July 26, 2010

Sunday, July 25 we studied for most of the day. Three people who are taking advanced Hindi did not have to study so they went out or just relaxed. Around 6pm seven of us went to our home stays.

Monday July 26, I went to Hindi class and we talked to our professors at IES about the classes we want to take there. I am planning to take Beginning Hindi, Cities of Delhi which is about getting to know the city. Every friday we go to different places around the city. We also take some weekend trips such as the one in September to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. I think I will take India since Independence because the class sounds very interesting. If it works in my schedule than I will take it. Me and Melody went to JNU. I think I will really enjoy JNU because it's a liberal arts school. Each major has it's own building. The main school group is the political science group which everyone knows about. The person who took us around said that students at JNU talk about politics while students at Delhi University talk about fashion and movies, so I think I picked the right school. I don't know my classes for JNU because the times were not listed but four classes seemed interesting to me.

My host family is so nice. Indu Chopra has four married daughters. One of her daughters visits a lot because she lives down the street. The daughter is the home stay mom of another IES student. The Chopra's have a huge house. There is another girl staying with the Chopra's. She's works about 10 hrs a day doing something with finance.

Tomorrow we have more Hindi and we are going to Ramjas which is part of Delhi University. Ramjas is where the rest of the group is going, except for me, Melody, Lauren, and Patrick. Lauren and Patrick are going to Kamla Nehru University which is focused on journalism. Ramjas is the farthest away and the students will have to take the metro (lucky them). Melody and I will take an auto rickshaw to go to JNU.

I think I'm getting good at Hindi. I can say some stuff like how to ask someone their name, how they are doing. I can also tell the auto rickshaw where to go. I can ask how much something is. Reading and writing it is taking a little more time, but I try to read signs and anything I see in Hindi script. Having class three hours a day helps, but once classes start next week, we will only have Hindi 2 hrs a day for 2 days, instead of three hours a day each day.