Jessica post number 3

Greetings, blogland!

We have had an amazing day at GIM--and it is not over yet. I'm sure everyone else has blogged about this, but when we arrived here this morning, the entire school came out to greet us and they gave us flowers, played drums, and shot off fire crackers just to welcome us. They also dressed us in saris, put on a show, let us participate in a cultural celebration, and let us play a traditional game that is kind of like a pinata, only you try to hit a pot full of water.

I shared an observation with everyone on the bus this morning, and I think it is worth mentioning again: When we went to the professor's house the other night, I was shocked to see that her family had so few possessions. To an American, the house seemed to be empty. Today, when I went into the students' dorms, the rooms were nearly empty as well. It is interesting to see the cultural differences in attitudes towards accumulation of material possessions; in America, people are both pressured to constantly consume and there is a social belief that always having more is the ideal. In India, however, people are happy with what they have, and even well-off families are not pressured to consume in the way Americans are. As Professor Gupta mentioned to us earlier today, surveys in India have indicated that most of the top CEOs live incredibly frugally.
Along those lines, shopping is not considered a passtime here as it is in America. People do not go shopping when they are bored or as a social activity. I think I like that attitude better. I have too much clutter as it is.

I think we're out of time. On to the next activity!