Those who know me will not remember me as an athlete or someone who even enjoys physical exercise. But maybe this trip is just what I needed to get out of my uncoordinated funk?! In my first post I recounted a particularly unsuccessful attempt at swimming and against all odds the swim coach asked me to participate in an upcoming swim meet competing, oh yes, backstroke. Although I desperately wanted to turn down this unappetizing offer I said yes. Even though I am building a life here and making serious friends there’s something about going to a new place and not really caring what others think of you. Maybe I’m still in that honeymoon phase where I think I can do whatever I want, look stupid, be an American, and still expect to have super pro Indians befriend me. Before I was tracked down by the swim coach I had decided, after much trial and error with other sports Daly College offered, I would choose squash as my sport. When I tried to explain squash to my friend Mia back home in the US as tennis in a box she said, “Ohh, you mean racquetball!?” For those who don’t know what squash is it’s extremely similar to racquetball or tennis in a box. I still plan to go to squash because (hopefully) I will not be swimming once the swim meet is over in October. So add swimming, squash, and oh yeah, the newest addition, basketball to my list of athletic activities. Apparently the basketball coach is seeking me out to play for the basketball team in a tournament in November. Some time soon in the coming weeks I will go and inevitably make a fool of myself while trying to run and dribble, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.
Hindi learning in school has been a little confusing and unproductive recently because of Indian teaching styles and all the interruptions in our schedule (another holiday was declared on Tuesday when India’s ex-ex president, APJ Abdul Kalam passed away). First of all Indian teachers tend to teach lecture style which is not how I learn, but on top of that we are also learning vocabulary and grammar a little out of order. The first week we learned conversational and introduction phrases. The second week we learned half of the Devanagari script then stopped. This week has been a weird mix of memorizing Hindi poems, random conversational sentences, and the rest of the Devanagari script. For me this system hasn’t been working well so I decided to take some more responsibility for my learning. While I am not even close to fluent in Spanish I understood the manner in which I was taught Spanish. Now I’m thinking I should be able to convert my old Spanish lessons to Hindi or even work on learning Hindi through Spanish and hit two birds with one stone. Grammar is my number one priority. First I can understand sentence structure and have a basic idea of how the language works. Then I can focus on vocabulary to enhance my speaking skills. It’s been working so far and I’ve been able to use my Hindi teachers as supplementary help on some things that can’t be answered online. The hard part is finding the discipline to seek understanding of why things happen and how they happen grammar wise and memorizing my own vocabulary lists while also completing the hodgepodge of assignments from school. It’s also weird for me to get used to getting bad grades on Hindi tests, I just need to focus on actually speaking a new language at the end of these 10 months instead of having perfect grades.
With all the craziness that goes on everyday my family has been my source of sanity through it all. I knew I would be sick in the coming year possibly from a parasite or something interesting, but I didn’t expect my first day on bedrest to be from something as lame as fever. My mom made me a homemade medicine, urged me to eat and drink only warm food and water, and took care of me hand and foot. My favorite Hindi language mishap happened during this time. My mom made me a homemade herbal medicine called kara, and my older sister Ranjana was trying to help me learn how to pronounce it. After having to repeat it so many times so I could understand how to say it Ranjana forgot how to say the word herself. We then, of course, both gave up and died laughing together. Muskan as an 11th grader gets to leave school at 1:40 PM Monday-Saturday because she does not stay for a hobby and sport like I do. I stay at school until 4:40 PM most days and get home tired and needing some encouragement to start more work on college applications or Hindi homework. Ranjana and Muskan never fail to put me in a better mood with lots of love, jokes, and food. They gave me a reason to be extra grateful this Friendships day!
Before coming I had to listen to multiple super boring phone calls and web orientations about how to be an exchange student and the one thing every single presentation harped on was communication back home. My program sponsors and NSLI-Y alumni warned about connecting with people back home too frequently. The fear was that when an exchange student speaks to their friends and family too much (more than once a week) they will miss out on experiences happening around them. While I absolutely think there is truth to this I think it could be explained a little better. I have talked to my friends and family more than just once a week. My immediate family is in a group text and we send each other mini-updates on what’s happening in each country every day. My best friends keep me in the loop about how close their first day of college is getting. My aunt and I are continuously plotting our future plans to take over the world through traveling. While I have talked to loved ones back home more than the recommended time amount none of those awful things I was warned about have happened and I think I know why. I have not allowed my communication back home to hinder my ability to foster relations here. You can maintain the relationships you have back home and nurture them as much as you want as long as there’s still room in your heart for your host family to climb in and live in there too. Then you won’t be homesick anymore because you will just be living with one of your two families.
Hindi learning in school has been a little confusing and unproductive recently because of Indian teaching styles and all the interruptions in our schedule (another holiday was declared on Tuesday when India’s ex-ex president, APJ Abdul Kalam passed away). First of all Indian teachers tend to teach lecture style which is not how I learn, but on top of that we are also learning vocabulary and grammar a little out of order. The first week we learned conversational and introduction phrases. The second week we learned half of the Devanagari script then stopped. This week has been a weird mix of memorizing Hindi poems, random conversational sentences, and the rest of the Devanagari script. For me this system hasn’t been working well so I decided to take some more responsibility for my learning. While I am not even close to fluent in Spanish I understood the manner in which I was taught Spanish. Now I’m thinking I should be able to convert my old Spanish lessons to Hindi or even work on learning Hindi through Spanish and hit two birds with one stone. Grammar is my number one priority. First I can understand sentence structure and have a basic idea of how the language works. Then I can focus on vocabulary to enhance my speaking skills. It’s been working so far and I’ve been able to use my Hindi teachers as supplementary help on some things that can’t be answered online. The hard part is finding the discipline to seek understanding of why things happen and how they happen grammar wise and memorizing my own vocabulary lists while also completing the hodgepodge of assignments from school. It’s also weird for me to get used to getting bad grades on Hindi tests, I just need to focus on actually speaking a new language at the end of these 10 months instead of having perfect grades.
With all the craziness that goes on everyday my family has been my source of sanity through it all. I knew I would be sick in the coming year possibly from a parasite or something interesting, but I didn’t expect my first day on bedrest to be from something as lame as fever. My mom made me a homemade medicine, urged me to eat and drink only warm food and water, and took care of me hand and foot. My favorite Hindi language mishap happened during this time. My mom made me a homemade herbal medicine called kara, and my older sister Ranjana was trying to help me learn how to pronounce it. After having to repeat it so many times so I could understand how to say it Ranjana forgot how to say the word herself. We then, of course, both gave up and died laughing together. Muskan as an 11th grader gets to leave school at 1:40 PM Monday-Saturday because she does not stay for a hobby and sport like I do. I stay at school until 4:40 PM most days and get home tired and needing some encouragement to start more work on college applications or Hindi homework. Ranjana and Muskan never fail to put me in a better mood with lots of love, jokes, and food. They gave me a reason to be extra grateful this Friendships day!
Before coming I had to listen to multiple super boring phone calls and web orientations about how to be an exchange student and the one thing every single presentation harped on was communication back home. My program sponsors and NSLI-Y alumni warned about connecting with people back home too frequently. The fear was that when an exchange student speaks to their friends and family too much (more than once a week) they will miss out on experiences happening around them. While I absolutely think there is truth to this I think it could be explained a little better. I have talked to my friends and family more than just once a week. My immediate family is in a group text and we send each other mini-updates on what’s happening in each country every day. My best friends keep me in the loop about how close their first day of college is getting. My aunt and I are continuously plotting our future plans to take over the world through traveling. While I have talked to loved ones back home more than the recommended time amount none of those awful things I was warned about have happened and I think I know why. I have not allowed my communication back home to hinder my ability to foster relations here. You can maintain the relationships you have back home and nurture them as much as you want as long as there’s still room in your heart for your host family to climb in and live in there too. Then you won’t be homesick anymore because you will just be living with one of your two families.