I want to begin by saying that one of the girls in my group got hit by a bus. Not exactly what you're picturing though, it wasn't head on, high speed or anything. She was riding her bike, not too well I might add, and as the bus was coming her way/passing her she fell into the bus and was brought to the hospital. After seeing her injuries (no broken bones thank god) and hearing her experiences in the hospital is enough to make me really really want to stay out of there. First, she was wearing a v-neck shirt with a camisole underneath, but the doctors thought there was too much cleavage and refused to treat her until they got her a scarf to cover her chest with. When they discovered there were no broken bones, they put hydrogen peroxide on the wounds and sent her off, they didn't even bandage the wounds. For pain meds, they prescribed tylenol at half the dosage available over-the-counter in the US.
Besides that incident, everything has gone smoothly so far. Some of us in the group have been out clubbing a few times already. The clubs we go to here are like the clubs you see in movies that are super high-class with personal servers and such, all for around $4-6 a drink. That is, of course, when it's not Friday night, which is "ladies night" here and women drink for free until 11:00 (bar time here is 12:30). So we'll definitely be checking out some more clubs around Hyderabad, we've already found 4-5 really good ones.
Another thing I wanted to talk about is something I wouldn't have even thought to mention until my parents brought it to my attention that this is kind of weird (I'm settling in fast). The house where I'm living actually has a few plots of slums less than a block away. The slums are actually really interesting, I've found 3 kinds. There's the tarp slums, like the ones outside my house, where they're like old-school TPs or tents made from blue tarps and tied down. Then there's the slightly nicer tin slums, these are the slums that construction workers are provided with and are probably around 5 ft tall. There are rows and rows of these kinds of slums in a plot with very narrow walkways. Last but not least, I've found a few cement slums with doors made from tarps. These ones tend to have water reserves closer than the other two kinds, definitely the nicest kind. I thought coming over here I'd be so completely struck by the poverty and sadness of it all, but none of the slum people look that unhappy. They have really nice communities that they hang out with all day and they really seem to take care of each other. The really sad things to see are the people who don't even have slums to live in and pile on to the meager plots of grass scattered throughout the city.
One thing that has struck me is the live-in help in my house. It's a mother and daughter who cook and clean and serve all the meals, and although it still feels really weird to have them waiting on me whenever wherever, again, I don't feel too bad because they, too, seem to really enjoy their time with the family and such. It helps that the family is very including of them and doesn't really talk down to them, they join in conversations and crack jokes (that I don't understand because they only speak Telegu), but I definitely think for a lower caste (yeah I know they "don't have castes anymore" but it's still obvious where your family stood back in the days when there were) they got a really nice opportunity here.
Other than that, classes officially start tomorrow, there still may be a little bit of shifting in my schedule but nothing drastic. I'm really excited to get going with my routine and keep my mind busy, these last two weeks, although a lot of fun, have begun to get a big monotonous.
Lastly, my address here at the homestay is (bear with me now, the addresses here are way different):
Krishna Vilas, Number 9
Laxmi Enclaves, Gachibowli, Hyderabad
India
I'm pretty sure that's how you'd write it, so if anyone wants to write that's where you can send it =)
Did my description of room and board at Drake University get thru to you?
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