My India Advice (in a nutshell)

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If a friend of mine were coming to Chennai, I would offer them all kinds of advice: When on a bus (when it comes to the crunch, a bus is sometimes the only option) make sure you wear a very supportive, preferably sports, bra. Don’t cross your legs in a skirt- you will give someone a heart attack. Don’t count on the monsoon season, when monsoon like days arrive, just be grateful. When someone says the quality of tampons and pads aren’t very good (ad tampons are impossible to find), listen to them and listen to their advice to bring shitloads (Sorry I didn’t listen Viv!). Take drama lessons- when an autorickshaw driver offers you a ridiculous price throw your hands in the air and act as if he has said something preposterous about your mother. Try and wear minimal amount of clothing while covering up the most amount of skin. Never trust a man wearing a bumbag (this should be incorporated into everyday life anyhoo).The list could go on forever. The bra and tampon advice would be the most integral I think!

We spent last week in Pondicherry. Pondicherry was colonised by the French and in the French area you won’t come across many Indian people – its quite surreal. It wasn’t quite the chilled weekend we’d planned. We had trouble deciphering the public transport system but in the end were told to go to the main bus terminal where we’d find an air-conditioned bus every 45 minutes. Unfortunately everyone else in India was also headed to Pondicherry and wanted some air-conditioning too. We managed to hop (and when I say hop I mean we elbowed our way on) on a bus but missed out on a seat which meant sitting on a wooden draw (not sure its purpose on the bus) for 4.5 hours. Oce we arrives we were supposed to meet a friend of our Professor who was going to show us her service then drop us back in Pondicherry for a relaxing evening meal…or so we thought! She was a lovely older lady but wanted to hang out all weekend on some kind of social work visit bonanza – not quite the relaxing weekend we’d planned. We spent the afternoon in a state of panic so after a placid (and silent) visit to an ashram; I harnessed my chi and politely explained that we had other things in mind for the weekend. The weekend continued with a mix of good and bad. The good – air-conditioning, the clean French area, fruit salad, other food, tv. The bad – Tess and Darrell’s key getting locked in the room and the place having no spare, me eating bug filled breakfast, taxi home breaking down, second taxi hitting a dog and dragging it 200 metres. We had a good time but we’ve all decided that we enjoyed Mahab much more and will be heading back in a few weekends.

Back to the buses in Chennai. We were asked to drop off invitations for a seminar at the service we’re working in and that the easiest way to get to the colleges was to catch a bus. We thought-cool a new experience, and that it was! We got on to a relatively empty bus with very friendly women providing directions as to when we should get off. All of a sudden the bus was full of people, was going over what seemed more like brick walls (insert extremely supportive bra here) with men hanging on to the sides just trying to stay on (they also ran along side it most of the time-not quite sure why they didn’t just run to their destination). We finally arrived at the college and thought an autorickshaw might be a better option to get to the next college.

We’ve been here a month already and life feels kind of normal-catching an auto, eating a curry, wearing Indian clothes but I am missing Batty, the family, training, SALAD, all the homely stuff a lot! But I got great news today! My incredible Mumma caught on that I might be a bit homesick and will be joining me for a week of adventuring after prac has finished so I have begun planning our week of adventures already, yahoooo!

Also! I joined a gym, yes a gym! It's unisex and I don't think the men like me running on the treadmill, but if I went much longer without exercise I may have just been on a plane home! The men there spend a lot of time looking at themselves in the mirror and little time exercising. Some women wear tights and tshirts but some women wear the full salwar kameez (scarf included)!!!

We have booked our tickets to Nilgiris and are all looking forward to a cooler climate and lots of tea! This week at prac we have been put in charge of running a nutrition/exercise program for the women that live in the short stay and protection home at the organisation we're at. I am over the moon!!! It's going to be loads of fun and we're even going through the menu of what the clients eat and seeing where alterations can be made. We all have an interest in diet and exercise so it's going to be really fun to run!

Going to Mahab again this weekend and am looking forward to just chilling and watching some tv!

My boxing coach always signs off his email with ‘in your corner’ which I’ve always thought was cool (sounds kinds cheesy when I write it now tho) so I will think of something cool to finish my blogs with, but for now we’ll just leave it at ‘smell ya later’ or something like that!

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Comments

[Ellen]

woah
hahaha sal! Your blogs are the best! Except the part about hitting the dog and dragging it along the road...I'm currenty on the bus and it made me gasp and put my hand over my mouth..and other parts made me laugh out loud...keep the updates coming they are very enjoyable to read although it makes me miss you heaps! Hope you have a great week ^_^

[annie]

Sal sal sal!! awesome! please keep it coming. ill be your blog-stalker-cheerleader #1 fan. I'm going to continue hassling the SW department until they agree to both offer the placement next year and to let me do it. take care xoxxx