the day of my arrival (thoughts from the 7th of june)

sitting in the guesthouse:
it's honestly a little overwhelming to be in hyderabad right now, especially since i've always dreamed of traveling to india. i had a few initial reactions:
1. the heat is no joke. we got off of the plane and i was immediately beaten down by it. it was only like 5:30 when we got here, and it was already as hot as the average summer day in pittsburgh (i think it may have been 30-something celsius when we arrived, whew!)
2. the driving is just like africa. speed limits and traffic lines are, again, just a recommendation. and everyone is constantly beeping their horn. how can they even know who to be cross at when cars are coming from literally every direction? and pedestrians? they're some bold people. it's going to take me close to forever to not be afraid of crossing the road.
3. i'd sort of forgotten how religious/spiritual indians are as a nation. but the handful of roadside temples to different deities (i recognized parvati, shiva, and hanuman) quickly reminded me.
4. i was kind of surprised at the number of half constructed buildings i saw. there were some apartment buildings that didn't look all the way completed but people were clearly living there. and then just random cement structures with metal beams that were clearly a work in progress.

i'm still taking it all in...i just can't believe that i'm actually here.
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i tried to ask for food at the guesthouse, he gave me HOT chai....yeah, i'm definitely going to have to learn some telugu. i'm not going to be as tolerant or forgiving of the language barrier when i haven't eaten a filling meal in like two days.
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at the SHARE office (first day at work):
honestly, today was a bit of a struggle: i'm ridiculously jet lagged. i thought it was relatively late here, and then i remember that i've only been here for a little less than 12 hours. i napped on the couch in the SHARE office, and then i nearly fell asleep when i was meeting with tushar (a "coworker who went to pitt's med school) about my duties (more to come about that) and then with nitin desai (the administrator) about getting a phone.

speaking of duties. since i hadn't been given any particular tasks by dr. bunker, tushar (a medical student at pitt) is putting me to work. i'll be working pretty much exclusively on the MILES study, which is the old age study for which i received partial training with allison prior to my arrival. i'll officially be in charge of keeping inventory for all of the equipment that we'll be using: this includes levels for the stadiometer (what we're using to measure height), mouthpieces for spirometry (measuring lung capacity and air flow), grips for measuring strength, the whole lot. additionally, i'll be reformatting the questionnaire they're using for that study: i won't be changing any of the language, i'll just be making it easier to read and interpret. i was put on this job because i'm apparently a computer whiz (in the words of dr. bunker).

i had my first lunch at the canteen. apparently, the level of spiciness varies from day to day depending on the mood of the cooks (wonderful...), but today, it wasn't too bad. i won't say it wasn't spicy because the more i ate without drinking water, the more my mouth felt like pins and needles. but i ate more than sowmya who apparently has a lower thresh hold for spicy foods than i.

something i'm not yet used to is all of the stares that i've been getting. in swaziland and south africa, i guess i was just stared at because i look african but i have the poise and composure of someone who's not of the continent: basically, they thought i was sexy :) but here, it's a different kind of stare. it's one of like awe and wonderment. both shivi and sowmya told me it's because they've likely never seen a black person in real life before, only on TV or movies. but hey, it's fine. i'm perfectly willing to break the stereotypes that hyderabadis have towards black people.

one last thing. i knew that andhra pradesh had a lot of muslims, but i didn't realize they were so conservative. i thought they'd have their heads and arms covered and all that, but the number of abayas and niqabs i saw on the streets actually surprised me a little bit. AND THEN, in light of that conservativeness, i'm a little shocked to hear that the theaters are playing "hangover II" with all of its foul language and nudity and the like.

i guess i'll watch some shows on the computer and try to stay awake. i can't fall asleep now or else i'll be setting myself up for a terrible sleeping schedule for the next few days till my body acclimates to the 11.5 hour difference. as soon as dinner's over, though, it's bedtime.