ok... INJAH blogging time!

It’s tough to remember everything that we’ve been up to but I will do my best to fill you in. Oh first of all, my location. I’m currently in Mysore (where I’m taking classes) sitting on my morbid yet glamorous bed. Morbid and glamorous based on its hospital like simplicity paired with the elegance of a bug net. I’ve decided these bug nets resemble the canopies of princesses- so I’m basically Cinderella.

I’ll start off with some observations I’ve been running into in this lovely vast country.

The head bobble. Just bounce your head side to side with a blank expression on your face. This translates to, well, nothing to me. It lands somewhere between an OK (I agree) and OK (I’ve noticed that you are communicating with me). It makes for confusing, entertaining and often frustrating results if you are on the receiving end. Which is why I’ve done my best to start dishing it out myself. Why give a straight answer if you can just make someone else decide for you? I like it for bargaining with rickshaw drivers and salespeople, mostly because my words don’t work well so why not try the bobble? I’m no master but I’ll get it down by the end of the trip.

Oh, and you want to know what we don’t do enough of in Canada? Horking! Public displays of loud phlegm projectiles are not gender specific nor frowned upon in India. And if they are, then maybe we just frown harder upon them in Canada. Even professors, everybody loves a good spit. Ok that’s clearly a sweeping statement but that’s how it feels most of the time.

We’ve also discovered that due to our location in a Muslim neighbourhood we have been given the opportunity to eavesdrop on the call to prayer from not only one but two mosques! So earplugs have been a necessity when it comes to trying to sleep in past, I think its 5:45 am, but I could be wrong, maybe its 6am. OH man! Right now it’s like a yelling competition; I’m totally saying that in the most culturally sensitive way possible. Anyway, this is India, noise is a constant.

One comforting thing from home has been pizza. We’ve got dominos and pizza hut here in Mysore though we have some bonus veggie options including pickled baby corn, mint and well, everything else is basically the same. Its nice to have the tastes from home, but man having such inexpensive food is dangerous. We were told it was the bread and rice that would fatten us up but I’m currently struggling to limit myself to one icecream a day. Oh and I’ve discovered that my favourite flavour of cookie is now butter- who needs to add anything else?

So like, where have I been?

Aiight, so after Kochin we headed up by train to Kundapura to a resort called Turtle Bay. This was the first clean and basically abandoned beach I’ve seen here.  Turtle Bay taught me an important lesson that I would once again learn in the Rainforest: India can be cold. Yes, cold. At night I have no idea what the temperatures went down to, but, probably below 5. I know that’s not that cold but it is when you only have a silk liner to keep you warm. So we went to the rainforest by Madicary for 4 or 5 nights. This trip was supposed to take 6 hours, but due to our bus drivers, we made it there in only 13. I have only them to thank. But that brings up bus drivers. You don’t get one, you get two, or three! I have no idea what the third one does but one drives, the other hangs out the door, whistles and argues at other drivers.  Quite the production.

We made it to Mysore about a week ago and are staying at the Organization for the Development of People. So I guess I’m being developed now, and it’s great! Our classes are similar to a high school, so not much free time. I’m taking culture & civilization, women’s studies, science & tech, chemicals in the natural environment and hindi.  Not that they use Hindi here, but it will come in useful in the North.  Ah yes the North. I guess to end this off I should mention that all my fears regarding India being really hot, full of creepy men and spicy food sound like they may be realized once we hit the top half of the country. I’ll deal with that when the time comes but for now I’m quite content here in Mysore.

Hey! Kat posted something!

Well, here it goes. Trying to blog. I have no idea how this will go simply because I'm not sure if I have enough words or time to capture what exactly India has been like so far. ALAS! I will try my best!

Just for some context, I'm currently in a internet cafe in Kochi, a gorgeous beachtown. I have a lovely breeze from a fan, a pencil locking my little green cubicle (for security?) and a uneasy feeling as my shoes are outside. I'm not the biggest fan of the whole leaving your shoes outside, but I'll do my best to respect that rule until I get hookworm :)

So right off the bat I'm just gonna say it, I was completely freaked out about coming to "INDIA". It was completely due to my fantastic imagination which had created a version of India in my head which resembled a stiflingly hot/humid/muggy climate filled with constant and overwhelming poverty combined with, um, super creepy dudes? I know I'd been told that it wasn't going to be anything like that, but yeah, that's what I went with. And to tell you the truth, when I got off the plane and hit the streets of Chennai (Madras) at 1 am, I wasn't exactly convinced that I was wrong. It was muggy, with people everywhere (well, it was an airport) and the idea of crossing the road with no crosswalk seemed quite daunting. It wasn't until the next day on our first tuk tuk (rickshaw) ride that I finally relaxed and could see what India really is like.

Sure, that traffic is NUTS! Like, rickshaws, motorbikes and cars everywhere. But after a riding around with our enthusiastic driver for about an hour, I had convinced myself that death was not indeed as imminent as it had first seemed. There is a system, it does not involve nearly as many stop signs, turning lanes or lights but people get around. Our group has been trying its best to fit in though our second stop in Pondecherry (Pudcherry) had a reasonably busy road outside of our hotel, we took so long to cross that one passerby actually helped us across the street. That was hilarious though slightly embarrassing, but I'd say I can successfully cross the street now. Proud? :)

Oh yes, the food. I definitely expected unbearable hot and spicy curry, non-stop, all the time. Surprise surprise I was wrong. The curry isn't that spicy. I'm actually ok with the food. AND haven't been sick. YEAH TAKE THAT INDIA! (now I'm just asking for it). I'd say the majority of the group is/has gotten sick. If you've watched any zombie apocalypse movies you would understand how fast everyone has gotten hit by some sort of virus. People have been dropping left and right, so travel days/nights on trains and buses have been less than pleasant for a lot of our group.

We've also done stuff. A lot of stuff. I will not tell you all of the stuff. BUT my favourite 'stuff' has been Auroville. It's this town about 8 km from Pondecherry that is basically a commune. So all a bunch of nice stuff like spirituality and organic crops lalalala, THEN we walked to go and see a 'scenic view' of the actual village. I was expecting to see, a village? or like some gardens? What I saw was a GIANT golden golfball shaped building that apparently contains the world's largest crystal. oh yeah, this commune just sauntered across that delicate line between commune and cult. I actually couldn't wrap my mind around it. haha.


This is getting long, you don't have to finish it. Maybe take a break? Read the rest tomorrow? Space it out because I cannot promise I will be updating all that often due to lack of internet access and umm.. being too busy with awesome things? haha.

One thing I have to mention is how famous I am. You may not be aware, but I, Katrina Elizabeth Martin, am white! YES! It is true! Hence my fame. I think I've taken well to it; I allow some pictures and even say hi to my fans. But actually, I've never had so many keen men/boys come up to me/everyone i'm with, and ask for a picture. And it's by no means just the girls, I'd almost say our boys get more attention. The most hilarious instance of this occurred up in Ooty (the highest point in Southern India) where we were taking pictures in the botanical gardens. There were a group of school boys nearby who clearly wanted to join in, Becca asked if they wanted to get in our picture and they just flipped. Like, freaked out. I've never seen such violent jubilation. Just jumping and pushing each other while yelling 'yeeahhhh'. Even their teacher came over with the same enthusiasm and pushed one of his students out of the picture so he could have a better spot. It was too funny, slightly alarming, but man, so funny. People also just say hi and start taking our picture, or my personal favourite, just take a picture whilst pretending to text. I decided one stealthy way to demonstrate how strange this feels to the perpetrators was to simply start taking pictures of them. This foolproof plan somehow backfired as these guys were THRILLED that I wanted pictures of them. From now on I will only use mock photography for good, not evil.

Ha ha, ok, this is one anecdote that I know will be gracing my friends blogs, so I guess I should also include it. While in Kanyakumari ( or Marui) we were just sitting in the lobby of our (seaside view with patio) hotel when a indian man asked us where we were from. We said Canada, and then the communication was confused. I COULD HAVE SWORN HE SAID "where is that", so along with some others we started to swiftly explain that it's in North America, then i said, 'above the US'. Helpful right? Anyway he meant where in Canada do we live cause it turns out he is a prof who has lived in Richmond Hill for forty years. Oops. Sometimes you can only laugh at yourself? I find myself doing that a lot here.

Our train rides have been interesting, most have been overnight. We took them from Pondecherry to Kanyakumary (the most southern tip where three oceans meet). Then to Coimbator (textile capital of India, aka, I didn't find it too impressive, though I did have a massage chair in my room so no complaints) and then to Kochin (Kochi- where we are now).  Next we are off to Turtle Bay,  a rainforest and finally Mysore (where we will be in school for a month). But yes, the trains. I've been lucky enough to have traveled on trains in Ukraine so I didn't find these to be much different. Though they are not as spacey or as clean as the Ukrainian trains. There are three bunks on top of one another and two across the aisle. I kinda feel like a princess when take out my silk sleeping bag liner, eye mask and travel pillow out on those trains, but you want to know how I also feel? Comfortable. yeahhh. Well except for the extra attention we get, it's really only on trains where I've been off put by the unabashed stares we receive on trains, mostly because I've always found it strange when someone is staring at me when I wake up. Maybe that's just me?

That's all for now. I'm off to another beach (this time I think I can actually go in the water!)

Love and miss you all.

Keep safe.

This will be quick! But I made it! India is beautiful and hot (but not too hot) so far. I've just been exploring Chennai today, enjoying the scenery, driving techniques and amazing views! Miss you all :)