Over the past few days we've been working on picking out our classes and organizing our schedules...let me just say that I think the academic process here is an excellent indicator of the general Indian culture and attitude I've encountered so far.
For starters, the SIP (Study in India Program) organizers have been emphasizing the fact that NOTHING is set in stone on the class schedule, and until the 2nd or 3rd week of classes, certain classes are liable to change times or disappear completely, so we are not to get our heart set on anything. To complicate things even more, Indians seem to love the time period of 11am-1pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, so every single class in my department is scheduled at that time...a fact that makes it rather difficult to take more than one class from a single department. Also there is this thing called the "shopping period" at Hyderabad U, when students are encouraged to go to any classes they are interested in for the first week or two, until they decide which classes to attend always. All these factors combined sort of stressed all us Americans who are apparently way more obsessed with organizing and setting things in stone than we realized. After freaking out in a pool of my own sweat for a few minutes, I forced myself to take a few breaths and accept that things will all work themselves out on their own.
For the past week or so, our group of 21 students has been shuffled around in an air-conditioned bus to do touristy things in the city. As much as I hate being herded around from place to place, it's been really nice to "get a feel" for the city (as my mom would say), and to get some background info on Hyderabad. A couple days ago we went to a mosque in the Old City, which is apparently one of the biggest in the world. Women weren't allowed to go inside, and especially not non-muslim ones, but we did get to cover our heads and walk around barefoot in the pigeon poop-soaked courtyard. We also went to this enormous palace where the nizams and sultans lived with their families. When we came to the end of the tour, we were all expecting to get back on our bus and head back to the hostel for lunch, but instead they led us into one of the rooms in the palace, with an enormous table piled high with food!! None of us could believe that we were actually eating a meal inside the palace. It was the first real meal I could stomach after a few days too, so I was especially happy.
After dining in the palace, we were shuffled over to the Golconda Fort, which was the seat of power for the nizams before it was taken over in the 1500s...there was some kind of Hindu festival going on inside the fort, which I thought was semi-ironic since it was historically a muslim fort, but it was really cool to see. I made a small offering at a Hindu temple, and received my first red dot on my forehead! The man poured this strange water into my hands, which I promptly rubbed all over my hands because I had no idea what else to do. This woman just stared at me, then rolled her eyes and said, "no, you're supposed to drink it!" Apparently I'm not well on my way to becoming a Hindu.
Alright, enough for now. The mission of the day is to find an Italian restaurant--don't get me wrong, I LOVE Indian food, but nothing could prepare me for the intensity in my gut from eating it every single day. Namaste!