"kick my hand, please"

Salome & Claire at Hanuman Temple, Anegundi

Early on, when I began Nancy Notebooking around the hospital, I saw three white girls in the basement of the main cardiac hospital (the "Health City" is composed of four hospitals: Narayana Hrudayalaya [cardiac], the Multispecialty Hospital & Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Center, Narayana Nethrayala [eye hospital], and SPARSH [craniomaxillofacial surgery]). Assuming these ladies were westerners, I approached them to make friends. Found out quickly they were French, not Americans. We exchanged numbers and bumped into each other quite a few times after that. They are medical students, so I was able to exchange a lot of western/eastern perspectives that put my observations into a larger scope, which I think was missing from my preliminary research.

back of the "tuk tuk"

Why would I be interested in making non-Indian friends after flying halfway around the world? Simply [schimpiddy, as they say in the South], it's easier to explore with fellow travelers. When you're in the same mindset of being in a new, foreign place for a short amount of time, you have similar goals and expectations, no matter the language barrier. It's quite assuring to be around people who make you feel less out of place. We got to laugh about Indian accents & phrases, American accents, strange looks we get, over-sweetened tea, lack of toilet paper, and other little things. Traveling alone is eye-opening, but for three months, is really isolating. I wasn't really able to leave the apartment to explore until I met them, actually. To be fair, you can't really go out to Bangalore's restaurants and "pubs" alone. Later on, we found an Irish-Indian friend and an Indo-Malaysian friend who both study medicine in Dublin, who me and the other two Americans went to Mysore with one weekend.

The American boys & Camille

 The girls left on Monday and we had a small get-together at a doctor-friend's house. I went over after arriving back in Bangalore from Bombay and spent a last evening of sharing too much food, trying strange Indian white wine, and learning "that's what she said jokes." Tibetan prayer bowls make excellent fodder for bad The Office jokes, we found out. I wish there were more nights like this in Bengaluru, but it seems these sorts of gatherings are best for good-byes.

I'm so glad to have met this fine, bright gaggle of medical students to share my experience here (this includes the American and Dublin students!). They really saved me from what seemed to be a lonely task by laughing about silly things at Cafe Coffee Day and giggling during doctor-led meditation sessions (more on that later). Traveling with others really helps you learn about yourself as much as the terrain you're exploring, I think. You can't really just bust into a new place and think you've got it figured out yourself--because you probably don't. I'm not saying Malinowski stuck on the Trobriand Islands during WWI alone was a bad thing, but I'm sure he wished he had some sassy friends to help him understand the fine contours of the culture. So thanks, mademoiselles! I hope our paths cross again someday when we're all fancy doctors!

Camille, Salome, Claire, me at Hanuman Temple, Anegundi