So before discussing Malaysia, let’s finish with my adventures in India!
Chennai is a pretty interesting city. Let’s hear it for Chennai!
They were actually affected pretty severely from the tsunami, so the rebuilding process has been pretty successful it seems. The city’s great, yet I still found much comfort in leaving the confines of the crowded streets and traveling to the rural areas of India. The Semester at Sea trip I signed up for lasted 2 days, 3 nights, and took place in the small, small village of Erode.
My big trip to rural India (don’t try to find it on a map anywhere…I couldn’t) began at 10 o’clock in the evening, when 30 of us met in the Union and left for the train station.
Chennai is an interesting city at night. Giant billboards hover over the bridges, but one can still notice the dirty mattresses covered with human bodies that lay on the sides of the streets, and the many, many guys peeing and defecating against walls and off the sides of bridges. Charming. The air is thick and the smell slaps your nostrils with the feeling of discomfort…yet I still appreciate it.
The train station was also packed with bodies. People were lying around, sitting, and pacing all over the lobby. We eventually found our train and plowed into our reserved area…the first class car (way to go SAS!). I was honestly expecting something really terrible, but it wasn’t too shabby at all. The “rooms” were separated by curtains; they were actually just four bunk beds, with a tiny table in the center. I ended up sharing a room with Kara, Lydia, and Marissa. How do I remember their names so well? Well about 7 or so of us played the name game, among other games throughout the night until 1:30.
Theft seems to be a problem on trains in India, so I slept with my backpack next to my head. Kara called the top bunk, so I was fine with the bottom bed. It was small and pretty dirty (I’m not even going to comment on the greasy, dirty windows that were inches from my head all night), but I surprisingly slept well.
I was awaken around 6:30 in the morning when the lights suddenly flashed on. We were apparently about 3 minutes from the train station, so I had to put my contacts in and make sure none of my possessions were snatched in the middle of the night very quickly before leaving. Everything was cool. Unfortunately I had no clue where Erode is (remember what I said about the map?), so for 3 days I knew I was SOMEWHERE in India (later on I found out that it was west of Chennai).
Now I should probably talk about this specific trip I signed up for, right? It was called an “Erode Village Homestay.” Ok, that’s enough info for now.
After leaving the train station, our large group split up into two smaller groups. Half of the group went to the village for the day/night, while the other half stayed on this farm. I went with the farm group, and I stand by my decision.
Our host family has apparently hosted many SAS students in the past. They were an older couple with a LARGE family (almost all of people that worked on the property and/or lived around the village and around the house were family members…they’ve have problems lately hiring new workers). Their house was pretty big (3/4 of an acre), and it was beautiful. Most of the rooms were pretty empty, and it was only one floor, but compared to the other living conditions of people around Chennai, one could tell that they were definitely loaded ($$). All of the rooms were very open, and the fresh air surrounding the house was extremely pleasant (compared to the thick Chennai air).
About 10 of us were staying in the guesthouse, while another 10 stayed in the actual home. Matt and I were the only guys, yet we somehow got stuck with the only room with beds, a fan, and our own bathroom, while the other 8 girls had to share their own bathroom (I’m sure there were lines a’plenty).
Before leaving for the farm tour, we had our first experience with the family’s homemade coffee and tea. Have you ever tasted heaven? No…no you haven’t, because you haven’t tasted this family’s coffee and tea. I know, you’re all REALLY jealous. You should be. They fed us their coffee and tea at least 3 other times during our visit. Granted I could spend the whole rest of the blog talking about the deliciousness, I’ll move on to other, less monumental things.
The host couple’s niece took us around the farmland. Apparently they own a couple hundred acres or so, but she showed us the coconut trees, and some of the other vegetation they grow. It was pretty cool actually. I also made a new friend on this walk. His name is Supermani (obviously don’t know the spelling, but it’s spoken like it’s spelled); he was the son of one of the family’s workers, and he cut school in order to show us around the area. Really cool kid. Probably about 18 years old or so, but him and his friend followed me around through most of our farm visit.
We also visited other places around the vicinity of the house. This included a small town and a local school. The kids were really cool, and they all LOVE being videotaped.
When we returned to the house, we ate a traditional Indian lunch on giant leaves while sitting on the floor. It reminded me of the scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where they ate the villagers food at the beginning of the film with flies flying around them and such. Well, this food was MUCH better obviously, but it still had that sort of feel in my mind. My friend Kate and I kept being forced more food. It took us some time to realize that we had to fold our leaf in half to signal that we were finished eating. Ohhhh local customs!
They took us to the village market where I bought this sweet slingshot. It was later confiscated from my backpack when boarding the ship because I’m a REALLY big idiot and forgot to hide it in my towel. At least I only spent roughly 15 rupees (a few cents) on it.
After returning to our host family’s house and freshening up, they kindly showed us their supply of cows located near the back of the house. They then gave us a tour of the inside of their house. This one woman who’s been working for the family was so cool. She looks like she’s 80 or 90 something years old, yet she still does all the cleaning and a lot of the hard labor around the property. Honestly, this woman reminded me of my grandma. When my grandma lives to be 100 years old she’ll definitely be the same exact way…she’ll always look and act like she’s only 50 or so.
Dinnertime was splendid. Following dinner was a performance from a local percussion group outside in the dark. They were pretty cool, but after their performance I left the others and hung out with the percussionists for a little while. Even though they didn’t speak a word of English, we all still enjoyed each other’s company. I’ve also never seen drums like the custom-made drums they played. They showed them to me, but I sadly won’t be able to purchase any cool-looking drums like these anytime soon.
Sleeping in the room was comfortable, thanks to the fan that hovered over my head. At least I was rooming with someone that I’m forced to share a room with while on the ship, and not some embarrassing 7th deck party monster. I must admit though, some of the girls on this specific SAS trip were pretty damn stupid. Seriously, like, I’m like, totally NOT joking like like like (cue permanent confusing-looking face). Some girls totally forgot to pack their bottles of common sense before leaving their houses last February, and now, folks in India know this to be true as well.
The second day of our Village homestay/trip began with us saying our goodbyes to our host family. SAS advised us to bring gifts to thank them for their hospitality, so I brought them a Pittsburgh snow globe (from the Steelers store…luckily everything was cheap there when I left, for obvious reasons), assuming they’ve probably NEVER seen real snow before. I’m sure the family has a whole storeroom in their house filled with nothing but SAS gifts from students, but the woman still seemed like she enjoyed the cuteness of my gift.
We began our second day at a local school where we ate breakfast, and then made our way to two Hindu temples. The second temple was huge. It was like an amusement park…an amusement park filled with nothing but shrines and temples. One could get blessed by an elephant, bathe in the river, or simply congregate and walk through various shrines. I REALLY enjoyed my time here…such an interesting atmosphere. I bought a few books there too.
I studied Hinduism in-depth while at home in Pittsburgh for a religion class I took, so I knew a good bit about the many different gods, customs, and rituals involved with this complex religion. It was so refreshing to actually see the aspects that I studied happening in real life around me.
I also really dug walking around to all of these places in bare feet. Even though I probably stepped in horrible, horrible diseased-infested areas, I honestly don’t care. It’s a small part of the Hindu culture that I really enjoyed, so there!
The carpet weaving building that we visited was really cool. The machines these people utilize are so incredible to look at, and it’s fascinating to watch these men and women weave these intricate patterns with the old contraptions. They really work hard. That’s honestly a reoccurring aspect of the people of India…all of them are extremely hard workers.
Outside the medicine factory, I striked up a conversation with these younger 3 kids. They were pretty rad kids, so I grabbed some Starbursts from my backpack and gave them each one (I also had to give this older woman one, because she kept sticking her hands in my face when I started handing them out…so bitchy).
We also visited a handicapped-childrens orphanage. They sang some spectacular songs, danced, and showed off their various talents. When it came time for US to perform for THEM afterwards, what did all of us talented college-level students chose to do? The hokey pokey. How embarrassing. At least all of the kids will know what to do if they ever have the opportunity to attend an American wedding.
In all seriousness though, these kids were physically disabled from the crippling effects of polio. Surprisingly, they all had wonderful spirits as we played and interacted with them for another half hour afterwards. Seriously, really nice kids…and they all also loved my video camera too. Just wait till you see the footage!
Lunch was held back at the school. This elementary/high school was seriously like a college campus. We were told that it was one of the better public schools in India, and I seriously believe it. The teachers were really talented and caring individuals. A few teachers traveled with us throughout the day on the bus, and it was cool to have the opportunity of asking so many questions about India schools and such. The kids were really great too.
For example, right after I finished eating ,I had to use the toilet. Sorry, that’s actually a lie. Let me rephrase that.
For example, right after I finished eating, I had to utilize the awkward cement hole in the ground. That’s better.
Anyways, after peeing, I walked out into the hallway and this classroom of kids surrounded me, and suddenly I was their teacher for like 20 minutes. They asked me sooo many questions it was ridiculous, but a lot of fun. Specifically, there was this one really young kid with thick-rimmed glasses that had some cool questions for me.
“Have you ever been to the moon in America?” he asked.
“haha. Nope. I’ve never been on the moon.”
“You know Neil Armstrong?”
“Yeah, I know who Neil Armstrong is.”
“Neil Armstrong! First man on the moon! 1969!”
The kids were so much fun. They’re all incredibly HUGE WWF fans. Every other time I saw them that day I’d hear “Hey Rick! Come and see this,” and then they’d show me their cricket skills or slide down a stair handrail or something. Funny stuff. We also saw a “cultural performance” put on by the school’s dance team, and played the girls basketball team at some basketball. I, of course, sat out since I have no basketball skill whatsoever.
You think we were done? Of course not! After the school, we left for a medicine factory. Now don’t get me wrong, the medicine factory did have some really interesting stuff to see, but honestly, if you’ve ever seen the Box Factory episode of The Simpsons, you may have SOME idea of what the medicine factory was like. After such a thrilling day, even though the medicine factory offered some insightful sights, it was still pretty dull.
Our next stop was a quick snack nearby. We then proceeded to ANOTHER school. Keep in mind it was around 7 o’clock at night, but these were kids whose parents worked at the medicine factory and/or nearby factories. It was like a daycare/school it seemed. It was on the second floor of a building and wasn’t especially huge. The building was beautiful though.
I was honestly beginning to get tired of all this small children interaction. Too many kids for one day. These kids were the funniest though. I autographed and signed my name for at least half a dozen small children. I was asked my name around 20 times by about 20 children (Rick isn’t a common name at all…actually many of them couldn’t really pronounce the ‘r’ very well); I videotaped a good bit (again…they love the cameras), and two of us sang the ‘itsy bitsy spider’ to this young girl.
We proceeded down the hallway to this meditation room. We meditated for about 30 minutes, but the woman stopped giving directions after about 10 minutes, and this made no sense. The room was also perfectly dark, and we’ve had a really long day. I can’t meditate when a bunch of college students are lying on the floor, snoring loudly; I just can’t work in these conditions!
It was getting late, and we needed to catch our train soon, but we still had enough time to drop the teachers off at their homes and then make it back to the school for some dinner. The dinner was amazing. One of these days I’ll have a horrible food story. I was fortunate to not get Delhi belly while in India. Anyways, we were also served watermelon juice (an instant orgasm in my mouth), and this ice cream that was preposterously incredible. We were finished in rural India. Back to the train station.
Running through the airport has been somewhat common for me on this trip. Running through train stations can now be added to the list. We weren’t in a huge hurry, but we did have some trouble figuring out where our train car was going to stop. While quickly walking, we passed many stands and people selling stuff…this included a towel stand with this very awesome Batman towel. Matt and I instantly broke off from the group and each enthusiastically bought a Batman towel, because hey, it’s Batman! (I’m a huge Batman fan if you haven’t been able to tell).
I’m very happy I bought this towel, because the sheets lying on my bed in the sleeper train had these disgusting stains on them (possibly blood stains no less). I was more than happy to sleep on my brand new towel, and I had a good sleep. Just like last time, I woke up about 2 minutes before entering Chennai train station. We then made it back to the ship! The ship’s bitterly cold air conditioning FINALLY felt good. I had an astonishing time on this trip. Seriously.
The last day in Chennai consisted of an early breakfast at this somewhat shady inner-city restaurant (I literally didn’t sleep after arriving back on the ship. I DID get a wonderful shower though), some wondering around the mall, a quick visit to an Indian museum, and a SAS trip. This SAS trip SUCKED! We were supposed to visit a Bollywood film set. INSTEAD, we visited a film processing plant (uhh, I’m serious), and the backlot of a student-made film. We apparently weren’t allowed to visit the real movie studio, because they were filming a movie and didn’t want visitors…wasn’t that the point of the whole trip? I really didn’t like this trip in any way.
The bus dropped us off at the mall instead of taking us to the ship, because they felt so sorry for us. I met up with Eric, Ben, Jess, and James, and we had another wonderful meal…at Pizza Hut. I loved all of the food eaten in India, but honestly, it felt great to just bite into a juicy cheese pizza. We felt the same affection for this pizza.
My rickshaw ride back to the ship was literally the rickshaw drive from hell. I don’t really feel like going into detail, mainly because I’m getting tired of writing. Let’s just say that I made it back in good health, and that’s all that matters. A few friends are still apologizing for what happened, even though it wasn’t their fault, but I’ll have to save the story for another day.
I walked along the roadside market area near the ship. Very shady area, but I needed to get rid of some rupees. I bought a few bootlegged DVDs; there were TONS of sellers selling them.
I made it to the ship on time, and felt sad that we were leaving India. A wonderful country. A great experience. I wish I could go into detail about this port, along with every country, because I’m won’t. There are so many details and silly little things that I can’t appropriately put into words. There are so many thoughts that race through ones head. So many feelings. I have a difficult time writing all of this stuff (I work on my blogs/journals/homework later on at night when people start sleeping), so going into deep detail is nearly impossible. Plus it would be too long. Who would want to read it? I wouldn’t.
There are no words that I can write that may describe these trips in full, and if you understand that, then maybe you’ll understand how fun, emotional, and intense many of these trips are.
Give me a day or two to write about Malaysia. I have this stupid, huge group project to work on for one of my classes, and I’m going to be spending WAY too much time working on it.
Remember…lifeboats are :(
