Classes

Today began the "shopping period" for classes. Here's how it goes: you go to the department, find your professor, learn from him/her where the room is (not the room number, there are no room numbers here), and go to the class. So, I had my first class scheduled for 9-11 am, found the professor, sat in the room, and waited. I got there a little early, you know, the normal. It was just one Indian student, another girl from my program and me when I got to the room. Hmm. I gave it time and slowly but surely other students showed up...around 9:20-9:30. The professor walked in at 9:40. Throughout the whole lecture she kept consistent eye contact with the other girl from my program and me. It was all very strange.

As it turns out, I won't be able to take that class because my language class got scheduled for that time slot when I met up with the professor. After lunch, a group of SIP (Study in India Program) students went to a class we all had together, which we didn't know they decided not to hold today. Oh well. Also, they decided to change the Indian philosophy class to be the same time as the Islamic cultures class, so there goes one of those classes.

It's all a big, confusing mess. Stressful as it is, though, it's really just humorous.

My roommate, Becca, and I managed to cross the street safely, get a rickshaw back to the house, and cross the street safely again. A true miracle. I guess I haven't said much about traffic here yet, I think mostly because I'm still not exactly sure how to really explain it. I can take pictures of it, sure, but that doesn't show how it moves.

First and foremost, there are no lanes. Although there may be lines drawn on the blacktop, they are meaningless, even the solid yellow ones. Three lanes on a one-way may turn into 6 lanes, depending on size of vehicles (there are tons of moped/scooters and rickshaws) and speed. Anyone who's passing anyone honks, which is actually very courteous but gets really loud at times. Since there is absolutely positively no police enforcement on the roads, there are speed breakers (bumps) about every 500 feet, which can get to be pretty painful sitting in the back of a bus. Thank god on public buses the ladies get the front half and the men have to deal with flying in the air in the back. Back to the traffic, there is no right of way. You can turn onto a road amidst an onslaught of cars coming from both ways, as long as you honk before anyone else does. This holds especially true if you're a bus, truck, or tractor. Parking is also no big deal. You can pull over and park in the farthest left two lanes, people will go around you, even though you're in the middle of the road. I've only thusfar seen traffic jams between 5-7 pm.

When it comes to crossing the street, the only trick is to hold out your arm like you're going to stiff arm any car that gets too close. Eyes open or shut, there's no advantage either way. Pure luck. So there's your traffic briefing.

I can already feel myself settling in nice to the homestay. Becca and I got to sit down with our host mom and dad separately. The mom is cute, small, but mostly asked questions about us. The dad, the English professor, on the other hand, managed to give us a short lecture on India's history, caste system, education system, library system, and I swear there was more to it. At some points, I was slightly annoyed, but other times I found myself laughing to myself knowing I should have expected this coming to India, and still other times yet kind of marveling at the insight he really did have and from such a different perspective. Since he's a professor and dean of the humanities school, he gave us a ride in with him to the university today, and every day on for that matter.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the non-credit classes. I signed up for two, the tabla (drums) and the kathak dance (yes, I'm going to dance, and no, don't ask me to dance when I come home). I'm really pushing myself here =)

I finished the twilight series, so I might be more attentive to the blog from now on. Tomorrow?