I keep thinking of more things to write about Mumbai and then I forget before I get to my blog. I've also been having a rough time lately just being here and feeling both the desire to take refuge in my air conditioned bedroom and some pretty severe loneliness. I want to be out, absorbing everything around me and feeling adventurous, but when I'm out I'm just hot and at least a little confused and it saps my will pretty quickly. I am missing springtime, Chicago, my friends. And because I am so often trying to make sense of where I am in a broader sense (career, travel, love, family), I end up with some seriously funky moods. Ironically, though I've just transplanted myself on the other side of the world by my own choice, I feel stuck. I don't know how to get it all aligned. For instance, career and love are in two very different places right now, and I feel like I can really only deal with one while the other suffers. I'm not sure how to fix that, if sticking it out will be worth it and it will all come together in the end, or if I'll have to make a tough choice at some point.
On a lighter note, there's always more minutiae to note to flesh out the context I'm in more:
One general area is vocabulary -- even though people here speak English, word choice is often different. Some examples: intersection --> junction, green pepper --> capsicum, line --> queue, sandal --> chappal, moving to a new house --> shifting...and there are lots more that I don't remember right now.
Corn is a common pizza topping here, which I actually like -- but I find it odd that this is called "American", since to my knowledge corn is a topping here and in Europe but not in the US -- except at the European style pizza place I used to order from.
It costs me the same to take a cab to work as it costs to take the train in Chicago. If I took a bus it would cost amazingly little.
I wrote before about there being people employed to do things that make me feel helpless. I sense that people here prefer to have a person help them, rather than to do things themselves -- and that it's a sense of status.
I don't have a washing machine, and my maid washes my clothes 3 times a week by hand in a bucket, which is totally normal. I find this fascinating and awesome and a little guilt-inducing all at once. I actually hand washed my own stuff once, and it was kind of a nice feeling, learning to do something a machine has long ago taught me that I don't need to know. It's another life skill, one I won't need much probably, but still kind of nice to have.
People don't tip here. Cab drivers don't get tips generally, and restaurant servers get 10%. This is one thing I actually like about the US -- I think service is better when there's some incentive to get a good tip, and I think people being served are more appreciative of the service they receive because they can express it through a variable tip level. I had a realization the other day that people here seem so much less polite and courteous of other people, likely because there are so many other people around, and so many of them are paid to do something specific, and it stops being a big deal after a while.
On a lighter note, there's always more minutiae to note to flesh out the context I'm in more:
One general area is vocabulary -- even though people here speak English, word choice is often different. Some examples: intersection --> junction, green pepper --> capsicum, line --> queue, sandal --> chappal, moving to a new house --> shifting...and there are lots more that I don't remember right now.
Corn is a common pizza topping here, which I actually like -- but I find it odd that this is called "American", since to my knowledge corn is a topping here and in Europe but not in the US -- except at the European style pizza place I used to order from.
It costs me the same to take a cab to work as it costs to take the train in Chicago. If I took a bus it would cost amazingly little.
I wrote before about there being people employed to do things that make me feel helpless. I sense that people here prefer to have a person help them, rather than to do things themselves -- and that it's a sense of status.
I don't have a washing machine, and my maid washes my clothes 3 times a week by hand in a bucket, which is totally normal. I find this fascinating and awesome and a little guilt-inducing all at once. I actually hand washed my own stuff once, and it was kind of a nice feeling, learning to do something a machine has long ago taught me that I don't need to know. It's another life skill, one I won't need much probably, but still kind of nice to have.
People don't tip here. Cab drivers don't get tips generally, and restaurant servers get 10%. This is one thing I actually like about the US -- I think service is better when there's some incentive to get a good tip, and I think people being served are more appreciative of the service they receive because they can express it through a variable tip level. I had a realization the other day that people here seem so much less polite and courteous of other people, likely because there are so many other people around, and so many of them are paid to do something specific, and it stops being a big deal after a while.
1 comment:
As usual, I love the details you include. That would be really weird to have someone doing your laundry by hand three times a week.
I'll email you about how you're feeling. But right now, all I can say is hang in there and just try to enjoy yourself! Push yourself to do stuff, even if you don't feel like it. I've learned that moving requires a lot of energy, both physical and emotional. Maybe you could find a meetup group or something similar?
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