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Show A field trip to the other side of the world This May Term class was more than just books and essays different parts of India to visit temples, palaces, wildlife sanctuaries and to see Indian performances. But the most beneficial thing I took out of the trip was living Eataround a Maharajas palace. in this different culture and learning something I never Riding an elephant leaf. the banana off a and of could have learned about back home in any classes I Watching curry ing rice Sea. with true Arabian the on sunset took. Practicing yoga Indian masters. What more could you ask for during While in India we stayed primarily in a hostel on the month of May? school a campus where we interacted with Indian stuI did all this and more for 26 incredible days last May dents who were close to our age. We had the opporTerm. Since I was graduating in June, I decided to take tunity to live right alongside the students and see how they lived. We would ask them questions about their lives and their feelings on arranged marriages, separation of boys and girls, school, politics and their future plans. Talking with them on a personal level, it was clear that they are really no different from us, they just have different situations to deal with than we do. Listening to these students talk about their lives really put my own life and problems into perspective. It makes people realize just how much they take for granted. As part of the culture experience we bought traditional Indian clothing to wear when we went to temples or special events. The men wore pants and a tunic style shirt, while the women wore Sal wars, which consisted ' of pants and a long shirt that looked like a dress. The Photo courtesy of Jessica Shurtlef Indian culture is incredibly modest and it was imporJessica Shurtleff, Robin Vought and Grady Vought riding tant for us to respect this. While in the temples and an elephant on their trip to India in May. shrines it would be inappropriate to show our shoulders a May Term Trip to complete my Westminster experior our legs. This took a lot of adjusting for us because ence. I wanted to do something different, something I wearing this type of clothing was especially difficult in would never have the opportunity to do any other time the extremely hot temperature and humidity of India. in my life. Then when I heard that theatre professors One of the most remarkable experiences in the IndiMichael and Nina Vought would be taking students an culture was attending a traditional Hindu wedding. to India to study yoga, Hinduism and Indian dance, I Everything in India was extraordinarily colorful and the knew this was the one. When else would I ever have the opportunity to go to India and become immersed into such a unique and different culture? As a group of 23 students, three professors and two children (the Voughts two sons), we left Salt Lake City on May 5 and wouldnt return until May 31 only $9 two days before graduation. The traveling was perhaps one of the hardest parts of the trip. We flew from Utah to Texas, then to London, then to Qatar (a small country in the Middle East next to Saudi Arabia) and finally to Cochin, India. By the time we reached India we had been traveling for nearly two days. But despite our ur time exhaustion and disorientation from the coundifference, we were ready to start exploring the ' from where we around world the try that was halfway called home. & arrival the we in were our greeted by Upon airport our Indian hosts who had arranged all our activities and r r lei a each with India. while us of in met They lodging of jasmine flowers and a blessing that ended with the well-knored dot on our foreheads symbolizing our third eye of consciousness. My experience in India was more than I ever expected it to be. During the weekdays we had classes on Hinduism, Hindi, yoga, Indian dancing and Indian drumming. Then on the weekends we would travel to weddings were not any different. When we walked into the wedding the fragrance of flowers and incense filled the room. Instead of a regular veil made of fabric, the FaihU Lr fAtrion IS ObaW bride wore a veil of jasmine flowers that covered her (SOX93155$S head and went all the way down her back. After the sm & m . WrtK 2 SsB UM Ot, ISats S4 MS worn ton Bran 4 Ite I ceremony was over we each went up to the bride and warned1 i mtCt stoihing groom to offer a blessing on their marriage. We then Me I Senfljr ussd Designer fi3rs6bg d accessaries KioridM praai went to the reception where we ate dinner with the rest Eamtos jaasfts w7 FZ feng shi Jv5s . Sf?' CSJj of the guests. As we sat down at the tables the servt teesd Unique gifts I KJcST ers put large banana leaves in front of us. These would Jessica Shurtleff Contributing Writer serve as our plates. Then they served our rice and curry directly onto the leaves. Eating was something that was very different in India. The food was actually quite good, but most of it was the same: rice, rice and more rice. By the end of the trip most of us did not want to even think about eating anymore rice. But this was not the unusual part of the eating situation. They do not use utensils to eat their food. Instead, they use their hands. You would use your fingers to mix the curry in with the rice and then scoop it into your mouth. Eating with our hands is the complete opposite of what we are taught to do back home. If I ever ate that type of food with my hands, my mom would yell at me. It was very awkward to adjust to this type of eating at first. You would get incredibly messy with curry all over your hands and mouth. Luckily every restaurant and dining area had wash bins for people to wash their hands and faces after eating. While in India we were treated like celebrities. Everyone was incredibly kind to us and always wanted to know what they could do to help. The Indian culture is very generous. Their motto is to treat their guest as though they were gods. Unfortunately, along with this attention we also had to deal with a lot of staring. Most of our trip was spent in the southern part of India, which does not draw nearly as many tourists as Northern India. So the people in the towns we visited were not used to seeing so many Americans at once. As we walked through town or across the school campus where we were staying, we were stared at by nearly everyone. Children would run up to us to shake our hands or take pictures with us. Even the newspapers and television stations in India took an interest in us. ? ? - " $ v 12-ho- ."Afwn urn-- h V 'VV4- i 1 j wn ir High-en- zzz VOLUME XL1: ISSUE! 6 Photo courtesy of Jessica Shurtleff Newspaper reporters took pictures of our class taking yoga and practicing our Indian dancing. The day the yoga picture appeared in the newspaper, we had people stopping us in the streets and saying they had seen us in the paper. It was amusing to see how intrigued they were by us. Everywhere we went we felt as though we were on display. After visits to several temples, a couple trips to the Continued on page 7 |