Study Study Study!

Hey everyone,

Sorry I haven’t really been updating my blog recently, the thing is that there isn’t much happening at the moment in MUWCI because as I said before all the second years are studying really hard for their exams and we, the firstyears have a lot of work. However, I would love to answers all your question, so it would be easier for me now if you ask me questions which I will then answer asap. Because it doesn’t really make sense for me to write about what is happening here now as there isn’t much. I would like to congratulate everyone who got in to MUWCI (: You can always contact me via facebook if you have questions as well. I’m so happy to read that many people are following this blog and being excited… About Pune: Pune is a nice city and kind of safe. I mean, it is not dangerous, I’ve never had problems but ofcourse you should walk alone as a white girl, I think that’s everywhere in India. It is a nice place to just go in the weekend to go to the mall. There are a lot of malls. Most people here go to SGSMall, dorabjies or Phoenix mall. So no worries about that (;. About how much money you’re allowed to spend: you are ALLOWED to spend as much as you want. Maybe you meant more how much you need? I would say that this again varies from person to person. For European people: keep in mind that India is way cheaper than most of European countries. I would suggest you to just try a certain amount the first term and you can always get more next term.

Recently I started realizing that my first year is already almost over. Next week is our last week of classes, then we have exams and then it’s over. New firstyears are selected and secondyears are talking about universities and leaving MUWCI. It will be very different to say bye to them as we became close to some of them.

Well, that was it for now,

Love.

Answer to the question

Hey everyone, 

So someone asked me if I get bored by the location of the school. I think this is something really important as our location is kind of isolated. However, I would like to say that this is MY opinion and you never know how you would feel about it. 

So as you know I live on a hill, 1 hour away from Pune. This means that most of the time we live on our hill. This place is wonderful and really beautifull. Especially in the monsoon when everything is green, this place is like a paradise. Now that said it is true that sometimes you might get sick of this place because you live here 24/7 with the same environment, same people,... Of course there are a lot of opportunities to get of campus, for example your of-campus triveni's, going to Pune (This can be WHENEVER you want, but most people go on saturday) and even going down to Paud (the nearby village). For me living here is not that much of a problem because I don't mind being 'isolated'. I think this is related to the fact that I never really watched the news or read the newspaper etc. I guess if a third world war would happen we wouldnt know it. I mean; if you want to know what is going on "outside", you really have to start looking for it in the newspaper etc. But as I said, that's fine for me now. I do read the newspaper even though I didn't do it before to stay informed about what is happening in the world (and in Belgium), but I don't need to go down of the hill often. For some people though it is important that they can go down at least twice a month to get out of "the bubble of our hill". I can understand this and I think that's why it is good that our experience here only lasts 2 years. Another thing people sometimes like less is that you live in a closed community with +-200 other students. This means that for a whole year (and kind of the second year, but then you have new firstyears), you have to live with the same people. Because we don't have a lot of contact with the indigenous (sorry if this is not the right word, I only know the Dutch word for it) people, we only get to hang out with the same MUWCI-people over and over again. On the other side this can create really close relationships and friends that know everything about you. Also, just because it is such a small community you know that when you will do something everyone will end up knowing (even if you want to keep it secret), so this can be possitive because it can help you to do less stupid things or it can be negative as it is hard to keep secrets. 

I don't know if this answers your question. I hope it does, but feel free to ask me more. 

I just want to clarify that this is a wonderful place and that this message is not intended to sound negative at all. I hope I didn't scare anyone away. Even the people who find it harder to live kind of isolated would never give up their MUWCI-experience. I think it is just important that you realize that EVERY place has positive and negative sides and that it is up to you how you deal with them. I love this place and I certainly don't want you to think bad about it (; 

Oh and about if we feel like we have no life: It is always so busy here and we have so much to do that we don't really have time to get bored. 

Love. 

Pauline

INC

Hey everyone,

Not much happened this week. This weekend (starting from yesterday) is exeat. I am staying on campus this time because I need to work. Actually almost everyone stayed this exeat because travel week is just over and people have no more money, enthusiasm or have too much work... So it's like a weekend that we can all chill (:

Also a lot of people are volunteering for INC. That is the Indian National Committee. Basically there are applicants for MUWCI on campus this weekend for the selection round. Second years can volunteer to help. So now there are a lot of new kids on our school. 

Yesterday and Wednesday I went to Zumba. Swati, a secondyear from India, decided to start it as an activity. It is not a triveni, so everyone can come whenever they feel like it. I like it a lot because it is working out in a fun way. For those who don't know what zumba is: it is a kind of fitness in the form of dancing. Swati choreographs several songs (about 8) and then dances them and we imitate her. It is really nice even if you can't really dance well (which is my case :D)

Today I'm going to finish my selftaught commentaries and study my presentation so that tomorrow I can go to Pune. We were suppossed to go to pune yesterday, but due to the strikes in Pune we didnt go. By tomorrow it should almost be over and even if it's not, the big malls etc are open so that's good enough. 

That was it for today. 

XOXO,

Pauline