Our Accomodation and Preparation

It was so uplifting today to read your comments! Here's an overview of the past few days to answer them:

We arrived at the apartments on Friday, and we begin work in the schools tomorrow (Monday). This weekend has been both relaxing and hectic - we settled down and almost immediately plunged into orientation for our project, visiting the schools, learning basic Hindi, doing mock lessons, and preparing lesson plans. And those lesson plans have taken nearly all day, though we took a lovely break in a shockingly clean and modern coffee shop (real espresso! not instant!), where almost everyone took advantage of the brownies on the menu.
Because today is Sunday, we can't copy worksheets or buy supplies, and so everything takes longer... we're utilizing pressed carbon paper and handmade creativity. Unsure of what activities will work and how much time they will take, we're sort of gambling on what we hope are the right combinations.
Right as we're learning to do all this, we're going to stumble into classrooms tomorrow to teach classes of about 10 pupils completely by ourselves. Our only company lies in letters and numbers; the only familiar names are those for animals, colors, fruits, and body parts. Oh, there's a lunch break in there, but that's about it. So I'm basically a bit nervous.

On a lighter note, living in the apartments has given our wild spectrum of adventure some much-needed ground. Home base is a spread on the ground floor, and most of the day's flurry happens here - meals, classes, activities, socializing. I love this because we're a huge jumbled family, with our mixing accents and continuous teasing. To illustrate, I had the mysteries of Sim cards (exchangeable programmed chips that exist in seemingly all cell phones but American ones) and the game of cricket (kind of like baseball, but less orderly) revealed to me yesterday by all the non-Americans (nearly everyone). And apparently "Z" in their alphabet is pronounced "zed", which Noelle and I found simply mind-boggling. It's like European enlightenment.
There's a few rooms here, then a few more in an apartment on the 1st floor, then another apartment with 2 rooms on the 3rd floor, where I'm staying. Through "floors" are really only half-floors; there's a main stairwell, with 2-3 apartment doors at every half-flight. We're three to a room, and bonding happens over hanging laundry in the balconies and filling up multiple buckets at "water time" ( the only 2 hrs in the morn and 1 in the evening when the water is on).
The weather's definitely not as extreme as I'd prepared for. Delhi and Jodhpur were sweltering and persistant with the dripping heat, but Udaipur shelters a whisper breeze, veiled sky, and lower temperatures; it's been wonderful remembering what it feels like to have skin that's not sticky and hot.

Finally, probably the centerpiece of my Indian newness, is Indian cuisine and how surprised I am that I'm surviving and not minding the spices and vegetarianism! Through various restaurants in the midst of our sightseeing spree, I experimented with the dishes that other newbies ordered. I think my most valuable discovery was in combining flatbread or rice with the spicy veggies/lentils to blanket that Indian masala punch to the tongue. And now at the apartment we have a smile-eyed cook who gives us traditional (but most likely milder) dishes for our full 3 meals. I'm not even missing meat too much, though by the end of this month I think the lentils/bread/unfamiliar veggies combo will get monotonous. I'd really love a cold, crunchy bowl of cereal... avoiding cold milk was advised by many due to lack of pasteurization.

I think that covers your inqueries. Thank you so much for reading!

~christiana