A review of Pitt in the Himalayas!

Last Monday, I was on a study abroad panel for year 1s and 2s sharing about my PitH experience! I was there from August 21 to December 9, 2017 and I highly recommend it! I’m not too concerned if there’s genuinely no interest, but it’ll be sad if the programme is a good fit for someone who just didnt know enough about it to make an informed decision :)

Hence in light for sharing information and anecdotes to guide your informed decision, I thought I'd post my responses to the questions I was asked.

Q: Introduce your major and the institution you studied at. 
A: I'm a history major and environmental studies minor. I was based at the Hanifl Centre, under the Pitt in the Himalayas programme. The Hanifl Centre is an offshoot of an elite boarding school in Mussoorie. We live in student dorms of said boarding school, up on a hill from the main road. Don’t worry these dorms aren’t near the other student dorms so it doesn’t get noisy. It’s 15mins uphill on your first try, 10mins on a regular day and 5mins if you’re sprinting to grab your sleeping pad right before the big trek!!

Professors from the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University teach us courses in anthropology, history, and environmental studies. We also had the opportunity to learn Hindi or Urdu at a renowned language school, famous for coaching British colonials and American missionaries in the local language of business. We also have access to the gym, rock wall, canteen food, dance studios, and music rooms of the boarding school.

The gym became a place of comfort and relaxation. Here's my friend Kelly and I :)

Q: Why did you choose that school (academics or otherwise)?

A: PitH was my only choice since Y1S2. It's because I was extremely set on gaining a different kind of academic experience, one that is more focused on learning about the local community, living in a less urbanised area, interacting with the environment, and in so doing, develop myself in different ways — physical fitness, emotionally and mentally. I knew I love the mountains, I love learning about the 'web of life' (ecology and all its beautiful interconnections), walking, trekking and exploring. The course offerings at PitH also seemed like a good fit for my academic interests in anthropology, history and ES. Leading up to the trip I also realised how truly little I know about India, this other major part of Asia, and became very interested in the very vast potential and avenue for learning!

Q: What classes did you do while there?

A: For the first time in university, I overloaded with six modules, as I believe that each are complementary and mutually reinforcing with the other modules. They are: (i) Himalayan Geography: History, Society and Culture, (ii) Tribal Identity in the Himalayas, (iii) Tibetan Culture and the Tibetan Diaspora, (iv) Religion and Ecology, (v) Himalayan Biodiversity and (vi) Hindi. 

This hotchpodge of classes really helped me glean diverse perspectives to life in the Indian Himalayas. Through the weeks, class discussions have been diverse, ranging from the social construction of tribal identity in the hills, the galvanizing and divisive nature of a politics of recognition, Foucauldian theories of governmentality, Edward Said and Donald Lopez’s engagement with theories surrounding orientalism and new-age orientalism, agricultural methods in India after the Green Revolution, the nature of human-wildlife conflicts in the hills, and the development of religious beliefs against the backdrop of majestic mountains. 

Look at us, clamouring to touch an elephant's tongue! Just the week before we gained a truckload of information about elephants, their characteristics and their role in the jungle ecosystem. (cr: skye!)

Q: What was something that surprised you while away? 

A: How truly vast and diverse India is! Truly. When I returned, the question I got asked the most was "Is India hot?" and to me that just captures the vast lack of understanding of, and inability to imagine, India among Singaporeans. India is hot and crowded, but also hilly, undulating and cold.  

Keeping warm in many ways (cr: skye!)

Our very first trip was to Ladakh, located on the Tibetan Plateau. After flying across mountain ranges, above the clouds, we landed at 3700masl. This was a cold desert, and man it felt so different! We’d sweat profusely when the sun was out, and the very next moment it would be cloudy and cold. We went on such complementary class field trips for 49 out of 111 days that we were there, and the differences in places and characters and local stories that our profs furnished us with never cease to surprise me. I saw so many faces of Northern India, from the ‘Spiritual Disneyland’ of Rishikesh where the commodification of ayurvedic medicine and yoga is most rampant, and the barren cold desert of Ladakh which the Indian military – much to the dismay of conservationists – is attempting to green, to the fertile agricultural fields of Majkhali and finally the unforgiving and physically challenging trekking routes of Har Ki Dun. 

Most importantly, I discovered I learnt best by doing, reinforcing academic knowledge about this new cultural and academic environment through practice and application. My experiences have also heightened my empathy for marginalized communities, and inspired me to think critically about the kinds of context-specific policy, business and social innovations necessary to address the dynamic challenges of the developing world.

Q: What was something you wished you knew before going? 

A: I wish I was made more aware of the facilities available at my dorm and the boarding school that we were attached to. For instance, the school library with some very good books to read. I had packed upwards of 7 or 8 books into my luggage, thinking I was gonna be perched up in the mountain above civilization!! I couldn't be more wrong -- Mussoorie which is a 30mins walk away is quite touristy, settled, developed and urbanised. 

Mussoorie as seen from Landour. Landour is quieter and more tranquil :)

I also wished that I had learnt Hindi at an introductory level before going. That would have accelerated my learning of the language while I was there. 

Finally, I wish that I had somewhat moderated my expectations. I pinned great hopes that this will be the BEST 4 months of my life. I thought I’d be living in pristine nature and playing with forest creatures all the time. That wasn’t the case. But I think sem abroad doesn't have to be /lifechanging/ for us to still love and miss it.

 

for instance, I miss buying fresh fruits from vendors on the way to town

Q: What was especially difficult on study abroad? What is something you’re proud of? 

A: It was especially difficult to assimilate with the group initially, because it felt like we came from very different backgrounds and had different conversation topics. I was noticeably more outgoing and enthusiastic about the treks than others. I’m proud therefore of the eventual balance that I found between independence and interdependence with my batchies. In the day, I’d walk to my classroom to write papers (because my laptop malfunctioned) or to town to the cafe to read and buy things, and at night I’d socialise and reflect about the day with friends.

Eventually I grew to love everyone - their quirks, imperfections and our overall team dynamic (cr: shannon!)

Q: What about your experience was similar or different to Yale-NUS? (e.g. curriculum, res life, community, etc…)? 

A: We were really such a small community. There were 12 of us, all taking the same classes - kinda like common curriculum - and we were going everywhere together all the time. Initially it was scary because I was so afraid I couldn't fit in! But it worked out better than fine in the end. 

Our expedition really exemplified this. I wrote about this in an earlier post: I really loved the fact that we were 12 disparate personalities with ordinary/no trekking background coming together and synergising to elevate ourselves 10,00ft to a height of 14,435ft. I had always been more of a ‘competitive’ hiker, with ambitions to summit as fast as possible. I'd always think that I'm motivating people by hiking really fast ahead. But of course that's not how you motivate someone!! In India, what made the experience more satisfying was the collective experience of accomplishing milestones - passing the treeline, gaping at snowcapped peaks, scrambling up rocky screes and hiking to the blue-green alphine lake, together. 

teamwork makes dreams work (cr: skye!)

Q: Were there aspects of your identity or parts of your personality you experienced differently in your study abroad environment? 

A: I am way more independent. I look out for myself more when crossing the road and turning corners on the street. I think about how I want to spend the precious daylight hours, because the cold renders me inactive by night. It drops to around 4-8 degrees from mid-November. (Our rooms are not individually heated, rather there is a heater in the common area).

I read a book about how my body is not a machine and I should stop understanding it as such, a mere means to my goals. The environment in my Sem Abroad really facilitated this new mindfulness. For instance, when I got sad, I'd take care of myself and my emotions through long walks, to help process the day. 

Some days I’d come back to my room and fall asleep by 8pm, having spent daylight hours from 6am - 7pm writing a paper at the Hanifl field centre (my laptop crashed), and visiting cafes and friends in town. Initially I’d feel bad for not maximising my night time to finish projects but eventually I realised and learnt that my body comes first; I have to love it more and think about its well-being. Work will do itself. 

 

this never happens in yale-nus.

Q: What is something you’ve taken back to Yale-NUS when you returned? 

A: To invest time to talk to people. To learn from, and with, them. Because I was more relaxed and having conversations with my friends and especially my roommate Amiya, I discovered how conversations help me examine emotions and thoughts that I've buried away or only examined superficially. I am an introvert in the sense that I get drained in social situations, and need a lot of downtime to process before moving forward. However, I am learning to understand ‘socialisation’ as a way of improving my mental well-being, to re-energise my mind with fresh perspectives, and to be honest with myself and others about how I’m feeling.

Q: How did you keep connected to your family/friends at home and at Yale-NUS when you/they were abroad? 

A: Firstly, yes, there is wifi and you can skype! It's also really cheap to send postcards home! I sent my family and friends photos, long descriptions and postcards of what I was seeing and how I was coping with the work. I kept a blog, and updated my social media quite regularly. Reading them now, they really are very short slices of life abroad. It’s hard to communicate every thing that’s going on, but one can always convey emotions and mental state with a symbolic example. 

this is a postcard of trishul by my programme head, Akshay!