A Typical Week at the University of Hyderabad

Sorry I haven't updated much lately- we no longer have wireless at our dorm so everything takes a long time. The past couple of weeks I have just been hanging out in Hyderabad, so here is a description of a typical week for me. Campus photos coming someday...

Monday
My week begins around 8am Monday mornings. I get ready for class and go downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast is served daily from 8-9am. Breakfast always consists of bananas, cereal, toast, and hard boiled eggs, and then there is a daily change between french toast, pancakes, oatmeal (known here as porridge), or some sort of Indian breakfast- often idlis or an Indian style grits. While sitting at the breakfast table we are served eggs/omelets and fresh juice (grape, watermelon, cheiku, banana, etc.).
(An alternative to this is a few of us sitting on a train, coming home from a weekend excursion. We get back to campus at some point in the morning, and sometimes run to class, sometimes don’t make it.)

After breakfast I hop on my bicycle and ride approximately 1.5 miles from my dorm (known here as a hostel) down to class. On Monday I have my first class from 9-10:45am. It’s called Thought and Culture of India and is taught by a visting professor who normally teaches at Miama University in Ohio. All the students in this class are study abroad students from the US (and one from Norway). My next class is Anthropology of Complex Societies from 11am-1pm. This class is a “normal” university class with mostly Indian students. Class culture is a bit different from what I’m used to. When the professor enters students stand and always refer to him as ‘sir.’ After this class I take my long bike ride back to the hostel for lunch.

Lunch is served daily from 1-2pm. There is a serve-yourself buffet line that has bean salad or fresh veggies, a fruit, curd (aka yogurt), roti (a flat bread), and a sweet (often gulab jamun or some other sweet ball of dough or other typical Indian sweets). Next is another buffet area where a kitchen worker serves us rice, a vegetable curry type dish or two, often some fried somethings, and dal (lentils). Lunch is nice because it is always vegetarian. Meals are usually followed by chai and sonf (anise seeds used for mouth refresher and good for digestion.

After lunch I usually rest for some time, do Hindi homework, or go to campus to attempt internet usage, which is not usually all that successful. I have Basic Hindi class from 4-5pm. After class sometimes I go with some friends to get chai and samosas, or just head back to the hostel to wait for dinner. My bike ride home from Hindi class is always the best because of the amazing sunset I get to see every day. And it’s not quite scorching hot anymore by the evening, so that’s nice. Sometimes I plan my bike rides to campus and back based on the heat- it’s sometimes nice to go a couple hours early just to avoid the crazy heat.

Dinner is served daily from 7-8pm. It’s pretty much the same as lunch, except not completely vegetarian. And dessert is ice cream every night.

After dinner time is often spent lounging around- doing homework or watching movies. Sometimes we will go into town, but that is quite a process as it takes so long to do anything or get anywhere here.

Tuesday
Breakfast routine repeats. After breakfast is some down time. Then I have Indian Philosophy class from 12-1pm. Lunch 1-2pm. Rest. Hindi class 4-5pm. Meditation class 6-7pm. Dinner 7-8pm. Hindi tutor Avinash from 8-9pm.

Wednesday
Breakfast. Thought and Culture of India 9-10:45am. Anthro of Complex Societies 11am-1pm. Lunch, often eaten at the student center due to lack of bike time. Indian Philosophy 2-4pm. Hindi class 4-5pm. Rest after 7 hours of class. Dinner. Sleep.

Thursday
A repeated Tuesday. Often ended with a train ride out of town to begin a weekend excursion.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
The weekend goes two ways. If I’m in Hyderabad it is a pretty relaxing weekend. We hang around our hostel, sometimes ride to campus to get on the internet. Sometimes we will go into town for shopping, and sometimes we go into town to see the Hyderabad sites (Golconda Fort, Charminar, zoo, Buddha statue, etc.).