Week One: I like it.

Today, today is a good India day. I woke up from my first full night's sleep since I arrived, made my breakfast and sat in an old rickety chair in front of our house and enjoyed my granola and milk. As I sat there, a peacock waltzed through our gate and did his daily parade through our little community of bungalows. A little later two monkeys galloped through beneath the drying laundry. Our yard dogs were missing, four of them hang around, two of them bullies and two of them sweet and shy. One of which has a tendency of dancing with one of my roommates when she gets him all riled up before feeding him a biscuit in the morning. The dogs recognize her on our walk to school, she takes everyone's extra food and puts it in a doggie bag after every meal. Every night they whine and bark and fight. As I lie in my bed I usually imagine two gangs heading toward one another like something out of west side story, only instead of music, they make awful obnoxious noises. I currently live with five other exchange students: two from Slovakia, two from Germany and one from Holland. Three of us are getting kicked out in the beginning of january and are moving into a little flat elsewhere.

This morning four of us went to the Sunday market in the Old City below a bridge. Loads of people swarm carts full of things, so many things. Goats, bunnies in cages, tons of clothes, metal pots, bike seats and wheels. As we wandered we became like a walking attraction. Crowds of men would form around us, everyone wanted pictures and handshakes. It was so strange. Ahmedabad doesn't see many tourists, a few only pass through because its where ghandi began his march. Everyone is yelling at you and trying to make you buy the most ridiculous things (like tiny little boys jackets, only 20 rupees?!?! I'll take it!) One woman jokingly tried to sell us her son. Everyone laughed. When you do buy something, everyone around you helps out. However it was a pretty stressful venture, I had to shoo away a little girl was trying to get into my bag, her mother behind her, encouraging her. It can be really hard here sometimes.

I arrived after spending 15 hours in a plane over an 18 hour period at a run down airport. I was met by workers in doctor's masks who held up a device to my forehead, they however did not steal my brain, but were checking my temperature, to make sure I did not infest India with swine flu. After being herded around through various fences in one big room I finally arrived at the baggage claim. People were swarming the luggage, which seemed to belong to no one, as giant hard black suitcases endlessly circled. After about 30 minutes, I managed to be one of the first to leave, I walked out of the airport onto a ground of sandy dirt to a wall of Indian faces behind a metal barrier. Lindsay (my gaurdian angel for the first few days) called out my name and we caught an autorickshaw for the ride home. (This is the main form of transportation, these little green three wheeled vehicles.)

I don't think I blinked the whole way to her flat. Swerving through mazes of bicycles, motorbikes, rickshaws, cars and people, the autorickshaw honked its way through ahmedabad. Everyone is swerving to not hit each other. There are no lights, the right of way is given to which ever side has the most cars. I got stuck in a 15 minute complete gridlock once. We passed walls of concrete buildings plastered in advertisements in half english and half hindi (or possibly guarauti, not that I can tell the difference, but there is one). I managed to sleep a few hours and woke to the muted sounds of honking and pigeons cooing. I opened the doors of the lindsay's balcony to a red sun rising over towers of balconies with buildings as far as the haze would allow you to see.

It smelled different, the air felt different, it sounded different. I liked it. There are days when India feels like it may suffocate me with all of noise and the dust and the new, and there have been days were I cease to be amazed and delighted by everything. I feel like the week flew by, but it feels like its been months since I left. The first day I saw my first bollywood movie in theatre. A father-son acting pair switched roles and the son was the father of the father who played a boy with an aging disorder. With the few snip-its of english I got the gist of the entire movie. I also took my first bucket shower, the Indian way of washing. My hair may be dreads by the time I leave. The next day I visited the campus, I knew then, that I would be okay. Its like a green island in the middle of the dense bustling city. The buildings are incredible, designed by doshi (who is a contemporary of le corbusier and kahn, who have done so much work here as well). Its green hills, and endless outdoor seating areas along with its big open studios, is a retreat to say the least. Its also got a wonderful canteen, (where I can eat for about a dollar a day) which acts as the watering hole where everyone always is. I'm lucky to be in a city with SO much to see, especially in terms of architecture. But I like how it isn't tourist central, people try to screw you over less, and its a lot safer.

Its dusty and dirty everywhere. There are no addresses you find things by names of crossroads along in combination with asking people and following gestures. My lazy tongue gets me in a lot of trouble, I am so bad at remembering and repeating the names of things. Eventually, I hope, I'll get the hang of it. Luckily the weather is incredible, it rarely rarely rains here so everyday is bright and sunny, midday it gets to about 85-90 but the mornings and evenings are refreshing, it'll get cooler still and then heat up around the end of february, by the time April 25th arrives, I'll be ready for the cool air of Germany. Besides the people selling seriously creepy santa masks and hats on the street, there is nothing to remind me of Christmas. But I did pass one of the few posh shopping malls here to see it decked out in decorations. I went to one that was slightly less ritzy, my jaw dropped, Indian style western malls are ridiculous. Around a big open square are five floors of stores, It just felt so strange being there, there's a mcdonald's and papa john's and an Australian cookie shop (I didn't know they specialized in cookies) and Apple Computer Dealer. Nothing here is ever really western, its all a little off. I like it in that way, our professor told us shopping malls have failed here. India refuses to be branded in such a way. Every street corner is a mall. you'll find two of everything at one junction. Two photo Stores, Three shops with plasticwares, four atms, ten cafes, two coffee shops, and god knows what else. In every row of food vendors you'll find at least two signs that are exactly the same.

Animal Count: one elephant, one peacock, four camels, loads of monkeys, multiple goats, bunnies and birds in cages, I've become friends with the numerous stray dogs and am still attempting to befriend the campus cat.

In conclusion, I like India.