Day 3 through 4 of My Trip through North India

So, I need to continue my latest blog posting...my last major trip in India. I've been lazy lately and haven't updated like I should have been doing. But I'm fixing that now!

Now, to continue:

Day Three - Amritsar

If you remember, when I last left you, I was just getting on the sleeper train to head to our next destination city, Amritsar. We had 10 hours to kill on the train, and we were all split on too. I was luckily next to Jeannie and Stephen, so I wasn't completely by myself, which I am very thankful for. It's hard enough to be in a foreign country without being left alone on a train as well.

So, I had the top bunk on my side of the compartment, while Stephen and Jeannie had the two bunks next to me, only they were across the way. And since it was a sleeper train, we all settled in to just relax and read or do whatever it was that we could in our little bunks. It was also a time where we could get some food. I was STARVING as well! But me, I was worried about my money a bit...I didn't really want to spend a lot of money, so I bought a candy bar first. I, naively, thought that it would keep me filled up till we got to Amritsar the next day. Sadly, Stephen then had to buy dinner
and that just smelled HEAVENLY! I had to buy it and eat some actual food. Warm food too, mind you. Let me just say, it was delicious and I was really glad that I had bought actual food. And it was funny as well. Jeannie had an interesting way of eating her food. But that's just what you have to do when you're really hungry and want to eat food without spilling it everywhere and letting it go flying onto the train floor.

Once we were all feed, it was by the time that we were all settling down to sleep and hopefully rest enough to enjoy seeing the Golden Temple the next day. So, that's what we did. We all did random things, reading, working, listening to music, writing in our journals (well, I did), and all the other things, and we all just turned in to bed. Now, let me tell you...sleeping on these sleeper trains...so not comfortable. Nor is it so easy to get a deep night's sleep. I swear, while I may have slept for a full six hours, I didn't sleep deeply the way a person should.


We end up in Amritsar the next morning at about 6:30 in the morning. We make out way to the free bus ride that's near the train station to take us to the Golden Temple. That was a heaven send actually, as we didn't have to pay for a rickshaw. And when we got there, we all had to cover our heads in some way. The girls all had scarves, and the boys had to wear these pirate head wraps. It was kind of cool to wear the scarves in the way I've seen some girls wear them. A cool thing about the Golden Temple was that, even though were a lot of people in the area, and there was a lot of talking, but the thing was that it was a noisy quiet. It was beautifully reverent and quiet and just a nice place in general. Compared to a lot of the other religious sites that I've gone and seen and just been around in general during my time in India, this was one of the more spiritually reverent and connected places that I've seen. Let's just say, it was one of my favourite places to be on our trip.

After we had visited, and walked about the complex, as well as actually go inside the temple (which was pretty cool!), it was about 8:00, maybe 8:30 in the morning. Let's just say, that by this time, we were all STARVING!! There was a McDonald's close by, so we all trooped over there with our super super heavy backpacks, and ordered some hotcakes (pancakes) with the hash brown thingie and this really cheap, crappy orange juice drink that said it was Minute Maid orange juice. Yuck.

Once everyone had eaten, we all split off into groups. Lizzie and Oliver went off one way, Stephen, Jamie, and Westen went of to see the Indian/Pakistani broader. That left Kendra, Jeannie, and I in a group by ourselves. We wandered around Amritsar, looking at all the booths that sold those random little necklaces and trinkets and things like that. All three of us eventually got bored and ended back at McDonald's, just talking and waiting for the others to show up. By the time everyone did, we decided that we wanted to eat at Domino's for lunch, which was delicious! Pizza in India seems to just a little bit better than the pizza here. But that may just have been because I really really missed American food.

When we were done with lunch, we headed back to the train station to board our sleeper train for our 17 hour train ride. Now, that was a LONG train ride. I read for most of the trip, being in a top bunk again. I got quite a ways through the fourth Game of Thrones book, "A Feast for Crows". I then proceeded to fall asleep.

Day 4 - Jaipur

We roll into Jaipur. Let's just say that the after two nights on sleeper trains and not showering....we were SO happy to get to Jaipur. And our hotel. Which also had a Western shower. HALL-AFRICKEN'-LUEIGH! (if I even spelled that right...). It was so nice to shower and just let it feel like I'm a clean human being again. So, all the girls are in one room, and the boys and Stephen and Jeannie were in another room. When we were all clean humans again, we got ready to set out for the day. The first thing that we did was eat breakfast! I was starving and it was good to have some actual food.

The guards outside the Textile Museum.

We first headed off to a place called City Palace. It was a big museum place. There was a textile

Just some cool looking
architecture.

museum, an artillery museum, as well as a place that sold a lot of hand made items for very expensive. And I mean very expensive. But it was still a good place to just wander around and see what's what.

When we were done wandering around City Palace, we started trying to find other places to explore. We actually tried going to see another museum to explore, but we ended up getting lost. When we figured that out, we headed to a place near City Palace called the Palace of the Winds. There was a lot of little shops right out front, all along the street. There was so many things that you could buy from cheap little elephant keychains to these awesome genie pants! We all ended up buying at least one thing on the way there. I got a scarf for my grandma, bartered all the way from 600 rupees to 300 rupees. I also bartered for a nightie from 800 rupees to 150 rupees. Am I good or what? ;)

The view from the top at the temple.

A mother and her child at Monkey
Temple

Anyway, after we went through all the shops, we decided that we could either head up to the Monkey Temple or back to the hotel to rest and then the Monkey Temple. We decided that going to the Monkey Temple then back to the hotel would be a better course of action as then we wouldn't be wasting as much money. Monkey Temple was pretty cool though. It was a long walk up to the temple and there were monkeys everywhere! And when we got to the actual temple, it was a beautiful site to see! To see all of Jaipur below as well the sky at the sun was heading towards sunset. It was just a wonderful site to see! And the monkeys were kind of funny as well. There weren't a lot of monkeys up at the temple, but on our way down, we saw a TON of monkeys. And we got to feed them. They were so used to humans coming around and just giving out food that they were would just come up and grab the bag of peanuts right out of your hand. It happened to Jamie. A monkey stole both of her bags right out of her hand and ran off with them. Luckily, Westen was brave enough to go after it and get at least one bag back for her. It was kind of crazy at the same time.

We get back to our hotel, and we eat at the restaurant that the hotel has in it for dinner. And then we just chilled in Stephen and Jeannie's room for a while, watching their TV as it actually worked before we all headed to bed. It was a wonderful first day in Jaipur.

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