First Impressions

Upon boarding my plane to Delhi a few days ago I switched seats with a little girl so she could sit next to her mother. That meant giving up my window seat for a middle seat but I figured I should start off the year in India with good karma so I tried my best to zone out her fussy screams and her feet that kept pounding on the back of my chair somehow. Nevertheless I arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on the largest plane I have probably ever been on, hauling my backpack stuffed with a few articles of climatically inappropriate clothing. At 109 degrees farenheight at arrival (in the evening nonetheless), there is really nothing you can put on that will make you feel comfortable. This was my first impression of India - the heat.

The first two nights here I found myself with three other girls that were on my flight and the fanciest hotel in New Delhi (the Taj Palace Hotel). Let's just say a guy knocked on our door twice already asking us if we wanted turn down service, and the first time it was 2pm in the afternoon. There is always staff, eerily jumping out from behind corners, ready to wait on us hand and foot. Definitely not the sort of accomodatinos I am used to while traveling. When I was able to leave the hotel we took busses to orientation and then scurried outside into the heat as soon as we could to check out the arts and crafts museum. The man that took us through spoke English poorly and we all could only dabble in Hindi so he explained the most intricate objects and statues as "bowl," "chair," "Vishnu," "oil lamp," etc. All I could tell was that all the objects were really old but did not learn much about them otherwise.

Overall Delhi is quite calm. There are some slightly busy markets and they have the largest and busiest children's playground I have ever seen but it is incredibly relaxed with dozens of people enjoying a Sunday paddle-boating ride in a lake near our hotel. We leave for Jaipur (in Rajasthan) in a few hours where life, I hope, is a little bit more exciting. A city they refer to as the "Pink City" in the middle of the desert where you can find camels and elelphants as daily parts of life can't be too dull. I'm sure my time spent here will become more exciting once our program busses and guides leave us to our own defenses. And by us I am referring to the large group of people I am travelling with. A few will take off for other parts of India like Lucknow for Urdu students, Chandigarh for Pujanbi students and Ahmedabad for Gujarati students, but most of us are here to study Hindi so we will take a 7 hour busride to the desert in our attempts to do so. I hope my stories and adventures become more interesting for anyone who is reading!