Clothes shopping

This morning was a free morning for us =). It was really nice to have a break. A group of us went to a mall-ish market-ish type place and milled around. I got some cool genie pants and had my first haggling experience. As a group of 14 white people, we definitely stuck out, and a lot of the rickshaw drivers came to check out if we needed to hire them, which created competition between them, thus we got some really cheap rates there and back. Another thing was that while we were in the gates of the mall, someone must have gone and notified the closest begging/orphanage agency that a bunch of rich white americans were in the mall, because as soon as we came out a group of orphan kids ages 4-6 came running at us with their hands out, begging for money, trying to grab our waters and sodas out of our hands, pulling on our arms, etc. It was pretty heartwrenching.

We made it back okay, though, and after lunch took off with the program to go to Fab India. It was located in a really really nice part of town, next to actual houses (not apartments or other shopping centers). The program gave each of us Rp. 3000 to spend in the store, which is equivalent to ~$60. This was definitely a high end place, so we each got about 3 full outfits out of the money they gave us.

The women's section was mad though. It was arranged by the sleeve length and body length of the kurtas (shirts), and no two kurtas were the same. All were one-of-a-kind hand-made. Then the salwaars (pants) were below, some with matching patters and colors and others not. Finding two pieces that you liked and fit together was tough enough, but then you had to go find a matching dupatta (scarf/shawl) also. It was actually really hard work, it's never been so hard for me to put together an outfit. I didn't get any saris today, the people in charge of the program said you can get really nice saris other places for a lot cheaper, but full length silk saris there were running from $50-$60. It feels weird being cheap.

One thing I have to comment on is the huge boulders everywhere. Even walking through the campus, I see fields of big rocks scattered across the landscape, but when you get into the city there are boulders 40 ft high that have somehow managed to pile one on top of another, in a straight line up, not in a volcano formation. So you'll have this completely rocky landscape, but then you look somewhere else and they've manicured these beautiful gardens, even in the medians. I'll try to get some photos of everything mentioned here, but it can be difficult because generally I'm in a moving car or bus.

P.s. sorry I've been really bad about taking pictures so far, it's almost like, since everything is so radically different I don't even know where to start, it's a little overwhelming to think about pictures at this point. I'll get some up eventually.