The first two days of have been incredible. They don't call it an "intensive" course just because it sounds good. I have four 1 hour classes Monday through Friday with two teachers that alternate each class. One of them is back from Columbia for the Summer and he says that my class of 3 people has made more progress in two days than he normally covers in 3 weeks at Columbia. Granted, I think it's because we only have 3 people in my Advanced Beginner class. It is going to be a shock when I get back to school and have 20 people in my class. I truly think I'm going to be upset about that. I really like the personal attention you get in a small class.
After school, the true adventures begin. The best have been shopping excursions for traditional garb (Kurtas) and a Tendulkar cricket jersey. My friend Kevin and I accidentally stumbled onto this place called Prince Market which was a big mistake. It's an inside market with tons of vendors selling nothing but men's clothes. Ridiculous. We couldn't walk anywhere without the entire row of vendors yelling in English, "Sir Sir, I have very nice thing for you. Just your size. Please come. Please Please come buy." Thankfully we made it out of there alive.
Then, we discovered the gold mine of all places in the basement of a store. When shopping for kurtas in India, you walk into a place, tell them your size and they start pulling down all sorts of interesting fabrics and patterns. So we are looking at all sorts interesting things, and then this one manikin catches my eye. It was dressed in wedding attire (I think), but it had this awesome hat on. So of course I ask the old man helping us about it and he asks, "Want to try it on?" Heck yes I want to try it on!!! My friend had told me earlier to shop for something Raja Joey would wear and this was definitely it. After looking at more kurtas that I didn't really like, I realized that the shirt I liked best was the one on the manikin. I try it on to make sure it fits (and it does. Perfectly), and then the old man says, "Another picture." This time I have the complete outfit on and look ridiculous.
On the way home from our shopping adventure, Kevin and I walk through this narrow streets lined with shops and vendors. Definitely what everyone associates as the epitome of Indian shopping/markets. As we are walking, we find a shop with cricket bats. We were shopping for them at a dedicated sports shop but decided to pass on the ones they had. Basically there are two types of cricket bats. Regulation ones and street ball/pickup game ones. The difference comes from the ball that you use. Regulation uses the hard ball while street games use tennis balls. We find an awesome bat for pickup games in this side shop and were able to negotiate a pretty good deal. We were definitely super excited about the purchase because it would open up a lot of opportunity to play with the local kids.
First Saturday Adventure
We had heard that everyone goes to the stadium to play cricket on Saturday's so Kevin and I meet up at the local stadium around 9. To our surprise, there were a TON of kids there, but they weren't playing cricket. They were practicing. When two white guys walk up holding a bat, all activity stops and everyone comes rushing over to us. We were overwhelmed. We learn that this is a club team and that they practice there on Saturdays from 6-12 and then 4-7. Yes, 9 hours of practice on Saturday. That's because cricket is now the fastest way to become a millionaire, and everyone dreams of the life cricket could afford them. Since they were a club team, they played with regulation balls so Kevin and I were unable to use the bat that we had just bought, but they showed us an area where we could practice. After about 2 hours of practicing, we get a call from Travis who wants to meet up and tour some of the sights.
Kevin and I get auto rickshaw and ask him to take us to Bara Imambara. We make it there successfully even though we didn't know it at first. Travis on the other hand got taken to some other Imambara. While we are waiting, we find out how much it is to tour the site. Rs. 300 for foreigners while it is only Rs 25 for natives. WHAT!!! We were shocked that it cost 12x more for foreigners. Travis got there shortly after we did and by that time we were starving. Rain was on its way so we were also keen on finding shelter. A security guard pulled us aside to sign a visitors log, and then pointed us towards the Chowk (market) to find food. Well, we needed shelter before we found food. So where did we go? The Lucknow Medical University.
It was a long shot, but we were like, "What the heck. It's worth a shot." So we are walking along the row of buildings and manage to walk straight into the Admin building. There, we ask a security guard where a nearby restaurant is. He walks inside a room and motions us in. Inside, we meet a man who happens to be one of the head administrators of the college. Super nice guy. We have tea with him and talk all about religion with him because he was a devout Christian looking to move to the states. You definitely don't meet many people like that.
After the rain was over, we were famished. We saw in a tourist brochure that there was a Pizza Hut! Unlike Pizza Hut in the US, Pizza Huts around the world are actually very nice sit down restaurants, so we decided we needed to visit. We find the main road and start walking towards the local shopping district where the Pizza Hut is when we decide to take a detour to see a monument by the river. This was probably the best decision we've made yet. We pull out our camera to take a picture of it, and then all of a sudden we see these kids rushing towards us. We were completely taken off guard, but all they wanted was to have their picture taken!!! So we take turns getting pictures with them, and then showing them what it looks like. They were having such a blast. It was funny how they kept shoving each other trying to become the center of attention in the photo. After a few minutes of photos, we decide to pull out the cricket bat. They go NUTS. Everyone here loves cricket. It's awesome. We begin to play with them until this one random dude walks up and takes the bat from one kid and they all run away as fast as they can. We were completely blown away. He had to be their boss, and he didn't seem happy that they weren't working. He spoiled our fun, so we decided to continue on to pizza hut.
We are back on the road walking to pizza hut when the rain begins to start again. This time we are without cover. So we find a rickshaw who is willing to take us and has a cover. The first problem was that our group consisted of three grown boys. Typically, you only fit two people in a rickshaw so kevin was squished in between/on top of me and Travis. The next problem was that our driver was old. We felt so bad for the guy. He struggled to move us. He only wanted Rs 30 (less than a dollar to take us about 15 min down the road), but we felt so bad that we gave him Rs 100. Definitely an unexpected surprise for him. We had made it to the mall and subsequently pizza hut.
Pizza hut was fabulous. Ridiculously cheap ( my medium pizza was only $3) and incredibly tasty. I thought it tasted better than it does in the states, but that's probably because I haven't had pizza in weeks. It was a great way to end an exhausting but awesome day in Lucknow.
After school, the true adventures begin. The best have been shopping excursions for traditional garb (Kurtas) and a Tendulkar cricket jersey. My friend Kevin and I accidentally stumbled onto this place called Prince Market which was a big mistake. It's an inside market with tons of vendors selling nothing but men's clothes. Ridiculous. We couldn't walk anywhere without the entire row of vendors yelling in English, "Sir Sir, I have very nice thing for you. Just your size. Please come. Please Please come buy." Thankfully we made it out of there alive.
Then, we discovered the gold mine of all places in the basement of a store. When shopping for kurtas in India, you walk into a place, tell them your size and they start pulling down all sorts of interesting fabrics and patterns. So we are looking at all sorts interesting things, and then this one manikin catches my eye. It was dressed in wedding attire (I think), but it had this awesome hat on. So of course I ask the old man helping us about it and he asks, "Want to try it on?" Heck yes I want to try it on!!! My friend had told me earlier to shop for something Raja Joey would wear and this was definitely it. After looking at more kurtas that I didn't really like, I realized that the shirt I liked best was the one on the manikin. I try it on to make sure it fits (and it does. Perfectly), and then the old man says, "Another picture." This time I have the complete outfit on and look ridiculous.
On the way home from our shopping adventure, Kevin and I walk through this narrow streets lined with shops and vendors. Definitely what everyone associates as the epitome of Indian shopping/markets. As we are walking, we find a shop with cricket bats. We were shopping for them at a dedicated sports shop but decided to pass on the ones they had. Basically there are two types of cricket bats. Regulation ones and street ball/pickup game ones. The difference comes from the ball that you use. Regulation uses the hard ball while street games use tennis balls. We find an awesome bat for pickup games in this side shop and were able to negotiate a pretty good deal. We were definitely super excited about the purchase because it would open up a lot of opportunity to play with the local kids.
First Saturday Adventure
We had heard that everyone goes to the stadium to play cricket on Saturday's so Kevin and I meet up at the local stadium around 9. To our surprise, there were a TON of kids there, but they weren't playing cricket. They were practicing. When two white guys walk up holding a bat, all activity stops and everyone comes rushing over to us. We were overwhelmed. We learn that this is a club team and that they practice there on Saturdays from 6-12 and then 4-7. Yes, 9 hours of practice on Saturday. That's because cricket is now the fastest way to become a millionaire, and everyone dreams of the life cricket could afford them. Since they were a club team, they played with regulation balls so Kevin and I were unable to use the bat that we had just bought, but they showed us an area where we could practice. After about 2 hours of practicing, we get a call from Travis who wants to meet up and tour some of the sights.
Kevin and I get auto rickshaw and ask him to take us to Bara Imambara. We make it there successfully even though we didn't know it at first. Travis on the other hand got taken to some other Imambara. While we are waiting, we find out how much it is to tour the site. Rs. 300 for foreigners while it is only Rs 25 for natives. WHAT!!! We were shocked that it cost 12x more for foreigners. Travis got there shortly after we did and by that time we were starving. Rain was on its way so we were also keen on finding shelter. A security guard pulled us aside to sign a visitors log, and then pointed us towards the Chowk (market) to find food. Well, we needed shelter before we found food. So where did we go? The Lucknow Medical University.
It was a long shot, but we were like, "What the heck. It's worth a shot." So we are walking along the row of buildings and manage to walk straight into the Admin building. There, we ask a security guard where a nearby restaurant is. He walks inside a room and motions us in. Inside, we meet a man who happens to be one of the head administrators of the college. Super nice guy. We have tea with him and talk all about religion with him because he was a devout Christian looking to move to the states. You definitely don't meet many people like that.
After the rain was over, we were famished. We saw in a tourist brochure that there was a Pizza Hut! Unlike Pizza Hut in the US, Pizza Huts around the world are actually very nice sit down restaurants, so we decided we needed to visit. We find the main road and start walking towards the local shopping district where the Pizza Hut is when we decide to take a detour to see a monument by the river. This was probably the best decision we've made yet. We pull out our camera to take a picture of it, and then all of a sudden we see these kids rushing towards us. We were completely taken off guard, but all they wanted was to have their picture taken!!! So we take turns getting pictures with them, and then showing them what it looks like. They were having such a blast. It was funny how they kept shoving each other trying to become the center of attention in the photo. After a few minutes of photos, we decide to pull out the cricket bat. They go NUTS. Everyone here loves cricket. It's awesome. We begin to play with them until this one random dude walks up and takes the bat from one kid and they all run away as fast as they can. We were completely blown away. He had to be their boss, and he didn't seem happy that they weren't working. He spoiled our fun, so we decided to continue on to pizza hut.
We are back on the road walking to pizza hut when the rain begins to start again. This time we are without cover. So we find a rickshaw who is willing to take us and has a cover. The first problem was that our group consisted of three grown boys. Typically, you only fit two people in a rickshaw so kevin was squished in between/on top of me and Travis. The next problem was that our driver was old. We felt so bad for the guy. He struggled to move us. He only wanted Rs 30 (less than a dollar to take us about 15 min down the road), but we felt so bad that we gave him Rs 100. Definitely an unexpected surprise for him. We had made it to the mall and subsequently pizza hut.
Pizza hut was fabulous. Ridiculously cheap ( my medium pizza was only $3) and incredibly tasty. I thought it tasted better than it does in the states, but that's probably because I haven't had pizza in weeks. It was a great way to end an exhausting but awesome day in Lucknow.
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