Sitting at a cafe in Connaught Place after spending a small fortune to send 8kg of goodies back to America, I place an order for minestrone vegetable soup. Why might I be ordering hot soup in the middle of 100 degree+ weather in Delhi? Well, it is the only way I am finding I can eat fresh vegetables where I don’t get sick. Nothing like boiling your fresh vegetables in broth to kill all the bacteria that would otherwise wreak havoc on your stomach. I feel victorious with this realization as I have been missing raw fresh vegetables something furious. I think about all the excellent farmers markets I’m missing back in Union Square, NYC. Who knew I would miss fresh vegetables before pizza while away in India? I definitely did NOT see that one coming.
I have worked a few hours writing a blog post about physics education in American and India, but I fear am getting a little “too intellectual” and abstract with my thinking so I stop to take a break. I’ll keep working at it, but I am realizing the ideas are not 100% ironed out in my head and I’ll spin myself into circles. It’s not a dissertation and it is not supposed to be, but I can’t help but think of it like one. Still feeling the pressure to post SOMETHING I decide to write this.
Before I left for India, I was incredibly anxious as if part of me knew this trip would be the beginning of something new and life changing. In a lot of ways this trip has been that, but now that its over and several of the TGC fellows are already back home, I’m still processing what exactly to do with what I have learned while continuing to travel around India.
One of the things that I am finding difficult is that the connections I have made here have been emotionally intense in a positive and wonderful way. But just like the end of a school year, once the year is over and the students in the classroom are gone, things change - we go our separate ways into our summer routines. In this case, in India, I will go back to the States and fall back into my normal USA routines. What will be different; what will be the same? The purpose of this program is to build a relationship and collaborate across cultures. To what extent will I be able to do this, and what exactly does this to look like? These are questions I do not necessarily have answers to yet - but I am working on them for whatever that is worth.
I have worked a few hours writing a blog post about physics education in American and India, but I fear am getting a little “too intellectual” and abstract with my thinking so I stop to take a break. I’ll keep working at it, but I am realizing the ideas are not 100% ironed out in my head and I’ll spin myself into circles. It’s not a dissertation and it is not supposed to be, but I can’t help but think of it like one. Still feeling the pressure to post SOMETHING I decide to write this.
Before I left for India, I was incredibly anxious as if part of me knew this trip would be the beginning of something new and life changing. In a lot of ways this trip has been that, but now that its over and several of the TGC fellows are already back home, I’m still processing what exactly to do with what I have learned while continuing to travel around India.
One of the things that I am finding difficult is that the connections I have made here have been emotionally intense in a positive and wonderful way. But just like the end of a school year, once the year is over and the students in the classroom are gone, things change - we go our separate ways into our summer routines. In this case, in India, I will go back to the States and fall back into my normal USA routines. What will be different; what will be the same? The purpose of this program is to build a relationship and collaborate across cultures. To what extent will I be able to do this, and what exactly does this to look like? These are questions I do not necessarily have answers to yet - but I am working on them for whatever that is worth.
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