Monday, July 9, 2012

1st world Problems in a 3rd world Country

The unfortunate part about having the other Americans here is that the internet is terrible. The 39 of them take over all of our wifi! But the nice part about having them is the shopping! Yesterday we went shopping in the streets and at a couple of department type stores. Then today we went to Chennai's major mall. I bought a new button down, but to be honest, I enjoyed the smaller stores more. They had more ethnic items. In addition, I bought my first Saree :) It's the traditional dress for women consisting of a blouse, shall/dress, and pants. I'll certainly post a picture of it when I wear it to the corporate dinner Tuesday night.

One of the best parts about being in Chennai, is the television.We have great American channels that show classic movies 24/7 (currently watching the Titanic), and then other channels that have purely Indian shows, even cartoon network has Indian cartoon characters! But, even if you stick to an American channel, the commercials are more than great to watch. They basically depict Indians as Americans with American products, but one nice thing about American products in India, is that they're designed for Indians. For example, the lays chips, are VERY spicy. We had fun picking out products at the grocery store because everything is packaged differently. Nutella is in a glass jar, Minute Maid juice is boxed, and Oreos are in a tube.

Some other interesting things I've noticed/learned about India is that they still operate under the caste system to some extent. Especially for those going through arranged marriages. And the Indians you seen on bollywood and such are always fair complected, I don't know yet whether that has anything to do with racism or what, but that also seems to be how it works for people in high positions ie. professors, lawyers, etc.

Well anyway, I'd love to stay and chat... but I have homework to do. :(

Sarees are worn very tightly

These are ALL scarfs!

Blouse selections and skirts for sarees


Boxed Juice

The only difference between American malls and Indian malls are the people who go.

I asked if I could take a picture of him and he automatically resorted to this "Discovery Channel" pose

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