Protest, Hospitals, and Poorly Controlled Anger

So the plan for yesterday was for my USAC group to go to the police registration offices, so we could obtain permits to live as student in the country.  However, when we met at the gate of our apartments at eight am, we were met by Jacob on his scooter, explaining that there was a strike going on and that the transportation needed to get to the registers office was pretty much a no go, and that we now had a free day to ourselves.  I have been feeling pretty woozy ever since I started taking my malaria medication, so I decided to walk to Christ University in order to meet up with “mrs.florence”- our sweet Indian general wellness person, and go to the hospital for a checkup.

My apartment is about 45 minutes away from the University on foot, so I had lots of time to talk with Natalie, who, as I understand it,  servers as a study abroad advisor, occasionally for USAC, through the university of Maryland.  She has a degree in American Studies, and is the first person I have met to have actually used it in a way I would want to.  She leads trips to places such as Egypt through her job in her study abroad office, and received a Fulbright  to teach English for a year in Morocco.  How baddass!

On the way to University, we got a little bit lost because all of the buildings we normally use as landmarks were shut down for the strike.  The streets were almost entirely empty without the busses and most of the ricksaws.  On the way the streets emptied, and we saw some of he protestors drive by, probably around 200 cars and busses, honking their horns and waving signs.  I am not entirely sure what the strike accomplished, but it’s interesting to think how effective a similar action would be in America. 

When I got to Christ, I road on the back of Mrs. Florences scooter to the clinic.  Bangalore traffic is still a little scary, even without all of the buses but it was interesting to see the more residential, less touristy part of the city.  Mrs.Florence explained that she takes USAC students to a hospital  nearer to her because the one closet to campus is pretty racist.  It will automatically treat and white person before any Indian, and also charge them triple the amount for things they don’t need.  The clinic was very  typical of anywhere in America, minus the fact that all the nurses wore sky blue saris.  The doctor was very nice, and after I talked about my symptoms, explained that I was having a poor reaction to my malaria meds, and gave me some pills to counteract their effects.  Today I have been feeling much better. 

After the Dr. I took a rickshaw to corgen park, a very beautiful and historical reserve located next to parliament. The rickshaw driver was nice, right up until he started ripping me off by driving around and around the park in order to jack up his rate.  I finally had to put my ingrained southern courtesy aside and shout at him to pull the fuck over, pretty please.  My fare was five times what he had told me it would be.  Not all ricksaw drivers are like this, but in my experience so far maybe a third will do stuff like that if you aren’t insistent.  I was thirty minutes late meeting my friends because of  him, but once I actually arrived I found them almost at once.

 After we toured the park a little we went to lunch at a really nice restaurant down the street.  Some people were a little more adventurous with their food than others, and I ended up getting a drink that tasted like a peppered egg with lemon…:S

After a four hour nap on my part, we went to a delicious Chinese/ Northern Indian restaurant, where I got a peanut chicken that literally rocked the hell out of my life…. So good.

Today virtually nothing particularly Indian happened we went to the registration place today and spent about seven hours waiting in line in order to not get kicked out of our apartments/ the country.  A group of us went out exploring and found the Hard Rock café, Bangalore, and celebrated our air-conditioned discovery with delicious tandoori burgers.  Afterwards we found a beautiful handmade jewelry/ craft place where I picked up a few souvenirs, before hoping back on the ricksaws to pick up our printed residency forms. Unfortunately, the two ricksaws had no idea where they were going, and proceeded to drive around in a circle while they figured it out, much to the dismay of our meters.  My car just didn’t argue, but the other was really angry and almost didn’t pay them at all.  After the registration, yet another nap time, followed up by an excursion to a local “Jimi Hendrix” themed bar.  I didn’t drink because of my meds, but all the liquor prices here are crazy-cheap, and something about being able to just sit at the table with beer in public was kind of a cheap thrill.  Tomorrow is our Bangalore tour! I am really excited about being able to find out where stuff in the city actually is, as well as see some of the big sights we haven’t quite had access to yet.