Taking Care of Myself

With a little more time to breathe than typical semesters, I have embraced the concept of taking care of myself. Oftentimes, back in the states, I find myself so stressed the fleeting thought of exercising taking away studying time is enough to steer clear of the Whitt. Things are (luckily) a little bit different here! I feel more like the average college student who has time to take naps, sporadically go out to dinner or spend time with friends, and go to the gym.

That being said, I forgot how much I love to sleep. I generally get a full 8 hours; if I don't, I can take a nap ranging anywhere from 1 to 4 hours every day but Wednesday - my busy day. Even better, I don't feel behind or stressed when I wake up!

Exercise. in simple terms, I've done a lot of it during my time in India. Most days I wander over to the world-class fitness center Marena and spend at least an hour there. If I don't make it to the gym, no problem! I've been taking ashtanga yoga classes for one hour a night, five days per week and the results have been amazing! I made it a point to photo-track my progress periodically:

Before the first day of class.

After 7 classes.

After 17 classes!

Seeing as I had nowhere to go but up in terms of flexibility, seeing such dramatic results has been so motivating to continue classes. Once I return from a group travel week (tomorrow until October 8th), I will begin a second month of lessons.

Lastly, the meals in India generally consists of primarily carbs, oil, and sugar. While it is easy (and free) to eat each meal in the dining hall, I have discovered a great food court upstairs where I usually eat at least one lighter meal per day. Depending on my mood, my meal can range from cereal and milk to tomato soup to fruit salad to Subway (yes, there is a Subway!).

Having the time to adopt these new healthier habits has been a real blessing. I feel more confident, healthy, happy and energized. I cannot wait to come back the the US with my new lifestyle and daily routines. However, returning just after Thanksgiving and before Christmas may pose a few challenges...

I am off to bed after a long week (2 exams, 2 papers, 1 epidemiology assignment). Tomorrow afternoon marks the first day of "epic travel week". My group will be traveling to various cities for the next 10 days! Although I will not have my laptop, I plan to find an internet cafe at least once, so keep in touch and wish for safe travels.

Love,
Nikki

Countdown 'Til I'm Home!

COUNTDOWN CLOCK WIDGETS

My First Mehndi

Last night, I was lucky enough to have mehndi (henna) put on my hand by Arveen, a friend of my roommate's. Arveen has been drawing and practicing mehndi for over ten years and is she gifted!! In talking with her, I discovered she typically has no set design. Instead, she free-hands and makes it up as she goes. Here's the final result:

One has to be very patient to have mehndi (mine took around 90 minutes), keep one's hand warm so the dye darkens, and keep the hand as dry as possible to make it last. The henna paste is applied using what looks like a mini piping cone for frosting a cake. After 15-20 minutes the paste dries and begins to crack/peel off. Keeping the hand warm at this point is very important because it helps to create a darker, more intense color. The dried paste is rubbed off and an oil (coconut in my case) is rubbed vigorously on to the hand to increase circulation and consequently make the mehndi darker.

In terms of weddings, brides and grooms get mehndi before the ceremony. My roommate Kundan told me that the darker a woman's mendhi is, the more her husband will love her.

Pretty cool, huh?

Jog Falls

Today, me and seven other girls in my group took a trip to Jog Falls - the second largest plunge waterfall in all of India! While our day started early (7:15am), the van ride was long (about 5 hours), we got a flat tire, and squeezed four people on a 3 person bench, each and every minute was worth the final destination:

Once we ate a light lunch, we began the 1,400 stair descent to the base of the falls. Holy cow! I had no idea how tiring it would be. As we wound our way down on the switchback staircase, I found myself thinking that the view had better be worth all the sweat and exhausted muscles. Here are a few shots taken on the way down:

Notice the babies using parents' tails as ropes....I am sure they were not amused!

I wish I could truly put in to words how breathtaking Jog Falls was, especially from the base. Our group spent close to an hour taking photos, wading through the water (and being overly cautious since there are tons of leeches), and enjoying the breeze and mist off of the falls. After walking closer to the landing of the waterfalls, I found a nice dry rock and relaxed for a few minutes. I also took that time to mentally prepare myself for climbing BACK up the 1,400 steps.

We were told looking upside-down at the waterfall made it that much more "epic". So we did.

Here's my upside-down shot.

While gracefully ascending the stairs again, well....who, am I kidding. Trudging up the stairs, aching for water breaks, sweating profusely from every pore of my body, and looking alarmingly red-faced to Indians since my skin is so pale, I stayed determined to plug along for the top. I chose to keep my vision focused on the two to three steps ahead of me so a) the incline didn't seem as bad, and b) to keep my eyes out of the number of remaining steps etched into the stone. When we were nearly at the top, there was a pleasant surprise for us:

Can you spot the rainbow??

From there, we flopped back into the van, looped around to another lookout point, and then proceeded to the coastal town of Murudeshwara. Initially, our plan was to visit the beach for perhaps twenty minutes and then grab an early dinner. None of us knew that right next to our destination was the world's SECOND largest statue of Lord Shiva! So, of course we walked up the two flights up stairs (grudgingly) and took some time to stare in amazement at this massive statue. If only pictures did it justice at how gigantic the statue was. Lord Shiva (sitting cross-legged with a cobra) stands a modest 130 feet tall. It was perched on the edge of the water on a perfect afternoon weather-wise. The sun shone softly and the sea breeze was just enough to be comfortable. It was a welcomed break from the downpours we deal with almost every day back at Manipal.

What a view. Mental note taken to visit this town for a beach vacation if I return to India!

Lord Shiva statue. Compared to many other Indian statues, this was built "very recently". "Older" statues typically mean 500-700 years old.

At this point, my camera battery died and we were itching for some food. We meandered down the hill to an open-to-air restaurant for masala dosa, lime soda, and vanilla ice cream. What a perfect end to an epic, exciting, and fun-filled day!

Things I Love About India

1. How green and beautiful everything from landscapes to tiny flowers become during monsoon season.
2. Spicy and flavorful food all the time! There's never a dull moment in the culinary department.
3. Tea. Multiple times a day. For 16 cents a cup.
4. Speaking of inexpensive, how cheap (mostly) everything is...except when you're craving Nutella or Nature Valley granola bars.
5. Tiny fruit stands and juicing centers.
6. Being encouraged to wear flip flops every day.
7. How friendly and curious fellow students are to get to know you.
8. Naan/Roti/Puri/Chapthi.
9. Giant yoga classes, 5 days per week, for $6 a month.
10. Getting to sleep a solid eight hours per night.
11. Temples, upon temples, upon temples!
12. Trying, and often failing, to understand English with an Indian accent. It makes for all the more fun.
13. Having clean drinking water in Manipal.
14. Visiting health centers, community centers, hospitals, etc every Friday to learn more about the Indian Health System.
15. Manipal University's enormous library.
16. Unnecessarily excessive security checks. For example, you have to show your ID twice, leave your bag in a guarded room, and be swiped through two doors to get into the library.
17. Auto rickshaws as far as the eye can see!
18. Late dinners...which I am off to right now! More to come soon.

Love,

Nikki

And I Thought I was Old...

Today my group traveled to several nearby temples. I wasn't sure what expect to because we were not given the names of the temples before loading into our stylish van this morning:

The ever bumpy and insane ride was worth it, though! Because this is what we saw...

The Gommateshvara Temple in Karkala. Built in 1432 and brought up the giant hill on which it now rests by 25 elephants!

This is the panoramic view around Gommateshvara Temple.

Another temple across the way, except even older! Built over 600  years ago.







Lastly, we visited a beautiful Roman Catholic church.


There was a "Miraculous Pond" at the church with money coins and several huge goldfish and catfish swimming around.

Hey, there! It's been a while!

Sorry for such a gap since my last post! This past week and a half has been filled with last minute trips/excursions, events around campus, and just plain exhaustion at the end of the day. So here goes!

I finally feel like I'm getting into a routine and stepping beyond the "I'm a vacationer" line. While the first two weeks were excitingly filled with trips, orientations, etc, it sure is nice to be a student creating her own daily schedule once classes are through.

That being said, it seems like I have way, way, way too much free time compared to school back in the states. The way classes are structured here much differently than I am accustomed to. Rather than having an exam every two to three weeks, there is generally one or two exams the entire semester. So right now, I find I actually have some time to breathe and do leisurely things.

Let me talk a little bit more about how classes are run. To give you an idea of where us "American Friends" (as one professor refers to us) are at, we have entered the Manipal University Masters in Public Health semester about three weeks in to their semester. Each year, the students take all of the same classes and move, more or less, as a herd. We, however, are only taking a small handful of their courses. This has resulted in much confusion on the professors' side. I think most of the kinks have been worked out after 2 weeks, maybe - slowly but surely, right?

Professors are much more highly respected here in India than the U.S. One component I seem to always forget is to stand when the professor enters the classroom. Whoops. I'm starting to remember, though! You must also refer to them as "sir" or "ma'am" whenever asking a question. It's a strange feeling to have the comforts of your home classroom be entirely turned upside-down. It seems the students have a secret way of knowing if classes are changed to a different building, or a certain assignment is due, while we are most of the time clueless, too. Wherever they are getting their information, I would really like to know. But for now, I'll just embrace what is beyond my power.

I've already learned many lessons in my short time here. I think the most important one is this:

If you have any sense at all, don't you dare forget to bring an umbrella with you at all times. Don't you EVER forget it.

Unfortunately, I have already forgotten and paid dearly. As it's still monsoon season, there are times when the sky will go from partly cloudy to torrential-downpour-I-just-gained-five-pounds-from-the-amount-of-water-soaked-into-my-clothes rain in a matter of 4 or 5 seconds. It quite impressive to see, actually...except when you left your umbrella hanging on the back of your door.

Aside from the monsoons, I'm loving the campus. I recently began using their state of the art fitness center and have been going every day! It's nice to have a routine to stick to, and I will certainly never run out of equipment to try! This two-year-old center has 5 stories, around 40 weight machines and lifting stations, and an entire floor of cardio machines! Talk about tough decisions to make.

I also start a yoga class on Monday night. It runs five days a week for a month and only cost 300 rupees (a little under $6) total. Anyone who has signed up for fitness classes before can join me in saying this is an incredible deal! I look forward to having a regular class since I have never done yoga before - and what better place to learn than India!

The last lesson I will talk about tonight is the art of crossing the street. In my mind, it's a lot like playing Frogger. Oftentimes trucks/buses/motorcycles/rickshaws/cars that should be on the left side of the road are on the right and vice versa (Also, they drive on opposite sides than the U.S. so I consistently look the wrong direction believing the coast is clear). This makes the game that much more difficult. But I've accepted the challenge and haven't been hit yet! Here's to hoping that is a trend which continues.

Alright, that's enough for now. I'm going to curl up with a good book and call it an early night. More to come soon!

Love,
Nikki