Classes and Khojo Hyderabad

So I finally have my classes worked out! I haven't been able to attend one of them because I just was going to try it today and the professor was on leave for the day and weds is a holiday! woot!
But I looked at some people's notes and I'm gonna go for it since we were supposed to hand the forms declaring our classes in today ( although time is relative).
Classes meet for 4 hours a week so either 2 hour lectures or 1 hour classes or some combination
So I'm taking:

Conversational Hindi M-Th
Anthropology of Complex Societies ( the one I have yet to attend) M&W
Indian Philosophy T-Th
Gandhian Philosophy M&T

Then I also meet my Hindi tutor twice a week.
Anyway, on Sunday we had a big CIEE game which was a "treasure hunt" around Hyderabad. We were split into teams and then we had clues and questions to answer at each site. We started on campus then had to take buses and rickshaws around. They gave us 600 R and whichever team spent the least money and arrived earliest to each site would win. It was actually tons of fun though absolutely exhausting. I had Mary, Maya and Craig on my team and Craig was super into it so it was pretty funny. We let him run ahead of us since he really wanted too. Luckily both he and Maya know some Hindi, which was helpful for negotiating rickshaws ( although we still got the 'white tax' and were ripped off). People were teasing Craig cause they said pushed a lady and her kid out of the way at one point running through the mall.... but it was all in good fun, I really don't think he did it.
The locations we had to stop at were a fabric school, where this lady has been keeping the art of loom-weaving alive. The fabrics are beautiful and she employs women who need jobs or are uneducated. The amount of work that goes into these pieces in unbelievable!!! I will get pictures up some time. The second place was lunch at a swanky restaurant in a mall that played American music and had a whole bunch of food from different places including a curry pasta which was pretty yummy. Place number three was the Salar Jung museum, which was neato but we were so tired by that point from running around and hanging out of rickshaws etc.

Our final destination was a sort of school/ self-improvement center. It taught vendanta philosophy (aka sop style philosophy) and things of that nature. It was pretty cool I was just so tired. They had lots of classes which they offered on self-improvement and mind-management. I was super excited because at the end of our little question and answer session the guy said a prayer in sanksrit and it was one that I knew! I had to go ask him what it meant at the end because I couldn't remember but it was the असतोमा सद्गमय prayer, so lead me from untruth to truth, lead me from darkness to light, lead me from death to immortality. They also had a really nice art gallery with teachings illustrated. There was definitely a Hari the lion one :)

AND we actually won second place in the competition so we got 8000R to split between us, which is about $40 each! Hooray.

What is your good name?

Someone asked me this after yoga the other day and I almost started laughing ( seriously, watch Outsourced; its a good movie and I will likely reference it a lot). Luckily I knew that they were just asking my name so I could answer. He seemed like a very nice guy and not creepy, though I was still wary ( I really hate not being able to trust people) and he is studying philosophy too ( he offered that information before I said anything about philosophy). I went to afternoon yoga since my internal clock seems to be shifting back towards not being happy to be awake so early. I was the only non-Indian person in the class, which was kinda nice and definitely different. I may just stick with that time since it is convenient, though I feel bad that I don't speak Hindi, since the instructor asked me if I did.
On that same note, it is very weird to be a minority. I've never really been one, at least not one that stood out so much. I'm probably as white as you can get so there's no way to blend in. I do love wearing the Indian clothing but I can't hide my skin color. People are fascinated by us. India is an interesting country because while there are many warnings about being safe and not making too much eye contact etc, the people are actually very very friendly and feel that as a visitor, you are a guest. It's hard to get used to being oggled all the time though. Yesterday was a Muslim holiday so we had no classes and a group of us went out to one part of the city. We went to visit this giant Buddha statue ( pics to come) which you need to take a little boat to get to. On the boat, the three of us were swarmed by people who wanted to take pictures with us and kept asking us all kinds of questions. They were very nice ladies, traveling together from somewhere near Mumbai, but they were absolutely entranced by us. We are pretty sure they took more pictures of us than the Buddha. Other people in our program have had similar experiences. On the boat ride back from the Buddha ( which is I believe either the largest or one of the largest in the world) the ladies had us come into the center of the boat and dance with them. It was quite fun and made my day. I was also asked twice if I was Russian, which I attribute to my uber-whiteness.
Today on the way to the library, I was stopped by a group of woman who were also just interested in me and what I was wearing ( a very plain shirt and skirt). It's hard to tell what exactly they are thinking because they smile and laugh, but it seems to be just genuine curiosity. I've read and been reading a lot about India and this seems normal. What I was reading last night was saying that fair skin is being pushed on Indians as an ideal of beauty, so they are very interested in it. While mostly things are still "traditional" in India, I have seen some people dressed or acting in ways which we have been told is inappropriate, so there is a range of behavior.
Yesterday, after lunch and the Buddha we walked around and found a really cool architectural park type thing. We didn't want to leave our shoes or pay so we didn't go in but we got some pictures from outside. There was a very LOTR looking structure/ temple inside which someone pointed out looked almost computer generated. Probably the most awesome part of yesterday ( besides the boat) was visiting a Hindu temple. Five of us went together, which was a good thing because we had to leave our bags and shoes outside in a coatroom, which none of us felt comfortable doing, so we went inside in shifts. The temple is amazing! It sits in a location up on a hill where you can look over the whole city( we weren't allowed to bring cameras in or I would have taken pictures). The carving is beautiful and people come to pay their respects to the various shrines for gods. I definitely saw ganesh and shiva, but I'm not sure about the other ones. The best part was the views over the city. It was close to sunset and it was also a semi-clouded day so that the sun was not unbearably hot, which made it beautiful. Yesterday was the first clouded day I've seen here. The temple was quite big so there was plenty to see and I could have stayed there all day, but when two boys came up to me saying, "sister, are you American?" I decided it was time to leave. Sister, or Didi (older sister), is a common term that people use to address girls, just as boys are called brother.
My classes are almost sorted out so I will be able to post them soon. I had a not completely unbearable cold shower this morning which was nice too. Things are really settling in nicely but I am also understanding a lot more of what I have read now that I am experiencing it. Soon it will be time to plan trips! We need to give 2 weeks notice to ciee so I need to get on that. AND my birthday is coming up soon!! yay! Oh, in addition, we have all been having really weird and vivid dreams. It is supposed to be a side affect of at least one of the types of malaria pills, though we all seem to be having them and we are on different medications so who knows!It could just be that we are in a really different place but it is weird to wake up every day and remember at least one dream. I usually don't remember mine, or I very rarely remember them. If you are reading this then there is a pretty good chance that you've been in one or more of them.