much as I wanted to as I was hungry and tired. I felt like I was going to sleep for about half the time. And the papprazzi was going crazy in front. They don't stand in the back and take pictures from there, like they do in America, but they stand in front of the stage and block the view of all of those that sit in the front row... a.k.a US! That was slightly annoying, as it was hard to see what was going on sometimes, and their flashes were really bright, so they would blind us when they took pictures of us sometimes.

But other than that, there's not a lot going on, just getting things going with my study. For those of you that are reading this, know that my study is about cross-caste marriage. Well, I've only had two interviews and I've been here about four, almost five weeks. It's not going anywhere, no one wants to talk to me me, as cross-caste marriage, while it is legal by law, culturally, it is still a forbidden form of marriage. So no one wants to talk to me about their cross-caste marriage. So, as I need the information that I get here for my senior thesis, I need to change my study. So I'm changing my study to marriage traditions of endogamous caste marriages. It not being a form of forbidden marraige, more people should be more willing to talk to me.

So, that's been me for this past little bit. I hope that all is going well with everyone back home.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

P.S. as soon as the wifi works, and I can get my pictures uploaded online, I'll do a blog post that is fully pictures, promise!

Temple Complex, Construction, and Holy Crap! I'm 22 years old... O.o

So, I need to write about two adventures today, so that I'm somewhat caught up in my telling.

So, yesterday, we were actually allowed to go to a temple complex. It's basically a place where there are a lot of

shrines to many of the Hindu gods and goddess. It was interesting to visit and to participate in some of the receiving of the blessings as well as spiritual in it's own way. I may sound slightly condescending when I say it like that, but it's true. All religions have a piece of the truth, and I could definitely feel it in that complex. It was just kind of cool to see how much those that were with us, like Krishnayya-garu, Sallaja, Siddu, and Mahdu, how worshipful they were, even if the ritual there didn't make sense to us. It made sense to them and they believed it with all their heart. It made me look at the way that I worship my own religion. Am I as diligent as I should be? Or can I do better in my own worship to God? Wow...that's deep, even for this blog.

Anyway, that was yesterday, not a lot happened after that. I got my first interview actually. So that was good, I just need to transcribe it and set it down on paper...electronically at least. :)

And today was actually a pretty relaxing day. We had breakfast and Telugu class like always, but the health students actually had a trip to a government hospital planned today. As I had my first interview yesterday, as well as some other transcripitions that I needed to get caught up on, I had decided to stay behind. But I wasn't able to get much done, for as soon as I came back to my apartment to work on my laptop, the power here went out. And it stayed out for about three hours! I only had a few minutes worth of time on laptop, so I could only get a few minutes written up as well. I soon shut down my laptop and just read a book on my Nook for the next few hours, hoping that the power would come back on but it didn't. I soon go hot enough to just go outside where there was a breeze at least. It was at this point that I started to watch the construction that is going on across the street from my apartment. It was actually quite interesting to watch and compare it to American forms of construction. For one thing, the majority of the the mixing of the individual parts of concrete are done by hand. They have huge piles of gravel and sand piled in the streets and they cart about 3-4 boxes of both into the concrete mixer a long with a bag of the concrete binder. This then has water tossed into it as it's being mixed. All of this is basically being done by hand. Once it's mixed enough, it's dumped into a bin that would then take it up to the top floor, where they are laying the next floor of the apartment building. What is also interesting to note is that the workers are allowed to work in short skirts and men's button up shirts for the women, and t-shirts and shorts of the men. No one in the higher castes are allowed to do this. It's said that the more skin you show, the lower your caste, as that means you perform manual labour. It's part of the reason we're not allowed to wear shorts here. But to my reckoning, the lower caste have the better part of the deal when it comes to heat. They're at least allowed to wear shorts. I'll hopefully be able to get pictures tomorrow. I was stupid enough to not take any today while I was observing...

After I watched that for a while, I then headed to the house to read John Adams a book Oliver lent me to read about the life of John Adams, obviously, the second President of the United States. It's really interesting, but I'm having a hard time focusing on it. This was around the time the others came back, in which we then had lunch and just lazed around for about an hour. Luckily the power came back on, so I was able to plug in my laptop to charge for the afternoon. After we had all eaten and relaxed, it was time to go out and purchase food for my birthday dinner. My friends here, the health students, helped me celebrate my birthday today. It was nice to have someone to celebrate it with, as I can't be with you this year. But yeah, we went to a grocery store to pick up cheese, salsa, and corn for Navajo tacos, and then we went to a bookstore. That was part of my birthday wish: a bookstore and chocolate cake. Once we got back, I started reading one of my new books, called The Temporal Man by Micheal Crition. It was really interesting. I wasn't really allowed to help with my dinner, which was kind of nice. Kendra, Jamie, Oliver, Westen, and Lizze all helped cook Navajo tacos for dinner. And Krishnayya-garu had gotten me a chocolate cake! All in all, it was a pretty good day. :)

Talk to you soon,

Ashley

P.S. I'll post pictures from my birthday soon, promise!

Monsoons, Rainstorms, Gitam, and Beaches

Yeah, it's been a while since I've written, but for good reason. 1) We had a monsoon a few days ago, and that completely knocked out wifi power for the next day, 2) not a whole lot as been going on, just a lot of sitting around and reading books, and 3) the days I did have something, I was busy enough to not have time to write, so there we go. At least I'm writing now.

So, on May 22, we went to the health students' main source for their project Dr. Pravakah's (?) guru's meditation temple. It was a beautiful place. Seriously the most beautiful place that I have seen since I have been here. And so quiet too, it was amazing! While we were there, we were able to meet with a guy that lives there, in that complex by orders of the guru. He, his wife, and 10 servants live there to take care of the place as well as just live there. I'm actually kind of jealous of where they live, as it's a small 16x16 foot area house that seems like it would be perfect for just a couple. They would either have to be a
college couple with no kids, or a retired couple, but it would be a perfect place to retire. But I'm getting side-tracked. When we first got to this meditation complex, we actually went into the meditation temple, where people apparently come to just sit and meditate. I can see why, it's a beautiful area and very quiet. The most quiet that I've had since coming to Vizag.

After we went explored the temple a bit, we were allowed into the back of the complex, thanks to Dr. Pravakah (?) and to meet and talk with the man that is retired there. I, sadly, didn't catch his name, but he is the man that introduced the apartment complex to Vizag. It made him a very rich man. He and his wife though are so humble and sweet that you wouldn't have guessed that they were so rich in the first place. So we talked with them for

a while. Well, Dr. Nuckolls, Dr. Pravakah (?) and the other man talked, the rest of us just enjoyed the breeze, the greenery, and the quiet of the place. We were then allowed, or rather taken, to explore this back area of the complex. That's how I know that the house that the man lives in is 16x16 foot, as he told us as he took us inside to see. But the main attraction of the house was the house where the guru will stay when he is here in Vizag. It looks like a mushroom, it's really cool. And it has a moat, that when snakes come out, will be filled with water so that no snakes get into his house. It was all really cool, and I really wanted his house as well. Who doesn't want to live in a highrise and not share with anyone else? ;)

Anyway, once we were done there and heading on our way back, we looked out the back of our rickshaw and saw that there were storm clouds coming in, with lightening. It was pretty cool to see, and we were excited as rainstorm equals a cool night and easier sleeping. When we got back though, Dr. Nuckolls said that the monsoon season was supposed to be coming early, by about 5 days. While we were talking with Dr. Nuckolls and Krishnayya-garu, we noticed that the park that's right across the street from us was finally open, so we asked to go exploring it. When we got inside, the wind had started to pick up some and it had started sprinkling. We stayed in the park for a bit and the wind started to pick up more, but when we heard a HUGE crack! we decided that we needed to run back to the house, as we didn't want to be in the park if the wind picked up more and coconuts started falling from the trees. But once we got back to the house, the wind started to roar and the rain that was just sprinkling earlier started to come down in sheets! What was supposed to be just a normal rainstorm, turned into a monsoon! The monsoon season had arrived earlier than anyone had thought! It was kind of scary, but cool at the same time! The wind started to pick up so much that TREES snapped and branches fell as well as some power lines snapped and fell as well. We all stood outside and just watched as the rain came down in sheets and wind was crazy strong, but that part only lasted about 10 minutes. After wards, it just turned into a normal thunderstorm. As soon as the monsoon as started, the power company cut the power, so we all just sat outside and enjoyed the rain. It was actually kind of relaxing.

So, that was a monsoon. We're now officially in monsoon season and it's actually pretty nice. It means that the heat dies down from what it was, the humidity is less and there's going to be more rainstorms. Which is my next story. Yesterday, it was basically a rainstorm all day. Just rain falling down all day, so it made it really nice and cool. After church, we met with Dr. Nuckolls for the last time, as yesterday was his last day
here in Vizag. After that, we headed out to Sudha's

place, where we basically spent the afternoon getting to know Sudha and her family. They even took us to the beach, which is still the same beach that we usually go to, but up further from us and much nicer looking. It was really nice of them to take us to the beach, as well as take time out of their day to just let us hang out at their house. But they are a really nice family, and just a humble family as well.

So yeah, that's basically been my adventures these past few days. Not a lot going on, so not a lot to write about, but what I have done have been some exciting adventures.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

Temples and Fish Feasts

So my day yesterday turned out to be pretty good. I already told you about my first interview/source of Dr. Paul.

After that, the health students and I were actually able to go to a temple in that was about 30 kilometers up the coast from Vizag. It was the main temple of the guru of Dr. Prakabrah (?), the health students main source. It was actually a pretty cool temple, it was a new temple as well, built within the last 8 years I think was what it was called. And it was beautiful! So beautiful, and don't worry, I got pictures of the outside at least, as we're not allowed to take pictures of the inside, where the shrine it. Dr. Nuckolls hadn't seen the temple either, so he was very interested to see all of the carvings on the wall and such. Now, some of the carvings were....interesting, to say the least. They had carvings of people having sex. For Hindism, it's not a big deal, but for Mormon students from BYU it was a bit strange to see carvings like that on a temple wall.

I also had a banana at the temple yesterday. I actually liked it too...which is strange for me, you know that I'm not the biggest fan of bananas, but these bananas are delicious! A lot better tasting rather than ones that we have the United States. So I'll actually be able to eat the bananas here, but I still don't think I'll be able to eat the ones in the States...they still don't taste all that good, especially now that I've eaten ones here.

So after the temple, we went to eat in the Jalari (fisherman) village where Dr. Nuckolls has a house and where his family lives. It was excellent! And it was kind of cool, we got to eat on their roof, had rice (obviously), two different types of fish, and mangoes! I love the mangoes here, they're in season and so they taste amazing!!! And I actually liked the fish, which is unusual for me. But it was really good fish. But again, I don't think I'll be able to find fish like that in the States so I probably won't eat as much there as I would here, were we to eat there again. And a lot of people were in this tiny little house, a lot of them having traveled from a ways a way, just to see us. And they all wanted their pictures taken of themselves, and them with Dr. Nuckolls, and them with us, and just a lot of pictures. I'll send some to you so that you can see what I'm talking about. It was cool though, after the dinner, we all just sat around asking them questions through Dr. Nuckolls and having some of the younger ones teach us words in Telugu. It was pretty fun, as there are some sounds that are harder for us to pronounce, so we end up not saying what we should be saying. 

All in all though, yesterday was a fun time. We were able to have delicious food as well as visit an awesome looking temple. A typical day for us in India. And it was a great day! I hope that everyone back home is doing all right and that they are enjoying their dry summer where ever you are!

Talk to you soon,

Ashley

Gitam Unviersity and Sand Crabs

So, yesterday there wasn't a blog post for two reasons:

1) It was a long and busy day

2) I don't really have an excuse other than we didn't make it to the cafe...

Anyway, my adventures yesterday dealt with tagging along with the public health students and the beach. We had a bit of a full day. We first went to Gitam University Hospital. One of their main sources, a man called Dr. Prabrakah (?) had invited us to come visit the hospital that he is helping with. It's still being built at the moment, but some of it is in operation already. They are also building a medical college to be right next to the hospital as well that will house 150 students and they'll be able to do their residency at the Gitam Hospital. That is impressive, as is the hospital itself. It's going to be 12 stories high, as well as have measures in place to move their patients from floor to floor in case the power goes out, which happens quite a lot here. It's already gone out twice today.

Anyway, after Gitam Hospital, we went to Gitam University to our translator, Suddha's, house for lunch. Her and her husband, Dr. Krishnayya's brother, had invited us to lunch with them, and boy, did they provide us a lunch of a life time. They literally fed us till we were stuffed and then some. We first had a really delicious vegetable soup, then these pieces of chicken. We then had a mutton and chicken roll-up. It resembled a burrito, other than the fact that it was Indian. After that came the main course of rice, always, and several sauces/meats that we mix into the rice to eat. It was delicious, but a lot of food. They take lunch here very seriously, it's their biggest meal of the day. And then we had fruit salad and ice cream for dessert. That was lunch!!! It seemed, quite literally, a feast! And it was delicious! I love the food here. It's cool though, you are expected to usually eat with your right hand here. Your left hand shouldn't touch your food, as your left hand is thought to be dirty, nor should it touch the serving bowl, spoon, or anything else for that matter really. So, Richard, you might have a little bit of trouble trying to eat here. ;)

After that delicious, delicious, lunch, we headed back to the apartments, took a shower, which felt great! Then we all headed to the beach. Funny story first though. On the way home from Suddha's we actually got a ride from the Gitam Hospital Ambulance. So image Sallaja and Gowri's worry when an ambulance pulls up in front of the house and we start piling out of it. Sallaja and Gowri are Durga's helpers, just so you know. But once we explained that we were just riding in it, that no one was actually hurt, they both started cracking up. I love it when they love, they just let it all out, it's just fun to laugh and get them to laugh. :) 

So, the beach. There's a beach within walking distance here, and everyone takes advantage of it. Now, let me tell you something. The first time we went, it was late in the afternoon of a very hot day and I was very cranky. So this time, I really didn't want to go, but I did so anyway. I am glad that I did. It was worth it this time. We left for the beach at about 4:00 4:30 yesterday afternoon and walked the beach. It's about a 15-20 minute walk, and we have to go through a beautiful park to do so. We ended up taking a lot of pictures, both in the park and at the beach. It's cool though, I told you that people here love taking pictures with us and shaking our hands, right? Well, in the park, a man pulled his two little boys up to us and asked us to shake their hands. We did so, then he asked if we could take a picture with them. It was kind of cute, as the littlest boy didn't want to shake our hands or take a picture with us. :) Then once we got down to the beach, Oliver was taking pictures of Lizzie, Kendra, and I and another family, a mother this time, brought up her two little girls to take pictures with us. Only this time, I took the pictures, as did Oliver, and we just showed her the pictures. So if you even just show them the pictures here, they're happy. It's pretty cool.

A really cool, old Lighthouse that they have
on the beach. It's not in use anymore, but it
looks awesome!

We then walked about the beach, taking pictures and being dorks. Just doing things that everyone does at the beach, and we finally found Weston and Jamie. We had gotten separated from them in the park, but we all ended up near the lighthouse that is one the beach there. So we took pictures of everyone and just enjoyed our time there. By the time we started heading back, it was getting dark and the crabs were coming out. There were sand crabs EVERYWHERE! They're the same colour as the sand, right? So you can just barely see

them, especially with the light leaving. But it was cool to just watch them scurry out of the way as we walked along to beach back to the park. There was a funny part though. The sand crabs are usually pretty good at moving out of the way so as not to get stepped on. But one moved in the exact wrong direction, and Jamie stepped on it! I have no idea why I thought that was funny, but it was! Jamie had stepped on crab. :)

I'm glad to tag along with the health students whenever possible, but I'm actually starting up on my own work now. I had my first interview today with a man named Dr. Sutta Paul. He's an anthropology professor at Andhra University and he's very interested in the caste system, and knows a lot about it, but he does not like it. he's very much against the caste system. But he is helping me understand how it works and what sorts of things happen in cross-caste marriage and what sorts of cross-caste marriages are allowed more often than others. He's going to be an excellent source for my project.

So that was a lot of adventures yesterday, and the beach was awesome!

Talk to you soon,

Ashley

Picture Time

I figured I should try and upload some pictures today. That way everyone can see what it is that I'm doing here. At least some of what I'm doing. And don't worry, I'll be adding more pictures as time goes on! :)

Talk to you soon,
Ashley :)

There are other girls that I am sharing an apartment with:
Kendra on the left, Lizzie in the center, and Jamie with
Momoksha on the right. They're all working on a diabetes
project with one of the guys, Oliver.

Temple at Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony

Durga, our cook, wearing her new apron that we gave
her as a gift.

This is Siddhu and he's Durga's oldest boy. 

Two skulls of an adult baleen whale and a baby baleen
whale that we saw that the department at Zoology at Andhra
University, where one of our translators, Suddha, works.

This is Oliver, the guy working on the diabetes project with
the girls that I share an apartment with. He's standing in
front of the Sai Baba temple. It's across the street from the
house of one of my informants.

CATTLE!!! There are literally cows, cattle, water buffalo, just
about everywhere here! It's kind of cool, you just have to watch
your step to make sure you don't step in a cow pie... O.o

Andhra University and FINALLY!!! a Rain Storm

So this was my adventure yesterday. Me and three of the other students here actually went to the local university here, Andhra University to meet some of the other public health and anthropology students that could help us with our research. It was really cool, as I was actually able to talk to college age students about cross-caste marriages. It's works a lot differently than I initially thought it would, but that's why I'm here, to learn what is actually happening. And I also got invited to an cross-caste marriage ceremony that will be happening later this month. I'm excited to go, as I'll be able to see an actual wedding ceremony and then ask is there are any differences compared to an endo-caste marriage, which is what our translators have. So this was excellent to do, make contacts with some of the local students as well as find out what it is that they are studying at the moment.

Me and some local boys after
the rainstorm

That was the main adventure, but what made yesterday really nice was that we actually had a rain storm roll into town. It was nice and cool for the rest of the day. It started at about mid-afternoon and only went for about half an hour, but it cooled off for the rest of the day. So much so that I wasn't sweating at all for the last few hours of the day, which is an amazing accomplishment here. And my shower, well, if you can call dumping water on yourself from a bucket a shower, was actually a little bit cold at first, but then I got used to the water again. The showers usually aren't bad, as we can't wait to just pour water on us as it's so hot, but last night I was a bit hesitant to do so at first but then I got over it. And I was able to go to sleep and stay asleep without feeling like I'm just laying there sweating through everything either. So it was a better night than most. I hope that it rains more often, which is will once monsoon season comes, but I would like for it to rain more before then.

Sorry for the short post today, not a lot going on. But some days will be like that, which is okay. Not everything in life has to be a race. Which is something that I can live with.

Talk to you soon,

Ashley

Money Changing and Driving Like an Indian

Yep, that was my adventure yesterday. I had to exchange some dollars for rupees so I went there Indian style. Hanging onto the back of a moped and lots of honking in traffic. It was really kind of fun actually. I was riding on the back of Dr. Nuckolls's moped and something that I noticed as we were driving to the bank was that people here honk differently. Let me explain. People in America honk to say "move out of the way moron!" whereas people here, for the most part, honk to say "I'm here, don't hit me." It's more of an alert system then a show people how pissed off you are system.

And changing money was really interesting. I had to fill out forms, show them my passport, give them my bills, they gave me a brass token, I then had to take the brass token to a teller and he would give me money. So a lot longer process to exchange money here than in the United States. But there was air conditioning in the bank, so I was okay with that. :)

I also met my first contact yesterday for my research project which is great! I was able to meet and talk to him as well as get a lot of information to start off. I'll be meeting with him later in the week in order to keep talking to him as well as others that he, and Krishnayya-garu, have thought of that I can talk to. So I'm off to a great start.

So yeah, that was my adventure yesterday. I'll have to see what today brings!

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

P.S. I'll upload pictures as soon as possible! Promise!

Momoksha's Rice Feeding Ceremony

Yes, that's right, a rice feeding ceremony!

So yesterday was interesting! We were able to go to an old Hindu temple for Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony. Momoksha is the baby of Durga, the cook, and Ranju, the laundry man. Momoksha is about 6 or 7 months old. Hindu's have this ceremony where they bless the baby and his family and this is where they set up objects that he will crawl to that will represent his life and they feed him his first rice. It's almost like a baby blessing in our religion. But before we got to all of that, we actually got to go inside the inner sanctum of the temple where the shrine of the god Krishna, I think, was. Not many people get to do that, and those that do either have to pay a lot of money to do so or have very influenctial friends. Which is what we had, a friend of Dr. Nuckolls was able to arrange it so that we could go in.

Once inside, we listened to a ceremony that I think had to do with the birthday of the god, so it was a longer ceremony than usual. We were also blessed by the temple priests.

When that was done, we headed outside to a pillar, that Dr. Nuckolls said that when you hug it, it's supposed to bless you with many pregnancies. That was interesting to participate in as well, as you have to hug the pillar, then they said that if you hold a wish in your hear when they bless you again, your wish will come true.

After the pillar hugging, we headed to the area where we could watch Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony. Now that was really cool! We all sat around as the temple priest went through the ritual, blessing Momoksha and his family, as well as Momoksha's future. When he was done with that, Sallaja, one of the servants that works for the house, set up a series of objects when Momoksha would crawl towards and pick. The first three that he picked would be what influenced his life. It was cool to see that he was actually looking at everything to see what they were before he chose them. The first three that he picked were money, a book and pen, and flowers. The money represents him going after money, or having money in his life. The book and pen represents knowledge, and the flowers represent the appreciation of beauty. So he did really well. And you could tell that everyone, even those just walking by, were really getting into the ceremony. When Momoksha chose the objects everyone was cheering. I think it scared him a little as he pouted when everyone started to cheer. But he's such a happy baby! And so cute!

We were also intereviewed by three journalists yesterday! Which was kind of cool. Well, not really interviewed, but we had our pictures taken and one of them showed up online. I hopefully will be able to get a hold of it so that you can see.

So yeah, that was my day! I hope that everything is going well with everyone else!

Talk to you soon,
Ashley

Holy Crap! Guess Where I Am????

Yes, if you guessed INDIA! then you are correct! I am officially in India and I have been for about two days now. And let's just say that a lot has happened in the past two days...well, five days, if you count the days that I traveled.

So on Thursday, May 8th I left Provo, UT and stated my journey that would eventually land me in here in Vizag, India. I first went to Chicago, where I would catch a 15 hour plane flight to Hyderabad, India. But I first had to spend the night in Chicago. Let's just say that I wish I had taken my husband's advice and stayed in a hotel for that night, but I am stubborn and didn't. I didn't sleep much that night and so was very tired. Once on the plane, I figured that I would sleep once I was on the plane....NOPE! I watched four movies, ate three airplane meals, read my book, napped some, and looked out the window. Not necessarily in that order either.

After we landed in Hyderabad, I again had to wait over night in an airport for the plane that would take me to Vizag. That wait wasn't as bad, as it was only for a few hours, but I had a desperate need for sleep...I really needed sleep, but I didn't. I stayed up and finished my second book, The Book Thief. Now that was a good book. And the plane ride to Vizag from Hyderabad was only about an hour, so not too bad at all. But my first day in India was May 11th. It took me three days to get to India, but I got here safe and sound. And once I got over the fact that I was in India, it was pretty great actually. I think I'm going to love it here, but when the time comes, I'll be excited to go back home.

But my first day in India was May 11th, Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day Momma!!!

I was able to borrow Dr. Krishnayya's, the professor here that helps with the India Study Abroad program, phone and call home. As I didn't want to use all of his minutes, I just called to say hi and that I had made it to India and to wish my mom a happy Mother's Day. I really hope that she did have a good one. After that, we had lunch and while the others went to church, I went back to the apartment and slept. I slept for about 5 hours as when I woke up, it was time for dinner. As the staff that helps out with the program doesn't work on Sundays, Dr. Nuckolls took all of us out to eat at a nearby restaurant.

But before we went out to eat, we actually went and participated in a Krishna temple ceremony that was happening down the street. That was interesting actually, there was a lot of singing by the men, we walked in a circle around the shrine, we then drank holy water and had some sort of rice pudding and a type of rice called Tiger's Food. The last part was my favorite, but that was because I was hungry.

Now the food at the temple and the restaurant was excellent! I love the food here, it's spicy and it's also healthy. I'm pretty sure that this will most likely be the time when I'll eat the healthiest food. After we ate we headed back to the apartment and I promptly feel back asleep. Didn't wake up till about 6:30 this morning.

Now today, we had our first Telugu class. What struck me as most interesting about that was that it behaves a lot like Navajo. Just let me explain, and you'll understand. Navajo is a tonal language; Telugu is a tonal language. Navajo uses a single word to describe something, like "younger brother" for example; Telugu also uses a single word to say "younger brother." I think I'll have an easier time with Telugu that I thought I would.

We also went out shopping as I needed native clothes and it just gives us a chance to get to know our translators. As soon as I learn to spell their names correctly, I'll tell you. I also got some really pretty clothes. Once I have pictures, I promise to upload them so that you can see how beautiful they are. If that's one thing a fashionista would like about India, they have wonderful and admirable clothes here.

And now I'm in an Internet cafe writing this blog entry up. I hope this gives you a slight idea of my life here.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley :)

Getting Ready: Nervous and Excited and so many other things.....

In order to get this blog ready for this summer, I should probably fill you in on what is going to be happening this summer. I am going to be going to Visakhapatnam, INDIA!!! It's a bit scary to be honest...but also exciting! This will be my first time leaving the country, in way shape or form that requires a passport and visa and plane tickets and so many other things. Let me tell you now, I AM NOT A FAN OF VISAS!!! I really, really don't like visas, unless I have more time in order to acquire said visa. Otherwise, I never want to do this again. Okay, I take that back, I would love to do this again, I just now know what would be required of me to leave the country...and the timeline required to do these things. Also, I don't like getting immunizations.

So, there's that. Moving on! This past weekend was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' General Conference. I love General Conference, it's actually one of my favorite times of the year, the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October. It's a time when the leaders of my church, President Thomas S. Monson, the Twelve Apostles, and other leaders in the church speak to the members of this church over a series of topics, from the Atonement of Jesus Christ, to repentance, to relying on Christ, and many other things. It's during these times that I relearn how much I love this gospel! Between now and October, I will again forget how much I love this church, but that is why I love General Conference! It reminds me that there is a lot to learn from this time that we have here on earth and I need to take advantage of it. That's part of the reason why I'm going to India actually. I have to for school, obviously, but this will probably be my one and only time that I'll visit a country on the other side of the world for three months and I want to learn all that I can while I am there.

I actually have a friend there right now. She's on the same program that I am going to be doing, the India Study Abroad program, and she's been keeping a blog about her time while there in India. And that something that I want to do as well. I want to be able to write down as much as I can about my days while I am there as well as record my experiences for others to see and read about while I am gone. So that's part of the reason why I started this new blog, that, and I have a new email address so I figured should have my blog with that email address. Just makes a lot more sense.

That's about all that's going on in my life at the moment. Yes, I know, this post is very jumpy and just all over the place, but it's late at night so I'm blaming sleepiness.

Talk to you soon,
Ashley