Having been here 3 weeks, we have had time to settle into a routine. My day has some interesting consistencies, and some random events thrown in.


My day starts with annoying birds making ackward sounds, as I sleep outside on a rooftop. After the birds come the flies, so I pull my blanket over my head to stop them from waking me up. I can usually relax until 6:30, when one of the girls shakes me up. I pack up my mattress and blanket, and head inside for a half hour nap. We have tea (and biscuits) at 7am, everyday. It's a great start to the day, and I was especially sad to have slept through it this morning :(



After tea, I usually brush my teeth, change, grab my glasses and E-reader and head to the office in order to start my half hour allocation of internet. I catch up with my friends, my email and the outside world until 8am, when the next intern will take my place at the computer. We each take a half hour turn until lunch is served, at 10am.



After I get kicked off the computer, I go back to the dorms and journal, read, or take another nap. After lunch, we have about an hour to relax before school starts. We usually talk to the girls, who are frantically trying to finish their homework, or washing their clothes. If I haven't showered at night I will grab a 'shower' at this time.


Prayer for the whole school starts at around 11:20, and school starts after that at 11.30. We have each been assigned a classroom, and I sit in with a male teacher in grade (standard) 4. Their lessons are quite interesting - they are taught Gujarati writing through sign language, and each day is a different topic. I am slowly trying to hear the words and match them to the writing so that I can learn the alphabet, but it's proving to be an inefficient way of learning - I will ask a teach soon. I have learnt numbers, sign language, and how to write my name in Gujarati. I can adequately teach math to grade 4 :)


We have two ten minute breaks in the day, at 1pm, and at 4pm. A snack is served during the long (half hour) break of the day, which is from 2:30-3pm. After 3pm, I usually head to senior KG, which remains my favourite class. They slowly learn numbers, colours, animals and other random category things, which I find easy to learn and useful. This is where I learnt my colours the first few days we were here. And the adorable kids bring me back everytime :)


After school we have about an hour to relax (aka nap time) before dinner at 6pm. This is a great break because sometimes school can be overwhelming, or slow, and I need this time to regroup. After dinner we usually play sports with the hostel kids (the kids that sleep in the campus, like us!). The older girls are great at Badminton, and we sometimes manage a few volleyball passes before all the little kids come and steal our ball. We've also recently started spinning the children around so that they almost fly, which works well if they are little. I get very, very dizzy during this game, however, because they want to go one after another, and the little ones don't realise that I need a break.

Sometimes we go outside instead, after dinner and stay until 9:30 (our curfew). Yesterday we had a meeting with some staff at Wagh Backri, which is a big tea company here. They wanted to meet some AIESEC interns and we were lucky enough to be picked!


At either 7:30 or 8, we are usually ushered inside, where the girls either finish their homework or decide to talk to us. This is our biggest bonding time with the girls. In the past we have danced with them, talked to them, taken pictures with them...

I try to shower at this time, because it gets very hectic and crowded in the morning. We are usually in bed by 10, talk for a half hour and fall asleep, to start the next day again very soon.


In a next post I will try and put some pictures up of our weekend trip to Mount Abu. :)

Auto Rickshaw

Hey everyone!
I'm having a lot of fun in India :)
It's currently half-past midnight here, while it's 3pm Eastern time. It's random that we're 9.5 hours into the future - I've only ever been full hours ahead or behind.


We're currently just sitting in the trainee flat - Analucia, Emily, Mathieu and Oleg - and things are winding down.
We woke up at 10, which is early enough to take full advantage of the day, but too late to go to the gym (it closes at 9 for a few hours). We messed around and chatted to Joy, who had a vacation day today. We decided to go to the store to buy a few things (we are out of toilet paper!!), including snacks and food for lunch tomorrow. We also wanted to set up new phone numbers so we don't pass ridiculous roaming fees.
However, buying a new SIM card is not as easy as in Kuwait. We had to bring passport sized pictures and a copy of our electicity bill, which is to prove you live somewhere, and for ID I think. As we didn't have either, Emily was going to get a number, which we'll put in Analucia's blackberry and share. It took a while... and we put र100(rupees) into her phone... and then the number didn't work. So we'll try again tomorrow.


The weather hasn't been as hot as yesterday, which leads me to believe we're getting acclimatized! And so quickly :)


We went to the movies today. It was about र130, and there were awesome reclining seats! It's assigned seating here, just like in Kuwait, but unlike Canada/US. I like this way better, because you can stroll in just a few minutes before the movie starts without worrying that you won't get a good seat. One thing that stuck out as amazing was the complete silence before the movie started! And the almost silence during the movie. It was so quiet that everyone felt it, and we heard someone yell LOVE! It was neat. There was a 10 minute intermission in the middle of the movie, which was just the perfect amount of time to hit the wash-room, and for Prakash to hit up some popcorn before we went inside.


We also went to the store, where things looked a lot like Kuwait stores. We bought enough food for two people for a couple of days, including cereal, soy milk, yogurt, a green coconut, pasta and sauce. We spent $17 in total. We also bought a little chocolate cake for Emily, who turned 20 today. It was hilarious, because she is not used to the non-Chinese way of celebrating birthdays - with cake, and singing, and people throwing cake in your face. I felt so bad when our flat-mate spread it all across her face and she didn't understand. But she soon recovered and threw cake at all of us!


We also had a great lunch today, at a fancier international restaurant. I was so happy to see that they had pages of veg options, including at least 8 veggie steak options! As I like coriander, I picked something with rice in spinach and coriander sauce. The portions were huge, so we shared, and even at this most expensive restaurant, my meal was under $10! I also got a (virgin) piña colada, to keep in the Kuwaiti tradition I started last week - try every  piña colada restaurants serve to find the perfect one. So far Hard Rock in Kuwait is rocking the list!


Here is a picture of an auto rickshaw. This is the way we travel around here. While it isn't nearly as fast as a car, and only fits 3 people comfortably (we usually travel in 4 - one sits on our laps) it is preferable to walking in the heat. And they're very cheap compared to taxis in Canada/US.

First picture in a google search for 'auto rickshaw'. They are all exactly this colour.

Ahmedabad

I've arrived! And I've met too many people, so that I can't remember their names. I'm not too worried - names usually come with time, and it's even easier once we're friends on facebook.

The drive to our flat was hilarious - between the two new arrivals, we had too many bags between us and they didn't fit in the car. Or at least the bags did, but the passengers didn't! Two of the guys that picked us up at the airport rode in the trunk, with the back door open! :) Needless to say, we drove pretty slowly, and were especially careful on each speed bump.

They drive on the other side than I'm used to here. And each car honks a lot. There seemed to be no pattern to the honking, so I asked. It's a rule to beep at the rickshaws as you pass them. And the motorcycles. Or the people. Or the dogs. You gotta honk before you overtake them!

So far I've seen two cows... but I wasn't really looking for them. There were a lot of people sleeping on the side of the street - good thing the weather's warm. Okay, it's HOT, not warm. We have a fan going in the flat, and it's moving air, and it's pretty effective for what you'd expect of a ceiling fan. But as soon as you move away from directly underneath the fan... you'll start to sweat.

I arrived a few hours after another intern from the States. She's had a longer flight than me, but I've had a horrible lay-over (12 hours) and so we've both missed a night's sleep. We're a bit unsure how to beat the sleepyness, and in her case, the jet-lag. Should we take a nap now - at 7:30am? How long should we sleep for? What if we oversleep, miss the entire day, and then can't sleep at night? I guess we'll play it by ear, and figure it out slowly.

There are a few others in the flat - another intern at the school with us, Emily from China. There's a guy from Equador, that's been here for over a year. There's an Asian girl that's been here a while and is leaving in a couple of months. There's a sleeping girl from Sweden we haven't met yet. We're currently being made tea, so I'm excited :)
One of the first things I noticed in the flat was the ROMANIAN flag on the window! There was a kid, Dragos, here last year and he left a huge flag in the window. Oh, and a guy from Ukraine just walked in without a shirt on! It's going to be a very interesting two months.