Life in Kolkata

I'm just going to talk about some of the constant realities of living here. Some are the good things, others are less so...

First of all, there isn't much in the way of temperature control in most places. A few restaurants have air conditioning, but usually a fan is the best case scenario. I don't think I've seen any water facets with anything more than a flow control knob. Fortunately the temperature isn't too hot yet. It's probably in the 80's during the day, maybe hitting highs a bit into the 90's. I'm told that by May I can expect some 120 degree days. Still, it's warm enough that a nice cold glass of anything will usually hit the spot. Unfortunately, ice basically doesn't exist, and a "cold" soda is generally cool at best.

By the end of most days I feel kind of gross. It's a combination of sweating and living in a very dirty city. I had a bit of a shock the first time I blew my nose. The stuff that came out was a dark brown. Apparently that is normal here because of all the pollution. Even natives won't drink the water straight out of the facets, although it is good enough for showering. For drinking water we have to take a bucket out to a pump, and then put that through a filter. I thought we would have to boil it, but apparently the pump water is clean enough that it just needs to be filtered.

Going to the bathroom is different. Although there are western style toilets in some places, they aren't everywhere (The guys apartment for instance). Instead we have squatty potties. They are basically just bowls with a hole at the bottom set into the floor. There are places for your feet on either side. The rest is in the name. You squat over it and let stuff drop. I've only had to use it a few times so far, but I already like the system. Sure it's awkward and I don't yet have great balance for it, but since I'm spread a lot wider, it leaves almost nothing behind... which is good since they don't provide you with toilet paper in India.

The currency in India is the Rupee. I'm trying to learn to think in Rupees, but I can't help doing the conversions back into American dollars. The current exchange rate is about 43 rupees to the dollar. Here's a few prices to give you a feel for how cheap stuff is here:

• 15 minute taxi ride: 20 rupees
  
• Meal at a sit down restaurant: 30 - 80 rupees
  
• Bus ride: 4.5 rupees
  
• Cup of cha (Bengali word for tea): 2 rupees
  
• Burrito size egg roll at a street-side stand: 7 rupees
  
• Egg chow mien at the same stand: 10 rupees

So yeah, stuff is ultra-cheap here. I have trouble understanding how this is even possible. Because of the cheap prices, our team ends up eating out a lot. I think that the labor aspect is really cheap, so it isn't like we're paying much extra compared to cooking it ourselves. Plus we get authentic Indian food which is really good.

As Americans, people are constantly staring at us. I don't think they are trying to be rude, it's just pretty unusually to see so many white people. Still, it's pretty hard to get used to. I have never felt so conscious about being white. Yesterday a bunch of us were playing ultimate Frisbee out on some public field. We drew a sizable crowd of Indians that just wanted to watch.

Hmmm... I think that'll do it for now. Tomorrow I'll probably post a bit about Nibo Jibon. I had my first day there today, but don't feel like I saw enough of it yet to start writing about it.