This has just not been my week!
First my computer broke down. Macs are very uncommon here but luckily we found somebody who had the means to reinstall my operating system which is making it work now! I have never been so worried about an inanimate object before! While I'm sure I would have found a solution and made it through, I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to talk to my family or friends, plan my travels for after India, or do my homework! The guy was pretty efficient though and only asked me to marry him once, so that's a plus!
We are finding friendships with men to be a really difficult thing to navigate. Men and women are not usually friends here, and most people still have arranged marriages. Because of this and people's preconceived notions about Americans people are often extra... friendly.... with us. It is very frustrating because we really want to make friends! We're still working on it and trying to see if we can go to a women's studies class at the university near by and hopefully meet some women!
Right now I'm sick so that's not helping anything. It's nothing bad - I just haven't had an appetite and am feeling weak but I have been lying in bed for the last two days and am starting to get bored! Hopefully I will feel better soon! Everyone has had problems like this though and they go away quickly so I am not too concerned.
The other exciting thing going on here are strikes, protesting inflation. Yesterday businesses, students, and just about everybody else was on strike so schools, shops, and businesses were closed. Although the police are employed by the government, they were all over the streets making sure that shops were closed and rickshaw drivers weren't working for fear that people would become violent against those not participating in the strike. Seeing as police discipline people by hitting them with sticks, however, I didn't exactly feel that they were reducing the violence in the streets. My favorite thing about it however, was that everybody described what was going on as "India is closed". It's pretty amazing that such a big country can just shut down like that!
First my computer broke down. Macs are very uncommon here but luckily we found somebody who had the means to reinstall my operating system which is making it work now! I have never been so worried about an inanimate object before! While I'm sure I would have found a solution and made it through, I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to talk to my family or friends, plan my travels for after India, or do my homework! The guy was pretty efficient though and only asked me to marry him once, so that's a plus!
We are finding friendships with men to be a really difficult thing to navigate. Men and women are not usually friends here, and most people still have arranged marriages. Because of this and people's preconceived notions about Americans people are often extra... friendly.... with us. It is very frustrating because we really want to make friends! We're still working on it and trying to see if we can go to a women's studies class at the university near by and hopefully meet some women!
Right now I'm sick so that's not helping anything. It's nothing bad - I just haven't had an appetite and am feeling weak but I have been lying in bed for the last two days and am starting to get bored! Hopefully I will feel better soon! Everyone has had problems like this though and they go away quickly so I am not too concerned.
The other exciting thing going on here are strikes, protesting inflation. Yesterday businesses, students, and just about everybody else was on strike so schools, shops, and businesses were closed. Although the police are employed by the government, they were all over the streets making sure that shops were closed and rickshaw drivers weren't working for fear that people would become violent against those not participating in the strike. Seeing as police discipline people by hitting them with sticks, however, I didn't exactly feel that they were reducing the violence in the streets. My favorite thing about it however, was that everybody described what was going on as "India is closed". It's pretty amazing that such a big country can just shut down like that!
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