Wednesday December 05, 2007

About Me

Hello everyone, just to let everyone know a little about me.  I am a senior at Buena Vista University double majoring in Philosophy/Religion and History.  As you probably have assumed from the category this post is in I am going to India for our January Interim Course.   We will be leaving December 28th from Omaha, NE and flying to Chicago, then London, then India.  I am hoping to post everyday but considering the area and lack of internet I am hoping to post at least once a week.  I am going to keep an electronic journal seperate from the blog which will allow me to record thoughts and posts when I don't have internet and then post them when I do.  I will also be posting pictures on a a seperate website and will provide the link when it is set up.

Cheerio.

Sunday December 30, 2007

On Our Way!!!!

12/29/07

I arrived in Omaha yesterday with my mom and stayed in a Holiday Inn Express overnight, it was a great stay and felt ten times smarter when I woke up because I stayed there.  We drove around Omaha for awhile and stopped at a gas station to get some snacks and had a homeless guy wash our car windows.  My mom gave him five bucks for his service even though he did a crappy job of washing the windows.  Afterwards we drove to downtown Omaha and ate at a sushi bar which was amazing since I love sushi; the place was called Sushi Japan or something like that and highly recommend it since I gorged myself on sushi, miso soup, and rice.

Woke up at about 8:30 this morning and took a shower since I don't know when I will be able to take one again.  Arrived at the Omaha airport at about 10:30 and sat around before I checked in at noon, walked through the security checkpoint and was yelled at since I didn't take off my money pouch.  Made it through without being labeled a terrorist and am now waiting to fly to Chicago. 

Flew to Chicago and got lost in the airport since we couldn't find terminal 5, found out after half an hour that we have to take a train and accidentally found the platform for the train taking us from terminal one to terminal five and was completely lost until we found out where we were going.  After not knowing where Swasti was for about an two hours she finally showed up despite our wonderful non-existent search efforts. After going through the security check for our flight to London we had to wait 2 hours since our flight was delayed but eventually boarded our international flight to London.  While on the flight we had a very plain meal of lasagna and salad that wasn't amazing but filling. We are expected to reach London about 9:30 AM London time which translates as 3:00 AM central time and are expected to get on our 9 hour flight at about 11:00 AM London time, 5:00 AM central time.  I am excited to get to India and see what is there but am sick of the sitting around and waiting to get there.  All though it isn't too bad so much traveling is throwing me off, it is about 11:45 PM as I write this and since I've been on the move since about 8 this morning I don't feel tired at all.   This day has been quite boring from a journaling stand point since it has been a lot of running around and waiting for flights and I hope that tomorrow will be a little more exciting. 

Thursday January 03, 2008

I saw monkeys!!!

12/31/07

 Alright, so I didn't skip a day of journaling but rather went forward in time and skipped over December 30^th, take that flux capacitor.  After our 9 hr plane ride from London we arrived in Delhi at about 4:00 in the morning where we met up with our tour guide who gave us leis and took all of us to our hotel in Delhi which we didn't get to until about 5 am.  The hotel was nice and the desk attendants were all really nice and had a large statue of the Hindu god Ginesh greeting us at the door way.  When we finally got to our rooms and went to bed it was about 5 in the morning and decided that it would be best to go to bed since I didn't sleep much on the train I only slept for about 4 hours and got up around 9 so I could take a shower and not mess up my sleeping schedule by sleeping through the day.  Although I was really tired I strolled to stay awake and went to eat some breakfast which helped me feel refreshed for the day.  Although the day was supposed to be a free day we decided to spend the day by visiting the Delhi Hindu temple which happens to be the largest in the world. 

The temple was beautiful but I didn't take any pictures since cameras were not allowed inside the temple and found out that it is the largest structure built without supporting steel beams and is in the Guinness book of world records.  After the temple we went back to the hotel for some free time and I laid down to take a nap since we were going to a new years eve party that the hotel was hosting, tickets cost 1,000 rupees but when converted is only about $25 for unlimited food, drinks and entertainment.  We ended the day at the hotel and I went down to the mall with Brandon to look around.  The mall was fun but had an interesting encounter while purchasing sun glasses. 

The important thing when in a foreign country is to always ask how much something costs and convert it into U.S. currency.  When I went to buy some sunglasses I took them to the cashier and he had me put in my information since I was a new customer.  I pulled out my 500 rupees since I thought they cost 499 rupees and he then informed me that they were not 499 rupees but were 4990 rupees.  Well since I had panicked and didn't convert the cost in my head, my $12.50 sunglasses were more like $125.00 sun glasses.  Unfortunately I didn't think about this until after I bought them but didn't feel too bad when I found out that they are $150-$200 in America.  The key to this is learning to say no and do conversions in your head before buying something.  On a final note I am getting ready to post some pictures on my facebook profile so keep watch out for those.  I need to transfer them to my computer from my camera and then rename them but when it is done I will let everyone know.

After taking about a 3 hr nap we went to the party and took a lot of pictures of the food and cakes they had but wasn't feeling too good because of the lack of sleep and the stress from traveling but started to feel much better after I finally got some food in me and really started to enjoy the party.  For the first couple hours they had some live music and after the band stopped playing we ate at the buffet which was really good and enjoyed dancers as the danced to American music sang in Hindi, which is the common language spoke in India.  Everyone seemed to have a great time and we all seemed to enjoy ourselves until midnight when we were escorted back to our rooms by police and military personnel.  Apparently the New Years Eve parties in India get really crazy and the government is really protective about foreigners during New Years Eve because they don't want them to get hurt.  We were told that we needed to go back to our rooms and that if we weren't Indian that we were no longer allowed to enjoy the party for our protection.  Since I was so tired I didn't mind and went back to the room to sleep.

01/01/08

     Woo, it's the new year and all of you back home are stuck in 2007, take that Iowa ;)  first off I would like to take this time to say that Delhi is crazy, the population is larger than the population of New York, L.A., and Chicago combined and there is smog everywhere.  When you look out in the distance everything is hazy and the traffic is completely crazy since there are so many people here, anyone that thinks driving in a large U.S.  City is bad knows nothing compared to Delhi.  First of all there are so many cars on the road and most trucks have signs asking people to honk at them, we have kind of figured out that honking serves a dual purpose on the road, the first is telling people to get out of the way and the second is letting them know that you are there.  The etiquette in public is also different, apparently it is common practice to pull over and start peeing wherever you would like, we saw multiple people peeing on the side of the rode in the middle of the city, Wind said she saw a person pooping on the side of the road just as comfortable as could be.  Our tour guide told us that the government was building a subway system in Delhi and after driving all over you could see metro construction signs where they were putting everything in.  Cows also wonder around aimlessly wherever you go, in fact we saw at least 50 cows on the side of the street just doing their thing.  After taking a good look at Delhi it is easy to see why it is a developing nation, the whole city looks slummy, there are numerous buildings that are abandoned and crumbling away and a large number of shacks and tents that are placed wherever there isn't a road, street vendors fill the place and homeless women and children come up to the bus begging for food or money.  Our tour guide told us that many of the beggars are refuges from Bangladesh which used to be a part of Pakistan after Britain granted India their freedom.  Although there are poor and homeless in America it is nothing like Delhi, In D.C. and San Francisco I saw a handful of beggars and homeless but in Delhi every corner has 3 or 4 people on it begging for money and food.  WE visited the Gandhi museum today which was donated by a doctor friend of Gandhi which was the place he was assassinated at, we saw the marker that shows where Gandhi died and toured the house that Gandhi stayed at the days before his death.  We also drove around Delhi where we saw the government buildings and Arch built to commemorate the 10,000 Indian soldiers that died during WWI by the British Government.  We also went to see Humayan's tomb which was built by Emperor Humayan's wife in honor of his death.  It was interesting to note that all tomb entrances in India are facing north and all mosque entrances are facing west in India.  Humayan's tomb was built before the Taj Mahal and although smaller, it greatly influenced the construction of the Taj Mahal.  We also went to see the Qutub Minar which is the largest stone tower in India, I won't go into great detail about this since any information would be more reliable on Wikipedia than from my own mouth but the tower was built by different emperors in the same dynasty and was beautiful to see.  I ended the day by falling asleep at about 6:30 and sleeping the whole night through, I was really tired. 

01/02/08

After waking up from my coma at 2:15 am we left at 3:30 am for the Delhi train station so we could catch our 5:30 am train to Kulka.  The train was very interesting with all sorts of fascinating people and with vendors selling snacks, tea, soup, and meals on the train.  The train itself was kind of scary but the 7 hr train ride went without incident and we were able to see much of India's countryside which is beautiful.  After arriving in Kulka we took a 5 hr train ride through the Himalayas to Shimla up in the mountains, and the view was breath-taking and absolutely gorgeous.  The altitude was more than 4,000 meters and finally saw some monkeys for the first time although have been unable to take a picture because they are too fast but will try to get a picture of them while here.  Although the train ride was way too long and the seats far too cramped it was an amazing trip because of the view.  After arriving in Shimla we drove to our hotel which made the entire train ride worth it, it was the greatest hotel I have ever stayed at in my life.  The hotel thought we were part of Buena Vista Productions, a large movie corporation so everyone thought we were movie stars, I stole some handmade soap from the bathroom and hand an amazing meal at their restaurant and went to bed after some good socializing with the group. 

01/03/08

I have gotten most of my pictures up on my facebook profile and will hopefully not take as long to get more up there.  We left our amazing hotel after some breakfast this morning and have found a great fact about India that I love.  All of their food has no preservatives, their fruit has no chemicals or steroids and everything tastes fresh.  I had some fruit this morning that was amazing, fresh pineapple better than anything I have ever had in America, fresh watermelon that was amazing, and fresh cantaloupe that was perfect.  But the best thing that I had was some delicious milk that puts any milk that I have ever had in America to shame.  The amazing thing is that it wasn't just this hotel that had such great food, everywhere that I ate at is fresh, even their juice has no preservatives and tastes better than our juice, and although you can't drink the tap water a liter of water costs 15 rupees which comes out to less than $0.50, last time I remembered I paid three times that for a bottle of water in America.  After breakfast we went deep into the mountains to see the Jakhu temple dedicated to the monkey god and I saw hordes of monkeys.  I finally got monkey pictures and had to poke one with my stick that I rented because he was getting too close to me, the monkey was just curious but I didn't want to have my calf torn out by his teeth and really didn't feel like getting rabbi shots while in India.  After Jakhu temple we walked through Shimla and bough some gifts at a shopping district which was amazing, the sights are beautiful, the construction is amazing and everywhere you look they are building more and more.  Our driver told me that the population of Shimla is five loc (unsure about spelling) and found out that loc means 100,000.  After visiting the viceregal Lodge which was the home of the British viceroys when India was colonized by Britain and was later turned into the president's summer house.  Currently it is the world center for social sciences and humanities studies and allows only 60 some scholars from 200,000 applicants to advance their Ph.D. studies.  We met up with our driver, who is amazing considering he was passing cars while turning corners up in the mountains, N.Y. cab drivers don't have this man's skills.  We had to drive from Shimla to Kulka with our driver and words do not give him credit on his driving skills and he even got us to our train 30 minutes early.  Currently I am on our train back to Delhi and will hopefully have this posted by the end of the night.

Saturday January 05, 2008

Varanasi and the seven dwarfs

12/04/2007

Today in Delhi we had a free day to explore the town and do what we ever we wanted so Laura, Brandon, and I decided to wander around the couple blocks surrounding our hotel complex.  We started off in one direction and wandered through the streets getting some od stares and a car of people drove up and asked us where we were going.  I think they thought that we were lost because when we told them we were exploring India they drove off.  I found a bank with an ATM and drew some cash out and talked to a security guard at the bank for a little while.  The most amazing thing we saw at the time was the only graffiti that we saw in Delhi that said "2pac: "Live by da gun, die by da gun"  After find our way back to the hotel we had about 2 hrs left before our train left for Varanasi so we explored the other way of the hotel.  After walking through a dirt lot we found a group of fire ants that were impressive and then walked through a commercial/industrial sector of Delhi.  It seemed to be everyone's lunch break and after talking to a couple individuals we were invited to tour a factory where a person worked, which was completely surprising.  Every factory worker decided to take Brandon, Laura and I on the tour and we later had some cookies and tea and talked to the factory workers about Delhi and India.  We got on an overnight train to take us to Varanasi and I sat with Chloe, Steve, Mary, Swasti, and Jessica P. and had a pot luck for supper.  After everyone went to bed Chloe and I stayed up awhile and talked about life and family and all those things and was a great time.  Fell asleep and woke up at about 6 am as we arrived in the Varanasi train station. 

12/05/2007

Arrived in Varanasi at about 7:30 this morning and drove to our hotel.  The hotel is nice but had to pay for internet today, which sucked but I had to check e-mail and do the blog thing while here.  Ate a late lunch at McDonald's which is very different from an American McDonald's.  The major difference is that there is no beef; it is all chicken or vegetarian dishes, which isn't too bad.  Another major difference is that there Big Mac is called a Chicken Maharaja Mac which actually tastes very good.  It is also easy to get vegetarian options and much cheaper than America, I got a value meal with a coke and fries for $3.  Afterward we took a tour of Varanasi and saw the site where Prince Siddhartha became gave his first sermon as the Buddha and where he gained enlightenment and became the Buddha.  I bought some Buddhist prayer beads; a Buddha statue and some incense form a vender which was nice.  After the tour we went on a boat ride on the Ganges River where we saw a crematorium where they burned the bodies and dumb the remains into the river.  It was amazing to see everything and there were more than a dozen bodies burning at once in an open fire right by the river.  We also took part of a sacred ritual where they offer prayers to the Hindu gods and light a candle surrounded by flowers and let it float down the river after the person makes a wish.  We took a bike taxi to and from the river which was very interesting, we got to see downtown Varanasi up close and personal and had to tell street vendors multiple times that we didn't want their products.  I am going to try and upload more pictures so keep checking in.

Random Updates

Just some random updates about our trip so far.  Chloe Bishop and I have decided to be BBF (Best Buddies Forever) because we make rides so much fun.  One of our group had his glasses stolen by a monkey and Melissa Huntley was trapped by a monkey as she screamed, yet she was trying to say she was getting in position to side kick it.  Brandon and I are the only smokers so we hang out a lot and I have tried some Indian tobacco which is amazing.  Other than that things have been going well and will update again soon.

Monday January 07, 2008

Taj Mahal

12/06/07

  To day we took a tour down the Ganges river and also visited a shop where they hand make silk items.  It was interesting to see how there "mechanical" loom works, it is basically a loom connected to punch cards and man working behind it so he doesn't have to create the item by memory.  We took a look around but everything was so expensive, but not as expensive as they would be in America.  I ended up buying two ties for $15 each and are pure silk and would have cost $60 in America.  The rest of the day was kind of uneventful, took a train ride to Agra, it is an overnight train so we will be sleeping on a train again.  More pictures to come soon.

12/07/07

  Got to Agra at about 6 this morning and had to rush to get off the train, Swasti was afraid we were going to get left behind but we all made it off ok.  I paid a porter 50 rupees to carry my bag since I didn't feel like carrying it myself.  Checked into our hotel, unpacked, showered, ate lunch and looked around in the stores.  I saw a camel bone chess set that I was really tempted to buy, the only problem is that it is very expensive and although I wanted to I had to resist.  We started the day by visiting the Taj Mahal which was amazing.  Completely made by marble it took 22,000 men 22 years to build the thing and is also home to a double dome design which prevents the dome from collapsing.  After the Taj Mahal we visited a castle where the emperor who built the Taj lived and is now an army base.  We also visited a marble shop where they make a lot of marble goods and bought a couple presents for people and visited some other shops and bought a cookbook.  I am not going to bed and will try and upload some more pictures.

Saturday January 12, 2008

India Update

So the past couple of days have been very busy for us, we went on a tiger safari and all though we have been told not to expect anything we saw a tiger the first day.  Other then that we have been on the move a lot, not getting much sleep, having early mornings and late nights.  I don't have my journal updated but will hopefully have it done soon.  Since I don't know when the next time I will have internet will be, I may not post until I get back to Omaha but we will see.  Until then I have had some people contact me saying they can't access my albums on facebook so here are the links, enjoy.  

http://bvu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011368&id=138800707

http://bvu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011351&id=138800707

http://bvu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011350&id=138800707

http://bvu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011347&id=138800707

http://bvu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011349&id=138800707  

Final Blog

01/08/07

Today we drove two hours from Agra to Bharatpur by bus and were able to see much of the country side which was nice.  It was amazing to see all the people at work in the small villages we passed through and to see the fields of mustard growing and looked like a sea of yellow in the middle of India.  Today we also visited a sandstone palace where a king used to live which was amazing to see.  I learned that the architects of the buildings used a mixture of symbols from a variety of religions in order to keep the variety of individuals happy.  It was also interesting to know that the king used to have murderers and rapists executed by having an elephant step on their heads.  The elephant was so loved by the king that he had a tomb built for it after the elephant died which is a large tower with tusks sticking out. 

Afterwards we took a train to Rathambore where we will be taking a tiger safari and will hopefully see some tigers.  The hotel is very nice and really makes India a beautiful place to visit.  After we ate a late lunch we sat around a bon fire and I started talking to a couple that are from Rome.  We talked about a lot of different topics, from religion to politics, and weather to jobs.  One of the best things he told me is that I should leave America and move to Europe so that I could leave all my cares behind, maybe someday.  The man's name was Marco and it turns out he owns his own graphic design company and volunteers and a Christian pilgrimage spot in France. 

During my travel my view of India really changed, we went from larger cities to smaller towns and villages which was a big change in experience and has really allowed me to see the changes from the larger cities to smaller towns.  It's hard to put the experiences and emotions I've felt into words but it has really made me appreciate everything I have even more and has really opened my eyes to how much work needs to be done in the world to improve the lives of everyone.  

01/09/08

Woke up early today at about 5:30 in the morning so that we could go on a tiger safari.  We were told not to expect too much since some people have been on three safaris and never saw a tiger.  We took an open safari bus to the safari area and had to pick a zone to look for the tigers in, I was able to pick the zone and picked zone four which was a good zone according to our guide.  The most exciting part of the safari was when I offered to light an Indian's cigarette with my lighter and he was very surprised because most people in India still use wooden matches.  Another Indian saw the lighter and also wanted to use it so after I lit his cigarette he gave me a hand rolled cigarette which I decided to save.  In the end I thought it would be best not to smoke the cigarette and not try to bring it through customs so I threw it away.

The safari started off slowly, we mostly saw some deer and a couple of peacocks but after an hour or saw our guide spotted some tiger tracks and after some guide spotting and much luck saw a mature female tiger no more than six yards from us.  We followed the tiger for about twenty or thirty minutes and watched her chase some deer for fun and was able to get some amazing pictures of her.  After which we left the safari and went back to the hotel for lunch and down time.

In the afternoon we decided to skip our second safari and went to see a baby leopard that was being raised by an animal preserve since she had been abandoned by her mother.  We were able to get some amazing pictures and will be posting them soon.  We ended the day by visiting a village and were able to see how many of the rural people lived in India but got dark really fast and since there were no lights we couldn't see much.

Today was very interesting and it was amazing to see a tiger so close and actually learned that tigers migrated to India, killed all the lions in the area and took over as the dominant animal in India.  I am really impressed by Ranthambore since it really seems to me that they are doing a lot to make sure that native animals of India are kept safe in animal preserves and was really happy that we were able to see a tiger since other people we had talked to never saw one during their safaris.  We also had the great honor of stopping by a school where our tour guide donates clothes and books to, all the kids were really happy to receive the scarves we gave them and it was also interesting to see how the schools differ from here to America.  I have really come to appreciate the education system that we have, and even though it has its faults, it could defiantly be a lot worse. 

01/10/07

We went on another safari today but didn't get to see any tigers; we did get to see some more tree pies which is an orange and black bird that is very tame.  Yesterday I was able to get it to eat out of my hand and today I have a great picture of the bird eating cookies off my hat. I really want one of these birds.  Talked to Marco again today and he gave me his e-mail address so we can stay in contact and he told me that if I ever get a chance I should go to Rome and stay as his guest with him and his wife.  We drove to another village today and took some pictures of the school children and some of the huts that they live in.  Hopefully I can get the pictures posted soon.  We drove to Jaipur and checked into our hotel and walked down town to a couple of the shops and bought some snacks at a grocery store.  We were really craving a good PB&J but to our surprise, India grocery stores do not have peanut butter, so sad.  Spent the rest of the night eating food and went to bed early since I was so tired, yeah India! 

01/11/07

Got to ride an elephant today to the Amber Fort and got some amazing pictures of Jaipur.  Our elephants name was Tara and was a good elephant, the ride was short and not really what I expected but was still fun since not everyone gets to ride an elephant.  The Amber Fort was interesting but I have seen so many forts right now that it kind of looks like all the other ones.  We had another overnight train to Ahmedabad which was very interesting since there was a family of twelve and nine of them were crammed into a seat of four and they only had two tickets.  We learned from another man that they bribe the conductor to stay on the train and that he pockets the money.  Apparently anyone can be bribed in India which is rather interesting since it is apparently a regular practice on the trains.  Stayed up and talked to Chloe about random topics and talked to the family next to us who shared pistachios and dinner with us.  The lady had made a dip made with paneer, which is a type of cheese, tomatoes, onions, and green chilies which was really good.  Didn't sleep to well on the train and everyone seems to be getting on their last nerve because of the train ride, a couple of people are sick and stressed out which makes travelling less fun and more frustrating but that is understandable. Only a week left in the trip and then come home.  I am excited to leave India but will miss the experience at the same time. 

01/12/07 

After arriving in Ahmedabad we drove to the hotel and we all took time to relax and rest up.  After getting my bag in the room I went to eat breakfast, took a shower, and sat outside by the pool in 90 degree weather which was amazing.  One thing I don't miss about Iowa is the snow and the cold. (If you're not jealous by now you probably should be)  We took a sightseeing tour of Ahmedabad but the most interesting site that I saw was the Jain temple that was amazingly decorated and the carvings were very intricate.  We also stopped at a tribal museum to see how early natives of India lived and learned that they would build their huts out of a mixture of cow dung, sand, water, and sometimes straw to form a paste that they would form into huts.  These huts were actually very clean, weatherproof, and termite proof.  We also visited the Sbarmati Ashram where Gandhi lived and has been preserved as a remembrance for Gandhi.  The Ashram was very nice and bought three copies of his autobiography, one for myself and the other two as presents and am very excited to get the chance to read it.  The book was 100 rupees for a hard cover which is only $2.70 and the other two were even cheaper than that.  I also think Swasti bought me a present because she asked me if I liked the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Hindu text, and when I told her I did she went into the bookstore and bought some stuff.  I think it may be an early graduation present but who knows.

01/13/07

Had one of the most exciting days ever, besides the safari, we visited Lothal which is an ancient Indus Valley Civilization city and was an amazing site.  I took some amazing pictures that I am going to give to Dixee so she can use them when she talks about the Indus Valley in her world civilization class.  The architecture is amazing, Lothal had a dock that is still filled with water for trading on the Aegean Sea which has receded and the area is now land locked with no water except for the dock area.  The site also has the ruins of a warehouse that can clearly be seen as well as the upper and lower cities.  But the most amazing thing that I saw was the draining ditches and the underground pipes that have been revealed that are still intact and could be functioning if the city was still in use.  I was very excited about the site since I am a history major and would really love to participate in an archeological dig of an ancient site.  We drove back to Ahmedabad and stopped at a small family restaurant to eat which was amazing food.  I don't remember the name of what I had but it was chicken in spicy gravy that was amazing with the naan. 

After we ate we drove to the airport to catch our flight to Mumbai.  The airport in Ahmedabad is very different than an airport in the U.S. since if a person does not have a reason to be in the airport they are not allowed in which means any family or friends has to say good bye outside of the airport and are not allowed to go inside.  Once inside a person must have their checked baggage scanned before getting their boarding pass and once they have their boarding pass we had to go through even more security where they checked our carry-on bags and what was in our pockets.  Our flight was two hours late and when we were finally able to board we were driven out to the plain where we boarded on the tarmac. We ended up sitting next to the owner of the hotel we are staying at in Mumbai and had an interesting conversation with him.  After we got to our hotel Brandon and I stopped into the tavern at the hotel and went to bed since we were both so tired.

01/14/07

So far Mumbai is completely different then Delhi has been, I actually saw my first garbage truck in India and it actually seems like most people throw their trash away in garbage cans.  It is amazing to notice the small difference from how we complain about how hard it is to recycle in America when in India it is so hard to find a trash can to throw anything away.  The structures of Mumbai are amazing and got many wonderful pictures of the old Victorian structures built by the British after they received the city from Portugal, the buildings are amazing and some of the most beautiful buildings in India I have seen so far.  One of the most striking differences that I have seen in Mumbai compared to the rest of India is that it is very westernized compared to the rest of India, poverty seems less apparent here since there don't seem to be as many beggars and the beggars here are actually very well dressed, nicer dressed than some people actually working in shops at times.

This afternoon we were able to see the filming of a Bollywood sitcom called Coffee Shop or something like that.  It was very interesting to see the filming process and even though it was in Hindi and I couldn't understand what was going on it was still enjoyable to watch the filming process.  I was actually very disappointed in Bollywood since I had higher expectations for it.  To be honest I thought Bollywood was going to be much like Hollywood where there would be large studios filming movies and TV shows but actually found out that Bollywood is not an actual place but rather describes the general film business of Mumbai.

Although Mumbai had its disappointments the general appeal of the city makes me wish we could spend more time here and being here has really made me want to come back and visit again.  

01/15/08

Arrived in Wardha early this morning and drove to Sevragram which was Gandhi's ashram that he established.  It is amazing to see how the people there live so simply yet do so much work in order to do so.  I really didn't know what to expect about the ashram but really enjoyed the chance to stay at a place where Gandhi lived for so long and to see how the people live a self-sustaining life style without needing to rely on markets for a majority of their goods.  The buildings were simple yet very cozy and it was also interesting to see how they make their handspun cotton the way that Gandhi did when he was alive.  I bought some shirts that were made from handspun cotton and it is amazing to see how well made they are and how durable they are compared to some of the clothes that I buy elsewhere.

After visiting Sevragram we drove to Vinoba's ashram who was Gandhi's follower during his life.  The story behind the ashram is incredible and the Hindu statues that Vinoba found at the ashram are amazing.  The greatest thing that I saw at the ashram was how they turn cow waste into fuel for cooking, it seems that all they do is throw the dung into a whole and allow it to ferment and then collect the methane when it is covered and use it for fuel.  Amazingly the process doesn't smell like one would think and is also helpful to know incase civilization falls and I need to cook some pancakes.  We get to sleep at Sevragram tonight which should be interesting and am excited to help with chores in the morning. 

01/16/08

Weather in India is very odd, during the afternoon it is very warm but at night it gets very cold.  I woke up in the middle of the night shivering and had to get an extra blanket since the building we were sleeping in had no heat.  I was tempted to start a bonfire in the room to keep warm and was only thwarted by my sheer laziness and want for sleep.  Had to wake up early for breakfast which was good and then we all got to help with chores.  Our task involved shucking soybeans which meant that we took the whole plant and hit it with sticks until the pods and leaves were all off.  We all did this for a good 45 minutes and decided that our hard work paid off and didn't want to take all the fun away from the people living at the ashram so we left the huge pile of dried bean plants to them.  We walked around the ashram for awhile and visited the Gandhi museum down the road and then we drove to Wardha to do some shopping until we had to leave for the train station.

Instead of doing some shopping, Brandon and I decided to go have some chai and were invited to go sit with some people that introduced themselves to us.  They bought us some fresh pineapple juice and we got to talking about our families, our life, and were then invited to hang out with them for the afternoon.  We first went and had a group picture taken at a photo studio and they were so excited since we were Americans.  Afterwards one of our new friends paid for a rickshaw and we drove to his house where he fed us and gave us some refreshments.  We then visited the Buddhist temple that was near his house.  It was nice to see how interested people are of foreigners in this country, especially smaller towns since it seems like they don't get the opportunity to talk to people that are not from India.  Tomorrow is our last day in India and although I am excited to go home I am going to miss the chance to talk with so many people that are interested in America and how we live.
 

01/17/08

  We had an overnight train back to Mumbai last night and it was the best train ride I have been on yet.  Brandon and I spent about two hours talking to an Indian family about their lives in India and about our lives in America.  They were fascinated that my family has so many cars, when it is a rarity to have more than one in India.  They were also impressed when I told them that my mom was a chemotherapy nurse and were impressed on how "fresh" I was.  At first I wasn't sure what they meant by fresh but they wanted to know how I kept my self so active and healthy which was what they meant by fresh.  It turns out that they are going to try and send their son to collage in America for textile design since they run their own textile business.  They were also friendly enough to give me their address and told me to stop by their house as their guest the next time I was in India.  Unfortunately it will be at least ten years before I will be able to consider going back but will take them up on their offer if they don't forget about me. 

Every time I don't think that India can amaze me anymore I keep getting surprised by the hospitality of the individuals in India.  This is the second time that I was fed by a family on the train and they want to give food which makes India seem like a giant extended family in a way.  We arrived in Mumbai at about 7:30 in the morning and took a ferry to Elephanta Island which was an amazing ride on the sea.  I got to see a submarine cruising around and also saw a huge yacht which could have feed all the poor people in Delhi and made me realize the striking contrast from the very rich in India to the very poor.

Elephanta Island was amazing and the cave carvings were amazing.  The details and the age of the statues are amazing and is truly an amazing site and was a great way to end the trip to India.  Standing in the caves of Elephanta Island and in the ruins of Lothla really inspires my history studies and refuels a passion for history that never dies inside of me. 
 

01/20/08

Final entry in my journal and all I can really say is that I am excited to be home but am really going to miss the experience of India.  There has been so much that I have experienced in India that I cannot put into words and all I can really say is that visiting India has made me appreciate everything that I have and I hope that I never forget the struggles that so many people have to go through in the world.  It is amazing how a security guard that only makes $75 a week and has to use that to support a family of eight can smile and still be polite to everyone he meets while at work.  As a developing country, India is growing and changing very rapidly and seeing how little people have, makes me appreciate everything that I have even more.

For anyone that wants to experience a beautiful culture that makes them feel welcome I recommend India to all of you.  At first I felt unwanted because of the stares, but one of the tips that was recommend to me was to remain open to everyone, and once you open up to the people of India, they welcome you with open arms.  If anyone goes to India do not be afraid to talk to the people, if you have a chance to sit down and have a cup of chai with someone, do so and you will be amazed.  My trip to India has changed my life for the better, and it will be an experience that will remain with me forever.