Here's to a Hangover Tomorrow in Incredible India! Cheers!

So, today, we went to the campus and it is BEAUTIFUL. It composed of brick buildings connected by open halls and lush gardens incorporated in the building and grounds. I think I could get used to this.

Our lecture today was courtesy of Prof. Haldipur who's presentation was called, “Incredible India”. I found the lecture to be incredibly interesting, especially the short video clips of what India’s educated is doing for its rural and poor.

Unfortunately, Prof. Haldipur got off on the wrong foot with some of my compatriots. He compared incidents in the U.S. to incidents in India painting a very negative picture of the U.S. and shedding light on wholly good India.

For example, he brought up the looting that took place in New Orleans during Katrina and said that would never happen in India and they help their fellow man in crisis. This just emphasizes how important press is and how powerful spin can be. To make these stories even more news worthy (because a HUGE hurricane isn’t enough) they sensationalize it by adding drama focusing on the negativity instead of how we Americans, too, help our neighbors in need as well. It’s disappointing to know that this is the message that is being carried around the world of our country. It kind of makes you want to say F-ck the flat world.

On the other hand, Prof. Haldipur, had these beautiful stories of Indian’s persevering and helping each other out, but most likely, again, it’s just media spin. Indian media tries to make itself look better by glossing over the negative and American media likes to dig until it finds its story of hypocrisy and negativity. You definitely won’t get your dose of warm-fuzzies from U.S. news where we seem to revel in negativity.

BUT he did have some video clips of what their advances in technology are doing for the poor. One group is making prosthetic feet for the destitute at a very affordable rate using recycled materials. Another group is providing lighting to rural families by solar power and yet another is making water more available.

New Years Eve tonight! The students are taking us out to PlanetX which is a bar that’s supposedly going to be hopping. But judging from what I’ve seen of this group, if they keep the drinks coming we’ll have a good time no matter where we go.

Happy New Year everyone! I’ll see it about 12 hours before ya’ll (except the Kiwis, you have me beat, yet again!)

The Early Bird... Gets the Fastest Rickshaw

I woke up at 6 am after a relaxing 11 hour snooze and went to the gym at the hotel, which is tiny and not that great, to be honest. Breakfast again at the hotel which is pretty good, and they change it up a little every day. They also have an instant coffee machine which tastes more like hot chocolate than coffee because they add so much cream and sugar. What I’d really like is a nice BIG American-sized cup of black coffee, but when the caffeine addiction kicks in, this stuff does the job.

We had our first rickshaw ride today. Pretty sure most of us thought we were going to die or be T-boned by a bus. Driving here is an art that must be mastered because in India, there is no waiting; you just go wherever you can. It’s rather impressive how in control they are of their vehicles and they seem to know the exact dimensions of their vehicles and if they will fit in the teeny tiny space that they see open ahead (and if not, they will go ahead anyway…). Traffic is chaotic to say the least; cars, busses, trucks (nothing even close to a F150 though), ox carts, rickshaws, and motorbikes (with 4-5 people on the back) added to swarms of people walking and of course cows aimlessly strolling about.

A group of us went to the shopping part of town and unloaded great sums money at a Fazil’s Silk and Sarre shop. AMAZING! Ali had us all sit at the counter and pulled out traditional dresses, one after another until he had piles of silk clothing about a foot high and four to five feet across. THEN his father brought down stacks and stacks of Kashmir scarves for us to look at. We probably provided a month’s worth of income for how much we all bought. The shop has been in the family for over 100 years and is run by Ali and his father, who have invited us for dinner, whenever we want to come. This is very customary for the culture to invite strangers, such as ourselves, for dinner which is similar to the Mexican culture.

Another similarity to Mexico as well as some other countries is that family is incredibly important. Tod and I spoke to some couples last night in the hotel restaurant (at about 1am after the bars…) who said they hear of people living near their grandparents or parents and they never see them. To the Indians, that is unthinkable. The families give up a lot to provide for their children and when their children become educated they are expected (and they do) provide for their families in return.

Some of the guys in our group went to a men’s suit shop where they were draped in silk fabrics to choose for tailor made (who has love for New York…jp. I can’t believe I referenced that. Yuck.) suits for about $100. Which reminds me of being in Istanbul where labor is so cheap.

After a long grueling day of shopping Gretchen and I tried to take a little nap but then ended up gossiping about ADMAR stuff and about the alliances of our fellow travelers. Oh, we also put up our pole ;)

Our formal welcome dinner was AMAZING. We went to one of the “smaller” palaces in Mysore which has been converted into a hotel. Dinner was wonderful and we sat at a table with Ramesh, the dean of students for the school (also Rajiv’s cousin) and two other professors, Malathi Sriram, who teaches information systems, and Rajesh Haldipur, who instructs finance; but we have him for a lecture tomorrow on “Incredible India”, hopefully there’s no finance mentioned...

I was beat after dinner but rumors started floating around of a couple of us going to a bar. When opportunity knocks… One of the students, Kalpesh, took us to a hotel bar where he knows the owner and they stayed open late for us. We took two rickshaws and I got to ride on the back of a motor bike, which was pretty exciting, as it was also my first time riding a motorcycle ever! I’m even kind of surprised it has taken me this long to do that. You think that would come before skydiving. We had three rounds of drinks and were in pretty good spirits by the end of the night.

"When the Sun Comes Up, You Better Start Running" -African Proverb

After 30-some hours of travel time we arrived in Mysore on the 29th…at about 7am.
Our professors left us to take the bus from Bangalore to Mysore by ourselves. The two hour bus ride was especially eventful as Maleah, Gretchen and I rode in the back and hit our heads on the ceiling of the bus when they went over a bump a little too fast. We stopped half way to Mysore for a bathroom break and coffee, which tasted like a little slice of heaven.

On our itinerary it said we would check in to the hotel at 7 upon our arrival and have breakfast, which was great. We were all excited to wash off the grime from travel and saw the Ginger Hotel as an oasis in the midst of the squalor which is the poverty we witnessed on our bus ride to Mysore. I must say, it can be pretty gritty, but also can be incredibly inspiring. However, we were dismayed to find our hotel rooms not ready, but a breakfast laid out for us.

After breakfast, then a shower (finally!) 8 of us hit the ground running and decided to take a walk around Mysore. The streets were crowded with bicycles, motor bikes, busses, auto rickshaws and vibrantly dressed people everywhere; and, oh yeah, cows… everywhere. Harvey made the mistake of giving money to a girl who was asking for money and she and her friend wouldn’t leave us alone thereafter.

We went to a bird sanctuary for Rs10 each (which is about 25 cents) and took a boat ride on the lake for Rs 25 (which is little more than 50 cents). We had a very nice Indian man rowing our boat, who didn’t speak much English but managed to point out what wildlife he could to us. Poor guy had his work cut out for him, rowing 8 Americans… I honestly thought we were going to tip over. We then walked back in time for lunch at the hotel and went up to our rooms for a much needed nap.

Gretchen and I started out in a room with one double bed and with a shrug from both of us we unloaded our stuff and made the room home for the next couple weeks. However, after complaints from our other compatriots they switched us to a room with two twin beds (in the middle of our nap…). So, no spooning for Gretchen and me, but we do have dance parties (I mean “study groups”… of course).

That first night we had a little meeting at 5:30, during which, most of us were delirious from the lack of sleep and quite cranky. It probably wasn’t the best first impression on our Indian hosts, but what can you do… Gretchen and I went back to our room after the meeting (at 7) and went to sleep for the night.

Two DAYS!!!

Ok, so since I got a little ahead of myself... my second post will be an introduction to myself.

I'm a senior marketing major, comm minor at the Great University on the GREATEST of Lakes (UMD). And if all goes according to plan I'll graduate in the spring. And (hopefully) subsequently find a decent job that will have me.
I've studied abroad and traveled abroad a couple times before. I blame my mom for my passion for travel. As kids my mom would take my brother and I packed from the floor to the roof in a tiny '87 Ford Escort (But it had a sun roof!) and we took road trips all over the U.S. (and through Canada), so I've seen the 48 continental United States. We then went to Istanbul, Turkey when I graduated high school, to visit my cousin (who had been living there for 8 years). Next, I toured Greece with the J-term trip from UMD, so I've been pretty much everywhere in mainland Greece. The next year I studied abroad for a semester in New Zealand and traveled to Australia afterwards. And most recently, this past summer, I traveled with my family back to the land of my forefathers, Finland. And now... India. I can't really say which of my travels have been my favorite, they're all so different and special in many ways.
But it's only two days until I leave for India and I'm bouncing off the walls. Not to mention, I've been itching to travel for over four months now. I'm even looking forward to the experience of the 20+ hour flight time, which is the longest I've had, even with New Zealand...
Back to reading... which I've been conveniently avoiding by visiting with family.

Count Down: 2 weeks!

Alright, so I just realized that it's ONLY two weeks until I leave for India. I only have one final (Marketing Management Strat... capstone class whoooo!) and I don't know how I lucked out with that, perhaps it's the ridiculously easy Comm minor classes I'm taking.


Now I will be taking up the assigned pre-departure reading, "Being Indian" and "The World is Flat", mind you, they are not light afternoon reads. Well, they're not Anna Karenina either... but they're more daunting than what I would have preferred to read the week before Christmas.