Whirlwind

I am officially a student! Yippee!

Today has been a whirlwind of information being thrown in my face, I am going into a system overdrive. Today we got our student id cards and filled out even more paper work. We had lunch at the canteen which is another place on campus to get food. They have a better variety than the mess hall (you don't get any choices at the mess) but you have to pay. We got food for the 4 of us for a little under $2. Next we met with the political science department (for Laura) and then the social work department. We sat and talked with professors and the head of the department for at least 2 hour discussing everything. We talked about each professors personal opinions regarding caste, class, poverty, gender roles, race, ragging (hazing), the environment, pollution, social systems, and the growing tensions in India over these issues along with issues regarding western influence and South vs. North India. They were all very open to talking and I was surprised to find that they shared almost all of the same views as I did. However, they considered themselves to be the 0.000001% of Indians who held those views. Oh yeah, and somewhere within all that we talked about our field placements and the classes we will be taking. Phew, my brain was, and certainty still is, working too hard trying to wrap my head around all of this.

Here are some things that I found notable and share worthy:

- I saw a little boy with powder all over his face. Apparently this is very popular, assumption is this is to make their skin look more fair. It is said to be good for your skin..... (Excuse? I don't really buy that)

- Cars in India blast music when they are backing up. It is awesome! I'm so thankful that they do this automatically because I would be dead right now if they didn't.

- There are words in Tamil for a woman who cannot have a child and a woman who does not live with their husband. However, there are no equivalent words for a man who cannot have a child or a man who does not live with their wife.

- Occupational Therapy in India is used strictly for jobs. The example I was given was that a teacher would go to OT if they had trouble with their throat because that is their main tool within their job. A police man would go if he was having trouble with his legs. I don't know how much I believe all of this, I am very skeptical. I will be sure to give updates regarding Indian views of OT.

-There is not such thing as a Speech Pathology. You just go to the doctors for that. Again, I am skeptical if this guy even knew what he was talking about. He does have some credit though because he is a college professor.

- There is no such thing as Geriatrics in India, only Pediatrics and everyone else that is treated. So weird.

Well, I need to choose my classes. I can only take two so currently I am choosing between International Social Work, Community Health, Health and Social Work, and Rural Community Development. They all sound fantastic and I wish I could take them all!

xoxo,

-Becca