A whole new world

So there are days I feel like I’m living in Aladdin, in such a great way. Yes I am aware Aladdin takes place in the Middle-East, but just hear me out.

1) I’ve ridden a camel.

2) Definitely seen some parrots, although I’m still keeping an eye out for Iago.

3) I flash back to the Jasmine in the market scene every time I walk by a street vendor shouting about what they’re selling “Fresh fish!” “Sugar dates! Sugar dates and pistachios!”

4) I’ve rubbed a lamp or too, hoping for a friend the likes of which I’ve never had.

5) The view from my roof is straight out of Agrabah

6) I rock genie pants all the time.

7) Although I haven’t seen an actual real-life elephant yet, I’ve seen a whole lot of statues of them. Since Abu wasn’t actually an elephant I feel like that counts.

8) I hung out with some monkeys, against my will I might add.

9) I could easily leap/pole vault from roof to roof in my neighborhood. I don’t because I choose life, but I still could!

10) I met a princess. Her grandfather was the last crowned king of Vizianagaram. That’s what this area of India used to be called before independence. They’re not in power any more, but they’re still seen as royalty. We’re facebook friends. NBD. Haha

11) My study abroad group likes to burst into song quite frequently. More often than not we sing Disney songs.

12) I visited a cave of wonders.

I rest my case. As far as I’m concerned all I’m missing now is a magic carpet. I’m in the market, so if you know anybody who’s selling one be sure to let me know.

Yikes. Definitely too scary to be Abu. Maybe he’s his second cousin. Twice removed.

Cave of Wonders!!! Ok actually it was the Borra caves, but they were still incredible.

Hanging out in a cave.

I could totally jump to that….just saying

Check out that view!

To really seal to deal on this Disney experience we watched Aladdin up on our roof. It was magical. :)

So awesome.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous

I don't know if you guys knew this, but I'm kind of famous. No it's not my snarky blog that's rocketed me to fame, although I am up to 18 followers now, only half of which are related to me. It's my glow in the dark skin tone. Where we live there are hardly any other foreigners so just being white makes us instant celebrities. Our group’s been in the local newspaper twice. No we didn’t do anything amazing. Just showed up, but apparently in Vizag white people showing up somewhere is definitely newsworthy.

Kids love shaking our hands and I even got asked for my autograph once. The most common thing though is people asking to take pictures with us. This happens everywhere we go. They always say “one snap!” and then 15 photographs later we finally escape. I don’t really understand the appeal but they get a kick out of it. The craziest was the day we all wore saris and then went out for dinner. We were seated by a window and people would walk by 2 or 3 times, shamelessly staring to get a look at the Americans in saris. A little bit like being in a zoo. After dinner we were eating icecream when a guy came up to us as asked for a picture and he actually told us why he wanted one. He said that a lot of Indians try and be Western but we were Americans representing Indian culture. We thought that was cool so we said yes, next thing we know 20 people pull out their picture phones and it’s just a free for all. It was nuts!

We always get asked what country we're from and our names. We were surprisingly honest at first, but after a month of celebrity-dom we’ve started having a little fun. My group decided we should each pick a celebrity alter ego. So far we’ve got Nicky Minaj, Ke$ha, Zac Efron, and Lady Gaga. I think we decided I was Miley Cyrus on account of my Hannah Montana bangs. My roommate kate and I started doing a new thing where we pick a famous couple to be. Last week we were Sonny and Cher. It was awesome.

I have to say, fame’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Some days it would be nice to just sit on the beach without getting mobbed. No wonder Brittany Spear’s is so messed up. Just kidding! It’s not bad, I’m just not big on the whole special treatment thing. As a middle child of five, I was born with the ability to slide under the radar. Apparently India is immune to my gift of going incognito. I’d love to blend in, especially being an anthropology student, but it’s all part of the experience. When I get home it’ll be nice to just be a face in the crowd again. In the meantime I’ll just try and enjoy my 15 minutes (3 months) of fame.

Kids climbing the fence to get a good look at us.

Taylor's new friends

Pizza hut in saris

picture in the pape :)

Tools are international.

No not this kind of tool.

I mean this kind of tool.

If you didn’t already know, and couldn’t figure it out from the picture, a tool is essentially a chauvinist jerk. I can think of a few more synonyms, but since my grandma reads this blog we’ll leave it at that. These kinds of guys are definitely not just an American phenomenon. There are jerks everywhere, including India. As a group with 6 American girls we seem to attract a large number of this sort. We haven’t encountered anything too extreme. Mostly just yells of stuff like “hey baby” and some unwanted forwardness. So guys, in case you were wondering, it’s not cute in any culture. A quick shout-out to all the nice non-tool guys all over the world. Thank you for existing and keeping us sane.

Exotic Indian Wildlife

So I’ve been asked a few times whether I’ve seen any tigers or elephants yet. Sadly the answer is no, though I am keeping my eyes peeled for em. Here’s a list of the exciting animals I have sited.

Dogs: tons of dogs roam the streets in India. I’m a sucker for dogs (especially puppies, who doesn’t love puppies?) but I resist the urge to play with them. To quote my wise friend Kate Patterson “they’re cute but you know what’s not cute, rabies.”

Crows: These guys are everywhere. Somedays I feel like I’m in an Alfred Hitchcock movie and not in a good way. If you’ve talked to me on skyped you’ve most likely heard their cawing in the background. I don’t mind them so long as I don’t end up like Dr. Screweyes at the end of We’re Back.

Chipmunks and rats: Chipmunks run all around the trees here. They’re kind of adorable. Rats are slightly less adorable. They usually come out at nights, particulary in the streets and open sewers.

Geckos: we see these all the time. They’re pretty cool. The one in the picture likes to hang out in our living room. His name is Dennis.

Camels: I got to ride out on the beach. It was awesome.

Monkeys: People will have them on leashes now and then on the beach. There’s no picture for this one because they’re evil and if you’re close enough to get a picture you’re TOO CLOSE!

Cows: They’re everywhere. They just kind of roam wherever they want, which I didn’t mind until one got a little too close. This cow came up to the gate of my house one day and as I was trying to get around him he straight up head butted me. Jerky cow (pun intended). I got a perfect horn shaped bruise, I took a picture of it. If you think you may be scarred by a picture of my upper thigh, do not scroll down. I repeat do not scroll down!

Enough to make a girl reconsider her vegetarianism. Just playing! I won’t blame all of animal kind for one brute’s bad behavior, though I’m seriously considering starting to wear leather again. ;)

I got a bruise on my stomach from the cow too but I decided not to take a picture of that. It’s less impressive. Besides I think I’ve traumatized the internet enough for one post.

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

Ok so with humidity hair and no make-up maybe glamorous isn’t the right word, but it very well might be the only word Fergie knows how to spell (aside from her name) so we’ll make it work. ;) I’ve got to say though I do feel pretty fancy in the clothes here. None of the women here really wear western clothes so in order to blend in better we all wear traditional Indian clothes. It’s not super effective, but people do seem to respect us for trying to embrace their culture. I like it. The clothes are super comfy. We mostly wear like kind of lose shirt/dress tops and baggy genie pants or leggings. Man do I love baggy pants. They’re one size fits all and gianormous which is definitely a good thing considering how much I eat here. Don't worry, a blogpost on the amazing food is definitely coming soon, so stayed tuned. :)

If I’m feeling super ambitious I’ll wear a sari. Married women wear them almost everyday. It kind of blows my mind. They’re so much work to put on! It takes time and skill to wrap several yards of cloth around you and make it stay up. Some mornings back home throwing on a clean t-shirt is too much effort for me.

I love how colorful everyone's clothes are!

Us in our everday Indian clothes on the beach.

Getting ready to get in my sari. Yes, I am aware that I look a bit like a polygamist creamsicle.

All saried up

The whole group in Saris, except for Taylor. Couldn't quite talk him into it.

Same same but different

People would say this phrase the time in Thailand, “same same but different” and I thought it was really fitting because as much as I love India man does it make me miss Chiang Mai. It’s hard to believe I finished my internship there over 6 months ago. Feels like just yesterday and like it was ages ago at the same time. It’s kind of funny, after Thailand I sort of felt like “Thailand check! Been there done that country!” But being here has made me really want to go back. There are a lot of things in India that remind me of Thailand: the lack of toilet paper, of course cold bucket showers (which I’m pro at by the way), language barriers, bugs, sticking out like crazy, eating constantly, meeting great people, beautiful sites, and awesome opportunities.

I think the biggest similarity is just how it’s a whole new world being in a different country. It takes quite a bit of work and flexibility to really get comfortable in a new place. Some days are hard but in the end it’s so worth it.

I wanted to do a shout-out to my Thailand group. Not sure if anyone of you guys still read this but I miss you all. Thanks for helping make my summer so crazy sweet.

Ralph Brown, the professor over my Thailand program, was actually in India my first week! He's the very very tall one. :)

Ralph even went to some Buddhist ruins with us in India, something I did with him in Thailand too. Talk about deja vu.

A couple old pictures of my Thailand group. Some cool people right there

Ciao word.

Okay, so I know I’ve got a reputation for being kind of a hater when it comes love. I openly mock mooshy couples and have most definitely made gagging noises at the sight of PDA. Very mature I know. But I do have a confession. There is a little romantic in me buried deep deep deep deep down. That romantic side manifests itself in my great love of the Lizzie McGuire movie. I watched it with my study abroad group the other night. I’ve loved this movie since I was 12 years old. I actually saw it in theaters with my brother Logan, therefore it will always remind me of him. Sorry Log. :) In this movie the beloved Disney sitcom character Lizzie goes to Rome on a school trip, is mistaken for an Italian pop star, stars in her own concert, finds total confidence, and gets her first kiss. Awesome, right? Ha I know definitely not high quality cinema, but I can’t help but love it. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t secretly hope to find my Indian celebrity twin and fall in love during the course of my study abroad. Sadly, last time I checked my life wasn’t a Disney movie, but hey it could happen. :)

That's Lizzie and her best friend Gordo. They fall in love and it's adorable.