We Shall Do Better Than Anyone Else Can

The first couple days in Pune have been fun. We got a chance to explore the city by ourselves and Indian students also showed us around. Traffic is still something I have to get used to. Whenever we cross the street it is inevitable that one of us is clinging for dear life to another person in our group, in hopes of either being dragged across the street, or bring someone down with us when we are eventually hit. Our program directors say, in time, we will be able to navigate the streets; hopefully that time will come soon.

We went to one of the big markets here in Pune, and looked around at clothes and jewelry. As people walked by I looked at their saris and I wanted almost every one I saw. We went into a few sari shops and just pulled fabric after fabric off the shelf, and all of them were gorgeous. The prices for really fancy ones run about 1200 rupees, and other ones that are still really pretty but are more for everyday wear run from 150 to 500 rupees. Now remember that the exchange rate is about 45 rupees to one US dollar. So the really fancy saris are about $27 US, and the everyday sari’s are about $4 to $12 US. If we were to buy these in the US or Britain they would be ten times the price they are here… expect me to come back with a lot of saris!

A thing about the cost of living here: I eat out for lunch, and sometimes will eat out for dinner; I have been buying new clothes because I did not come with much, and I have transportation costs. On average I am spending between $10-$15 a day, sometimes less than that depending on the day. I normally spend that much on lunch back home. I knew it would be cheap to live here, but I did not expect this. It is funny because we will go out shopping, and look at prices and it may be a really nice sari and we say “oh 1200 Rupees, hmm that’s pretty expensive” when in comparison to home it is not expensive at all.

Our hostel is really nice. It is an apartment that I share with three other girls from the program, and two Indian students. I am sharing my room with an Indian student, and she is a fourth year law student. She wants to be a criminal lawyer, and she’s from Mumbai. She is really nice, but kind of quiet. I haven’t really gotten a chance to talk to her because she comes home pretty late and I have been so tired that I go to bed early. Our hostel owner’s parents live across the street and run their own hostel, and four other girls from our program live there. We go over to their hostel to eat dinner every night, and the Indian girls there are so fun. We went shopping with them yesterday and had dinner at a restaurant near our hostel with them as well. They have been teaching us Marathi phrases (the language spoken in Maharashtra) and they tell us when we are overpaying for things on the streets.

Classes start today and I can’t wait to start learning Hindi. It is tough here not being able to speak the language, and most people here only know a little bit of English. Also every sign here is either in Hindi or Marathi, and we have no idea where we are sometimes.

Here are a few pictures of Pune University. This is the main hall, and it is under reconstruction right now, but it was a really cool building. I also saw this sign that said “Pune University for the Nation, We Shall Do Better Than Anyone Else Can” I thought it was really interesting, and showed how seriously academics are taken here.

That’s all for now, Peace