Goodbye India

So we closed our last day in India with a tour of some temples. We stayed mainly in Delhi, hitting up temples in both old and New Delhi! It was a good ending to a perfect month abroad. I'm sad to leave this country but excited to go home and see all my friends and family back home! Tomorrow will be a long day of travel but it will all be worth it to be welcomed home by my mom at the airport! To all my friends I've made here in India, it's been a blast and I can't wait to see you back at St. Thomas! We've had so many good memories that will last awhile! Although this is a short post it's been an overall great trip abroad and I can't say thank you enough to everyone that has made it possible for me to come here! It will be an experience that I will remember for a lifetime! So goodbye India and hello to the cold USA!

Yumm a Cheeseburger

So before I get to the good stuff of me having a cheeseburger I better catch up on my last few days since I've been in Delhi. Yesterday, we had yet again another busy day. We had our final lecture in India. It was one of our professors friends and she was one of the most interesting ladies I have ever heard speak. She has gone through many interesting experiences. Her father was a government official in India when they were gaining independence from the British in the 1940s. So she got to hear some very important speeches that many would wish they could have heard. The. By some fate she made her way to the US during the civil rights era in our country. She talked of her experience being a "brown girl" in a society that was trying to differentiate between blacks and whites. Many people didn't know what to do with her I'm sure you can imagine.
So after our final lecture, we started the day by going to the museum of modern art. This was very interesting as it showed beautiful pieces of work! Although I may not be the best in museums and interpreting art it was still wonderful to see all of these beautiful works of art! After this we made our way to the lotus temple. This is one of the best places I've been as it in a way looks like the Opera house in Sydney. This place was beautiful in meaning and in structure. The simple meaning behind the place is that it is a place that accepts all religions in worship, it allows for people to just go there and spend time in silence. It was very cool and well worth a visit! Also my new favorite flower is the lotus because of all the significance it has found it's way into Indian culture:)
Now we get to today! It was a busy day again and we started our way to the national museum of art! This was a different type of museum then yesterday as it was filled with more sculptures then paintings. It was eye opening to see coins and different artifacts from so many centuries ago and seeing how similar yet different they are from today's tools. One of the most special things we saw was the dancing girl sculpture, which was found a few centuries BC. This our professor told us is one of the oldest known artifacts in the world!
Next in our itinerary was business school our professor had connections with. It was pretty interesting and we were welcomed very well. Finally we got to one of the best experiences I could have had, of course it is because I planned it;) We got to visit to US Embassy School and get a tour by our family friend, Maureen Cullen. It was truly a blessing to go visit and as many of my fellow classmates said they really enjoyed it and some of them said they could see themselves wanting to teach there! Of course I could see myself teaching there as it would be such a cool experience. We even got to meet some St. Thomas grads that worked there. What a small world!
Well after that we got to see another cool thing too. We went to the Ghandi memorial. This was the location in which he was martyred on January 30th, 1948 at 5:17 pm. There was a lot of historical value within that location and it was a very memorable location to be at in which a man that changed many lives stood not so long ago. It was very cool to read up on some of his life and hopefully learn more about when I get home! The last stop of the day for the group was at the cottage emporium which had a wide selection of different cultural things from India. Lets just say it was a good spot to shop for a lot of gifts for a few special people back home!:)
Then at last I finally got to meet up with Maureen again. She treated me to dinner at the American club which I finally got the cheeseburger I had been craving so now my mom doesn't have to take me to get one when I get home! I got to meet a lot of her teacher friends and one who also came from Cedar Rapids, Iowa too. When I was eating dinner I got to give my grandparents a special call too from India! We had a good night hanging out and I had an awesome time learning and seeing what it was like at the embassy. I even got to go to Bulgaria for a little bit too! Okay just to her apartment but still kinda like Bulgaria. So anyways thanks again Maureen for everything you did for me in Delhi and preparing me for my trip over here.
Tomorrow is the day everyone's been looking forwards too since we've come over! I'm sure you can all guess but we're going to see the Taj Mahal!!!! We leave a little early aka 5 in the morning but it will all be worth it when we get there. So off to bed I got but I will let you know how it goes!

We've been to the Taj!!

Yay yay! After waking up bright and early, 4:45 am, I have finally seen a wonder of the world! We had to go on a few road trips before seeing the beautiful marble sculpture but it was well worth the visit! Our first road trip was to Fatehpur Sikri. This was a capital for the moghul dynasty that was surfing the time of the creation of the Taj Mahal. However, this was abandoned because of water supply and competition with the nearby capital, Agra. After visiting here, we went to the Agra fort. This place was also a massive structure that was compromised of three different generations. You could see the difference with the material that was used as it changed from red sandstone on the outside to a combination of that and crystal marble on the inner walls and finally a brilliant marble structure on the inside. The same person, Shah Jahan built this and the Taj Mahal. You could even see it from this location!
Now the time had finally come, to see the magnificent marble structure. It was beautiful inside and not as many people were there as expected but still many people from all over the world were gathered there to see this wonderful structure. It was a sight to see! Below are some pictures taken at the Taj Mahal!
Tomorrow is our last full day here in India and I am sad our time is coming to Evan end. It has been an unforgettable experience with many unforgettable people. The memories and learning experiences I've had in my time here are some I will never forget. One last thank you to everyone who allowed me to make this journey here as it would not have been possible with all the love and support from back home. It will be good to see everyone again although I still feel my journey in India is not yet completed as there is still more to see in this beautiful country!

We've arrived in Delhi

Hello all!
After another few delayed flights we've arrived at our last stop, Delhi. I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile our Internet isn't free anymore and we've been trying to soak up as much as we can with a limited time left! Since I last posted( a few minutes ago, written a few days ago) we've been to the Ajanta and Ellora caves. Both sites were really cool to see as they were massive structures made from a single stone a super long time ago. The Ajanta caves are all Buddhist caves. It was interesting to see the difference among these caves in comparison to what we had seen before. Earlier we have mainly seen Hindu temples so it was a little different in the layout as well. Today we went to the Ellora caves. These are a combination of 3 religions, Jains, Hindu and Buddhist. All were pretty interesting and were again massive structures that its hard to fathom the amount of work that went into creating these structures. After our time in aurangubad we went to one of our last experiences at an Indian airport. Of course it hasn't failed us yet, our flight was delayed for 2 hours. We spent a good amount of time catching up on our journals and other miscellaneous things to keep us occupied. Tonight we arrived in Delhi for our final destination. It's interesting to see the differences among the north and south as the road system was the first noticeable thing we could tell. I'm excited to see what tomorrow will bring for us. We start the day with our last class time in the morning. In the next few days we will be going to the Taj Mahal which will be very exciting!!:)

Welcome to Northern India

So after I last posted we traveled to the airport. This brought on a very interesting experience as we had to deal with the lovely work of an Indian airport. Although, they couldn't do anything about it, our first flight to Mumbai got delayed from 1 to 4 pm. The delay was caused from fog. The whole city was pretty foggy because it was a holiday, Pongal. One way families celebrate Pongal is by taking out all of the trash in their house and burning it. So there went about 4 hours of wait time in the Chennai airport. A lot of us caught up on some journaling. I happened to sit and doodle for a lot of the time. So we got on our flight all went smoothly.
We arrived into the Mumbai airport and approaching landing we got to see the largest slum in the world. It was right next to the airport and let's just say it was huge! Due to the delay in our first flight we had to rush a little bit to catch our second flight. It all went well and we had a little time to spare even. The next flight was one of the quickest I had ever been on. I felt like right when we got up in the air they said we would be landing in 10-15 minutes. So anyways we have made it to our destination city for the next two days, Arangubad.
We were welcomed into the city with a nice charter bus. The charter buses here are a little different as they are all recliner seats. We were handed roses with sparkles on it and treated with a bottle of water on our seats. It was wonderful. We arrived at our hotel and hmmm I would maybe compare it to a Marriott but still probably 5 times nicer. There is a huge outdoor pool with the exercise room overlooking it. The name of the hotel is the lemontree hotel, therefore everything is very citrus smelly. Tomorrow morning we will be going to the Ajanta caves. I'm excited for what the north will bring as it seems pretty good so far in how we've been treated.

Goodbye MCC and Chennai

So almost 2/3 of my trip has gone by and today we are leaving our second home in India, Madras Christian College. Yesterday, we had a day of goodbyes and thank you's to tell everyone how much we've appreciated their hospitality towards us. We started the day with a brilliant lecture on aesthetics and the perception of beauty in India. It was a very interesting lecture because our speaker tried to give us their perspective in how they look at different art work and the importance of the fine arts within their culture. As you can probably imagine it was a very enlightening topic to discover and a fitting lecture for our last lecture here.
After this we had a valedictory ceremony in which we were graced with our host speaking of our time with them. They offered us praise for being open to India and everything it has brought us and invited us to come back to stay with them or just keep in contact. Next our professors spoke on behalf of our group and thanked them again for all they've done. Lastly some of us students had to speak to share our opinion on our journey thus far. Of course, I got nominated but my task was just to thank everyone we've encountered here in south India. Although I was nervous I didn't do as bad as a I thought! At the conclusion of this ceremony, we were all given gifts from our hosts which was beyond nice and we were all so grateful!
To celebrate one of our last meals here, we had a traditional South Indian meal ate on the banana leaf. Again it was very nice and tasted pretty good. Then we set out for a little time of packing and relaxing to enjoy our last day. A group of some of us girls went out to get some food and explore. We picked up the necessities, kit kat's, snickers, and some more chocolate and pop!
That was all good, but now more on to the important stuff. We had a scheduled event for the evening as we were going to be having a cultural program. Before, many students came over and it a really good to talk to them about our different cultures. I think we were all really excited to finally meet people are age. It was perfect timing too... Right before we left. Not! Anyways, we still had fun talking with them and it was good no matter what. Then we went to the cultural program in which we were enlightened with the talent of some students. They sang mostly and one performed a monologue, which were all very good. But then we had to perform. So none of us are that musically gifted, and we didn't know what to do, some of us were brainstorming earlier in the night on something we all could do. We decided on the cha cha slide, let's just say it was pretty interesting! We all wrapped up the night hanging out and enjoying our final stay here. We are learning this morning for a few flights to take us up north. We have one week to experience the north and see the Taj Mahal! So I'm excited to see what this final week will bring!!

Stones, Villages, and Fun!

So I guess it's time to update everyone again on my life in India! Since I last wrote, we have stayed at a beach resort, saw some crocodiles, and went to a village. I'll start from the beginning. On Wednesday we left to go to the beach resort. On our way we stopped at a crocodile bank. It was crazy to see that many crocodiles in one place. They also had snakes there and some of them watched them extract venom from one of the vipers. It was a little scary but hey I'm still alive! Another thing we went to on our way to the resort was dakshina chitra. This was an outdoor art museum in a way as it showed different housing structures found in different states. It was really interesting to see the differences between their houses depending on the region they lived in. I also got a tattoo at this place! It's just henna so it will be gone in a few days don't worry!
After this busy day of driving we finally landed at the beach resort and it was awesome! I have now seen my third ocean! Although the east coast of India is technically the Bay of Bengal they basically just call it the Indian Ocean. The waves are really rough in this region so it was basically prohibited that we swim but of course we got in as far as we could without the current being too strong! It was a lovely day at the beach. At night we went to a dance festival and saw a group of people before the same dances we've been seeing. This was a better atmosphere though as we were right on the beach and it was next to the shore temple.
Our next day in Mahabalipuram we went a saw major tourist attractions. This place is a very populated place for tourist and it was really weird seeing a lot of white people by us. The first place we went to was the stone temples. All of these massive monuments were created from stone each one being its own. It was crazy to see how much detail went into all of them. None of these temples were finished as they started over every time a measurement wasn't exact or they messed up. After this we went to another stone structure which was made for 5 brothers. Each one had their own separate hut and animal to go along with it. They were so huge and I couldn't imagine creating them! The next temple we saw was the shore temple was the most amazing temple we've seen because of the story that went along with it. When the tsunami hit India a few years back this temple was affected by it. When the waters pulled back it uncovered 6 other structures that went along with the one that was already shown. Then when the waters went back the other six stayed under the sea and the 7th that can we visited underwent damage to it structure. You can tell the detail was lost due to the waters. This just amazed me because I could compare it to the floods that hit Cedar Rapids in 2008.
After this busy morning we were given the afternoon to ourselves to relax because it was so hot. So some of us spent our time soaking up the beach and pool. I collected many interesting sea shells and saw some amazing sights. One of the coolest things I saw was the sunrise on Friday morning. I woke up very early for me and watch the sun come up over the ocean waters. Although it was cloudy and we could still see the sun come up and it was a sight to see! After this early morning I went back to bed for a few minutes before we had to check out. After waking up again I was ready to capture the day. We stopped at the IT park on our back to campus. This was a very interesting stop as we saw a lot of young people at this place. This was a huge building and it was very crowded with many people going to work. We had lunch their and I had subway!!! It was very yummy! Once we got back to campus we didn't do to much. The girls all headed out to the market and went shopping for a bit.
Then we come to today. We woke up at 6:30 and had our first yoga class. It was very relaxing although I had a late night because I got to Skype Kelly for a little bit last night from Spain!!:) We had yoga for about an hour in a field where we could hear the nature all around us. It was very peaceful. I mean how many times can you can you did yoga in the nature in India! After this we went to a village which was fantastic! We were basically celebrities to them because I'm sure they rarely see people of our skin color. We were probably followed around by a group of 20+ kids the whole time we were there. I fell in love with a little girl and her grandmother asked of I could take her home. I said I would love to but didn't know if I could really do that. She wanted her to come home with me so she could learn to speak English fluently. That response kind of surprised me but it was very uncommon for people to speak English in these villages. Overall the village experience was one of the best I've had because it showed me how people outside main cities lived and how they worked with the materials they had. Tonight we are going to an Indian movie. I'm really excited to see how this will end up! I will post again tomorrow which will be our last day in Chennai :(