February 25, 2025
Thums Up
With coming up on nearly two months in Bengaluru, the thoughts of returning back to Seattle flood my mind more often than they did at the beginning of this experience. I’m thinking about the return to my final spring at UW, although I’m not even taking classes. Some of the thoughts about what spring will entail, include cherry blossoms and all the crowds that come with it, walking through Ravenna Park listening to an audiobook, preparing for all the graduation festivities, and eventually having to say goodbye to friends and start my “real life.”
Before thinking more about “real life,” rather I wanted to take some time to think about what happened today. On Monday, Inessa and I sit at the park down the road of the hostel in the red and yellow bleacher seats, drinking a Thums Up, a Maaza Juice, and a Kinley Extra Punch, surprisingly with a weak punch. I come to this park often to get away and read or to listen to music or to just watch. Today, I’m looking out at the area in front of us and there’s the fountain that I’ve never seen turned on, children getting whistled at by the guard, the setting sun, a dragonfly, and an abundance of trees that make me smile thinking about how Bengaluru and Seattle are both known for being quite green. One of the only things missing from this park compared to Ravenna is that I would most likely be sitting in a hammock, rather than the red and yellow bleachers.
We talked about what the GCIL program reminds us of and how we could explain our time in Bengaluru to the people back at home in a few words, rather than the long winded and classic “my time in study abroad” story. I think we settled on a combination of the first few weeks of freshman year, the show Survivor, and sleep away camp. All of these experiences throw together a group of people that you might’ve known a little or not at all before you go and then all of a sudden, you’re forced to spend each waking moment with them. I’ll admit, this might be somewhat of an exaggeration, but if the me today told me two months ago that I’d be recounting stories about my childhood that I hadn’t thought about in years, I would be in shock. There’s something about being in such close proximity with new people that can bring out stories or memories that have been buried deep inside you. I think that’s something I wasn’t expecting to come out of this experience, but one I will be entirely grateful for. As for the Survivor aspect, we may not be doing challenges or finding hidden immunity idols, but there are coconuts being opened, lots of team activities, and just this weekend in Coorg, a fire was built.
In the upcoming weeks, rather than thinking about the springtime, I’m trying to stay focused on our projects. If it’s hours spent at coffee shops, brainstorming another empathy map we could make, researching all the well contractors in the Bengaluru area, or searching to find somewhere that WIFI works with a US phone number, I’m trying to push forward. It can definitely be frustrating when an idea doesn’t go your way or you can’t find the perfect resource that will answer all your questions, but that’s what GCIL is about. So, for anyone reading this and as a reminder to myself during my last blog post, stay in the moment and be in your body. Be where you are and not where you could be, regardless of all the similarities you may find. With saying that, I know when I’m back in Seattle, I’ll miss the red and yellow bleachers while lying in my hammock.
By,
Chloe
