I'm in my new place now, and I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable here -- it always takes a few days to get the hang of the layout and switches and knobs in a new place, and this is only day 2. Last night I was feeling a little pathetic and sorry for myself because I wished I could be somewhere familiar (i.e. Chicago), somewhere I could just go out and walk around and not feel sort of lost and out of place. It doesn't help that I feel the curious eyes of everyone on me, some of which comes from the reality that a lot of people really do stare at me, and some of which stems from my being extra self conscious since a lot of the time I don't know exactly what I'm doing and don't really want an audience for my cluelessness.
For example, I went to get groceries last night, which I was a little anxious about even though it's really not hard. I got the address of the store, glanced at the Google map of my area to see the route, and set off...
Walking in Mumbai is always a little nerve-wracking for me, because there is rarely sidewalk (there are stretches, but they are inconsistent and sometimes not worth the trouble to use) and you're generally sticking to the sliver of road between the parked cars and the cabs, cars, motorcyles, bikes, buses, guys pushing/pulling carts of stuff, and other people on foot who are out and about. There's always a lot of honking happening, and you generally cross the road whenever there's a reasonable clearing in the traffic (or the next car coming can slow down or swerve around you a bit). My neighborhood isn't too hectic relatively speaking, thankfully, but it still doesn't make for a serene stroll.
Also, directions and addresses are difficult for me here. I've been spoiled with a very nice grid system in Chicago, complete with numeric coordinates and almost all perpendicular streets. Nothing is perpendicular here, and addresses are relational (near such and such landmark). And for some reason, whatever the landmark is supposed to be never stands out the way I think it should. For instance, I've had people point out a train station before, and I never would have seen it because it doesn't look like a train station in the US with a big, fat obvious entrance that is clearly labeled and trains and tracks that you can see as you approach. And right now, I'm living in a place where the nearest landmark is the Colaba Post Office, and I don't actually know which building around me is the post office. I haven't really looked, admittedly, but it seems like it should be glaringly obvious. I have a sort of contextual blindness here that I think is getting a little better, but it's still there.
So that brings me back to my grocery excursion to the world foods market last night (which carries exotic things like peanut butter). I set out on a route that was semi-familiar because I'd walked in the same general direction before, but at one point I kept looking for a left turn that didn't materialize. I knew at some point I'd have to hit a left, and I eventually did, and it took me in a slightly roundabout way to the place I was looking for: the World Trade Center. The grocery store address online said there was a shopping area at the bottom, through gate 4, where the grocery store would be. When I got to gate 4, it had a metal detector and a security guard and didn't look like a grocery store at all, but like some kind of official entrance to an important building -- but I thought, okay, this is how things are so often here, I'm just going to walk through this metal detector and see if there's a grocery store somewhere on the other side. And there was, in, around the corner and to the left - which felt like a triumph because if it had been my first time in Mumbai, there's no way I would have assumed that there would be a grocery store in such a strange place with no sign whatsoever out at the street. That's how I feel about everything here -- it's not at all obvious, and so the first time doing anything is always the hardest by far. Maybe because of my feeling of success, I decided to try a different route home that I'd spotted on the Google map...but that didn't work out so well and I had to retrace my steps a little bit to get back. In the end, I got food, though I was disappointed because I forgot the ice cream bar I'd been planning to reward myself with. It's the little things. :-P
A few other random things just to flesh out my experience here a little bit more...
Today I felt sweat drip down my inner thigh to my calf. It's HOT. But it's amazing how much good ceiling fans do -- we definitely overuse AC in the US.
I have a maid, which is totally normal here, and it's absurd how little I have to pay her. The amount she gets per month for an hour a day every day would get me a maid for an hour, once, in Chicago. It makes me feel confused...I know this is how the economy here works, but it still feels wrong.
Speaking of employment, it's amazing how it works here. In stores, I always feel like there are 3-5 times the number of people it actually takes to get a task accomplished -- which I won't argue against since there are a lot of people here to employ, but I also think it's funny. At the grocery store, there are two guys in a small produce section who just weigh and label stuff for checkout as you pick it out. I was offered help finding stuff by at least 2 guys (and the store is fairly small, I think it has 4 short aisles or something). A guy rings everything up and checks to make sure the price of each item shows up correctly in the computer, another couple of guys bag it, and another guy stands by the door, checks your receipt as you leave, and then opens the door for you. I once stopped at duty free at the airport here and had four or five people help me purchase two bottles of whiskey. And on construction sites here, there always seem to be a bunch of guys just hanging around, and this is only compounded by the lack of safety gear worn by these guys (something that makes me feel a little worried for them).
I despise crows. They are big, ugly, and loud. Replace all the songbirds in the trees near you with these giant cawing things and that's what happens outside my bathroom and kitchen windows. At least the trees are pretty and have bright orangey-red flowers.
I guess that's all for now...til I think of more minutiae to share!
For example, I went to get groceries last night, which I was a little anxious about even though it's really not hard. I got the address of the store, glanced at the Google map of my area to see the route, and set off...
Walking in Mumbai is always a little nerve-wracking for me, because there is rarely sidewalk (there are stretches, but they are inconsistent and sometimes not worth the trouble to use) and you're generally sticking to the sliver of road between the parked cars and the cabs, cars, motorcyles, bikes, buses, guys pushing/pulling carts of stuff, and other people on foot who are out and about. There's always a lot of honking happening, and you generally cross the road whenever there's a reasonable clearing in the traffic (or the next car coming can slow down or swerve around you a bit). My neighborhood isn't too hectic relatively speaking, thankfully, but it still doesn't make for a serene stroll.
Also, directions and addresses are difficult for me here. I've been spoiled with a very nice grid system in Chicago, complete with numeric coordinates and almost all perpendicular streets. Nothing is perpendicular here, and addresses are relational (near such and such landmark). And for some reason, whatever the landmark is supposed to be never stands out the way I think it should. For instance, I've had people point out a train station before, and I never would have seen it because it doesn't look like a train station in the US with a big, fat obvious entrance that is clearly labeled and trains and tracks that you can see as you approach. And right now, I'm living in a place where the nearest landmark is the Colaba Post Office, and I don't actually know which building around me is the post office. I haven't really looked, admittedly, but it seems like it should be glaringly obvious. I have a sort of contextual blindness here that I think is getting a little better, but it's still there.
So that brings me back to my grocery excursion to the world foods market last night (which carries exotic things like peanut butter). I set out on a route that was semi-familiar because I'd walked in the same general direction before, but at one point I kept looking for a left turn that didn't materialize. I knew at some point I'd have to hit a left, and I eventually did, and it took me in a slightly roundabout way to the place I was looking for: the World Trade Center. The grocery store address online said there was a shopping area at the bottom, through gate 4, where the grocery store would be. When I got to gate 4, it had a metal detector and a security guard and didn't look like a grocery store at all, but like some kind of official entrance to an important building -- but I thought, okay, this is how things are so often here, I'm just going to walk through this metal detector and see if there's a grocery store somewhere on the other side. And there was, in, around the corner and to the left - which felt like a triumph because if it had been my first time in Mumbai, there's no way I would have assumed that there would be a grocery store in such a strange place with no sign whatsoever out at the street. That's how I feel about everything here -- it's not at all obvious, and so the first time doing anything is always the hardest by far. Maybe because of my feeling of success, I decided to try a different route home that I'd spotted on the Google map...but that didn't work out so well and I had to retrace my steps a little bit to get back. In the end, I got food, though I was disappointed because I forgot the ice cream bar I'd been planning to reward myself with. It's the little things. :-P
A few other random things just to flesh out my experience here a little bit more...
Today I felt sweat drip down my inner thigh to my calf. It's HOT. But it's amazing how much good ceiling fans do -- we definitely overuse AC in the US.
I have a maid, which is totally normal here, and it's absurd how little I have to pay her. The amount she gets per month for an hour a day every day would get me a maid for an hour, once, in Chicago. It makes me feel confused...I know this is how the economy here works, but it still feels wrong.
Speaking of employment, it's amazing how it works here. In stores, I always feel like there are 3-5 times the number of people it actually takes to get a task accomplished -- which I won't argue against since there are a lot of people here to employ, but I also think it's funny. At the grocery store, there are two guys in a small produce section who just weigh and label stuff for checkout as you pick it out. I was offered help finding stuff by at least 2 guys (and the store is fairly small, I think it has 4 short aisles or something). A guy rings everything up and checks to make sure the price of each item shows up correctly in the computer, another couple of guys bag it, and another guy stands by the door, checks your receipt as you leave, and then opens the door for you. I once stopped at duty free at the airport here and had four or five people help me purchase two bottles of whiskey. And on construction sites here, there always seem to be a bunch of guys just hanging around, and this is only compounded by the lack of safety gear worn by these guys (something that makes me feel a little worried for them).
I despise crows. They are big, ugly, and loud. Replace all the songbirds in the trees near you with these giant cawing things and that's what happens outside my bathroom and kitchen windows. At least the trees are pretty and have bright orangey-red flowers.
I guess that's all for now...til I think of more minutiae to share!
No comments:
Post a Comment