Day 45 (03-04-09)

Today, someone created a monster. Someone introduced me to a new board game. This board game is amazing. I didn’t really follow it at first, but I’m learning. It’s name? Settlers of Catan. It’s almost like a Risk meets Monopoly kind of deal. I can’t really explain it. Look it up. If you’ve played before, then you already know. If someone has it back home, we are playing immediately upon seeing each other. I might not even say hi first. I’ll just say, “Let’s play Settlers.” Anyway.

We also had logistical and cultural pre-port tonight. There were traditional Indian dances and explanations from native Indians from Chennai about where to go and what to do. Typical lectures about malaria, diarrhea, and AIDS were given. I was up really late tonight talking with friends and wandering around the ship. And playing Settlers, of course. Didn’t go to sleep until 5am. I suppose this part should then fall under Day 46.

It’s called a changeover. The movie goes on, and nobody in the audience has any idea.

Day 46 (03-05-09)

Today is another day that I hate everything. 7:30am wake up calls force these emotions out of me when I’m sick and running on 2 hours of sleep. But it’s okay. I’m in India. The Far East. The center of the world. There are 1.14 billion people here. One sixth of the planet’s population. We stepped off of the ship and onto our bus to the airport for the flight to Delhi. I slept most of the way, but outside the window a completely foreign world was passing around me. Horns were blaring. More horns were blaring. Honking your horn is encouraged here. With the traffic patterns, I can’t complain too much. Lines are suggestion. Everything is slow. Congestion is inevitable. We made it to the airport and onto the plane without issue. Next stop: Delhi. But first, a note on the flight. They served us lunch. It wasn’t too bad actually: curry chicken with rice and some other unrecognizable foods. I’m not one for curry, or Indian food in general, but it was pretty good. I figured, hey, I should eat all of this food on my plate right now. There’s a green vegetable on top of the chicken. It’s only an inch long… I think it might be celery. Chomp. Chew. Swallow. Surprise. Regret. Burn. Pain. Tears. Water. More water. Does anyone have more water? What the hell was that? Chili Pepper. Hottest I’ve ever had. Not cool man. Seriously, some warning would be nice. But I let everyone else know so they didn’t suffer the same fate. Rough.

After landing in Delhi, another bus ride landed us at our hotel just off of the marketplace. The evening was to for us to spend at our leisure, so we wandered for about 45 minutes trying to find an ATM machine. Afterwards, it was dinner time. I’ve been skeptical about Indian food for some time. And I decided I’d limit my intake to 1 or 2 meals per day. After my lunch fiasco, I treated myself to something I told myself I wouldn’t. It was right along the market. Beckoning me. I couldn’t help it. I had no choice. McDonald’s. Judge me if you want, but I haven’t had American restaurant food since we ate at the Outback Steakhouse in the Bahamas on January 18th. I was due. The chicken sandwich, fries, and ice cream were well worth the $2.10 I spent on them. Side note: Beef isn’t consumed in India. Cows are sacred. Don’t go looking for Big Macs. You won’t find them. But I already knew that, so I wasn’t disappointed. Wow, I think I ramble more now than I used to. That’s almost impressive. But no one can tell me to shut up while I’m writing this in Word and uploading it to the website. You just have to deal with it later and wonder, “Is this kid ever going to make a point?” Short answer: Probably not. Maybe I will someday.

After dinner, I wandered around the marketplace by myself. I like having some time to myself in each port to just absorb things. It’s hard to appreciate your surroundings when you’re in a big group of people that are talking and pulling in all different directions. This area was slightly more developed than most in India, so culture shock didn’t really set in. I imagine it probably sill later on. Although I’ve seen so much on this trip, it would probably take a lot to make me step back and be immediately affected. Call me jaded, I don’t know. I’m going to bed early tonight. Early morning tomorrow for touring around Delhi. Goodnight.

Day 47 (03-06-09)

Well this is annoying. A lot of people went out last night and partied and didn’t get back until a couple hours before we were supposed to leave the hotel. Naturally, they made the rest of the group late. Figures. Today’s tour took us all around Delhi. First up was a Hindu Temple whose name I can’t remember. Very ornate. And there were Swastikas everywhere. I never knew much about the Swastika other than its affiliation with the Nazis, so I’ve only ever seen them with a negative denotation. It’s actually an ancient symbol that’s used in Hinduism and Buddhism. In this temple, the many Swastikas represented the God Brahma. But it still looks negative to me because of what I associate it with. Stupid Nazis. Ruining the Swastika for everyone else. After this temple, we ventured to the India Gate. It looks like the Arc de Triumph and it’s in beautiful park surrounded by fresh grass and cricket fields. Oh, and military. It’s also surrounded by the military. After the bombings in Mumbai last year, all areas that are frequented by Western visitors have upped their security. Even fast food restaurants like the McDonald’s I went to yesterday have armed guards at their entrances. I can honestly say that I’d never been greeted by a man with an automatic weapon at a McDonald’s before yesterday. Jarring. After the India Gate, we went to the first mosque ever constructed in India. It was in a large complex that was built by some emperor long ago. There were no signs and I couldn’t understand the tour guide. Don’t pass judgment. Anyway.

These few stops held us over until our very long drive to Agra. We were late in leaving. And there was construction. And it’s India. So it took awhile to get there. 6 hours maybe? I don’t even know. There was clearly one part that was worse than the rest. We stopped at a place where the guides told us to get out for some shopping. That’s great; a lot of people wanted to get out to do some shopping at authentic Indian shops. They unload everyone off the buses into a building. A mall? A market? No, no. One store. Once everyone was inside, they shut the doors and said, “Look around.” Great. A commission shop. Anything that the store sells, the guides take a profit for bringing the rich Americans. Luckily, a few girls needed an ATM and I helped them to find it, so we snuck around the buses without ever even setting foot in the shop. We then found Pizza Hut. This place was gourmet. Classiest Pizza Hut I’ve ever been to, by far.

After that debacle, we made it to the hotel and crashed. Tomorrow: the Taj. I can’t wait.

Day 48 (03-07-09)

Wake up call. People are late. Again. We missed the sunrise. Kitschy horse-drawn carriages took us 2 miles up the road to the East Gate of the Taj Mahal. We walk inside. It’s a nice little complex. Grass. Monkeys. Big red buildings. Through another gate I catch a glimpse of it. The white dome. I walk closer. More white. Marble against blue sky. I’m through the gate now and the instantly familiar lines are as recognizable as they’ve ever been. I’m staring at a postcard. A picture in a book. It can’t be this perfect. Nothing ever looks the same in real life. There is no way it really lives up to the expectations. I snap a photo. On the screen I have a flawless image. Is it possible? Every picture of the Taj is always perfect. There’s a reason. It can’t be photographed badly. Something this incredible can’t be tarnished.

Walking through that gate and seeing the Taj was really an unbelievable experience. People always talk about the majesty of the palace, and sure it looks good in pictures, but how impressive can it be? I’ve never been as taken aback by a place as I was this morning. And it was truly most impressive from a distance. Walking across the marble floors and into the tomb are experiences in themselves, but you can’t see the full picture from up close. You can’t see the domes towering above you. You can’t recognize the perfect symmetry of the buildings. But from 200 yards away, it was the most impressive building I’ve ever seen.

After the Taj, we made our way to the Agra Fort. Built by the grandfather of the Emperor that commissioned the Taj Mahal, the fort contained a series of small palaces that were used by various kings, queens, and princes of years past. It was massive, and had great views of the Taj from afar. This leads us to our next very, very long bus ride. We’re on our way to Jaipur, the Pink City. A 7 hour drive with sporadic stops at various bathrooms and yet another commission shop. Thanks for taking us to places with prices that are unbelievably expensive (in Indian terms) so you can try to turn another profit. Awesome. But we made it to our hotel in Jaipur and it was a Comfort Inn. Weird. Rajasthan, the province that contains Jaipur, celebrates the Holi Color Festival starting on March 11th, but we were given a preview by the hotel staff and our guides. As part of the celebration, people take very brightly colored powders (they were about the consistency and texture of flour) and throw them at each other. Oh man. I looked like I was trying to start Pink Man Group after this thing. There were blues and greens, orange and purples, reds and pinks, but the pink was definitely most prevalent. If I ever post my pictures from South Africa, maybe I’ll get to India as well, and you’ll be able to see me covered in this ridiculous powder. It was great. Taj and Color Festival on the same day. And I had spaghetti for dinner. I’m good to go. Time for bed.

Notes:
-I’ve eaten Indian food for breakfast/lunch each of the past several days; I’m not only eating Western-style food. I’m just not a huge fan of the Indian food. So I haven’t really described any of it. Here we go: it’s all bread, chicken, and rice. And it all tastes like curry, even if there isn’t any curry in it.

-I haven’t mentioned any real sensory observations that I’ve made. First: India smells. There really isn’t any other way to put it. It smells like smog and waste. Human excrement and filth. Exhaust and diesel. Sweat and tears. Curry and saffron. Tea and coffee. Better or worse, that’s what I’ve been picking up.

-I’m also going to get ahead of myself a little bit here. I typically write these blog entries all at once (in case you haven’t noticed) based on notes I take during port which prevent me from forgetting key points. Well now I’m just going to insert a section about something else, even though part of it doesn’t apply until Day 51. I haven’t said anything about people. The topic really doesn’t fit into any of these journal dailies, but here it is. People in India are… everywhere. Buses. Streets. Fields. Train Stations. Airports. Hotels. Slums. Temples. Alleys. Intersections. Appearing in windows. Standing on scaffolds. Doing anything and everything. People crouch on the side of the road to go to the bathroom. They go barefoot across dirty, trash-strewn alleys. People wander the streets asking for money. Asking for food. Carrying babies. Dragging limbs. Crawling. Limping. Bartering. Trying to sell whatever they can. Postcards. Bracelets. Trinkets. Etchings. 100 rupees. 50 rupees. 10 rupees. Please, sir. I need help, sir. This looks good on you, sir. You walk. They follow. You turn away, they find your eye. They stare you down. They surround you. They come in droves. Americans! Americans have money. Please, sir. They plead with wide, water-covered eyes. They do whatever it takes. This is India. These are its people.

With this in mind, I went to post-port reflections on the day after we left India, Day 51. I spoke once about my feelings upon seeing the Taj Mahal. I then listened for an hour as other students related their stories and experience from India. Several people read poetry that they had written. It inspired me. I left the ceremony and went to my cabin. I grabbed a pen and paper and started writing. Just a few lines, rough and unpolished. But it’s what I was thinking after my experience in India with the people. The people, everywhere. I came back to Reflections and listened to more stories. When it seemed like the last of us had spoken, I stood up and read my freshly written poem aloud. I’m posting it here, still in its raw, unfinished form. I’m no poet, but we’ll see if I can make something out of it:

Have you seen this movie? It’s the scariest of all.
The zombies walk the rundown streets. They trip, and then they crawl.
They pound on the windows of buses, that carry survivors inside.
They come from all directions. You can run, but you cannot hide.
They know that you are different. They approach when it’s time to feed.
They grab, and grope, and pursue you, To fulfill their every need.
Does this sound familiar? This plot that has unfurled?
These zombies are alive. This movie is our world.

I’m sure you get the gist of it.

Day 49 (03-08-09)

Today ended up being a wild card day. It was completely spontaneous and unexpected, but 5 of us from our 84-member group decided to take things into our own hands. The tour guides have dictated the past three days with which shops they want us to see. The size of our group also caused issues with time, as drunken and hungover students kept making us late for things. Well I had had enough of that. Most of us had. But five of us actually did something.

It actually happened by accident for me. I was walking out of my room, dead tired after waking up at 5:45am and catching a 6:30am breakfast. I saw a guy from our group standing in the hallway talking to someone, and he asked me if I knew to which room a specific person was assigned. This chance meeting struck up the inevitable conversation regarding his purpose in finding said person. It turns out they were trying to leave today, so that they could be in Chennai by the evening. This would eliminate the chances of anything in our group going wrong and delaying us in the airport. Plus, then tomorrow would be completely free for doing anything in Chennai, as opposed to sitting on a plane all morning and only having a couple hours to see the city before needing to return. So I jumped on the bandwagon. One of my roommates did as well. In total, five of us left our tour group and set off on our own for the day. We called a taxi to take us to the airport around 9:30am to buy our tickets. Buying them over the phone wasn’t an option and we didn’t have internet access at the hotel, so we just drove to the airport first. About 45 minutes after we got to the airport, all five of us were taken care of, and ready to go on the 2:45pm flight to Chennai. We didn’t have to be at security for check-in until 1:30pm, so we had our taxi driver chauffer us around the city for a few hours. We saw the City Palace, the Hawa Mahal, and an old Observatory that was really quite incredible. Plus, we had guided tours of all of them, since our cab driver called his buddy to take us around. It really makes a huge difference being in a small group like that. It’s easy to keep track of everyone and there’s no worry involved. No one’s ever late. No one’s held back. No one’s left behind.

We still had some time afterwards, so our driver took us back outside the old city gates and onto some random side street with vendors and crafts and textiles. There were these great fried wheat balls with sugar at one of the vendors whose counter was right between two temples. We found out later that these sweets, in Hindu custom, are a favorite of the God, Ganesha. People buy them and offer them as gifts to the Deity in the temple. At this point, we reflected on the time we spent a few moments beforehand eating these sacred wads of goodness right in front of the shopkeeper. He must’ve been appalled seeing us eat the offerings right in front of him. We didn’t mean to offend, we thought they were just snacks for everyone… you buy food at local restaurants with the intention of eating it, right? Cultural misstep #23987. Apologies. In case you were wondering though, they tasted SO good. Ganesha, forgive me, but I agree with you; those snacks were mighty tasty.

We went to the airport after this, and our flight was delayed for 2 hours. This is exactly why we don’t want to travel tomorrow. A delay today doesn’t hurt us. But a delay tomorrow could be hugely detrimental for our travels. With a stop in Hyderabad, we made it back to Chennai. We met up with another SAS group in the airport and tried to hitch a ride back with them on their bus, but it was a liability issue since we weren’t part of their trip. Fair enough. I feel bad for our cab driver though. He was probably the only driver on the road trying to follow traffic laws. He used turn signals. He let people pass him. And when we got near the harbor, he didn’t actually know where to go, so he had to ask for directions several times. But we made it back to the ship, safe and sound. Burger in the snack bar tonight. Perfect. I missed beef. Alright, I’m going to bed. Enough of this blogging nonsense.

Day 50 (03-19-09)

I still can’t shake this cold. I think it might’ve actually been the flu. I’m just too stubborn to check into it and take anything but DayQuil and NyQuil. After making it back to the ship last night, I decided that today would be a take-it-easy kind of day. But I took it a little too far. I slept until 1:30pm. On-ship time is 6pm. Now it’s not even worth leaving again to find something to do in Chennai, since everything is about 30 minutes away and I don’t want to be late. A waste of a day in India. I think I’ve seen enough to be okay with it though. Hopefully I can kick this cold now, finally.

The rest of the people in our tour group came back today without any real issues, so that was good. Their flight had 2 layovers though. And they had to wake up at 3:45 or 4am to start their day. How unfortunate.

Everyone’s back. I was ship-sick after a few days in India. There’s something comforting about being on the ship again. As much as I love the traveling that I’m able to do, it’s nice to have a home to come back to. Whether it’s a white house on the corner back in Pennsylvania or a cruise ship in a harbor, it’s home. If only for a little while.

Day 51 (03-10-09)

No classes today. While many people think that Semester At Sea gave us the day off because “everyone has diarrhea after India and no one can sit through class,” this isn’t actually the case. We get the day off because people are drained. If I had to summarize India in one word, it would easily be ‘exhausting.’ Mentally. Emotionally. Physically. But it was incredible. I don’t think I’ll ever make it back to India. There are so many places in the world that I want to see, and very seldom do I ever find a place that I think warrants an immediate return. Cape Town had that effect. London and Lucerne did as well, a few years back. But I just don’t know if I’d be up for another trip to India. At least not anytime soon. The people are incredible. The sites are beautiful. The culture foreign, but I hold nothing against it. India is just… India. I don’t know. It’s exhausting. I’m glad I’ve seen it and I’m glad it’s over. You can ask me to clarify this if you’d like, but if I’m wording it this awkwardly and circularly on the public blog, I don’t know how well I’ll be able to compile my thoughts into a personal e-mail. Oh well.

Now that we’re back, I started playing Settlers of Catan again. It’s just so addicting. We also had a photo/movie swap on the ship today for anyone to get together and share whatever they have with other people. I got some photos from previous ports, as well as the new U2 album. It’s rather underwhelming. Sad.

Today was a friend’s birthday, so we got a group together, dressed formally, ordered chips/salsa, and watched a Bollywood movie. Fantastic.

Oh, right. Assassins. I’m sure many of you have heard of the game Assassins. Well we’re playing it on the ship. Everyone has been given a target. Safe areas are the library, computer lab, and the classrooms during class. Immunities today were carrying your Global Studies book and wearing shoes from two different pairs. Kills are made by throwing a sock at your target. It’s sometimes played with water, but that doesn’t work so well here. My target has been keeping up with her immunities, so hopefully she’ll lower her guard at some point. I’m on the prowl.

Day 52 (03-11-09)

I think I’m almost over this cold. My voice isn’t totally normal again and the cough is lingering, but it’s almost over. Considering it’s been about 10 days, that’s good news. Karaoke night it tomorrow, so I spent some time today recruiting some more acts for that. I’m supposed to be the emcee, but I don’t know if I’ll have the voice or the energy to pull it off. I hope so, but it might be a game-time decision.

Wow, I actually didn’t do much of anything today. I played a couple games of Settlers. Went to class. Ate food. Sat outside in the unbelievable humidity. Studied for a midterm that’s tomorrow. That’s about it. I need to start being productive… I don’t know where this time goes.