"Life Begins at the End of your Comfort Zone" - Neale Donald Walsch

"Life Begins at the End of your Comfort Zone" - Neale Donald Walsch

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

What to Expect from India

Ok yes. A post actually taking place in India is WAYYY over due, but better late than never right? Sorry it took so long guys but the wifi struggle can be real sometimes. Alright, this one's for my newbie IPSE kids who are interested in India or my Indian finalists.

Here's some of the main things you need to know before you come to India.

-There will be a language barrier of some sort with most people you meet.

While English is used nation wide, do not expect everyone to know it well or to always be able to freely communicate with you. There will be a language barrier during your exchange. This might be especially prevalent at school depending on where you are placed.

BUT, this is an excellent opportunity to get to learn the local language. It'll be overwhelming at times and all you'll want is to cuddle up and watch a Hollywood movie to hear a conversation you can understand, and this is perfectly okay. You are not a failure, you are not stupid for not picking up the language fast enough, you are trying. This whole experience is difficult and language will be a main part of the difficulties, but as long as you're trying and enjoying all you can, you are doing everything you're supposed to. Do not worry, you. are. o. k. 

-School will be different and you most likely will get bored at times. 

School in India works by using streams, usually being four: science, humanities (arts), commerce, or medical. The stream system works by the student picking their stream in 11th grade (or 11th standard as they call it there) picking a stream means picking what kind of career they want to go in. They will learn classes specifically important to their chosen stream and will continue it in 12th.  

ex: Science stream has math and science classes as Humanities does not have math or science but classes like history or language. 

Most exchange students are placed in the Humanities stream, but others, such as myself, are placed in Commerce as they do not offer Humanities at all schools. You can take other streams if you want, but I don't recommend it, unless you want to spend your time stressing about how you're going to study all those chapters of Physics if there's a festival going on.

Now, school itself. Lectures are conducted by the teacher teaching straight out of the book. Word by word will be read out of the book, and, as the books are in English, there will be frequent stopping for explaining what was read.  You may already know this information, you may get it the first time you read it, you may  not understand a thing and have to wait for the local language explanation before you have time to ask your question. You will get frustrated sometimes. You will get bored. These feelings will happen. There's not too much you can do about this except make sure you socialize with other students or find other work to do; learn to doodle, work on the language, try to do homework (if there is any, which 98% of the time, there isn't). Just keep yourself busy, or do as most exchange students and take a nap of there is nothing else to do. 

-You will love street food

It's a known fact. All exchange students will love all, if not most, if not some, street food. I don't recommend eating it right off the bat like myself, but do make sure you get some paani poori, ghugra, samosa, vada pav, bav phaji, gola...basically, just try all the things you get offered. You won't regret it. Trust me. 

- You will appreciate the little things 

Being in a country where you will probably be placed in a vegetarian family, have frequent power outages, have frequent misunderstandings, or may not be able to walk outside, you start to appreciate the little things from home. You form a bigger appreciation for the US and also will appreciate the little things you might not have in the US such as the way your host mom makes your favorite meal when she knows you're feeling down, or even the way the sun looks in your host country. 
Important sidenote: you will never take wifi for granted again as it is very common to not have access to wifi here. Thank goodness for the cheap data plans here, but wifi will be one of the things you will appreciate a lot more on going back. 

-You will speak like an Indian

As you begin to spend time here you will find the way Indians speak English is a little different. They speak British English so they have different ways of saying things by using different words and phrases, also Indians have their own way of saying things for example to say "Me too!" they might say "Same pinch!" You might not even notice it but this is one of the first things you pick up on. 

-You will take naps

Taking an afternoon nap in India is a daily thing. Usually between the hours of 2-5 in the afternoon. You may not take naps, you may not be used to taking naps, but it's very common for host families to ask you to take a nap and you will get used to it quicker than you think. You'll even begin to look forward to the sleeping. It might be one of the things you'll miss the most when you go. 

-You will form bonds in ways you can't yet understand 

Obviously, coming into an exchange you more or less hope or expect to form a bond with your host family, which you probably will. However, the bond you will form with your fellow exchange students is something you won't understand until you experience it. You will help each other through everything by just sharing your issues. Knowing you are not alone is one of the most helpful, most valuable things that will help you move forward through this experience.

- You will learn about yourself

Going into exchange you may be or not be sure about who you are and how you react in situations. Being on exchange however, will show you exactly how you react in situations and you may discover characteristics you posses you didn't know you had or didn't know were so prevalent. Sometimes, as I've found here, these traits will even be pointed out to you as you probably act differently in situations than most of the people born here.

No matter what happens on your exchange, what you learn, the hardships you go through, you will in the end, love India. If not all of India, some aspects you will love and miss when you go. It's a tough country with a lot of mentalities you have to get used to and adapt to, but it's a wonderful experience that you definitely won't forget and will learn so much from.




Tuesday, June 3, 2014

The Countdown Starts...


Countdown Clock

Only a few more days until I go to India! It's crazy to think I'll be in a completely different country for 11 months in just a few short days.

Since this is my last month in the US before I go, I have tons of stuff I need to do.

  • see all my friends and family before I go
  • finish getting all my packing stuff together
  • get my visa done
  • attend my regional PDO
  • attend the national PDO with all my fellow amazing YES abroad acceptees
  • learn Gujarati 
  • and eat a hamburger, since my host family is purely veg
Needless to say, my June will be jam packed.


Some other exciting news! Today we found out where we were getting placed and what school we would be attending. I found out I would be placed in Gujarat, Rajkot and also received an email from my host family that consists of two sisters, a brother, and a host mom.
It's all so exciting! I can't wait to start this new chapter of my life and experience first-hand the wonderfulness that is India. I probably won't update again until I get to India so...until then my friends! Take care!

Monday, April 14, 2014

I'm saying yes to YES!

It was Saturday, April 12th at about 12pm when I had just finished watching a movie with my dad and went to go check my Facebook in the hopes of finding that someone, anyone, had finally received some sort of finalist notification from the YES program. 

For those of you don't know what the YES program is, it is an amazing program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It sends 65 students from the United States on a fully paid scholarship (and no, they are not kidding when they say full scholarship, you're basically going for free) to study a year in countries with significant Muslim populations. The purpose of the program is to increase cross-cultural understanding between the US and these countries and provide students with a unique intercultural learning experience. The countries you could go to include:
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Ghana
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Macedonia
  • Malaysia
  • Morocco (2 years of French required)
  • Oman
  • Philippines
  • South Africa
  • Thailand
  • Turkey
On that particular Saturday, all 120 of the semi-final applicants (including myself) were anxiously awaiting our finalist notifications. I, along with many others, had probably mentally reviewed our interviews a million times over, and now we were finally going to know if they were as awesome as we all believed they had been. To my surprise, when I had opened my Facebook I was flooded with notifications and messages. The notifications had begun coming out. With my heart pounding and my hands shaking, I opened my email to find a new message. My heart almost stopped when I read the headline: YES Abroad Program- India. India...India!! My top choice country!! I could barely contain my excitement as I proceeded to tell my friends and family of my acceptance and began to dream along with the other finalists as we learned of our new homes we would spend a year in. 

If you are anything like I was when I was looking into applying for this program, my biggest piece of advice to you is: don't worry! What's supposed to happen, will. If you want this, if you really want this, you'll go far. Be honest in your essays, be yourself in the interview and the group evaluations, and whether you get in or not, you'll know you did your best. Always keep your dream to go abroad alive and it will happen, whether it is meant to be now or later, it'll happen. Just be patient and never give up :) Hopefully then you'll be the one making a blog and getting to know all the amazing people who have the same dream as you! Good luck my friend!