We arrived in Kolkata (or Calcutta as it can sometimes be known) on January 8th. The next day we went home with our host families. My host family lives in South Kolkata near Anwar Shah road and only a 15 minute walk from one of the biggest malls in Kolkata. My host parents are named Jaba and Ashok but we just call them Auntie and Uncle. In India you often refer to elders in this way.
I am rooming with Rachel in a room in Auntie and Uncle’s apartment. Hmm…what to say about the apartment? Well I like our room because our beds can lift up and store our rather large suitcases. The connecting bathroom has a flushable toilet and sink. The only thing that is weird to me is that the bathroom has misted windows but behind those windows is Kolkata with all of its people shouting, dogs barking and fighting, cars honking, etc. Needless to say, I feel extremely weird when I am going to the bathroom and I can hear what seems to be a person down on the street talking (I feel slightly better that we are on the second floor). The continuous noise of Kolkata means that often Rachel and I wake up a few times during the night.
What else to say about our host home? Auntie is a very good cook and I am trying many new foods. I don’t think I have ever tried so many new foods in my life. The food can take awhile to get used to which many of us can attest to. Thankfully none of us have had really bad “delhi belly” but it still is hard to adjust to the food. Auntie also complained at first that we didn’t eat that much but now she is starting to get used to the fact that we don’t eat as much as Indian people. When Indian people eat their breakfast, lunch, and dinner they really eat! Also, dinner here is eaten a lot later than we eat dinner in the US. Some nights I have eaten dinner at 10:30 at night. I just hope that in the near future I come across an Indian dessert that I actually like (Indian desserts are extremely sweet and tastes like a lot of sugar). Since I have been here I have craved ice cream, bacon, cheeseburgers, and pizza. So far I have eaten everything except the cheeseburger. I’m hoping to go to the McDonald’s down the block from school in the next few days so I can eat some of their greasy fries (I’m imagining people who know me well to be laughing at this right now because they know that I love McDonald’s fries).
So far Rachel and I have visited the mall on numerous occasions and bought some Indian clothes. I bought a saree the other day for 9 US dollars and now I am getting the blouse made by a tailor. I hope that it will be ready in time for the wedding that I am attending next weekend. I am also really excited because we have off of school next week. It seems that Kolkata tends to celebrate everything that they possibly can so we have next week off and we already had a day off for Swami Vivekananda’s 149th birthday.
School seems to be going well. Periods here only last about 40-50 minutes so classes are relatively short. Classes are also more formal in India. In my political science class the students all stood up when the teacher entered the room and when she calls on them they stand to address the class. When talking to a teacher you call them ma’am or sir. The initials of the teacher are used when talking about them to another person. The classes are also lecture based so essentially we just sit there and take notes for the entire period. I have not had class too much (Tuesday we did not have class because of our foreigner registration taking us four hours to complete, Wednesday my classes weren’t scheduled, and Thursday was Vivekananda’s birthday) so we will see how it goes. The students seem nice and many of the girls seem to be taking to Adam. He introduced himself in pol sci and I swear there were about 10 girls that audibly sighed at his name.
Sports day at the college was on Saturday and we all marched around the track for the parade as the “foreigner contingent”. The students seem so interested in us and like many Indian people, they love to stare at us too. Some are more out-going and will come up to us and make friends but most just stare. A couple of my fellow students got persuaded to do some of the special events for sports day. Tiffany won the race where you had to balance a ping pong ball on a paddle and run down the field and Adam and Courtney won the event where you had to balance a book between your partner’s hand and run down the field. Courtney, Kelsey T, Becca, and I participated in the 4x100 meter relay. Before the race started they explained the rules that the first 2 people had to stay in their lanes but the last 2 people could cut in. We then decided that our track runners would be the people to cut in so Becca started. As soon as the gun shot everyone cut in and Becca was cut off and in last place. For some reason everyone had told us the wrong thing (even the people participating told us how to race) but thankfully me, Kelsey, and Courtney made up some time so we got 4th place. It was fun to compete with the Indian students and it was probably a good thing that I got some exercise too. Sports day was very fun!
On a side note, I wore basketball shorts to sports day because one of the teachers told us that we could wear shorts as long as they were down to our knees so I came dressed that way in order to run. However, Indian women do not wear shorts so I received even more stares than normal because of my scrawny pale legs. I felt a little better once I got to school and saw some of the other Americans wearing long shorts, but apparently the Indian girls don’t change into their shorts for running until they get to school. I feel that when it comes to India you have to adopt an attitude of confidence in order to survive so Rachel laughed at me as I adopted an “Oh well, stare all you want!” attitude about wearing shorts.
On last side note, I feel that I must also comment on Indian people dyeing their hair. In India there are quite a few people who deem it necessary to dye their hair, just like many people in America. The popular color for Indian people to dye their hair is…red!!! Whenever I pass an Indian person with their hair dyed red it just makes me want to say, “ARGH! You look like you are going to some rock concert with your hair dyed bright red!!!” I am not sure why this is a popular trend but I can only hope that it will die out (Rachel just informed me that they die it red using henna because it is cheap but it also makes your hair bright red).
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