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!