Day 35: BEST DAY (yet)
Today I felt at home. AT HOME, people. It was the first time since coming here that I felt like I would be okay living in this country. I'm not saying that I will but I think I finally have reached the point where I am falling in love. I decided yesterday that I wasn't going to keep trying to love everything about India. I decided that I would just try to love a few things and to appreciate the things I couldn't quite love yet... first of all, I want to love some of my neighbours in this area. Secondly, I want to appreciate the pace of life. And lastly (for now), I want to appreciate how willing people are to explain things to me. I got a little bit of each of these things today.
My interview today was with the most lovely woman. She is our neighbour across the street. She has one of the most beautiful houses in the neighbourhood and she has a son and husband living/working in America. When I went to visit her she was very inviting and VERY helpful. She was patient in answering all my questions and she seem very happy to talk to me. After three weeks of interviews that REALLY makes a difference. When someone seems tired of my questions and seems despondent it definitely puts me in a slump. But this lady was golden. She gave me a tour of her house and she told me that I could come back any time to sit on her balcony and do my work. She even gave me a gift before I left her house. It was this beautiful little wooden wagon. I LOVE her.
Then in the afternoon we went to get our internet fixed. This was the bad part of the day. This is where we realized that it is very easy to get ripped off here. Because we are from the West people imagine that we are loaded with money. But we sorted everything out with the internet company. And at the same time I was able to ask a few people my new favourite question. Yesterday I decided that I needed a question to understand people here a little bit more... so I got some paper and I asked people to answer : "What are the 5 most important things in life?" After that I let them interpret that the way they want. So basically it was the best day ever. Madhu (our male translator) got really excited about this and told us that we had to write our top 5 things so he could understand us better too :)
SO it turned out to be a good bonding experience. Its going to be something I do regularily for now on. I'm going to go back to some of the people I have already talked to and get them to write a list and then tell me more about it. It might have nothing to do with my research-- but then again, it might have everything to do with my research.
To finish up the day we went to a vocal classical music performance. My telugu teacher was singing at his school and he invited us to come. IT WAS AMAZING. Last semester I took a humanities class where we learned about Indian music and I have been dying to hear it in real life. I was not disappointed. The way the musicians worked together to improvise was so fun to watch. The whole time they were just laughing and smiling and joking on stage. Nothing about music makes me happier than seeing musicians get really into what they are creating.
Anyways, I REALLY want to learn to play the Tabla (left) or the Mridagam (right). Really badly.
Also fun fact: in South India the violin rests under the player's chin, with the neck pointed downwards at the feet (and it is tuned on a very different chord). I need more of this music in my life.
I am so happy :) I hope you are too!
Stéf
My interview today was with the most lovely woman. She is our neighbour across the street. She has one of the most beautiful houses in the neighbourhood and she has a son and husband living/working in America. When I went to visit her she was very inviting and VERY helpful. She was patient in answering all my questions and she seem very happy to talk to me. After three weeks of interviews that REALLY makes a difference. When someone seems tired of my questions and seems despondent it definitely puts me in a slump. But this lady was golden. She gave me a tour of her house and she told me that I could come back any time to sit on her balcony and do my work. She even gave me a gift before I left her house. It was this beautiful little wooden wagon. I LOVE her.
Then in the afternoon we went to get our internet fixed. This was the bad part of the day. This is where we realized that it is very easy to get ripped off here. Because we are from the West people imagine that we are loaded with money. But we sorted everything out with the internet company. And at the same time I was able to ask a few people my new favourite question. Yesterday I decided that I needed a question to understand people here a little bit more... so I got some paper and I asked people to answer : "What are the 5 most important things in life?" After that I let them interpret that the way they want. So basically it was the best day ever. Madhu (our male translator) got really excited about this and told us that we had to write our top 5 things so he could understand us better too :)
SO it turned out to be a good bonding experience. Its going to be something I do regularily for now on. I'm going to go back to some of the people I have already talked to and get them to write a list and then tell me more about it. It might have nothing to do with my research-- but then again, it might have everything to do with my research.
To finish up the day we went to a vocal classical music performance. My telugu teacher was singing at his school and he invited us to come. IT WAS AMAZING. Last semester I took a humanities class where we learned about Indian music and I have been dying to hear it in real life. I was not disappointed. The way the musicians worked together to improvise was so fun to watch. The whole time they were just laughing and smiling and joking on stage. Nothing about music makes me happier than seeing musicians get really into what they are creating.
Also fun fact: in South India the violin rests under the player's chin, with the neck pointed downwards at the feet (and it is tuned on a very different chord). I need more of this music in my life.
I am so happy :) I hope you are too!
Stéf
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