First Week

I'm living with a host family now, but all last week we were living at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. An Ashram is a sort of communal living campus. It focuses on educational activity, schooling, teacher and vocational training. It’s funded by donations. Some other Ashrams may be peaceful places for people to spend the last years of their lives, but this particular one is really a buzz of activity, and a lot of young people are involved. Breakfast is at 7am sharp every morning. Dinner is at 7:40pm. We’ve been having lunch at the program center (which is a really nice building in South Delhi. It’s all dark wood and marble and has really nice bathrooms and windows and a great kitchen- pictures soon. It’s still under construction). One night we had to eat dinner out because traffic was so bad and we didn’t get back to the Ashram on time. The  building itself is comprised of a bunch of circular courtyards lined with rooms. The rooftop is incredible. Starting today we’ll be at our homestays, but we’ll be back at the Ashram at the end of the trip.

We had orientation all last week week. There were different lectures on health and safety, culture shock and mental health, fears and expectations, and introductions to our academic courses (which have been exciting, but which make me nervous. I’m a pretty bad student when it comes to academics 
– getting work done on time, memorization as a method of learning, etc.)

We’ve also been able to go on a few outings. We visited Raj Ghat, a park with a memorial to Gandhi. On black marble is inscribed “Hey Ram!”, or “Oh God!”, which is the last thing Gandhi said. On the trip we caught the attention of hundreds of school children who wanted to shake our hands and a few young men who found entertainment in taking multiple photographs of us on cell phones. Interesting experience…

We visited Humayun’s Tomb and then went to Qawwali (Sufi music) ceremony at Hazrat Nizamuddin. I think it’s part of Islam? It’s a mystic ritual. The music and signing was great. The experience included awkward culturally incompetent westerners getting in the way to take photographs and the tardy arrival of more than one important religious figure. It was extremely confusing. And long.

There are so many more places to go...we're thinking we may try to go to Varanasi this weekend to take a boat ride down the Ganges and putz around the city. It's in Uttar Pradesh in the north.