After spending the weekend getting familiar with our homestay families, class officially started on Monday. I successfully walked to school on my first day. (A lovely stroll of about 1 ½ blocks). After class, which consisted of another orientation and a lecture about the history of Rajasthan, we had an optional yoga class on the terrace, followed by meditation. The instructor was a cheerful woman who patiently put up with our lack of poise. Meditation was led by Tara ji, with all her boundless wisdom and charm. She loves to tell us about how she has made peace with the universe, which in her words means you must “take a chill pill.” Since being in India, I have taken this advice to heart.

Tuesday was marked by deep group discussion and delicious Thai food courtesy of our fantastic chef. This week we have also really been making use of the badminton court. Our skills have definitely improved, though we have yet to quality for the badminton Olympics. (Our primary objective). Though I still can’t serve properly, what I can do is unnecessarily dive for the birdie and end up rolling in the dirt.

On Wednesday class began in earnest, starting with our first day of Hindi. Though learning a new language, especially one with a different script, seems fairly daunting, our instructor seems to be patient with our lack of knowledge. I also learned this week that my name sounds very similar to the Hindi word for ‘cucumber.’ I am not perturbed by this finding, and have come to accept it as my new identity.

On Thursday afternoon we visited a slum in Jaipur, notebooks in hand, in order to practice our research methods. Understandably, many of us, myself included, felt very uncomfortable in this situation. But as we had our debriefing session, some students mentioned how having our notebooks with us made our purpose clear, and signified that we were students there to learn as opposed to tourists just there to gawk at them. Additionally, we learned that SIT has a long standing relationship with this community, and we had felt the way they welcomed us into their home with open arms. After our discussion, I felt much more positively about the experience, and SIT’s point about strategies of research was proved well.

This past Friday has been my favorite day so far of the trip. After lunch we left the SIT center for our “welcome picnic.” After driving through a hollowed-out mountain, we arrived at a beautiful grassy park, inexplicably located in the middle of the Rajasthan desert. Our first order of business was to learn the rules of cricket. I immediately forgot that we weren’t playing baseball, and dropped my bat the first time I hit the ball. (They let me keep running anyways). I was able to score a few runs, and was unprepared for how tiring it is to be up at bat for so long. I woke up the next morning feeling like I’d just played in a boxing match – and lost.

After cricket, we had a snack, (which happened to be Mcdonald’s Masala Burgers), and then headed up to our secondary location. This location happened to be an old fort on top of a grassy hill. It was so stunning I couldn’t believe my eyes, and yet again we had a beautiful location from which we could watch the sunset. After we explored the fort, the real party began. The staff had brought massive speakers, so we blasted some classic jams such as the Backstreet Boys and Outkast and had a marathon dance party. We got so into dancing that we were reluctant to stop and eat dinner. (“One more song!” was uttered at least three times).

As we were finishing our delicious meal, the karaoke machine was brought out and the festivities continued. We sang along to the Beatles and the Jonas Brothers, among others. Though I was urged to go “sing” a rap song, I declined, preferring to observe from the audience. We got home far past curfew, where I quickly fell into a deep sleep.

On Sunday I finally gained internet access, which was a very surreal experience. While I love being able to connect with my friends and family again, I am far less productive than I was when I was offline. I am still trying to preserve my pre-internet routine of reading the Jaipur Times with my chai and cookies in the morning. Staying present while also remaining connected to those abroad may prove a challenge in the future, but it is a challenge I feel prepared to tackle.

Until next time,

A world-class American cricket player

Students enjoying the view.

A very impressive entrance.

Our own private fort.