I swore to myself that I'd go to sleep immediately after dinner, but I am desperate to capture the joy, adventure, and wonder of today before I forget a single detail.
First, an observation. Almost every sign in Ahmedabad is depicted in English, as well as Gujarati. This phenomenon confused me at first, but somebody astutely remarked that it was most likely a vestige of the colonial rule by the English.
Makes a lot of sense!
It also means I can understand most of the signs that line the streets and stores, making it much simpler to actually understand what's going on around me!
Today was our first day at our Indian classroom, and we took ten rickshaws with three students in each one to mob to our school. It was honestly the definition of #squadgoals.
Seriously, we all rolled in at the same time, and usually the rickshaws rode right next to one another, so we'd reach out and grab each other's hands as we rode by one another--it was a time and a half.
Every day, one of the students acts as Person of the Day, or POD, and is in charge of running the activities for the day. Some days are extremely simple--yesterday's POD, for example, didn't even introduce herself. But of course, today was one of the most intensive POD days yet, and guess who was in charge?
That's right. Me.
I did as well as I could, honestly, and I think I more or less did a good job. The only issue came when I was attempting to prompt a guest lecturer's conclusion, because he was ten minutes over his time. He literally just ignored me, even when I stood up to try and catch his attention.
awkward
While most of the day, I was like--
I honestly kind of enjoyed being in charge and having the opportunity to boss everyone around--it's kind of my passion.
Another crazy moment occurred today when I strolled to the restroom during class. I opened the door to a restroom that held only a urinal and a hole in the ground. "Oops!" I thought, "must be the men's!" I turned around, and saw my country director looking at me puzzled. She must have seen my shock, because she then pointed to the restroom I'd just exited, gesturing that I should go back in.
That's right. Our bathroom is a hole.
All I can say is, I'm going to have some pretty incredible legs after all of the squats that I'll be doing during the class day.
We spent our afternoon outside in the beautiful weather, learning about interviews during a lecture and eating a scrumptious Indian lunch. The casualness and warmth of both the sun and the class left no room for missing freezing-cold Boston.
We rode back to the hotel for a quick rest before a ridiculously nice dinner at a fancy country club restaurant. I took a rickshaw with two of my best friends from the hotel to the meal.
It's experiences like that one that make me wish I could accurately and wholly capture every interaction between my senses and the environment. The smell: heady, almost engulfingly clogging exhaust fumes, the musty scent of farm animals roaming the street, dirt and mud and sweat emanating fro the swarms of individuals. The sounds: overwhelming raucous of horns and yells and beeps and fireworks. The sights: colorful outfits, flashing and blinking strands of lights, car/motorcycle/rickshaw/bicycle headlights, children clinging to the backs of their mothers and fathers on the rear of crowded mopeds, shops, filled with Hindi statues and Samsung cellphones, a cacophony of activity. The taste: dust kicked up by the animals and vehicles and people, cloying gasoline, the aftertaste of a spicy lunch. And the touch: crowded next to two individuals that I love after only three weeks, the comfortable humidity of a warm winter night, a sticky sweat and a cool breeze. I tried my utmost to memorize every single feeling and thought and instant of the melee passing before me and through me and with me, because these are the moments that I will carry with me throughout my life. The foreignness, the absolutely overwhelming realization of "different," the ineffable euphoria of exploration. It was in this moment that I realized, "holy crap--I'm in India."
Dinner was another experience that will stay with me for decades. Not necessarily because of the food--which was absolutely delicious--but because of the friends that are quickly and seamlessly becoming family. For one thing, they already mock me and make fun of me for the exact quirks that my sisters do--my excessive attachment to dogs, my "obsession with myself" (undeniably true), my drama queen status.
It just shows that they have come to know my flaws, in addition to my wonderful traits and my weird tendencies, in a ridiculously short amount of time. I'm in awe of how much I already care for all of them.
Dinner was absurdly hilarious. Whether it was the drugging effect of the overwhelmingly powerful exhaust fumes, or the kooky side effects of our malaria pills, or simply the infectious humor of being with each other, my table of eight made an absolute ruckus. From hiding the samosas on our plates in order to "fool" the waiter into bringing more (Caitlin) or "hiding" the silverware in attempts to steal it (Sally), we kept each other wildly entertained--to the point of basically being ushered out of the restaurant a substantial amount of time before the rest of our group. I'm not ashamed to say I may have peed and cried a little bit from all of the hysterics.
I am just so in love with my friends here. We have a similar sense of adventure and carelessness and freedom of self-consciousness that allows for optimal amusement and fun. Even upon our return to our rooms, we fed off of each other's silliness to continue the overwhelming peels of laughter.
I cannot wait to continue my explorations through Ahmedabad with these people and take the world on, one continent and country and city at a time.
Lucky Beyond Belief,
Aubrey
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