The Home of Slum Dog Millionaire: Mumbai

Gateway of India

So Mumbai was quite the experience. If I could summarize it in one word it would be hot. I have never been somewhere that was so hot and humid at the same time, I honestly don't know how people live there and actually go outside every day, it was so unbelievably hot we would step out of our room and just be drenched in sweat before we even started walking anywhere! Being exhausted form our adventures in Hampi probably wasn't a big help either, plus another 15ish hour bus ride where we hardly got any sleep, not fun. BUT we tried to come into Mumbai with an open mind because, let's be honest, how many times are you going to get the chance to explore Mumbai in your life? So we set out as soon as we dropped out stuff off at our hotel (which took a while to check into because the people at the front desk were NOT accommodating to us only having copies of our passports). We decided that since we were so tired we would just walk to the Gateway of India, explore around there for a bit, and then just come back and relax in the hotel room to prepare for four days of exploring Mumbai. Well, we did make it to the Gateway and we did take a few photos and appreciate the scenery, but it was certainly not the last thing we did that day. On our way out from the

Fishermen's Boats

Gateway we had, yet another, tour guide approach us. This one, though, was asking us if we knew how to buy tickets to the Elephants Islands, which we didn't but wanted to know how because we wanted to go in the days to come. He explained it to us before pitching to us his tour details. We had no intention of taking a tour of Mumbai, and and avoided all the other tour guides harassing us while we were trying to enjoy the scenery, but this one sounded pretty cool, the guy said he had an AC car, he was with an actual program, his father was from Bangalore, and I bargained the price down to only Rs. 700 per person, which is about $14 USD. We decided to go for it, why the hell not, so we all piled into his gloriously ACed van and headed out to the different hotspots of Mumbai.


One of the first spots we visited was Mumbai's version of a laundry mat. This was a massive outdoor project where there were cement tubs all lined up cell block style where people were hand washing clothes. After they were hand washed, they were all hung on clotheslines, without clothespins, though, to dry. How they did this without clothespins was they had two ropes and they just twisted the ends of the

Ghandi's House

clothes between them, therefore not needed any clothespins. Also, there are millions of articles of clothing that pass through the place every day and not once has one been returned to the wrong person. Just amazing.


The next place we went to was the docks to see where the fishermen came in. The water was so dirty, as to be expected anywhere in India, but I could almost smell the smell of the ocean through it. Almost. I thought it was particularly hilarious that their dingies were simply fishing nets stuffed with styrofoam. Regardless, it was peaceful and I liked being close to the ocean again, even for a brief time.


Our next stop was Ghandi's house. Yes, I got to go inside Ghandi's house. It was AWESOME. I love him. But anyways, so we got to go walking around his house, which is perfectly preserved and turned into a museum; you can even see where he sat and meditated during his hunger strike. It was amazing. His library was also perfectly preserved which was incredible. There were tons of photos of his life and

Largest Train Station in the World

even a little exhibit of the events of his lifetime. It was really neat to go inside and see where he actually lived and worked.


Our next stop was just a drive by the largest train station in the world. It was built by the British, which is staggeringly obvious when you look at it. It was actually really strange, Mumbai looked, to me, what I would imagine England would look, except with an Indian twist. The cars looked like they did in old England and there were still double decker busses that were installed before India got its independence. It was quite trippy and really neat at the same time. For being such a huge place for the British to colonize, though, not very many people spoke English, which we found surprising and super difficult to find our way around. If we

Setting of Slum Dog Millionaire

actually learned Hindi in our Hindi class then it would have been helpful, but alas, we haven't. We hit a few more stops, although none as memorable as these few. Plus we were super tired and ready to crash by the time we were nearing the end of our tour. We headed back t bask in the AC of our room (yes, we paid extra for AC THANK GOD) and to watch The X Factor, which we are now all addicted to.


The next day Melissa and I decided that we wanted to do the slum tour that our guide had told us about. It was way too overpriced, but we were really glad we did it; we learned a lot. We went to the same slum that Slum Dog Millionaire was filmed in, and it was trippy; the movie did the slum justice. It was just like you would

Touching the Arabian Sea

picture it: smelly, dirty, cramped, garbage, kids, and people everywhere. It was a mess, but so amazing to walk through. We saw all sorts of different things. Not only did we see the conditions people lived in, which I don't know how they do it and still actually live, but we got to see a massive recycling plant as well. This place clearly had no regulations, the people were working in squalor just to earn a penny, but they were recycling and earning money none the less so I guess it could be worse... although not much worse. All in all it was super eye opening to see the slums in person, I think the smell will stay with me for quite a while, it is hard to forget.


We headed to the beach one evening (called Cowpatty Beach) to watch the sunset. It was really crowded and people would not stop looking and taking pictures of us, which was super annoying, but the sunset was beautiful over the ocean and the city line. We got to touch the Arabian Ocean, although I didn't go in further than my toes because it was super polluted, but others did. They were swimming around in all their clothing, just having a grand old time just playing around in the water. Right as the sun went down, though, we

Amazing Caves

decided to scadaddle because of all the attention we were getting; we hate that.


We did a lot of other stuff in between, including just hanging out in the hotel room relaxing and watching TV, nothing wrong with that! But one other really neat thing we did do was we went to Elephanta Island to see the ancient caves that were carved out of the rocks. It was amazing! These caves were not only massive, but they were literally just carved out of the side of hills. They were elaborate with carvings of deities and gods, with huge pillars with details and steps that had been worn over by age. It was just incredible. There were also monkeys that stole tourists' water bottles if you didn't hide them as you walked past; my roommate fell victim to this, it was hilarious, to say the least.


So Mumbai was quite the adventure, way too hot for me to ever stay there longer than a few days, but definitely a completely new outlook on the way that some Indians live, it was amazing! Soooo good to be back in good old Bangalore, even though the mouse has chewed even more holes in our screen and our bathroom light and washer won't work. Welcome to India.

Today, my life is just Shelby.

Can We Just Stay in Hampi Forever?

The First of Many Sleeper Busses

 Hampi was, without doubt, one of the most beautiful and interesting places I have ever been. I will try to do it justice here, but it will be a challenge because it was just so breathtaking. We began our 10 day journey on a sleeper bus. Now, these busses run overnight and have actual beds, although rather uncomfortable and sketchy, are still better than being vertical and trying to sleep for twelve plus hours. Nothing is close to Bangalore and flights are too expensive. All of the train tickets are booked for the rest of the semester also, so that only left us with the bus option. We we began our journey on a sleeper bus that left from right down the road from out apartment. It was one of the most
uncomfortable rides ever, it is nearly impossible for me to sleep on a bus in general, regardless if I am sitting or laying down, so it was a relief when

Rented Motor Bikes

we finally reached Hampi (after about twelve hours on the bus). We got to Hospet, the nearest town that the bus ran to, and were swarmed by rickshaw drivers. We got one for a fair deal and headed to our hotel in Hampi. The place where we stayed was wonderful. It was called Padma Guest House and if anyone is traveling to Hampi I highly recommend staying here. It wasn't fans, but it is run by a family and they are just so nice they treat you as if you have lived there your whole life.

Just Hanging Out in Some Ancient Ruins

So we dropped off our stuff and were geared up for our adventures to start (I went with two of my roommates by the way, so it was just us three girls). We had decided to give motor bikes a try and then to take a rickshaw tour the next day to hit up anything we missed on our own (which turned out to be a lot). We got the bikes and after Hannah dumped herself and Melissa off, Melissa
 decided to ride with me. Hannah got the gist soon, though, and we headed to the police department to register with them. At first we thought that they were really nice, they asked to hear what little Kannada we knew (the local language in Bangalore) and we laughed about it for a bit, but then one of them started to get real creepy and would ask us if he came to Bangalore could he take us out to dinner and whatnot, and then he tried to call my phone so I could have his number, and it was just getting  really sketchy so we headed out as soon as we could. He continued to call me all day, but I ignored his calls; I'm really

The Ruins Were Amazing

hoping he doesn't make it to Bangalore cause that'd just be too too sketchy. Melissa and I zoomed away on our bike as soon we we got out of there, but Hannah crashed hers into the flower pot right outside the police station so she was stuck talking with the creeper for a while longer. We finally made it out of there though and started our sight seeing adventures.


There were temples everywhere you looked in Hampi; there was even one right outside our hotel. We basically just cruised around on the bikes, enjoying the fresh air and stopping wherever something looked interesting on the road side. We weren't too worried about seeing everything that day, because we were going to be taking a guided tour the next day. I'm sure we were a sight for sore eyes; everyone couldn't stop laughing at the little white girls on the motorcycles. They took even more pictures than they would

Hanging Out with Nandi

normally, which is annoying because people are always taking pictures of us here. Apparently in Hampi's  hay day there were over a half a million people living there, and there had to be at least that. The architecture and the pure manpower it must have taken to build thousands of stone monuments and temples is crazy to think about. There were tons of stone carvings of deities, also. Like Nandi, he was once just a huge boulder, but somehow people carved him with the simple tools that they had. It was just insane to think about all the history that a place like that had, and even when the temples we saw started to mesh together, they were still amazing to look at.


One of the first places we went, per my request, was to the Lakshmi temple. This is, of course, where the sacred elephant Lakshmi blessed people. It

was amazing, and too funny too. The elephant was trained (which was sad, but he is also a very important symbol to many people's religion), to take money offerings from the people standing in front of him, five it to his keeper off to the side, and then bless the person by putting his trunk on their head. For foreigners apparently it costs more because I tried to donate RS. 2 (which is like 4 cents) which is what Indian's pay, and there was no blessing, so I had to donate Rs. 10 (which is like 20 cents) and he did it. And then of course I blew like five dollars just so I could keep touching the elephant. Sorry not sorry.

The sights here were just breathtaking. There were multiple points where we were able to see all of Hampi from high up and that was incredible.

Overlooking Part of Hampi's Ancient Ruins

When we went on our Rickshaw tour we got to see way more than we bargained for. We thought that we had hit most of Hampi when we were on the bikes, because we spent a full day packed with sight seeing, but boy were we wrong. It was actually a really good deal, we each paid about $6 USD for an entire day and it was packed with new sights. Out of all the important stops we made on the tour we had actually only seen one the days before, so clearly we didn't go far enough or down the right roads, which makes sense cause a lot of the temples were dow dirt roads that didn't look important when we were driving around. We saw all sorts of neat places on the tour. We saw this one temple that had been completely buried over time and then dug up by archaeologists. It had a complex water system running through it and once it was excavated water actually started to run

Making Friends Everywhere We Go

through it again which is just so cool to me. We even found a crab there, and who knows how that happened! But anyways, so we saw many amazing things and once again, the fact that nothing in life comes free appears again. We wanted to just walk around on our own and admire the ruins, however, there are people who live in Hampi and make their living by showing people around the ruins. This makes sense, but it isn't really fair because you have nice older women in saris coming up to you and just start showing you around, and you feel obligated to follow them and listen to them, and then they ask for a tip in the end. It's so frustrating because I like to just wander around and ponder my myself, but these people need the money so they seek out the tourists and pretend to be doing them a favor but then ask for money in return. I am so conflicted. I always give in, too. They always get my money. We did meet some really nice people, though, who actually did only want to help us. Mostly Indian's who were visiting Hampi. We met this really nice family, or what I assumed was a family, it could have just been a brother and his three sisters, but who knows. Anyways, we met them when we were visiting Lakshmi the elephant. The brother approached us

Meditating with Ganesha

because we couldn't figure out how much to give the elephant in order for it to touch us. He took pity on us and helped us out, and even shared the crackers they bought to feed the elephant with us. The kids were cute and laughed at how excited I got that the elephant was taking food from my hand. I didn't even care because I was in heaven. They started to ask the typical questions like where we were from, what we were doing in India, blah blah blah. I have started to tell people I am from Canada, because with all the turmoil with the States and the East it seemed like a solid plan. Plus if you tell people you're form Canada they don't ask you a billion questions like they do if you say you're from the states. So I told this poor guy I was from Canada and he got all excited and started asking me all these questions and whatnot. He started speaking French too at some point I'm pretty sure and then asked me if I had any coins from there (which is another common question we get, apparently a lot of people collect coins from all over the world). I was trapped in my lie and I felt bad because this guy was actually so nice and not creepy at all. I stuck to it though and wiggled my way out of it. We kept bumping into them all day, though, and I did feel bad. LYING IS BAD

Driving the Rickshaw

PEOPLE. Remember that.


So our adventures continued. On our rickshaw tour our driver, Raj, would ask us questions about some history or a monument or something. This one rock had naturally been carved out by the weather and into the shape of a god, in some people's eyes. He asked us which god it looked like and I answered Ganesha, because he is my favorite and I figured it was a good guess, and I was right! my prize was getting to drive the rickshaw, which was a hoot! It was a manual, and I don't even know how to drive a manual car, let alone a manual rickshaw, so I just controlled the gas and the steering and he did the shifting. Teamwork at it's finest. We learned a lot from our guide, actually. We were kind of thrown with him at

Boat Ride with a Man Who Looked Like Jesus

first and we were a bit uneasy, but he was nice enough and knew a lot about the history.

And the adventures continued!!! So the next day we decided that we were going to explore across the river on our own. We didn't really have a game plan, and it showed. So we went to the riverbank and wanted to take the little round boats across the river; it was on our list of things to do before we left Hampi. So we get there and the guy was trying to charge us double what we should have been paying, but we finally got him down to a semi-reasonable price. We got in this little tiny circular boat that was half filled with water already and in comes this man who looks like Jesus and only has one leg. He clambered in the boat with us and our driver, or paddler I should say, pushed us off and hopped in. The boat just kept filling with water, but

View at the Top Near the Monkey Temple

luckily we didn't sink. I was also being splashed in the face the whole time which made my paranoia of getting a parasite even worse. We did go under this rock, though, which was cool. There was about a foot of space, so we all had to lay completely flat in the boat (getting soaked in the process) so we could pass under this rock. It was a lot of fun, even though I did get a bit seasick and convinced I now had a parasite.


Well we finally got to the other side and awkwardly clambered out and helped one-legged Jesus get out as well. We started to hike up to a temple that we could see but after looking around it for a while we realized that we really had no idea where we were supposed to be going. We started to hike a bit, but turned around, afraid that we would get even more lost. We saw a white person, but lost them through the trees, so we were alone again. We went down the hill behind the temple and crossed a part of the river because we saw people on the other side and were just praying that they spoke English. We ran into this one man who was actually laughing at us because we were so obviously lost. He spoke English and called us a Rickshaw, thank god. We clambered in and headed to the Monkey Temple. Now, this temple was at the top of a

Honing my Bargaining Skills

small mountain, and in order to reach it you had to climb up over 500 steps. So that was miserable, to say the least. As if I wasn't out of shape already, the altitude just about killed me. We made it to the top, though, and the view was stunning. There were monkeys everywhere too, which was entertaining. After spending an hour or two admiring the scenery, and having a delightful conversation with an italian man I met up there, we headed back down the mountain (much easier to go down than up), and onto the next temple, which we didn't stay long at, and then to do some shopping.


I have almost perfecting my bargaining skills, which I am so happy about. Once I get into the groove, there is no stopping me. This just feeds my already unhealthy shopping addiction. It is really

Hanging Out With Some Cobras

helpful if you tell them that you live in India, so you aren't just any old tourist and you actually know what you should be paying for the item. Usually they are reasonable, and become even more reasonable if you strike up a casual conversation with them about nay old thing. I have actually had some very nice conversations with people who were trying to sell me things. So yes, I got a fair amount of my gifts bought for all you lovelies back at home.


On our side of the river again, we ran into a snake charmer, which was also on our list of things to see and do in Hampi. So of course we stopped, knowing he was going to overcharge us for the show, but still, who could pass up that kind of show? He did put on quite a show but then asked us if we wanted to go any closer. Now, I'm not afraid of snakes, but when you are that close to one your instincts kick in and you can't help but be afraid. We got to hold the basket and pet the back of the cobra's hood, which was terrifying, but it was really neat, too. I had enough very quickly, though, my senses were in overdrive being that close to death, so I put down the basket promptly, paid the man and we headed off to shower off the day and relax on the

Henna

rooftop of our hotel overlooking the ruins. It's a hard knock life, no?


Our last day in Hampi was relaxing, we only had a half a day before we had to leave for our bus, so our original plan was to get up to watch the sun rise around 5am and then stay awake so we could sleep on the bus. Well, we got up to watch the sun rise, but then when we got back to our rom we all fell asleep until almost 10am, so that plan was an epic fail. Regardless, we got up, had our daily "pancake" (which was really like a crepe filled with banana slices, DELISH), and just lounged around for a couple hours. The hotel keeper's cousin, who was 12, came and talked to us for a while. He was so smart it was kind of scary, but adorable because of it. I told him all about college and how to apply for scholarships and he asked his mom if he could go and she said if he worked hard, then yes, he could. I am such a Team Mainer it is not even funny. So we still had a solid three hours to kill, so he asked us if we wanted henna. I said sure, why the hell not, and my roomies followed. We ended up right next to the hotel in his cousins house where she gave us beautiful henna designs. While we were there her mother started to make chapatis and there

Beautiful Paint Bases

were little cousins running around everywhere. It was nice to just be in a house, pretending like we fit in, for a couple hours.


All too soon, though, we had to head out to catch our bus in Hospet to Mumbai. We carpooled, or rickshawpooled I guess you could say, with a girl we met from Denmark who was on our bus as well. We met this really nice guy named Jack at the bus stop who was also headed to Mumbai. He was from Australia and looked, no joke, just like Allen from The Hangover. Hampi, though, without doubt, was one of the most amazing places I have ever been, and I've been to a lot of cool places. Just the history and the feeling you got when you were there was incredible. What I liked most, though, if that everyone was so nice, they treated you like you lived there and weren't just another tourist come to gawk at the temples. I was sad to see it go, and it will definitely be a place I would visit in the future if I am ever so lucky to come back to India, which I hope I will be. Anyways, that's the adventures in Hampi, Mumbai was our next stop in our whirlwind trip, more on that to come.

Today, my life is just Shelby.

I Got the Groove Now!

 So finally, after six weeks of being in India, I have begun to get into the swing of things.

Nearly Getting Hit by a Bus. A Daily Occurrence.

Through the bouts of homesickness, and especially the freaking out about the GREs, I have had a really tough time adjusting. Now, though, that the wretched exam is finally over (story to come) I can take a deep breath and finally start appreciating my time here abroad. So I suppose this post is going to be about the quirks I have been experiencing about life here, also my GRE experience, and then my time so far volunteering. Yes, that sounds like a good plan.


So first thing's first: little quirks about living here. Well for one, nothing is guaranteed. Whether it is getting a ride somewhere, knowing when you have class, or even what you are ordering, you never know if it is actually going to pan out like you hope it will. There is something here that we call running on "Indian Time," and everyone from here does it. It basically means that even if you need to be somewhere at, say 4pm, and you ask for a ride there, your ride might not even get to your house by 6pm. The trick here is to tell them at

Just Trying to Keep My Charger in the Wall

 LEAST two hours ahead of time you need to leave. Then you might actually have hope of making it. Of course, though, if it is urgent they will be on time, as any good friend would :) Things getting cancelled is another thing that I have learned to just take with a grain of salt. The most common occurrence I see this in is with classes. You will go to school expecting to have three or four too-long courses and then lo and behold! Two are cancelled for no reason! Well, there is a reason, but it usually isn't anything more than the professor having to proctor an exam or out sick. Regardless, classes are cancelled way more frequently than back home, but we have to make them up which is no fun. The private education system here, especially with higher ed, is crazy. They go to school six days a week, and their longest break is only about a month long. Also, they only go to college for three years. No wonder why everyone from here is so smart!!! Anyways, moral of the story is that class gets cancelled, but we have to make it up. Also, we only have to go to school Monday through Friday because we are American. Lame excuse, but it's the truth.


Now, ordering food should be a completely different blog post, but I will try to condense it in this one, although I feel like we may have to extend it a bit as time goes on. Alright, so we have gotten much
better at ordering ourselves food as time has passed, although usually the norm when we go to a restaurant, especially if it is sit down and we actually get a menu, is we just point to

Just Eating Some Massive Puri. No Big.

something random and hope for the best. 99% of the time this works in our favor, although we have gotten a few very interesting dishes since being here. We eat mainly veg foods, especially in smaller places where sanitation is questionable. I think I have only eaten chicken twice since being here; great for my cholesterol! SO the food here, if I haven't covered this already, is really, really, reallyyyy spicy. Usually this is fine with me, but eating spicy food three times a day for four months literally might kill me. I have found oatmeal (thank God), and cereal, and Silk soy milk (yay!!), so that's what I have in the morning, then usually Indian food for lunch, and I alternate Indian food for dinner and oatmeal, depending on how I'm feeling, how late it is, etc. The range of food here is incredible. You have your breads from northern India, like naan and puri, and you have your rice from southern India, and then you have about five million different types of curry, veg and non veg, thinner, thicker, etc. You get the point. And remember, none of this is in English on the menu, so basically whatever you point to will a) be delicious and b) be spicy, so you can't really go wrong.


So onto my GRE story, which is completely irrelevant to the photo in this section, but I will come to the photo in the volunteer section. So this morning I wake up and simply dread getting out of bed. i know that I still had tons of studying to do, and I was mega stressed out about this strike that was happening. Oh yes, the strike. So here in India, when a city decides to go on strike, it's not liek one or two groups of people or places of employment, it's the entire city. The entire city shuts down from 6am to 6pm. And I say "shut down" as in there are no busses, no rickshaws, no school, no gas stations, no restaurants, no shops, no street vendors, no one drives, no one walks. Nothing. It is super creepy and, especially us Americans, are advised to stay indoors all day in case of demonstrations that could be happening. So there has been one strike before today since we've been here, it was to counter the rising fuel prices, and the one today was to protest something to do with the water Bangalore is giving to a neighboring state. I'm not exactly sure on the issue, I had such a busy day I just skimmed through one article to gauge how dangerous it was going to be and sort of skipped over the details. So, this strike had protests all over the city, with only a few demonstrations. All day I was pacing, freaking out, attempting and failing to study, I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy, did some FaceBook stalking, and then just pure procrastination by taking an unnecessary shower and things like that. My nerves would not calm down, and only part of it was about the exam. I obnoxiously

Volunteering at the Paper Recycling Plant, Gluing Folders

texted my friend who had promised to come get me at 3... I was so worried he was going to be running on Indian time I couldn't stop pestering him. So I get a call at 2:15 from my friend saying that he was outside my building waiting for me. My exam wasn't until 5, but I was not about to take the chance with the strike and also we didn't know how to get there. As we ventured out in the car for the 20 minute drive we only saw about ten bikes and three cars, which was super eerie because we have millions of people who live in Bangalore and usually it is hell to drive. We didn't see nay protesters, but we did see piles of burning trash and debris in the middle of the street every few hundred meters or so.  Apparently this was reminiscent of the rallies that had been there earlier, or just from angry citizens setting things ablaze. So we of course couldn't find the place, so we had to stop and ask directions quite a few times (men here, by the way, are MUCH better at asking directions, it's quite refreshing). We came across the building the exam was in and of course it looked terrifying because everything else was all boarded up and closed for the day, so I made my friend walk me up to the testing center. Since I got there two and a half hours early I just say in the stairwell and reviewed my math notes. I made a friend, of course, and his name I cannot pronounce for the life of me. He was nice, though, and told me he wanted to go to school in California or Florida. After two hours of "studying" my math notes my new friend and I decided to head in to register and get ready for the exam. I was totally internally freaking out at this point and felt like a robot getting the papers filled out because I couldn't function. So we got everything filled out, put our things in a locker, and headed in to face the dreaded exam. I won't go into detail, but it was brutal. Just BRUTAL. I never want to go through that again, nearly cried when I finished. I got out an entire hour earlier than I thought I would, so I called my brother (well, technically he's my friend Sandy, but he is basically my brother here we call each other family) to come get me and we headed off for a celebratory chicken dinner with ice cream to top it off. Never has chicken tasted so delicious and ice cream tasted so good. Literally feels like a hundred pounds have been lifted off my shoulder after finishing that exam, now I just have to keep my fingers crossed about actually getting accepted into Grad School!! So that was my adventure today. Skyped with a couple friends, FB chatted a few more to say that I survived not only the strike but the test also, and now I sit here at 2am still writing. I am thinking that I should probably save the latter portion of this post for tomorrow. Yes, I think I will do that. So until tomorrow then. Good night all my lovely readers.



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Alright, that was a refreshing sleep... not. Apparently I was more jacked up about the day than I though, I had a hell of a time falling asleep. Oh well, today is Sunday so I can stay in bed all day if I

Mischievous Little Nuggets

please. And I will probably do just that. Alright, so about all of this volunteering I've been doing, and will continue doing. The first place I volunteer at is at a recycling place right on campus (see photo above). This organization hires eight women from the slum right outside our apartment and gives them the opportunity to have a steady income. Bangalore is number one in India for recycling, and it is apparently when we go to this place. What happens here is they take all the paper waste and food waste and they separate it. Food waste goes into the composting center while paper waste gets washed and shredded to go into the pulper, or whatever it's called. It gets crushed up and water is added, then we transfer it (yes, we has in the volunteers as well) into this tub of water with a mold in it. Then we swirl it around to make an even layer, lift the mold (it has a screen on the bottom), and flip the wet piece of paper onto a cloth so it can be pressed and then laid in the sun to dry. After that, depending on what the paper is

Hannah and I with Two of Our Favorites!

going to be used for, it goes through different processes to be sized, pressed, bound, etc. Also what we do there is glue things, or put "gum" on them as they say. That is monotonous, but can be relaxing if you are stressed. Basically we glue different things together like the pockets in a folder, sides on paper boxes, etc. We use our hands, of course, so it get's kind of messy, but it can be fun. It is also really interesting to hear the ladies talk. None of the speak English, maybe a few words here and there to tell us to put more or less glue on, or to pass them something, but for the most part we just talk to each other and they talk to each other and everyone is happy. They all speak Tamil, which is the language of the neighboring state, but will switch to Kannada sometimes and since we know a it, it's fun to pick out the words we know.


So not only do I volunteer at this recycling plant, but I also go to the slum after school program twice a
week, three times on a good week. This program is fantastic and I love every minute of it! Basically what we do is we catch a rickshaw to the slum from school at wish, then we walk the rest of the way into the slum to the actual building. The kids get there at 4:30 so we go hang out in the office until they get there with the coordinator, taking a few minutes to relax

How Could You Not Love These Faces?!

before the rush starts. We head across the street to the program "library" where all the younger kids, second to sixth grade, go to work on their homework, practice whatever they learned in class that day, study for exams, etc. Our job is basically to help them with anything they need, usually it is English practice, but sometimes they have math and science homework as well. When all the kiddos get there we can usually be productive for a solid half hour, forty five minutes before they get completely distracted. It is inevitable that they are going to lose interest in the work they have, they are stuck in school all day, then are expected to work more after school. Luckily the rules here are lenient, so we end up playing hangman, or reading books, or playing hand games, which is fun but I feel so old because it takes me forever to catch on! Most everyone speaks fairly good English, so that is a relief, and they are all so nice and just hilarious! I brought out the camera the other day and I knew it was going to be a big thing, because they had asked me to bring it, but MAN did they have a hay day with that thing! We had to take it away eventually because not everyone was getting a fair turn and it was getting brutal. This is the perfect place for me to be, it's basically what I want to do after Grad School, so I love every minute of it! We only have about six or seven weeks left that we can volunteer here, so I want to make the most of it.


This week should be pretty boring, well,  but I'm sure I can muster up something or other to write about later ;)

Today, my life is just Shelby.

Elephants and Illness

Ganesha Outside the Mall on Our Way to School

So India is still a crazy whirlwind, even though we have been here for over 5 weeks. It is crazy to think that 5 weeks can seem like such a short amount of time, but then again it feels like an eternity. I obviously can't deny that this trip has been, and will continue to be, an experience of a lifetime, but I still can't help but be a little excited that I will be back in good old Maine in about two months. I guess they were right when they told me "you can take the girl out of Maine, but you can't take Maine out of the girl." Well, since I haven't really updated this blog in a while, I will give you the low down on the going-ons here and also about my trip to Coorg!

Go Blue!

Alright, so besides me continuing to flip out over the GREs, and procrastinate studying regardless of how much I need and want to, school is pretty much the same. We have our first midterm on Monday, which shouldn't really be a problem because our professor gave us all the questions for the exam. I have high hopes for this semester and really wish my GPA was going to transfer over! I have also started my volunteer hours. I have to do 15 for my Service Learning class, 10 or my
Women's Issues class, and 10 for my Population and Poverty class. I am actually pretty excited about these because I picked two really neat places to volunteer at. For my Women's Issues and Service Learning classes I decided to volunteer at the recycling plant on campus. It turns out that Bangalore, although polluted beyond belief, has the best, biggest, and most efficient recycling centers in all of India! The center is right on campus and it employs eight women from the slum that is right outside of our apartment complex. What we do there is we help to make the paper (as in starting from the pulp), we press it, dry it, cut it, glue it, etc. It is really interesting and harder work than I thought. The women who work there are really nice, but don't speak a lick of English so us volunteers usually just strike up a conversation amongst ourselves and the ladies do the same. For my Population and Poverty class I decided to go into the slum and volunteer at an after school program. Here I help second thru sixth graders with their English homework. Now, I am in HEAVEN here, it is right up my alley, and I plan on doing way more than 10 hours of work here! Besides the volunteer work starting, classes are long and, well, classes.

Failed Attempt at a Titanic Pose

So onto much more exciting things, I went to Coorg last weekend and it was marvelous! Coorg is about 7 to 8 hours away from Bangalore, and so we decided to take a night bus there so we wouldn't take up time during the day to sight see. Well, that was a horrible idea because we got shoved way in the back, the bus was in really bad shape, the seats were horrid, and it took about two extra hours because the bus was apparently carting some illegal goods they had to sell or drop off or something. Well, we FINALLY got there, completely unrested, around 6:30am and headed to find a hotel nearby. Other people in our program had come along too, and by sheer coincidence we were on the same bus. We

Dream Come True!!

decided to all just stay in the same hotel, so we checked in, dumped our stuff off, and headed out for an adventure. My top priority, of course, was to ride an elephant. I told my roommates that as long as we did that, I was game for anything else. Of course, though, we were late because we went sight seeing first (the Titanic Pic fiasco), and we had to take a boat to the island where the elephants lived, so we missed bathing the elephants, HOWEVER, I did get to ride one which was amazing!!! I mean, the fact that I got to ride one was amazing, but the fact that the elephants aren't in the wild is always depressing. i tried to not let it get to me, though, because when they are not working they do live in a forest, and they only come out to work once in a while for tourism or festivals. Also the chains are to let them know that they are in work mode (the noise let's the know), so it's not like they are tying them up so they can't move, it's like putting their work hat on I suppose.

Stopping for a Quick Tree Pose

After we left the elephant camp we headed to a national park to do some "trekking," aka hiking. Lucky for me and my out-of-shape self it was actually just walking around on some trails, which was nice, although I was really full from the suer spicy curry and naan I had just wolfed down, super dehydrated, and wicked sunburned. I should have known this was a recipe for disaster later, but I pushed through anyways. We stopped once in a while for a few photo ops, some meditation, and then headed out to catch the bus back into town. Oh yes, this weekend we learned, well sort of learned, how to work the bus system. Basically you just ask every bus driver if that bus goes to where you want to go and then hop on. Easy enough, right? Yeah, except when the bus is so crowded you are literally hanging onto the outside of the bus from the doorway trying not to fall out. But anyways. We headed back into town and then I started feeling super sick. Everyone was heading to a fountain but I decided to stay in and get some sleep until later when everyone was going out. Well, turns out that super spicy curry mixed with hiking, a sunburn, no sleep, and no water makes a person very, very ill. So I stayed in the whole night sicky pants, which was NOT fun. Note to self: spicy curry is just as spicy coming out as it is going down.

Mysore Palace

Waking up the next morning was easy, mainly because there was a festival LITERALLY right outside our window. Starting at 5:30am. So needless to say the blaring Bollywood music woke me up nice. Luckily whatever had come over me was fixed with a good night's rest and some water, so we rushed to pack up and headed to Mysore, a city about three hours away. THere we split off from our friend Sandy, he wanted to go visit an old girlfriend, so me and my roomies headed to the Mysore Palace. It was beautiful and I wish we could have taken cameras inside, but no shoes or cameras were allowed! We admired it, and the many temples and shrines surrounding it, for a while, then headed inside to see the beautiful architecture. It really was spectacular, and we even got to buy little treats at the end. Beats me what they are called, but they were sugary and delicious!

Elephants at the Zoo

We then headed over to the zoo right down the road, which I have to say was one of the saddest experiences of my life. the animals enclosures were way too tiny, and most didn't have adequate water. I couldn't bear to stay at one exhibit long, although I couldn't pass up a photo op with the elephants, even though their enclosure wasn't even big enough for one. It really was a shame to see all those beautiful animals penned up like that, and I am almost positive that they were not rescued. I don't agree with that, and I didn't know what to expect when i got there, but I definitely would not recommend going there if you are an animal lover!

On the Train

Our last leg of the journey was the train ride back to Bangalore. It was under a dollar for the three hour ride (amazing, I know!), but we got there late (of course) so we didn't really have a seat the entire way. We had half a seat next to this woman so we all took turns sitting there. It was a sleeper cart, and the way it works is no one has a reserved spot, it's first come, first serve, so if you got there a little early, lucky you, you have a seat and maybe even a cushion bench to lay down on! We got to stand, but everyone on the train was really friendly and wanted to know about all the differences between India and America (most everyone here wants to know that). Merchants and food vendors kept making their way through the train, so we were never hungry which was nice, although we were awfully tired. When we finally made it to Bangalore we had to take yet another bus to the mall, then a rickshaw to our apartment. In total, however, to get to Coorg we spent 300 Rupees, which is only $6, and on the way back we only spent 200, so that's $4. In total we only spent $10 on travel, so I say that we made out pretty nice!


It was a very nice weekend, followed by a normally dull week at school. The cherry on top to this full week of school, though, is I am now plagued with illness and have to miss our program field trip to Hampi. My roommate Melissa is also really sick, we we are planning on going to Hampi another time (you should Google this place, it looks AMAZING!). Hopefully we will feel better soon and the adventures will pick up again!!

Today, my life is just Shelby.

School is School

The Slums Near Our Building

So anywhere you go, I have discovered, school is school. Long hours, writing essays, listening to lectures, the whole shebang. In light of that, I haven't really been up to anything much besides going to school, so i guess I will just recant what I have written in my journal from school and what we have learned and such.


So, first thing, we had a cooking class, actually two. Now, we thought this class was going to be interactive, as in we could be cooking so we can actually learn, however, it was a bit different than that.  What happened was we went in for class, got the menu we would be "making" and then proceeded to the kitchen. A woman, who we dubbed as "Mama Poppins" (because she is magical like Mary Poppins) came in and along with our Resident Director, began to

show us around. They got out all the ingredients that we would need and then began the prep. We all just kind of stood there watching, asking questions, taking the occasional note, and wondering when they were going to ask us what we could do. Well, apparently we were going to do nothing so we basically just watched them make the entire meal. I mean, it wasn't a waste of time and we did learn a lot, it just wasn't as hands on as we had hoped. Both weekends though we got delicious food! And the second weekend we did get to be a bit more hands on, stirring the curry and making the puris and what not.

Besides just learning how to make the food, well, sort of, we also learned a bit about how the food is identified. To us it basically all just looks like mush (aka curry) and bread (naan, puri, etc.) and rice, but apparently you can tell what is in the food by what color it is. There are five different colors to curries: red, yellow, white, brown, and green. If the curry is red then it is made with tomatoes, if i is yellow it is made with turmeric, white is with cashews, brown is with onions, and green is with spinach. All of these are delicious and not gonna lie, kind of taste the same to me.

My Name in Kannada in the Middle

So as for actual school, we have basically been learning the exact same things in all of our classes. No joke. None of our professors talk with one another about their lesson plans so they all teach about the caste system. Don't get me wrong, it is really interesting, but when you have four, two hour classes twice a week just about the caste system it gets a little redundant. Also, we watched the same exact documentary in two different classes within a 24 hour period. It was interesting, but twice in two days? Not really necessary.


Kannada class (Kannada is the local language) is fun, yet impossible. The language is literally like nothing I've ever heard before, which makes it super hard to learn. Hindi is the same way. They both just sound like gibberish to me and I have no idea how I am going to make it through until exam time. Alright, I'll give you some examples, written so you all can read it. Alright.

In Kannada:

Ninna hesaru yenu? - What is your name?
Coffee illa - No coffee
Nanage coffee iesta - I like coffee
Nanage coffee iesta illa - I don't like coffee
Nanage coffee beku - I want coffee
Nanage coffee beda - I don't want coffee
Yenu nanage beda - I don't want anything
dhanyavada galu- Thank you
dayavittu - Please
Yeshtu dura - How much

Everything here is about coffee.

But yes, you see? like nothing I've ever seen before. Granted, it is only a one credit class and it does end early, but still, so hard. And it is too funny, our Kannada professor basically just writes a word on the board and then repeats it like 200 times in a row, hoping it will stick. I mean, I guess some things do because looking back on my notes I remember which ones he kept repeating because I was laughing in class because he just kept going and going and going. Hopefully I'll pick some up, though, so I can do some serious bargaining when it comes to shopping.


We have been learning a ton about Indian philosophy and religion, but mostly the philosophy. It is intriguing, but most of the time my mind is blown by the complexity of what we are talking about; it is a very hard subject to grasp. We have learned so much, a lot of vocab, and many concepts. I will just highlight the most interesting points to me, the rest you can Wikipedia or search on your own, I would be here all day if I reviewed everything we have learned so far. Brahman is the oneness of the universe and Atman is the energy within us. Now, they are both the same. This might not make sense so here is an example that might make it easier: Both Brahman and Atman are like a mirror. Through time, the reflections in the mirror change, but the actual mirror stays the same. The mirror represents the "essence" or "oneness" of the universe. The truth runs through every form but it is still the truth. Another example that might work if the mirror one didn't is: Venus is called both the Morning Star and the Evening Star. You can see it in the evening and in the morning, and it looks different each time you see it in different light. However, no matter when you see it or what it looks like, it is always just Venus and it never actually changes, it is just your perspective.


Another fun fact I learned in school is the reason idols here and 4 hands and arms is because it represents how he has more power to create. You will never find an idol with four legs, though, because that would be too animal-like.


In all movies where there is smoking there is a disclaimer that smoking is bad for you.


Here "pickles" aren't what we know pickles as. They refer to the hundreds of things that can be pickled. So anything from mangoes to lemons to carrots, literally anything. And they are all called pickles.


Alright, let's see what else. I have completely gotten sick of the mob I have to push through to get food at lunch time. I just want to be able to walk up, stand in line, get my food and go eat without being trampled or pushed aside. The food is still as good as ever though, so that's a plus.


Oh yeah, and we are famous, already made it in one newspaper!!


We went to Nandi Hills last weekend and it was beautiful! For those who saw some of the pictures on FaceBook, that just gives you a hint of what it was actually like. We left our apartment at 3am and drove for an hour and a half, stopping frequently in THE sketchiest places possible for some reason. When we finally got there it was an interesting scene. It was only 4:30am, but people here party all night, and for days on end. Apparently Nandi Hills is a popular place for people to go get drunk, so when we got there there were tons of people hanging out, with their car radios blaring, drinking and partying. Since it was 4:30am I elected to stay in the bus and sleep, but a few others ventured out. The gates opened at 6am sharp and we raced to the top, getting out of the bus at the ticket counter and continuing on foot to the top. Sandy and I got separated so we just went exploring on our own. We were the only two to see the sunrise, and it did not disappoint!! We met up with Katie and Roxanne and continued our explorations into the forest. We climbed walls, trekked through the brush, and eventually came out by an ancient pool type thing. It was massive and beautiful. All in all it was a solid reason to get up at 3am. We slept for the rest of the day when we got home.

We have made great progress of the conference that Melissa and I are in charge of. We had our final (maybe) meeting yesterday and everyone ran through what they are going to say. This shindig is basically a conference slash debate slash discussion about the economies and social problems that face countries around the world, how their relationship is with India, and what their ideas are to reform or fix their country's issues. Right now we have seven countries represented. It is supposed to be tomorrow, but it might get postponed until November if we can't get the head of the department's signature. I am hoping it does get postponed because then we can get more countries to participate.


Other than that it has pretty much just been us getting into the groove of things. Today there is a city-wide strike because of the rise in fuel prices, so literally the entire city is shut down. So far it has been peaceful, but I'm not really looking to leave my apartment in case that changes. It is so strange, literally EVERYTHING has shut down. There are no busses, no rickshaws, no restaurants, side of the road stand, no one is really driving, not even the gas stations are selling fuel. It's crazy!

Trying for Some Good Ju Ju for the GREs

So the riots that I'm sure some of you have been hearing about have made their way into India. We got the evacuation notice from the Embassy for Northern India, but luckily we are in the south. There have only been a couple riots in the south, and, knock on wood, none have been in my city so far. We all just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope they don't come here!!


Anyways, I should get to my homework, or at least back to my essays for grad school. I have officially started to freak out about that, I am taking the GREs on October 6th! AHH! Alright, well this weekend should be fun, I am going to Coorg and am FINALLY going to ride an elephant!!! AHHHHHH YESSSS!!! So That sound be an excellent blog post :) Hoping everything is just as calm, peaceful, and safe at home as it was when I left, I'm gonna need a lot of that when I get home!!

Today, my life is just Shelby.