This first week has gone by so fast and it feels so much longer! We arrived last Wednesday morning very early, 2 am, at Bangalore Airport. Fortunately we got picked up and brought to a nice apartment. We are staying with a host family who are involved with Bangalore International School and who teach there as well. What was very surprising and which still is quite uncomfortable is that we have two maids here who do all the washing and cleaning for us. What’s more, the cooks from the school come every day and cook especially for us. That we get quite spoiled with the food is for sure (since the Indian cuisine is a whole story itself you will read more about it later).

On our first day we have also experienced how it is to have a life without wifi again and so we went out to explore the area and we tried to find a bank where we could get out some money. Since not one ATM nearby worked, Bernand got on the back of a scooter with a foreign local and together with Richelle and Anine we waited in a supermarket hoping that Bernand would survive this trip in the chaos of the Indian traffic, which fortunately he did.

On our second day, the Thursday, we went to the school for the first time. Luckily it is only a 2 minute walk from our apartment and we can even see the school and its courtyard from our bedroom window. All the teachers at the school were very welcoming and we got to meet our mentor teachers. Surprisingly we even got to experience the afternoon lessons and a staff meeting, which we had not planned beforehand. But we already realized that not everything goes by plan here in India.

What really does work well is an app to order cabs with, which we tried out on the Friday. It’s amazing how the Indians managed to get some sort of cab system within this chaotic traffic. Together with Bernand and Richelle we got on the road and went to visit a park. From our western perspective we had a beautiful green garden with flowers in mind. However, when we arrived we realized that that’s definitely not the case due to this hot climate in which it is around 30 degrees every day. But still it was nice to walk around and have a peaceful place in this browsing city. We also visited a temple and got some Indian local food and not to forget we sat in the well-known Indian tuctuc.

Although we just fit with the 3 of us in a tuctuc the Saturday we even figured out that we could sit in a tuctuc with the four of us. It seems like the Indians do not know limitations on the amount of people or goods on a vehicle; we have seen whole families, father, mother and children on 1 scooter. While being amazed by everything in this city and country we did some touristic outings to the Botanical Gardens of Bangalore and the Bangalore Palace. We also blended in with the locals by wandering through market streets which gives you a real culture shock; everything you see and hear, the smells and colours. We have so much to take in.

This is exactly what we did on the Sunday. That was a day on which we relaxed and on which I kept reminding myself that I really am in India, which is still hard to grasp. It was good to have that relaxing day because on Monday we started our first day of our teaching practice at Bangalore International School. But about that I will write more soon!