Being a Tourist in Agra

These past 10 days have been pretty incredible.
Last weekend, 10 of us went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. After an incredibly long bus journey that involved a 4-way intersection on the highway, getting lost, and discovering that we had a big blue flashing light on top of it, we got to our hotel only to discover that they had sold our rooms. Naturally, this was after they had taken us up to the rooftop restaurant that has a view of the Taj. They had booked us rooms at an unnamed hotel across town and wanted us to get in rickshaws (tuk-tuks) to make the journey. This was not OK considering it was about 10:30 PM and we were in an unfamiliar city that has a reputation for being sketchy. With the help of a member of the program staff via cell phone and our bus driver, we made it over eventually and all was well.
The next morning we set out to see the Taj. Our new hotel was close enough to walk, so we made the journey along with countless other tourists. We get to the East Gate entryway, and are informed that you actually had to purchase tickets 1 KM back. We were unaware of this fact, but our bus driver offered to go back and get the tickets for us, and rolls up about 20 minutes later on a motorcycle with our tickets, bottles of water, and little red booties to put over our shoes. Looking back on it, we had a pretty cool buildup to actually seeing the Taj in person: first seeing it from the rooftop of the hotel that wasn't, then walking up with the masses, and finally getting through security and walking through the gate. It surpasses any hopes I had for how beautiful I thought it would be in person. It looks unreal against the sky, and no picture could ever do it justice (but here's one anyway):

The only thing that was anticlimactic was the inside - it was a small, circular area filled with people so it was uncomfortable and stuffy. But I wasn't expecting much anyway - I figured that if the inside was spectacular I would have heard something about it before then. So after we had made it through the inside, we sat ourselves down on a ledge to relax and enjoy the scenery for a few minutes. All of a sudden, a group of Thai tourists comes up to us and asks to take "just one photo." We said yes without realizing that "just one photo" means one photo per person, per camera. So we were trapped smiling with random strangers' arms around our shoulders for a good 5 minutes. No less than 30 seconds after they walked away, a giant group of Sikh men in brightly colored turbans comes up and asks to take pictures with us too. So we say yes again. This process continued for about 10-15 minutes because we got in on the fun too - when were we ever going to be surrounded by Sikhs in brightly colored turbans again? Though an enjoyable experience, when that was done we decided to move before we became a permanent sideshow to the Taj.
Seeing the Taj was the first time that I had ever been to an Islamic religious site of any kind. It was a weird realization to have because it was something I had never thought about before but I think is interesting.
After the Taj we headed to the Agra Fort, which was equally beautiful and seemed to go on forever. It also had a view of the Taj, which was beautiful except for the intense haze. I definitely could have spent the afternoon there - someone said that it felt like a giant playground for grownups. At one point a few of us were sitting somewhere and surprise! A giant group of Indian tourists swarms us for photos. We (stupidly) said yes and spent what felt like forever being pulled around and by the various members of the group looking for a photo opportunity. They finally left and a few minutes later another group just came up to us, sat down, put their arms around us and started taking pictures. They didn't even ask permission or acknowledge that we were humans. Which, of course, was incredibly frustrating and prompted me to get up and walk away without saying anything.
By the time we left it was about 4:30 and any other monuments in Agra would be closing soon, so we just went back to the hotel. That night, there was a wedding across the street - at the Leprosy Research Institute, which I found confusing, funny, and somewhat disturbing. Not my first choice for wedding venues. A parade went down the street in front of our hotel and we could hear music for most of the night.
On the way back to Jaipur the next day, we stopped at Fatehpur Sekret, an Islamic holy site/World Heritage site along the way. It didn't cost anything to get in because it's still an active pilgrimage site, but that also meant that street vendors could come in and try to sell us stuff the whole time. So though I wish it had been more regulated for my own touristy pleasure, I can definitely understand why it isn't.

Flavors of the World Cup

The Cricket World Cup is coming up soon (or it may have already started. I'm not really up on the cricketeering world), and Lay's has put out 6 new flavors of chips representing 6 of the countries playing: England, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and India. The flavor of each is supposed to represent the country: England's Grilled Cheese, India's Masala, etc. The idea is that eating each chip (sold only in packs of 5 so far as I've seen) will allow you to experience the country's national cuisine/ethos, though the vehicle through which you do so is a decidedly western creation. I think it's really interesting and a pretty genius marketing ploy, and I'm surprised they (or another company) hasn't tried something like this in the US for the Olympics or another big sporting event.

Weddings, Cricket, Etc.

One of our program staff members, Minojji, has a friend who sells saris wholesale. On Friday, he sent over a whole bunch of saris for us to look at and buy for really cheap. I got mine for 450 rupees, which really impressed my homestay mother so I consider it to be a good deal. On top of that, my friend Sophie's homestay sister runs this furniture/jewelery/accessories business and had a whole bunch of bangles at her house that she sold to us for 50% off. Those two deals definitely make up for the overpriced shoes earlier this week. Anyway, after borrowing a sari petticoat, necklace and a pair of "danglers" (earrings that aren't studs) from my homestay sister, I was all decked out and ready for the wedding on Friday night.
It was my homestay mother's cousin's son that was getting married, so my homestay sister and I went. The rest of the group got invited as well because a few other families are a part of the extended family. The actual wedding had happened a few days earlier in the bride's town; what we were attending was a reception. It was separated by genders: the women sat in a tent off to the left, and the men sat on sofas that were arranged kind of like little living rooms set up all over the venue. The bride wore a pink sari, and her face was covered the whole time. You could go and lift up the veil to look at her, but I thought that was kind of weird. She had to keep her eyes down the whole time, and had to look very reserved. The groom wore a bright yellow-orange turban and had a sword. It was an arranged marriage, and my sister said that they had probably met only once or twice before the wedding day. She told me later that love matches are becoming more common, but that arranged marriages are still frequent as well. Families try to match based on education, job, etc. This whole week I've heard her making matchmaking calls for someone so I'm interested to see where that goes. Interesting fact: In arranged marriages, the bride's family proposes to the groom's family for the match, but the groom's family still holds all the power in that they can turn down the proposal. I thought this was really interesting because even though the guy proposes to the girl in America, it's still usually that he has the power in the situation. Two different systems, same balance of power. Anyway, the reception consisted mostly of food and chatting, and delicious pistachio ice cream that I had to chase around my plate with the little wooden stick they gave me to eat it with. I didn't bring my camera but after we got home my sister took a bunch of pictures of me and then my homestay mom took one of us together:

On Saturday SIT threw a welcome party for us. We drove to this beautiful fort outside of Jaipur surrounded by all this greenery and spent the day wandering around the fort, playing cricket (I was impressed by how well I ended up doing at batting. Bowling (pitching) was an entirely different story.), having a dance party to a mix of hindi hip hop/pop/techno and random American songs like Mambo No. 5 and the Macarena, and eating McDonald's veggie burgers (a little disappointing but was on my list of things to try in India) among tons of other foods. We were given the burgers as our pre-dinner, post-tea time (where everyone (myself included) stuffed their faces with the giant snack spread the staff put out for us) snack, and about half an hour later tons of food was laid out in front of us to eat as well. I was too full to partake, but it smelled delicious. The evening was capped off by some of the staff members setting off fire works for us from a turret in the fort. Surreal.
I'm writing this post from my bedroom and two monkeys just jumped across the balconies across the street. I went to my window to take a closer look/franticly take a picture (that didn't work out so well) and the doctor was doing his furious walking next door. perfect.
I digress. Today (Sunday) I went to the Albert Hall museum. It was built for Prince Albert when he came to visit Jaipur, and houses some beautiful Indian art. I set off with my neighbor Deirdre and from our autorickshaw (which we bargained down to 60 rupees from 100. Yes!) we spotted Russell walking and picked him up too. So the three of us went to the museum, and used our American college ID's to swing the "Foreign Student" price of admissions. Didn't think that one would work out, but I'm really glad I decided to take my Wheaton ID with me. Anyway, we saw painted manuscripts, figures of various Hindu gods, mini sculptures depicting really intense yoga postures, and some "stuff":

Afterwards we went to the Old City and wandered around the bazaars, which were very chaotic but fun, especially because I'm starting to get a feel for what things are actually worth and as such am more comfortable bargaining and also just in general. The first one we went to was pretty touristy, but the second one we went to, the Sanjay Bazaar, was not. We were the only white people there. It was nice to walk through the bazaar without being hassled by shopkeepers to look at their things, and even though we probably stuck out like sore thumbs at the same time I felt really inconspicuous. It was all open air and there were some beautiful textiles being displayed. We walked all the way back from the Old City to the Civil Lines, where Deirdre and I live. I don't know how long it was, but I just drew it in on my map of Jaipur and it looks nice and long.
It was really hot yesterday and today, and I wanted so badly to buy grapes from a roadside vendor but that just wasn't a good idea because I would've eaten them right away rather than going home & washing them. I almost caved and bought an ice cream from a Kwality (the brand we were told was safe to buy) stand. Mmm.

Some Pictures

View of Jaipur from the Nahargarh Fort.



First autorickshaw ride.



Gandhi's Crematorium.

School, etc.

So I do actually go to school here. My hardest class is Hindi, which we have for about 2 1/2 hours every morning. The first hour is a lecture, then we have a chai break, then two drill sections. Though I see myself improving every day, I'm definitely struggling and am behind where I should be. That homework takes up most of my evenings at home, but I live with two fluent Hindi speakers so I'm not out there on my own tackling the language.
After Hindi we have another break, then our Sustainable Development and Social Change seminar. This week has essentially been India 101 with an introduction to development with a focus on India yesterday. This class has a lot of potential so I'm excited to see where it goes.
I'm also taking a field studies seminar, which is a field research course. We don't meet every day but it's a mix of lectures & excursions. On Wednesday we visited a slum (basti), and did some fieldwork. Our group was split in to two and went to two different ones in Jaipur. When we got there, we were lead through the area just observing the living conditions, etc. The assignment was to then decide on some specific "Development Needs" that could help the community. We picked a sanitation system, a garbage system, plumbing, and good food storage. Then we went around to different houses and asked people what they thought. The woman my group met with said that she wanted a real home - the basti is illegal and the government considers it occupied land - and for her family to find employment in the puppeteering trade. Jaipur has a big puppeteering tradition and we were at the slum that most of them live in. We found out that there are two doctors practicing in the community, and found our way to one of their offices to talk to him next. He's was from the basti but came back after he went to medical school to open up the office, and is currently treating 15 cases of TB, which really struck - though didn't necessarily surprise - me. The basti is very narrow and crowded, and there are about 20-25 members per family with 10,000 families living in the colony. That's a recipe for widespread disease. It was a little uncomfortable to basically be a "slum tourist" or at the very least a western student - I don't have any kind of resources to give back to the people there and yet I was talking to the residents and gathering data from them simply for research/classwork.
The last month of the program will be spent doing an independent study project. I talked to my academic director today about how I wanted to do something with fair trade and she gave me two contacts to email. One is in Jaipur, so I could easily go meet with her, which is really great. I was a little discouraged about the viability of doing fair trade research because I went through the library & old ISP archives and didn't find anything relating to fair trade.

Outside of school, I've done a few things this week:
1. Went to a bazaar in the Old City of Jaipur, where we paid too much for the rickshaw rides to & from, and shoes.
2. Have been the 6th person in a 5-person rickshaw. One of the most cramped (though not as terrifying) experiences of my life.
3. Registered my passport with some bureaucratic agency since I have a year-long visa. Indians appear to have a never ending love affair with bureaucracy.
4. Yoga. A friend of the homestay coordinator is going to come to the center every day to teach yoga to whoever wants to for Rs 50/class. That's a little more than a dollar.
5. Crossed the street multiple times. Crossing the street/driving in India walks a fine line between being total and complete chaos and incredibly logical. Cars, busses, bikes, motorcycles, autoricksaws, bicycle rickshaws, and pedestrians all coexist. The trick is that you go for it when you see a gap in the road, and oncoming traffic will slow down enough for you to get by without actually stopping. So you have to be confident and assertive. Anyone who's ever crossed a street with me - especially in Boston - knows that I don't really have those qualities when it comes to j-walking. But I'm getting better. I did pretty well coming home from school yesterday afternoon.

I'm going to my first Indian wedding tonight! It's wedding season here, and some people have been to a few already. I've seen them being set up and/or have heard them from my house just about every day I've been in Jaipur. My extended homestay family is somehow involved in hosting this one, and I'm really excited to finally see how this unfolds.

Jaipur Beginnings

Getting a cell phone & a sim card should be a quick & easy process right? Not in India. Because of terrorism, they have a ridiculous procedure to follow for getting a cell phone, especially if you're a foreigner. You have to provide them with a passport photo, a photo copy of your passport, and one of your visa. Then, you have to sign your signature EXACTLY as it appears on your passport four separate times. Twice on the form then once on your visa & once on your passport copy. Anyway, I passed this ridiculous test and now have my very own Indian cell phone, sim card, and phone number. I called home for the first time today and was told by my mother to update my blog because I hadn't in a while (Hi Mags!).
I moved in with my homestay family last Saturday. I live with a woman and her daughter, and am close enough to the program center that I can walk every day, which is really nice. My homestay mother doesn't speak much English but her daughter is a professor at a girl's college here in Jaipur so she's essentially fluent in English. I have the only room on the second floor, and have my own room & bathroom in the house, but I wouldn't exactly call the setup western. I take bucket showers, which I expected, but I heat the water using this metal rod that I plug in to a wall socket and stick in the bucket to heat up. I have very specific instructions as to how to go about this so that I don't shock myself that I am following to a T.
I live next door to a doctor who treats patients from his home, so every day when I get home from school there are a ton of people lined up outside waiting to see him. In the mornings, I can see him getting his morning exercise from the window in the door on my room that overlooks the upstairs patio. He power walks FURIOUSLY around the second story patio of his house while he reads the newspaper. Seamless multitasking. I am fascinated by this and now look for him every morning.
On Sunday my host sister and I went to a school function at the school one of her friends runs. It's for lower income children and is in a converted horse barn that her uncle gave to her. We got there late (naturally) but got VIP treatment - we sat in the front row in nice chairs and were presented with flowers. We saw the athletic side of the function, then the awards ceremony. Afterwards we toured the students' craft display and had snacks (so many snacks) with the principal and keynote speaker, a Rajasthani writer. I'm settling in pretty well with the family though. My host sister said that if I teach her yoga, she'll teach me how to cook Indian food.

"What kind of monkey is that?"

"The normal kind."

That conversation happened two days ago on the way from Delhi to Jaipur, between one of the other students on my program and our Hindi teacher. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that there ever could be a "normal" monkey but so it goes. We got to Delhi on Monday night just fine, and stayed in a YMCA hostel for the first two nights. We went to Gandhi's crematorium on Tuesday, a very beautiful and understated monument. Afterwards we had lunch at a delicious (but I've said that after every meal...I don't think I've ever been so content with every meal I've eaten before) South Indian restaurant and drove by the India Gate and the President's House, which face one another. Republic Day was a few days before, so there were still stands and chairs set up along the side of the road between the two.

Two days ago we drove from Delhi to Jaipur, which took about 8 hours including stops for lunch, chai, and our bus getting pulled over. It was really cool to see everything along the side of the highway, especially the mustard plants in full bloom. Yesterday we saw our program center for the first time and had a talk/discussion with Kamla Bhasin, a South Asian feminist activist. She was really candid and upfront with us about her views and the way she sees the world. She also threw around some really great phrases like Compassionate Socialist. When she walked in and sat down, the first thing she said after we greeted her was that she didn't like how we were sitting. We had just been told the proper Indian classroom etiquette, which included not showing the soles of your feet to the teacher (everyone interpreted this as not being able to cross your legs at first, because it shows the tops of your feet and we were all super paranoid) and sitting up straight. So as soon as she said that everyone straightens up and tries to figure out what they were doing wrong. What she really meant was that she didn't like how the desks were set up in a lecture style, and wanted a circle so we could all see each other and discuss, which was an instant relief and everyone was happy to oblige.

After we finished the discussion and the rest of our orientation session we hiked to the top of the Nahar Garh fort, which overlooks the whole city. The views and the fort itself were both beautiful, and we watched the sun set from the top.