Jaipur!

Alright, I got here a few days ago, but this is really the first chance I've had to sit and write, what with my jet lag. I've been getting tired around 10pm here and have been trying to stay up until around 12am, with varying degrees of success. It probably doesn't help that I've been using my bed as a base of operations - it's kind of easy to lay down for "just a minute"...

Sunday night I arrived in Delhi. Customs was pretty simple, but I had a particularly patriotic man yell me through immigrations, which was "fun"; I sort of panicked when I couldn't find the gentleman who was supposed to pick me up, but it turned out he was running late. Even though it was 8:30p by then, it was still warm outside - 85F. Wonderful. We took a car to a government-run hotel, where I had the biggest meal I'd had in a long time. Delicious. Then I moved in to my room. There were clearly other people living there, but no one there at the moment, so I talked to Mom for a bit before my roommate came back. Chatting was had, then sleep.

I met most everyone else the over the course of the next day (Monday) as we all were bussed to orientation in Guragon and back. I'm really happy with the group we have - I'm still sort of feeling everyone out, as it's been less than a week, but the prospects are exciting. I made the mistake of sitting with some of the teachers at lunch, and already being on new-stuff overload made hearing Hindi and getting rapid questions fired at me a little intimidating. Then I'm pretty sure I omitted my name and made things awkward, so I retreating to the students - and English.

An early morning Tuesday, if 5am really is the morning, and we were off to Jaipur. The part of Rajasthan we drove through is practically a desert, and varies between fields and small towns - almost none of the land is unused. I've never seen so many animals wandering freely - pigs, goats, dogs, and cows abound, and the closer we got to Jaipur the more camels we saw. Camels seem to be the preferred pack animal, though I've seen a horse pulling a cart and a herd of donkeys carrying things. We drove through an area surrounded by a fort, then turned a corner and saw Jaipur proper. It was quite scenic, actually, though at the time my camera was packed away. I don't know how well the picture would have come out in a moving tour bus, though. I'm also kind of leery of being classified as a tourist here - it makes you a target for all sorts of fun heckling, begging, and price gouging - and a camera is one of the first ways they do that. Once I get a bike, though, I think I'll feel more comfortable taking pictures, as I'll be mobile, in Indian clothes, and alone, able to make my "escape" whenever necessary.

The city is HUGE, or at least it feels that way, and it reminds me a lot of New York City, for reasons that don't seem to make sense to anyone else but me. Mostly, it's the traffic - there don't particularly seem to be traffic laws, only traffic "guidelines" that no one follows. I saw my first crash today - a motorbike driver was staring at the four foreigners, and rear-ended the car in front of him. We made sure he was moving and being taken care of before we shrugged and kept walking. Also there's the food - not that I particularly associate Indian food with New York, it's just delicious, even if I can't seem to stomach three meals a day anymore. Otherwise, I'm not particularly sure what makes me compare the two. Maybe New York's just the biggest city I've been in, and Jaipur is certainly a big city. It's comforting to have a basis of comparison sometimes.

The center, on the other hand, is small - there's one building, bigger than a house but smaller than an office, which houses all the classrooms, the offices, and the kitchen/dining area. It's cozy though, and like most Indian architecture, has a lot of outdoor space which I take full advantage of. I love my teachers already, and though class hasn't really started yet, it looks like it's going to be challenging (and hopefully in the good way). I'm generally becoming more and more excited about learning Hindi as I go. I'll talk more about my excitement level and preparedness in the next entry (which, I promise, will be hilarious), but suffice to say I'm really glad to be here.

We went around to visit potential houses, homestays, and apartments on Tuesday evening, and made our choices the same day. There were two homestays I liked - one with a sociology professor and one with a (retired?) widow professor - but the first was nearly 7 kilometers away, and the second was going to be the cause of a fight if someone didn't back down. So I did, exchanging a homestay nearly for a hotel. It's not like an American hotel; I take breakfast and dinner with the family and the other residents, so there's a fair opportunity to speak Hindi. And the bonuses are massive: free wifi, no curfew, and the ability to lock my door against intrusion. Plus, the room and the bed are bigger than any of the others we saw. So while I would have liked to live with Mausiji, as her current resident calls her, I certainly didn't get the short end of the stick.

I've done a little shopping (and am like to do more tomorrow) and I've obtained some Indian kurtas and salwars, which might be the most comfortable things I've ever worn. And I love the way they look - I think they're quite elegant. There are still a lot of things I need to spend money on - rent, lunch for the semester, a few more kurtas and salwars, several dupatta, a bike, a backstock of bottled water, toiletpaper, nimbupani (dehydration protection), etc. - and I can as of tomorrow, now that I have a bank account. But for the most part, I'm pretty settled in. And everything I brought is going to get used, which is a good feeling.

All in all, I'm in a good place right now. Hope you folks are too. :)