Varanasi and Mussorie

After spending two nights in Varanasi and meeting our professors, we took a twenty-four hour train ride to Mussorie, a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas. The weather is cool and we are staying in a comfortable hotel with a beautiful view of the mountains. (Elin: this is the nicest hotel I have stayed in!!). We're taking Hindi classes for four hours a day with two different teachers, Virendra-ji and Vimal-ji (ji is a suffix indicating respect). Monkeys play outside our windows and jump from tree to tree.

First Day

We got to Hotel Amax in Pahar Ganj, Delhi, around 1 am. Here is the street lamp outside:

Our first real day in India we traveled to Agra to see the Taj. While our bus was stopped in traffic, this appeared outside our window:

After I took this picture, a man tried to force my window open to take money from me.

The Taj was beautiful; the monument itself was everything I expected but I was surprised by the aggression of many Indians looking to take advantage of foreigners.

Indian traffic!

Day of Departure

It's our last day in America! Each of us has one 50 lb checked bag and one small carry-on... how are we going to survive? Yesterday we went to the beach one last time. In India it's easy to get a parasite by swimming so we probably won't be swimming very much. Our flight will be going from Boston to Zurich then Zurich to New Delhi. We'll be traveling for 18 hours total... then we get in at midnight to a new strange city!!