Home and Away
Well, I've been back in the states for nearly a week and a half now, and I am still adjusting. I've gone from a culture where people my age are married with 5 kids, don't eat meat and don't show their knees in public, to a place full of binge drinking, mini skirts and constant networking. It has been quite overwhelming to say the least, but I am enjoying every minute of it. Here's a recap of what's been going on:
Saying my goodbyes in Udaipur was incredibly hard. I had really gotten to know my Udaipur host family in those last few weeks and will miss them greatly. They are such a cute family and took such good care of me. I plan to keep in touch with them, especially about the marble importing.
The hardest goodbye by far was with Namrata. I know that if we were in the same country she would be a best friend and she is such an amazing person. Luckily my mom has a ton of calling cards left over so I plan to chat with Namrata as much as possible. I miss her so much already.
The last week in India I stayed in Jaipur for three days and did some sightseeing. I was pretty much on my own the whole time (aside from the lovely cockroaches that visited me in my hotel room, and one even somehow accompanied me back to Jersey- however he died shortly thereafter from culture shock and turnpike pollution). Jaipur is the biggest city in Rajasthan and kind of nice but not nearly as nice as my beloved Udaipur. It's really crowded and I got bothered a lot by men- rickshaw drivers, random beggars, etc. Men would quite frequently basically walk into me in order to bump into my chest. Didn't appreciate that so much.
On Wednesday I took a bus back to Delhi where my host brother from Dungarpur, Chickoo, met me. He took me to his Architecture School campus where I freshened up and then we did a little Delhi sightseeing- non-tourist style. It was a holiday that day which was great because the streets, particularly Connaught Place were empty. We did a lot of shopping and bargaining which was so fun although I didn't have much room left in my suitcase to buy as much as I would have liked. We went to a coffee shop and Huka bar that was right across the street from the famous IIT. Then we said our goodbyes and I hopped a rickshaw to the airport. The flight back was pretty uneventful once I got past security.
I was back in New Jersey on thursday August 17th and then went for a fun happy hour in NYC that night to say goodbye to my friends. Then bright and early Monday morning I headed out to Ann Arbor for the next adventure of my life: Business School!
It's been so much fun so far but classes don't start until tomorrow- when reality will set in. I've met so many cool people, lots of people from India and even a good group of people who are also interested in microfinance. As of right now I've decided to continue focusing on microfinance and have already signed up for a Bottom of the Pyramid class based on CK Prahalad's book. Saturday was also the first football game, which was very cool. I have never experienced anything like that before, especially since my undergrad wasn't a big football school. 109,000 people were in the stadium that day!
Anyway, just to finish up my blog (for now at least) here's a little bit of reflection on my trip:
Greatest Moment- Completing my case study book for PEDO
Scariest Moment- Probably waiting in the dark at the Mathura train station that night I took the overnight train to Delhi.
Craziest Moment- Getting surrounded by violent barking dogs in Jaisalmer.
Coolest Moment- Monsoon palace in Udaipur at Sunset
Funnest moment- bargain shopping with Jon, Liz, YeYe, and Ryan in Pushkar
What I'll miss most- the people, the people, the people!!! Particularly Namrata, Baby, Shweta, the Mehtas
Anyway, thanks so much for reading along over these last few months and feel free to email me should you have any questions or comments. I may continue updating off and on in the future as I continue to get involved in the field of Microfinance.
thanks again and Namaste.
posted by Jen @ 9:19 PM
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