The Beginning of an Adventure

My tentative departure date had been August 15th, but then it was moved to July 23th. My family and I had to quickly adjust to the new date, and rush to complete everything. Finally, the day had come. After getting 3 hours of sleep, my family and I drove to the Detroit Metro Airport. My mom, dad, and sister Hannah were allowed gate passes, and we slowly made our way through customs together. My last "American" meal was Crazy bread from Little Cesar's and a strawberry shake. We waited together for the gate to open, taking a few photos. I said goodbye and tried my best not to think about anything. I flew for about 8 hours to Amsterdam, then about 10 hours to Bombay. The plane flights were long, boring, and uncomfortable. But I finally made it to India around 11 p.m. Tuesday night. It was hot, and I could not understand anybody. I talked for about five minuets with an Indian Security man. I still do not know what he said though, but I think the topic was about how my hair was longer in my passport picture. I was called over by a friendly looking man, and he introduced himself as Devang Munim, my first host father. We waited with some friends of his because their daughter, Veronica, was coming home from an exchange in Brazil. My host father works in Bombay 3 days a week, so we dropped him off, and I went with Veronica's family to stay at a friends apartment until morning. I got a glimpse of the outskirts of Bombay that night. It was amazing because it was so different. People were everywhere, some even sleeping on the cement divider in between the roads. There were also dogs everywhere I looked. No one owns them, they just roam about eating garbage. I saw two cows hitched to a cart in the middle of the road. Most of the houses were right along the roadside, and they looked like they had been made out of any scrap material that could be found. Once at the apartment, Veronica and her mother gave me some chocolate. It is an Indian welcoming custom to give a sweet to someone you wish to welcome. After 2 hours of sleep, we headed out to Surat. Traffic is crazy! They drive on the opposite side of the car, and the road. Unless they feel like driving on the wrong side of the road. There are four types of vehicles pretty much: two-wheelers (scooters, motorcylces, and bicycles), Rickshaws (very small, open cars, their taxis), Small cars (vans, etc.), and big hauling trucks. There are also a few buses, horse carts, and camel carts. There are rarely elephants. Everyone is always honking their horns, even when there are no cars around. Everyone just drives where ever they want to in the road and at any speed. Cows, dogs, and people are also everywhere in the road. On way to Surat, the scenery was beautiful. Giant hills reached up into the clouds with palm trees. Of course, you could only see this when you were not surrounded by other vehicles. Most everyone lives in apartments in Surat because it is a very big industrial city. We arrived at Veronica's apartment, and her friends welcomed her back with a big party. Some guy was playing drums, and there were firecrackers going off everywhere. The whole house was decorated and everyone was singing and dancing. I met a lot of Veronica's friends. Later I went to Devangs house and met his wife, Taja, and his son, Kavish. Kavish is always studying so that he can get into a good college. I am supposed to call her "Auntie", and Devang "Uncle". That is what all elders are called over here. I have a small room, the guest room. It has two small beds, a little bathroom, a balcony, and closets.The view is one of the main roads in Surat, and many buildings. Sometimes I do not go out on my balcony because there are people right below it, and they just stare at me. I slept for about 3 hours. This was pretty much the first time I slept besides the 3 hours of sleep I got Sunday night before I left. I was not really tired though. After I ate dinner that night, I met some of Devang's and Auntie's friends. One of the Rotary members presented me with flowers. We all drove around and talked. People here only talk in English when they are talking directly to me, otherwise it's just Gujarati. 'Ha' means yes in Gujarati, so when they are on the phone they say, "ha ha ha ha", its funny. They also click their tongues, and that means no. And they kind of bobble their heads around when they have a conversation, it's like us saying "yeah, of course, yep". For fun, people here go out for drives, and stop to get juice. They just pull off the side of the road at a juice place, and a guy comes out and takes your order. There is also sweet corn vendors on the side of the road. People heat up corn on coals, and put spices on it. Everyone also loves to go to the mall or the movies. I sometimes play checkers with a boy named Deven (Devo). He was an exchange student last year to New York. I beat him every time, but he loves to cheat. There are many restaurants, too. The only thing that really is cheaper here is the food. The clothes are pretty much in the same price range. Everyone here wears very similar styles, too. Most of the women over 30 wear sarees all of the time. In Surat, everyone is very clothes conscious. The men seem to have a better clothes selection, though. In fact, he whole top floor of this one mall is only men's clothes. I have bought two Indian dresses, (they look like long, colorful T-shirts), and pants to go with them. I wore them the first Friday I was here to a couples engagement party. It was huge, and held in a big stadium. It was only an engagement party, and it was larger than many American weddings. They usually have engagement parties this time of year, and have the wedding in the winter because the weather is cooler. The weddings in India can last for 5 days, and they have more food that you can imagine. The couple getting engaged was either the son or daughter of the biggest diamond manufacturer in Surat. And Surat is the biggest diamond manufacturing site in the world. So I pretty much went to the engagement of the biggest diamond manufacturer in the world! I also attended a birthday party at the most expensive hotel in Surat, for a 1 year old girl! The winner of Indian Idol performed, and their was tons of food. I go to Lourdes High School, an all girls catholic convent. I started school the Monday after arriving in Surat. School is Mon-Fri 7:30-1:00 and Sat 7:30-10:30. We wear uniforms, white shirt with light blue plaid skirt, vest, and tie. The school is a missions school, so it is run by nuns. Then there are the teachers. There are four "houses" at Lourdes (pronounced 'Loods'), the Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. The houses categorize the students into groups. I am in XI-A commerce. Each grade has four classes (A-D), and in high school you can either take Commerce (organization of commerce, statistics, economics, accounts, computers, Hindi, PT, and English), or Science (physics, chemistry, biology, English, Hindi, computers). Every class has about 80 girls, and the teachers move from class to class instead of the students. Each class has 4 captains, each house has 2 captains, and then there is a head girl. They all keep the classes in order, and organize activities. All of the students here go to tutoring classes after school, so they do not really study hard in school. Every girl in the class always asks if I remember her name. Which is very hard because they all tell you at once, and they are different names, like Nikita, Deepika, Sockshe, Tansania, Smitel, Vidushe, Haimangeine, Suhani, etc. The girls like to be very loud! They shout, sing, yell, laugh, clap, and slap each other. One girl kept writing questions about me and America in a notebook, and I would write some answers. Then they would all fight over it so they could read it. One girl turned to me and said, "you should bring in some pictures". I can just imagine what shape they would be in after all the girls in my class looked at them. Right now it is monsoon season. So it is very humid, and it rains all the time. School sometimes closes early because of heavy rains. Last year it closed for a month because of floods. One day this year, the water in the streets was up to my knees, and I had to walk home in it. To shower, you have to turn on a switch in the bathroom 10-15 minuets before to heat up the water. They do have shower heads, but most people just fill up a bucket with water and bath with that. I had a sinus problem before I came here, and it turned into a bad cold. Except, their are no tissues, so I had to use every last fiber in the ones that I brought. They also do not use toilet paper. They just turn this knob beside the toilet and water sprays from the back of the toilet to the front. There is only one garbage in the whole house, and it is very small. Almost everyone here is vegetarian, though some do eat chicken. Surat has a McDonald's, a Subway, and a Pizza Hut. One night I went with a neighbor girl and got McDonald's. I tried the vegetarian burger. It was breaded peas and lettuce. It was horrible. I have heard that the Subway and Pizza Hut is spicy. Everyday I have ginger tea. The meals at my home usually consist of a circular bread, which you tear into small pieces with your right hand and then scoop a vegetable into it. Then you dip it into some type of broth liquid. Every meal is basically like this, except with a different vegetable and a different broth. They also have rice a lot, too. And they eat most everything with their hand. I sometimes go around on my friends scooters (they drive of course), like mopeds, they are a lot of fun. Except everyone stares at me, ALL THE TIME!!! There are four other exchange students at Lourdes: Lea (France), Killian (Vermont), Erin (New York), and Catrin (New York). In 3 months a big festival is coming, Navratri. You dance for 9 nights in a row. Everyone takes dancing classes. I am taking a dance class with the other exchange students. We are learning the traditional Indian dance called Garba. We have to be very detailed with our hands. Before my first dance class, I got mendi on my left arm. Mendi is brown die. After dance class I was walking home with Lea, and a newspaper man took our picture with the mendi on our hands. It was on the front page the next morning. We also had our picture in the paper for a Rotary event, where we planted trees at a school. Friendship day is the first Sunday in August. You tie bracelets that say "friend" on all of your friends wrists. It is a very fun day. I went with a girl named Suhani to a popular restaurant/hangout. So far my favorite thing to do is go to dance class, it is so much fun! And I love to eat ice cream!