today was a good day.
i finally took my first ride in an autorickshaw, which is as pretty essential experience for living in delhi. the ride was more than a little shaky and noisy, but really pretty interesting, and the drivers i had weren't sketchy even though one of them wouldn't take me to the place i needed to go so i had to pay another one extra to finish the job.
i've officially been accepted into JNU, and officially decided that at this point actually taking classes there is not the best things i could be doing right now. the classes at IES are pretty kickass and with transfer without problem, and at this point i don't want to overload myself too much academically and with travel time.
the big news however is the internship.
we visited this amazing organization called 'manzil' (not sure of the spelling, i'll check at some point) which works on teaching, among other things, english to underprivileged people. the language/education issues in india are immensely complicated with tons of history, and the one reliably true thing about india is that in some part of it history is still a present way of life. english was introduced by the british empire as a means of controlling those who would control the populace; now it's one of the few languages that indians from different provinces might have in common. it's not only a necessity in international business, it's a necessity within india, particularly in any job requiring anything above a college degree (university courses are only taught in english). even hindi, the most widely spoken indian language, is only understood by 30-35% of the population. LANGUAGE. gods, it's complicated.
in any case, this amazing man runs this organization, which basically consists of very passionate people helping each other and children learn what they want to learn and experience what they want to experience. it might not be the most practical organization, but it seems effective and the man's optimism and charisma and intelligence are simply breathtaking. anyway, i'm hoping that i'll be able to intern with this organization.
not everything through IES delhi is awesome. the director is a very intelligent lady, but at some points in time she needs to remember her social skills. at times she seems to be showing off her knowledge at the expense of the students obtaining information from various speakers. so not stellar. still, the staff as a whole here is pretty amazing and very helpful.
more later. sleepy now.
Showing posts with label JNU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JNU. Show all posts
Monday, January 21, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
brief update
not too much more to report, in the light of what I'll be doing tomorrow: going to the TAJ MAHAL, bitches! but I will proceed to relate a summarized account of what I've been doing the past two days. an announcement, though: it turns out that it's a big hassle to import photos to this blog in that it takes a really long time, so instead I'd invite you to view my associated webalbum, http://picasaweb.google.com/lucinda.stroud.
as I take up space I may need to relocate to another server, but for the time being this will work.
in any case, we visited the campus of JNU, which is undoubtedly the largest and most politically active campus that I have ever seen. it remains to be seen whether or not I'll be taking classes there after all - the commute is long and arduous and they don't really have any classes that apply to me - but in any case it's an amazing place. i took pictures of the political posters that cover almost every surface and of the squirrels (well, one squirrel) that frequent the area near one of the outdoor cafes. after JNU was the first bout of "intensive hindi," which was predictably intense but not too bad. what little hindi I had studied on my own proved to be an enormous help in mastering concepts, especially the alphabet. it was tiring though, and i called it an early night.
today involved standing in very long lines. for some reason, only a handful of us in IES delhi have to register at the FRRO office: if you're staying in india for more than 180 days you're required to register with them within 14 days, which makes sense except none of us are actually going to be there for that long. very confusing. anyway, we stood in line for a good hour or so to receive the forms we needed, and after filling them out and preparing to stand in line for at least another hour, probably much longer, we realized that we didn't have the lease or some other sort of necessary document with us. Manoj, probably the only male adult involved with the IES program, seemed uncertain about this, so we vowed to return early on Monday, prepared for the inefficiencies of the office. next lunch and more intensive hindi. and now NOW, in which I am preparing to go to bed and wake up very early tomorrow to be herded off to the TAJ MAHAL, which will be amazing. pictures, I promise.
heart and fuzzles.
as I take up space I may need to relocate to another server, but for the time being this will work.
in any case, we visited the campus of JNU, which is undoubtedly the largest and most politically active campus that I have ever seen. it remains to be seen whether or not I'll be taking classes there after all - the commute is long and arduous and they don't really have any classes that apply to me - but in any case it's an amazing place. i took pictures of the political posters that cover almost every surface and of the squirrels (well, one squirrel) that frequent the area near one of the outdoor cafes. after JNU was the first bout of "intensive hindi," which was predictably intense but not too bad. what little hindi I had studied on my own proved to be an enormous help in mastering concepts, especially the alphabet. it was tiring though, and i called it an early night.
today involved standing in very long lines. for some reason, only a handful of us in IES delhi have to register at the FRRO office: if you're staying in india for more than 180 days you're required to register with them within 14 days, which makes sense except none of us are actually going to be there for that long. very confusing. anyway, we stood in line for a good hour or so to receive the forms we needed, and after filling them out and preparing to stand in line for at least another hour, probably much longer, we realized that we didn't have the lease or some other sort of necessary document with us. Manoj, probably the only male adult involved with the IES program, seemed uncertain about this, so we vowed to return early on Monday, prepared for the inefficiencies of the office. next lunch and more intensive hindi. and now NOW, in which I am preparing to go to bed and wake up very early tomorrow to be herded off to the TAJ MAHAL, which will be amazing. pictures, I promise.
heart and fuzzles.
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