Settling In & Getting Acquainted with Pune

Posted by Colleen
On May 8, 2022
Comments
8

My first few days in Pune have been a mix of Fulbright prep, getting set up, and starting to explore the city.

The Fulbright prep has been mostly formalities so far. I had my Orientation with USIEF (India Fulbright) staff from the Mumbai office (these folks are my regional support team here; the main office is in Delhi) which covered everything from government requirements to health/safety to suggestions for adjusting to life in India. Next week I hope to meet with faculty at my host university and to begin some initial preparations for my research project.

I’ve been working on getting set up from my temporary home base (initial 7-night hotel stay provided by the Fulbright)–apartment searching, getting a cell phone and Indian SIM card (more complicated than it sounds), and figuring out how to get more cash (rupees) after an unfortunate ATM mishap resulting in the loss of my debit card. What’s really funny about this is that I intentionally did not try to order Indian currency in advance of travel because of what happened on my first trip here in 2016 (i.e., I got $200 worth of rupees in advance then learned when I landed in Delhi that the government had made a surprise currency switch the day before in an attempt to get rid of counterfeit bills–so my money was worthless). But hey, what’s international travel without a few unexpected incidents? 😉

The exploration part has been in areas of the city within walking distance of the hotel, which thankfully is pretty centrally located in the Shivajinagar area. Each day I’ve set out on foot in a different direction to get a sense of the neighborhoods, usually meandering a mile or two before returning to the hotel for an AC break (temps have been between 102-106 degrees!). I’ve included a few snapshots from these first walks below, along with the cover image (top of post) which was taken yesterday at sunset from the hotel rooftop. Pune seems to be a lovely city!