India's Next Top Model

It has been a crazy week here in Coimbatore!

Last Thursday was Republic Day! Which is India’s Independence Day! I thought it was really cool how we were here in India on this day!

Google even dedicated their homepage to India on that day!

The college we attend (Bishop Appasamy College of Arts and Sceince) had a three-day festival from Thursday – Saturday as a celebration! It was called FACE (Festival of Arts and Culture Extravaganza) 2012. During the day all the different departments on campus had various programming, but each night was filled with student performances! Thursday and Friday night was singing and dancing performances. I’m pretty sure every Indian can both sing and dance extremely well!

Thursday night a couple students from our study abroad group learned some Indian dances to perform on stage while a couple of our very talented Indian friends sang!

Here is Kendra, Celiz, Jamie, and Becky dancing with Nilesh while Deepni and Fabian sing!

Friday night was mostly dance performances! Here is a picture of my peer mentor Shamini (far right) dancing with a few other girls! Shamini is becoming one of my best friends here and she is very talented at both dancing and singing! It was so fun to get to see her perform!

The main event was on Saturday night. Every year the Costume and Design Department puts on a fashion show to display the garments made by the students who are in their final year. Earlier in the week some of the students asked a few of us girls to be in the fashion show! We thought it sounded fun so we agreed to become Indian fashion models for a day! However, it was a much bigger deal than we thought! I’m talking 8 AM – 5 PM practices from Wednesday – Saturday! Us American students weren’t able to be at every practice due to classes and papers due during those times, but we definitely put in quite a few hours a practice over the week! They hired a professional runway choreographer to teach us all the different sets for the show! We definitely experienced a lot of "India Time" for the practices. For example one day we got their at 8 but practice didn't get started till 9! So the next day we thought we would show up at 9, but we completely missed the run through! Just some more Indian things we have to adapt to here!

Before we knew it, it was showtime! Hannah, Jessica, and I got ready, put on our dresses, and hit the stage!

All the models are so beautiful, and in the fancy dresses and outfits look even more beautiful! Us three American students enjoyed modeling these dresses, although I’m not sure if I would ever wear the dress outside a fashion show! I think the girls are so excited to make dresses, they want to put everything on one dress! Its incredible to think that girls my age are making these fancy dresses with all the intricate details and layers upon layers of fabric!

As time consuming and sometimes stressful as the fashion show was, I got to several nice girls through it!

Here are a few pictures of the fashion show!

And here is one of Me, Jessica, Shamini and Hannah! 

I haven’t received any contract offers from modeling agencies yet, but I’m still crossing my fingers ;)

Madurai Trip!

This weekend, we took a trip to Madurai, India! Its south of Coimbatore and took us about 4-5 hours to get their in our bus! We left at 5 AM Saturday, and got back around 9:00 PM Sunday, and it was a very full weekend!

We stayed in guest housing at Tamilnadu Theological Seminary, and started off Saturday with a tour of the campus! It is a very neat location, and I’m so glad we got to visit and learn about the goals and mission of the seminary! It is a 4 year program with some very unique aspects! The first year is traditional classes with the students living on campus and attending. The second year gets interesting because they have the student move into the slums, while still attending classes at the seminary! The third year the student chooses another country or area where they would like to live and learn more about, and the forth year is focused on creating a thesis that reflects the lessons learned in the second and third year. This seminary is also focused on the Daliat (“untouchable caste”) community of India. Saturday night the president of the seminary spoke to us about different aspects of campus and it was very evident how much thought goes into the programming, and how much they want to improve their country! Staying at the seminary was a great way to learn more about Christianity in the context of India and I’m so glad we had this opportunity!

Saturday after the campus tour and lunch we visited several of the seminary’s service projects that they have set up around Madurai which benefit many different kinds of people. The first place we visited was a place that is similar to a retirement home or nursing home. While here we interacted with the very nice people staying at this home, although communication was somewhat limited since they didn’t speak much English. Next we went to a service site that was centered on helping abandoned kids and struggling women. We got to observe them making rugs/fabric that are sold to help fund the program. The women and children we saw at this place were all very happy and joyful people, even though they don’t have much.

Then we visited the Gandhi museum in Madurai! It was a museum about the history of India’s independence, and Gandhi’s impact on the country. It actually contains the blood stained clothes Gandhi was wearing when we was shot.

After we visited these places, we stopped at a restaurant for some tea and a quick snack! Teatime is becoming one of my favorite times! Here is a picture of how we are served tea:

You pour the tea back and forth to cool it down and keep mixing the sugar/milk with the tea. Very cool and very tasty!

 Then we went to a palace in downtown Madurai for a “Light and Sound” show that presented the history of Madurai. This was quite the experience for many reasons; one being it was an open-air palace, which means we were swarmed by mosquitoes. Here is a picture of me and my friend Jessica using our scarves to try and keep them away from our faces! 

And here is a picture of the actual show; it was pretty basic with literally just lights and sounds that told us the story of Madurai.

Sunday morning we went to the Mennakshi Temple!

This is definitely the main attraction of Madurai; about 15,000 people pass through here every day! It is a popular spot for Hindus, some who travel long distances to worship the gods Shiva and Mennakshi. As you can imagine, a group of 15 white people definitely get a lot of stares in a Hindu temple. Some people even wanted to take our pictures while we were touring the place, so now I understand why celebrities hate it when people take their picture.  It felt really silly that they were staring at us just because we are white. I think a lot of us are at the point where we are tired of being stared at everywhere we go!

Like I said, so many people travel from all over India just to worship the gods at this temple. But I learned a lesson from these people about devotion. They are so devoted to these false gods they worship that they would travel for days just to come to this temple! Some Hindus view this as a pilgrimage and actually walk from Coimbatore to Madurai (about 4-5 days)! Our God is so much easier to communicate with, but I think I take this for granted. We don’t have to travel anywhere, perform any sort of ritual, or bring him anything! We just have to pray to talk to our God.

After a couple tours of touring the temple, we went back to the seminary to pack and rest for the trip home. On the way home we stopped at another service project that was for people who are HIV positive. This is a home for the patients and their children. This was our favorite stop because we got to play with the kids on their playground!

After what seemed like forever we finally made it back to Coimbatore! I don’t have any classes this morning so I wanted to give an update on the Madurai trip before I got swept up in the busyness of another school week!

Here is a picture I took in Madurai of a boy with earmuffs on! It’s so funny that this weather is sometimes cold to them!

First full week in India

This has been a great week! I'm going to share a couple highlights with everyone!

Monday night we went to a village called Pollachi where we observed the Hindu celebration of Pongol! It is one of the biggest celebrations in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu (the state Coimbatore is in). From my understanding it is basically a celebration of thanksgiving towards the cows, which are very sacred in Hindu culture. We went to a house of a family who graciously had us over for this celebration and prepared dinner for us.

This is a picture of the "altar" type thing for the celebration. There were many rituals around this alter. It was very interesting, but a little sad to see them idolize these gods and the cows.

Oh, and here is a picture of some of the Indian children I'm going to kidnap. They are seriously so cute, and they didn’t speak much English so that made them even cuter. They key to getting Indian kids to hang out with you is asking if you can take their picture, then showing it to them on the camera. Then they want to start taking the pictures themselves, which is fun. Then you realize a Pongol celebration is going on and you should probably stop distracting the kids . . .

We started class on Monday! Our scheduling here is different from in America; we don’t really have a set schedule of when classes are. We will typically find out our schedule at the beginning of the week, but can change. The classes I’ve had so far are Religious Landscape, Business in an Indian Perspective, and Social Work. I’ve also been to the site of my internship, but I don’t really know enough about that to write about it, so I’ll share more details later. I like the classes so far, and all the professors are really nice and knowledgeable. My favorite part about my Religious Landscape class is that since it is three hours long, we had a tea break in the middle of it!

Here is the traditional “First Day of School” picture! This is one of my new outfits I bought shopping last weekend. I really love the colors here! 

As I’ve said before, a lot of the meals here consist of rice with different sauces. I try not to complain a lot, but after just a week I’m getting a little tired of rice! I know these feelings will come and go, so I’m thankful that we have a kitchen where I can make something non-Indian for myself! Tonight I made an American Classic – grilled cheese sandwiches! 

Also, Thursday in our apartment we randomly picked up a wireless internet signal! We felt very American by being so excited about this, but it was nice to be able to have it without going to the internet café. And the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, it was around 7-7:30 AM Oklahoma time, so I got to interrupt my parents as they were getting ready for work to skype with them for the first time since I’ve been here! It was a nice surprise for all of us!

Probably the most exciting story of the week comes from our director, Kirk. He was in his kitchen one morning and turns around to see a monkey sitting in his apartment! It came in through the open balcony door. I’ve yet to see one (they are very rare in the city, Kirk says it’s the first time he’s seen one in Coimbatore), but apparently they aren’t like the cute monkeys we see at the zoo! He scared it out of his apartment before it decided to do anything too dangerous.

I’m going to leave you all with this picture I took the other night from the roof of our apartment during sunset! It cost me a couple mosquito bites, but was totally worth it!

This weekend we are going on a trip to Madurai, India! I will definitely be sharing this adventure with you all very soon!

Right now all the students and a few of the staff are in our apartment having a pasta dinner! Its turning out to be one of my favorite nights here so far :)

Hope everyone is having a good week!! Thanks again for reading this!

The Past 5 Days

  If I had to describe the past 5 days of my life in one word I would use the word extreme! There have been times of extreme busyness and extreme rest. We left D.C. on Tuesday and arrived in Coimbatore about 11:00 AM on Thursday. Actual travel time was about 28ish hours I think. It was weird to be traveling across different time zones. I would sleep some on the plane and some in the airport during our layovers. So this was the period of extreme rest. It was really fun to travel with the group because by the time we actually got to India we felt like we had been together for weeks!

This brings me to the extreme busyness side of the past 5 days! We have been in Coimbatore for 3 days. I have to tell myself it has only been 3 days because it feels like forever. We have been busy literally every moment. I think the best way to convey everything we have done is go through it day by day. I won’t do this every time, but there is so much I want to share!

On Thursday we were surprised at the airport by some students from the college! They had a welcoming banner and gave us all flowers! Then we took a bus to our apartments, where we had less than an hour to relax/unpack. Then we went to an orientation/welcoming service at the school, which is about a 15-minute walk from our apartment. The location of our apartment and the school is great because there is this road in Coimbatore that is a circle called “Race Course Road.” It is 2.5 kilometers around so a lot of locals use it for exercise. Both our apartments and the school are located along this road, so it’s easy to navigate between the two! Thursday night we had dinner at this Indian restaurant where we had dolsa. As you can see by this picture, they are 6 feet long! There we 15 of us at dinner and we conquered two of them! You break off pieces and dip them into different sauces. At dinner I also had a sweet lime soda, which is a common Indian drink that I really liked!

After a hard night’s sleep that night, we had more orientation stuff Friday morning, and again that afternoon. There is a lot of stuff to go over and learn here, not only culturally but making sure we understand the academics of the school. That night we had dinner one of the staff member’s apartment that lives down the hall.

Yesterday was a super fun and filled with adventure! We started off by taking a bus to another area of Coimbatore where we went shopping for more traditional Indian clothing. It was really fun to see all the different types of clothes they have and all the beautiful colors. We had lunch at an Indian place near the shops. I’ve included a picture to give you all an idea of what meals are like here! A lot of places are vegetarian, so it’s rice with different types of sauces. They use these big banana leaves as plates, and you eat with your hands. Yes, you scoop rice into your hand and into your mouth. It will definitely take some getting used to! I am extremely scared to try the different sauces, as I tend to be a picky eater and am not used to spicy foods. I haven’t starved to death yet, so I think I will be okay!

After shopping and lunch we all participated in The Amazing Race: Coimbatore! We were split up into teams and were given a list of things to do/see/take pictures of around the city. This was fun, as it was the first time we were really navigating the city by ourselves! We had to walk a lot, and ask for directions a lot! After the scavenger hunt we met one of the staff members at this restaurant called On The Go. It has a wide variety of food, including non-Indian food! I was really happy to see they had pasta, but once I got the meal I realized pasta in India still meant spicy. It was disappointing, but I had some French fries too so that was great!

This morning we went to a church along Race Course Road. The service was in English, but was still hard to follow with the dialect and everything. The highlight of my morning was a woman coming up to me with her shy daughter (probably about 4 years old) coming up to me and telling me her daughter loved my golden hair. So sweet! We definitely get A LOT of stares here. They aren't used to seeing this many white people all together! After church we all went shopping for food/random items we needed in our apartments. Among the items I got were fruit, peanut butter, and Oreos! They have a lot of American brands here, or similar things. For example I got “Honey Rolls” which are basically Cheerios. It will be nice to have a few things around that aren’t spicy, Indian food!

We start school tomorrow! So I will have to let you all know how that goes! This isn’t a tourist visit disguised as a semester abroad, that’s for sure!

I think we will have Internet in our apartments soon, but for now we have Internet cafes/coffee shops with wifi! This is the first time I have been on the internet since we arrived, but I’ve hardly had time to notice. They gave us cell phones to use here, and we can call/text America from them! I’m hoping to mostly use skype for talking to people since it’s free, but I was able to talk to my mom on the phone the other night for like 5 minutes! The first question I asked her was how the Thunder was doing! I was glad to hear they have been on a nice winning streak! Remember when I met Russell Westbrook? Whats that? You want to see the picture? Okay :)

Overall I’m doing well, I can’t even begin to describe the adjustment process. I’m just taking things one day at a time! Thankfully we have great staff who are helping us a long the way! The weather is nice, it gets hot in the afternoon. The highs are in the 80s-90s. I wouldn’t mind 70s, but I’m not going to complain! Hope everyone is enjoying your cold winters :)

Thanks for reading, hope I’m not boring you guys! I will update again soon! Hopefully with some pictures of myself in my new Indian clothing! But just picture bright beautiful clothes! And a girl with a million mosquito bites wearing them (I thought there were a lot of mosquitos in the Oklahoma summers, but they have nothing on India)!

-Ashleigh

Hi!

I am currently on my way to the airport where I will meet up with the students I will be spending the next three months with! After that we will board our flight and be on our way to Coimbatore, India! Its crazy to think after months of preparation, this day is finally here!

I thought I would just do a general overview what the next three months are going to be like for me.

I will be living and studying in Coimbatore, India, which is in the southernmost state of India, Tamil Nadu. The college I will be attending is the Bishop Appasamy College of Arts and Sciences. I will be taking 16 hours of classes here, consisting of several Indian culture/religion classes, an international business class, an internship, and a class on poverty and social justice in India. I will be living with the other students from my program in an apartment within walking distance of the campus. We will eat most of our meals at the campus cafeteria, but also have a kitchen in our apartment.

I’m not sure exactly how good Internet will be over there, but hopefully this will be a good way to post pictures and stories about what I’m doing in India! Other ways to communicate with me will be email (asbuchan@mail.snu.edu), skype (ashleighbuchanan), twitter (ash_buchanan), facebook, and carrier pigeons.

Thanks for reading, next time I post on here it will be from India!

Ashleigh