After preparing for a couple days before all the students arrived, the South Asian students presented on their cultures for the international students. You can read more here, and see a few student interviews here, beginning with Olga!

Monica

Mohammad

Rohini

Kultwisiso

Shilpi

,

Ready to Explore Delhi

My first impression of when I first got to Delhi was that it was very humid but it was no different from what we have already encountered before I’m India. When I woke up, I was welcomed by a curious lizard right outside my door which reminded me of back home where lizards would rest under the rocks next to the beach. Nonetheless, the morning was really nice which made me excited to start the day off on a right note.

The first place we visited today was the Lotus Temple which was really beautiful to look at even with the huge crowds approaching it. However, before we got entry, we got a chance to explore some history of its construction and the Baha’i Faith. Learning about how the Ottoman Empire persecuted the Baha’i Followers was very interesting but very sad at the same time. Once we got the chance to enter the Lotus Temple, I thought it was really heartwarming how anyone from any faith can go there and come collectively as one. Being that I was really fascinated by this idea, I got distracted and ended stubbing my toe really hard on one of the benches.

The last place we visited was the India Gate which is basically a war memorial. The memorial was nice and all but the heat and crowd made it a bit hard to enjoy. However, when I exited the India Gate and was able to look at it from afar, I became grateful for the chance in general to have been able to enjoy this experience with all these amazing people for the past month.

/681 Comments/by
,

A Real Myth

Yesterday we visited the lotus temple… My first reaction was:” it’s maybe just a temple with a lotus garden” but no the temple is the garden… Each flower of this garden is a religion. And each religion represented who we are…
That was not all… We have seen the New Delhi: these Happy kids, this woman who cried because of a tattoo, these merchants who tell you “100 ONLY”.
But the last one was the best because a myth come true in front of you: the red Moon… It “A REAL MYTH”
/244 Comments/by
,

Path of History in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad itself gives me this indescribable feeling, that opened my eyes to a new fantastic point of view as it was once said in the song “A Whole New World”,  from Aladdin . This day I went to do the Ahmedabad’s heritage walk. I’ve seen plenty of new things like building compressed against each other but each one expressed a different form of art; each building had a design that was man carved. There were building based on religion mean while some were built in a form of survival. Throughout the community there were secret passageways that kept the people safe and to escape. The buildings were also built for animal shelters; each building had carved holes that was big enough for nesting. In the heritage walk I also learned about many of the bird feeding crafts and how they’re built for only certain animals. This was an expression for building crafts for harmony between humans and nature. Throughout the entire walk I’ve seen many animals including people in the community feeding them. This made me feel overwhelmed to know the people were not selfish towards the animal. My viewing of Ahmedabad has been such a wonderful experience and I can’t wait for my adventure in Delhi .
/27 Comments/by