Writing Challenges and Pinky Swears

I know I'm long overdue for a post as school has started, the CWC has been built up, and I've bought another fun outfit to show off.  But until I post the more monument things, I'm going to post a challenge between me and one of the undergraduate students here at Ashoka.

During a tutoring session yesterday, a student and I discussed the difficulties of writing and how best to combat them, because, writing doesn't really come easy to anyone.  If it does, I don't trust that you're telling the truth.  So, I challenged her to write 10 minutes a day, maybe in the morning before classes.  And I said I'd do the same.   We pinky swore to it.

So here I am, writing just to write.  I constantly want to take a breather and think about what I should write, so that when I publish this it sounds interesting.  It's easy to fail at that.  Which is a good case in point to prove I need to just write a little bit each day.

Yesterday was my first very full tutoring day.  I had a relatively easy morning, but had tutoring sessions after lunch, commented briefly by email on a student's draft, and then had three back to back sessions during our late hours, 7-10pm.  Afterwards I was exhausted, but felt great that all my sessions had gone nearly the full hour and that I felt as though there was progress made.

Writing for ten minutes when you're gauging the time can be very strange considering I usually spend between 45-60 minutes on one entry.   I find myself wanting to read through all I've written to discover what should come next.  It's a little comforting to know I am struggling with the same writing procrastination as my students--the truth is that that struggle never disappeared.

And because this is a blog, and I don't have to make sense, here's a photo of the student's plan to create a mural in the CWC:

And here is me in my new outfit!

My Address

Though I have many photos to add and updates to provide (one of which is that I might be fighting off bed bugs, yay me), I have only enough time tonight to share my address:

Centre for Writing and Communication
ATTN: Katherine Brichacek
Ashoka University
3rd Floor, Admin Block
Plot #2, Rajiv Gandhi Educational City
Kundli, Haryana 131028

School starts tomorrow! I don't have my class (which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays and Fridays), but I do have hours at the CWC which will be my new home away from home! I'll post photos of the centre soon, I promise!

lvoes <3

Gouda Mac and Cheese

In the few days since my last post I decided to cook the rest of the fresh vegetables I bought and make some gouda mac and cheese.  Needless to say, I slept the best I have after this meal since arriving.

Lemon garlic green beans.

Cheese sauce from scratch.

All mixed together, with whole wheat pasta.

Final product!

A very happy Katherine.  In other news, I'm heading up to Kasol tomorrow night on an overnight bus.  It'll be around a 14 hour bus ride, but it'll get me to the Himalayas where temps are in the high 60s in the day and low 50s at night.  Considering the high this week is a consistent 104 in Sonepat, I'll gladly take the change.

Food Blues

I've been rather depressed about my eating in the last two weeks.  When I'm in Delhi at our office, I eat great south Indian food and sometimes go out to eat at restaurants where I can get pasta or pizza or lots of veggies or meat.  We're rarely at the Delhi office though :/

At home, we've finally got our fridge, hot plate, microwave, and electric kettle.  But acquiring vegetables is tough.  Last weekend we went into Delhi (a two hour, at least, endeavor--just one way) to go to a place called Food Hall where they sell many American and European groceries.  It is very expensive and hard to trek back anything nonperishable, but we got some basics.  A small zucchini cost 144 rupees which comes close to $2.37.  Though it's not that much in USD, that is very expensive for a little squash.  Mimi, I've never missed your squash as much as this summer!

I wouldn't be so sad about the trouble it takes to get fresh, clean produce if our food at the mess hall were a little more appealing.  The caterers have changed in the last two weeks, so there is now a little more variety.  But both lunch and dinner consist of rice (sometimes it's fried in lots of oil : /), a kind dal (lentil stew/soup), and some veggie (usually potatoes or chickpeas) that are generally very spicy and always swimming in oil. Outside of these categories, there's little change.  I liken it to having to eat camp food with little change between lunch and dinner, for 14 meals a week.

I can't emphasize enough how grateful I am to have the mess considering how difficult it is to acquire food to cook, and also considering how rampant the poverty is here.  I am just at the point (and it's only a month in!) where I loose my appetite as soon as I get into the mess hall.  I've looked online for meal replacement powders that have all the vitamins and minerals and fiber you could want, but can't seem to find one that's not for muscle building and working out.

Now to celebrate past meals that have satisfied me, a photo purge:

Lauren and Ramya enjoying ice cream, not from McDonald's, but from a little shop in the same mall.

My roommate Gabe and I split a pizza at the same mall.  We were all very happy to eat pizza that day.

Back to Lauren threatening to kill anyone who touched her ice cream.

It's very difficult to buy alcohol here, and nearly impossible to if you are a woman.  I get pretty upset about it, and no not just because I want to be able to drink, but much more because someone denies me service due to my gender.  My two roommates and I made friends with a guy who also lives at Parker Residency and offered to buy us some rum and vodka, but the place to buy it from is mainly a restaurant so we had to buy some chicken too.  It was delicious, so it ended up being a win-win situation.

Documentation of my first ever room service breakfast.  My fellow writing tutors and I went to a dinner party at our boss's house a few weeks ago and because she lives on the opposite side of Delhi, she put us up in a hotel (they're called guest houses here).  We got some omelettes and toast and coffee the next day.  We were so hungry we didn't wait to take a before photo.

These were taken at Fork You in Hauz Khas Village, Delhi.  When we were most homesick for meat, Ramya took us here.  I got a lamb burger with feta and cucumber, and in the background you can see the very delicious old fashioned I ordered.

On another note, we might be moving out of Parker Residency for reasons I'll disclose later.  I am hoping that we'll get to move into Delhi where it's safer and there's much more freedom to roam about and site see.  I don't know how much of a possibility it is though, so I'll keep you updated.  School starts the first week of September, so if I do move, it'll be in the next week or two at most.  Love and miss you all!

A little bored

Tomorrow marks two weeks since I've left Chicago.  Though I'm grateful and excited to be in India, I don't have much to do.  Consistent work won't start until the end of next week.  It's been good to get to know my colleagues, I'm just ready for some work--I know I'll regret saying this in two months.

Yesterday was relatively uneventful, though I did go on my first run here.  It was horrible, there are so many bugs flying in and around my mouth and it's way more humid than I prefer for running, but it is helping me feel a little better.

I think I'll just do a little photo purge to prove I am actually having a good time here, despite the first two paragraphs.

The above photo was taken at India Coffee House in Delhi last week.  We had rose soda, iced and hot coffees and were told to skip the water--it's not worth the risk of getting sick.  I was very thirsty, so iced coffee it was.  One large gulp later I discovered a large, dead ant on my tongue.  It was nasty, but didn't ruin the experience.

This delectable delight was from Wenger's Bakery in Connaught Place (Delhi).  Mango Pudding--it was as good as it sounds and looks.  I was too eager to try it before taking a photo.

And here is Nina, Susannah, me, and Chimi in an auto(rickshaw).  It's a small covered seat that's driven by the equivalent of a motorcycle.  They don't go very fast, but they are an easy, cheap way to get where you're going.

These photos are from the third night we were in town--very jet lagged.  We had an opening ceremony and dinner, so naturally we chose to document ourselves.  

And last for today, here's a blurry shot of the complexes we live in, it's called a society here, and the pool.  We were yelled at after taking this photo for being in the pool, so I don't know if we'll be able to actually use it.

Oooh, one more for TTHT because in a few hours (for me) we can say we've been together for a year and 8 months.

It's a Tom sandwich :D <3

First Week

All right, I'm well overdue for my first post.  I arrived in India on Saturday and got to my apartment that night.  I'm staying about a two hour drive from Delhi which makes me feel a little isolated, but in the next few weeks we'll probably be more creative in how we get into the city.  

I'm already making great friends, both American and Indian.  And I'm being fed so, so much delicious food. Below is what was delivered to our rooms (unbeknownst to us) because the mess hall here at the apartment complex is closed for lunch.  The YIF (Young India Fellows) live here at this complex as well, so we eat with them at breakfast and dinner when they're here as opposed to on campus for classes which started yesterday.  The YIF are equivalent to graduate students, so they start early--we'll start classes with the undergraduates on Sept. 1.

I also was able to travel into the city yesterday after attending a book fair with my colleagues and faculty members to decide what will be in the library.  We went to two separate malls to get some basic necessities.  I got toilet paper, hand lotion, and two really awesome pieces of clothing.  I got a kurti which is like a tunic and some very summery pants:

We have relatively good internet, though we have power surges for a minute at most quite a few times a day.  The water pressure in the shower is great, though there's no hot water--we don't need it though because it's so so hot and humid right now.  It's rained today for the first time since I've arrived.  The monsoon season is very close, it might even be starting today.  Once the monsoon comes through it'll be cooler.  And I've been told that October will be so beautiful and the winter is really lovely.  I have a lot to be excited about.

Tonight I'll be traveling with my writing center colleagues to our boss's house for dinner and a sleep over (so we won't have to travel back a long distance late at night).  Until next time, lvoes!

I've dreamt of India

It looks like my dream of wanting to ride an elephant in India is going to come true.  This morning I was offered a one year position at Ashoka University in New Delhi and I accepted the offer.  Training starts July 1st for three weeks, then I have roughly two weeks to explore the country before classes begin.  I anticipate using this blog to document my travels and experience! I'm both excited and scared--I can't begin to imagine how much I'll miss TTHT.