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Published: February 23rd 2010
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So, I think a lot of you may be curious about the classes I am taking and also about the campus I am roaming about (before curfew). I will try to give you a glimpse into my life during classes. The classes here are basically divided into two. Half of the time is devoted to lectures and various tutorials and the other half we get to spend in the workshop. When I am not in the workshop or the lab, I am generally wandering around campus or learning how to play ultimate frisbee.
Campus The campus is very big. Approximately 250 acres big. But I still think that there are more buildings at Waterloo. Most of the space here is taken up by wide open fields and lots of dusty dirt. When it is windy so much dust gets kicked up into the air it looks like fog. Otherwise the campus has quite a few trees, all spaced out very nicely and cut very symmetrically. Nearly all the roads on campus have a large amount of traffic on them (both human and car/scooter/bicycle/rickshaw/auto) and they are all what would be one way roads in Canada. Somehow all the various
vehicles manage to not hit anyone.
On the way to the boy's hostel, there is a large open space with a lot of low growing plants and some water. This is where the peacocks hang around. I would say that there are at least seven fully grown adult males. They are very beatiful and it is interesting to see them in the wild. I never thought of peacocks as birds that would fly around and sit in trees. They seem too big to be able to do that, but somehow they manage quite elegantly.
Other interesting birds on campus are the flock of parrots that live in a tree right outside my hostel. They are brigthly coloured green, orange and yellow birds. There are eight of them that I have seen on a regular basis. They like to all sit in one tree and fly down in a cluster when someone leaves seeds out for them. Otherwise they sit around on the telephone wires, like the typical birds we see in Canada. Other than that, there are quite a few hawks and/or eagles. We have not been able to identify which, although I know that both live here
from some interesting incidences. A few weeks ago, an eagle managed to fly right into the bathroom on our floor. It stayed in there and scared one girl and the hostel cat out of their wits and eventually found the way back out. That is the most direct encounter I have had with an eagle and they are absolutely massive birds.
Otherwise, the campus here is much like those in Canada, just with more open space. There is a crowd of students every day walking to and from the classrooms in the morning, lunch and end of the day. There are a large varitey of clubs and societies that operate here and many people are quite involved. The main difference I have noticed between here and Canada is the complete lack of study. Back home students (or at least I know that I did) came home from school, took a short break and did their homework etc. that they had gotten that day. Here no one studies after class. We were all shocked. We have talked to the local students about it and they say that they never study after classes. They have free time from 5pm until whenever
they choose to go to sleep. They only time they actually study here is when there are exams or presentations to prepare for. So far, in three weeks I have seen one girl come back from studying and another say she had a presentation. Otherwise it seems to be non stop socializing and with random parties popping up loudly here and there. I am told that it is much worse at the boys' hostel and that they stay up every night until two. So I am thankful I don't have to deal with that at least.
When I am wandering around campus with my new friends, there is one factor that never changes. We are always the centre of attention. Patiala is a very small city and foreigners rarely come here. I think I am safe to say that my room mate and I are the only white girls within a 60km radius of where we are staying. So we routinely turn heads. Walking down the street, everyone stares at us and even walking around campus, people are still not used to the sight of us roaming around. Some people in our group find this very unsettling, but I
understand that the people here are just interested since they see foreigners so rarely. But still, the extent to which I am the centre of attention is mind boggling at some points. Like Sunday, when we went to Easyday (Indian Wallmart) to pick up a few items. It is a ten minute walk from the hostel. When we left campus, all the people on the road were staring at us (okay, I'm used to it). But then, there was one car driving down the wrong side of the road (a road divided by a median, by the way) and was going slowly because the driver was staring at us and still nearly hit a person on a bicycle (who was also staring at us). Strangely enough, this is not an entirely unusual circumstance (both the person driving on the wrong side of the road and being stared at so much).
I'm sorry I have left this so long. I have been very busy recently with random things and lots of work to do. So I'm going to post this now and post the continuation later. There are quite a few things happening, so I will try and write
short posts about each of them.
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Robin
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ultimate frisbee rocks.
Very, very much. At least India is good for something, if it is teaching you that wonderful game. I have played it, by the way, a grand total of twice in my life. But that count will go up a lot when you come home and we have ultimate games.