Impressions

Hello from the middle of the globe!

I hope you've read my first blog, Interstitial Stitches, to know what's going on and how I got here.  I'm in Bangalore, India getting ready to begin my first teaching assignment teaching English Literature to international high school students.

Having been awake nearly 48 hours with only knee-jerk catnaps, I will take a stab at my first impressions:

Exotic birds and statues to the Hindu gods in the airport and everywhere--we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Indians like to head-bobble.  Constantly.  I don't know what this means yet, but it must be something smart.  They shake their heads from side to side when they say "yes" and nod their heads up and down when they say "no."

I am very white.

I'm staying in the school dorms for a few days while they finish my apartment and right now am the only female in the girls' wing.  The shower consists of a spigot and a bucket right by the toilet.  I try not to curl my toes.

Hospitality:  The head of facilities personally picked me up from the airport at 3:30a.m. and showed me everything about the dorm flat.  They'd provided bread, cheese, milk, fruit, eggs, and a huge drum of bottled water, for which this thirsty girl is very grateful.

The campus is absolutely shiny and beautiful.  Exotic flowering trees abound and palm trees that tower and plume out in a flat shape like a giant fan.  Manicured fields and campus guards every 50 feet.  They salute their manager, as is the custom.  Very refreshing, I must say.

The beautiful and warm HR lady showed me around and she and the facilities manager took me out to a KFC that cranked out club music like "Night at the Roxbury," except in Hindi.  Very strange to imagine strobe lights while eating a chicken burger.

Nausea setting in from lack of sleep and motion sickness.  I nearly urp in the school van bouncing around rutted roads and construction sites while avoiding rickshaws, buses, motorbikes, pedestrians, cows, and stray dogs.  Everyone here honks.  It's the thing to do.  You do this every time you weave around a person, animal or moving object.  A piercing siren sounds at stoplights when the light is about to go green.  I think it's the police and give my companions a chuckle.

The women wear possibly the most comfortable clothing on earth.  Tunic and pants--easy, breezy, beautiful-- in as many colors and patterns as the little dots in front of your eyes before you go to sleep (anyone else but me?)  Saris--gorgeous as well, but midriff-revealing; I'm not willing to expose my white underbelly to anyone just yet.

My apartment--I got to view it in progress and it is a lovely little place on the top floor with easy access to the roof where I'll hang my laundry.  It's all glossy and new and I can't wait to make it my own.  As for my promised "enclosed" shower--the spigot and bucket are surrounded by the four walls of the bathroom.  Enclosed, no?  I have floor to ceiling French windows that I will be getting screens for pronto to let in the breezes.  I have a spare room for visitors (hint hint!)

Well, I must off to bed before I turn into a pumpkin, as my Dad says.

Write me!

Love,
Jessica