A Solid Day

Quite an eventful day in Pune.  I awoke this morning earlier than ideal in order to keep a skype date, but my internet connection made this impossible.  After about 20 minutes of attempting to set up and regain connection, I called it quits and resigned myself to checking facebook and a few blogs of other Northfield outbounds.  After about an hour of this, I realized I had all of 10 minutes to prepare for school and catch a rickshaw.  Now, in general, India is lax with it's definition of 'on time' but it was just my luck that Dhara showed up eight minutes early.  I frantically got dressed and scarfed down a PB & J while my mom packed my lunch, and ran out the door only a few minutes late.  We got to school with just enough time to relax a bit before our first class.  It was only 10 minutes later that we found out history is canceled all week and we had nothing to do for the next hour and a half until economics.  Unfortunately, I arrived too late to this class after checking out the school library and there were no seats left.  When I say no seats were available, I mean three people in every desk and floor space was also taken.  

Taking a page from the Indian students' book on how to deal with classes, I opted to skip this one and instead went back to the library to read.  I figured it would be a miserable hour of re-learning econ and I would get more out of reading a good book, but mostly, I liked the rebellious feeling I got from skipping class. The library at Symbiosis appears quite small and is nowhere as spacious as the one I am used to at Northfield High School, but their small 'English novels' section is surprisingly dense with good literature.  It consisted mostly of classics and I was proud to see almost the entire reading list from my AP English class last year among the titles (I guess Mr. Cohrs knew what he was doing when he wrote the syllabus).  From among the vast expanse of intense literature, I picked up The Kite Runner.  Though by no means less valuable, I knew it was an easier plot to absorb and would be more fun to read than, say, the collection of Kierkegaard's writings that also caught my eye.  I'm a little ashamed to say it, but the existentialism unit this year got me hooked and I have a bunch of free time so I may well come back to that one.  

I spent the hour getting into the plot of the book, and noticing a lot of similarities between the story and what I have observed here in India.  For those of you who haven't read it, The Kite Runner, at least the first 26 pages, is set in Afghanistan and outlines the contrast of wealth and poverty living right next to each other.  I have not talked a lot about this, but it is present constantly.  I will blog about it later, though, because I have a lot to say today.  With five minutes left before my next class, I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up to see another unfamiliar face.  As I tried to think whether I should remember who he was, he asked me to come outside for a second because he wanted to talk to me.  Once I grabbed my backpack and made it to the hallway, he introduced himself and told me he really wanted to learn my accent and asked whether I would teach him.  I was pretty shocked; all this came without a word from me, so he had no idea where I was from or what my accent was!  Not sure exactly what to say, I told him to look me up on facebook for contact because I had to run to class.  It was pretty bizarre, and I have no idea what to do now.  In an attempt to embody the Rotary exchange spirit, I am trying to remain open to this possibility, but I have no idea how to teach my accent!  I will keep you updated.

Today was not much better than yesterday, as I only attended three of the six lectures planned for today.  After our last class, however, Dhara, Colby and I took a rickshaw to Pacific mall to get a donut.  This did not seem like a big enough deal to me to require a trip to the mall, but I had nothing better to do and I was willing to take any bit of American food I could lay my hands on.  When we finally arrived at the mall, we first took a trip through Hyper City, the Indian equivalent of Wal-Mart with grocery, and I had fun looking through all the familiar foods.  From there we went to Mad Over Donuts, a small little store with a surprising array of, well, donuts.  My mouth started watering the instant I saw all of them, and I ordered quickly because I was anxious to satisfy my craving for familiar food.  Both my donuts were cream-filled and were gone in less than a minute.  Sitting there, Colby and I realized that this was about as close to America as we will get in the next year.  Eating donuts in a mall while listening to music from eighth grade art, we might well have been in Burnsville.  Deciding this was not enough to quench our thirst for home food, we made a trip to McDonald's and had something similar to a McFlurry.  Though I have been having a great time in India, it was good to escape for a while and to eat familiar foods in a familiar atmosphere.  A little US food goes a long way in making you feel at home, and I felt refreshed and ready to take on Indian culture, in a much more curious and less aggressive way than I just made it sound.

When I got home, it was time to begin celebrating.  Today marked Akash's 12th birthday, and he was having friends over for a party.  It turns out a 12-year-old's birthday is pretty similar even across the world.  There was a lot of running around, yelling, and some cake eating as well.  Because of his interest in cricket I gave him some baseball cards, and included a St. Olaf lanyard for a taste of home.  Supper was very good, and was served to all the guests (and me) while we watched part of some Bollywood film.  The meal contained bhaji as usual, but the chapati was replaced by regular hamburger buns cooked on a griddle so they were a little crispy on the outside.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and rushed through two helpings.  It was a fun ordeal, and I got to see some of my favorite relatives who came to wish Akash a happy birthday.

I had a few miscellaneous experiences I had throughout the day, so I apologize beforehand for abrupt subject changes.  I saw about 10 cows from the rickshaw, including a few wandering aimlessly in the middle of the street.  That is a lot, and doubles the number of cows I have seen here.  A German professor (professor from Germany, not one who teaches the language), stopped Colby and me as we were leaving Symbiosis (we are exactly difficult to pick out as foreigners).  We talked for a little while and explain Rotary youth exchange, and he told us he is a guest professor here for a week.  I saw some small lizard in my bathroom.  I walked into my family's bathroom, and there was a lizard just hanging onto the wall.  Pretty strange.  My host mom thought so too, so I guess it is not really a common thing here, which makes me kind of glad because it really surprised me.  

Overall, I had fun today.  Nothing too crazy happened, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it all.  I am becoming increasingly comfortable with my surroundings each day, plus there were some fun events to fill my time.  I read a good book, got a taste of home, and celebrated a birthday.  I would call that a pretty solid day in any country.