"Don't your hands get dirty?"
"Ma'am, I don't eat dirty food."

Horns, Sweets, and Technology

This officially bites. I don't know what exactly makes anything "official" but that's besides the point. My flash drive/a computer I was using went totally bonkers and started indiscriminately deleting a whole lot of files, probably the ones I was using most recently on that computer, i.e. the most important ones. Lots of recollections of interviews that didn't get recorded down the drain. A whole hour-long interview transcript gone, which I can redo but is just plain annoying. Plus paranoia about the unsure security of future work. Two weeks til paper due... Slowly deteriorating am I.

In other news, I've decided that something must be written about two things in particular: horns and sweets. Both have VERY different meanings here than they do at home.

First, horns. I mean car horns, not animal horns, although the ones on auto-rickshaws are sometimes shaped like rams' horns with a turkey-baster-type rubber ball at the end to release the noise. Since the basic traffic rules are "stick to your left" and "if it's bigger than you, let it go first," it leaves a lot of grey area for what and what is not permissible. Well actually it's more or less a free-for-all on the road, but honking your horn can be useful for more minor details. You can pass the vehicle in front of you by going to the right of it and simply honk to let the other guy know you're coming. Usually, people move slightly to the left to make room. My thing with horns is that 1) some horns are much louder than they should be; 2) some are much quieter than they should be; and 3) some people are way too honk-happy. There are all sorts of horns out there: car beeps of all pitches and colors and rhythms--some normal sounding, some that make you want to scratch your ears off, some that . When reversing, trucks (lorries) and other vehicles, if the owner so chooses, instead of beeping like a lot of trucks do in the States, play a song-like diddy with cymbal sounds and some kind of auto-tune. Some two-wheelers (motorized bike varieties like motorcycles and the "Scooty") have SUV horns that are much too loud and piercing, especially for their relatively small size and ability to decelerate faster than an automobile can. Some sound like baby rattle toys or a bingo machine. The auto-rickshaw (also known as "auto" or "tuktuk" for its farty-engine sound) has the type of horn mentioned above that does not go off by the press of a button (although newer ones do and are very annoying) but when the driver reaches outside of the auto where the device is located and manually honks.

Sweets. Diwali came and went, and myyyy did the sweets stay. Sweets are no joke here, taken to a whole 'nother level. I feel like they'd be banned in some states. But then again, there is also a very different sense of what is safe and what is not. (i.e., babies on motorcycles, along with parents and multiple other siblings, fireworks and crackers from individual households, very loud, very explosive.) Anyways sweets have lots and lots of sugar and lots and lots of ghee (clarified butter). It's like they were meant to be "sweet concentrate" or something, to be bought and then diluted somehow with other substance. Nnnope. But there are some that are very mild in actual sugar content, like cashew (kaju) barfi and milk sweet (most of the time). Yeap, I don't know if I'll ever acquire or even understand the Tamil sweet tooth.

In other news, the stuff I've written till now was about three weeks ago, so all that about the technology failure and lost (precious) information was really okay in the end. After a week(end) of slaving away on Independent Study projects, it's all done and over with. I can only hope that what I've written makes sense to the general public or whoever reads it (i.e. Trudy and possibly but probably not other future SITA students. So now it's the day before we leave Madurai. Crazy how time flies. I have no idea where it went or who's been keeping track of these things. But as my host sister said this evening, it's like a dream. Arrive one day, next thing you know it's time to go. What have I to show for my time here? Well I'm not too sure. I can hold a somewhat coherent conversation in Tamil, as decent as I could hope for in three months. I've acquired enough clothing to fill up an entire wardrobe and then some. I've gone from being a poor eater to being a decent eater (paraphrased). And I think I'm becoming immune to mosquito bites. Maybe I'm not such a novelty to the little buggers anymore. (I was talking about the mosquitoes, not people. But I guess it makes sense in that context, too.)

Well I'll try to hold back the tears and snot on the train platform tomorrow, but no guarantees.

Ok friends,

(the common greeting to address you, plural. synonym of "y'all")

I realize I haven't posted anything in over a month. Well that's because the last month has been crezzy hectic--traveling to Kerala, finishing up classes and writing final exams and papers the following two weeks, then running off to Karnataka for another tour. Now it's IS - Independent Study - period and so there's a little more free time but a lot more managing of that time required. (You'll have to forgive potential errors from here; some of the keys on this keyboard get stuck so I'm slam-typing this here. If any i's are mssing or some letters are not captalized when they should be or commas are mssing please forgive me as those are the most-prone-to-get-stuck keys.)

I joined a gym yesterday. t's super nce but is quite expensive so it ooks lke 'll need to make t worth the monay. Ali showed me and Elif this crezzy ab workout yesterday and it totally kicked my butt and gave me a little something called Sivananda elbow, which s basically when exercsing on a bamboo mat chafes your skin and causes callouses to form. right now i'm supposed to be settng up ntervews and thngs for IS at ths pont but i need a queston! oh, some thngs never do change. i have my topc: orphans. But what to do wth that (them), enakku teriyaatu. I do miss Tamil cass though maybe because I lked the structure it gave to the day. But then agan I started comng n qute late for a few weeks. Indeed, some thngs never change.

I spent my brthday in karnataka in a city called mysore. I was pleasantly surprised by the crew wth dinner at a fancy restaurant called Tiger somethng or other (it's now makng me thnk of tiger prawns, so dstractng but very delicious) whch was at a primo uber fancy hotel. There were 1. lots of other foreigners and 2. two other birthdays there! so after the first bunch broke out into "Happy Birthday" and yay, clap clap clap from the other guests at the restaurant, there was another little Indian family that also sang for a newly 13 year old grl, and then our table. afterwards the 13 year old grl's lttle sister came up to our table and wanted to "wish me" and stuck out her hand for a handshake. I guess she knew that i was the birthday person because of the happy brthday tiara (or royal turbany hat, can't remember whch) i was wearng...

've also started several books, none of whch i've fnshed yet. so we'll see how all of ths wors out. the palmistry/astrology/numerology guy that came and gave a guest lecture a while back did say i'm enthusastc about thngs for moments at a tme but rarely follow through. let's prove hm wrong.

So I know we just got here but we only have about 2 weeks of class left. Crazy. It's been a month since we left Washington DC (7 August).

On Sunday we leave for "Educational Travel" to Kerala! Just got back from Pudumandapam, a neat pillared hall structure/shopping place across from Meenakshi Temple. There are a lot of tailors/textile shops and places that sell jewelry/trinkets/shawls/scarves/wall hangings/statues, some sell religious paraphernalia like incense, kumkum, and all sorts of things. I had a sleeping bag made (for the night trains during our travels), basically a couple of sheets sewn together, also known as "sleep sack." It's pretty cool, the way they do clothes here. You can pick out the fabric that you want the tailor to use and tell them the design of whatever it is you want them to make. So I'm getting a shirt (long, kurta-style with the collar and buttons) made. Ali is having a cute little dress made to her specifications, pretty sweeeet.

Later this afternoon I had my first veena lesson! My teacher is an M.Phil. student, studying mridangam. (Excuse me, I seemed to have picked up on the emphasis people place on degrees, career and "qualifications.") The strings on the veena are get thicker from bottom to top, opposite from the guitar, and there are three other "beat strings" strummed with the pinky. Since we just worked on the thinnest regular string, it dug into my index and middle fingers. It's usually pretty painful, so people dab their fingers with coconut oil before they play. I can see the potential in the strengthening/callous-forming. It's like practicing the bass.

Tamil is fun, too! I've been trying to work on it, except I haven't been speaking with my host family. Maybe I think that I can understand some words here and there in people's conversations and therefore passively absorb some of the language meself.

We climbed a bunch of sacred hills, biked many kilometers, drank one water of tender coconut and ate its jellyfish-like meat.

Holy cow, (no pun intended) these uploads are taking a while. Stay tuned for more fotos and videos on the intertubes soon. I may have to get home before... the cows come home. Plus, the girl working at this internet cafe and her maybe-boyfriend ("lover") person are being kind of scandalous.

Contact!

Mailing address:

Grace Lee
South India Term Abroad (SITA) Program
34-B H.A.K. Road, Chinnachokkikulam
Madurai 625 002
Tamil Nadu, India

I've also got a cell phone, too, so hit me up for the number amigos. (Incoming calls are free...)

Preliminary Stuff

Okay, super quick post...

I'm staying in an Indian family's home. My host parents are just about my parents' age, and they've got two daughters, a little older than my own sibs, and out of the house. One is coming to stay in Madurai for the rest of the time I'll be here--the parents went to Chennai today to pick her up.

Daily regimen: Awake anywhere from 6 am (if work from last night is not yet finished) to 8:07 am (not a good thing--will be late for Tamil class and subject to delirium). Wash, dress, eat (corn flakes with warm milk, dhal-lentil, idly-fermented rice/wheat flour bread, chipatti, poori, and other varieties of complex carbs. Yesterday I had this rice cake type thing that was basically dduk, the crumbly kind with sugar and a mealy something on the outside, and ate some more of the mealy stuff with warm milk... Papaya or apple or banana, mixed coffee), rush out of the house and hop on my bike (ahem, cycle. bike means motor-bike) as I greet the security guard and paatti (grandma - a lively little lady) and speed into Indian traffic to get to Tamil class by 8:30. Home is pretty close to the SITA center, where we have classes and all that. There are coffee/tea/lime juice breaks twice a day, at 10 am and 3:15 pm (yum!) and we eat lunch out most of the time. Usually come home by 6:30 pm (it gets pitch dark pretty early), wash, then begin homework.

It's pretty intense but I think I've been adjusting okay. I haven't been subject to huge amounts of shock or much difficulty, so the ease is relatively all-right. Communication is always a little interesting. A lot of people here are used to British-isms and use them often, like "fellow" for "man" or "person". It's great. One professor in particular uses phrases like "hither and thither" and "helter-skelter." It's certainly been an adventure so far.

Gah! Gotta run... plans to go downtown? "V shall see."

After week one

One week ago: arrived in Chennai
Two days ago: arrived in Madurai
One day ago: arrived at host family's home in Madurai
Mosquito bites so far: 20+?
Jet lag: over