Home Sweet-and-Mellow Home

Me and two of my favorite ladies from the program
(Julia Ji on the left and Priyanka Ji on the right).

Getting home was an adventure in itself ...

We got back to Delhi from Mussorie (after taking an overnight train that I didn't sleep on at all) at 5am. We then made our way to our hotel and crashed until we had to go (for our last time) to the program center a few blocks away. There we had a reentry session (talking about culture shock ect.) and some cute closing things like awards and a slide show.

We had lunch and then I went back to the boiling hot hotel where I posted my last blog entry, met with a family friend, and dripping in sweat packed up all of the stuff I had accumulated over the past semester.

I also was able to write some final thank you notes, chat with friends and get help tying my sari.

In the evening the entire group loaded into a big bus and we made our way to the final banquet. Technically this was a time to say final good byes and thank yous, eat and enjoy the last evening in India. Well, my flight was at 12:30am which meant that I spent the first 10 minutes taking pictures, the next 25 minutes being forced to eat as quickly as possible by all of the professors, and the last 5 minutes saying quick good byes to everyone. I then rushed to the taxi (car changed into my traveling attire) and made it to the airport.

Me coming home! As you can see, I brought a little bit
more back home than what I went to India with ...
Eye-spy: PDX carpet! I'm home home home!

After refusing to pay $75 for an extra checked bag, getting my once-used pocket knife confiscated and buying my first Starbucks in 4 months, I was on my first plane home.

After almost 10 hours, I made it to Paris. I made it through the maze that is Charles DeGaulle Airport, through security and customs (while chatting with very cute Parisian TSA workers/guards) and made it to my next gate right as my next plane was boarding ... I didn't even sit down.

It was a quick and enjoyable commuter flight to Amsterdam where I then had to walk through the immaculate airport full of tulip stands, through extensive security that included not only the typical passport check, but also more bag screenings, full body scans and pat-downs and then an interrogation (questions about India, what I had packed, what I was doing, ect.). I sat down in the "holding area" for about 5 minutes, and then boarded my final 10 hour plane to PDX!!!

After traveling for more than 24 hours, I walked out of security and customs to see my adorable parents waiting for me (Jess was at school but I got the sweetest welcome-home-hug from him in the afternoon).

Coming home felt so ... normal. It was strange on the drive home to not hear any honking, for there to be space between cars, to not fear any truck screaming down the road towards me in my lane, and to be driving on the right again ... but besides those small initial shocks, its has all seemed relatively normal. Portland definitely feels like home, but a small part of me is back in India.

I keep comparing things (especially prices!) back to India and my life there. I absolutely fell in love with the country, the culture, and the people. It's crazy that my 3.5 month adventure has come to a close, but I am already thinking about my next trip!

Finishing Up the Academics

The Joint Director and all of his paper work.

Well, this incredible semester is coming to a close. I sit writing this in a sweltering hot hotel room in Delhi, where instead of packing, showering, or putting on my sari, I am writing this ...

I think I will post one last time once I arrive home in PDX (I leave in 8 hours!), but this is going to be the last post about the purely academic portion of my semester.

So, two weeks ago I finished up my field work. I went into the school board again (without hearing any confirmation about scheduling ... but I didn't worry about it) to ask the school board Joint Director the same questions I had asked the teachers, head teachers, and headmasters, plus some additional questions that I had been gathering during the previous week.

It was a very long interview, and I got some interesting information about how the school board functions and the vast amount of politics that are involved. I also learned about some details of the school district's inner workings, which were super interesting. He was not only was very open with me about  his thoughts (negative and positive) on the system, but he also (seemed) to be very honest about the system itself (I used everything anonymously in my paper and presentation). It was yet another example at how amazing this field work process was. The people I talked to were so welcoming and open, and I don't think I will ever get an opportunity to have so much access like this again. Incredible.

Once the field work was complete, I set to work on the paper and presentation. The paper turned out to be a total of almost 50 pages (longest paper I've ever written!) and it was a surprisingly semi-enjoyable experience. I really liked processing all of my information, and figuring out exactly what to make of all of my data.

A little glimpse into the process ... a bazzilion documents open on my computer, pages and pages of hand scrawled notes about what the heck to write about in 50 pages, a book to help distract me when I got tired and a bottle of water ... because its India.

I kind of mentioned this in my last post, but I ended up deciding to examine the elementary health education methods being used in the public schools, and their effects on fostering health literacy and health practices. After countless hours working and processing information, I came to the conclusion that although the public school system of Shimla has the tools (qualified teachers) and reasons (poor health practices and low levels of knowledge on how to practice preventive health care, ect), they aren't using any methods of health education. There is no mandated health curriculum, and even if teachers/schools deem it important to teach students about health practices, all of the information surrounds personal hygiene, which is not even close to sufficient in covering basic health education topics or creating health literacy.

Once the paper was done (I played the Hallelujah Chorus) I set to work on the presentation. As a part of the program, we not only submit a final ISP paper, but we also present our findings to our group, professors, visiting professors and NGO officials. 

For the presentations we went to another hill station rather than all meeting in Delhi, because it is just too bloody hot here. So, on Saturday morning the 6 members of the Shimla Crew (3 more people joined our group because it was just too stinking wonderful for people to not want to join us) packed up and got in a taxi that I had booked the day before; and settled in for our 9 hour journey. It was a journey for sure. Down 8,000ft in elevation on the winding roads, and then through the hot hot hot flat-ish lands, and then back up to 6,000ft to Mussorie.

Me giving my presentation ...

I was lucky and was assigned to the first day (of two) for my presentation, so I could get it over with. I think it went pretty well; people were talking about education at lunch afterwards ... so thats a good sign. A lot of people noted that although we had been seeing a lot of children during our visits to different areas in India, they hadn't really thought about what education (or lack there of) the children were actually getting when they went to school.

That evening (our last "normal" night in India together) we had a party. We danced the night away and it was really nice to just let loose and dance with the people that I have grown to love over the course of the past 3.5 months.

It must have been a good song at this moment ... I was obviously singing along to the music as I danced. Others were singing too (see Mimi),  I'm not the only one haha.