Schools, Hospitals, and Organic Farms

Despite the monsoon season, our weekend adventure to schools, hospitals, and organic farms was pretty warm and rainless. I thought that Humboldt would have to compete with the precipitation, but we haven't have to brave through a downpour yet. It has rained, but there has been the comfort of a conveniently placed hostel over our heads. 

Schools Visiting  Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement schools was one of the first legs of our weekend journey. We got tours of the classrooms and got to play with the students. They teach the young-ins not only academic skills, but more practical ones such as food etiquette and religious rituals useful at home.  It was nice to hang out with youthful students, as a break from the hostel was very much needed. They were so lively- carefree is the way to be!

Right next to the school, basically on campus, was the organic farm. We were able to witness multi-cropping practices and how they were grown. It was awesome- the farmers sell the plants in local markets with a lower price so people can afford it so as not to rely on the mono-crops or genetically modified foods that are becoming more widespread in India. We were able to taste some passion fruit and play with fruits that have seeds that bleed bright orange paints. Face paint galore!

Tribal School Next we visited a tribal school near one of the rivers in Karnataka. I didn't have a chance to take pictures because there was so much going on, but some of the other Iowa students have got some. Just imagine the standard picture of small adorable tribal children surrounding the college student. It was hard to help it though, they are basically the cutest things ever and we were contemplating taking them home with us.
When we got into one of the main halls the silliness commenced and whenever we performed a dance move they would follow. The Maracarena, Irish dance, and stomping wildly were among the favorites of the tribal students. Meeting some of the India's younger generation was refreshing and they took to the game "red hands" very nicely ;).

All in all, it was such a great experience to learn about a different way of schooling.
The tribal students are not used to being indoors so there are small building with large opening to let light and birds in (think gazebo). From what we have heard, it is important that the school structure doesn't change the tribal cultures, so they base a curriculum around the students' needs. 

Boating and the Ayurveda Hospital After a long day we stopped at the banks of the Kabini River to look at local flora and fauna as the sun was going down. The most exciting event was the coracle ride- the coracles were made out of some sort of hides (maybe?) and had a rounded saucer shape. They comfortably fit five people in them and the man who owned them spun us around with out warning like the tea cup ride at Disneyland :) The man who gave us a ride usually uses the coracles for fishing, so we were thankful for treating us. After all of us had a turn we made our merry way to Kenchanahalli which housed a tribal Ayurveda hospital. We learned about different ayurvedic practices and medicines. The practices involve a more hands on approach then Western medicine and a ton of oils.

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Organic Animal Farm  
Sunday we visited an organic animal farm. 
One of my favorite visits of India thus far.

                                                   (Flora should especially like this)

This farm had turkeys that followed us, a monkey, dogs that were actually friendly, cows, and ADORABLE goats.

Because I'm bored, here's a mini-documentation of the stalking turkeys...

As seen from the photos above even the other animals were perplexed by the turkeys

 












There is a holiday/break from school because of the end of Ramadan. Tomorrow is the Ganesha festival, so the two day holiday fest starts now!

Enjoy the day.

Spicy Food, Mosquitoes, and Veenas

     And now for something completely different... 

I wasn't lying about the goats-outside-the-window thing.

Foods to eat once I get home:

avocado

black beans

cheese

BAGELS

spaghetti
sandwiches
oranges

kale/spinach
raisins and oatmeal

          As the weeks follow, the list will grow. Fortunately the sweets here are sufficient. For example, the sodas have real sugar instead of corn syrup :)

        Another interesting aspect besides the food differences is the terminology. Instead of asking for questions, professors say "do you have any doubts?". It's also hard to communicate sometimes and it takes a few students to get someone's point across and sometimes the question doesn't even get answered, but this is something we have learned to accept.

Veena 

The instrument that I've been learning to play for a few days: Veena

It is suprising like a guitar but is a lot bigger and you play sitting down with legs crossed. To get to our lessons we take an auto rickshaw to our guru's house in the city. Being the first Indian household I've ever been in, I wasn't sure how to act in the new setting, but our veena guru and her spouse warmly welcomed us into their household. The veena guru is a lovely woman who is simultaneously challenging and very encouraging. She expects us to sing in some Indian language along with the harmony and rhythm pieces of the four part song we're learning.

I feel like the karate kid but with strings instead of fists!

Weekend Endeavors

It's MONDAY- welcome back to school Humboldt and other various university students! 

We're starting our second week here in Mysore and it has been pretty mellow here after a busy weekend.

On Saturday we visited the Bandipur Wild Life Sanctuary which is known for it's tigers, no tigers were seen, but various primates were spotted (humans included)!

Mama and baby

Joseph kicking it with some Tamil school children.

Common Langur

          On Sunday we took an adventure in an auto rickshaw. These are the three wheeled taxis of India with virtually no doors which allows the rider to became very well acquainted with the surrounding traffic. The main three automobiles of choice in India are auto rickshaws, motorbikes, and buses which at some point drive straight towards you just to swerve at the last second. We have a theory that it's illegal not to tailgate You'd think with all of the crazy driving that I would vow to never ride a motorcycle, but there have been so many women holding babies side saddle that it has given me more confidence to at least try it.


Traveling into Mysore takes about 20 minutes and we were dropped off in the KR Circle, which I imagined to be like the convenience store but turned out to be a ginormous round about. We heard about a few festivals going on, but didn't end up making it. We followed a man for about half an hour who told us he knew where the "festival" was, but instead lead us to perfume shop. Hey, at least we smelled good with some free samples.


 The event of the day was the Mega More Store.  It was a bit hard to find our way because the man we asked assumed we said Mysore instead of More Store- understandable, but still unhelpful. Once we found someone who understood our American accents he pointed us in the right direction. The More Store in Hebbal (the local town) takes up a space that size of a large living room. The Mega More Store in Mysore was a mega More Store. It has about 4 floors with everything you could possibly need [except bagels :( there's even cream cheese, which is such a tease].


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Music classes start this week! At least they aren't at 6am.


Enjoy the rest of August no matter what is thrown your way,
Vandanegalu!

Mysore? MySCORE!

Hello again!

It’s been a week since arriving in Mysore and a crazy week it has been. For those of you actually checking out this a page will find that I have been slacking on my updates. Sorry about that. You deserve only the best, so this will be the picture edition! Woohoo!

 

Our room: My roommate and I moved into our dorm room which was surprisingly similar to a typical American dorm (except for the copious amounts of mosquitoes). We get to shower with a bucket with water that is hot when it feels like it, which isn’t often.

 

                                          

(Our school is behind the yellow building)

A view from our room: Occasionally we get herds of goats or cows that pass by.

Before our course work begun we had a chance to explore our new home. The Iowa State (the school I’m traveling with) students were introduced to our school that we will be attending for the next couple of months, followed by a tour of Mysore. We went to two temples, a palace, and a cathedral.

1. The first being Chumundi Hills which overlooks the city of Mysore.

2. Next was Keshava Temple.

3. Then we went to the Mysore Palace which apparently has a prince living in it and annual mud wrestling in October. Considering that my birthday is in October, maybe I’ll go watch. You know, my usual birthday tradition…

4. Last was Saint Philomena Cathedral. The highlight of that was the soda across the street from our tour bus. Only 15 rupees! Sometimes cheap sugar beats out sacred 20^th century sacred buildings.

Besides the official tour of Mysore we have been going into the town of Hebbal, which has a cute little general store called the More Store. My roommate tried to get conditioner there but they took it away for some reason.

Also, the pants in Mysore are HUGE. Sad day. [Sherry]

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School!

We started classes on the 16^th of August and are going into our second week here. We are all taking up an extra activity or two. All of us are taking yoga, which starts before the sun is even awake. Our instructor is a little Indian man that cracks jokes about how weak we are and doesn’t allow us to breath through our mouth.

“Don’t shake- this pose is easy”

After eating breakfast the next few hours consist of sitting in red chairs and attending lectures about Indian culture and happenings until around 11ish when we get a tea break! Tea Time should always be a requirement in higher education.

Another one-up of this school is Snake Shyam! He visited our school for our Environment and Health class. Imagine Rex Kwon Do mixed with a pirate- that is this man.

He showed us a few snakes including the trinket snake and a few cobras! He rescues snakes and other animals and puts them back into the wild. One of the coolest experiences of my life and now I have a new idol to add to my list of idols:

1.   Powerline

2.   Trees

3.   Snake Shyam

Traveling

First flight of the trip. LAX to SFO

I got to sit in the back row like a school bus. It was literally a row and my seat was directly in the center of the isle. The gentleman sitting next to me peaced-out so now I have three seats all to myself….. Ahhh yeah. Good start to this long journey.


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After the second uneventful flight Dena was there to pick me up from LAX. Luckily too, that place is scary! Traffic and people everywhere, but it sort of prepared me for what was to be in India. Having In-N-Out be my last American meal I set off to find a surprising uneventful journey to India.

:Last picture taken in America.

It is also the plane that took me and another student in the program all the way to Delhi. 

Flight number 4              Chicago to Delhi

Fourteen hour flight! And it turns out that my current roommate was on the same flight and I had no idea. Bummer too because I ended up playing Tetris, watching glee, and wishing I could sleep the whole time. We had those cool screens that shows you the where we were on globe. 
We even went over Greenland! 

  

Handmade map of our journey:

 

 Flight number 5          New Delhi to Bangalore

The last flight was spent sleeping and honestly not much stuck in my memory considering the 24 hours of traveling undertaken at that point. The kind Indian man sitting next to me tried to converse but I'm afraid all he heard was "nnhhnmm *sleep talk* hmmfjfjhmnm". At that point my beanie went over my eyes indicate that zombie mode had been initiated.

Upon arrival in Bangalore it was surprisingly easy to find the Iowa students. Although, they were the only white kids standing in confused blob outside of the exist. It was a relief to find that they were easy to talk to and just as worn out as me. 

After two hours of waiting for the final students to meander out of the airport doors we piled into a white bus and undertook a 4 hour ride to Mysore. After 30 hours of traveling we were relieved to arrive at the dorms. 

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That's all for now.

School starts tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to report what has been going on around here before class begins. Once classes start it might be harder to update this blog...

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Curbside Prophet

Holy fish sticks! Only a few more weeks till my Asian adventure. 
[As a side note, I feel like a oldie trying to figure out how to work this whole blog thing]

[There was a picture here, but apparently I "stole" it]

Been checking up on my travel packing list and it's a bit different because I won't be able to dress in traditional American dress.

No more jeans or showing any skin. Oh well, it will be a new chance to play with a new style of clothes. Also, no more eating with silverware. This might just be the perfect place :)

For more mental preparations I'm starting to read In Spite of the Gods -the Strange Rise of Modern India. It's written by an English man so we'll see how biased he will be...

Either way if this doesn't satisfy there's is whole list  of recommended reads that will be fun diving into.

Before taking off to a new country, New York state was first on the menu. Relatives galore! It was hot and humid (good preparation for the months ahead).

If anyone wishes to skype/call it might be one of the last chances while we're both in the same country. 

Namastē!