Bangalore

Bangalore was what I was and wasn’t expecting. I had been told that it was a nice city and that it was probably one of the largest tech centers in the world, and while there were parts that matched my image of large office buildings and beautiful white houses with lush trees, there were also many times where there were piles of trash along the streets and stray dogs eating the intestines of some unknown animal. Overall I really just saw Bangalore as its own city with its own dynamics and culture. Honestly, it hasn’t really settled in to me that I’m in a different country, just a different city.

What has been the most difficult thing for me has been the shopping. I don’t really like shopping at home, and when I’m given a goal and have achieved it I prefer to just been done. When this didn’t happen while we were on commercial street my mind was insisting on shutting down, even though I knew that I needed to continue to be present. On the other side of things, it was surprisingly easy for me to deal with the stares from the Indian nationals, as well as with being dropped off and left in an unfamiliar place with only two other students and no adult supervision. However, we were also fortunate enough to have been in one of the safer neighborhoods in the city.I inderstood it was purely accidental and while we were standing underneath the balcony of someones home we would look up to find first one, then five people looking down at us and smiling, because thet were excited to see foreigners visiting their hometown. I’m sure it will continue to shock me how much joy that we bring to people just by being here.