week one re-cap

I just got back last night. Right now I am using a computer at the office of the organization that runs the orphanage that I will be working at next week. I haven’t started because the one where I am supposed to be at is being re-painted or something so the children are not there. They have asked me to write about my experience as an au pair because they are interested in sending some of the girls abroad to do the same.
But anyway. What have I been doing? A group of us (Calder, guy from Chicago, Iona and Sandra, cousins from France, Lizzie, from Manchester, Annelie from Germany and Kathleen from California) took the train Friday to Amritsar (north India). It was about a nine hour train ride. We met a guy who was Indian but had lived in Germany for some time. Iona wanted to go to a town close to Dharmashala (higher north India) where the Dali Lama lives and is home to Tibetan refugees. The guy, Sene (I don’t know how to spell his name or if I am even pronouncing it correctly) explained to us that it would be easily possible to get a taxi to drive us to Dharmashala from Amritsar. We took down his phone number. He said he could help us the next day with the tickets and details. He helped us find a rickshaw from the train station and we got to our hotel – The Lucky Guest House – WITH AC! That was only a 5 minute walking distance from The Golden Temple. We got dinner, Butter nan and curry and went back to our rooms to go to bed. We woke up early the next morning and got breakfast at the same place as dinner, moi; i had a Banana Lassi, yogurt, tea and something else but i cant remember. We called Sene and he came over on his motorbike and said he could take two people on it to the train station to cancel our return tickets. So of course I didn’t want to pass up the chance to ride a motorbike in India! Calder came to deal with the tickets. Since he had to wait in line for a while Sene asked me if I wanted to go with him on his bike to ride around the city and get some food and I had to get more money. I made a video of riding the bike. It was the funnest and best thing in the world. We rode around than came back to check on Calder than rode around and got some food and then came back to Calder.
However it turned out Sene wasn’t that helpful and there were a lot of red flags about him. The rest of the group didn’t understand why he was helping us so much but at the same time he wasn’t really helping us. The people who worked at our hotel said it happens all the time that foreigners come here and make friends with someone then get their stuff stolen and we realized that it wasn’t worth hanging out with someone who you don’t know if you can trust or not. It started an argument so we realized that he isnt worth it if it’s going to break up the group. We told him and he understood right away. I was sad and so was Calder because we both liked him but I think Calder and I really WANTED to trust him and that sort of blinded us. But I had the best time riding his bike! And so did Calder. But yes so that night we went to the India/Pakistan border as each side tries to show off in front of the other. This was the best thing ever. I also made a video of this but I wont be able to put any photos or videos up till I come back….
Whenever we go to a touristic place in India we end up being bombarded by Indian tourists who want to shake our hand, take a picture (“snappy snappy?”) or say hello. If we stand in one place we are surrounded by them just watching us as if we are going to do some magic trick. I have never felt more famous before in my life. At the Golden Temple we were in over 100 photos and shook many hands of children. At the Pakistan boarder it was just the same. Personally I like it depending on my mood. Sometimes we will be in a hurry and they really want a photo with us but don’t understand what we are saying. The people who are asking are typically from somewhere in India where they do not get any tourists and the only white people they have seen are on TV or in movies. A lady at the train station coming back to Delhi gave me a little charm for a necklace and wanted me and Calder to shake her babies hand. Everyone is very nice but of course we have to be careful. After the border we went back to the Golden Temple to see it lit up at night. This however was scary as there was a lot of men and for some reason at this sacred holy place they were being very disgusting and bumping into us and when I would get mad they would just laugh. So only 5 minutes after we arrived we left.

A lot of what I am writing would be so much better with photos so I will have to post another blog later that will have those and I will probably have to repeat all of this anyway.
So our group was 7 people but Lizzie and Kathern had to get back for their volunteer job but the other 5 of us took a taxi at 7 am to the little town after Dharmashala. This was the most perfect place right away. We saw monkeys on the drive there. When we arrived it wasn’t so hot that you melt away as we were used to in Delhi and Amristar. There was a good mood there and no one was begging for anything or who just wanted to follow us around. Everyone was truly helpful and Tibetan monks passed by us all the time along the roads with that cute smile that they have. We got an amazing meal in a restaurant on the roof of a building. I got my tea, mango Lassi and yogurt and shared a sort of pasta soup that reminded me of the most amazing pizza at first and momos. We didn’t have much time and wanted to visit the temples and a waterfall. We got to one temple and it was very nice. Then we couldn’t find the other so we decided to go to the waterfall. It was a path that had been maintained. It started to rain hard on the way there but it ended as soon as it started. We got to the waterfall which wasn’t as big or impressive as we thought. Calder and I climbed down the rocks and Iona and Sandra took the path back (Annelie was sick and took a nap in our hotel). After a way down the rocks there was a random café where Calder and I got some AMAZING tea. It started to rain again so we rapped my bag in newspaper and ran back to meet up with Iona and Sandra. Everything was soaked by the time we got back but it still felt good. We did some shopping in the town. Then we got Annelie who felt better and went and got dinner at a place that had a photo of Perice Browswin in it that had a caption saying “Perice Browswins favorite resutarant” or something like that, SO of course it was good! We got some great beer. It started to rain again and from the window we could see that it started to turn into a river going down the road. We finally paid for it all and prepared for the way back. We sat in our hotel and played cards and watched the lightening and thunder from our balcony. We wanted to go out and play in the rain but found that the owner had locked the door….
The next day we had to leave and we were all very sad at this as we loved this town and wanted to stay longer. We took a taxi which was about a five hour drive to the nearest train station and back to the heat and sweat. Our train was supposed to come at 1:30 but ended up coming at 5…. We waited at the train station drinking coke and water and playing BS that got very boring and tedious after a while. Finally we just jumped on a train that was going to Delhi but then we got kicked off which was stupid. We waited at another train station in the middle of nowhere till our train finally arrived around 6. We finally got to Delhi at 12:30 and took a rickshaw. It was really nice to ride it at night when no one was out and the temperature was cooler. We arrived and showered and slept.
It was the most amazing weekend. I feel like I have been here much longer and am so close with the volunteers who I traveled with. We argued and laughed and were scared together in just a matter of days. I can only imagine what will happen for the rest of the 3 weeks which are going to go by too fast. Here you just use all of your senses all the time. You have to be constantly aware of your surroundings and yourself. My brain is constantly working. All of my senses are being used as there are many different sents wherever I go and so many different things to see. I am exhausted and awake at the same time. Sleep is getting better but it’s so hot at night that it was hard to sleep for a few hours straight.
My skin is amazing here due to the amount of sweat that is naturally moisturizing it. My face looks more lively and healthy. However other girls are getting spots… maybe this will happen but I think because before this I was using carrot oil on my face everyday it was used to the oil. But the only bad thing is the heat rash that is growing along my arms….
I have grown to love my body even more now as most people get sick or don’t like the food. I feel like I can eat anything and everything because I just burn it off in the heat.
So I am sad that I cannot put photos here….
Also I have a question for you, I want to put my photos on a CD but I don’t have a cord to put it into a computer. If I put my memory card into someone else’s camera and use their camera and cord to upload it will this work? I may than be able to being the CD to a computer and upload some photos so you can get an idea of all the beautiful things I am see and experiencing.

ok i wrote a mini novel. more to come soon of course!

Annie