The Beginning of NIRMAN- June 18

Today, I woke up at 3:20am. It is currently 9:30pm, and I have not slept a wink since I woke up this morning. However, my day truly began as I left the hotel that I had stayed in for the night (studying some Devangari script in the lobby), and got to the incredibly nice Delhi airport. Apparently, I missed the fact that the airport is so beautiful when I exited it yesterday.

            I got on a flight with the illustrious Kingfisher airlines- also a maker of Indian beer- do flying and beer mix well? Apparently so, as I got a full breakfast during my 45 minute flight.

            Arrival in Varanasi was marked with a slight sense of terror as I didn’t know what to do, but soon enough I both met a companion and a driver to take me to NIRMAN. Although I quickly found my people at the airport, I didn’t find the journey to Varanasi as easy. Namely, I fought back a serious case of information overload in my brain as we travelled into the city. Not only are there many people all over the street, but there is a constant creation and recreation of lanes, a level of honking that rivals the earsplitting noises of a lumberjack-competition, and advertisements everywhere in English and Hindi.

            Luckily, we arrived to NIRMAN fine with our car mirrors intact, our bodies only slightly carsick, and more generally, just fine. I was shown to my guest-house room, which is smaller than my dorm room or regular room back at school, but also crammed with less stuff. At this point, it seems appropriate to introduce my fellow NIRMAN interns. Violet arrived with me today. Strangely, she is also from UChicago, despite the fact that we had no idea the other person was going to be there. Michelle and Piper are other interns around, but Piper is leaving in a couple of days. Soon we are to be joined by (one) Doug. The latter three individuals are all from Claremont-McKenna college, so together we shall be a Midwestern/West Coast gaggle (ignoring the fact that Michelle is from New Jersey, and that Violet is from New York City).

            Purchases of the day: Dinner (a very loose interpretation of pizza and a strawberry smoothie, all for $4 or so) and a whole outfit (you will be inundated with ridiculous pictures of me in all colors of Indian cotton, especially as I look like a doofus wearing Western clothes).

            Lessons learned: (1) mud is not just mud (which is to say it’s also poop, garbage, and everything else), (2) tailored clothes in India are incredibly cheap, and (3) having a posse of people is a good thing (especially when one person speaks Hindi).