This title refers mostly to the fact that a significant number of my interactions so far with native Hindi speakers have been incredibly awkward; the general format goes something like this:
Me: Question in Hindi
Native speaker: Assumption that I am also a native speaker because I am Indian, and thus a complicated response
Me: Umm…
Native speaker: Oh…
--Minute-long pause--
Me: So… do you speak English? (in Hindi, at least)
So yeah, a good deal of my interactions here have been kind of awkward, at least at the outset. I think my Hindi/pronunciation is just good enough to convince people that I speak it when I first ask a question (sometimes, my Hindi is even good enough to make it to a second line of conversation!), but not even close to good enough to follow into an actual conversation or effectively communicate my point. It’s making my desire to learn Hindi even stronger, actually – seeing how far I have to go is definitely motivating rather than depressing me, which is different from last summer. With Japanese, I almost felt like seeing how far from fluency I was made part of me want to give up, or at the very least doubt myself. Here, on the other hand, there isn’t really a part of me that wants to quit.
So day 2 in Delhi: it started (not so) bright and early as a pleasant result of the jetlag. I went to bed at 7 P.M. last night and woke up at 2 A.M. I tossed around for another 2 hours trying to go back to sleep, but around 4 I decided to just give up and accept my fate. So I got up, showered, repacked my suitcase, and ate some snacks I had left over from the flight. Luckily it started to get light a little before 5, so I considered going out for a walk, both to see Delhi and to find the coveted STD phone (so remember how in my last post I went looking for it? After an hour of fruitless searching and jumbled directions [I don’t think anyone actually knew where I could find one, because everyone I asked told me to go in an entirely different direction], I just gave up and vowed to find the phone today). However, when I got downstairs to the lobby, I saw that one of the hotel workers had fallen asleep in such a way that he effectively blocked the doorway; there was no way I could get past him without waking him up. So I decided to just go back to my room for a bit and read The Drawing of the Three, the second work in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
Side note: for any of you who have any interest in sci-fi, westerns, epics, or really any sort of fiction, I would highly recommend the series. Although, let me warn you, it is an addiction – so far both books have been so engrossing that I finished them in one straight 5-hour read and one 4-hour, 3-hour read.
Anyway, I read for 4 hours, till around 9, when, having realized I had no idea when I was supposed to check out by or go to the AIIS center by, I went back down to the lobby. Several broken Hindi conversations and a few awkward phone calls later, I found out the actual plan: leave by noon to get lunch at the AIIS guest house. From there we would be taken to today’s hotel, the Taj Palace.
Now I figured I had another 2 hours before noon, enough time to read more Stephen King! But alas, around 10:30 jetlag started to catch up with me and by 11, I was out. Woke up at 12:15, almost too late to get the ride to the guest house. So I frantically grabbed my suitcase and ran down to the center, getting my luggage on just in time. But then I remembered I still had to check out of the hotel, so I get to the counter at 12:25 or so, where the guy tells me the fare is Rs. 2900 (about $70 – also totally outrageous for the quality of place we were staying). As fate would have it, I only had Rs. 2000 on hand and the place would not accept traveler’s checks. So I run down to the nearest bank and get there (no exaggeration) at 12:31, where I ask the teller to cash my check for me. He glances at the clock and says “Sorry, sir – that service ends at 12:30.” I pleaded with him a little bit, but he wouldn’t crack. So I returned to the hotel defeated and unsure of what to do. Lucky for me, the program director settles in with the inn and tells me I can just pay him back when I cash a check in Jaipur or something. Nice guy.
So then came the first joint lunch, where I got to meet some of the other students doing AIIS. A lot of them seem really cool, a lot seem very negative, but nearly all of them are much, much older than me. Honestly, I think I’m one of… 5 undergrads in this program (not just Hindi – all of AIIS). So many of them are already married, man. I didn’t know what to do. Anyway, at the center I got internet access for the first time since being here, which was excellent. I sent out a few emails (most noteworthy of which was to my parents, assuring them that I was alive) and updated my blog (which I know all you loyal followers of this blog must have noticed…). But more importantly, I got to check the score to last night’s playoff game/watch a highlights reel. KG is the best.
Anyway, from there we went to the hotel in groups of 5. We were welcomed in “traditional Indian style,” which basically meant a woman in a sari put kumkumum powder (not entirely sure 1) what it’s called in other languages and 2) how to transliterate it) on our foreheads. Also, we got moist towels! Fun fact: I think moist towels are my favorite hotel perk, for all of you looking to get into the hotel business.
My roommate at the hotel seems really nice; he just graduated from Harvard undergrad and has taken one year of Hindi. He’s also from Switzerland! So he has a lot of chocolate with him. We talked for a little bit, and then I started reading and he started skyping (presumably) his girlfriend. Around 4 we got a call to meet in the lobby at 7 for dinner. Another three hours of reading (skyping for him), and then it was off to dinner at this great vegetarian buffet place. Free. I could get used to life like this. I think I’m coming up with a new standard: I will from now on measure my success by the number of meals/plane tickets/etc. that people buy for me in any given year. Help me feel successful!
During dinner, me and this one kid (Jack, I think?) watched the Argentina/Nigeria game. Argentina is looking really really good right now – I didn’t get to watch the last 20 minutes, but what I saw looked really nice. Afterwards, we returned to the hotel, with news that tomorrow’s wake-up call will be at 6 A.M., with plans to ship out to our respective sites by 2. I’m really excited to see Jaipur and take lots of pictures. When I next get internet, I’ll post both this entry as well as the pictures I have taken of Delhi so far. It’s only about 15 or so, mostly because I haven’t had the time to go out that much. But there will be many pictures of Jaipur (also, at that point I will probably/hopefully feel less awkward taking pictures of my program-mates), I promise!
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