1. The mosquitoes still love me. They say there may be two reasons for this: I have "soft skin" or I don't eat enough spicy food to repel the insects.
2. My clothes are different. I have two pairs of jeans and two pairs of capris with me. I also only brought five shirts for the entire summer. I show my knees AND curves -- scandalous! Chennai is such a conservative city that everything makes the people here balk. I purchased two salwar kameez, but one is still being made -- it's silk, so I cannot wear it regularaly.
3. I cannot shake my head the right way. To say "yes" in India, you keep your nose in place but move your head from side to side. Kinda like making each ear touch a shoulder. To say "no" you keep your head on the same horizontal level and just swivel it back and forth. I confuse everyone when I nod to say yes and skhake to say no.
4. I cannot bargain. You have to be fierce with the auto rickshaw drivers here. They usually quote three times the proce for westerners and I need to bring them to a more reasonable price. Thank goodness I have Abhi and Kogulin -- both American volunteers who speak Tamil -- to do the haggling for me.
5. I can't speak Tamil. I try and fail. The locals patronizingly sympathize with my efforts, but it is still not enough to get by. Pointing and nodding (the correct way) is how I get what I want.
Day six here and I'm becoming more relaxed in the city. I know my way around Anna Nagar, the neighborhood within Chennai (similar to Mar Vista in socioeconomic status), and how to tell people NO. I know what to order at a restaurant, what my daily schedule is like, and who I should trust for advice about what is right and wrong. During the first several days here, I felt very uneasy and nervous about being in this country. Now, I'm excited to be a part of it!
