First days in India

I've only been in India for two days but I am already used to eating with my hands and showering from a bucket.
The flight to India was fairly uneventfull but very long. We left our hostel in Boston at 4:30 pm on Friday night and didn't get into Bangalore until 5am Sunday morning. In between there was a five hour layover in London's Heathrow Airport. My first glimpse of Europe.
Enough of the complaining India is an amazing place. The second we left the airport we knew we were in a foreign country the cars, sounds, smells and clothes were all completely different. The city of Bangalore is where I will be based for the first 18 days is a crazy place. The traffic is out of control with cars competing with rickshaws( three-wheeled motorized scooters is the best description I can come up with) competing with motorcycles and bicycles all without the benefit of lanes, or anyone following traffic rules. The sidewalks, if there are any, are filled with beggars some of them young children. The streets are lined with small shops or advertisements in three languages usually Hindi, Kannada (the state language of Karnataka) and English. Many people come from all over India to Bangalore because of the tech industry so there are at least half a dozen languages commonly spoken on the streets The most notable ads are for people to work in call centers. Most of the time when you call tech support from the U.S. you are talking to someone in Bangalore.
The markets are also amazing, they are completely crowded, and noisy but they sell amazing things for incredibly cheap prices. People were buying shirts, skirts, and bags for only a couple american dollars.
On Monday evening I moved in with my host family. They are really nice and they lived in the U.S. for 5 years so they speak English well. Mrs. Rekha is an amazing cook and having homemade Indian food for three meals a days is great. They also have two sons about my age which is great. Mrs. Rekha is also a great artist and she has some of her own paintings up. There is also what she calls a small Hindu temple (basically a few sculptures on a shelf).
This morning class was cancelled so I went with the two sons to play basketball in the park. The park which was only a five minute rickshaw ride away was pretty interesting. There was a huge field which could only be described as dust where people where playing cricket and then a small basketball court where we played two on two until the sun made it too hot to play. It was the first time I had ever been hit with a cricket ball (it was a tennis ball so it didn't hurt a real cricket ball would definately leave a mark) while playing basketball.
Mrs. Rekha told me about a Jewish population that moved to South India during World War 2 and I am going to try and learn more about it.
Before we started class we did a really cool ceremony were we light candles off of other candles to symbolize knowledge as spreading the light rather than something we possess.
That's all for now. Stay tuned I'll write more when I get a chance and don't worry I am taking plenty of pictures.