Jumbo Jumbo Pants and More

So yes, it is true that I am still alive. I finally got internet and it feels so strange being connected to the world again. I've been waiting to get my student wireless account set up here and after about four "tomorrows", it happened.

Anyway, I have been in India for about a week so far, and today was our first day of classes. I have been loving every second of it. There's so much that has happened since I got here, so I don't really know where to begin.

Views along the road from Mangalore to Manipal

After arriving to the Newark airport with 5 minutes until my flight left and sprinting across the entire airport to catch my flight, I pretty much fell asleep before we left the ground and slept for almost the entire 15 hour plane ride. When I arrived in Mumbai I met up some other girls from my program and a driver took us to our hotel near the airport. I guess when they say "near" in Mumbai, it means 30 minutes of weaving in and out of continuous death traps, which some may call traffic. The next day we went to the domestic airport to catch our flight to Mangalore. After waiting for that flight and realizing it was probably delayed, a man came up to the gate and told us there was a "bird hit" which I assume means a bird hit the plane. In Mangalore we got on a bus to Manipal which was supposed to be air conditioned however the air that was blowing in the bus was quite warm and musty. On top of that, the windows did not open. Needless to say, when we arrived in Manipal we were all pretty delirious and sweaty.    

As soon as we arrived we started meeting many of the professors and other Indian students. Everyone in India is so friendly and welcoming. None of the students I met were shy at all, and they all wanted to know everything about us. A few students decided to show us around Manipal and the campus and just went out of their way to help us.

On Friday we went to Udupi, which is the nearest bigger town. It's only 6 kms from campus. We visited the famous Krishna temple and ate dosas at a restaurant where they were supposedly invented. Apparently Udupi is famous around India for its food.

Krishna temple in Udupi

Street in Udupi

On Sunday we drove about 2 hours to visit Sringeri, which is one of the four hindu mathas in India. The drive up there was amazing and crazy at the same time. Just to give you an idea, it's about 80 kms from Manipal to Sringeri, but it took over 2 hours to drive there. It involves driving up some intensely steep mountains through monsoon rains and about 30 switchbacks. At one point the driver came to a screeching stop because of a giant cobra in the road. I learned later that cobras are very sacred here and no one will kill them (a little scary). Sringeri itself was very beautiful. One of the temples, the vidyasankara temple, was built in the 14th century. It has these amazing ornate carvings on both the outside and inside. Another one of the highlights was the elephant blessing. Basically you just stand right in front of an elephant and it puts it's trunk on your head. It is considered to be a great blessing by Hindus.

On the road from Manipal to Sringeri, which is located at the top of that mountain

Getting an elephant blessing in Sringeri

Vidyasankara Temple in Sringeri

Yesterday was Indian Independence Day so there were no classes. Me and a few other people decided to go to Udupi because we've been very anxious to buy Indian clothes. We had all decided that we really wanted a pair of these baggy pants that a lot of the girls here wear. The only way I can really describe them is that they're sort of like genie pants. Anyway, we went into the first store we saw and asked one of the ladies if they had baggy pants. As usual, the language barrier was an issue and she kept asking us to repeat ourselves so we proceeded to describe them the best we could with words like "big" and "baggy" with a lot of hand gestures thrown in. Finally she turned to one of the other workers and said to her "ahhh, they want jumbo jumbo pants"! All the store workers started laughing and kept saying "jumbo jumbo" to us so we just nodded and laughed along with them as they pulled out some jumbo jumbo pants from under the counter to show us. Later in the day, we learned that they are called patialas, but I think I like jumbo jumbos better.

My new salwar kameez with jumbo jumbo pants

I could keep writing but there's so much to say it's just overwhelming so I think I'll do another update this weekend when there's a little more time.

-Mia