About three weeks ago, SIXTEEN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS visited CMS! Cinny Miss called me in the morning and said, "Hey, there's a bunch of Americans here...where are you?" and I RAN to campus!!! They were from different universities and will be studying abroad in Pondicherry for a semester through a program called Semester in India. As I ran into the Great Hall, they were attending a special cultural exchange performance, where the students presented the different song and dance forms of Kerala. It was an extremely comical introduction: we were obviously extremely surprised to see one another but couldn't talk until the performance was over! This resulted in a kind of dance in and of itself of glances and facial expressions, as they wondered who I was and what I was doing here and I wondered about them. When the program ended, the Americans were invited up to the stage to perform a couple songs for all the CMS students (this was part of the "exchange").
As they were coming on stage, I asked if I could join them. Now some of them saw me for the first time while we were on stage together and were totally taken aback to see another member of the group! We sang a Motown medley and the national anthem, and then invited all the Indian students on stage and TAUGHT THEM THE CHA-CHA SLIDE! "I can't believe this is happening right now!!!" It was a BLAST. Then both groups of students chatted with one another for awhile, and then the program was over, and I finally looked at them all and said, "Um...hi! I'm Claudia!" and we finally MET. This was too funny. They invited me to eat lunch with them, where I didn't even eat because I was talking so fast. Unfortunately, they had to leave that day for the next leg of their tour before beginning their semester. Apparently they'd been in Kottayam for a few days already! And just as suddenly as we'd stumbled upon one another, they left. It was incredibly refreshing to meet these students just coming to India, to exchange contacts, to talk with them about their fears and expectations, and hear their reasons for coming here.
A day in the life in India. You never know when you're going to wake up and run to campus to do the Cha-Cha Slide with 16 American college kids!!! Every day here, truly, is quite the adventure. :)
As they were coming on stage, I asked if I could join them. Now some of them saw me for the first time while we were on stage together and were totally taken aback to see another member of the group! We sang a Motown medley and the national anthem, and then invited all the Indian students on stage and TAUGHT THEM THE CHA-CHA SLIDE! "I can't believe this is happening right now!!!" It was a BLAST. Then both groups of students chatted with one another for awhile, and then the program was over, and I finally looked at them all and said, "Um...hi! I'm Claudia!" and we finally MET. This was too funny. They invited me to eat lunch with them, where I didn't even eat because I was talking so fast. Unfortunately, they had to leave that day for the next leg of their tour before beginning their semester. Apparently they'd been in Kottayam for a few days already! And just as suddenly as we'd stumbled upon one another, they left. It was incredibly refreshing to meet these students just coming to India, to exchange contacts, to talk with them about their fears and expectations, and hear their reasons for coming here.
A day in the life in India. You never know when you're going to wake up and run to campus to do the Cha-Cha Slide with 16 American college kids!!! Every day here, truly, is quite the adventure. :)
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| 16 American college students studying here with the Semester in India program! |
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