Batch 6 Has Arrived!

Our 6th Batch has arrived! They flew in on Wednesday and were immediately ready to go! We sent them around with their peer mentors from BACAS to show them around the area and keep them walking and upright. By dinner it was hard to stay awake, but we provided them with a vast array if new foods (paneer, gobi, and paper dosa) to keep them interested.

Welcome to BACAS

The beautiful peacock rangoli created by the art department

 The past days we have been in orientation. Students have learned some basic do's and don'ts of the culture here as well as been introduced to their teachers and staff. We had the chance to go shopping one afternoon for new salwar kameez for class and thankfully the peer mentors came along to give fashion advice.Students had the chance to take their first auto rickshaw ride, try schwarma from Arabian Fried Chicken, and visit the local grocery store.

Academic Orientation

 After several days getting their feet on the ground, our students are ready to go out on their own to complete Amazing Race Coimbatore. We have split them into small groups and provided them a set of clues and tasks to complete that will take them across the city. They have to find certain landmarks, get tea at certain stalls, and take pictures of themselves at certain locations. In the evening the groups are meeting the ISP at various favorite restaurants across the city to celebrate their success.

Chrissie and Kelly with their new outfits

On Monday the students start their first classes!

In Pictures: Amazing Race: Coimbatore!

Orientation would not be complete without a little adventure! So towards the end of their first few days here we sent our students out on the Amazing Race: Coimbatore.

ISPers with the tailor at Feelings.

What is the Amazing Race? Students are given a list of important locations in the area and turned loose for an afternoon of exploration. This is the first chance that they have to be out on their own and part of the aim is to encourage ISP-ers to gain confidence in getting around their city. At the end of their afternoon they are met by a staff member for a celebration dinner where they share their stories!


Aleena tries to push up the leaning tower on Race Course.

Their tasks ranged from finding the grocery store and discovering new produce (ask them what butter fruit and brinjal are!) to spotting the replicas of famous landmarks from around the world that dot Race Course. 

Tanner and Ashley at the neighborhood Ganesha Temple. 

On the way they also searched for Connexions (a nearby bookstore), peeked into some neighborhood temples and braved buses and autorickshaws. 


Morgan discovers Bollywood movies!

Despite their jet-lagged state, all of the teams had an exciting afternoon that they're not likely to forget soon!


Aleena explores Pazhamudir, a local grocery store.

_____________________

Photos by Aleena Plummer, Kelly Uchiumi, Hannah Burgess and their teammates.

Orientation

Our students have arrived! They have hit the ground running as they learn about India and get acquainted with our sprawling city of Coimbatore.

ISP trying new foods on their first night in Coimbatore.

Right off the plane they were welcomed by staff and peer mentors and they began taking in the sites on the bus ride through the city. The students wrapped up their first night here by sharing a giant family dosa, an ISP tradition!



Rangoli, a traditional decorative art, done by BACAS students to welcome ISP.
Photo Credit: Kelly Uchiumi

  Everyone was kept busy as “batch 3” conquered their fears of the public bus, tried on salwaars for school and kicked off their first few days of classes. We capped off orientation with the Amazing Race: Coimbatore, where students head out and hunt for different landmarks around the city.
 

The students after being thoroughly welcomed and garlanded by BACAS.



For now, everyone is settling in and learning more about doing life together in India. Stay tuned for our next post!

In Pictures:: Amazing Race: Coimbatore!

Jessica, Ashleigh and Jamie pose outside of "Hot Chocolate," a neighborhood favorite.

We wanted to share one of the highlights from orientation weekend for those of you reading from home!  In an effort to encourage our students to explore the city they’ll call home for the next 14 weeks (week number one having already passed), ISP staff wrote up a Coimbatore edition of the popular TV show “The Amazing Race."

Hot Chocolate sells some delightful cakes and pastries and, as this team discovered, also actually does sell hot chocolate!

It's important to ISP Staff, for reasons larger than the need to fight jet-lag, that orientation weekend isn't just made up of lectures and other events which will let students fall asleep. 

Jessica and Ashleigh pose with our favorite tailor, who works at a little local shop called "Feelings" located directly across the street from college.

In teams of three or four, our students were turned loose during orientation their first weekend in Coimbatore. It was the the first time in their busy orientation schedule that they were on their own, sent on their way with enough money to cover a bus fare for each of them, cell phones should they get lost and a list of objectives to accomplish over a three hour time span.

Jessica buys Chips Ahoy cookies, newly available at our local grocery store!

Staff’s hopes for the Amazing Race were that students, inspired (bribed?) by a sense of competition, would begin to break down some of the hesitations related to talking to people whose primary language is not their own, give them very real opportunities to learn where significant landmarks and locations are around the city as well as to help push and pull our group of eleven toward being able to navigate the intimidating ins and outs of life in India and in Coimbatore a little more confidently.

Celiz, doing a fine job of trying to push CBE's Tower of Pisa back up straight and earning a point for her team in doing so!

Their objectives ranged from things like finding and photographing the neighborhood temple to asking a local tailor how much it costs to have a kurta (traditional Indian women’s top, required dress code for classes at our partner college) hand tailored to their size to finding their way to the poo (flower) market and taking some photographs of a team member there. They visited grocery stores, fabric shops, clothing stores, restaurants and book stores, traveling by foot, by autorickshaw, and even by public bus. (They would have tried traveling by elephant, too, if it was available to them!)

Jake poses with a packet of Indian sweets

Fighting jet-lag and India’s tendency to overwhelm all of one’s five senses, our students did swimmingly!

Jamie flashes the camera her excited face while posing on top of CBE's "London Bridge"

We're hoping to celebrate their success by taking the team that accomplished the largest number of tasks out for what has been dubbed the "Winner Dinner" at a local restaurant this week to reward the students for their hard work and navigational skills!

In case you didn't get enough of Celiz trying to push and pull the Tower of Pisa back up!

___________

Photos by Alyssa Brokaw, Celiz Aguilar and their teammates.

Happy Friday from Coimbatore!

{image}

Sorry for the long silence!

Our “next batch” of students has arrived safely and after a brief issue with a missing suitcase, everyone has all of their belongings. we apologize for the radio silence.

Our students have been here in India for just over a week now. We’ve kept everyone busy with orientation, shopping for Indian wardrobes and books, and starting the first week of classes, in between things like trying new foods, re-learning basic communication skills (more on the head bobble at a later date!), and trying our hand at crossing the street. If that wasn't enough, we’re already off on our first regional trip to Madurai this weekend, where we’ll be staying at the Tamilnadu Theological Seminary, seeing a sound and light show at the Tirumalai Nayak Palace and visiting the Meenakshi Temple!

Please stay tuned for next week, when we’ll be sharing about our trip to Madurai, the recent festival of Pongal, the "Amazing Race: Coimbatore," and maybe even a bit on the Indian “head bobble.”

Thanks as always for reading!