Written on 7.7.17
As of tomorrow, it will be officially a week since I met my host family and came to live with them. It has been a weeks of ups and downs as I faced homesickness, physical sickness, but also laughter and bonding. On Saturday, July 1, I finished up the arrival orientation as I talked about in my previous post, but I also waited for my host family. I was really nervous to meet them because I wanted to create a good first impression. Our host families were allowed to come pick us up at 4pm. Unlike the usual Indian perception of time as fluid, the families pretty much came on time. The first to leave was Yutaka who is the only one in Delhi who is not from the US, but from Japan. Hopefully we will have lots to talk about when we meet up next. Two more families came before mine. Everyone was so happy to meet their host daughter/son/brother/sister. This made me more excited and nervous. My host family finally arrived and I immediately recognized them from their application photo. We said hello to each other and then took my bags and fit into the car. It was a little cramped because most cars in India fit 5 people. This being said, we filled it right to the brim with 5 adult-sized people. My host family is a 4 person family as you may have figured out by now. There is my host mom, host dad, host brother Gatik who is 14 years old and host sister Monisha who is 16 years old. They were all very welcoming to me and made sure I knew that I was their family and not a guest. The car ride home in itself was an adventure because I had only otherwise been on the streets of Delhi at 3am going from the airport to the resort. The traffic at 4-5pm is a lot worse. People in India have lane lines but they are not respected as much as they are in the US. If you ever think traffic is bad in the US, just remember India. I thought we would hit a car more than once, but since the people driving here have only lived with these conditions, they are good at knowing where their car is and how to control it. For those of you wondering, yes there were beings on the road besides humans in cars. There are regular people and street vendors walking, cows, dogs, and even pigs/hogs. On the way to my host family’s house, we stopped for food on the street and I had a roasted corn on the cob. It was pretty good but I was not expecting the corn to taste how it did because we usually eat sweet corn in the US which I guess I never really thought about. It took about 30-45 minutes to get to the house. It really isn’t a house that you may picture in your mind because people are more crammed next to each other here in India. The building I live in is only my family’s which is pretty uncommon but the lower level and part of the upper is a preschool/daycare center. The house has a dining room, living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a balcony where laundry is hung and a rooftop terrace. Most people here have a rooftop terrace because the roofs are flat. What is taking the longest for me to get used to is the heat because there is only AC in the bedrooms but it is usually turned off unless many people are in the room because it is expensive. The ceiling fans do help. The first day home I put my suitcases in my room and rested until we were ready to go out. To be honest, I was really tired and just wanted to sleep, but my host family took me out to the mall to eat that night and to temple. We worshipped Lord Shani (lord of Saturday) there. There was a pandit there who is the equivalent of a priest in the US. We will go to temple every Saturday and Tuesday and my family prays morning and night. Some of those times I join in with them. After the temple we went to the mall food court to eat. I had Indian Subway for the first time. I was playing my food choices safe because my stomach was still adjusting. I got an all veggie sub because my host family is vegetarian in the house and strict vegetarian anywhere on Saturdays and Tuesdays. I have been vegetarian for a week now and it is very easy to be vegetarian in India because all the food is very good. We even ran into the principal of my school in India at the food court. She had just finished watching a movie. I have a picture of her with me I will try to add as soon as I can. (I am writing these on a Google Docs page because my blog will not load and then I copy them into a blog post when I have better internet). When I got home from the mall, I pretty much went straight to bed after a cool shower (fun fact: it is so hot here that I have had to take 3 cold showers per day!). The start of the week was not bad, but it was a low for me during the week. On Sunday I walked around the neighborhood and met with nearby family members. It was nice to meet people but there was a definite language barrier. All I can say in Hindi so far is “hello”, “thank you”, “My name is Anna”, “good”, “OK” and a few other words which are mostly the names of various foods here. These words are useful but they don’t help me understand a full-on conversation. One of my goals for this year is to be able to have a meaningful conversation (short or long) with a native speaker of Hindi with minimal errors. Sunday night is when physical illness hit me. I had not been feeling great since I arrived on Saturday, I was mostly just nauseas. My host family did everything they could to prevent it getting worse by using traditional natural remedies, but nonetheless, I ended up being sick. On the bright side, it only happened once (*knock on wood*). I have had other issues with digestion but it has gotten better as time goes on and it’s not too bad because I expected to get “Delhi Belly” when I came here. On Monday, I started school. I was welcomed traditionally with two garlands, a bindi, and we lit a candle/lamp. I got a provisional tour of the school. We did not finish the tour because the school is very big and it is hot because only the classrooms have fans/AC running. I met with my counselor and we set out a provisional schedule (or Time-Table as it is known in India) for me. I am not taking any science or math classes until I get back to the US because those classes are very intense in India and I want my experience to be more than studying. After school, I relaxed for a while and then joined a taekwondo class that is held at my host mom’s preschool. It was my first time so I was not very good at all but it was still fun. The rest of the week has gone by very fast looking back and I can now understand that the year will fly by. Tuesday morning was a low point for me because I felt very homesick. I started crying and my host mom hugged me to calm me down. I really missed my mom. I was still just coming into my host family and I felt alone even when surrounded by people who loved me. Taking a cool shower really helped and I again relaxed that day because my host sister was studying for an exam so I did not go to school. I got some much needed rest and felt much better. I even joined the taekwondo class again. Wednesday was a nice day back at school. We arrived to school late because my host siblings, namely my brother, is VERY slow in the morning. People in India are just like people in the US in some instances such as this one. I am usually not a morning person, but in India I make myself wake up at 5:30am (I usually wake up at 7am in the US during the school year). It is not fun but I am usually ready before my host brother is even out of bed at 6am. I am quick but my siblings are not so I leave them an hour to do everything since there are only 2 bathrooms. In the mornings, I enjoy going on the balcony and watching the morning life. I also enjoy it at that time because it’s a tolerable temperature outside. In school during the rest of the week I am on my 3rd book because I have spent a lot of time in the library while exams are going on. I also have participated in art classes like drawing, painting, and sculpting and have done yoga as well. I had my second Hindi lesson today. I really like my teacher and I am very excited to see how I progress. On Thursday I woke up and felt like something clicked with me and my host family. I really am starting to feel comfortable here. I know there will be more ups and downs even within my family, but those are all expected. This is where my week ends, but another one is just starting and I cannot wait to see where it takes me.
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The final orientation of this beginning series of orientations was the arrival orientation in India. There will be others throughout the year but this was the last continuous one from departure to arrival.
The arrival orientation took place at the resort that was booked for us in India, where I left off in my last post. After sleeping for about 5 or 6 hours from 3am until 8-9am, the day continued with the start of the arrival orientation. We ate breakfast which was my first taste of Indian food made in India. It was pretty good, but for most of the dishes, I had no idea what I was eating. After we ate, all the AFS India kids stood in two lines, one for the boys and one for the girls. At this point, we had no idea what was going on and the humidity was really bothering me but we soon started moving up and then realized we were taking part in a traditional Indian welcoming ceremony. This made me feel like I was truly in India. They placed a garland of Indian Marigolds around each of our necks and placed a bindi on our foreheads which is the dot in between the eyebrows. In this case it was done with a vermilion colored paste and rice was pressed in. My bindi did not last the entire day but it made me realize that I touch my face more than I thought (I rubbed it off before I thought to take a picture). The rest of the orientation was made up of sessions just like the National PDO and Gateway orientations, but the timing was nicer because the sessions usually started at 11am and ended no later than 6pm except on the last evening. This gave the people from the US more time to adjust to the time difference. My favorite part of this orientation was the cultural stalls and cultural show which took place on Friday evening, the day before the orientation ended. The cultural stalls were a bunch of tables set up around a room, each representing a city in India where students would be hosted. Here I had the opportunity to try on a saree (the traditional women's clothing in India) and I got another bindi, this time a jeweled one. I also tasted many foods which were very interesting and nothing like what is available in the US. I will try to get a photo of me in the saree uploaded on here once I get the photo sent to my phone. After the cultural stalls, we went downstairs to do the cultural/talent show. During this, groups of students from different countries would put on a performance relating to their culture. The American group of about 10 people really struggled to come up with a performance. It seemed like every other country had a really well thought out performance. For example, the students from Thailand and Japan both had brought traditional outfits and performed traditional dances. In the US, the culture is very diverse and there is not one outfit to define the entire country. We ended up being the final performance and sang our national anthem and had everyone join us for the Cha Cha slide. The final day of the orientation, Saturday July 1, was also nice. We heard from a speaker who has lived in India for 3 years now and she was very helpful. We started our FRRO form, which is the registration for foreigners in India. It is due 2 weeks after arrival. In the next post, I will talk about meeting my host family and the first week in India. Unfortunately, my laptop decided that restarting itself was the best thing to do right as I was finishing what would have been this post and it did not save what I wrote.
Having finally settled in a little bit, I have time to write a post about my travels, orientations, host family and more. I will divide up the posts into each category or else this post would be too long.
My last week in the United States went by more quickly than I could have imagined. I finished school and exams, and spent the weekend at the lake. I visited my horse, Milo, for the last time until next year and said many goodbyes. On Friday, June 23, I woke up, took my dog Luka around the block with my mom for the last time for a year and was picked up by my Pop Pop and Uncle John who brought with them my dad and siblings ( I was spending Thursday night with my mom because she would not go with me to the airport). When they arrived, I said goodbye to my mom and took my bags. Luka jumped in the car to go with me but unfortunately he could not come with me. (He would not care for this heat and humidity in India anyways). I already miss everyone, but I try to think about them the least amount possible because it just makes me more homesick. My two suitcases and backpack fit nicely in the trunk but during the orientation I realized that I forgot my brush and a few other things at home, but I could get by without them. Once we got to the airport which was about an hour and a half away from my house, I checked my bag and said goodbye and took pictures with my family before heading through security. I went through security and found out I had TSA Pre-check, but with my luck I was stopped after the scanner for a random check. Nonetheless, I made it to my gate and realized I had come way too early. I sat there for two hours before boarding at 12:15. I was at my gate so early that there was another flight at that gate before mine. The plane for that flight was very small and I was relieved when I realized it was not for my flight. The relief only lasted for about an hour however, because when my plane rolled in, I realized it was even smaller! I did not believe that was possible, especially for a flight to DC which I figured would carry more people than it did. The small plane ended up being a blessing in disguise because when I found my seat, I saw that it was in the row that had only one seat (the plane had 3 seats to a row, 1 seat then an aisle then 2 more seats). My seat was both an aisle seat and a window seat which was great! I enjoyed watching the plane leave the ground, go above the clouds, and come back down again. When we descended to the airport, there was a moment when the national monuments lined up that I wish I had captured on a camera, but the view was amazing and I will not forget it. When I arrived at Washington-Reagan airport, I went to the baggage carousel, and when I found the right one I grabbed my bag and turned around to see YES Abroad India alum Adrianne and two other India Yes Abroaders for this year, Alexander and Colin. I had talked with Colin in our group chat on snapchat beforehand and he was just as nice as I imagined even though it was a bit strange to suddenly switch from online to real life. I had not yet met Alex, but over the course of the orientation, he quickly became part of the group and it was like we had known each other forever. We left the airport and waited for an Uber to pick us up. This was the first time most of us had used an Uber, so that was a new experience on its own. We chose Uber XL and it luckily fit all of our suitcases. It was about a 30 minute ride to the National 4H Youth Conference center where the National Pre Departure Orientation (PDO for short) and we did not talk much during the car ride, Alex even fell asleep. I later learned that Alex will sleep almost anywhere, especially if it is in a moving car or bus. We got to the 4H center and met Linnea, Parker, and Allen who I had previously only interacted with through email, calling, or webinars. It was nice to see them in real life and they are all awesome people who made the orientation a great experience. When we walked into the dorm room building we also met McKenna and Olivia, who again I had talked with before but never met in real life. It was amazing to finally be all together in real life. I got my room key and moved into the room that McKenna and Olivia had moved into earlier in the day and the boys shared the room across the hall. We settled in and at 3:15, we started our first orientation, the gateway orientation. I will talk about the many, many, MANY days of orientations in the next post. It had been what seems like forever since I have written my first blog post and part of that is because I am lazy and forget to write a post but mostly, I have been extremely busy in the past month! There is so much to go through and I probably won't hit all the points, but I will try to breeze over them without making it seem confusing or hectic.
First, I found out that I would be staying in New Delhi! Not only that but today I also found out that I will be attending Amity International School Gurgaon, sec-46. This school is located right outside of New Delhi and I cannot wait to see how I grow and learn there as well as meet new people who have completely different backgrounds than me. I have not heard about my host family yet, but that should come within the next few weeks (LESS than a month before I head to DC!). Also, I went to a travel clinic at Cornell Health which took a while to drive to, but good news for me there, I only needed one oral vaccine for Typhoid. The rest was relatively low risk and/or manageable with prescription medication I was prescribed to take abroad with me like Malaria or "Delhi Belly". I also got to go to a regional orientation because India's implementing organization is AFS. This was really fun and I got to meet a lot of really nice people who were either going abroad this coming year or who were here on exchange in the US. Unfortunately, there were no other YES kids there besides one that was being hosted in the US. I did get to meet a girl online who got a YES scholarship and lives about an hour and a half from me but her implementing organization is not AFS so she did not go to the orientation. So far there are 5 people going to India, 4 of which are in a group chat and we are trying to find someone we heard of on the India specific webinar/conference call. His name is Alex. If you see this by any chance please contact me! The others are McKenna, Olivia, and Colin and I will try to link their blogs somewhere on this website though I am not very good at making things work on here yet! I cannot believe that it has been almost four months since I applied to, and over a month since I learned that I am a finalist for the K-L YES Abroad program. When I applied I had no idea whether or not I would get in, and if I did, where I would go. I had almost no preference to where I wanted to go because I know I would find my place in any of the countries available. However, I now know that I am indeed traveling to INDIA for the upcoming school year (2017-2018). The most common reaction I get after getting asked where I will be going in India (I have no specifics for that), is usually "you're going for the WHOLE year???". I always introduce the topic as a year of study abroad but I guess people still assume it is just a summer program. So, to clarify, I will be (most likely) going to India June 26, 2017 and coming back sometime in May of 2018. It does seem like a huge amount of time to be away from the only world I know in Corning, New York, but it is the opportunity of a lifetime as cliche as that sounds. I have heard (and definitely agree) that the time passes by too quickly.
More specifically, I found out I would be going to India on March 13, 2017. I remember this date (I am really bad at remembering dates besides my birthday and major holidays) not only because my life changed courses that day but also it is the day before pi day (3/14). I was not receiving emails from YES Abroad because my email got mixed up so I was relying on my mom to tell me when she heard something. On that day, YES Abroad was the last thing on my mind because everyone was so excited for the snowstorm that was coming which led to two snowdays in a row. But sure enough, my mom came home and she checked her email while walking to me to check in and she started reading the email starting with the subject line "YES Abroad Finalist - India". I couldn't believe my ears! I shot right up off the couch and stopped doing my AP World History homework. I got my mom to forward me the email but in the meantime I was, to put it lightly, in shock. I could not believe that this was happening to me. My little brother and sister who were home at the time were excited but of course one of the first things they told me is "don't leave me". Of course it will be hard to leave my family for nearly an entire year, but it will be more than worth it in the end. I am 100% sure my siblings will enjoy hearing stories when I come back. I spent the rest of the evening looking over the emails and the attached files. I immediately read and signed every paper and release form with my mom and then had my dad sign the other forms when he dropped off my sister from track practice. It was a hectic night but it was one of the best nights I have had. As the time went on from me learning about this I of course l scoured the internet for anything and everything relating to India and found a few blogs from people who had already gone which gave me the inspiration to start my own. I was able to tell my global history teacher from freshmen year (who wrote my recommendation) that I got in three days after I found out because of the two snow days we had. Those snowdays were very hard to wait through because I had to wait to tell people in person that I had gotten in. I was really excited for the regional orientation to see if anyone in my area had gotten in and from there the National Pre Departure Orientation (NPDO). I have yet to hear about the regional orientation but I should hear back soon. To my surprise, I woke up one day and checked my phone per usual but saw that I had an enormous amount of instagram notifications. I soon discovered that I had been found by the other YES Abroad India kids for 2017-2018. I first met McKenna, Colin, and Bri. I could barely concentrate at school that day because I really just wanted to talk to them. About a week ago, I met Olivia who is also going to India with us. Of course we will be in separate host families, but I am super excited to see how we progress abroad as friends and as individuals. It is so interesting to meet people that you feel so connected to even though you have never met in real life. We are already planning on getting a pizza and cupcakes for NPDO this year if at all possible. Before Olivia joined the group, Colin, Bri, Mckenna and I had a skype chat. It went relatively smoothly considering it was the first time we had communicated outside of snapchat and social media. It was a great experience even though it eventually turned into Mckenna and I talking by ourselves for a few hours. I could not have imagined getting to meet such great people and am grateful we get to spend the next year together. In the next post I should talk about the in-home session, regional orientation and any other new occurrences. Things will be moving quickly as there is just over 2 months before we leave! |
AuthorNamaste! Mera naam Anna hai! Hi! my name is Anna. Please enjoy reading about my experience as a high school junior in India and ask any questions you may have! Archives
June 2019
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