New place, new look

Hello hello all

So I wish I was able to spend time putting together a proper post for you, but suffice to say I've spent enough time procrastinating and really need to get to work. For now, take a look at the new format and let me know what you think!

But just briefly:

I've been in India since Tuesday afternoon. We are 10.5 hours ahead of those of you who are on the East Coast of the U.S. I started work at the Deshpande Center for Social Entrepreneurship on Wednesday, creating an assessment protocol to evaluate the English levels of the new Deshpande Fellows, who are all arriving tomorrow (Monday). It's been pretty busy here, there is currently no internet in the house where I am living, so I have not had much opportunity to work on the several research papers that I still have left over from Ireland, the most urgent of which is due on Tuesday. It is this paper, on the legacy of populism in Latin America, that is my mission today.

In order to better equip myself to accomplish this mission, I checked myself into a hotel here in Hubli yesterday, so that I may take advantage of their speedy internet connection and have the opportunity to do research and write in a comfortable, reasonably quiet environment. I have found that so far I've been using this opportunity to catch up on Facebook and give this blog a makeover. Typical.

While I am excited about access to internet and the opportunity to communicate with people, I dislike the fact that after less that one week here, I found the need to check myself into a hotel with all of the fancy comfortable Western amenities that I could desire. I was hoping that when I arrived here, I would be able to just jump right in, rip off the band-aid if you will. But alas, a consequence of only having one foot in the door while the other is still stuck in Dublin is that I feel I am being pulled in several directions at once. Not the most fun of feelings. Quite stressful and certainly not making this adjustment any easier.

And what an adjustment it will be! More on all of this later, but my lord! Squat toilets, rickshaw, large livestock roaming the busy streets freely, people hanging out of brightly colored loud buses that look like they're going to fall apart any minute, unpaved, dusty roads, the constant need to monitor where your water is coming from...man oh man.

Well, hopefully in the next couple days (doubtful, probably next weekend) I'll be able to give you a proper post, perhaps with pictures, explaining what my life is like here so far. For now, I will be more than occupied with my incoming class of Fellows and the 6000+ words that I need to write this week.

Missing you all as always and hoping very much that everyone's new year is getting off to a good start!!!

Take care people. Love, Elisha.