After almost a week in India and our fair share of illnesses I think it’s safe to say we’re all feeling fully immersed in Bangalore’s culture. To start off our day, we reflected on our experiences over the past week and then headed to class to apply all we’ve learned to a role-playing scenario.
When we entered the class room we were surprised to find our instructors and Indian friends yelling at us and acting as if we had intruded into their home. This experience, albeit a tad dramatic, was great practice in bridging the cultural and language barriers that we could experience when we would need to interview members of the community later in the day.
Once we finished this role-play activity, we were ready to put our skills to the test and go interview people around the city. My group, the food and agriculture team, interviewed two street vendors and one rickshaw driver about their experiences living in Bangalore and their thoughts on food and nutrition. After chatting with the locals for about an hour we treated ourselves to some ice cream before the rain started.
For dinner we crammed all eleven of us into a few autos and headed to a restaurant called Truffles. While we were waiting for food we showed our new friends how to play the classic American hand game Bo Bo Ski Waton Taton.
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Jillian C.