First Day in Delhi

My introduction to India happened at night, with hazy skies, white scarves, and lots of traffic. Unfortunately, I was also pretty fogged with travel and the time change.

Today we woke up (My program has 11 students and 4 staff members), had breakfast, then ventured to an ancient well, where we had orientation. It was built in the 1400s and is gigantic (pictures to come). I climbed to the top and looked down, shaking a little bit. There is no safety net anywhere here, whether it be crossing the street or hanging around huge stone structures. Your can pretty much do whatever.

Anyway, orientation was basic, except for the part where we all wrote down our hopes and fears and anonymously read them aloud. I took this concept literally and wrote down concrete things that I want to achieve (I.e. meditation) and that I fear. Other people really stretched the boundaries and wrote about their hopes to freely accept whatever comes along the path. At this point I realized that my mind has been trained to answer the question rather than work around it, and I'd like to discover the other side.

We had lunch somewhere local. I had spinach curry and naan and then rice pudding for dessert. Then the guys at the restaurant decided they liked us so much and were so appreciative of our business (foreigners don't usually go there) that they made us fresh desserts on the spot. It looked and tasted like fried honey (picture to come -- it's late and I don't feel like messing around with the USB here). Apparently it's made with ghee (clarified butter) but I have no idea what it's called. I'm sure this will become a theme.

After lunch, we took rickshaws to a Hindi temple. Rickshaws are these little, green and yellow motorized carts that transport you around town. We squeezed three people in the back of each and took to the road.All the cars/motorcycles/bikes/rickshaws/etc. drive very close together on the roads. Which means I cold probably put my hand out and touch another car. No one seems to go super fast, but everyone uses the horn.

We went to the monkey temple, who is also the god of students, to offer flowers in exchange for blessings for a good semester. When you enter a Hindi temple, you ring the bells hanging from the ceiling so the gods know you're there, which I think is symbolic and also interesting, because if the gods are actually paying attention to your life, wouldn't you just speak to them and they would know you're there? I can tell this whole semester will be the part of me that thinks spirituality is really cool fighting against the part of me that thinks it's totally ridiculous.

We went to a smaller Hindi temple as well done in the South Indian style (the previous was in the northern style) and were all individually blessed by the priest there. For those of you keeping track at home, that's two blessings in three days (my mom gave me the child's blessing before I left) and three religious ceremonies in that time.

Walking home from the temple our program director led us through back alleys, since many people were nervous crossing the streets in the morning. Traffic moves quickly and you have to remember to look the opposite way, which is still confusing, but it's honestly not that much worse than New York. At least, so far it's not. Anyway, on the way home we walked by a building that was probably only six or seven stories high, but I felt much more overshadowed by that than by any skyscraper I've ever stood under. We decided that seeing every single brick makes the building more real than glass and metal, and there were people working on the building, which makes the scale seem larger, even if glass and metal are actually taller. It was a very strange effect.

All in all, I'm doing well. We stay in Delhi a few more days, then leave to make the trek north.