Nov 27th: Leaving in 4 days

Things I'll Miss About India:

- The ACM Staff being my proxy parents (making me snacks, hugging me, telling me my crafts are nice)
- Tri-Daily chaha-sutti (tea break)
- Buying a coconut after yoga practice, having the man open it with a machete and drinking it right at the cart
- The ability to get clothes custom tailored for me for practically no money
- Exchange rates
- Rice and dal with every meal
- Not being allowed to wash dishes
- Not actually having real academic commitments
- Walking to school every day
- Riding on motorcycles/mopeds (sorry mother)
- Having people be unreasonably thrilled that i'm online/accessible at the same time as them
- Kinder-brand products

Nov 24th: I shaved my legs for this

I Can't Believe it's the Farewell Dinner Already

Top: Priyanka, our Bollywood teacher, and I
Bottom: Elizabeth and I represent how we were not trained to behave like proper indian ladies. 

Nov 21st: Reverse-reverse culture shock

Things in London That Reminded me of India (or Mordor):

Nov 19th: I'm sick again

At least my  host mother did not try to give me lukewarm, salted buttermilk this time.
i'm also too tired to use my keypad/mouse to make font size and formatting changes. pity me.

 sorry t, i wouldn't wear your bellatrix lestrange boots.

this font was art nouveau inspired. the food was inspired by angels. or the british. either one.  

Nov 14th: Culture Shock

Surprise: I went to London for Diwali break

There was a little bit of culture shock. Mostly in being able to say things to people and have them know what I was saying. 

Nov 7th: Frogs

 Yes, mother, these are directly influenced by my surroundings.

Nov 4th: Mahabaleshwar

Besides being the capital of British colonialism, I don't really understand what Mahabaleshwar is. 

 There were a lot of strawberries/strawberries in cream

 SURPRISE you're in latin america! 

Yeah I have no idea what this place was.

I would never have thought that all three of these pictures were taken in the same location. 

Oct 31st: Hapz Halloween Ya'll

In which my host-ai doesn't understand what halloween is and tells me "Happy Howler!"when I leave for school:

Our program director did give us candy, however. 

Oct 30th: Konkan Coast

Everything is Beautiful:

 We biked 43 miles up the Konkan Coast of Maharastra this weekend. I don't know if it's because I grew up in flatlands IL and then went to school in cornfields WI, but I will never ceased to be amazed by mountains. 

I also can't feel my butt anymore. 

HOW I KNOW I'VE BEEN IN INDIA FOR A LONG TIME:

- The puppies that live in the courtyard where we practice yoga are almost as big as their mother

- My hair is so long that I don't need bobby pins to hold it together in a braid anymore

- They finished paving the road on my way to school. So now I don't have to walk in puddles of trash 

- I no longer have to surpress my gag reflex while watching my host mom eat yogurt/rice mush with her hands 

- I'm more used to being covered in sweat than not

- My first mosquito bite scars are beginning to fade

- Monsoon season is over 

- Sunita has completed the arduous task of navigating the Indian bureaucratic system to get her ration-card (the document that says that she exists.) 

- I finished my biscuit drawing. 

Oct 25th: Biscuits

A sketchbook update: 

a: I really like biscuits (price in rupees and ranking out of ten included)
b: ACM is really a chaco nation
c: This is being posted for Deborah, who requested more shapes. 

Oct 23rd: Another holiday I don't understand

So I don't really understand what the holiday tomorrow is, (it's been explained to me as worshipping our weapons, exchanging leaves but calling them gold, being an auspicious day to purchase items, a day to bless your technological tools, and a day that soldiers return? what?) but I do know that there must not be any marigolds left anywhere else in the world because they are all at the market on my way to school: 

Oct 22nd: Goa 2012

A Pictorial Timeline (in Summary) 

 First we did a lot of this

 Then we did a lot of this

 Then there was a little bit of this

But mostly a lot of this 

But I also have a question: 

Of this picture, which would you be more likely to stare, gawk, and blatantly take pictures of even when you are sworn at and told to go away by their male friends? 

Did you say A: the mystically garbed shaman woman wearing multiple scarves and flashing mirrors, or B: the white girl in the bikini.

If you said B, then you are indeed every Indian male who inhabits Goa! Congratulations! 

Oct 18th: Autumn

I miss Autumn.

The one tree in India that changes colors

There are also some questions that I  ask myself on the reg:

- How short of a distance is too short to ask a rickshaw to take you without them judging you for being a lazy?

- How on EARTH did a piece of actual feces get into Martha Allen's food at the dining establishment that we (used to) frequent on the daily? ACTUAL. FECES.

- Which is really more sanitary? Toilet paper or a bidet?

- Should I begin transcribing my interviews or should I watch the two episodes of 30 Rock I have saved on my computer?

- What should I wear that will dry quickly from my sweat, stretch enough for yoga, and adhere to Indian standards of modesty while still looking stylish? Oh, nothing? Running leggings and a tshirt it is. 

- When can I next eat nutella toast? 

Oct 15th: This entry

Is intended to unsettle my parents: 

 Do you see that narrow stairwell? The one that doesn't have an official sign? That's where I do my printing. 

 This is where I buy biscuits.

 I get to cross wonderful eight lane highway twice a day.

Sorry you have a leper for a daughter. I can't stop scratching my mosquito bites. 

Oct 11th: Things I Didn't Know

About Indian Culture Before I Came Here:

1.  Married women are signified by black beaded necklaces and rings on the second toe. Some rural cultures also put a line of red powder in the part of their hair
2. Indians don't feel obligated to give you change. If you have a large bill, you might be screwed. Sometimes, if they don't have the coins, they will give you a little candy, or a pack of gum. I once got a 5 rupee stamp instead of change. 
3. All their dinnerware is aluminum. All of it.
4. In a lot of situations there are separate sections for males and females. Trains have women/children only cars and festivals have gender segregated dancing sections. (the women's dancing sections are boring and they suck. patriarchal societies ya'll.)
5. The whole culture is about as homophobic as the mid 70's/early 80's, but boys and men who are friends will often hold hands with each other in public. They also ride double, or even triple, on motor cycles. 
6. All milk, unless otherwise marked, is buffalo milk.
7. Hermaphrodites or "transgenders" are almost all part of a community called "hijras" which are synonymous with beggars and prostitutes. 
8. Don't eat your rice with your chappati/naan. Stop even thinking about it right now. JUST DON'T DO IT. 

Oct 8th: I FOUND A PUPPY

 Some classroom sketches I have been working on for a while. I have an actual shapes addiction now. Shapes and Biscuits.

BUT WHILE I WAS WALKING AROUND PUNE UNIVERSITY I FOUND A PUPPY!!! I also have fleas now probably. Totally worth it. 

Oct 7th: Temples

I've been to tens of temples. TENS. (I've been trying this new thing where I don't constantly speak in hyperbole. It's not going well, obviously.) But of all the idols, shrines, and altars i've seen, this is my favorite:

Hahahahahaha. I don't even know what god this is. He just cracks me up for some reason. 

Oct 5th: Some pretty things

That I Haven't Posted to Facebook Because No One Cares:

Just let me re-live my high school delusions of thinking that I was good at photography

Yeah, I like the Rule of Thirds. Wanna make something of it?

Oct 1st: Directions

In the past two days

I've been stopped twice on the street and asked about directions. I have no idea what these people are thinking. I could hardly direct you to the Woodmans in Appleton, much less the Shivajinagar Bus Stand. 

Is THIS the face of a strong-hearted Pune resident who can fearlessly direct you on your journey?

 No. No it is not. 

Sept 28th: An India craft

This may have happened while I was ill and didn't want to leave my room

The stole is from Pune Festival, a performance/festival for Gunpati that treated us like VIPs because we were, with some obvious exclusions, white.  I wore my new shirt to school and the Indian ACM workers loved it. They said I should make these weird, rave-esque, gauds for everyone. 

Sept 26th: Sometimes

In a country where unscheduled lectures are frequent and transportation is reliant on rickshaw drivers accepting your pleas for a ride, one channels all of their control-related insecurities into drawing shapes.