Day of Rest

We had a much needed day of rest and relaxation.  No lectures, no tours, no traveling.  Of course, I still woke up bright and early.  That's alright, though, it just means that I get first dibs on breakfast! Which is always delicious, by the way.  They have the largest array of food I have ever seen at a hotel breakfast.  Plus there is always fresh fruit that actually is fresh fruit!  I could talk about breakfast forever... I love breakfast food.  All I did after breakfast was Skype, shop, eat, relax, and write a paper for class.  So I decided to take this time to tell you a little more about my observations in India.

1. A good portion of the men wear a towel in place of pants that is known as a "lungi".

2. Boys and young men who are good friends frequently have their arms around each other or are holding hands.  While it is okay for men to show this type of affection to their friends, I have not seen it between members of the opposite sex.

3. All schools, public and private, require school uniforms.  And they all look so cute going to school in the morning!

4. It is commonality to have steel bars on windows.  This does not indicate it's a bad neighborhood.  People simply just like to have that sense of safety.

5. Families who own a piece of land will put up a wall surrounding their property.  In Kerala, space is limited, so people are more sensitive of their own property and protecting what is theirs.

6. Rolling blackouts are pretty normal.  I've experienced a couple, but the generator usually turns on quickly after.

7. The streets are lined with stores.  They are almost all small stores maybe the size of a bedroom and they are pushed right up to the road.  Imagine that all of the stores on the Coralville strip are the size of a bedroom (in some areas the building is taller, but only the store is on the ground level) and that they are pushed right up to the edge of the sidewalk.

8. WHERE IS MY ORANGE JUICE?!  It's no where to be found.  I have only found orange juice in like two stores.  And it's the small Tropicana juice box.  I had one after not having orange juice for a week and it tasted like heaven.

9. Communism is not a scary word.  The streets have been littered with signs and graffiti for DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India), aka the youth branch of communism.  There are some 23+ political parties in India.

10. We are celebrities.  The people here are extremely interested in us, especially children.  We have all experienced being asked to take a picture with them, having our pictures taken without asking, being videotaped without asking, being stared at, and people excitedly coming to talk to us.  I'm so glad I'm not actually famous.


More random information for you:

-The language in Kerala is Malayalam (molly-all-um)
-There are 16 students in our class, 14 of which are female.  All but 5 are graduates in the Urban and Regional Planning department.  The other undergraduates are studying an array of topics: Fiance, business, anthropology, and political science and sociology.  I am the lone environmental scientist.  That's cool, though!

Also, at some point in the middle of the night, a truck ran into the building across the street from our hotel.  Our doorman saw it happen and apparently the driver was drunk.  It took almost an entire day to clear it up.

Unfortunately, I did not see any awesome flowers today.  Sorry to disappoint.

Sending my love to the States!