Week 1 Summary and Introduction

Before you continue reading about my adventures in India, let me introduce myself!

• My name is Calli Catherine Cummings (I love my full name).
• I am 22 years old, attending Northern Arizona University majoring in Special Education. 
• I work as job coach for individuals with disabilities and I love it! 
• I am a Mormon, I served a mission in Nevada, Las Vegas, and I take great pride in that. 
• I love being outdoors! Hiking, camping, going to the beach! All the things!
• I have an amazing family that supports me in everything I do. We love playing card games, making cookies, and making music videos together. 
• My favorite food is chocolate chip cookies and though my nickname is Cupcake, I don't really enjoy eating cupcakes.
• I love soccer. I hate football.
• I love Harry Potter, as we all should.
• When I have access to Netflix, I try to watch at least one episode of Friends or Parks and Rec everyday, because it's good for your health.
• I haven't traveled very much in my life before this summer, but it's something I definitely would like to continue doing.
• Two characteristics I try to develop in myself are authenticity and vulnerability. There are many more I study and try to practice, but these have been my focus for the last couple years.

I think that's basically me.... OH! And I'm currently living in
Bangalore, India
for study abroad for 6 weeks!!
(June 29th - August 11th, 2016)

India has been crazy! There's no way I could mentally prepare for it. Which is fine because I was so anxious leading up to the trip I barely prepared at all and pushed everything off til the last minute! This is my first time traveling alone AND going to a different country so I'm cutting myself some slack. Live and you learn right? Thank goodness for my wonderful mother, and exemplary sister, Mandy for helping me get ready and giving me that push until I was finally ready to step on the plane!

Now then, let's start at the beginning.

First I need to thank my dear friend Tessa for her wonderful speech about getting currency BEFORE you leave on the plane. This has come in handy and I would like to pass on the advice to anyone that is getting ready to travel abroad.

I was a bit worried about the flight food (Tessa said she didn't like it) but I actually found it quite tasty!!

I also was worried about the amount of flying I had to do. I forgot sleeping pills, but luckily I'm a Cummings, and heaven knows we can SLEEP. So I slept 7 out of 11 hours on my flight from LA to Germany and then another 6 out of 8 hours on my flight from Germany to Bangalore. Crushed it.

I arrived in Bangalore 2am July 1st, India time, 1:30pm June 30th Arizona time. 6 days later... I'm finally feeling like I'm adjusting to the time difference.

A group of us USAC students (that's the program I'm here with by the way- and I highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about studying abroad) was then picked up at the airport and driven home. There are 21 of us in this group and two different locations where we could live, which we chose before arriving. Most of the group live in apartments off campus, but me and four other girls live on campus in a hostel named Jonas Hall. I have my own room with a little kitchen and bathroom. Of course, when it's time to shower, my whole bathroom becomes my shower. ;)

After we got in, I was able to sleep for another 3 hours, then get up, get ready, and head off to our first day of orientation! We introduced ourselves to the rest of the group and learned about the USAC program and India. Then. we were greeted with roses and Bindis. For those who don't know, Bindis are the dots on the forehead. They cover a pressure point that is supposed to help balance your body, (I learned that in Yoga today).

The second day after orientation we went for lunch at this very nice place that I don't remember the name of. Ooops. We sat down to empty trays full of small bowls. Then suddenly, waiter after waiter started coming and filling up the bowls, one by one! It took 20 minutes to fill all of them up. Everything was delicious! Some of it was spicy... so I stayed away from those bowls... but mainly I really enjoyed the meal. Then we went back to the kitchen to see how everything was made! So much fun.

This is a group picture we took outside the restaurant after we were done eating.

DAY 3

Can you believe it's only been two days at this point? I haven't even told you guys everything and I feel like I've been typing for a week!

So much happened the third day so I won't go into a lot of depth. We went on an eight hour tour of Bangalore and I don't think we saw even half of the city.

First up, the first catholic church that was established in Bangalore. I have always been a fan of Catholic churches so I was excited by this stop. They are beautiful, full of passion and love for Christ. The artwork is always breathtaking. There is a peace you can always find in Catholic churches. St. Mary's Basilica was no exception. I didn't take any pictures of the inside, because it's a sacred place, but it was incredible.

After we had some time to observe the church, we walked across the street to Russell Market. This is the freshest market in Bangalore, but it was one of the biggest culture shocks for me. It's hard to describe the environment really.. I think it was mainly the smell that got to me and the building we were in. The ground was covered in old food and trash, and there were many stray animals. I think these things seem exaggerated through my eyes because I had never experienced anything like this before. I had to sit down and think about this part of our journey after we were done with everything because I couldn't take everything in, in the moment. Looking back now, I enjoy the culture that was there at the market. I recognize the hard work people put into their different food stands. I would like to go back here sometime soon and try to experience it again now that my initial culture shock has died down.

Next up: Sikh Temple. 

I also don't have a picture inside this building because it's sacred ground. Before entering, men and women cover their heads, take off their shoes, and wash their feet. We did this and then sat down and observed people worshiping for a bit. While we watched we sat on the floor with our legs criss-crossed because it is highly offensive to sit with your feet out towards the alter. Then we walked around the building for a brief tour. The temple had small rooms people could rent out if they couldn't find a place to stay for the night. They also had a cafeteria for people to come and get food and filtered water. All are welcome, no one asks if you are Muslim or not, they just want to provide refuge. They also had a school there in the church for many different ages! It was a remarkable place. I am sure it brings hope and light to many citizens and visitors in Bangalore.

(This is our Amazing USAC leader, Jacob, and his daughter, Rini)

(Did I mention there are stray dogs EVERYWHERE?!)

We also visited this beautiful lake. At one point it was natural but now is kept up by a man and is used as a fish farm and a park for families to take their kids! The park was super cool. It had about 6 different juggle gyms, two trains, food stands, and a movie theater!


Christ University and Classes

I took these pictures the day after arriving, since I arrived while it was still dark. For those of you who are reading that don't know about my program, I wanted to briefly tell about the University where I am staying. This is Christ University. It's a really wonderful school and insanely hard to get into. The students that go here are at least ten times more intelligent than I am. Living on campus is no joke. If you thought BYU had some strict rules (which I do), you should try Christ University. There is one women's hostel (dorm building) and one men's. There is a gate around the women's hostel with security guards and ONLY the girls living in it can walk through the gates. No visitors, male or female. There are visiting hours for parents only. Curfew for Jonas Hall (the woman's hostel) is 9pm, and you have to sign in! By a facial recognition scanner! After 9pm the gate is locked and you'll have to find somewhere else to sleep. If you don't sign in that you're home, you lose your hot water privileges! I'm pretty sure the men's hostel is this same way too, but they don't have a gate surrounding theirs.

The school isn't only strict with their housing, they're strict with everything. At college back home, going to class is sort of an optional thing. Professors want you to be there, but it isn't mandatory most of the time. Here, if you miss a class, you loose half a letter grade. Miss two, another half letter grade. Miss three, you're out of the class. That's it. The school also controls wifi and student's are blocked from using Facebook and Youtube on campus. Since I'm part of an exchange program, we get special privileges when it comes to wifi.. but I feel bad for the local students here! :(

This festival was wonderful. The whole school got out of class to attend the opening of intramural sports. Intramural Sports! It was a big deal! As evidenced by the opening choir song: Eye of the Tiger. Classic.

This was my first day of my Psychology of Happiness: What Indians Know class, and what pops up on my teachers power point?? My Facebook profile picture of me and Mandy! My face felt red as everyone started to realize this wasn't a random picture of happy people from google. As the presentation continued, a lot of other profile pictures of my classmates made it into the power point, but seeing mine up there was pretty funny!

I'll mention my classes more in depth another day, but just for general knowledge these are the classes I'm taking here in India:

Psychology of Happiness: What Indians Know

Introduction to Hindi

Service Learning

Yoga

Bollywood

It's a pretty good list and I love all of them so far!!

Well, I think that's it for now? So much has happened this first week and I'm going on a few trips this weekend so I'll have more to post soon!! Thanks for reading! Or browsing through my pictures! Until next time...