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 :(

A day of learning!

Today was again a day of learning. We had three lectures again today. Our first lecture was on the art of dance. This was an amazing lecture because she brought in young girls to show us the dance movements. If you've ever seen classic India dance, the hand movements are very unique. The lecturer went through each movement and gesture to show us the meaning of each. Through these hand gestures they tell a intricate story of what they are trying to portray. Therefore, it was a lot more interesting to see the dance because it was easier to follow and understand the story.

Our second lecture of the day was on South Indian art and architecture. This lecture was one of the best we've heard because the our lecturer was very engaging. He provided us with a lot of information to piece together the temples and places we've seen. He gave insight to the progression of the temples and how they functioned to nomadic group of people and then to the urbanized group and then now to the modern function of the temples. This progression has really influenced the religion of Hinduism and has then played a key role into the architecture.

Our last lecture of the day was on the caste system and gender issues in India. This is a pressing issue and topic that many of us wanted to learn about because this is just so different from the culture we have at home it is hard to grasp and why it still plays into society today. The lady we had speaking to us was very interesting and played into the activism piece in India. We learned that it is a deeply rooted issue that is still being debated and worked about today because of the religious aspect behind it all. Some of the issues she talked about that related to these issues were in marriage, abuse, poverty, education and many more. This was very interesting and after her talk I went and read the newspaper and saw major headlines that discussed these very topics she had just touched on!

Okay so again I will say farewell from my blog for a few days as we will be heading to the Ideal Beach Resort at 8:30 am tomorrow and I will not have internet. I will post when I get back in 3 days as I will not have wifi where we will be going. I just thought of one way you can all read some of what I'm reading everyday by viewing the paper The Hindu online. It is a very interesting newspaper and you can see the different reporting techniques they have. Heck you may even see a familiar face! I saw Tom Harkin one day who knew Iowans would be making the paper still in India! So long for now!

Car sick in Chennai

So today I started my day off skyping my parents. It was good to catch up and talk to them again! It was also nice to hear that so many people are reading my blog and following in my experiences and going on the journey with me!
Today was a jam packed day but it was a very good day as it was a lot of variety in the things we did. We started the day by going on a long car ride into the city of Chennai. As the title suggests I did get a little car sick but all was well. The traffic here is just more stop and go then rush hour traffic is in the cities and riding in the back of a van didn't help. Once getting to our first location, a film school it was a lot better. This film academy was the Indian comparison if disneyworld or Disneyland. The founder of the school led us around and was very interesting and a good speaker. Some quick knowledge he gave us was that in one year India produces 1,000 some feature films in comparison to the 237 feature films the U.S. does. As well, it takes them 1.8 billion dollars to produce these, which that same amount of money would only produce 17 American feature films. It was really amazing to see the old cameras they've used and his ideas for future films he would like to create!
After this stop, we traveled to a music conservatory. This place waste favorite of many of us as it allowed us to listen to some of the most amazing music by kids our age or younger! This school was founded by the producer of Slumdog millionaire and was continuing to produce future artists of the same talent. We listened to some of the most talented pianists I've ever heard. They had also only been learning for only of few months. The quality of music they provided us with was simply amazing.
After this we traveled to a beautiful cathedral. This place was home to the tomb of St. Thomas. It was wonderful to be back at a Catholic Church and see all the Indians there. There was a service going on but it was in Tamil so a little hard to understand. This place was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1986. It was also home to a relic of St. Thomas. This place it one of three churches in the whole world that is built over the tomb of an apostle of Jesus Christ. Only St. Peter's basilica and Santiago de compostgia in Spain are the other two.
Next we went to a dance performance by a professional Indian dancer. This was a lovely performance as we were given a visual to the music we've been listening to. It was interesting as we were able to follow the story line although we couldn't understand the language the music was being sung. The makeup was a lot but it provided a good asset to her facial expressions. Overall thought today was a busy but good day!

Here is the film guy, the whole group and the musicians, the musicians and I ( the youngest one is 6 years old from Singapore), the cathedral, the dancer.

I'm Back

Sorry for the delay in the posts but we just got back from our mini adventures in Tairuvaiyaru and Madurai. These two places were amazing and a nice break away from M.C.C. where we have been staying.
The adventures began with the train ride. This was an interesting experience and a good one to say I rode an Indian train. We are all a little nervous to sleep but once we got on it was a little safer then expected and we were all asleep faster then we thought. See the pictures below to see where I stayed in.
After this tiring ride, we started a very long and tiring day. At first though, we arrived at our beautiful hotel/resort, in which I thought I was actually at paradise. We were greeted with jasmine flowers put around our neck. It was the most gorgeous place to stay at in which we all needed that little vacation time. It felt like we were in Hawaii not India. After seeing our new humble abode for a few nights we took off to see our first temple. We went to the small temple which was very pretty as everything is very colorful and beautiful. Next went to the Marrabu Foundation in which we were greeted to one of the best welcomes ever. First, we ate lunch off a banana leaf, which is their plates. The food is pretty good, but a lot of it tastes the same. The foundation is run by a lady that brings in kids coming from bad backgrounds to introduce them to the fine arts. The kids were all their dressed in their traditional attire and were just beautiful. At night, we were fortunate to take part in their river ritual, in which they rearranged just for us. It was a very interesting experience as we traveled down the road and stopped along the way to have the girls dance and then it led to dunking a figure of their god into the river in hopes to bring rain. This was a good experience yet a tiring one to say the least.
The next day was another day of seeing famous temples. This day we went to the big temple! It was huge! I got to conquer part of my bucket list my getting blessed by an elephant!!!! It was awesome! Next step is to get on top of the elephant!:) While walking around it was interesting seeing all of the different attire the people were wearing. The girls were often wearing bright red, orange and yellow sarees as it is part of a pilgrimage they are making this time of year to all of the temples. After this I went to a bronze statue making place which was very eye-opening experience. This place was very famous and they have been making these sculptures the same way for 35 generations! Wow! After this, I got back to the hotel and we all had wine and a nice fish dinner. This was a good time and a few of stayed up late to hang out with one of our tour guides!
The next day, we traveled to Madurai and went to an even bigger temple. Although I started not feeling good I still had a good time. It's been interesting traveling because bathroom breaks are scarce and when we are trying to stay hydrated we have to learn to manage ourselves. At night, we went back to the temple and saw a nighttime ritual where we witnessed them placing the god and goddess together in their bed chamber. It was a really big ordeal and a lot of incense was circulating through the corridor. It was a very good seeing all of this take place as it was a really big deal and there was a lot of people there! http://www.view360.in/virtualtour/madurai/ This is a link to the temple we went to.
We took a six hour bus ride back today to return to M.C.C. It was a very nice bus as it was a Volvo made bus in which our seats were basically recliners. When we got back, we were treated with dominos to give us American food again! It tasted so good!! Tomorrow our day is a busy day again so hopefully I'll post again tomorrow!

Below are views of the train and our resort.

When the lights go out

Again, today we had 3 lectures. Our first lecture was about Islam in India. This was a very interesting talk as it showed me a perspective of the religion that I probably wouldn't have learned about any other way. Our next lecture was on the subject of South Indian music. This lecture was interesting, as it gave reason to the count in which we had heard the night before as well it gave background to what we were going to hear in the coming days. After this we had lunch then one of our professors that is originally from Indian described to us the difference between South India and North India. In southern India, there are roughly 5 states. Another thing that was pointed out to us was that every state has its own separate language and natives of other states can rarely understand the other language of a state. Then we had our third and final lecture of the day, which was discussing yoga. There are four separate kinds of yoga that focus on different things. Our lecturer will also be our instructor in later dates and we learned a variety of different poses and techniques that can help beginners feel the same stretch. This talk was very interesting as we have been doing yoga for soccer for quite some time and I can't wait till we actually have class in a few days.

After all our lectures we had our first real time of free time. With this time a group of us decided to go exploring! We crossed the street to the market that we first experience and then began shopping. One thing that I have to get used to is looking the opposite ways on streets. As well as looking the other way we have to walk on the opposite side which is very hard for us because we just gravitate towards the "wrong side". We figure it out quickly though and follow the locals. One of the main things we follow the locals in doing is crossing the street. This is a nerve wracking adventure every time as we are not used to crossing in front of oncoming traffic. To make matters worse on our way back from exploring the lights decided to cut out right as we were approaching the cross walk. We thankfully made it across the street safe and sound all by ourselves!

Tonight will bring on a new adventure for everyone as well. We will be riding an overnight train. As many have seen in pictures, Indian trains like to accommodate all people whether they are on the roof or hanging from the sides. To say the least we are all a little bit nervous for this especially with the Indian news that has been going on lately. I am excited though as this will be an experience for us all to say we have rode on the Indian train system. We are boarding the train to go to T which is more southern then Chennai. We will be away from MCC for four days then come back again for a little bit. In this time, I am not promising any blogs as wifi may cost however I will still try to blog nightly then post them all once I come back.

Chaos in Chennai

Today was our first day of the new year which brought on new adventures for our group. After our morning lecture of Buddhism, Christianity and Jainism we ate lunch with our speaker. In talking with him, we heard about his story which was very complex and different from our customs. He discussed how him and his wife were of different castes and that because of this and the high regard in this structure it was forbidden for them to marry. However, they tried to defy these odds and by doing so went against their family, to this day he still does not speak to his father-in-law. Another thing he had talked about was the birth of their first child. His wife and him had been trying to make end meet while having their first baby and so he was going to school and working multiple jobs. So, one morning his wife was having severe pains in which he told her to wait until he was done with class and he would take her to the hospital. They rode to the hospital by motorcycle which is a very common transportation. However, for a woman that is 9 months pregnant seems very out of this world for us. Then to make matters worse, they were stopped by a train. He then discussed how Indians go about getting around trains in a matter by of sliding under the train to what appeared to be. So just imagine that! Looking back on that experience he just laughed and thought how ridiculous it was but thats what he had to do in order to get there.

After talking with him we embarked on our first major trip into the city. Before we left, we were warned about what we were going to experience as it was the busiest shopping place in Chennai. Busy in India is a term were you cannot move around at all. In the U.S. busy for us would be the entire country of India as a whole. When we got there though it wasn't as busy as we had expected as the New Years was a holiday so much of the town was less crowded then it normally was.

After shopping for a few hours and getting our sari and salwar kameez we headed off to another concert. This concert was a veena concert. The veena is an instrument typical to South Indian music. It seemed to us very comparable to the guitar. It was an interesting concert as it was more upbeat then the classical one we heard the night before and their wasn't singing. As one of our guides pointed out their music is a mathematical rhythm. It was very noticeable throughout the crowd as many audience members were keeping the beat of the music. This was a very tiring day for all of us and we headed straight to bed.

The pictures are:
The classical musicians talked about in earlier post.
Rigshaw
Golf course (If you look closely you can see a red and white flag in the distance)
Traffic
Trains