Vanakkam.

…That means “hello” in Tamil.  It is about the only word that I know. 

Six plane rides and countless hours later, we finally made it to India.  Although we were exhausted from all of the traveling, which consisted of only small cat naps in airports, rather than any actual solid sleep, we landed at noon India time and hit the ground running.  A bus and a small crowd of people from Bishop Appasamy College of Arts and Sciences (BACAS as everyone calls it) were waiting for us after we retrieved our luggage.  Not only were students and professors kind enough to come to the airport, but they came bearing roses for each of us.  Needless to say, it was a very warm welcome, and one we greatly appreciated.  The BACAS bus drove us to our apartments, which are in a very swanky, posh area of town.  They are very nice apartments, by India’s standards.  We are split up into two apartments and the one that I am in houses six people.  It is a three-bedroom, three-bathroom (though its probably nothing like you are picturing).  We have a nice little kitchen, dining area, and balcony/porch thing.  I’m sure it will feel just like home in no time.  After we got slightly settled, we had a bag lunch made for us.  Still feeling queasy from the many takeoffs and landings, I only drank the apple juice, even though our lunches were an attempt at a taste of home, consisting of sandwiches and chips.  After lunch, we took a bus tour of Coimbatore.  Mid tour, we stopped for coffee at a local coffee joint.  I opted for chai (the Indian word for tea) rather than coffee.  Thank goodness it woke me up a little, because I was seriously lacking in the energy department, to the point of nodding off to sleep on a regular basis.  We also were given some Indian sweets, which were little white balls that leaked liquid when you bit into them.  To me, they tasted like a soggy paper towel, so I think “treats” like that will take an acquired taste and a little bit of getting used to.  We finished the tour and later had dinner at a restaurant nearby.  We were treated to “family dosa,” a five-foot long fried rice pancake roll, if that makes any sense at all.  If not, here’s a snapshot: 

After dinner, which ended at around nine, we were all too tired to even speak so we took auto-rickshaw rides back to our apartments and were knocked out sleeping in probably 45 seconds.  This is an auto-rickshaw:

Yesterday, Thursday, was our first day of BACAS orientation.  The day began with a bucket bath.  Yes, we bathe out of buckets, and it is actually quite enjoyable.  Shout-out to my roommate Becky for letting me borrow a skirt because yours truly brought none and jeans are not okay.  Breakfast was a bowl of cornflakes, which I don’t normally like, but they hit the spot.  We embarked on our 20-minute walk so school and arrived early to use the internet (since we have no wifi or any connectivity at our apartment), but the server couldn’t handle us all so it crashed only seconds after I got to catch a glimpse of my wonderful family half-way across the globe.  Our disappointment was remedied by the amazing artwork made out of sand that had been done for us.  It was made completely of loose sand.  Here’s what it looked like: 

We had a welcoming ceremony where the principle and heads of departments welcomed us to our new school.  We were presented with tassels around our necks and given a yellow dot right by the throat, although we were unsure as to why.  The ceremony was great, and we felt so welcomed.  Because this is the very first ever India Studies Program trip, the people here are overjoyed to meet us, especially because they have been working on getting us here since 2005.  After the ceremony, we were given coffee and yes, I drank a cup of coffee out of politeness.  Oh boy.  Next, we went to register ourselves with the government, and then headed back to BACAS for lunch in the “mess.”  Something I forgot to mention earlier is that in India, people eat with their hands (but only the right hand – the left is unclean).  So, we ate with our hands a lunch of rice and other things that my taste buds found much to spicy so my lunch was limited to rice.  They did, however, make us mashed potatoes for no other reason than being American.  It was my favorite part of the meal.  Again, oh boy.  The food is going to take some major adjustments.  After lunch, we toured the school and our peer mentors gave the tour.  It was a very long tour and we met everyone, as well as being put on display in the front of every single classroom on campus.  The tour took longer than anticipated and we started other orientation stuff later, talks about safety, health, and important things to know culturally.  We were all feeling a bit jet-lagged and exhausted so we took a coffee and chai break in the middle.  As soon as we were done, we went back to Kandyce and John’s apartment (they are our program assistants) and we had a dinner brought to us by the BACAS staff.  It was chicken and little rice pancake things, but the chicken caught my tongue and throat on fire after one meager bite, so I just had a rice pancake.  We finished up the culture talks after dinner and were in bed by 9:30. 

It is now Wednesday morning at about 7 and we have another long day of orientation ahead of us.  We also have a scavenger hunt (which is a culturally inappropriate name, as there are a people group called scavengers here; no, we will not actually be hunting people) around Coimbatore.  We start classes on Monday and we will be taking trips to other parts of India every two weekends.  I am stoked to get into a routine here and have it start feeling like home. 

A couple of side notes and random thoughts:  For those of you who know me well, you can imagine my reaction when we found a cockroach in the cupboard today.  That kind of stuff is going to take getting used to.  Also, it is not culturally appropriate for girls to be with boys.  Classes are split down the middle and one side is girls and the other is boys and the same is true of the cafeteria.  So, since I won’t be making friends with boys, I guess I won’t come home married.  Sorry to disappoint.  Finally, we have extremely limited internet access so I am not sure how much or when I will be able to contact those of you from home.  But, know that you are missed, and I will be in touch as much as possible.