First Few Days in India

Written on 5/14/11

Where do I begin?! First, you may be wondering how my 21 hours of flying went, and truthfully I can say it went very well. None of my flights were delayed and I had ample time in between each flight to get a snack and get ready for the next one. I napped on and off on the 14 hour flight from Atlanta to Dubai, and it really didn’t feel like 14 hours at all—much less! The airport in Dubai was nice, although nothing about it was over-the-top. The Bangalore airport is fairly new. The one thing I can say about the Bangalore airport is that it was very strange that no one really talked while in line at immigration/customs. Kind of eerie, although it was 4 in the morning! I was the only white person and only non-Indian-looking person on the entire flight from Dubai to Bangalore, and there were at least 200 people on the plane. Got both of my checked suitcases as soon as I got out of customs—based on bad previous experiences with lost luggage on international flights, this was pure bliss!

When I arrived in Bangalore at 4am, I found the bus depot across the street and found out that bus number 7, the one that goes past St. John’s, did not leave until 6:10am. To kill an hour and a half I got a cappuccino at a Café Coffee Day (India’s equivalent to Starbucks) and observed the rats scurrying around. When the bus departed (on time!) I was one of only 3 or 4 passengers, and I had a gentleman tell me when the bus stopped at St. John’s. After getting off the bus I basically schlepped around campus for a while with my two ~50 pound suitcases and my backpack until a young man was kind enough to carry both my suitcases and help me find the student guesthouse (I paid him 10 rupees).

Surprisingly enough, my room is actually very nice! I have a pretty view of some of the grounds, a desk and chair, double/full sized bed with sheets and two pillows, nightstand, wardrobe, window with screen and curtains, high-powered ceiling fan with 4 settings, and my own bathroom with a big shower and sink. Normal toilet, in case you were wondering. Everything was generally pretty clean but I brought my own Clorox wipes to give everything a once-over! J They come around and collect trash once a day and whenever you want the room cleaned and sheets changed, you just leave the key at the desk on your way out in the morning. Pretty good deal.

The business of “registering” as an observing student and getting an international cell phone SIM card has been another story. I guess not everything can go off without a hitch. The registration process and paying of fees for an observing student was tedious and annoying, and consisted of 2 days of running all over campus to get various signatures, off-campus to get passport photos made, then running back to different offices to get more signatures and receipts. The good news is, I am all registered, the student fees are paid, my first month in the guesthouse is paid, and I’m all set to begin my internship on Monday. The bad news is, still no cell phone! The paperwork necessary to get one won’t be ready until Monday. I will be off-campus in a rural area Monday and won’t be back until possibly 4pm, and I don’t know if the office will still be open then. Hoping to have a working cell phone by Tuesday at the latest.

Some good news though—I have a working land-line in my room I can receive calls on. The number is 22065770. From the U.S. you FIRST have to dial 011-91-80, then the number. You then have to tell them my room number, which is 307. Love hearing from the U.S.!

Internet access is another funny story. I thought my host country supervisor would have mentioned that they don’t have internet access here at the college, but she did not. The only internet available in the college is that of certain professors who have bought their own routers. Unless I meet one of them or get on one of their projects, I am a little bit screwed. Not sure how I am supposed to conduct research without the internet? I especially want to know how the heck I’m supposed to efficiently do my special project, which is a literature review!! There is no internet in the guesthouse (where I live) either, but I knew about this before so it’s not really an issue. I’m thinking of purchasing an internet USB stick, but it’s only a 3.1mbps speed…which is probably the best I’ll get here, anyway! Does anyone have any input on these internet stick things? I don’t know much about them. It’s apparently pre-paid. There is also an internet café on campus and I’ve gone a couple of times now. Extremely cheap! For 45 minutes I paid 10 rupees, which is about 22 cents in the U.S. The computers are verrrry old and slow, so I’m not sure if that will work out for my special project research, but for emailing and facebook, the café is just fine. I’ll try to scope out any coffee houses in the area that might have free wifi, but that’s probably like finding a needle in a haystack, assuming that needle actually exists!

By the way, the time difference is 9.5 hours- Bangalore is 9.5 hours ahead of the eastern U.S.. It’s 4:45 and most of you all are not awake right now, as it is 6:45am Saturday morning! I was hardly jetlagged and got on Bangalore’s schedule immediately, going to bed around 9pm my first night here and waking at 6:30am. And maybe it’s because I live in Florida and spend a lot of time outdoors, but I promise, it is NOT THAT HOT HERE!!! My internship supervisor told me summer here is April and May, so it is coming to a close. Monsoon season starts in June. That will be fun. Anyway, it’s been similar to Florida weather and humidity..mid 80s during the day. At night it’s low 70s. I leave the window open (there’s a screen and guess what? I have 0 bug bites so far…) at night and the fan on high, and I swear I didn’t sweat a drop last night. It was actually more comfortable than my nights at home where I frequently wake up in a sweat! So far, I really only sweat when I’m running around campus or running errands.

I met another American girl named Liz, and she has been a godsend. She’s spent the past 9 months traveling on medical school rotations and the last 6 of those have been all over India. She’s a pro at figuring out where things are and being resourceful, and she’s teaching me a TON, even though she’s only been here a week! She also showed me 3 gyms so I can take my pick. Memberships are super cheap- the one I want to join is 750 rupees for a month, which is about $17. She’s also showed me safe places to eat, ATMs, and a grocery store.

Bangalore seems very safe so far to me, although I’ve only been here a day and a half. It gets dark around 7pm so I am sure to be in by then. It’s not really as crowded as I pictured it would be and you’re not going to believe me, but I have not seen a single beggar! Everyone stares at me but that’s understandable, because the only other white person I’ve seen here is Liz. You just have to not stare back and simply ignore!

My internship seems like it will be fulfilling and interesting. I met with my host country supervisor, Dr. Avita, yesterday. She’s very sweet and seems like she will be a good person to work with and excellent resource. She drew me a map of everything important surrounding campus, such as malls and restaurants. We also drew up a plan for my first few weeks here. These coming weeks I will spend at the rural clinics. Here’s the schedule for my internship:

5/16 Monday: Ear, nose, and throat clinic
5/17 Tuesday: Eye or community-based rehabilitation clinic
5/18 Wednesday: Urban health clinic (slums)
5/19 Thursday: Government-run UHC
5/20 Friday: Maternal and child health clinic
5/23 Monday: Off (might travel!!)
5/24 Tuesday: Eye or community-based rehab clinic (whichever one I haven’t done yet)
5/25 Wednesday: Geriatric clinic
5/26 Thursday: Start research projects (work) at St. John’s
5/27 Friday: Psychiatric clinic

5/30 Monday: Cataract surgery clinic (while everyone else at home is BBQ-ing it up on Memorial Day!)
5/31 Tuesday: Research projects (work) at St. John’s
6/1 Wednesday: Research projects (work) at St. John’s
6/2 Thursday: Maternal and child health clinic
6/3 --- 7/7: Research projects (work) at St. John’s

That’s all for now. My next post will be of some pictures I’ve taken so far. Many more to come!