Homestay time!

Well I moved in with my home stay family, and my new “parents” Mr. and Mrs. Singh have been more than accommodating. Mr. Singh is probably 6 feet tall, 180 lbs. and is partially bald. I would guess that he’s in his mid 60’s. Mrs. Singh is about my height, and dresses in traditional Indian clothing. She has an extremely maternal aura, and I can tell that she, as well as Mr. Singh, is genuinely glad to have me staying with them.
I have a very large room on the first floor of their home, and attached to the room is my own bathroom. Their house is pretty big, and the location is ideal. I’m located about 20 minutes walk from the program center, and Mr. Singh said that if I choose to use an auto-rickshaw to get to and from it shouldn’t cost more than 30 R’s. Ultimately, I’m not totally thrilled about my family, but I think part of it is because I don’t know them yet. As expected, it’s going to take a while to get totally comfortable with each other, but all in all I’m happy about being a guest in their home and they are extremely hospitable and are treating me as though I’m am one of their own children.
The house keeper, whose name I cannot remember now, also lives with us, and her three children Rajeev, Vikram, and Manesh are really great. They are 16, 13, and 10 respectively, and Rajeev as well as Vikram have been priceless tour guides regarding the local amenities. The cyber-café I’m using right now is about 5 minutes walking from the house, and charges only 15 R’s per hour of internet use. At the end of our street is a corner store that has any item one would need from shampoo, to spices, to stationary and more. I also like my location because it’s not in a touristy area of the city. I haven’t seen any other Caucasian people, and overall it’s nice to be somewhat off the beaten path.
Tomorrow is Monday, and classes will officially begin. We’ve had two lectures so far, but they have still been more along the lines of getting us oriented to the area and not entirely academic in nature. I’m looking forward to narrowing my research topic, and at this point I think I want to do something regarding the elementary education system here in India. Generally speaking, the Indian government has done a great job at improving their university and higher education system, but the elementary system is not ideal. I think I’m going to try and get involved with a local NGO that focuses on this issue. Other than that, I’m still somewhat undirected in my research focus, but with time I think my focus will get more narrow and thus manageable.
Well, I’m heading back to the house, but as soon as there’s more to write about, I’ll do just that.