Day 7: Markets and Madhu

Today, I'm in love with India. I think we are really getting the hang of things here! We accomplished two really big things. Number 1: we navigated the shopping district with expert skill, bought souvenirs for people back home and a bunch of gorgeous new saris. Number 2: we cracked our translators shell! I'll explain that one a little more after this photo montage of our shopping experience. I thought I'd give you all a sense of how CRAZY it is to shop in India. I didn't like it the first time we went but today I felt great :D Maybe its because I understand the conversion between the rupee and the dollar a lot more now.

We started our adventures today by going for a walk in our neighbourhood. We took a direction we hadn't followed yet and went for it! It was kind of exciting-- the feeling of relying on ourselves to get around in a city that we had never been to just a week ago. We found a few supermarkets and a sweet shop (where we bought some laddos).

This is the market we liked the best. It has a very nice vegetable and fruit section (didn't look sketchy like a lot of the other ones we have seen) and inside the store is full of good quality food and hygiene products.. and a lot of them are American brands we recognize; we were pretty excited.

Here's a picture from inside the store. I was super excited that they have a spices aisle so that I can bring some of them back with me when we leave here. Also, they had masala/curry ramen... we were super tempted to buy some and try it haha 

Yay for Rickshaws. This is seriously my favourite form of transportation! So much fun-- even if it is a little bit crazy. We usually fit seven of us in here... but I think we were nine today. Party. 

This is the shopping area. If you look you can see that there was a protest/rally of some kind walking through. It was so busy!! You should see inside the shops. The sari shop was filled with people. It goes like this: you walk through the door with a throng of people. You push your way to one of the tables were sales women hold up sari after sari (they are so beautiful) till you choose one. Meanwhile, tons of other people are trying to get to the table too, so saris are passed around from person to person until someone claims it. Once you've chosen your sari (which is super hard since all of them are beautiful and none are alike and there are about a hundred just piled up on each table) then you head over to get your bill. But you don't pay yet. After pushing your way through the bill counter (because there are no lines) you take your bill to the cash register. That is where you pay. They stamp your receipt to signify that you paid for it (oh and all there money is actually kept in drawers, not cash registers). Then you take your stamped receipt to the collection counter where they give you whatever you bought, neatly packaged in a paper bag. Then you can finally try to push your way out the door! I was literally touching at least two other people (minimum) the whole time I was in there. It was kind of energizing after a while! We each got two new saris... and I would show you the material now but I'll keep it as a surprise for when we get them tailored :) 

This is an emporium store that we went to to get some souvenirs. It was such a neat place! Its filled with good quality trinkets, jewelry, statues and fabrics. We ran into some British people here too. 

I wanted to bring home one of these beautiful vases but that would take up most of my suitcase space haha

We went into a jewelry shop to buy some toe rings at one point. Indian women wear toe rings to signify that they are married. One on each index toe. So we were trying to find some as a way of warding off some of the guys that sometimes approach us. This cute family was in there and we started talking to the girls. Well.. not so much talking... mostly we smiled at each other shyly and asked for each other's names (we know how to say that in Telugu now). Their mom took a picture of them with us so I asked if I could take a picture of them looking all cute in their beautiful shalwar kameez.

So there are lots of stores but there are also street vendors EVERYWHERE. The one thing I really don't like is bartering so I tend to stay away from these. But sometimes they have some great stuff! Oh and they call out to you all the time and try to get you to come over. Getting away from them is kind of an art. 

This is a tiny little store that our translator Rajya Lakshmi brought us to. It was in the middle of a random building and we had to go down a sketchy hallway to find it. But it was the coolest place! The vendor was speaking Hindi and him and his wife spoke very good English. It was soooo crowded but they just got us to sit on the carpet and they took out shirt after shirt, till there was a huge pile on the ground and we were almost buried underneath it all. We found some things that we liked for super cheap... you can get a shirt here for 300 rupees (sometimes less, sometimes a little more) which is about 5 dollars American. You see those dresses hanging high up on the wall? Well those are 'nighties' (pjs) and we each got one for 150 rupees (about 2 dollars)! We were all pretty excited about those-- they look so comfy :)

Okay... now for the second part of my title: Madhu! Madhu is one of our translators. If you look closely behind Sarah you will see a young India guy, dressed all fancy. That is Madhu. 

Since we have met him Madhu has been a mystery to us. Until today I had only heard him say a few words (and most of them in Telugu). He's the kind of person that never says anything but always looks like he has something to say. Most of the time we think he must hate his job-- because sometimes its like being a glorified babysitter (taking us around the city, helping us to buy clothes, explaining things to us, getting us rickshaws etc.) I love figuring people out and so Madhu has been a challenge! But today while we were shopping (in the store I previously mentioned) we finally broke through to him!!! It was so exciting. We were waiting for some people to pay for their things and we asked him a few questions-- mostly about whether or not he liked shopping. And for the first time ever he got super animated! He started joking about how much he doesn't like shopping and he explained to us how when he goes shopping he knows exactly what he wants and gets it as fast as possible. He was so funny! And his English was AMAZING! I think we finally have some kind of connection with him. There's lots still to figure out but I think we will get there :) Maybe eventually he'll even let me take a straight up picture of him. I'll keep you posted.

Well that's all for today! Two more students got here this morning and so now there are seven of us. Its amazing to me that we have been here just a week. It feels like much longer-- in a good way!

Stéfanie