First moments in India

So, here it is, my Indian experience has just begun. And it’s so strong and overwhelming that I’ve decided to try to write a blog and share all my feelings with you. Let’s see how long I’ll be able to do it. Hopefully, you’ll like it, and even if you don’t, I’m sure it will at least make me happy to write all my thoughts down ;o)

Before I start, I’d like to excuse to those of you (if there are any) whose English isn’t perfect. I’ve decided to try to forget about my mother tongue (what a nationalist I am ;o)) and to force myself even to think in English. I hope you’ll take this as a good opportunity to practice your English a little bit (eventhough mine is not the best illustration of fluent English) and after some time you’ll get used to it.

OK, let’s get the first part of my Indian experience started...

My big adventure started already on the way to Chennai. Plane transfer in Brussels that I worried about proved to be a little barrier to my smooth journey. A big yellow Transfer sign that I saw right after I had got off the plane was a big relief for me and I was happily following it. However, all my optimism was gone when the sign disappeard. You know me quite well, I like the order and when things are like they should be. So this annoyed me a little bit. However, when an airport service guy assured me that there really was a big Transfer sign (I just wonder what he must have thought about me ;o)) which I have to follow I set out to explore the Brussels airport once more. Well, to make it short: after asking few more people, eventually I arrived to my gate, I even got the boarding pass and board my plane heading for Chennai...The flight was long, but very comfortable thanks to kind, smiling Indian crew, good food and a big choice of Hollywood and Bollywood movies – this time I chose the Hollywood ones but I’ll definitely try some Bollywood one soon ;o)

Surprisingly, nobody was waiting for me in front of the Chennai airport with a big sign „Petra, welcome in India!“ Why should they bother at 1 a.m.? However, after sending a polite message to an AIESEC guy and waiting for 45 minutes withstanding curious gazes of many Indian eyes, I was picked up and could enjoy my first wild ride in auto rickshaw during which I made an incredible discovery: there are traffic lights in India!!! Well, but I should maybe point out that eventhough there are traffic lights, Indian drivers don’t care about them at all, at least at night. When we came to my new home, another surprise was waiting for me: trainees living in the flat didn’t know that I was coming so they were sleeping (it was about 2 a.m.) and not answering the door. Eventually, a sleepy guy wearing just a little shorts opened the door and let me in. I found out later that he was French and quite a nice guy. The only thing I didn’t like about him was that he told me I was not supposed to stay in the flat because two other girls are coming and there were only two free beds...Since it’s better to sleep on it, I didn’t bother with this little discrepancy between number of beds and their claimers and I went to sleep. Well, but if you think I slept peacefully all night long, you’re wrong. Fortunately, our flat is situated in a calm part of town so there are no cars honking under the windows, even the heat is not that terrible at night especially with a fan under the ceiling. However, full of emotions and lying on a very hard bed (floor would make the same service) I fell asleep very late.

The morning and my roommate (French guy Pierre) saved me from the restless sleep. It was a lovely, sunny morning, hot but bearable. Avinash (AIESEC guy responsible for incoming trainees) called me and assured me that I could stay in the flat and he would figure out where to put the other girls coming soon. First comes, first served ;o) Encouraged by this information I started changing this filthy whole into a nice place where I’ll be able to spend 7 months. The flat itself is pretty nice not only for Indian standards but maybe also for our European ones! The only problem is that it wasn’t cleaned at least for one hundred years! Thick layers of dust are covering all the shelves and happilly sleeping in every corner, lavabos and toiletes are black instead of white and kitchen tiles are perfectly concealed under grease. Just disgusting...With my Chinese flatmate Lynn (very nice girl, unfortunately she’ll stay just for 1,5 month) we launch into a cleaning process. With no detergents we weren’t able to do much about the mess but still we made a great work and were really proud of us. Even our flatmate Telcio from Brazil recognized the difference and was so ashamed that he did a one week old washing up ;o)

In the afternoon, Avinash picked us up and we went to the city center to get a copy of key of the flat for me (an Indian guy made it manualy just with a file, it took him at least 20 minutes, it cost me Rs. 100 and eventually when we came back, we found out that it didn’t work), to provide us with Indian SIM cards (one needs to give them a copy of the passport, picture and fill in a form, it takes ages!!!) and to do some shopping. I experienced the second auto rickshaw ride, this time on roads full of other cars, motorbikes, auto rickshaws crossing people. It was quite wild and scary but very soon I realized that Indian drivers are experts in their fields. The shopping mall called City Center is a great example of Indian variety: luxurious palace in the middle of dirty, ruined buildings and Indians sleeping on the sidewalks. Inside I got my first Indian meal, Ghee Dosa – huge, crisp pancake with three types of sauce; a bit strange but quite good and filling. And finally the shopping started! Majority of you know pretty well how much I „love“ shopping. The problem is that I really need to buy some clothes and shoes since I‘ve only brought 3 t-shirts, 4 pairs of trousers and 2 pairs of sandals which is definitely not enough in this climate where you sweat through at least 2 t-shirts a day. However, with Avinash saying: „It’s overpriced, it’s too expensive, the colour is too bright...“ I finally didn’t buy anything and just admired wonderful Indian outfits in all colours, shapes and prices. I’ll definitely get some of them (especially those lovely tunics!!!) as soon as possible but this time better without Avinash eventhough is a very nice guy and we had a great time together (Avi, Lynn and me).

OK, that should be all about my first day in Chennai. Hopefully, I will explore the city during the weekend and will be able to describe it a little bit and to attach some pictures as well. To conclude, here is a summary of my first positive and negative feelings:

POSITIVES

• the heat is not that bad as I expected...it will get much worse in April, though
• my flat is really nice – quite new furniture, microwave oven, washing mashine (we just need to figure out how it works ;o)), fans in every room and internet connection (it doesn’t work for the moment but Pierre is doing his best to fix it up – he calls the call center every)
• my flatmates (Chinese girl Lynn, French guy Pierre and Brazilian guy Telcio) seem to be very nice, let’s see what the girls coming soon will be like
• I was able to withdraw rupees using my debit card, eventhough I had to try it twice to persuade the ATM that Rs.4000 is really not enough for me to survive the whole month
• so far prices seem to be very European-friendly

NEGATIVES

• even the least spicy food is too spicy for me
• I don’t have a key from the flat and I don’t know how to get it – I don’t feel like having a new useless copy made
• my bad is hard as a rock
• there is no warm water, and gas pipe is broken so we can’t use the cooker
• I HATE THOSE STUPID MOSQUITOS!!! THEY’RE BIOLIT RESISTANT OR WHAT?!?!
• it will be much harder to orientate in the city than I expected– all streest look alike and usually you don’t find their names on the corner (or anywhere else)
• I haven’t found any brahman interested in me yet :o(

PS: I haven’t had any health issues by now. Let’s see how long it will persist ;o)