First Impressions

I'm currently sitting in the old SIP (Study in India Program) House lobby with the other students, waiting to go on a walking tour of the campus. I keep phasing between total alertness and heavy drowsiness (currently experiencing the latter) due to the 11.5 hour time difference.

Getting here went well, and didn't feel as long as it sounded. I dozed a bit on each flight and enjoyed meals as they came, without much regard for which meals corresponded to which parts of the day. The whole thing felt like one oddly stretched out day, broken up by reading, sleeping and eating.

Heathrow was posh, filled with trendy bars and restaurants serving expensive drinks and meals. That said, the British accent never fails to bring a smile to my face, especially when conveying meaning through unfamiliar phrases ("you're welcome" = "that's alright"; "trash" = "rubbish", etc). I didn't have much time to wander around the airport, but nabbed some pictures as I rushed through security to my security gate.

The next flight was more of the same, though it was sadly dark outside as we approached Hyderabad, so I wasn't able to see the landscape below. I quickly realized I had become the local minority, exiting the plane and waiting in line to pass through customs. I shortly bumped into the other CIEE students and we worked our way through the airport, emerging to crowds of Indians who vied for our collective cab fare in the pre-dawn darkness. The weather immediately reminded me of Hawaii in the morning. Spotting the CIEE-sign-holding fellow, we were herded out of the airport over to a large white bus (sadly not the ornate, purple one), which we then rode for an hour through the city, to the University.

As we drove along, we saw all sorts of little shops, strewn across an arid backdrop, from which a series of cement and wire-framed structures errupted. The smashing of rural and urban struck me as most peculiar, as the two areas, generally mutually exclusive in America, meshed together. Slums were strewn along decaying adboards and partially built, some seemingly abandonned, buildings. Among other unusual sights were herds of goats and sheep, wandering stray dogs and multi-colored everything - buses, rickshaws and buildings to name a few.

We arrived at the University and moved into our temporary rooms, at the old SIP guest house (we'll be moving into the new one today or tomorrow) before having some breakfast (Indian pancakes for the win). The temperature steadily increased as we drove to the University and had reached Hawaii's mid-day by around 9:30. After breakfast, I went exploring with some other students - the campus buildings are beautiful, in a state of semi-decay which seems to be characteristic of much of pre-modernized India. I am hopelessly in love with the open-air design of the buildings (again, highly reminiscent of Hawaii) which appear to have been built around nature itself, so that the interior of most buildings is rife with flowers and unique trees.

Lunch was also delicious (I'll upload some food pictures soon) and I went exploring again afterwards, this time in the opposite direction of campus, which led to the discovery of cactus trees, tall, upwardly-pluming peacock-like trees and a surprise lake.

--Writing from the next morning--

The tour yesterday afternoon went well, as we saw some areas of campus I hadn't found on my intial wanderings, specifically the yoga center, gym, bus stop and local shopping area. They pointed us in the direction of the new SIP Guest House, which is about 2km (1.6mi, I think) north of main campus. For that reason, we'll be getting bikes soon, which should make it easier to get around the sprawling campus. In the evening, the heat (it got very warm from around 11-2) eased and the evening temperatures again resembled Hawaii's at that time.

I felt an overwhelming calm, walking around campus last evening, as the birds chirped and dogs wandered around us. I wonder how this campus was conceived and built; the area seems so undisturbed and the buildings so casually strewn about, that it almost seems as though they selected already cleared out areas as building sites. The buildings are so often obscured by the surrounding forrestry, that one often has the sense of being in an area unaffected by man or woman. Beyond scenic, it is truly serene.

New photos