This will be my last post.

I'm making this my last post because I'm leaving for the airport tomorrow at 8:oopm (Delhi time) for my 12:30am flight. That means it will be 2:00pm on Friday (America time) when I get on my plane to America. I hate being in airports but that's alright because I will be busy reveling in the fact that I just had an extremely amazing experience here in India.

I'm so glad that I decided to take this trip regardless of the nervousness I was feeling since the day I signed up. It's was really important for me to step out of my comfort zone at this point in my life and realize what is truly important to me. Those things include my family, friends, my well-being, knowledge base, learning by doing, understanding others, and cultural immersion. It is hard to know someone without getting as close as to the way they are living as possible.

I can say that I've come a long way in the last three weeks, with my predetermined notions about life in non-Western countries. I was right about some things but very wrong about others. That doesn't bother me either, I can say that I'm honestly very happy to have learned what I learned about myself and India.

I am also proud of myself for deciding to take this trip regardless of the barriers that were placed in front of me. This includes fundraising, planes, acts of violence in the country, being away from people I love, going somewhere alone, and knowing I was entering a country where English is not always spoken by the citizens.

But I did it, I can't wait to come home and put what I've learned to use. This has truly been a life changing and amazing experience. I thank everyone that followed the blog and supported me.

Lots of love.

Next trip: ........ graduation. hah.

Jaipur

I know you have been all wondering where my posts went so here I am! I'm sorry for the delay, I went away this weekend to Jaipur.

This weekend was really fun and informational as well as tiring and long. We woke up at around 4:00am to take a 6:00am train to Jaipur. I was really excited to go there because I heard lots of good things about the sights in the area.

Unfortunately, we missed the "kite festival" by a few days but we could see tons of kites hanging from trees and it must be a windy season because tons of kids were flying kites, something you don't ever see in Delhi.

When we finally arrived, we were approached by a rickshaw driver that said he would drive us around the city to sightsee for really cheap, adding up to about $2 each. We decided that was a good deal and agreed to it.

He drove us to our hostel (as seen above), which was gorgeous and we just relaxed there for a bit before getting picked up. He came and took us to a few of the sights and we were extremely amazed by them. First we stopped at the "pink city" which is painted all pink and took a few pictures. After that, we went to the outskirts of a palace that was open and then drove to what is called the "water palace". It's really just a palace that got flooded in the monsoon season and is now under some water. It looked really amazing. The picture at the top is me at my future home (the first mentioned palace and yes I am very excited lol)... After he got really weird and kept trying to take us shopping to places where he knew the owners, he was obviously getting a cut of the money or something.. we got frustrated and told him that we were done with him for the day and just walked around.

Later we went to a restaurant that revolved in a circle in the skyline so you can see the entire city, it was fun. We also got wine and had a drink while talking on the roof of the hostel and then called it a night because we had to wake up early the next day.

On Sunday we went to a place called Jantar Mantar (seen above). This is a place I would definitely recommend, it was just amazing. It is a bunch of astronomical instruments kept in one place that calculate things that have to do with the sun. I mean, I can't even explain many of them but the biggest sun dial in the world is there. Look at the link I posted.

After that we went to the City Palace. I decided that I will eventually move in there because with the little we saw, it just felt like home! In all seriousness, it was gorgeous and I learned a lot about India's past.

We were really tired but we went on a hunt to find the Minaret, which you can climb to the top of and see a 360 degree view of the city. GORGEOUS. The walk up there was very tiring but definitely worth it.

Then we went back to the hostel and relaxed in the sun until it was time for our train ride back!!!

And that... was my weekend!

I leave you with a beautiful view of Jaipur, I climbed a million stairs to get there so you better enjoy it!

Inauguration

I felt it was very important to make a post about the inauguration. I watched it in my flat last night and was extremely moved by our president's speech. This entire event has made me very proud of Americans for making the election of Barack Obama possible. I am so proud.

I just wanted to make the point that he is all over the newspapers in India and everyone is very excited for America and the future of our foreign affairs.

Temples

After work today we took a trip to two temples in the area. One was a Hindu temple (Chattarpur seen above) and it was very extravagant. It was built by a man who is considered a saint now and they had all of his things saved in a room where I wasn't allowed to take pictures.

We weren't allowed to go to the mosque today for safety reasons. Apparently there was a large crowd there for a holiday and the mosque is near a market so we steered clear. I wish we went though, we haven't been to many mosques.

Then we went to a Sikh temple (Gurudwara Rakab Ganj seen below) which was very simple but beautiful. They had people singing the prayers and playing music to them. It was pretty relaxing. This was my favorite temple because people were actually praying in it and it wasn't there so much for show. The hindu temple was very showy and a lot of people were there just to take pictures.

I've been thinking about what it is going to be like being home (in America) these past few days because time is ticking away and I have about a week left here. I'll be coming home on a flight on Saturday morning at 12:00am. I'm nervous to be in an airport here because it will be the weekend before a big holiday but obviously I have to be there. When I get home I will have one day at home (from about 7:00am) and then the Sunday after I have to drive back up to school that night. Then I start school the following day. I don't think I'm going to have time to go through any reverse culture shock because I just have to get back into the swing of things. The rush of readjustment will be very America.. fast pace, nothing waits for you.

I can tell I'm going to be upset when I find time to slow my life down, I imagine it will take about a week. I get upset thinking about it but I am listing the things I need to get done the first week of school in my head and it's just too much to even consider taking a breather. I can't wait to graduate!

Anyway, I'll stop talking about this because I need to live in the moment and enjoy my time while I'm here, this blog will probably be rewritten in a more emotion filled manner at a later date. lol

I'll end this blog with a picture of two children who were begging me to buy pens when we were stopped at a red light. I often stop and wonder about their terrible lives and how they are probably constantly in some state of melancholy. I blew a bubble at them for fun since I don't believe in supporting this type of child labor (they often never see the money from the things they sell, it goes to someone who is managing them). They stopped and laughed and were yelling about gum. They started making faces at me and I kept blowing bubbles at them in return. Then one kid flipped his eyelids at me and let me take a picture as you can see. I showed him the picture and he smiled and laughed with satisfaction. Then we said our goodbyes. This relieved some of the upset feelings I had about the mistreatment of children when I considered that they do have a rough and different childhood from me... but they find their ways of enjoying it. :)

Art and Lohri Festival

Working with the children is much easier. They are more receptive towards learning from us and we're getting the hang of teaching them. I'm sure the two go hand in hand.

On Monday, after work we ate lunch and decided to go to an art exhibit. It was really amazing, the funny thing is the artist is from Brooklyn named Rina Banerjee. Her art was selling for 1,000,000Rs ($20,000). I mean, it was really good but that's...... a lot of money. We hung out around the town the gallery was in and were stared at as usual lol.

Tuesday was just another day of work and I played with the younger children because they get to go outside and it's absolutely freezing inside. They seriously love me, they all yell "DEEDEE" and get my attention just to smile at me or show me something, so cute. These kids are so much easier to handle because they don't beat each other up as much and all you really have to do is make sure they don't get hurt. Definitely more my speed.

So when I went inside one of the girls who works there was playing with a baby and she I guess wanted me to play with the baby too. So she just hands this baby over to me, it definitely had some kind of birth defect but honestly, cutest kid EVER. I was playing with her and smiling at her because she smiled back. Then I pick her up to give her back to the girl that works there and...... she totally peed on me...

Yes. I went to India and I got peed on.

That being said, I went home and took a much needed nap. Then woke up just in time to for the celebration of Lohri. This is a celebration of the new crops that farmers will soon be harvesting. We made a bonfire type thing and threw popcorn, peanuts, and sugarcane into the fire. Then we danced around it haha very fun.

Hotels in India

Today was such a Sunday. I slept a lot and then Lindsay, Laiah, and I decided to be tourists at the AMAZING hotels in the area. (I'll add a picture another time). We took lots of pictures and I decided this would be a good hang out spot to find a prince considering the rooms start are about $250 a night for the bare minimum.

Considering this is potentially a very boring post... I'll talk about some of the amazing things about India, which can probably be generalized to many non-Western countries.

I love that people are always sitting outside talking to each other. There are always groups of people just enjoying each other's company on the side walks ALL DAY LONG. Everyone takes time in their day and appreciates those around them, it's a very beautiful thing. The human connection is very different here, people touch each other when they talk and speak very closely. There is no apologizing when you accidentally hit someone's foot under the chair. What are people saying sorry for anyway?

People say sorry a lot less here too, and thank you. Should I really be saying thank you for things that are basically common courtesy?

I just think some things make more sense here. I just really appreciate collectivist societies. I like that people just stop in at their neighbor's houses and have a drink and I really like that when one vendor needs change, he just asks the guy next door!

and so it becomes a list.

This is a list of perspectives that have changed for me since being in India. It will be ongoing until I leave! Non-critical, just observations.

1. STDs aren't so bad after all.

2. Seeing monkey's on the road REALLY isn't that big of a deal.

3. Squirrels, chipmunks, what's the difference?

4. When someone's driving on the wrong side of the road, it's unnecessary to honk.. but if you're passing someone honk away!

5. There is no need for a car seat when you can just plop your kid on the back of your motorcycle.

6. Men holding hands with one and other is far more appropriate than men and women holding hands.

7. Prayer stops are way more important than rest stops.

8. What's the point in going sightseeing when you can go American seeing and take pictures of the foreigners all day?

9. Keeping that in mind, it is perfectly normal to ask American women to take their picture, no matter who they are.

10. It really isn't a big deal to see people peeing all over the place in public, this includes children under the age of 10.

11. Indians will always pay less than Non-Indians, just don't question it.

Agra with Laiah

5:00am. That was when I started today. Why you might ask? As if I haven't talked about it enough. Laiah and I went to see the Taj Mahal in Agra, which is about five hours away from Haus-Khauz. We had to start early because we wanted to get there before the traffic (I know, I didn't think is was possible to have no traffic in New Delhi but remember, it's all relative haha).

So we went on our way with a driver named Jassi who is very entertaining and enjoys showing us the sites. We basically slept most of the way but when I woke up there were monkeys ALL OVER THE PLACE. I seriously thought it was a big deal to see a money on someone's bike the other day but no.. monkey's in Agra are like squirrels in America. They are everywhere.

So anyway, we saw lots of camels and again.. monkeys as we got dropped off at the gate of the Taj. When we got to the ticket counter we got scammed into bringing a tour guide with us. Honestly, I think it was worth it and it only came to $2 each. He showed us the entire Taj and told us the beautiful love story of Shah Jahan the man who built the Taj as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz who died in child birth.

To describe the Taj, I can't, it's indescribably beautiful, does that help? It was absolutely mind blowing and amazing, I can totally see why it is one of the seven wonders of the world. *must see them all before I die*. Unfortunately, a lot of my pictures came out bad because of the fog.

After we left we got some food and headed to the Agra Fort, which apparently connects underground to the Taj. This fort was again, gorgeous. A lot of the things were blocked off for safety and I was upset about this because in Portugal (I know the castle has less history but...) you could walk along the edges of the castles walls. I think you should be able to do the same at the Agra Fort. It was very peaceful there (less of a crowd) and we enjoyed the sun.

I didn't mention that New Delhi has.. zero sun. This is thanks to the smog and pollution from the city and that this is fog season.

So on the way back to Delhi we stopped at another fort where we learned it was common for young Indians to ask Americans to take their pictures/take pictures with them. I mean..... hahaahaha. About 5 little boys were stalking us a taking pictures of us, most of them asked if they could and we always said no but still, a lot of them felt it was fine. We asked our driver why they did that and they said that people like to do this as a past time and feel it is lucky to have these pictures. He said that some of them even post them on their walls, I hope he was joking haha.

Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful at my attempt to find a prince to marry, maybe when we visit the palaces in Janpur, I will strike gold!

On the way back we saw lots of camels and I will leave you with a very important lesson I learned about Indian religious worship.

There are many different types of temples in India. The ones with the red flags at the top are Hindu, the ones with the yellow flags at the top are Sikh, the ones with green flags at the top are Muslim... and the ones with all the flags, those are hotels.

Well the power just went out haha.

Work alone!

I had to go to work alone today because one of the girls I'm living with and working with is really sick. I hope she feels better soon because I think she's going to miss out on the Taj this weekend.

Keeping this in mind... I had to work with crazy children by myself haha. I made plans for them but I was put with children in an older age group. I just tried to work on numbers with them because they all seem to know how to count from 1-10 but they can't identify numbers. I don't think they know what counting really means, they just get excited that they can do it.

After that I fell asleep in the car because I was really tired. The ride home was very long because the people who deliver the petrol want a higher percentage the amount of oil they are delivering. The reason this is a problem is because there are less pumps for people to fill up at and then the cars end up waiting outside of

the gas station which blocks the roads. It's even worse now because all of Delhi is under construction since they are building an underground Metro.

At one point, Laiah and I went to Haus-Khauz Market (outside of out flat) to meet a friend of hers who is living right near us. We couldn't talk for long but he told us he'd tell a few of his friends from the area to contact us. We're very excited haha.

After dinner we went to a local(ish) mall called Citywalk and just browsed through the stores. We both agreed it would be a good place to go to if we wanted to get away form the chaos of the city. (I know, going to a mall wouldn't seem like it'd help but you have to be here to understand how chaotic it is).

Then bed time because we had to wake up early for Taj!

This is a picture of next door to the school I work at, a bunch of families live there because they are helping to do construction in the area.

Qutub Minar and Lotus Temple

Today was the second full day of work and it was better than the last, it went a lot faster too. I think it's because we had a translator with us (one staff member is being trained) so she could explain any directions to games we wanted to play with the kids. I'm scared for tomorrow because we won't be there lol.

The only thing the children respond to are threats and punishment (hitting) so it's really hard to get my point across to them without being angry. I haven't done it yet so clearly I am getting no point across haha. The teacher legit punches them in the head. I'm not there to change the way they teach their kids, I'm just there to help so it's not my place to change their "culture" of doing things.

After work we had lunch and then I went with the staff member in training to see the sites of New Delhi. This is her first time in Delhi too, she is from Dharamsala, India (Northern in the mountains). She doesn't like it here because it's a big busy city haha.

We went to Qutub Minar (shown above) which is a bunch of old mosques and the Lotus Temple (shown at the end) which is a nondemoninational temple that any person can pray or meditate silently in it. It was a let down, as you can see it's BEAUTIFUL on the outside and then the inside was insanely plain! If you ever go see it, don't wait on the line to go in, totally not worth it. You'll still go in and then say to yourself, I should have listened to Michelle. haha There was a lot of traffic coming back because of the Muslim holiday Muharram. I saw some parade floats and TONS of people celebrating.

Then we came back for dinner and headed out again to see a traditional dance called Sattriya. It was very interesting at first but I was very tired and started to doze off.

This is a picture of the woman doing the dance, it was pretty amazing how much control she had over EVERY PART of her body:

All-in-all it was a very busy day and I'm nervous for tomorrow at the day care hahhaa. Other than that, I love India and I can't wait for this weekend when I go to see the Taj!!!

Janpath

I had my first full day working with the children and it was utterly chaotic. The teacher left me and the other volunteer alone and they went CRAZY haha. I mean I expected that but it's so hard to control them when they don't speak a word on English. I will never forget how to say sit down in Hindi. I can promise you that.

We realized that we have to make really well thought out plans before we go and plan for failures in our plans lol. I have a new respect for teachers. I have NO IDEA how they do what they do. I'm going to do a bunch of research on teaching non-English speakers.

After that we had our second Hindi lesson and decided to go to Janpath to shop.

This is a picture I took along the way:

I know, I know.. it's an amazing picture....

I bought a bunch of things including some jewelry, art, and scarves. I even bought a bed spread because I wanted it from Anthropologie and it was over $600. I got it for 1500Rs. haha $60. The funniest thing was haggling with the merchants. They were NOT all about putting the prices down but some of them were charging way more than others for the same thing.

Tip: always quote lower than you're willing to pay and if you are not doing well, start to walk away. This is when they will give you the "special India price, only for you" haha.

It got late so we had to go back to our flat and had dinner.

The food here is so amazing, I've never ate so much food in my life. They make us American food sometimes and it's very different and very good!

After dinner we went for a walk around the neighborhood and I was dead tired and had to go to sleep right away.

This is a picture of the market place where I bought my bedspread:

first day at my placement!

WELL.

I didn't sleep well last night because I'm still jet lagged, I thought I would be used to the time change by now but I woke up every three hours last night. I hope I get used to it soon!

Anyway, I woke up today and went to my placement for the first time, I'm working at a daycare with young children. When I walked in, I was surprised by the lack of resources and materials the school had. Right next door, there was a huge open "field" (there was no grass, just dirt.. dust really) with children just hanging out in it. There were also a bunch of stray dogs but I mean that's irrelevant. I'm just saying that would never happen in the US. So then we went up to meet the kids and they were the cutest kids ever. Some of them were all cut up and dirty because their parents arenpoor. The older kids knew a lot of English and were trying to show off their wealth of knowledge. They thought the girl that I work with was a celebrity because she has blue eyes haha.

The younger children were very trusting and and welcoming. They were hugging me within the first three minutes of being there. They kept referring to me as didi which means sister in Hindi :). That's how they call attention to someone who is older than them but isn't an adult.

So within the next two weeks, I'm going to be working there and planning activities, I'm very excited.

What I like most about the program is that it's a daycare for mothers who work. They set up right outside of (for example) a construction site and the mothers drop their children off before they work and pick them up before they go home. So the parents can make a living for themselves and the children are not out on the streets until their parents come home. The kids also learn a little in the daycares.

Now taking that into consideration, these are basically temporary shacks on the side of the road. They are building a more permanent facility where children can be dropped of at and that's where I'm working now (it's in the midconstruction). Below is a picture of possible mothers:

Then when we came back we had a professor from the university here come and talk to us about Indian history/culture and American differences. Very interesting conversation. I learned a lot of the things he taught us in a class I took two years ago so it refreshed my memory.

We also talked about where India is going and what he thinks needs to happen in the future. He made the point that unfortunately, the government is getting more and more corrupt which is creating the violence we all see in the media. The people are frustrated with the government and then they take it out on each other.

This is one of the most important things about Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). They create services for people who are in or near poverty and the government is sadly not providing these services.

After that we had dinner and we're currently making plans to see the Taj and what we'll be doing the next few days.

I'm leaving you with a picture I thought you would find interesting, unfortunately it's blurry because I was in the car.

First day

Well, today was my first full day in India. I'm getting used to being here already. I know in the last post that I mentioned it being dirty here, well I still think it is but you get used to it and it just becomes part of the scenery?

This is where I'm living:

I must say, it's pretty damn nice. I think that might be because there are supposed to be more than just three people living here but it's very spacious tha

nks to the attacks in Mumbai (people dropped out).

When I have more pictures I'm going to make a facebook album but I haven't been taking many. I feel really awkward taking pictures of people and places but I know I should just do it regardless of how self conscious I am because I want to have something to remember this by.

Let's talk about the important things... what did I do today.

Today started out with a orientation type chat where I spoke with the director of the India program and she told us what to expect and such. We made plans for future hang outs (going to see a Bollywood film and getting our eyebrows threading, AND LEARNING HOW TO THREAD EYEBROWS hah).

We talked about the government and things it can do to try and eliminate the massive amounts of poverty in the area. Also, the problems foreign aid has with the dependency and then wealth of a country later on in life. For instance, India was left by the British in a terrible state but is not independent and working on the poverty issue. We spoke about how Africa is still relying on other countries for aid and that many of the social programs in the area are not sustainable.

After that we went to go eat at this AMAZING restaurant.. seriously, amazing. I am so paranoid about eating something nonvegan by accident and getting sick. I not only have to worry about eating any nonsterile food but also about meat and dairy. WHAT NEXT. But it was good. Then we went on a trip in the area to find information about. It was supposed to get us used to being in the area. That was fun. I had to ask a rickshaw how much it would cost to take me somewhere (google rickshaw delhi, I don't feel like posting a picture I'll have some up later).

Then we came back and went shopping for culturally appropriate clothing which does not look very flattering but.. what are you going to do?

Then came back and ate dinner and had a nice chat about friends and family with the girls in the program. All and all it's been very interesting.

Side note, I had my first experience with actual beggars today, a girl came up to the car window (saw westerners) and started to play a drum for us for a good half a minute ugh we just had to look away but it was very sad. Then later on a man came to try to sell us incense. Same deal saw westerners and spent extra time on us. It was very sad but it's just part of being here.

I'll leave you with a ridiculous picture of myself that I took this morning after my first shower... A shower in which I used a bucket to clean myself.

Plane and Arrival

Let's talk about the plane ride... oh wait I barely remember it! I'd like to take my pill prescribing doctor for hooking me up with some xanax for the plane ride. I took one before take off and passed out MISSING the take off haha and then took one in the middle of the trip and passed out for the rest of the time. Yes, I slept about 12 hours. So much for the books I brought.

I got picked up at the airport and the people that work at CCS are super nice. We chatted a little on the drive to my apt but I spent most of the time looking out the window. Where I saw.

Homelessness. Beggars. Children warming themselves with candles. Cripples.

It was really sad but I was already mentally prepared for that so there was no shock. The cities are really... different here. It's really just.. dirty. But it's definitely an experience that every person should take at some point in their lives.

The girls doing the program with me are very nice and I think we're going to become really close. They are staying here until March which is CRAZY. I'd love to do that :(. Tomorrow I have orientation and I hope to do a little shopping.

Anyway, we're going to go have girl-time bonding........ my..... fave