Day 3: Schools and Sharks

I woke up early again today. For some reason I can’t sleep past six here. Well, I can think of a few reasons. Number 1: my body seems to think that its normal to go to the washroom 2 times during the night (tmi?). Number 2: Street dogs. Sometimes they get into fights and it just doesn’t go well for anyone. Number 3: Cars honk all the time, so its never really quiet. Number 4: My bed is kind of hard (which is fine cuz I kinda like that, but it makes it harder to go back to sleep when you’re already awake). And number 5: I can always think of more reasons to get up then to go back to sleep.

So I got up, got ready and went to sit outside. It’s actually kind of peaceful in the morning. There are still dogs and honking but there is more time separating each bark and honk. And the construction that produces a lot of noise during the day stops at night.

Once everyone else was awake we had breakfast and got ready for our first day of school. Here we are: looking adorable (and feeling very comfortable) in our new clothes.

Our Telugu language classes were interesting. We learned a Sanskrit song from Sarma-garu and a few words from Lakshmi-garu. I’m pretty sure I won’t be learning a lot of Telugu in class but it’s still fun! I’m going to look up little things that will help with bargaining and asking questions and day-to-day stuff. I know how to say good morning and good luck right now so I can impress the cooks maybe just a little. Haha

This afternoon though we were walking around with one of our translators, a nice lady called Rajya Lakshmi and we went to visit a private school. We talked to the principle to ask if we could attend their Sinkrati Festival celebration in a few weeks (she said yes!) and then she got one of her assistants to give us a tour of the school. THIS WAS THE BEST THING EVER. The kids were so smiley and acted like we were celebrities or something. I know its kind of lame that we can use our status as Westerners to get into places and to woo little children but there is something just so special about having children smile and wave at you. So even if I feel a little bad, I REALLY needed that. Here, kids just accept us! It doesn’t matter that we can’t talk to them. They just want to play, they just want us to wave at them, they just want to know our names. I think I might go back and see if they will let me volunteer at that school. That would be fantastic.

In other news, I ate shark today. Nbd. It was GOOD. I’m not sure what the meat tastes like by itself because the cooks made it into a kind of curry but still, I really enjoyed it. One of my professor's good friends brought it for us after catching it this morning. Maybe it sounds horrible that I’m cool with that but sharks are just another kind of fish out there in the sea. And they would eat me, so I don’t think they take it too personally.

The brown stuff is shark curry. The rest are curries and other kinds of dosas.

Also we went shopping at a market today. I got some earrings (for like… 50 cents each) and I got a chunni (a scarf). We were with one of our translators (Rajya Lakshmi) and we got to watch her haggle and bargain with the vendors. I learned a lot! She is definitely great to have around. They lower the prices a lot more for her. Anyways, it’s kind of stressful and so I haven’t spent a lot of money so far because I kind of want to get a better feel for prices.

I got on the internet for the first time in a few days today. And it was a nice treat to be able to send my friends and family messages J Sadly just when I was about to publish my blog post the power went out. It’s kind of a regular thing here. It happens about once a day.

Have a wonderful week!

Stéf