Having dreamt about taking buses with a schoolfriend, I woke up at 3.30am and couldn't get back to sleep. The last time I saw the clock was 5am: then I heard the phone ring. I answered to hear the reception saying that this was the wake-up call I'd asked for: this was at 6.45am. I explained that I didn't ask for a wake-up call, they apologised and hung up. So I went back to bed for another hour.
Breakfast was quite good: I'm not sure of the names of what I ate, maybe tomorrow I'll take a photo. I got chatting afterwards in the lobby to another student, Elham from Libya, then we were joined by Oana from Romania (living in Hungary), Zuzana from Slovakia (living in the Czech Republic), Christine from Fiji, Peter from Australia, and Veronica from Canada. We were taken by taxis to the university: when we arrived we were invited inside and asked to remove our shoes before going into the conference room. There we were welcomed by the principal and were invited to light candles for the inauguration ceremony. For this, we stood around a font with a replica of a peacock on top of it, and with six or seven candles in its basin. A mix of students and faculty lit a candle each - I didn't get there in time, but it was beautiful to watch. The principal said that this represented the spreading of knowledge.
We then went round and introduced ourselves and our backgrounds. There are thirteen students in all: in addition to the ones already mentioned, I met Abdirazak from Somalia, Michael from Egypt, Kaustubh (the course administrator, now joining as a student), Prerna and Punitha from India, and in the evening we were joined by Amam from Nepal (living in the USA) whose flights had been delayed. Again it appears that I'm the youngest one here, most people I spoke to have children... there're a couple of lawyers, a fair few psychiatrists, other mental health professionals and a mental health user, so a good mix of people. We were given a timetable with the plan for the next two weeks: by the looks of things I'll be in the university from 9am to 6p every day, with a few days where I'm expected to stay until 9pm. Tomorrow is the only day off, and next Sunday we'll have classes from 9am to 2pm. On Tuesday in the early morning we'll fly to Chennai to visit a community mental health project for homeless women, returning on Wednesday night. So this'll certainly be a very full and busy fortnight!
After a tea break (assam tea plus milk is awesome), during which I got to know the other students (according to Peter, in Australia people from England are known as Pomes - Prisoners of Mother England. Who knew?), we were shown how to use the university's computer system for logging into the internet and using the course websites. Then we were told by one of the professors that on Monday we'd hold a debate about stigma regarding mental health between a mental health worker who wishes to rehabilitate people discharged from an institution into the neighbourhood, and neighbours who oppose this: I was given the role of a council member who submits questions to the head councilperson to ask both parties. We weren't told that much more than that, beyond appointing the roles, so I imagine we'll see more on Monday. The caterer came to speak to us about his company and about arrangements for food - tea, biscuits and lunch are provided at the university, while the hotel gives us breakfast - then we ate lunch (really nice chicken and peppers sandwiches) outside the conference room. Prerna and I wandered around the campus grounds a little, then headed back for the afternoon session.
We were given more of a tutorial on submitting work online - the course is assessed with quizzes counting for 10%, assessments 50%, the project 30%, and the viva at the end of the year counting for 10%. We were advised to have decided on our project and hopefully arranged with a supervisor by the end of the fortnight - talking with others during the afternoon tea break, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who's not sure about what to do for a project. Then for the final session, we watched a film on schizophrenia called 'Devrai' - I thought it was really well-made, the lack of background music made the characters and the story seem more real and less like a drama. At one point the main character drops his medication into a fishtank, as the fish swam around the falling pills I was amused by the idea of antipsychotic fish. The film directors joined us and we had the opportunity to ask questions once the film was over, which I enjoyed. Then it was nearly 7.30pm, and we were told that a tour of Pune could be arranged for the next day if enough people wished to go, so I signed up.
While transport to the university is arranged, return travel is up to us. Zuzana and I took a mototaxi back to the hotel - while I've been in mototaxis before, I hadn't been in one with no sides where the driver swerves left and right almost continuously, and I wasn't entirely sure where to hold on. Thankfully we made it back with nobody falling out - the driver wasn't sure how to get to the hotel and had to ask the driver of Peter and Veronica's mototaxi, he wasn't sure either. Peter got out and recognised the road, so we got out and walked for another minute or two to the hotel. There we met Amam, and a group of us went out to buy mosquito repellent - we were advised to get a specific type since mosquitos in India are apparently immune to many types of repellent, likely including the one I brought from home. None of us had exact change, and neither did the shop owner, so he gave us our change in small chocolates - great, if I weren't allergic! Then we agreed to meet in the hotel restaurant for dinner at 9pm - in the end it was me, Amam, Oana and Christine, later joined by Zuzana. Daal lentils with buttered naan bread were really nice, and on Christine's advice I asked for it without chillies since I'm not great with spices. It was a lovely way to end the evening before I came back up for bed.
Breakfast was quite good: I'm not sure of the names of what I ate, maybe tomorrow I'll take a photo. I got chatting afterwards in the lobby to another student, Elham from Libya, then we were joined by Oana from Romania (living in Hungary), Zuzana from Slovakia (living in the Czech Republic), Christine from Fiji, Peter from Australia, and Veronica from Canada. We were taken by taxis to the university: when we arrived we were invited inside and asked to remove our shoes before going into the conference room. There we were welcomed by the principal and were invited to light candles for the inauguration ceremony. For this, we stood around a font with a replica of a peacock on top of it, and with six or seven candles in its basin. A mix of students and faculty lit a candle each - I didn't get there in time, but it was beautiful to watch. The principal said that this represented the spreading of knowledge.
We then went round and introduced ourselves and our backgrounds. There are thirteen students in all: in addition to the ones already mentioned, I met Abdirazak from Somalia, Michael from Egypt, Kaustubh (the course administrator, now joining as a student), Prerna and Punitha from India, and in the evening we were joined by Amam from Nepal (living in the USA) whose flights had been delayed. Again it appears that I'm the youngest one here, most people I spoke to have children... there're a couple of lawyers, a fair few psychiatrists, other mental health professionals and a mental health user, so a good mix of people. We were given a timetable with the plan for the next two weeks: by the looks of things I'll be in the university from 9am to 6p every day, with a few days where I'm expected to stay until 9pm. Tomorrow is the only day off, and next Sunday we'll have classes from 9am to 2pm. On Tuesday in the early morning we'll fly to Chennai to visit a community mental health project for homeless women, returning on Wednesday night. So this'll certainly be a very full and busy fortnight!
After a tea break (assam tea plus milk is awesome), during which I got to know the other students (according to Peter, in Australia people from England are known as Pomes - Prisoners of Mother England. Who knew?), we were shown how to use the university's computer system for logging into the internet and using the course websites. Then we were told by one of the professors that on Monday we'd hold a debate about stigma regarding mental health between a mental health worker who wishes to rehabilitate people discharged from an institution into the neighbourhood, and neighbours who oppose this: I was given the role of a council member who submits questions to the head councilperson to ask both parties. We weren't told that much more than that, beyond appointing the roles, so I imagine we'll see more on Monday. The caterer came to speak to us about his company and about arrangements for food - tea, biscuits and lunch are provided at the university, while the hotel gives us breakfast - then we ate lunch (really nice chicken and peppers sandwiches) outside the conference room. Prerna and I wandered around the campus grounds a little, then headed back for the afternoon session.
We were given more of a tutorial on submitting work online - the course is assessed with quizzes counting for 10%, assessments 50%, the project 30%, and the viva at the end of the year counting for 10%. We were advised to have decided on our project and hopefully arranged with a supervisor by the end of the fortnight - talking with others during the afternoon tea break, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who's not sure about what to do for a project. Then for the final session, we watched a film on schizophrenia called 'Devrai' - I thought it was really well-made, the lack of background music made the characters and the story seem more real and less like a drama. At one point the main character drops his medication into a fishtank, as the fish swam around the falling pills I was amused by the idea of antipsychotic fish. The film directors joined us and we had the opportunity to ask questions once the film was over, which I enjoyed. Then it was nearly 7.30pm, and we were told that a tour of Pune could be arranged for the next day if enough people wished to go, so I signed up.
While transport to the university is arranged, return travel is up to us. Zuzana and I took a mototaxi back to the hotel - while I've been in mototaxis before, I hadn't been in one with no sides where the driver swerves left and right almost continuously, and I wasn't entirely sure where to hold on. Thankfully we made it back with nobody falling out - the driver wasn't sure how to get to the hotel and had to ask the driver of Peter and Veronica's mototaxi, he wasn't sure either. Peter got out and recognised the road, so we got out and walked for another minute or two to the hotel. There we met Amam, and a group of us went out to buy mosquito repellent - we were advised to get a specific type since mosquitos in India are apparently immune to many types of repellent, likely including the one I brought from home. None of us had exact change, and neither did the shop owner, so he gave us our change in small chocolates - great, if I weren't allergic! Then we agreed to meet in the hotel restaurant for dinner at 9pm - in the end it was me, Amam, Oana and Christine, later joined by Zuzana. Daal lentils with buttered naan bread were really nice, and on Christine's advice I asked for it without chillies since I'm not great with spices. It was a lovely way to end the evening before I came back up for bed.
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