Day 2

Today the actual orientation part of the program started. In the morning we did the health and safety lecture (nothing I haven't heard five times already!), followed by a tea break of course. The tea here is to die for, I will swear by masala chai for the rest of my life. After the tea break we got bags, which many of us intend on using as book bags but are really big purses, and inside was another smaller purse handmade in Andhra Pradesh (the state I'm in). The gifts keep on coming from CIEE. After lunch we did a bus tour of two sections of the city? Suburbs? I'm still not entirely sure of what they're considered but were not considered actual Hyderabad. Regardless, we got to stop in a train station and a marketplace. While waiting for the bus outside the marketplace, a group of so many white people was such an attraction that vendors actually left their stands to come over and stare at all of us. They don't even look away when you look back at them. We managed to cause a mini traffic jam from the crowd surrounding us. Even on the bus on the way back to campus, drivers and pedestrians stared, and I got my first kiss blown on the bus from a complete stranger on a moped. Needless to say it will be interesting to see if the people get used to seeing us around at all or not. I also found out today that I did get one of the homestays and will be sharing it with one other girl on the program (thank god, I'd be a little nervous going it all alone). Not sure yet when we'll move in, but it's about a 10 minute bus ride from the campus/my classes. Monday we get assigned cell phones, I'll let you know any rates they give us about incoming/outgoing calls and texts when I find out, because I'd love to be able to stay in touch that way instead of just by facebook/blog.

Until tomorrow? It sure does seem like I'll be able to update this about once a day