Galvanizing in India naan-stop

Surreal. That's what it has been like since I started packing for India after my last two finals 12 hours before my flight. Surreal that I'm with an amazing group of people that I have never really spent too much time outside of school and now getting the time to bond during a 10 hour layover courtesy of United, a 14 hour flight (not including the 16 hours on the way back) and the opportunity of a lifetime to experience something so overwhelmingly life-changing across the world.

Surreal when we landed late at night and arrived to a warm welcome at our amazing hotel and being too keyed up to sleep even though we were going to wake up in less that 4 hours (This is India. This. Is. India!!!!!). But I'm glad we woke up so we can do some Bollywood dancing with some serious hip thrusts. I thought we had a nice welcome when we arrived so late at night, we had a freaking parade mini marching band after we had breakfast. (Get to be reunited with delicious bananas in Asia and great fruit like papayas:))We got a welcome swag bag where guys wore turban and girls had a scarf draped over. When we got outside, music was playing and greeters adorned us with a heavy flower necklace... It was like getting married or something. We danced the streets with the band leading the way and locals standing watch us probably confused because we don't look famous just young tourists but why are we getting video taped and photographed? 

After that hype we went to the lotus temple which is a center for prayer for the Bahai faith. It was stunning- both as a work of architecture and as a place of worship. I have always been interested in the Bahai faith since I heard about it from someone who went to an international school for it and learned about the idea of unity. I feel that I've always been more of a spiritual person than a religious one. The concept of believing in something bigger than myself is important. While religion instills ethics and values of peace I absolutely hate how awful I humane things have been committed in the name of God. The Bahai faith appealed to me because it recognizes all the different faiths as a whole unity. I didn't look too much into it because growing up with strong Catholic grandparents, I felt like I was cheating on them or something. Going to the lotus center has reminded me of my interests of the Bahai faith. 

After was lunch on the bus (first meal that didn't have curry-instead a ridiculous big amount if potato salad and caprese sandwich with 'American styled cream and onion' chips and  cookies), then the government center that was doc inspired and seeing dangerous monkies!! 

Probably the most local experience was riding the subway. It was surprisingly clean and safe- a security checkpoint- and a separate section for women only. Then we walked to a mosque and maybe because I felt rushed but it was overwhelming. This was the first time I truly felt in India, in terms of busy streets and crazy traffic. After the mosque it only got worse. Before getting into that though, I should briefly mention the getup I had to wear to the mosque: an ugly printed hospital gown. And local kids were taking pictures of me. Uh eww. Anyway, after the mosque we went on an awesome rick-shaw ride but it was really crowded so cars, bikes and people got close and kind of awkward to make eye contact with someone. We ended up not being on it that long since of all the traffic that it was faster to walk... We went to the market to do the challenge of buying something for 100 rupees (< 2 usd) but our group somehow got lost of the coordinator and so the team got split up. When we were in the market square there was this corner that got so congested with people that it was a literal stand still. Like being in a crowd in a concert near the stage. I definitely felt some um handsy people. It was gross and claustrophobic. The guys in our group tried to protect us girls which was nice. Luckily it cleared up after a moment.

The itinerary was packed from early morning to late at night. There wasn't a real chance to be jetlagged. We visited many temples, including the Taj Mahal, ate a LOT of butter chicken, naan, masala, got henna tattoos, rode elephants (I got stung by a bee while riding an elephant and in trying to shoo by bee away, I dropped my bracelet I got from Seoul. It was a far way down from the elephant so I thought I'd never get it back. The elephant picked it up!!!). Oh and we went to a night club called Polly Esther where we were the only people and danced the night away (we learned a bollywood routine)! We visited the stock exchange building, learned from some local university students and gained a whole new perspective across the world.