Nainital - Lake Town in the Himalayan Foothills

On the Weekend of January 28-30^th, Matt, Shane, and I made a trip up to Nainital, an adorable little town on a lake in the foothills of the Himalayas. We took a day train there, which was very interesting. They crowd 3 people onto each bench, which is only barely possible for people of Indian size. There was constantly something to entertain you, however, and for the entire 6 hours we had crying babies, peeing babies, vendors, and people staring at us to amuse us. As we got off the train, we breathed the freshest air we had breathed in a month. It felt so good! We stayed in a little town at the base of the mountains for the night, and took a rickety bus up a steep windy road on a cliff in the morning to Nainital.

 Our boat ride - freezing!

 Lake Nainital

 View from the zoo.

 Two of our new Indian friends!

 View from the top of a mountain.

Our cozy accommodations.

Nainital is absolutely beautiful, and we basically just wandered around for two days. We took a rowboat ride on the lake, meandered around the outdoor markets, and took a cable car thingy to the top of a mountain to catch the sunset. The view was remarkable, and all you could see for miles were the snowy caps of mountains.  We took our time strolling back down the mountain, fully appreciating the nature and greenery that is so hard to find in Delhi. That night we met three young Indian friends visiting Nainital on vacation. We couldn’t communicate very well with them, but they were fun to be around. The next day they took us to the zoo (I love zoos!) and a Hindu temple, before a freak storm rolled in and they rushed back home. The storm was really cool though. It rained a bunch, followed by huge hail, and it even snowed! Needless to say it was very very cold, but it was an absolutely beautiful sight to see on the lake!

Amritsar - The Golden Temple

The next weekend trip we took, from January 20^th – 23^rd, was to Amritsar in the state of Punjab. It is in Amritsar where the famous Sikh Golden Temple is found, which is the site for millions of pilgrimages every year.

This weekend was also my first experience with trains in India, and overnight trains at that. While it really is a very convenient and inexpensive way to travel, I quickly decided it was not my favorite mode of transportation. I don’t think it would have been too bad if it weren’t for the extreme cold – India was absolutely freezing all throughout January, especially at night, on a train with open windows, and with no blanket. I was very relieved to arrive in Amritsar at 6 am the next morning.

We went right away to the Golden Temple, where we were instructed to leave our shoes and cover our heads before entering the area. Walking through the arch into the huge courtyard where the Temple lies was a breath-taking moment. You are at once struck by the absolute beauty of the temple, the contrast of the gold against the pure white marble buildings and walkways around it, and the beautiful live music that is always played in the Temple 24 hours a day.

We took some time to take in this beautiful sight, and then found accommodations in the Temple grounds. Visitors are welcome to stay at the Golden Temple for up to 3 nights. Indian visitors are given pads and blankets and sleep in a huge courtyard, but there is a separate area consisting of a few rooms stocked full of beds for foreigners. At the time I was put off by the definite questionable hygienity of the beds and blankets and pillows that have most likely been used hundreds of times without being washed, but a few more months in India has now cured me of those worries.

            

                                           The Foreigner Area

We also ate at the Temple’s kitchen, which was amazing and so touching. At the Temple everyone is treated equal, and this attitude carries over into the cafeteria as well. Like all the other people who work at the Temple, the kitchen is run by the thousands of Sikhs who selfishly donate their time. You see hundreds of women, men and children cutting vegetables outside, washing dishes, cooking in huge pots that look like they walked out of fairytales, and serving food to pilgrims. Everyone sits in long lines of the floor of the cafeteria, and men walk around serving delicious chapatti (a type of Indian bread), lentils, vegetables, and rice until you are full.

That afternoon, I joined a few of the guys in traveling to the India/Pakistan boarder to witness the changing of the guards ceremony that takes place every evening. The event was incredible. When the gates are opened, thousands of Indians swarm into the grounds, running to try to secure good seats in the huge stadium stands. Pakistan was literally yards away, and Pakistan’s stadium of visitors was so close you could feel the energy as the two countries screamed their chants back and forth to each other. There was so much excitement and national pride in the air, and it was so cool to see.

India side:

Pakistan side:

The next day Shane, Nick, and I accepted the offer of a nice old rickshaw driver to show us cool sites around Amritsar (he promised he would only accept whatever we chose to tip him). We did see some very cool things, including a Hindu temple that reminded me of a colorful adult playground. The rickshaw driver turned out to be rather creepy, however, and we of course found ourselves getting ripped off at the end of the day. Oh, India.

Lastly, I visited the Jallianwalla Bagh, the site of the 1919 Amritsar Massacre, in which over 1000 unarmed Indians were killed when the British opened fire on a crowd of unarmed men, women, and children. It was a heavy thing to see, to say the least.

A great and beautiful weekend in all!

Taj Mahal and Agra Fort

During our second weekend here, we made a day trip to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal and Agra fort. We hired a bus for the seven of us, which picked us up at 5 h 30 am outside our apartment. We arrived at the Taj late in the morning, and spent several hours wandering around. I was surprisingly not that excited to see the Taj, since it seems like one of those tourist things you are obligated to do. I ended up really loving it though, and was struck by its majestic nature and beauty. I was surprised to find that although there were so many people all around, it still had a sense of peace and serenity to it. After we went inside to see the tombs, we sat outside on the white marble for a while and soaked up some much needed sun (the sun is often obscured from fog or pollution in Delhi).  

After lunch, our tour guide (who our driver picked up on the side of the road, insisting we needed him and that he was his friend. We were assured we would only have to “tip according to how much we felt he was worth” afterwards) walked us through Agra fort, a beautiful, sprawling, 16^th century fort used when Agra was the country’s capital. The fort backs up against the Yamuna River, and has tons of open space and grassy park-like areas where monkeys love to play.

We returned to Delhi the same day after a five hour drive on a terrifying road in the dark. It took a little longer because we encountered bumper to bumper traffic coming into Delhi at 10 h 30 at night. Oh, India.

A Few Random Notes to Get Started

So, where to begin? Yes, I do realize it is February 7^th, which makes it a week and a month since I left the states, and thus I am clearly slacking in the blog department. In my defense, I created the url 3 weeks ago. Baby steps…

At this moment, I am sitting on my bed in my little bedroom that I share with my roommate Matthew. He’s a nice guy with a dry sense of humor and a huge beard, and he’s great. There’s 7 of us total in this apartment – 6 boys (or men?) and me, and together we make up the entire EAP program in India this semester. The fall program normally has over 40 students in it, but since this is the first spring semester in Delhi for the program, it is considerably smaller. Needless to say, we are the guinea pigs.

This is the group, minus Adam (taking the picture). Colin, me, Shane, Nick, Azzar, and Matt in front. 

Aside: There’s also a completely random rain/thunder/extreme lightning storm going on outside. We had to run home from dinner as the wind started swirling around us in powerful gusts.

Our apartment is in Old Delhi, only a few minute rickshaw ride away from the University of Delhi’s North Campus, where we take our classes. We have a 3 bedroom place on the third floor, and above us our own private rooftop. We did have to do a MASSIVE cleaning of the place when we moved in, but the place is great in Indian standards (and I would argue American, too) – we have running water after we fill the pump, electricity most of the time, hot water should we choose to turn it on after 20 minutes, and flushing toilets. 

Our bathroom has a squat toilet (a hole in the ground with two footrests - Matt is demonstrating how to use one above), which actually sounds a lot scarier than it actually is, and I’ve grown quite used to it. I can also pee virtually anywhere, FYI. Not to the extent that men can, for they can literally whip it out anywhere in public (and I mean anywhere). But I have acquired some mean squatting techniques, and I now fear nothing when it comes to gross bathrooms (trust me, you’ve seen nothing). I’m also getting really good at bucket showers (which consist of filling up a bucket with water and using a smaller one to pour it over yourself repeatedly) and am even starting to enjoy them. Now that the weather has warmed up, I find them relaxing and soothing, instead of just miserably cold.

So far, I haven’t really been able to establish much of a routine, unless you count trying to go to school everyday and traveling every weekend. School officially started a month ago, yet I have only had two days of class. The Anthropology department here started two weeks later than every other department, and is very unorganized and posted the class list the day classes started. On top of that, my professor literally never shows up for class. For three weeks in a row, I’ve been showing up every morning at school, only to wait for 2 hours and finally decide no one is coming that day. Today, for the first time since the first day of classes, he finally showed up (and hour late) and we had classes. Of course, the two classes took 7 hours to get through, since he kept taking tea breaks that lasted around 2 hours each.

But still, I’m hoping to have more of these schools days. In addition, we’re also taking Hindi class through the EAP Study Center. It’s very interesting, although it is going quite slow since we had to learn a whole new script and everything.

I know there’s so much more I should write about (like what I’ve been up to the last month, my travels, food, people, etc.) but I just wanted to finally  get this started. There’s definitely been some tough moments, and some parts of daily life here that are hard to get used to, but I’m having an amazing time. Every day I have moments where I just feel so overwhelmed with love and joy for life, and I am so thankful for these. I hope everything is going great back home (or wherever you are, abroad ladies), and know I am sending my love to all of you.

Also, I’m sorry for my excessive use of parentheses. They are just to effective for writing the way I think.