So, I have been feeling a bit under the weather of late as I have been sleeping very poorly due to the heat. So yesterday I woke up all like, "India *grumble grumble*," and got it in my head that what I really needed was a bit of home, an American experience if you will. So I set out (Roxy in tow) in search of a cheeseburger.
After searching the intertubes for the location of said meaty treat we found that the closest place to get one was a TGI fridays about an hour away. And so off we went. Roxy pointed out that I must be getting really homesick after two months abroad for me to be like, "I'm going to travel an hour to a restaurant that I never go to in the US because it sucks to pay 5-10 times the price of a normal Indian meal for something to remind me of home."
Fridays was totally the same as in the US; the same stupid crap on the walls, the same stupid flair on the waiters and the same truly atrocious service. We were the ONLY ones in the joint and we still waited 20 min for our order to be taken, half-an-hour for our food, and had to ask for our bill after waiting for about 45 min and all this without ever getting a drink refill. However, the food was exactly what I wanted; it was an extremely average bacon cheeseburger with fries and American style Ketchup (the Indian Ketchup is strange, two sweet and not vinegary enough or something). It was soothing. I was soothed.
The only thing different about the burger I had here was that it was not beef. It was a lamb burger and I must say, I was impressed. We need to eat more lamb and goat meat in the states, that is certainly one thing that India does right.
All in all the day was quite good, Roxy and I got to relax and talk about subjective morality and applied Aristotelian metaphysics in an air conditioned space. Then we poked around the mall that the restaurant was in for a bit before dropping into a coffee shop and discussing religion, education, and evolutionary ethics. We wound up spending about five hours just hanging out, eating and talking. It was exactly the relaxing sort of day I needed.
The moral of the story: Meat makes everything better.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Remember what I said yesterday? Yeah, nevermind.
Apparently the level of confidence I exhibited in my last post was deemed unacceptable by the gods, who took it upon themselves today to put me in my rightful place. I have been thoroughly humbled.
As you may know, I'm supposed to be on a train to Amritsar right now. Let me tell you the story of why I'm not.
Our train was scheduled to leave the station at 2:40, so Jordan and I planned to meet for lunch after my class and then head to the train station. I ended up getting delayed at school because I needed to talk to the professor, and I was 25 minutes late. This was still ok, though - we'd have to eat fast, and we wouldn't have the same healthy margin of time to figure out where to go, but we'd be able to make it. So we got our food and ate it fast, but about 5 minutes before we left the restaurant, it started pouring rain. And when I say pouring, I mean buckets - India means serious business when it rains. We hailed an auto rickshaw to take us the short distance to the train station, to save time and to hopefully not get as wet. The auto crawled through the rain along the street, which was in an extreme state of disrepair, until we were close enough to see cars going by on the street that the train station was on. At this point, our driver got a phone call, told us "ek (one) minute," then got out of the auto to talk to some guys in a shop. We sat there wondering what was going on, but figured we might as well just wait. After a minute, he came back and started up the auto again. But instead of driving the short distance to the train station, he turned around and started driving back the way we came. We said, "where are you going? We're running late for our train," to which he simply replied, "ek minute." He drove us back practically half the distance we'd already come, then stopped and delivered a package to some guy. Then he sat there while that guy made a phone call. At this point we were practically yelling at our driver, "We need to go! We're going to miss our train!" When he failed to respond to this, Jordan and I hopped out of the auto and into the rain.
We ran through the pouring rain, through ankle-deep puddles of a mud, garbage and excrement slurry, as we tried to make it to the train on time. When we got to the station, soaked and disheveled, it stopped raining almost immediately. Someone who worked there called out to us from the crush of people and asked to see our ticket. He told us to go to platform 3 for our train, like it said on the electronic board. We looked at the board, and didn't see our train anywhere on it, but when we tried to tell him that, he just rushed us along and pointed us up the stairs. On the overpass that led to all the train platforms, we scanned the electronic signs to look for our train. We saw that the train at platform 3 was definitely not the one we wanted, but just at that moment, a voice on the loudspeaker informed us that the Amritsar Express train was pulling in to platform 5. I was a bit hesitant, since it didn't have the same train number as the number on our ticket, but it had the same name, destination, and departure time as the one on our ticket, so we decided to head down to platform 5. Once there, I showed my ticket to a random stranger and asked him if I was in the right place - he said yes. Uncertain, I asked one of the uniformed guards who worked at the station, and he told me the same thing. We looked everywhere for some sort of official whose job it was to tell us where to go, but we didn't find anyone.
So, we figured we must be in the right place, boarded the train, and walked down the length of it, car after car, trying to find our coach. We walked all the way down to the end without finding it, and asked the family who invited us to sit with them if they knew where the sleeper coach was. They told us it was down all the way at the front end of the train, so we set off again, walking the entire length of the train, down a narrow aisle that was becoming increasingly jammed with people and their baggage. When we got all the way to the front of the train without finding our seats, we went out and asked another uniformed guard. He told us that this wasn't our train - our train was on platform 9 - so we dashed up the stairs and over to the platform, only to find it empty; the train was gone.
Just then, an announcement came over the loudspeaker that the train to Amritsar at platform 5 was about to leave. We ran back and tried to find a spot on the train, figuring that it could still be our train after all. We managed to find a ticket examiner, finally, and asked him where we were supposed to go. He told us that we weren't on the right train, and that we had missed ours after all. We tried to ask him what we should do, how we could get a ticket for this train, but he walked away from us and refused to answer our questions. A nice local man took pity on us and communicated with the ticket examiner (who spoke perfectly fine English, as it is a requirement for his job) who was refusing to speak to us. He told us some very confusing information: first that we could buy a ticket, then that we couldn't because it was too late, and if we stayed on, we would have to pay a fine that was double what the tickets cost us. Plus we figured that if we were fined for traveling without a ticket, we probably wouldn't be allowed to stay on for the entire duration of our trip, and would be kicked out at the next stop. So, we hung our heads and left the train, dejected, still soaking wet, and covered in foul-smelling mud.
So yeah, like I said. Thoroughly humbled.
As you may know, I'm supposed to be on a train to Amritsar right now. Let me tell you the story of why I'm not.
Our train was scheduled to leave the station at 2:40, so Jordan and I planned to meet for lunch after my class and then head to the train station. I ended up getting delayed at school because I needed to talk to the professor, and I was 25 minutes late. This was still ok, though - we'd have to eat fast, and we wouldn't have the same healthy margin of time to figure out where to go, but we'd be able to make it. So we got our food and ate it fast, but about 5 minutes before we left the restaurant, it started pouring rain. And when I say pouring, I mean buckets - India means serious business when it rains. We hailed an auto rickshaw to take us the short distance to the train station, to save time and to hopefully not get as wet. The auto crawled through the rain along the street, which was in an extreme state of disrepair, until we were close enough to see cars going by on the street that the train station was on. At this point, our driver got a phone call, told us "ek (one) minute," then got out of the auto to talk to some guys in a shop. We sat there wondering what was going on, but figured we might as well just wait. After a minute, he came back and started up the auto again. But instead of driving the short distance to the train station, he turned around and started driving back the way we came. We said, "where are you going? We're running late for our train," to which he simply replied, "ek minute." He drove us back practically half the distance we'd already come, then stopped and delivered a package to some guy. Then he sat there while that guy made a phone call. At this point we were practically yelling at our driver, "We need to go! We're going to miss our train!" When he failed to respond to this, Jordan and I hopped out of the auto and into the rain.
We ran through the pouring rain, through ankle-deep puddles of a mud, garbage and excrement slurry, as we tried to make it to the train on time. When we got to the station, soaked and disheveled, it stopped raining almost immediately. Someone who worked there called out to us from the crush of people and asked to see our ticket. He told us to go to platform 3 for our train, like it said on the electronic board. We looked at the board, and didn't see our train anywhere on it, but when we tried to tell him that, he just rushed us along and pointed us up the stairs. On the overpass that led to all the train platforms, we scanned the electronic signs to look for our train. We saw that the train at platform 3 was definitely not the one we wanted, but just at that moment, a voice on the loudspeaker informed us that the Amritsar Express train was pulling in to platform 5. I was a bit hesitant, since it didn't have the same train number as the number on our ticket, but it had the same name, destination, and departure time as the one on our ticket, so we decided to head down to platform 5. Once there, I showed my ticket to a random stranger and asked him if I was in the right place - he said yes. Uncertain, I asked one of the uniformed guards who worked at the station, and he told me the same thing. We looked everywhere for some sort of official whose job it was to tell us where to go, but we didn't find anyone.
So, we figured we must be in the right place, boarded the train, and walked down the length of it, car after car, trying to find our coach. We walked all the way down to the end without finding it, and asked the family who invited us to sit with them if they knew where the sleeper coach was. They told us it was down all the way at the front end of the train, so we set off again, walking the entire length of the train, down a narrow aisle that was becoming increasingly jammed with people and their baggage. When we got all the way to the front of the train without finding our seats, we went out and asked another uniformed guard. He told us that this wasn't our train - our train was on platform 9 - so we dashed up the stairs and over to the platform, only to find it empty; the train was gone.
Just then, an announcement came over the loudspeaker that the train to Amritsar at platform 5 was about to leave. We ran back and tried to find a spot on the train, figuring that it could still be our train after all. We managed to find a ticket examiner, finally, and asked him where we were supposed to go. He told us that we weren't on the right train, and that we had missed ours after all. We tried to ask him what we should do, how we could get a ticket for this train, but he walked away from us and refused to answer our questions. A nice local man took pity on us and communicated with the ticket examiner (who spoke perfectly fine English, as it is a requirement for his job) who was refusing to speak to us. He told us some very confusing information: first that we could buy a ticket, then that we couldn't because it was too late, and if we stayed on, we would have to pay a fine that was double what the tickets cost us. Plus we figured that if we were fined for traveling without a ticket, we probably wouldn't be allowed to stay on for the entire duration of our trip, and would be kicked out at the next stop. So, we hung our heads and left the train, dejected, still soaking wet, and covered in foul-smelling mud.
So yeah, like I said. Thoroughly humbled.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
BOOYA!
Today has been a good day. Let me tell you why.
India is a huge, crazy, overwhelming place. Although it is much less so now than when we first got off the plane, it can kind of pile up on you over time, since there really isn't any way to get away from it. When we first got here, we were put up in an air conditioned hotel that fed us three squares a day, so we could always retreat when we needed some peace and quiet to preserve our sanity. Now, however, we've been turned loose into the city and are forced to fend for ourselves, all the time. This can be difficult and exhausting, because even simple things you take for granted (like being able to go into a grocery store and buy whatever food you need) aren't an option here. It can leave you feeling helpless and incapable of functioning. It can be pretty rough.
But, on the other hand, this provides an opportunity to feel awesome about accomplishing even the most basic things. For example, today I booked our railway tickets online for our trip to Amritsar tomorrow (we're traveling about 450 km for $4 each), found us a really good (and cheap!) South Indian restaurant at which to have dinner, went out and bought a bunch of inexpensive but high quality clothes, and then on the way home, fought through a crowd to dive into a moving auto rickshaw, thereby securing a spot in the (highly contested) 5 rupee per person ride share.
So, basically, today I was a fully functional human being, and that's kind of a big deal. Days like this make me really happy to be here.
India is a huge, crazy, overwhelming place. Although it is much less so now than when we first got off the plane, it can kind of pile up on you over time, since there really isn't any way to get away from it. When we first got here, we were put up in an air conditioned hotel that fed us three squares a day, so we could always retreat when we needed some peace and quiet to preserve our sanity. Now, however, we've been turned loose into the city and are forced to fend for ourselves, all the time. This can be difficult and exhausting, because even simple things you take for granted (like being able to go into a grocery store and buy whatever food you need) aren't an option here. It can leave you feeling helpless and incapable of functioning. It can be pretty rough.
But, on the other hand, this provides an opportunity to feel awesome about accomplishing even the most basic things. For example, today I booked our railway tickets online for our trip to Amritsar tomorrow (we're traveling about 450 km for $4 each), found us a really good (and cheap!) South Indian restaurant at which to have dinner, went out and bought a bunch of inexpensive but high quality clothes, and then on the way home, fought through a crowd to dive into a moving auto rickshaw, thereby securing a spot in the (highly contested) 5 rupee per person ride share.
So, basically, today I was a fully functional human being, and that's kind of a big deal. Days like this make me really happy to be here.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Settling in
So, we're finally starting to feel a little more at home in Delhi. We finally got a fridge and internet at the apartment, which is wonderful, and really makes it feel a lot more like home. Jordan and I spent the entire weekend catching up on the Daily Show and Colbert Report episodes from the last month. It was great. It also rained all weekend, which has brought the temperature in the city down to a tolerable high 80s - mid 90s. That helps a lot, but I'm still not feeling too great...I've had a lingering flu for 2 weeks now that I just can't seem to get over, and I've been having a really hard time staying adequately nourished. Being vegan is basically impossible here, and even though I've tried giving up veganism and eating dairy products, it's been so long since I've eaten that stuff that now it makes me sick. So I'm living mostly on beans, rice, bread and cereal, which means I feel really exhausted most of the time, and get lightheaded when I walk up stairs. It makes doing anything (including buying and preparing food...so much easier to have it delivered) much harder to manage. I'm kind of concerned about it, mostly because I can't make the most of this trip when I don't have the energy to do anything, but hopefully I'll get it figured out soon and come up with a diet that works for me.
We've also started going to class, although sometimes that can be a bit tricky. Here, you really can't count on your professors to show up to class - twice in 2 weeks, I've gone all the way to the university only to find that my class was cancelled. Attendance seems to be not that much of a priority here. In my experience, though, at least, the students here are really nice and friendly. When I went to class last week, a few of the students kind of took me under their wing, helped me with administrative stuff and getting the readings for class, and gave me some food for lunch. They also told me about a guest lecture that was happening later that day: a Tibetan Buddhist monk gave a lecture on the concept of selfhood in Buddhism. It was pretty interesting, and it was just kind of a cool experience in general.
We've also started going to class, although sometimes that can be a bit tricky. Here, you really can't count on your professors to show up to class - twice in 2 weeks, I've gone all the way to the university only to find that my class was cancelled. Attendance seems to be not that much of a priority here. In my experience, though, at least, the students here are really nice and friendly. When I went to class last week, a few of the students kind of took me under their wing, helped me with administrative stuff and getting the readings for class, and gave me some food for lunch. They also told me about a guest lecture that was happening later that day: a Tibetan Buddhist monk gave a lecture on the concept of selfhood in Buddhism. It was pretty interesting, and it was just kind of a cool experience in general.
On Saturday, it was Independence Day here. It's celebrated by a ceremony and presidential address at the Red Fort. It was at 7 AM, though, so Jordan and I slept in and missed it. A couple people in our group tried to go, but they couldn't get in, so apparently we didn't actually miss anything. The way locals celebrate the holiday here is by getting together with their families and friends and flying kites. We went up onto our roof and were amazed by all the people we say flying kites and hanging out on their roofs. Here are some pictures:
Most of those little specks are kites. Some of them are birds, but most of them are kites.
And here's a video:
We couldn't really capture it - there are way more kites way off in the distance that don't really show up in the photos or video. It was really cool, I felt like everyone in the city was connected. It was kind of surreal.
Oh, and here's a photo of the courtyard/park thing on our street - this is a view from our roof.
I'll put up photos of the inside of the apartment whenever I get around to taking some. It doesn't look like much now, though, because it's enormous and we don't really have any furniture, so it's mostly empty.
Oh, and here's a photo of the courtyard/park thing on our street - this is a view from our roof.
I'll put up photos of the inside of the apartment whenever I get around to taking some. It doesn't look like much now, though, because it's enormous and we don't really have any furniture, so it's mostly empty.
This weekend Jordan and I are going to be traveling somewhere. We haven't bought our train tickets yet, but we're thinking about going to Amritsar, the holiest city in Sikhism and home to the Golden Temple. The weekend after next, we're all taking a trip to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, and Agra, to visit the Taj Mahal. I've always wanted to go see the Taj Mahal, so I'm super psyched!
We uploaded a whole bunch of new photos today, including some from our time in Mussoorie, so go check out our Flickr photostream to see them.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Would You Like Some Cheese To Go With That...
I haven't slept well in over a week. I just lie in bed sweating. And not just a little bit either, I sweat like I just ran three miles in the heat. I soak the pillow, the sheets and the mattress. When I get up in the morning the whole bed is wet. Last night and the night before the power went out for over an hour and so the fans died. It got so hot that it actually woke me up. The night time low is about 85 deg. the highs have been sitting at about 105 with a 40% humidity.
We haven't got a fridge yet so there is no way to cool off if you're hot. All the drinking water at our apartment is about 95 deg. all the time. We can't get a air conditioner. They cost about $600 and we'll only need it for another month or so. Totally not worth it.
There is no escape.
We haven't got a fridge yet so there is no way to cool off if you're hot. All the drinking water at our apartment is about 95 deg. all the time. We can't get a air conditioner. They cost about $600 and we'll only need it for another month or so. Totally not worth it.
There is no escape.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
I just now got all of those Delhi/deli puns that you guys made before we left. Hilarious!
So we are finally in our own place... Well technically we've been there for over a week. Some of our friends had some apartment troubles and so we've been putting them up since coming back from Mussoorie. Their land lady decided that she didn't want any men in her building and kicked one of the groups out, and then the other group that was staying with them decided to leave too, so for the past week we've been living with 12 people in our three bedroom flat. But, their new place just became available and so they moved out last night. It wasn't that bad putting them all up but it is rather more peaceful and clean in our apartment now.
Today I went in for my second meeting with the Philosophy department. I'm going to be taking two classes in addition to my Hindi lessons at the EAP study center. I'll be taking "Philosophic Classics: Indian" and "Philosophy of Human Rights." The first because, well, I'm in India and the second because it lines up nicely with Philosophy of Justice which I've found myself interested in after coming to USCS.
I think Roxy mentioned this in her blog but IT'S REALLY HOT HERE! The heat is so much less manageable when you have no way to escape it. With no AC and no fridge yet there is just nothing you can do to avoid the heat. We all just lie around in our skivvies sweating whenever we're home. When you wake up in the morning your sheets are soaked and when you get out of the shower (of which I take around three a day) you never get dry, as the water on your skin evaporates it is just replaced with sweat.
I find Delhi a lot less intimidating then when I first came here. Knowing some Hindi really helps even though mera Hindi bahoot karub hay (Translation: my Hindi is very bad). I'm just more comfortable walking the streets, I get how the shops work now, I'm used to the honking, and I think having my own space I can retreat to helps.
Sorry for the recent lack of pictures, I've gotten lazy and haven't been carrying my camera around lately. Also, having gotten used to Delhi, it's less alien here and so I am less likely to go, "WTF! I need to take a picture of that!" That being said, I'll try to get some of those shots that were requested and be better about keeping my camera with me.
Today I went in for my second meeting with the Philosophy department. I'm going to be taking two classes in addition to my Hindi lessons at the EAP study center. I'll be taking "Philosophic Classics: Indian" and "Philosophy of Human Rights." The first because, well, I'm in India and the second because it lines up nicely with Philosophy of Justice which I've found myself interested in after coming to USCS.
I think Roxy mentioned this in her blog but IT'S REALLY HOT HERE! The heat is so much less manageable when you have no way to escape it. With no AC and no fridge yet there is just nothing you can do to avoid the heat. We all just lie around in our skivvies sweating whenever we're home. When you wake up in the morning your sheets are soaked and when you get out of the shower (of which I take around three a day) you never get dry, as the water on your skin evaporates it is just replaced with sweat.
I find Delhi a lot less intimidating then when I first came here. Knowing some Hindi really helps even though mera Hindi bahoot karub hay (Translation: my Hindi is very bad). I'm just more comfortable walking the streets, I get how the shops work now, I'm used to the honking, and I think having my own space I can retreat to helps.
Sorry for the recent lack of pictures, I've gotten lazy and haven't been carrying my camera around lately. Also, having gotten used to Delhi, it's less alien here and so I am less likely to go, "WTF! I need to take a picture of that!" That being said, I'll try to get some of those shots that were requested and be better about keeping my camera with me.
Monday, August 3, 2009
School, heat, and also SWINE FLU!
Okay, maybe it's not swine flu. But it sounds more exciting if I say it is.
What I'm talking about is how many people in our program, including our program director Viji, have come down with the flu. It's not as bad as the regular flu, and is extremely contagious...sounds like swine flu to me, don't you think? I only had a fever for one day (yesterday) and now I'm just all sneezy and sniffly and have kind of a nasty cough. It's kind of weird, after having been warned of all the deadly diseases we could catch here, to wind up with a plain old, not even that bad, run of the mill flu. Kind of a let down, although I'm sure some of you (parents) may disagree.
So, about Delhi: it's really, ridiculously hot here. We didn't get to fully appreciate how hot it was during our first week here because we were staying in an air conditioned hotel room. In our un-air conditioned apartment, we get the full impact of summer in Delhi. The nights are the worst, because we can't keep the windows open for fear of mosquitoes getting in (which they will, in droves). So we've spent several nights so far lying awake, practically drowning in our own sweat (I had no idea I could sweat so much), just thinking about how hot it is, unable to sleep. It practically consumes our entire life at this point, at least from about 4 PM onward - the mornings, at least, are not too bad. And we have absolutely no respite from the heat - as yet, we have no refrigerator (which will hopefully be rectified within a day or two) so we only have lukewarm water to drink, and no ice. It sucks. A lot. I'm trying to tell myself that it's all part of the experience, but it's a bit of a life-ruiner at this point. It makes the flu even less fun than it otherwise would be, too.
But anyway, enough complaining. Lots of exciting stuff has happened in the last week, too. We all had meetings with our host departments at the university, and we'll be starting class tomorrow - a lot of people even started last week, but our schedules didn't work out that way. So we have a pretty good idea now of what we'll be taking: I'll be taking one psychology class, called An Experiential Inquiry into Selfhood, which I couldn't resist taking despite its inconvenient timings - it looks really interesting in an Eastern sort of way (which is, after all, the point of being here), and looks at the concept of Selfhood from the viewpoints of, according to the course description, "Psychoanalysis, Existential, Engaged Buddhist and Critical Psychology". Also, contrary to my original plan, I couldn't resist taking a philosophy course while I'm here, so I'll be taking Buddhist Ethics. Two classes may not sound like a lot, but we're also taking Hindi at the study center, so two university classes is pretty standard. Plus, that leaves more time for taking extracurricular classes (dance, cooking, music, etc).
Jordan will be taking Indian Philosophical Classics, and in addition to that, the Philosophy department at DU is extremely accomodating and awesome, and has offered to give him a personalized, one-on-one class on a topic of his choosing. I'm so jealous! He has a meeting tomorrow morning to figure out his personalized lesson plan and all that jazz, so I'm sure he'll have a lot to say about it in his next post.
We still don't have internet at our place, but will hopefully be getting it in the next week or so. I just have to talk to the landlord about it and get it set up, which shouldn't be an issue because our landlord is SUPER NICE and also speaks really good English, two things which apparently you never find in landlords when you're living abroad.
By the way, I encourage all of you to write us emails...I feel pretty cut off from everyone over here, so it's always nice to hear from people. Even a short one to say hi would be nice. We miss you!
What I'm talking about is how many people in our program, including our program director Viji, have come down with the flu. It's not as bad as the regular flu, and is extremely contagious...sounds like swine flu to me, don't you think? I only had a fever for one day (yesterday) and now I'm just all sneezy and sniffly and have kind of a nasty cough. It's kind of weird, after having been warned of all the deadly diseases we could catch here, to wind up with a plain old, not even that bad, run of the mill flu. Kind of a let down, although I'm sure some of you (parents) may disagree.
So, about Delhi: it's really, ridiculously hot here. We didn't get to fully appreciate how hot it was during our first week here because we were staying in an air conditioned hotel room. In our un-air conditioned apartment, we get the full impact of summer in Delhi. The nights are the worst, because we can't keep the windows open for fear of mosquitoes getting in (which they will, in droves). So we've spent several nights so far lying awake, practically drowning in our own sweat (I had no idea I could sweat so much), just thinking about how hot it is, unable to sleep. It practically consumes our entire life at this point, at least from about 4 PM onward - the mornings, at least, are not too bad. And we have absolutely no respite from the heat - as yet, we have no refrigerator (which will hopefully be rectified within a day or two) so we only have lukewarm water to drink, and no ice. It sucks. A lot. I'm trying to tell myself that it's all part of the experience, but it's a bit of a life-ruiner at this point. It makes the flu even less fun than it otherwise would be, too.
But anyway, enough complaining. Lots of exciting stuff has happened in the last week, too. We all had meetings with our host departments at the university, and we'll be starting class tomorrow - a lot of people even started last week, but our schedules didn't work out that way. So we have a pretty good idea now of what we'll be taking: I'll be taking one psychology class, called An Experiential Inquiry into Selfhood, which I couldn't resist taking despite its inconvenient timings - it looks really interesting in an Eastern sort of way (which is, after all, the point of being here), and looks at the concept of Selfhood from the viewpoints of, according to the course description, "Psychoanalysis, Existential, Engaged Buddhist and Critical Psychology". Also, contrary to my original plan, I couldn't resist taking a philosophy course while I'm here, so I'll be taking Buddhist Ethics. Two classes may not sound like a lot, but we're also taking Hindi at the study center, so two university classes is pretty standard. Plus, that leaves more time for taking extracurricular classes (dance, cooking, music, etc).
Jordan will be taking Indian Philosophical Classics, and in addition to that, the Philosophy department at DU is extremely accomodating and awesome, and has offered to give him a personalized, one-on-one class on a topic of his choosing. I'm so jealous! He has a meeting tomorrow morning to figure out his personalized lesson plan and all that jazz, so I'm sure he'll have a lot to say about it in his next post.
We still don't have internet at our place, but will hopefully be getting it in the next week or so. I just have to talk to the landlord about it and get it set up, which shouldn't be an issue because our landlord is SUPER NICE and also speaks really good English, two things which apparently you never find in landlords when you're living abroad.
By the way, I encourage all of you to write us emails...I feel pretty cut off from everyone over here, so it's always nice to hear from people. Even a short one to say hi would be nice. We miss you!
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