1. Being woken up by your roommate in the morning when you have a free block and hearing 'Thule, can I borrow a jumper?' and wondering with a half-asleep Canadian mind what the hell a jumper is and telling her to take what she wants.
2. Walking around with friends from Guatemala and Norway spreading jazz music and dancing your way across the wadas until you find more friends and sit in someone else's courtyard until late at night.
3. Not being able to remember where you left your shoes but waking up to find that your co-year returned them with a note saying you're crazy.
4. Melting chocolate into a bowl and cutting apples into pieces and eating it cross-legged with friends.
5. Falling asleep backwards while doing homework on your bed and your roommate propping you up with a pillow, turning off your lights and putting away your laptop. <3
6. Being told the next day you had a conversation with someone that woke you up when you were sleeping and not remembering it at all.
7. Receiving a letter from home and almost crying and it making everything ok.
8. Falling asleep in your co-years bed and waking up in your own and being confused.
9. Eating someone else's noodles.
10. Tea parties.
11. Entering the AQ and having to make the difficult decision of going either left or right.
12. Laughing until you cry and crying until you laugh.
13. Carefully avoiding the topic of the EE around second-years.
14. 20 second dance parties in someone else's room.
15. Running around in the monsoon after midnight holding hands and laughing so hard you can't see straight.
16. Writing this list instead of studying for your math test tomorrow.
Love to you
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Routines
I've been here exactly 32 days and I love it more than ever.
It's true that the pollution in this country makes me feel claustrophobic at times, that a distant view of Mulshi Lake doesn't replace the Pacific Ocean and that I miss a bed of pine needles beneath my feet but everything I get in return is slowly settling into place;
Yesterday we had the weekly farmer's market organized by the Gomukh organic farm team which I am a part of. It felt like home with home made soaps, incense and lip blams and organic veggies and fruit on the library lawn with couches and music overlooking the sunset. We all ate 2 pomegranates together sitting overlooking the mountains. I now have lemons, tomatoes, assorted fruits, organic laundry detergent and incense and am so happy with all of it.
After a brief stop by karaoke in the social center where Britney Spears was sung so loudly the villages probably heard it in Paud, me and Lam (Finland) watched Amelie Poulain in my corner until 1am with more of our pomegranate haul, chocolate and tea. It was lovely.
This morning it was an early Saturday start because its UWC Day and also Satat (sustainability) action day. This meant the whole school met up in the MPH and was divided into main action groups that then went out and did things like picking up garbage on the river road down in the valley, planting trees on campus, building dams to harvest the water that runs down the hill behind campus and getting rid of invasive species for several hours.
Then, lunch. Cucumber, corn and coconut salad, chopsuey, rice and dal, and so much chapati.
A little while ago it was Ganesh Chaturthi, which meant we celebrated the lord Ganesha by bringing a statue of him from campus down to the river below in village Khubavali, all the while throwing pinkredpurple powder and dancing to bollywood through monsoon rains. Whatever was originally white is now permanently orange. Most of the blond people on campus now have very pink hues.
I still can't really believe I'm here yet it's starting to feel so normal. The campus is tiny and it's so incredible to have some of your favourite people a 1 minute walk from home and you can't run away from problems and I'm grateful.
So much has happened in one month. One month of India. One of the biggest struggles I had coming here was finding myself, who I was and could be in this community and country. A big part of my identity, taking walks around Swan Lake and sitting by the ocean, are far away here and I felt a little lost in the beginning. I also realized what my being Dutch-Canadian meant to me. Being here has made me realize that in Canada I was always the European, while in the Netherlands I'm always the Canadian yet I lived half my life in both. It was weird feeling like I didn't have a claim anywhere until I realized my claim is the little things in those countries that make them feel like home therefore rooting me there.
Last night I went to the treehouse by myself to gather my thoughts and I was completely filled with happiness and a kind of peace only the night can instill in me. That I'm here, in India. Finally. Though it's different than anything I might've imagined, it's more than I could've dreamed and there's no place I'd rather be.
It's true that the pollution in this country makes me feel claustrophobic at times, that a distant view of Mulshi Lake doesn't replace the Pacific Ocean and that I miss a bed of pine needles beneath my feet but everything I get in return is slowly settling into place;
Yesterday we had the weekly farmer's market organized by the Gomukh organic farm team which I am a part of. It felt like home with home made soaps, incense and lip blams and organic veggies and fruit on the library lawn with couches and music overlooking the sunset. We all ate 2 pomegranates together sitting overlooking the mountains. I now have lemons, tomatoes, assorted fruits, organic laundry detergent and incense and am so happy with all of it.
After a brief stop by karaoke in the social center where Britney Spears was sung so loudly the villages probably heard it in Paud, me and Lam (Finland) watched Amelie Poulain in my corner until 1am with more of our pomegranate haul, chocolate and tea. It was lovely.
This morning it was an early Saturday start because its UWC Day and also Satat (sustainability) action day. This meant the whole school met up in the MPH and was divided into main action groups that then went out and did things like picking up garbage on the river road down in the valley, planting trees on campus, building dams to harvest the water that runs down the hill behind campus and getting rid of invasive species for several hours.
Then, lunch. Cucumber, corn and coconut salad, chopsuey, rice and dal, and so much chapati.
A little while ago it was Ganesh Chaturthi, which meant we celebrated the lord Ganesha by bringing a statue of him from campus down to the river below in village Khubavali, all the while throwing pinkredpurple powder and dancing to bollywood through monsoon rains. Whatever was originally white is now permanently orange. Most of the blond people on campus now have very pink hues.
I still can't really believe I'm here yet it's starting to feel so normal. The campus is tiny and it's so incredible to have some of your favourite people a 1 minute walk from home and you can't run away from problems and I'm grateful.
So much has happened in one month. One month of India. One of the biggest struggles I had coming here was finding myself, who I was and could be in this community and country. A big part of my identity, taking walks around Swan Lake and sitting by the ocean, are far away here and I felt a little lost in the beginning. I also realized what my being Dutch-Canadian meant to me. Being here has made me realize that in Canada I was always the European, while in the Netherlands I'm always the Canadian yet I lived half my life in both. It was weird feeling like I didn't have a claim anywhere until I realized my claim is the little things in those countries that make them feel like home therefore rooting me there.
Last night I went to the treehouse by myself to gather my thoughts and I was completely filled with happiness and a kind of peace only the night can instill in me. That I'm here, in India. Finally. Though it's different than anything I might've imagined, it's more than I could've dreamed and there's no place I'd rather be.
Me and Andrea (Norway) during Ganesh
A (un)usual evening at MUWCI with Daan (Netherlands), Sam (USA), Zelma (Denmark) and Safieh (Bangladesh)
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Average Sunday at MUWCI
8:20 Alarm goes and after pressing the snooze button too many times I finally get up
8:45 I run to meet Andrea (Norway) before breakfast and take some of her sunscreen
9:00 Cornflakes, bananas, rice. Always rice.
9:30 I put on my running shoes and meet up with my Himalayan expedition group and coordinator Arvin for an intense training session.
11:00 A cold shower to wash away the mud, grass, and sweat
12:30 I head to the cafeteria for brunch with Nizar (Morocco) where I eat masala dosas, scrambled eggs, pork stew and chapati with sugar until my stomach hurts.
1:00 I go back to my room to grab something
1:20 I have another masala dosa as brunch is brunch
1:45 I go to S.P.A.C.E to practice some violin, the first time since coming here. The sound of scales on the french horn played by Carole (Luxembourg) coming from the other room reminds me of home.
2:45 Yoga class
4:00 I nap, something you can't live without here
5:00 I walk to the tree house to do some homework and find some peace
6:00 Tea time with everyone who stumbles into my courtyard. It was cozy
7:00 Dinner!
8:00 Held a swing dancing lesson for Carissa (Jamaica), Nitay (Israel/Guatemala), Lam (Finland/Vietnam), Daan (Netherlands), Numaya (Bangladesh) and Toan (Vietnam). My roommate Safieh (Bangladesh) showed up later and so did Sam and Charlotte from the States.
9:30 Check-in. Meet up with Andrea and Jamie (Netherlands) and head to the Dukaan for some eggs only to find the Dukaan is closed.
10:00 Intend on walking back to my room but caught up talking to people in the common room and sitting outside in the warm air.
11:00 homeworkhomeworkhomework
11:30 Skype with friends back home
12:00 Sleep
Though life here moves at break neck speed, I am starting to feel at peace here; with the endless dal, chapati and rice; the mountains in the distance as you walk back to your wada from classes; the monsoon that can last for 10 seconds or 2 hours; that feeling of security as you walk back into your corner and realize when you say you're going 'home', you mean this tiny, cramped place.
Tiny, cramped places can hold a lot of love.
8:45 I run to meet Andrea (Norway) before breakfast and take some of her sunscreen
9:00 Cornflakes, bananas, rice. Always rice.
9:30 I put on my running shoes and meet up with my Himalayan expedition group and coordinator Arvin for an intense training session.
11:00 A cold shower to wash away the mud, grass, and sweat
12:30 I head to the cafeteria for brunch with Nizar (Morocco) where I eat masala dosas, scrambled eggs, pork stew and chapati with sugar until my stomach hurts.
1:00 I go back to my room to grab something
1:20 I have another masala dosa as brunch is brunch
1:45 I go to S.P.A.C.E to practice some violin, the first time since coming here. The sound of scales on the french horn played by Carole (Luxembourg) coming from the other room reminds me of home.
2:45 Yoga class
4:00 I nap, something you can't live without here
5:00 I walk to the tree house to do some homework and find some peace
6:00 Tea time with everyone who stumbles into my courtyard. It was cozy
7:00 Dinner!
8:00 Held a swing dancing lesson for Carissa (Jamaica), Nitay (Israel/Guatemala), Lam (Finland/Vietnam), Daan (Netherlands), Numaya (Bangladesh) and Toan (Vietnam). My roommate Safieh (Bangladesh) showed up later and so did Sam and Charlotte from the States.
9:30 Check-in. Meet up with Andrea and Jamie (Netherlands) and head to the Dukaan for some eggs only to find the Dukaan is closed.
10:00 Intend on walking back to my room but caught up talking to people in the common room and sitting outside in the warm air.
11:00 homeworkhomeworkhomework
11:30 Skype with friends back home
12:00 Sleep
Though life here moves at break neck speed, I am starting to feel at peace here; with the endless dal, chapati and rice; the mountains in the distance as you walk back to your wada from classes; the monsoon that can last for 10 seconds or 2 hours; that feeling of security as you walk back into your corner and realize when you say you're going 'home', you mean this tiny, cramped place.
Tiny, cramped places can hold a lot of love.
3 weeks - pictures
A roughly drawn map of campus for us firsties
The breath taking view from the treehouse
Standard practice to get electricity at MUWCI
Admin block
One of the entrances to the AQ
great
The usual chaos while shopping in Pune (Junesoo (South-Korea), Marija and Andrea (Norway))
Pune
Street fruit vendor
Paud, a village in the Mulshi Valley, close to our hilltop
Andrea (Norway) in the treehouse at sunset after a wonderful talk
I could get used to this
My corner! (A work in progress). Starting to feel like home
Welcome to Wada 3 House 5R
My roommates are Safieh from Bangladesh, Rhea from India, Ankitha from Singapore and India, and me from the Netherlands and Canada :)
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