(no subject)
Let's see, where to begin? This morning. You've never seen water like this. Well, if you watch the news you have. Or live in Iowa. Okay, anyway, I hadn't really seen water like this. Once, last summer in Dhaka, the water was so deep that we had to take a rickshaw to the house from the apartment. Last night it rained the whole night. I didn't notice, though I had the window open, but I did notice when I woke up in the morning and the water looked about calf-high. Oh boy. There was no way that we could walk to the Institute from our apartment (it's too far away even without the rain), so we ended up taking a taxi. The water was so deep that the taxi driver kept saying, "Oh babba!" He didn't want to go into the deep water. Finally we had to get out, shoeless, and walk in the calf-high water the 10 yards into the doorway. I watched an oil slick swim past me. When we got inside, we washed our legs. But that skips over a lot, including finding an apartment.
First of all, I would like to point out that shalwar kameezes are relatively uncommon here. Whereas in Bangladesh they seemed to be a symbol of status (after all, I never once saw the street-sweeping women in shalwar kameezes, though they wore saris. Then again, the poor Hindu family all wore shalwars, so what do I know?) and was far more common than saris (the rich women didn't know how to tie saris and had their mothers do it for them. They wore saris exclusively for fancy events, where a shalwar kameez would have been out of place unless you were us white kids who couldn't tie a sari anyway), here saris are by far the norm. I've seen very few shalwars and those that I did see had the skinny legs, not the poofy legs like I have. I asked Protima Didi about this and she said, unhelpfully, "It's okay that you wear shalwar kameez. You're a student, it's okay." So maybe only female students wear them? I don't know. But I'm not wearing a sari, I know that. There's no one here to tie it, so shalwars it is. Jillian has been wearing jeans and western clothing anyway. Considering my stash of clothing is actually quite small, there will be a lot of clothing repeating. These shalwar kameezes are going to get a lot of use.
Okay, back to the story. So, where did I leave off? Well, right. Jillian and Travis wanted an apartment, and I didn't know anything about my homestay so I said that I'd prefer an apartment (I don't know if that was the right decision. I'll never know). So that afternoon even they sent us to look at a 3 bedroom apartment. Normally it's a "guesthouse," which means a nightly-rental place with AC. There were 4 bedrooms (the owner sometimes sleeps in one), and my future bedroom didn't have AC so it was about half as expensive. The sitting room was huge, with an attached dining room. The kitchen is sketchy, but we're not going in there anyway and it's what anyone's would look like. The other two, Jillian and Travis, have AC. I have a fan. My room is about the size of my room at MHC, with an armoir that I won't use and a small little "thing" that I've put clothing into. I've got this weird not-bookcase thing that I'll dry clothing on, because we'll do our own laundry. There's also a desk and chair. I pay 8,000 Rs a month. That's $200! Jillian and Travis pay 15,000 Rs. I would never, ever pay that. But that's not bad considering that Andy and Ben pay 7,500 a month (and we found out today that they have to pay for 3 months) and Scott pays 6,500 and has to pay for 3 months.
Oops, have to go. More later.
First of all, I would like to point out that shalwar kameezes are relatively uncommon here. Whereas in Bangladesh they seemed to be a symbol of status (after all, I never once saw the street-sweeping women in shalwar kameezes, though they wore saris. Then again, the poor Hindu family all wore shalwars, so what do I know?) and was far more common than saris (the rich women didn't know how to tie saris and had their mothers do it for them. They wore saris exclusively for fancy events, where a shalwar kameez would have been out of place unless you were us white kids who couldn't tie a sari anyway), here saris are by far the norm. I've seen very few shalwars and those that I did see had the skinny legs, not the poofy legs like I have. I asked Protima Didi about this and she said, unhelpfully, "It's okay that you wear shalwar kameez. You're a student, it's okay." So maybe only female students wear them? I don't know. But I'm not wearing a sari, I know that. There's no one here to tie it, so shalwars it is. Jillian has been wearing jeans and western clothing anyway. Considering my stash of clothing is actually quite small, there will be a lot of clothing repeating. These shalwar kameezes are going to get a lot of use.
Okay, back to the story. So, where did I leave off? Well, right. Jillian and Travis wanted an apartment, and I didn't know anything about my homestay so I said that I'd prefer an apartment (I don't know if that was the right decision. I'll never know). So that afternoon even they sent us to look at a 3 bedroom apartment. Normally it's a "guesthouse," which means a nightly-rental place with AC. There were 4 bedrooms (the owner sometimes sleeps in one), and my future bedroom didn't have AC so it was about half as expensive. The sitting room was huge, with an attached dining room. The kitchen is sketchy, but we're not going in there anyway and it's what anyone's would look like. The other two, Jillian and Travis, have AC. I have a fan. My room is about the size of my room at MHC, with an armoir that I won't use and a small little "thing" that I've put clothing into. I've got this weird not-bookcase thing that I'll dry clothing on, because we'll do our own laundry. There's also a desk and chair. I pay 8,000 Rs a month. That's $200! Jillian and Travis pay 15,000 Rs. I would never, ever pay that. But that's not bad considering that Andy and Ben pay 7,500 a month (and we found out today that they have to pay for 3 months) and Scott pays 6,500 and has to pay for 3 months.
Oops, have to go. More later.