Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Living like an uneducated Rockstar

From what I hear, Indians LOVE Americans... and it shows. Here we are waited on hand and foot. Our beds are made every morning and we are brought mineral water anywhere we are. There is a driver who picks us up everyday and takes us wherever we want to go (no we don't pay), he waits around for us as well. All meals are brought for us and set up in a traditional table place setting. When we finish our meals they clean up everything for us and laundry is taken care of when we need it. In this respect, it will be hard to come back to thee U.S.

Today we also had our first class. And I must say that is didn't go very well on our part. In America, the course work can be difficult and time consuming, and certainly we learn a lot; but I'm beginning to see why we're falling behind in our intellect and innovation compared to India. Here it is a ratrace. There are no social service programs and therefor if you want to get somewhere in life, hard work is the only way to go. The ones who have made something of themselves are always thinking outside of the box. Not only looking at what is or what was, but seeing what could be.

Our class is with the dean and during discussion he asked us several questions about America to which we were unable to answer (Who is the current Secretary of Commerce?). Then he discussed different scenarios to think about and what would happen (What is Puerto Rico became the 51st state? Where would you put the star on the flag?). While these seem like simple questions, it really showed me how little we're challenged to think for ourselves and think about the future. Maybe it's just me? But even so, this experience will be a helpful one. Our homework is to read several newspapers everyday and find issues about India. We need to discover the biggest issues, explain them, and discuss solutions and think about how that compares to the U.S. I really hope my time here will sharpen my mind to become a better critical thinker. Now I can see why Study Abroad is so heavily encouraged.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, you have already been challenged to critically think about your home country with people other than patriotic-americans! I hope class goes well for you and I am glad to hear you're being treated like a princess!

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  2. I agree with Tyler on all accounts!

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