Nightly Ceremony on the Ganges River

 

The Crowded Streets of Varanasi, India

 

Neptune Day

Today is a reflection day so we don't have class. It's also Neptune Day (which is supposed to be when we cross the equator) and you basically "graduate" to someone who has passed the equator. Captain Jeremy dressed up as King Neptune and was painted green with a big white beard and holding a staff thing. All students get their suits on and we get fish guts dumped on us and then you jump in the pool. And then you kiss a fish and the rings of King Neptune and get a certificate. It was really fun!

Four Cities in FGour Days - India Part 2

March 9^th

5:00 AM

Our group met in the lobby to set off on our train ride to Agra. We stepped outside into the chilly morning air and made our way to our taxi. On the way to the airport we stopped by a store to pick up our box breakfasts. We then walked from the store to the train station.  It was crazy to see so many people up and traveling so early in the morning….welcome to the real world! There were many people sleeping all over the train station wrapped up in blankets. I’m not sure if they were waiting for a train or were just homeless and using it as a warm place to sleep.  There was no security at the train station so we just printed out our tickets at one of the kiosks and waited for the train to arrive. It was kind of annoying and scary because me and two other girls were in a different car from the rest of the group. We found what we thought was the correct car and sat down. After us this large group of young school kids came onboard and we were told we were in the wrong seats. So we asked where we were supposed to sit and they directed us to one car further.  This car must have been the next class up because it was very spacious and the people traveling in the car looked more upscale. There was a family in front of us that had the cutest kids ever. They would stand on the seats and smile and giggle at us throughout the entire ride. We were also served breakfast by the train stewards, and given a free bottle of water too! I just ate the sweet cookie that they gave us.  The train ride was about two hours. We watched the sun rise over the horizon as we made our way towards Agra.

When we got there I could tell it was going to be a lot different from all the cities that we had been too. After walking out of the train station we were immediately swarmed by beggars. They would hold onto our clothes, poking us and trying to get us to give them our water bottles. I would have except it was the only water I had for the day and just really wasn’t comfortable with the situation. There were also many beggars who had deformities and some of the SAS kids would just take pictures of them and run away which was really sad and childish to see.  We got into our vans and were greeted by our guide, Sunny. He gave us a background on the Taj Mahal. I could tell that this was going to be a very touristy kind of day.

We arrived at the building where we had to buy our tickets for the Taj. 750 rupees a piece got us a ticket, shoe booties, and complimentary water bottle. We had to take a limo golf cart to the actual entrance of the entrance. There are three entrances to the Taj; East, West and South. There is more at the Taj than just the Taj itself. There are other buildings on the complex that are a part of the temple as well. It was all very meticulously manicured and the grass looked like a golf course. It was really neat to set eyes on the Taj Mahal for the first time. I couldn’t believe I was actually there. The Taj Mahal is symmetrical. The only thing not symmetrical about it is the grave for his last wife who the Taj Mahal was built for. Her grave sits next to her husband’s whose of course, is right in the middle of the Taj. IT was a breathtaking sight but also full of lots of tourists. It’s incredibly hard to get your picture taken in front of because so many people want the same shot. Sunny showed us some great spots to take pictures….he was also taking pictures of us and acting as our own personal photographer. We were given shoe booties that we had to put on to walk inside the Taj and see the tombs. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside either. It smelled like dirty, sweaty feet in there especially because many of the locals just walk around barefoot and there are thousands of people going in the Taj every day. The Taj is made out of marble and has many inlayed semi-precious stones on the inside that are in a floral pattern. Its incredible work and very intricate. I can’t imagine building the Taj. It is such an incredible building. As we made our way through the other rooms of the Taj we learned a little more history. We ended up on the other side which looks out on to the Ganges River. I never realized the Taj was riverfront property! Apparently some guy wanted to build the exact same Taj Mahal but make it out of sandstone. It would have been called the Black Taj and been directly across the river from the Taj Mahal. We saw where it would have been built. After walking back through the Taj complex we were taken to lunch which was okay. It was kind of a dirty restaurant though.

 After that we were taken to the Mini Taj. This temple was built just a few years before the Taj Mahal. The architecture from the Taj is inspired by this monument and looks quite similar. It was an interesting building to go through. By this point I am very used to leaving my shoes in order to go into the temples. I always wonder if my shoes will be there when I get back though! This monument was also on the Ganges River. After this stop we were taken to a marble store where they showed us the artisans making marble and inlaying semi precious stones just like the workers did when building the Taj. It was very interesting to see! We were also taken to a carpet store. All these stores are interesting because they are just like a home show. They sit you down, offer you soda and tea and make you watch them show you all of their goods. At the carpet place we also saw a man making an oriental rug. The shopkeeper explained how it worked. And then the next part was the best. He says that they like the small kids because they have good eyes and nimble fingers. Cory asked him…”Uhh so, how old are these kids then?” Of course the shopkeeper tried to cover his butt and said ohhh 20 to 30 years old. Yeah RIGHT! None of us bought anything from the store after we realized they employ child laborers! It’s sad to see how many people are turning their backs on this issue. I am currently working on a project for my global studies class on child labor in agriculture in India.

Our last monument stop was a fort at sunset. From the fort we could see the sunset and the Taj Mahal. During sunset the marble of the Taj turns a reddish color which is beautiful! The fort also had wild monkeys all over the place which was kind of crazy. And then these Indian guys followed our group all over the fort taking pictures of us. It was like having paparazzi and REALLY annoying and sketchy.

By this time it was getting late and our last stop was at a music store where some of our group tried out traditional Indian instruments like the Sitar which looks like a funky guitar. And then we sang “Jai Ho,” a song from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. Some Celine Dion was also thrown in there for fun. The Indian guys that were playing instruments knew SO many songs!

We made our way back to the Agra train station….again swarmed by begging children. We got our tickets and found our platform. Our train was late by 40 minutes or so. As we were standing on the platform, there were all these kids coming up to us begging for money. It was really sad. There was a child with a cleft palette that reminded me of those ads you see on TV or in the newspaper. It made me think that maybe this kid wouldn’t be begging on the streets if he had gotten help or money through one of those programs. After a long wait at the station, our train finally pulled in. We quickly hopped on and found our seats. We were given dinner on the train. It was really delicious! And also ice cream! A two hour train ride back to Delhi FLEW by. We got into the vans and took them back to Rockwell Plaza. Before I went to bed, there were three girls in the lobby all trying to connect to wifi. Every time all three were on they blew the power out for the entire block! It was kind of hilarious but I’m sure really annoying for the locals! I had an awesome sleep that night.

March 10^th

7AM

It was nice to have a little more time to sleep in. We had a delicious breakfast but it made me a little queasy afterwards. I don’t know what I would do without Pepto Bismol! We got to have a little more freedom that morning and walked around Delhi thinking that stores were be open. We realized that nothing was open and found out they wouldn’t open until 11:30 AM. So we found some rickshaw drivers who took us to yet another store with more textiles and goods. I am so tired of shopping!!! We went to the airport at 10:30 to catch our 12:45 flight. But it was delayed an hour and a half so that was kind of annoying waiting around the airport. I really just wanted to sleep. This flight was the only time I had a window seat which was really nice for resting my head but really cramped! All the other flights I had aisle seats. We got to Chennai around 5:30 and found a taxi. It was right at rush hour and so hot and cramped in the taxi that I couldn’t even breathe. Plus the pollution makes me think at least 5 years has been shaved off my life after being here. So after a loooong ride to the port we made it through security, bag search, and into dinner by 7:20, just ten minutes before it shut down. Thank God! I was exhausted.

March 11^th

8:30 AM

I am awakened to the sound of our room phone ringing. It was Brittany telling me they were going shopping today. Oh gosh. I decided to go with them since I hadn’t seen much of Chennai. We ended up going to Spencer’s Plaza which is basically a shopping mall. Comparing shopping habits to that of Indians is interesting. They have people outside the doors trying to lure you in but really they’re just annoying and you end up blowing them off. And then when you enter the store they walk around and follow you everywhere trying to make you buy stuff. They don’t understand the meaning of browsing. You’re able to barter in malls! After shopping we met up with Steph’s Indian friend Adeit (sp?). They had been traveling with him all week on their tour. It was fun to meet him.  This is where we learned about the Tsunami and earthquake in Japan. We hope it will not impact our trip. We then went to the post office and bought stamps and then got back to the ship. It’s always so nice to be back! Dinner was bland as always especially compared to the Indian food we were eating all week. They broadcast a news station in the Union so we could be updated on the tsunami as well. And then we watched as we pulled out of port.

 

Things I’m Thankful For

 

Indoor plumbing

Driving laws

Public education

Toilet paper

Western style toilets

Sanitation laws

Garbage men

The right to wear whatever clothes we want

Hot water

Electricity

Building codes

Zoning laws

….and a LOT more!

 

I really wonder how people live in this country. I am absolutely exhausted. I guess if you grow up in India, you are used to it. I’m not sure if I’ll be back to India, at least for personal travel anyways! It has been a great experience but I am very ready to be on my way. So long India! Hello SINGAPORE!

If anyone has any recommendations for Singapore that would be awesome! Just comment below!
Thanks again to all my readers and positive comments! They keep me going and make my day!

Four Cities in Four Days - India

4 cities + 4 days + 4 flights + 2 trains + 2 rickshaw rides + 2 hotels + countless bus rides = recipe for excitement, enlightenment and most of all...exhaustion!

 

What a crazy 4 days it has been traveling literally all over India. By plane, train, and bus, I think this is the most I have ever traveled in such a short amount of time. I feel like I've become a pro at going through Indian airport security.

 

I've decided to break this blog up into days to hopefully give it some sort of structure. I might not get through all four in one post.....but we shall see!

 

March 7th

 

3:45 AM I am up, dressed, packed and ready to meet my group in Tymitz square. It's an early morning and some people haven't slept but we are all so excited to start our journey. There were supposed to be 10 people in our group but only 8 of them showed up. There is another group of 8 kids doing the same trip as us as well as a group of 16 also doing the same thing. There was an SAS group of 90 kids heading out at the same time we were and we wanted to make sure that we beat them at the port gate so we could get to the airport on time. Then two people in our group went to try and find others so left them behind and they were to meet up with us at the airport. We hopped into a cab for 300 rupees a person, later finding out they ripped us off BIG time. As we drove to the airport there were a few roadblocks, blocking the entire road but our taxi driver just wandered over to the police car and made them open it for us. And the roads have these crazy lights on them that make it look like a futuristic highway. We got to the airport which is pretty funny because it's basically like an indoor/outdoor building. The check-in counters are all outside and the only thing inside are the gates and baggage claim. We checked into Spice Jet Airlines and then went through a series of checkpoints to check our bag of liquids, go through security, and pick up our tickets. We were pretty lost as to how the whole process goes but Spice Jet is really friendly and helped us out a lot! Security is SUPER touchy-feely and they basically grab you everywhere....and men and women go through seperate security lines because the men cannot scan the women. We were there about 2 hours early so had plenty of time to sleep and wander about the airport. It was really dingy and unclean. I decided to try my hand at the bathrooms. I hadn't used a public bathroom until this point. So as I walked in, I saw the squatty potties. Yikes. I really don't know how they do it. And then I spotted the "regular toilet." It said EWC on the door.....not sure what that means but I decided to go for it. I realized that they didnt have toilet paper and I hadn't brought any with me....uh oh. So even though I didnt go for the full out squatty potty experience, I got a little experience by not having TP to use! I came out of the stall and an Indian lady was staring me down. I'm not sure if it's because I'm white, or because I used a regular toilet (possibly there for the handicapped?). I don't know....it was really uncomfortable so I quickly left! When they announced our flight we got to the gate, they scanned our ticket, and then we hopped on a bus. This ended up being a common occurence in all the airports we went to. They take you on a bus to the airplane where they rip off the stub and you walk up some stairs into the plane. So that was different! A lot of times the bus rides were literally 30 seconds long. Spice Jet gives you a free water bottle on every flight. This ended up being really nice and saved us from buying water in every city. Security is pretty lax too and they let you bring on opened bottles of water that you got from outside the airport. So we left the city of Chennai behind and landed in Delhi. We had a six hour layover there. It went by fast since we had to find our tour guide, eat lunch, get our tickets and go through security again.

 

Our next flight took us to Varanasi. We found our tour guide....it was just like in movies where they hold up a sign for you. Ours read "Semester on Sea." We loaded up the vans and hopped inside. Ours had an astroturf floor inside....it was quite interesting. The ride was crazy with traffic. At one point this HUGE public bus jammed full of people was coming straight at us. It was passing another car and swerved around it, tilting off its center of balance. It was really scary. I saw some kids working in the fields too. Child labor is a major problem in India and is ignored by many people as we later learned. In some ways, the rural part of Varanasi that we were in reminded me of Ghana. There were many shacks, dirt and trash. We got to our hotel, New Temple Town, where there was some sort of problem with fitting all three groups into the hotel. At one point we thought our group of 8 would have to sleep all together. It was all worked out in the end. We then got into some bicycle rickshaws which took us to the Ganges River for sunset. Barely two of us could fit into each rickshaw and it's so funny because we saw family's of four on these things. Our driver was coughing the whole way, while also avoiding cars, motorcyclists, cows, dogs, people, goats and autorickshaws that were literally coming at us in all directions. There were thousands of people everywhere and we were in the middle of rushhour traffic. It was really neat to have this local experience. Rickshaws are a common mode of transportation for locals and very cheap. It's pretty funny to watch them drive because even though there are lanes, they are not used. Cars have signal lights but they arent used. Instead they blast their horns every chance they get. We called them "Horn happy." As we drove through the traffic there was loud music playing in the streets.

 

We finally got out and continued walking toward the river. We passed this huge caouldron which is there for people to put money into for the homeless. If you donate, it is good karma. We saw a marriage going on as well. These are public spectacles in which anyone can join in and walk to the marriage center. You never know how many people will be at your wedding! We made our way to the Ganges Riverfront. Here there is a nightly ceremony that many people attend. Honestly I cant remember exaclty what it is about. They use seven elements of earth during the ceremony...some of which are air, fire, and water. It was a verylong ceremony and we had a birds eye view of it from atop a building. People were watching the ceremony from boats in the water as well. And then the craziest thing happened. As we know...the cow is sacred in the hindu religion. Basically what this means is the cows are literally free to roam anywhere. So as this ceremony is going on, this cow wanders into these group of local people who get very scared and scatter everywhere. No one does anything about the cow and lets it mosy on over to the pile of trash to find something to eat. It was a very funny sight! After the ceremony we walked back through the streets passing many begging children, handicapped persons and beggars. It was sad to see and many of the kids were asking us for food. We didnt have any to give. We ended up walking to this restaurant which was a whole in the wall. We would never have found it without our tour guide. Our guide told us he takes us there because no one ever gets sick and it's so true! It was the best Indian food EVER. We ordered some naan bread which is amazing. We wanted plain, buttered, cheese and garlic naan and the waiter thought we were crazy but we ate it all! YUM! We also had rice, green curry, spicy sauces, and mango pickles. These palette cleanser seeds were given to us with our check and we all ate a huge amount of food for around $5 each. We went back to the hotel in the bicycle rickshaws. We were excited to see our room had a shower, toilet, TP, and TV! I stayed in a room with a girl Ali who is super cool! We had to be ready to go by 5AM the next morning so we quickly went to bed. Of course....both our alarms didnt go off the next morning so it was a little bit stressful!

 

March 8th

 

5:00 AM

 

We met in the hotel lobby and got into vans which took us to the Ganges River again. The Ganges River is a holy place where the bodies of the dead are burned and their ashes are placed into the river. Our group of 8 got into a boat. It was really cold, dark, and windy outside. A boy about the age of 14 rowed our boat. We went all along the riverside looking at the buildings. Many prominent people own the buildings along the river, though they don't look like much. We also saw a mint green colored building where our tour guide was born and raised. As the sun began to get closer to the horizon, it got lighter and many people could be seen splashing themselves with the holy water from the Ganges. It's basically like a daily baptism and removing of sins. People were also washing their clothes along the river. We saw school children who were learning tradional hindu practices. They were doing yoga as well. These school children belong to the class in India's long-standing caste system which would allow them to become priests later in life.

 

We made our way to the part of the riverside where bodies were being burned. It takes a very long time, as the fire has to be hot enough. Children under the age of 14 years of age are not burned, but instead bound to stones and placed into the river. Next we made our way to a riverside Buddhist temple. There were many kids pestering us to buy things from them. We were told never to buy from the children, as the money is usually never going to them. When we got to the temple, we removed our shoes and walked inside. A white dot of paint was placed on our forehead between the eyes to cool the mind and makes you not able to be angry. This was a Kama Sutra temple and had many intricate and explicit carvings. It's intersting that India is so reserved yet Kama Sutra originated here. We then had a city orientation where we wandered through many back alleys and "holy streets" of Varanasi. We passed many children going to school. There was trash, poop, and urine everywhere. Again, there were cows in these very tiny alleyways and we had to pass them which was kind of scary. We made our way to this temple where we could see a building with a solid gold cupula. It was so cool! The security to get into this temple was very tight and security feels you up so much. When we exited the temple, we were given Chai tea (Masala) in clay cups. It was the best Chai I have ever had and I am obsessed with it now! We got to keep the clay cups too! Next, we continued walking through the streets. As we began to round a street corner, I could hear yelling that sounded like panick. Then our tour guide jumped to one side as a cow and two bulls literally rounded the corner and almost ran into us. It was so scary and it felt like we had just participated in The Running of the Bulls in Spain. It was INTENSE!

 

We visited many temples that day including a monkey temple! There were wild monkeys everywhere! Orange paint was placed on our forehead here. Not sure why...We then went to the University. It has over 30,000 students and emplys 2,000 faculty. (Hopefully those numbers are right...) It is a huge campus. We went to a temple there which was made of marble. It was very relaxing and felt cool inside. It was a great place to sit, relax, and meditate. It also had many scriptures on the walls which were interesting to read. We made our way back to the hotel for breakfast around 10AM where we ate chocolate cereal, fruit, beans, and some kind of delicious bread. Indian food is my kind of breakfast!

After breakfast we went to yet another temple. It had prayer flags which were really neat. Following this was the archaeology museum and also the silk factory. We were able to see the workers making silk scarves and bedding. The workers, work for 9 hours a day and make about 13 cm of progress per day. Lot's of work goes into the silk! After this we headed back to the airport where we flew back to Delhi. We got into our van, which this time was driven by a man with a turban and had black light mood lighting inside with hardwood floors. Quite the ride! Delhi is much different from Varanasi. Very city like, updated, and still very dirty. We stayed at Rockwell Plaza. It was so exciting to see that in the lobby there was a free computer to use with internet!!! Of course I hopped on to facebook for a while! The rooms were nice minus the bathroom which was basically a single room with a sink, toilet, and shower that had no bathtub so the water just went all over the place. The best part though was the bed which was super comfy and i got a great nights sleep. We had to wake up the next morning at 5 to catch our train to the Taj Mahal in Agra!

 

 

To be continued...

 

 

 

 

 

Intro to India

I'm going to preface this with I love America.

 

The past four days have been filled with nothing but worry and craziness. I am very excited that I am doing a tour to Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi rather than figuring it out on my own like some people are doing. Even this has become somewhat stressful. So to start out, our flight leaves at 7:30 AM on March 7th. Which means in order to allow us ample time to get together, get taxis, and catch our flights, we were supposed to meet in Tymitz Square (the reception area on the ship) at 4:30 AM. So this plan sounded wonderful until a few things popped up. One of them is that there is a curfew in the port area from 12 midnight to 8 AM meaning that no one can be in the area at this time and we would be restricted to the ship. And then they said that since this is an industrial port, we are not permitted to walk through the port area, plus India is on high security risk. So they have a shuttle running all day from 8 AM - midnight we're told....except we need it to run 24/7 so they tell us they'll work on it. As of this morning at about 10AM we still hadn't heard whether there would be this shuttle service and had no idea what we were going to do. So the kid who set up the tour said he would scout out some hotels and we would just stay in one of those overnight. Except there's one problem....there's a Cricket World Cup game being held in India tonight....so all hotels are most likely full. I left the ship this morning not knowing how I would get to the airport or hotel or even meet up with my group. I wasn't going to wait around all day for news. So I left the ship just a tid but frenzied.....more like SO scared!!!! But as Chris always says...everything falls into place and works out in the end! I tried to keep that mindset all day....and sure enough there is a 24/7 shuttle and we're meeting in Tymitz Square at 4:30 AM. Thank God that logistical nightmare is over. This little blurb doesn't even give justice to the amount of worrying I have been doing for the past 4 days.

 

Anyways! Within the first ten minutes of being off the ship, I was driving a rickshaw through the streets of India....yeah you read that right....not sitting in a rickshaw but DRIVING one. If you don't know what a rickshaw is, it's this taxi thing with three wheels. One wheel in front and two in the rear. It can fit 5 people MAX if you're squished in and one person is sitting all cozied up next to the driver. The steering wheel is in the middle and it's like a 4 wheeler...you twist the handle to rev it and the more you twist it, the faster you go. These things are wild....when you're in one of them they drive SO close to the other cars that you could honestly "pick someone's nose" as Kerry said. They swerve around through traffic. The two other girls who Kerry had been on a trip with before, as well as Kerry, also drove the rickshaw. We were laughing and smiling the whole way. There were random shoes in the road that you had to swerve around, goats, cows, children, bikes, mopeds...so crazy. It felt like you were in a racing game like Mario Kart and it was so unreal that we were like..."Wouldn't it be hilarious if a little box popped up for you to drive through and get points?!" The inside of the rickshaw on the dashboard had these stickers of different Gods....many of them which we had learned about during preport. We really just wanted to go to this market but we were warned that rickshaw drivers end up hanging on to you and taking you everywhere...even places you DONT want to go. Sure enough....that's what happened.

 

Our first stop was the ATM. Of course my card didn't work in it. What else is new?! And then I tried another card that worked....not realizing later that I got out 500 Rupees and not 5000. 1USD=45 rupees. So basically I got out around $10. Awesome.....I really hate foreign ATMs. We drove by the beach....no bikinis in India. And then we drove to this store to buy Saris...the pieces of cloth that Indian women wear. The cloth is about 3 meters long. We were the only one's in there looking at beautiful cloths, silk, etc. and then ten minutes later, BAM. SAS kids everywhere. There were probably about 30 of us huddled into this store. Then we were taken by our rickshaw driver to another store. All of them are nice and sell beautiful cloth, crafts, jewelry etc but it got to the point where it was just STUFF. It became really overwhelming. And when we would ask our driver questions.....you couldn't understand his English at all and then he would get frustrated at us.

 

Next he stopped the car along the streets. The streets by the way are crazy. People everywhere, crossing the streets. There are no lines on the road and traffic lights are actually just recommendations to stop and don't actually mean...."hey there's a truck full of hay about to plow your little dinky rickshaw over so you should stop here." The most intense driving I have ever seen. There are many old homeless people on the streets and for the most part the public sphere is very male dominated. You don't see too many women walking about unless they are with another man or if they are working in the stores. There were tons of fruit stands and men on bicicles with basically a table atttached to the front, selling watermelon.

 

So back to my actual story...we stopped along the side of the street and were led into this store. We were told to take our shoes off.....considering there is poop and trash and dirt on the streets....I really wasn't keen on this idea. But handed over my filthy Nikes and stepped into the streets in my white socks. We were led into this Hindu temple where hundreds of people were gathered around. Most of them were just talking but had many fragrant flowers all around them. We were told that it was a big marriage day. We wanted to get pictures so we gave our driver our camera and then about 20 Indian's got into our picture and were SO excited to have their pictures taken with us. Then a lady said "I give you my address and you send me picture from America" so that's what we did!

 

I've gotta say....my feet were BURNING on the ground. I had socks on....remember most of these people are walking around barefoot. I'm really not sure how they do it. And I was constantly jumping over puddles of who knows what. I decided to think of it as water...but I'm pretty sure it was urine. Then we were shown this pond that had a ton of catfish in it and fed them bananas which was gross. I hate catfish. We saw some cows in the temple too. Cows are sacred in India so I guess that's why they were there? I don't know...By this time we were hungry so our driver took us to this vegetarian restuarant. We realized we didn't have hand sanitizer. The one thing you NEED in India. And then we remembered in India you eat with your hands....yikes. We ordered some rice which was super gloppy and camewith other spices, curry, peppers and hot sauce. Luckily it was served with a spoon! It was incredibly spicy. And I could feel the food going right through me.....thank goodness I remembered to take Pepto Bismol this morning.

 

After that we were taken to store after store after store. We really just wanted to go to an open air market but I guess those don't exist here in Chennai? And there were SAS kids everywhere you looked. When you realize that all the rickshaw drivers all go to the same places you ralize they have a system. They take you to the stores of their friends and relatives. You end up buying stuff and after all 800 SAS kids have been there, they've made BANK. It's so obvious that they've just set us all up. I got exhausted from shopping and I was tired of looking at the same stuff over and over again....I'm not a "stuff/worthless souvenir" kind of person like so many of these kids are. I was worried about how I would get with my tour group for tomorrow at that point and really just wanted to go back to the ship. So we drove there, where I was getting dropped off (the other girls stayed on). I handed the guy 200 rupees and he just looked at me and said too little. That's the price he told us at the beginning of the day! I couldn't believe it. I only had 500 and I need some for tomorrow! So this was the first time during this entire trip where I literally broke down and held back tears as much as I could. Kerry ended up covering me and I figured out how to check in with the scary port guards, find the shuttle, and get back on the ship.

 

This study abroad program was seriously made for me. It's so nice to be able to come back to a place you know is going to be the same, where it will be Americanized and safe and feel like home. Seeing the sign for a 24/7 shuttle and checking my email to find out that we really are leaving from Tymitz square was the icing on the cake after a long stressful, busy, dirty, day. It felt like the Amazing Race all day. Crazy!

 

Pray that the rest of my time in India goes just a little bit smoother for me.....I sure would like it too! That's what you get when you travel though.

 

Thank you to everyone who is reading these blogs and leaving such positive, uplifting, awesome comments! They make my day, they really really do!!!

 

That's all for now....I'm sure I'll have some crazy stories after I come back from my TRIP TO THE TAJ MAHAL!!!!!

 

 

 

Floats

These were floats for a Hindu march to a statue. The Hindu's had been fasting for 14 days and this was the culmination of their fasting. They made elaborate floats, dressed in white, and walked to the holy statue which I believe was 40 km away.