We’ve spent the past couple of days exploring Pondicherry and adjusting to the culture. Although I haven’t spent time in other parts of India, Pondicherry (or the area around the ashram) seems to be quite different from what I had imagined it would be. Many of the buildings here have French/European architecture to them, and although it is very apparent that it’s poor, the poverty isn’t as bad as I had expected; at least from the areas I’ve seen so far.
We’re staying in the International Guest House at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, it’s a pretty neat/nice place! My room has two beds and a bathroom (just to give you an idea, a two bed room here is about 5 US dollars a day). The bathroom does have a shower, but no hot water, and people here don’t use toilet paper so you have to carry your own around with you and you can’t flush it, so you have to find a garbage to dispose of it. Eating at the ashram is much like eating at a soup kitchen, and is a bit different than what I was expecting too – the food is fairly plain and very mild (which I’m kinda bummed about), the idea behind that is that they don’t want people to “live to eat” but rather “eat to live”, so they take focus away from the food so people can concentrate on spirituality (it costs us 1 US dollar for all three meals we eat per day). It’s an interesting concept, but I’m really looking forward to adventuring off and eating some local, spicy, flavor-rich, Indian food!
I’ve found a few new “loves” in the past few days…bike riding, Masala, limes, and yoga. Every free time we have, I hop on my bike and ride around with a few of the others in our group. We quickly learned the food-chain of the roads…if it’s bigger than you, you better get out of the way because it’s not stopping. It’s been so much fun seeing different parts of the city and also a great way to relax and cool off a bit! Masala – I’ve found out you can nearly put it on everything! Other than having some different Masala curries, I’ve had Masala corn from a street vendor, Chat Masala juice, and Masala chips – it’s great! Limes seem to be a big thing here; I’ve found lie juice to be incredibly refreshing, and I also squeeze a little lime into my yogurt to give it a bit more flavor. I’m a fairly unflexible person, so when we were given the opportunity to start each morning with yoga on the roof, watching the sun rise over the ocean, I couldn’t resist! It’s been a great way to stretch, relax, and get ready for the day.
We got to go check out the street market – madness! There were people everywhere, packed into every little space they could find. It was hot, and there were more smells going on than my nose could identify. It was definitely quite the experience that’s for sure!
So far I've learned to expect the unexpected.
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