One month in and I am thoroughly enjoying my time in
Bangalore, it feels like home from home!
Bangalore is notorious for its Western-like style; it does indeed have many good food joints, trendy coffee bars and lush gardens, however the shock that is India still shines through each and everyday.
Early morning I negotiate obstacles of sleeping people on the pavements. Groups of men are sitting on their heels sipping their morning chai watching the world go by.
Bangalore is known as a traffic city you find yourself playing ‘chicken’ with everything in the road. People, and a friend or two are perched upon old rusty bicycles or on motorcycles. Auto-rickshaws zip around for business. Tinsel decorated vehicles churn out thick black smoke, buses run in sequence, or maybe later than planned- with people hanging out of the doors. However, I now feel I am becoming accustomed to the manic roads and the chaotic symphony of hoots, shouting and Bollywood style music!
My teaching placement at Christel House India is fantastic and is very rewarding. Each and every day brings new challenges and another child becomes your friend. Having taken a TEFL course before coming out to India I knew how to take a class. I have found myself becoming more and more involved and spend some of my free time marking and planning lessons! Seeing the students develop is a great feeling. I am teaching a few classes English grammar, whereby I try to implement fun methods of learning such as games and songs.
Other than my classes people at Christel House are very friendly and like to involve you in extra curricular activities such as filed trips and sports day. I have started leading my own projects including a ‘pen-pal project’, in consolidation with a children’s charity I worked for in England. I get the children to write letters and give them the opportunity to take photographs.