My weekend

This weekend I went to AIESEC's conference, called LCong (Local Congress).  Here, everyone from AIESEC Hyderabad gets together to discuss business and plan for the future.  They also party hard.  As the party delegate, and since I have no background in AIESEC, I was not required to attend the sessions.  My business was all pleasure.  On Friday I went to the office in Hyderabad to wait for a ride to the resort where the conference was held.  While I was sitting around with a couple of the guys I decided to show them what my home town looks like.  I went to Google Maps and used the satellite function to display an image of West Bloomfield.  They were amazed by how green it is, how many lakes there are, and how well-planned all of the subdivisions are.  I zoomed in on my house and when they commented that it was pretty big I dragged the map over to Long Lake Rd. and showed them some of those mansions.  They were shocked at the size of the houses compared to the amount of people that live in them.  With the population being so high here it would be unheard of to have so much space for only three or four or five or six people.

When we got to the resort on Friday, we had lunch and then opening ceremonies.  This involves every division parading into the conference room screaming their heads off with different chants.  Then they have cheer battles back and forth for about 15 minutes.  After that, each group performs a choreographed dance.  This was all very entertaining, especially since I wasn't expecting anything of the sort.  Once everyone settled down and they got into their sessions I started to get bored.  They were discussing things that I didn't know anything about so I decided to retire to my room (which had air conditioning, praised be jesus).  I never imagined that it would feel luxurious to simply sit in an air-conditioned room, but honestly, I felt like a king.  I kicked back and relaxed and watched a couple of hours of tv.  Other than a couple of sessions here and there that I attended, that was pretty much my routine for the next two days.  I also took a few walks, finished one book, and started another.

Friday night was party time.  The night started around 10 or 11 with Sculling, which is an Indian drinking game.  It's configured a lot like Flip Cup with two teams positioned along opposite sides of a table.  In this game though, there are only four members per team and you have to kneel down in front of the table to play.  And you can't be wearing pants.  It's a pretty intense scene because only one game goes on at a time and everyone else stands on their chairs in a circle surrounding the match.  A judge/ref prompts the players to put their thumbs on the table, then their chins on the table and then starts the round.  One player at a time chugs his or her beer, taps the glass on his or her head and then puts it down on the table.  Then the next person goes and so on until one team has won.  The game is played bracket-style so eventually there is a final showdown.  Unfortunately, my team didn't make it anywhere near this ultimate competition, as we had one girl on our team who was somewhat beeraphobic.  

After the game, everyone got dressed up and ready for the "prom" party.  I thought I should give my date, Vega, a flower, in keeping with prom tradition.  I had trouble finding one in the arid, dry climate but I finally spotted a cactus with some tiny brownish petals on top.  I picked one and gave it to her, but I also had to explain why because apparently this is not an Indian custom.  She was very happy with the flower though, so it all worked out.  We had a lot of fun dancing with everybody.  They play a lot of trance and house music here, not like the rap music filled party scene back home.  There were also some people from AIESEC wandering around pouring whiskey down people's throats, which caught me off guard the first time and left me in a state of slight debilitation for a minute.  I was fine after that and drunk enough to dance with reckless abandon.  Before it felt like an hour had gone by, it was five a.m. and I was swimming in sweat.  I pushed my hair up out of my face and went to sleep.  

When I woke up three or four hours later to the call for breakfast my hair was standing straight up.  Since the room was air-conditioned I didn't sweat at all throughout the night so my hair set how I had left it.  Honestly, I looked like I was hanging upside-down and it did not cooperate with my attempts to re-style it.  When I showed up at the pavilion for breakfast I saw people nodding in my direction and some people came up to me and said "nice hair".  It was probably the best bed head that I've ever had.  I felt truly accomplished and proud.  The rest of the weekend was fun and relaxing.  I learned how to bat in Cricket (I'm a lefty for some reason) and took a swim in a moldy pool.  The water looked fine from the surface but I must have stirred up some of the dregs from the bottom because after I jumped in there were strange green clumps floating all around me.  I got out as quickly as I had gotten in, but it was still refreshing for a second or two.

Today Anne moved out of my apartment to go home to Kenya.  I'm pretty bummed because she was my best friend here and such a nice, fun person.  She really helped me out in terms of getting to know how to do things in India.  She will be missed.  Tonight I'm going to take a bus to Bangalore.  I will arrive there sometime tomorrow and stay until Friday.  Luckily, AIESEC is a pretty vast network of people and there is someone there who is willing to put me up at his place for two nights.  I'm really excited to explore a new city.  On a last note, I'm so stoked about the Red Wings.  2-0 baby!  I found out today that I can listen to the games through nhl.com.  I'm looking forward to hearing the next game if it's at a time that works with my schedule.  Happy June, everybody!