Your flight to India has been moved up 3 hours, RUN!

Things are hectic here so posting on my personal blog and on the college weebly blog is not going to be in any type of order. What I post on the school blog is much different than what I write on my personal blog. My professor thanks me for not letting loose on the school blog. LOL

On day five we were pretty much train bound and traveling to the next city. Let me tell you, if you never traveled abroad, it is exhausting. Good thing I don’t need much sleep to get by. I stayed awake the entire train ride to take photo and talking to the Indian family I shared a compartment with. The parents had two sons, ages 7 and 14, and I think a grandmother and one other family member, perhaps a daughter or aunt with them. They were very friendly, chatting my ear off wanting to know what I thought about Indian culture, the food and customs. I told them we as a group were surprised to learn they cremated their dead by the river and that the bodies of children, pregnant women, priests, monks, victims of snake bites and deadly diseases were sunk in the Ganges River. I used the word surprised because had I said “absolutely disgusting and vile beyond words” they might not have told me I was a very nice American at the end of the trip.

The boys who loved Angry Birds on the train ride.

When I went to take photos from the train (where I open the compartment door where the “bathroom” was and basically took risks that no one else was going to) I let the sons play Angry Birds on my laptop. They loved that and played for over an hour my classmates told me, until their mom told them they had to lay down for a nap. My laptop was charging so I didn’t mind the boys playing games since I wasn’t using it. I stood for 3 hours taking photos, switching sides on the train car. At times the train moved super fast, so I’m not sure what all my photos will have caught.

This just blows my mind.

Traffic at a railroad crossing. This was not bad. Sometimes they were lined up further than I could see.

They really do each everything but the tracks.

A family living along the tracks.

My days are a bit of a blur so I’m just going to pick up where I left off on my last post and I believe that was day 4 when we went to the Brahmin priest ceremony on December 30^th at the Ganges River. The next morning was when we went back the river for the boat ride and to see the cremation ceremony. Let me tell you it freaked us out to see people not just bathing in the river, but drinking it too. It stunk so bad it nearly gagged me and I have a pretty high tolerance level for smells. I was surprised to learn dolphins live in the river also but now that I think about it, I believe I recall reading that dolphins sometimes bring the sunken bodies up to the surface and toss them around like they are play toys. How weird is that? After the boat ride and seeing the sun rise over the Ganges (which was beautiful regardless of the stench) we went back to our hotel for breakfast. After breakfast we went to a rare, silk factory and learned how it was still done by hand on ancient looms. We were in awe of the beautiful clothes and went a bit crazy buying pillow cases, table runners, and scarves. I bought two pillow covers, a blue one with hearts for my mom and a multi-colored on with a peacock for Brian’s mom. I think they will love them. After the silk factory, we had the rest of the afternoon free where most of the class took naps, including me (shocking I know) so we could be well-rested for the New Years Eve party. Let me tell you, that party was off the hook.

amazing rock carvings at the Abandoned City

At the Abandoned City in Agra.

What they “thought” would hold their water supply…fail.

We made a random stop at a Hindi temple along the road. Only Allie and I were into it enough to take off our shoes and go inside.

The original guru of the temple.

The keeper of the temple and follower of the guru.

Allie holds a boa…notice hers is muzzled. LOL

The entrance to the Red Fort was impressive, to say the least.

This room was filled with jewels for one of the king’s three wives.

The Taj Mahal was unbelievable. This King LOVED his Queen. I totally believe Brian would build a monument like this for me…at least out of Legos.

Here’s the short version of why the Taj Mahal was built based on what the tour guide said and what I could remember without doing real research….The king and queen were so in love with each other they never wanted to be separated. She asked him what he would do if she ever died and he told her he would build her the most beautiful monument in the world to show his love. They had 14 babies and she was pregnant with their 15th when he went off to war with his troops. He was fighting on the front line and she couldn’t bare to not be by his side and followed him into the war where she was shot and died. And so the king built the Taj Mahal (Crown Palace) to show his love for Raj Mahal (his wife).
It took 22 years to build and after it was complete he paid the 20 architects a huge sum of money so they would never need to work again, then cut off their thumbs so they could never duplicate the Taj Mahal.

We rock!!

We all paid 700 rupees to attend and when we went into the room it was held (which was where we had breakfast every morning) it was deserted. I went back into the lobby to write more for the school blog and around 8:30 or so, my professor Caitlyn came back down and begged me to come up and dance. I told her I would after I was done writing my post. About 15 minutes later my professor came down with the same request. I had just finished and was waiting for the photos to upload and told him I’d be up soon. Maybe 10 minutes later, “Chetahlicious” as they were calling me made her way into the party. They kids had had drank at least 50 oz of very strong beer till and were getting loosened up. Some Indian men had arrived and in no time we were dancing up a storm to both American and Indian music. Gabby had given the dj her ipod so we could hear songs we actually knew. The Indian men were beside themselves, lucking out to attend a party with 13 American females that were ready to party. I bought my first drink and not long after my second and a beer for Gabby. After than an Indian gentleman named Mark bought all the rest of my drinks and even my friends when I said, “Mark, these are my friends from school!” Mark to me he was a doctor and just randomly chose this party to attend, having no idea who would be there celebrating. He said he paid $100 American dollars for entry. I was shocked since it was about $12 for us. When I went to the restroom in the lobby, word must have gotten out about the party because it was packed at the restaurant door with Indian men wanting in. An armed guard made them move aside so I could reenter. Mark (which was a nickname version of his Indian name) was shy at the beginning of the night but by 11 pm he was wanting me to have his baby. LMAO ,I told him I was spoken for. That was too much for me, butat least he was handsome and didn’t smell.

Caitlin, me and Gabby

Part of Fyfe’s Wolf Pack

The Indian men loved when we danced, but they were completely respectful. I felt one pat my ass and I was shocked…later Gabby admitted it was her messing with my head.

                By 11:50 the party was off the hook and nearly out of control. He opted to bring in the New Year in our professor’s room and I made a cool video. Afterwards we all split up, some of us went downstairs to get on the Wifi and others went to bed. I will always choose Wifi over sleeping. A huge commotion started in the party room and the next thing I knew, two men were thrown out of the hotel into the street. I guess they started fight and a it carried on right outside in the streets.

My ticket to Indian craziness.

Messing with Professor Fyfe

                OK, break in the story. We just got to the airport in New Delhi and realized out flight was moved up—yes up—three hours so we were raced through the airport and security at break neck speed. I made it on the airplane in probably less than 15 minutes with a bottle of water and most likely, luggage that was seriously overweight. I was totally fine with that though, going through security slow and paying for overweight luggage is a drag. The funniest part of this experience was when our tour bus pulled up at the airport and our guide was waiting along the street. He rushed us off the bus and said our flight was moved up three hours and we needed to run to the plane. None of us moved; we were dumb-founded. He paused and said, “Do you all speak English?” We finally grasped what he was saying and started hauling ass to the airport doors. Damn that was funny.

So we are now on the orphanage campus. They children are just amazing, so happy, healthy and eager to learn. This place is truly a blessing and the founder, Mrs. Large, was most certainly touched by God to create this home for nearly 200 orphaned children. 97% of the donated fund goes directly to the care of the children. It was wonderful to meet the little girl I sponsor, Gayathri. She is shy, which is uncommon here, but very smart and happy.

Gayathri and I

Hope you are all enjoying the photos!

Love, peace and joy!’

~P.