A month ago I landed in Berkeley, CA, and I'm starting work on (hopefully) an engineering degree! This is a huge change for me, and it's still sort of sinking in. I am finding the academic work extremely stimulating. However, all is not lost, and I will still be working on drawings of journeys as much as I have time to. Like I'm ever going to stop going on adventures!
Some updates (in reverse chronological order):
If you read an ad on Craigslist that emphasized the place being a vegan and biker house, what would you expect? Definitely punk house. But apparently in Berkeley this is not code for punks, in fact, it could very well be a middle age activist mom and her teenage son. That is who I live with now and it is awesome.
I spent a week in NJ/NY between my travels and CA, and it went by way too fast. It was snowing most of the time, which was pretty shocking having arrived from 95 in Bombay. Between trying to see all my friends, pack my life into a suitcase, and adjust to being back in the states, I managed to completely forget most of this week.
So after my last post, Michael and I had nearly 2 more months in India. I have really mixed feelings about India. I didn't like it nearly as much as I thought I would, but I still yearn to go back and see more of it. Some parts of India are so beautiful and colorful. Each area has so much character, and the people are quite proud of this character (as opposed to China where they are desperately trying to become "Western").
But traveling for that long there got really intense, particularly because India was far more sexist than I had anticipated. Many of the cities had areas with no women on the streets at all, and in those areas in particular men ruthlessly stared. Men also constantly tried to "accidentally" bump into me. At a trai n station in Jodhpur, while looking at the beverage selection at a market at a time when there were few people at this stand, a man came up behind me and rubbed his whole body against mine as if he simply hadn't seen me. Then he cut me in line. Michael violently bumped into him in retaliation. This sort of thing happened all the time to me. Often, groups of teenage boys would come up to me and say things in hindi to my face and then all start laughing and walk away.
For better or worse, Indian men are often very outgoing. And at other times this was quite endearing. Men at the sweet shop would insist that we try their favorite pastry. One man at a hostel we stayed at took us all over the Rajasthani countryside on his motorbike. Most of the people we met at hostels were warm and welcoming and extremely helpful.
I think in many ways I am still processing this experience, so I will try and post some reflections once in a while. The rest of my India photos are up on facebook: here and here. Besides that, blogs will probably be pretty sporadic, as my life is finally settling down after 6 months of pure adventure. I really am going to update Drawings of Journeys though. I mean it!
I think in many ways I am still processing this experience, so I will try and post some reflections once in a while. The rest of my India photos are up on facebook: here and here. Besides that, blogs will probably be pretty sporadic, as my life is finally settling down after 6 months of pure adventure. I really am going to update Drawings of Journeys though. I mean it!
