Bay of Bengal, Hindu gods, crocs and sore stomachs

I'm feeling more and more settled every day that I'm here...it's still such big adjustment even when you're expecting the big differences. Waking up sweaty doesn't really phase me much anymore. I still can't usually sleep all the way through the night without regaining consciousness at least once just because it's so warm. I'm a Michigander, I like sleeping under something even in the summer so its weird to get used to just sleeping on top of a cot.

We had a really big day yesterday. Woke up around 5:45 to take a car into the college where we took the college bus out with about 50 of the 70 college women I'm working with. The bus ride there was way fun. They love singing and dancing and brought tambourines and bongos with them to use at church so the bus ride there was filled with Tamil and English songs and dance in the back of the bus. The whole bus cheered when I started dancing with them.

First we went to the Mission Festival that various churches in Madras Diocese have each year to raise money for their mission stuff in India. We went to church when we got there since I am working at a Christian college. 2 hour service in Tamil...not so interesting after awhile, but it wasn't so bad. The only thing I felt really bad about was what I was wearing. I'm not sure exactly how inappropriately dressed I was but I'm pretty sure it wasn't right for church. Apparently long pants, a sleeveless shirt and a dupatta to cover my shoulders wasn't covered enough. Or maybe people were just staring at me because I was the only non-Indian and the only woman not wearing a sari or salwar. I haven't gone out and bought a sari or salwar yet so I was doing my best to be appropriate, but I still felt mildly embarrassed not knowing if I was making a major faux pax (I don't know how to spell that word, i know there's an x in it). The girls are so sweet though, they showed me the "respectable" way to wear my dupatta and held my hand and led me around the whole time at the festival after the church service. They got me all kinds of food-Indians are always worried about whether you're hungry-I had chipati chicken, coffee, a popcicle and a tender coconut-not my favorite, but very traditional. First you drink the weird bitter tasting milk out of the coconut with a straw-this is what would normally turn into the coconut meat- then you give it to a boy with a machete who slices it in half for you so you can eat the meat that's already formed inside. It looks sort of like white gelatin and doesn't really have a strong taste, but the milk was pretty weird. Its ok to eat because it's all enclosed, so you know its sanitary and everything.

Then we continued our drive out to see Mammalapuram which are 1500 year old Hindu temple ruins. Way cool for art history majors or studiers of eastern religions and I've done a little of each. This and Taj Mahal-these are the main 2 big things people come to India to see. Daya, my "host-dad" who is a renowned scholar also happens to be an expert on this site because he did field work out there in college dating some the monuments and correcting the mythology depicted on the panels. So he's been out there a million times and is about the best tour guide you could find for this place. (However since the group I was with was primarily native Tamil speakers, I didn't understand much of the tour he gave) We're going to go back though some weekend before I go with just a few of the girls who were really interested in it and I so I can hear more about it from him. It had some fantastic views...temple ruins up on some hills right on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Strange experience: I'm now going to be in some Indian family's photo album-they asked me to take a picture with them on when I was standing on top of the ruins. At this point I'm not as phased anymore when someone comes up to me and asks "which country are you coming from?" but this was kind of strange, but not uncommon Anne said. She said even when her kids were little, sometimes people would want to take a picture with them because they were so light skinned (they're half Indian). We had a good laugh when we were taking a picture of our whole group on top of the ruins and a few Japanese guys came in and joined in the picture just as a joke, seeing how I got asked to have my picture taken. This place definitely had the most racial diversity I've seen so far in India-because it's a tourist spot.

Then...the wonderful Bay of Bengal!!! I wasn't planning getting my clothes completely soaked, but inevitably at the prodding and pushing of all the college girls, I finally did. It was so beautiful to see such reckless abandon and to see them so excited. I've never seen people get so excited for the beach. Girls and women in India normally don't ever learn to swim, and probably none of these girls knew how. But they actually took their dupattas off (which is really a second layer covering for the shoulders) and just ran completely into the water still in their salwars of course having so much fun just jumping into the waves. They finally got me to sit down in the water with the rest of them and we had the most fun I've had in such a long time laughing and screaming and singing with all of them. They're so spirited and joyful. Different ones would come up and grab my hands and we would wait for a big wave to sit down in and wash over us. It was such a different experience from ever going into Lake Michigan when I knew I could swim as far as I wanted because I was with a bunch of non-swimmers. They were so ecstatic about just being in the water even though they were fully clothed.

After that Daya wanted to show us this crocodile research station, which was pretty cool, thousands of crocs. The guy who started this is the world expert on crocodiles and snakes. At this point though, I was pretty much done for the day, being completely wet and full of sand. Salwars are made of light flowy material so the other girls were mostly dry...me in corduroys on the other hand..it was all I could do to make sure my pants didn't fall off they were so heavy with water. At this point I didn't really blame people for staring at me...white girl, with a group of 50 Indian girls, wearing strange clothing, completely wet and sandy...It was an experience.

Finally finally we made it home, but anyhow, eating out in India=not the best idea. Street food=sore stomach as I've been experiencing all day with my frequent trips to the bathroom (not to throw up, the other kind) I didn't even really eat much street food-none of us really did, but Anne was home sick all day with a fever and throwing up. I haven't felt completely horrible today, just my stomach has felt off and I am really trying not to let food cross my mind because it makes my stomach turn over. It's good though that this happened now rather than 4 or 5 days ago because I would not have been a happy camper because then things were all still so fresh and I was still getting myself really settled in my surroundings. I wouldn't say I'm completely settled now, but at least now I can walk on the streets with a little more confidence (even that's something you have to learn how to do) and I can ride the train, buy stuff and get an autorickshaw by myself.

Nevertheless, it was quite the day. Even though I didn't feel on top of the world today, it was certainly worth it for that wonderful time at the beach.