Pictures

Follow this link to see my pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ecmelhorn

Enjoy!

This is Home

So, I am currently sitting on my couch, watching the amazing Batman movie with Michael Keaton, and feeling pretty surreal. Obviously I have quite a few emotions running through my system right now: feeling a little down knowing that Daisy died while I was gone, but relieved to know that she's no longer in pain. I still can't believe I'm home! The past two days have sort of been shoved into one really, really long day - from all the flying and driving and waiting, it feels like 7:00, but it's really only noon! My first treat off the plane was a giant iced coffee and a bagel, which were ohhh sooo satisfying, however this helped to further my belief that Western food will take some time for my stomach to get adjusted to. I think I talked my mom's ear off on the car ride home, but its sort of infectious. I can't really stop talking or thinking, brooding over what's happened to me in the past month. Did I really just go to India???? I'm glad to have these next few days to digest and reflect...But first on my list is sleeping probably? I'll try to post the link for my pictures as soon as I assemble them somewhere.

Homeward Bound

SO, I had this long beautiful post all written about Jaipur, and then the stupid internet cut out and it was completely lost. Anyways, Jaipur was a great and lovely destination, and I was terribly sad to leave. Also, it was monsooning really bad while we were there but it was soooo cool! Complete downpour for like hours at a time. Anyways, we're back in Delhi now and heading home on Sunday : (

I'll have to think of some wise and prolific things to describe my trip once I'm back in the U.S.

Delhi/Taj Mahal/Jaipur/I'm in heaven

Ohhhhh man what a whirlwind past few days. I feel like I always say that, but its really, really true this time. So we were in Delhi for about 3 days, and the night after we got back we ended up going out to a club, which was REALLY fun, but slightly sketchy, but then the 2nd night we went out to a different club, which was nicer and even MORE fun, especially since no one tried to grope us at this place. Also a funny story: I am travelling with two girls from my group and then 3 other girls from our group were also in Delhi. So we decided to meet up for dinner and went to Connaught Place which is sort of the western-style, nicer area of Delhi. Anyways, we are driving in an auto richshaw (basically a scooter with a bench on it, but really fun) and we passed T.G.I.Fridays. Now usually, being the conscious American consumer that I am, I would avoid such a restaurant. However, I had been for about 3 weeks without American food, so in theory it sounded like a great idea. Anyway it was such a good meal and we were having so much fun stuffing our faces and listening to music and stuff, until about 20 minutes after we left the restaurant and we all simultaneously got reaaaaally sick to our stomach. Thankfully, no one puked or anything like that, but uh, it was pretty rough. So moral of the story is don't overindulge and also when I get back to the US be careful of what I eat. But once I got on the dance floor and such, I was feeling like totally awesome. Sunday we went to see the TAJ MAHAL and let me tell you people it is sooooo beautiful. Probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Our experience there, however, was slightly dampered by the fact that about 9,000 creep Indian men kept coming up to us and asking us if they could take our picture w/them. It's sort of endearing the first few times and then it just gets annoying. One woman advised us to hit them with our shoe, so I will attempt this and then get back to you. Anyway, it was such a beautiful place, and probably one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
Today, we woke up super early and caught a train to Jaipur, which is about 300 km from Delhi. I have to say that so far, of all the ways I've travelled in India: by car, by plane, by train, taking the train is my favorite - air conditioning, no traffic or loud horns, no waiting in long security lines, no bumpy roads...it's just very nice. And the scenery was beautiful, AND they gave us breakfast, which was better than most airplane food I've had. We haven't been in Jaipur very long, only about half a day, but we were really tired from being up late two nights in a row/getting up early...so we've just been resting, taking it easy, and planning what to do for the next few days. I think hopefully before we go back to Delhi we're going to get henna too! yayyy! I'm excited about that, plus as usual, its super cheap. Things are golden as usual, and I'm still having a blast here, even though I am getting increasingly more tired as each day goes by. But I am for sure relishing my time here, and I can't wait to share all my stories to people at home.
OH I saw an elephant, and a camel. And a monkey tried to eat my face off. The end.

HEAT

So these past few days have been a little nuts. This was our last week in Dharamsala, so we spent most of our time just tying up loose ends, doing all the things we hadn't gotten around to and stuff. Our last day at the daycare was a little bittersweet....We brought iPod speakers to play music, and the kids LOVED it - they danced and ran around and had so much fun. We had cookies and read books, and it was a pretty great way to end our three weeks. I'm not sure they really understood what we meant when we said that we were leaving, but that's probably for the best. Part of me was really excited to get back to Delhi and do some travelling on my own, but a big part of me already misses the quiet, calm, and peacefulness of Dharamsala. Anyways, I'm back in Delhi now until Monday. Sunday we're going to see the Taj Mahal wooot wooot, and then we're taking the train to Jaipur for a few days...THEN I'm headed back to Delhi and flying back home...Man! I can't believe I only have about 10 days left, and I know they'll just fly by.

I saw him!

Wow, what a weekend...It's been a while since I last posted, and a lot has happened so I'll do my best to sum up the past few whirlwind days.

Friday: Skipped my placement, and went to the Tibetan Children's Village to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama give a speech to the Tibetan youth in the area. What a crazy and amazing experience! I actually got to see and hear the Dalai Lama speak only 20 minutes from his home in exile. It was really, really inspiring, and has definitely made the top of the list of awesome things I've experienced. I guess you could say that it just put a lot into perspective as far as how lucky and blessed I am. After that, myself and three other girls left for Amritsar, in the state of Punjab, which is about three hours away. It's sort of the Mecca of the Sikh religion, and I was really looking forward to getting out and seeing the sights.

Saturday: Got up at about 3:15 a.m. to go see the Golden Temple, which is the most religious Sikh temple in all of India. The reason why we chose to arrive so early was for two reasons. First of all, there is an elaborate and extremely interesting ceremony that takes place at 4:30 a.m. which involves "waking up" the holy scripture. It was pretty amazing to witness, with all the chanting, praying, and absolute reverence. The temple itself was absolutely gorgeous, completely adorned in over 1,000 pounds of gold. Getting inside was a bit of a hassle as there were tons of people there, even at such an early time, but it was totally worth the wait. After that we stayed to watch the sunrise, which was our second reason for leaving so early. The playing of the light on the Golden temple is something completely indescribable. So around 7 a.m. we went back to our hotel, and had breakfast and then slept until about noon, after which we woke up and went for lunch. After lunch, we headed about a half hour west to the Pakistan-India border, which every day has a huge and extravagant ceremony to close the border between the two countries. The best way to describe it was sort of like a pep rally on crack - children dancing in the streets, singing, playing Indian music, chanting, and so much more. It was a pretty amazing and indescribable event - especially with the intolerable heat of the late afternoon. Another kind of strange thing was seeing the festive and uplifted Indians in comparison to the somber and serious Pakistani people, who were additionally seperated in the bleachers by gender, with the men outnumbering the burka-clad women by a large margin. All in all, it was a really great but obviously tiring day, and by about 9:30 we were ready to just order room service and call it a day.

Sunday: Pretty much a calm day, driving back to Dharamsala and then unpacking and getting ready for work the next day.

Today, we all went off to our placements in the morning, and then after lunch had a really, really eye-opening and interesting lecture with a woman named Jaya who created an NGO in Delhi that works with women in the slums. After about 3 hours of discussion I felt so informed! We are also currently in the process of planning out our last week to travel...Currently, its looking like we will spend a few days in Delhi, then take a train to the Taj Mahal for a day, and then fly to Rajasthan to see Jaipur, which is apparently a city you can't miss. Sounds exciting! All in all, this experience has been just surreal - from seeing the Dalai Lama to the border closing ceremony....wow, just wow.

Only a week left?

These past few days have sort of been a blur.... Monday was our first day with a free afternoon, so myself and a few other people came up to McLeod Ganj - which is sort of a "mini Tibet" in India. This is the town where the Dalai Lama lives, and is also home to hundreds of Tibetan refugees. And you can really see the cultural influence and ramification of it here. It hardly feels like India, and the streets are filled with people selling things to make money to send to their family over in Tibet. Lots of anti-China sentiment present, obviously, but a really interesting place. Another odd thing is the level of Westerners here - people from all over the world that come to live here and to visit here. Just walking up and down the streets you can here people speaking in Spanish, French, English, German, Russian, and much more..what an interesting place.
Tuesday and Wednesday were sort of rough days. I woke up at about 5 a.m. on Tuesday feeling incredibly, incredibly sick and nauseous, and ran back and forth from the bathroom all morning. So, needless to say, I spent most of the day in bed taking plenty of medication and getting lots of rest on both days. I'm glad that it's all out of my system, but it was sort of a bummer missing out on being out and about those days. Thankfully two other girls in my flat were also sick, so I did have plenty of company.
Today was supposed to be quite the monumental day, because we were all scheduled to get out of our placements early to go see the Dalai Lama speak at the Buddhist temple!! Unfortunately, the time was changed without us knowing, and now we can't make it! However we are getting a chance later today to talk with a Tibetan lama, which should be a really great experience. It was however really an amazing thing to sit in the temple surrounded by thousands of Tibetan monks, to see them praying and hear them chanting....it was a rather peaceful experience.
Tomorrow myself and a few friends are off to Amritsar, in the state of Punjab (about a 6 hr. drive) to see the Golden Temple and also the ceremony at the border between India and Pakistan, which should be really exciting! Hopefully when I get back I will have some awesome stories to post up here.
Until then......namaste guys, namaste.

I need coffee!

I've come to the realization that coffee and chocolate are the things I miss the most! No one really drinks coffee here, its strictly tea...And most people don't eat chocolate either. Dessert is usually something like rice pudding or some sort of dish with honey or fruit. The food is all great, but I definitely have a major jones for some hot coffee and a nice bowl of chocolate ice cream...or maybe COFFEE ice cream??? Oh man...
Last night and today were really great. Everyone was starting to really feel the lack of home-cooked, comfort kinds of food, so we all went into town to buy stuff for our own cooked dinner. We had homemade pasta sauce with lots of veggies, spaghetti, and garlic bread that we made over a tandoori oven (very interesting experience). We also planned cherry cobbler for dessert because they left all these amazing-looking cherries in our flat, and we were too nervous to eat them raw. However, the lack of an oven made that task slightly challenging - but stove-top cobbler was just as good! It was a really delicious and fun meal, and we listened to some good old American music....I guess it was just a nice way to indulge for once in some of the things we were missing.
Today we had our free day, so I got to sleep in (which means like 8:00 instead of 7:30)! Then we all drove up to this pretty little temple high up in the mountains, and spent some time walking around and just enjoying the nature. Then we all trekked down into a little valley beside this tiny winding stream for a really nice picnic. Apparently, the "tradition" for CCS volunteers is to play cricket after and then get thrown into the stream? I luckily managed to avoid both, however I did get a big soggy hug from one of the guys on staff after it was all over. Right as the cricket game was starting to get really intense, the sky opened up to release torrential downpours. So, we all gathered up our stuff quickly and made a getaway for the cars. By the time we got there, we were all soaked, but it was actually kind of nice in comparison to the midday heat and sun.
I guess tonight pizza is on the menu, which ought to be interesting, and we had some good laughs speculating as to how exactly pizza might be cooked here in Dharamsala - especially with no oven! Anyways, I am just living, loving, and feeling all things India and these past few days have really opened my eyes in a lot of different ways. I feel kind of like a new person already, and its been only a week! I have no expectations for what is to come in the next two weeks, but I have a feeling it will be ridiculous!
I just finished the book I brought with me, and I found this old copy of The Awakening by Kate Chopin under my bed, so I started to read it. I found this really great quote in it that sort of made me feel good about sticking it out here in this vibrant and hostile place:
"But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in it's tumult!"
I guess I feel pretty good about making it this far, and having the guts to take a leap without really knowing whether I would fall or fly off to greater heights. Doing this sort of thing has been such a different opportunity.