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