Today was the most frustrating here so far. We had a lecture on academic norms, BPOs, and the human rights movement here. The material was interesting, but I suppose it was certain cultural differences that ate away at me.

BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing, the process where people are hired (usually under 30 years of age) by foreign companies to work in jobs that don't require core competence and that are usually monotonous and labor intensive. Examples include accounting and marketing positions, I'm not exactly sure what else, but these are the people that are answering technical support questions and such for US companies. People see such jobs as opportunities for independence and responsibility (hence the draw for newly graduated college students). Those working in these positions though have to work through the night and sleep during the day (since they need to be up when America is); this has interesting psychological ramifications, especially as relationships with others in the outside world fall by the wayside. They also work in high quality conditions that include air-conditioning; hence people become jaded to those conditions and expect to be provided as such. This provides even more incentive to remain working for BPO jobs in addition to a good income despite obvious problems people develop. About 60% of college grads go into BPO positions, especially in Hyderabad because the technicality of the city is prevalent.

The man who gave the lecture on the human rights movement was so enthusiastic and interesting to listen to, and you could tell he really knew what he was talking about. The problem was most of the time though that I couldn't understand what he was saying. I'd get a lot of the pieces, but I have trouble putting it all together. I have the same issues with Spanish; if I hear a word I don't know, I get hung up on it and lose understanding of the whole idea/thought. I was so interested in the issues presented though; I had so many questions and curiosities and at the same time realized how much I still have to learn about the conditions in the country. It's not something that could even be fixed by asking one of the other students what was said...what would I say? "Ok, what was the whole lecture about again?" Even when I ask the program directors questions I have about Indian culture, etc. it's so much work for me to try to understand what is being said. I just have major frustrations because my curiosity cannot be satiated right now; I need to learn patience. Eventually things will fall into place, just not at the present moment.

Spoken English here is so interesting. It's extremely hard to understand, but people who speak English know like all of it; it's not a question of vocabulary etc. but of pronunciation. They could write a ton about something all in English and have complete understanding of what words to use etc., but if I were to listen to them say the written word, I wouldn't really be able to understand it probably. For some reason or another, it is just significantly difficult for me to hear through the Indian accent to the point where it is like I'm hearing another language.

Also, classes here don't all start at the same time. In addition to not having a syllabus ready, classes start at the whim of the professor usually within the first days/weeks after the university opens. A reliable course list is not really generated. This means that I'll not know what options I'll have available really until after classes have started. Also, material for the class is missed inevitably at the beginning if you're moving around trying to find classes. I don't know how the whole thing will end up working, maybe it won't be that bad, but it sure is different and seemingly more inconvenient. This is just the way things are run. The written word is not as useful as the spoken word. Written things change, so it we won't really know the class situation until we can talk to the professors. Maps are scarce, directions are asked for here, not looked up. Music is not written down (this will surely provide a great opportunity for me to experience something very different in music since I'm so used to reading ). Things are just different from what I'm used to and it's frustrating sometimes. I guess it's all part of being somewhere else; this wasn't meant to be easy and what I'm used to.