India- Day 3

I realized the other post was actually Days 1-2 so here is Day 3.

India

Day 3

I was so exhausted by the time we went to sleep (around 8pm or so) last night, I thought for sure we would sleep through the night. Not so. I woke up at 12:30 am and Matt woke up around 3:30 am... even after taking sleeping aids we could NOT get back to sleep! Que the two hour minesweeper marathon...When it was finally a somewhat acceptable time to get up, we went downstairs to see if we could get some help with the traveler's checks we have yet to cash. The man at the desk told us we cannot cash traveler's checks here or anywhere. (Recall that pesky little communication barrier) Hmm, weird I thought they were called traveler's checks for a reason.

We were first for the 7:30 am breakfast buffet! These people like their food spicy! We tried to sample a little bit of everything from the south Indian cuisine (things I remember from breakfast= vegetable korma, peas pulao, and some flat rice crepe with chutney). I was still feeling pretty famished so we were very glad to see some recognizable breakfast pastries as well. I'm sure the waiters thought we were pigs as we went back for third and fourth helpings of "chocolate donuts" and "croissants" (the scare quotes are because this is what they were called, but you never would have guessed it from the taste!) They had poured us water from a pitcher (i.e. not a water bottle) for breakfast, and we had been told SO many times to not drink the water unless you see it being opened from a water bottle AND hear the seal break, so we didn't drink any. Our waiter didn't seem to notice as he kept coming and filling our glasses higher and higher with water! It is so important to me to not offend people here, so I couldn't bring myself to ask for bottled water. I realize now that this sounds ridiculous, but it just would have seemed really awkward at the time. When we thought nobody was looking we would swig some water from the bottle I had in my purse to wash down the spicy food!

After breakfast there was another girl working at the reception desk, so we asked her where we should cash the traveler's checks. She seemed to know what we were talking about, and she said the bank down the street would be able to at 10 am. Unfortunately, this would be after I left for training, so we STILL haven't been able to use the checks!

Dinesh called and said he would send a driver to pick me up at 9:50. That time came and went and then he called back and said the driver didn't make it (I'm sensing a theme here with drivers just not showing up) so that he would come get me with his driver in a little bit. Dinesh is incredibly nice and gave us a very warm welcome. I had heard from my boss that he is very talkative and opinionated and that is definitely true! He said that Matt was welcome to come with us to SIP headquarters, and as he drove us there he told us about all the detailed weather patterns and geography of the region. When we got inside, he gave us a brief tour of the office space. The building would be considered very run down and old from what we're used to, but the people working there almost all spoke english and dressed very nice. Everybody was working in the dark which I thought was strange. (Matt just informed me it was because the power was out) they would work on their laptops in the dark. Dinesh sat us down in an office and talked to us all about the mission and goals of SIP. He has a thick accent and talks really fast, but I think I caught about 80% of what he said. He then talked about everything from those darn lazy American kids to different parenting styles, to his philosophy on learning. Very informative. He is very blunt and even said "I know Americans don't like to talk so straight foward because they are always scared of getting caught or sued or something, but I don't care, even though people tell me to be successful in America I need to be more diplomatic...I guess I will just stay in India where I fit in!"

He introduced me to the woman who would be training me, Anu, who is a "master abacus trainer", and another teacher named Saisankari (from Chennai) who was there for training like me. I was glad I had practiced a lot over the last few weeks! Not to brag, but I'm totally going to. On the first assessment I got a 99% (compared to the other teacher's 76%). At the end of the 7 hour training, Anu literally gave me 3 gold star stickers, and gave the other teacher only 1 star and told her to keep working to get the other two. I actually felt kind of bad at this point, but she didn't seem to mind she just laughed and smiled and said she would do lots of homework tonight. Matt was hanging around in the room for most of this, reading, and dozing off sometimes, then he went for a walk for a little bit. I have no idea if this is common or not, but Anu had a personal assistant who would bring her food and drinks all day! Mid-morning, he brought us all in some cucumber and carrot salad (we were told that salad is another big no-no) but I seriously could not just let it sit there when she was so excited to bring it to us. So I ate it. I noticed Matt let his sit there for a long time, and then picked up his plate and said he was going to go eat it outside. Yeah right! Pretty sure he flushed it down the toilet or something but he wouldn't tell me. Anu ordered us all lunch from a take out place. She said she would order for us, and try to get something that wasn't too spicy. She got us masala dosa (a big crepe made from rice, filled with potato, and topped with different types of chutneys) and veggie fried rice. It was really really good! Not spicy still meant my eyes were watering and my nose was running, but I liked it. The food was way better than anything we’ve had  at the hotel so far. Matt describes eating the food here as having instant fire in the belly, and it is so true. Pretty much the second the food goes down, your stomach just burns. I have been trying to keep up with my lactaid and antacids and other vitamins. I feel like every meal is food vs. pills. And the food is definitely winning right now.

After lunch, Matt went back to the hotel and I noticed that Saisankari got much more talkative after he left. When we had breaks, we were able to talk quite a bit. Her English was very broken, but we still managed to have some good conversations! She asked what we did yesterday, and I told her we went shopping at T. Nagar and she couldn’t believe we had gone on a Sunday because it is so crowded on the weekends. She asked if people stared at us, and I laughed and said “yeah, but it’s okay I know we look different!” And she said, “I know when I see a white I feel bad but I just need to stare because it is so interesting!” I told her that when we see people dressed in sarees in America it’s hard for us not to stare too. She thought that was hilarious. She told me a funny story about when she saw “some whites” at a tourist attraction in Chennai and one of the women was sunbathing in the afternoon wearing a two piece. She was so concerned for this woman's health that she went and asked her if she should move. I wasn’t sure if she was more upset by the two piece in public, or by the fact that she was out in the heat of the afternoon. She said something about white skin not being meant for afternoon sun, and that she would fry herself and get sick. She asked me what happens to my skin if I go in the sun. I told her I try to wear sunscreen, but if I forget sometimes it turns tan and sometimes it gets red. She thought that was funny too.

I wish I could say more details about the abacus training, it was REALLY interesting and I learned a lot, but I’ll save that for my coworker since it probably isn’t quite as interesting to everybody else. I took lots of notes though, and can’t wait to show the kids all the new stuff I’ve learned (everything from breathing practices to visualization techniques to stretches to skill exercises, etc…) After training was over, Anu asked Saisankari to share a cab with me and drop me off on her way home. I could tell as we walked out of the building that she was self-conscious about being seen with me! She told me she would get me to the hotel safely, as she grabbed my arm and told me to follow her across the street to get to a taxi. Crossing the street is no small feat. At one point we were literally sandwiched between two fast busses, I gasped, and she just laughed and told me when to run.

Saisankari was very nice when she dropped me off she wanted to make sure I got into the hotel ok and that I remembered my room number J. I DID remember the room number but when I got to it Matt was so fast asleep that he didn’t hear me knocking for about 5 minutes! He has actually been in and out of sleep ever since I got back, I gave up trying to keep him up. When he opened his eyes he was looking pretty dead still. We ended up just skipping dinner and falling asleep around 8pm….so here we are awake again at 4 am. I have lots of homework to do before training starts again at 10 am!