BEGGARS, BRAWLS, AND BOOKS. HELLO COLLEGE.

                                                                                                                                                27, July 2011

            I felt like Nemo this morning. I was so excited for my "First day of school! First day of school!" After a long week of painful lines and arguing officials, I was finally enrolled and able to start classes. To think that I actually wanted to go to school was surprising, but it gives me something to do and the chance to meet new people. I was a little apprehensive at first, not only the first day jitters, but add on being the new kid, taking a rikshaw all by myself, and having no idea what the Indian Education System is like, it can be pretty scary. Oh! And did I mention I'm the only American I have seen since I've been here. You know those posters about individuality were all the fish are blue except for the one orange one in the corner. Yeah, I'm that orange one. But I'm not lucky enough to be put in the corner, no. I'm the CENTER of attention.

            Talk about being self-conscious. When every eye is trained on me, looking me up and down it's hard to think that I'm becoming a part of Indian society. And the stares aren't quick glances either. They are long stares that turn into minutes of being uncomfortable. In this society, it is perfectly fine to stare, and it seems that everyone, aside from a few friends and my family are taking part in the staring custom. Its mixed reactions too, when I get the courage to look at them, some smile; most just keep eying me over, but no one looks away like we would in America.

            I got to school early, as you always should on the first day, and waited. And waited. And waited. No one told me that the 7:30 class I was 15 minutes early for really started around 7:45. I sat there with nothing to do, and no one to talk with. Finally, my friend Vippasana arrived and we went to class together.         

            The classrooms are VERY different! Of course, this is a college and I am used to high school, but still, very different even from our college classrooms. First, it is leveled, like at a movie theatre, with desks on each level. The desks seat two people, but some (like me when I don't know anyone one in the class) choose to sit alone. The desks also have writing all over them. There are paragraphs of notes, formulas, and pretty much whole lectures written down on the desks. Anything that might be useful for a test. Also, there are chalkboards. Yes, chalkboards. I don't think I was ever taught by chalkboards in my entire schooling career until now. I am so used to whiteboards and SMART Boards, that it is hard to adjust to something that to me seems "old fashion." Actually, I haven't seen any technology that compares to the US at college. From what I can tell, there is only one computer in the principal's office and one computer for the madam that deals with foreign students. Also, the windows in the classrooms are old and broken, so there are pigeons flying around during lectures.  There are fans to keep cool, though they are not always on. The light fixtures are single fluorescent tubes hanging from the ceiling.

            The lessons are also very different. To me, these college classes seem simple. Especially, optional and compulsory English. We are learning about things that I have known for what seems like years. Each class is about 50 minutes long, and because it is college, there are breaks between my classes, and I don't have the same classes everyday. The college day starts at 7:30 and ends about 1:30. But I don't have classes this whole time. Because the college ends when it does, there is no lunch available to students who live in Pune (there is a mess hall for students that live in the hostels). Also, the textbooks are very small. They are all paperback, and only about 200 pages each. This is completely different from the US’s 750 page hardcover textbooks. Oh! And how could I forget?! NO HOMEWORK!

            During the breaks between classes (50 minutes to 1 hr 40 min long because there are classes going on that I don't have), my friends and I generally sit and talk at Kimaya. Kimaya could be compared to a pavilion at a park in the US. It is the "hang out spot" for college kids between classes, or when they feel like bunking (skipping) classes. There are a few seats on the foundation of the pavilion, but no chairs or picnic tables or anything. There are always a lot of students there and many stray dogs as well. Yup, stray dogs roam the streets of India, as well as my college campus. But I was warned from the beginning not to pet them or feed them or even acknowledge them. Because, if I did, they would just keep coming back to me and bothering me. Also, they are not very clean or healthy. And you could easily become sick after touching one.

            Today, during my first day at college, my friend, Vippasana, and I were sitting at Kimaya wasting time between classes when we started to hear yelling. We looked over to see a girl yelling and screaming at a boy. And after a few minutes of name calling and swearing, the girl all of a sudden slapped the boy clear across the face. The slap was so hard we could hear it from 20 yards away, and it popped one of the lenses out of the boy’s glasses before they fell off his face. More yelling and screaming until finally another boy cut in and told the girl to back off. She didn't back down easily, but she finally decided the boy wasn't worth her time.  Of course, all of the yelling was in Marathi so I couldn't understand it, but Vippasana translated the main points for me. What happened: The boy had been spreading rumors that he and the girl were dating because the girl would copy the boy's notes from class. So then today, the boy asked the girl out, but while doing so grabbed her hand like he was proposing. (Now here is where the Indian culture comes in. It is not proper for a boy to touch a girl, especially if they are not dating. In addition, this girl was from a more orthodox family that believed strongly in that fact.) So, the girl freaked out at the boy just for touching him and it caused her to slap him. Just a little Indian drama for you guys.

            Also today, after the brawl, there were beggars. Beggars come to the school every occasionally I guess, asking for money from the students. (In India, college students actually have money to spare, unlike most college students in the US). It was my first experience with true beggars, and to tell you the truth, it was a little scary. Of course, they saw that I was American (or at least a foreigner, because I am white). They came straight to me, thinking that I would be the poor sucker to give them money. This group of beggars was all women, and they had papers that were typed in English saying that their village was destroyed by a flood and they needed money for clothes, food, and shelter. Right away, my friends told me that this was all a lie and just a ploy to get money. I agreed with them when I noticed that some of the women had their hair died. (How can you have money to dye your hair, if you don't have money for food?) Don't think I'm heartless; because I'm not, but everyone has told me don't trust the beggars. Also, if you give to them once, they will keep coming back repeatedly. They are annoying little buggers, just like mosquitoes. They keep bothering you until they get something from you, in this case money. They kept bothering my friends and me so we decided to give them some money to make them go away. I gave them 10 rupees (about 23 cents), the other money I had I was saving for the rikshaw home. They looked at me and said, "Only ten rupees?" I almost snatched it back and wanted to say, "It's better than nothing," but I didn't get the chance. They saw that we wouldn't cough up any more money so they went onto the next group of people.

            By the end of my day at college, I was so exhausted. I almost fell asleep during my last lecture. I couldn't wait to get home and take a nap. And that's exactly what I did, well after lunch of course. The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed, except for my first Dohl practice (Which I will talk about later in another post.)

            Overall, everyday has been getting better and better here! And so has the food! However, that's a different story!