New Normal

Anthropology classes always stress the importance of recording first impressions. Why? Because, after a certain period of time, the things that seem most bizarre at first eventually come to seem normal. Well, maybe not normal but they stop seeming bizarre. We have been in Chennai four full months and I can attest that those anthropologists are right. This blog can even serve as anecdotal evidence. When we first arrived, Matt and I recorded many impressions about the differences and the similarities because they were painfully obvious. These differences aren't so obvious anymore. There are certainly many things we have yet to fully accept and we are far from going native, but there are many things that at first struck us as interesting or foreign that are now part of everyday life.

-Honking is part of driving. How else are people to know you're coming?

-American chain restaurants like Pizza Hut and KFC are some of the swankiest establishments around.

-The electricity will go out at least once a day and it only takes a few minutes for the generator to turn back on.

-Despite its yearly appearance, Monsoon will still catch people off guard.

-There are just some street corners where it is best to hold one's breath when passing.

-Event though medications in the teeny tiny pharmacies are arranged alphabetically, it will take the pharmacist at least 20 minutes to find what you need. Oh, and prescriptions? Optional..

-Streets are full of garbage. End of story.

-Waiting in line with space between you and the people around you? Preposterous!

-Women carrying baskets full of rubble on their heads? People do that at all constructions sites, right?

-It would be terribly impolite not to address someone as sir or madam.

-Bullocks, goats and chickens roam the streets. Okay, to be honest, this one still makes me smile every time.

It is nice to have a new normal.

-Abbie

Culture Shock

There are five commonly accepted phases of culture shock:

1) The Honeymoon Phase, in which everything is exciting and new.

2) The Distress Phase, in which everything is confusing.

3) The Reintegration Phase, in which you remember everything being better/easier back home.

4) The Autonomy Phase, in which you recognize the differences between your host and home cultures and recognize that their are good and bad aspects of both.

5) The Independence Phase, in which you are able to realistically see and appreciate the host culture.

It takes different people different amounts of time to pass through all five stages, some have long honeymoons while others spend long periods utterly confused. As for me, and I think for Matt as well, phases three and four come and go. Some days I get frustrated by little things like people telling me that they will do something when in reality they have no idea what I just asked of them. Poor Matt gets an earful when I need to vent about such things. But then there are other days when I realize that I am the confusing one, with my American accent and vernacular. On these days I laugh and try to reword my sentences to sound more Indian, or at the very least, more British. I have learned that a reservation for a table at a restaurant is actually a "booking" and trash cans are in fact "rubbish" or "dust bins".

While I waver between dreaming of cold mornings in Washington and craving the South Indian delight that is the masala dosa, I find myself experiencing more of the former than the latter. India fascinates me as well as frustrates me, but the irritations are minor in comparison to the experience. Just the other day, when I was almost ready to lose my cool with the mail room for not sending my packages to reach home in time for Christmas, an Indian friend of mine brought me some surprisingly tasty camel meat. I am usually able to find a balance between the two. Now that balance might not come on the same day, but it always comes within the same week.

As we are settling in, decorating our apartment for Christmas, Chennai is beginning to feel a bit more like home. I'm sure there will be more phase three days before we reach phase five, but I look forward to the process.

-Abbie