Hello, everyone! I feel like I have to address the election, as it was quite a surreal experience hearing the news from so far away. The election results started coming in as we were having breakfast. We all sat around the table in our guest house in Varanasi messaging friends and family. We had an event scheduled right after breakfast—a retired professor was going to walk us around our little section of Varanasi and talk about all the religious sights…
Life just goes by so fast. I can’t believe we only have about a month left! I am trying my best to keep up with news at home. It is a strange way to experience the election from this far away. I am simultaneously sad and glad to be somewhat removed. I can’t imagine what it will be like to hear the results in a couple days time. Fingers crossed I cry tears of relief and not sadness. The week…
Hi, all! Here some snapshots from the past couple of weeks! The Taj Mahal: Six of us went on a trip to Agra to do some sight seeing,—the Taj included. We also visited a Mughal fort where Akbar lived. The architecture was beautiful, and there were little areas designed for each of his wives. He was very liberal in some ways: he had a Christian wife, a Muslim wife, and there was one more religion that I can’t remember, but…
Hello everyone! A few weeks ago we left New Delhi and started the next leg of our journey. We woke at 5 a.m. to catch the train to Mussoorie. The train was lovely, but once we got off it was stiflingly hot and crowded and smelled of car fumes. We took a wild ride up to 7,000 feet—I was exhausted afterwards from being so tense as we curved around cliffs and honking cars up and up narrow roads. Then we reached…
Hello everyone! I am studying as a student in the New York State Independent College Consortium for Study in India (they need to figure out a shorter name for sure). This is the first year Vassar has joined the program, but the program itself has been running for many years. Here is the story of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed California girl and Women’s Studies major spending the semester in India. I am with a small group of people—all girls, just by…