And so it begins...

Hello friends and family!

Thanks for being interested enough to read this little account of what's going on in India.

I will be here for 10 weeks for a course called Transdiciplinary Problem Solving: Public Health in the Developing World. Fourteen other Brown School students and myself will be learning how to design effective public health interventions. We will be working with an organization called ICTPH in Thanjavur and Chennai to design interventions in several topic areas. My topic area is gastro-intestinal disease; I promise to keep you all posted while sparing you any unpleasant details :)

So, what's going on now...

Just arrived in Chennai last night. We will be here for two more days, doing orientation, etc. More importantly, however, we were able to take some time to explore the city. We started out with breakfast of Dosas and Masala tea. I love this county just for the fact that almost everything is vegetarian. And delicious.

Then Audra and Leslie and I ventured on to the T Najar market (which was a great find by our classmate, Dessa). The rickshaw ride there was really fun. You feel close to the city in one of these things and get to see so much. Probably because you literally are very close to what's going on...I had to keep grabbing my skirt to keep it inside the "auto."

Once at the market, we browsed and invested in some traditional salwar kameez. The clothing is colorful and bold (basically the opposite of what I would normally wear. No gray cardigans here, Natalie). And most importantly, very light. As you can probably guess, it's really freaking hot.

So, what I gathered today is...

At least one thing about India that is really unique is that there is just SO much going on all of the time. Rickshaws and horns and people and goats and bikes and babies and babies on bikes (I'm laughing out loud thinking of my Mom and Dad chilling at an intersection in the middle of downtown...because when you cross the street, you run and sort of hope you don't get hit. Mom would not approve. But really, Mom, it's safe). And, people seem to get all of these elements and how they interact. I mean, duh, they live here, but it's still really impressive. There's still a logic to it.

Most of all, it's exciting. You just feel really alive when you're part of the bustle. Makes me wonder what it is about this place that allows for all of these complexities...and if home has similar cultural complexities that I just miss because I'm so used to them...