TIME is a blessing

Again I have to start by stressing what's been best in this since I got here: having TIME!!! Those who know me know what I mean. Really, time can really be a blessing. :)

Only after can our journey continue. 4th day here, so I'm in the situation of doing some some-ups already.

Still a stop to report you to the chosen image - not that personalized, is it? It's just that, to be here with you, I still have to walk for 1,5km (few, I know - lucky me!) and be in a tiny cabine full of heat (good enough that there seem to be no bugs! :P). Meaning: still couldn't dowload and upload the real pics you've been craving for! I choose to situate me in the map: BANGALORE, South of India, State of Karnataka, 6 million inhabitants, Indian 'Sillicon Valley', spoken languages: kannada, hindi and english.

Back to the 'having time' issue, some of you may be wondering: but didn't she come out of Portugal in a rush as she was starting to WORK the next day in the other side of the planet? Yeah right!, Indians have their own ways, and I discovered even this (that I'm starting only the 1st of July) almost by chance and not before insisting some! So this is one indian feature I could disguise already: in general they won't do it unless you insist, give reminders, get around the issue and pressure in some manner.

Getting to the point: Bangalore is full of challenges for me! Some hard facts:

• Some call it 'organized chaos' (which I'm starting to consider a good metaphor for Bangalore/ India), but I must refer to a specific characteristic again: the TRAFFIC is crazy! Even me :), I wouldn't dare to drive here. There are no rules, no lines, no one-ways, no directions, no lights, no zebra-crosses, no person on foot, no car or truck coming against you, no cow or queue or whatever... that will make them break. They just honk, stop just in time and one millimeter too close :), speed, squeeze each other and find their way whatever out-of-rule the path may be. And all this added to driving on the left hand-side of the road, with the wheel on the right side of the car. And oh my God the honking! - you get used to it, it's the city's own characteristic soundtrack! :)


• Well the BUGS and some Indian's sense of HIGENE has been turning out to be my biggest challenge so far. Just to sum up a never ending series of scares, being half awake all night, not taking one step in the house without taking a carefull screaning-type look at the floor area you're about to step in... My house is full of cochroaches, lizzards, ants, spiders and many flying mosquitos. They mostly hide during the day, but at night the horror movie starts... Not to disgust you with the details, I'll resume it to: the lady has been cleaning the house with water only; yesterday woke up with both eyes swallen (hardly opening as I had been beaten on both - looked SCARING!) - creamed and iced them for 6 hours, and then they were ok; last night, brushed my teeth in a non-lighted service zone of the house, as always, looking 'in the eyes' of a huge cochroach and rushing as much as posible; but it was ok until they got in - today woke up with one of them in my room, by the door. Enough to say that now I have a blanket covering the door step, and pillows covering every window. And an air mosquito repellent which worked for mosquito bites tonight! UFF!! GOOD NEWS: am checking another house (brand new actually) today.


• Am sleeping almost in the street as it comes to NOISE: wear ear tampons (and have the fan on all night, just for the record). From 6.30/ 7 am on, can't sleep anymore, as sellers come out on their bikes with portable tables full of fruits and vegetables (which I promise I'll never buy to eat :D ), screaming the name of their produce in kannada. And then there's the inevitable light: light courtains and no 'estores' (?) on the widows make it imposible to keep sleeping. REMINDER: buy eye mask (forgot the free one at the deluxe airplane ;) ). Summary: have been sleeping few.


• TEMPERATURE: It's not that hot. Bangalore is quite a temperate city as it's mostly cloudy all the time: but today I felt the sun for the first time and, yes!, it will burn if it fights the clouds! We'll see the tan in some weeks :).


• Bangalore is as COLOURFUL as I imagined India, or even more, and much more fashionable then I could think. No woman, whatever age or social condition, brings their hair uncombed or their sari badly placed. It's shining reds and pinks and blues and all sorts of beautiful fabrics in every corner!!


• It's plus 4.30 hours here than in Lisbon and Greenwhich meridian.

Some nice facts:

• ALREADY TRAVELLING: Will be in Pondicherry (french ex-colony, said to seem like we're out of India), east-coast beach city for whole next week!! Already starting good - travelling before work starts!! :))) Will be starting off in the weekend with an 8 hour bus trip with house-mates followed by beach and sea-water baths wearing shorts and t-shirt! :)... and prolongue the stay until following sunday with an AIESEC South India Conference I'm lucky to be part-taking (by the way, AIESEC is the student international platform/ association through which I ended up here :) ).

Will meet you again here shall all the experiencing and travelling allow me in the next week.

LOVE, Ra