Going to Goa

October 8, 2008

After a fifteen hour unconditioned train ride we arrived in Goa.  I don’t think that I could have been any happier to be off the train.  The ride seemed like it took forever and I didn’t get very much rest.  I was exhausted to say the least.  We had a long day ahead of us and I didn’t know how I was going to make it through without any sleep.  We had a little bit of time to get settled in to our home for the next 10 days.  We are staying at a huge Catholic Church.  The dorm is called the Pastoral Institute.  It is a place where priests and nuns come to finish their studies before being sent into parishes.  It’s kind of a creepy place.  It looks like it would be an awesome set for a horror movie.  There are these long corridors with doors all the way down.  The paint in chipping, windows are broken, and there really isn’t much around.  I think that’s its pretty amusing.  We were told that normally only priests are allowed to stay in the rooms where we are staying, but we are privileged guests here.  It feels good to be here.  After breakfast this morning we took a small tour of the area.  It is beautiful!  We are right on the river and are surrounded by huge palm trees.  We walked around and saw some historical places in the area.  It was so hot outside that it was nice to come back to the church. 

We started our first class session after lunch.  It was about Globalization and Zionism (a very fun topic to discus after a night without any good sleep).  It was pretty interesting.  Jason Fernandez talked about globalization and its impacts on Indian culture.  Globalization is a loaded term to begin with so it is difficult to put a definition with it.  Basically, globalization is the interdependence of economies and the mixing of cultures.  Some people refer to it as Americanization or Westernization.  I know that I have talked about how much the United States impacts the rest of the world but I feel it even more being in India.  Everything that the United States does affects the rest of the world.  The value of the Rupee dropped as soon as the United States started experiencing economic problems.  It seems like the world is getting smaller everyday.