it's a dog eat dog world, literally.

Two nights ago, a group of us went out to go see what we could find in terms of nightlife. We went to Banjara Hills – the ritzy area of Hyderabad – and went to a hookah bar for dinner and kickin’ it. Definitely interesting to see, but what made the trip unique was our experience with the auto-rickshaws. Right off the bat, going through a kind of slummy area near campus, we’re pretty sure we saw two dogs eating another dog.

As we kept going, we got stuck in some traffic, which was a prime opportunity for the local children to come swarm our rickshaw and beg for money. Being the only white people in a million mile radius, swarm they did. On both sides, they were touching their hands to their mouths and then to our feet, which is the most degrading thing they can do to themselves in this society. These kids were probably about 6 years old, and they were fighting over the little bit of food that they got from someone on a scooter, right in the middle of a very busy road.

The mornings have been much more uplifting though – I had my first yoga class at the centre on campus yesterday, and it was great. Classes are 6 days a week, and apparently after a week I should be able to actually do some of the poses! There was a girl there who was in lotus position upside down, so we’ll see if I make it that far. I kicked it up a notch today and am going to try and get myself to the 6 am class 6 days a week - they have a three month yoga certification course, and I figure what better place to become a certified yoga instructor than in India? It seems a little ridiculous that someone like me could make that kind of progress in just a few months, but you gotta go big or go home.

Gotta pick classes soon, this is our shopping week, and I have about 15 classes that I want to shop. There are some that look really interesting, like Sociology of Illness and an English class called ‘Reading Dalit, Reading Black’. It will be nice to start up classes and have some kind of purpose in my days here though for sure.

Last night some of us went out for dinner on a rooftop - it came to the equivalent of $25 for 8 of us, and we were in the shadow of an enormous Indian Santa Claus - I get a huge kick out of all the Christmas stuff here.