Okay so I've really only been in Delhi for two full days so far, but I feel like I've been here for so long already! It's so weird. Everything is still very surreal. So I'm too lazy to write out a full blog post but there are some interesting things that I want to note.
Two days ago we went to Humayun's Tomb, which was the tomb built by the great Mughal Emperor Akbar (literally meaning "great") for his father Humayun. It's important because Humayun had actually lost the Mughal empire in India and had just won it back before his death when Akbar took over, so the tomb was meant to indicate to the Indian rulers that the Mughals were there to stay this time. It was very beautiful with deep blue skies while we were there but also incredibly hot! I think that though northern India at this time is around DC summer temperatures numbers-wise, it is actually much hotter since the humidity is very high all the time and it does NOT cool off at night. And I think the sun is hotter here right now. I mean, we are closer to the equator. So here is a picture of Humayun's temple:
So that was pretty sweet but by the end of walking around we had all finished our waters and were swimming in sweat (yum) and then road back with 9 of us stuffed into this van which claimed to have AC but it didn't really work but the driver refused to let us open the windows. Here's the back seat which is really meant to seat two:
There is actually another person sitting next to Dylan there on the right, but I was too close in proximity to get that in there. So we're all pretty tight now I would say.
We've had our Devanagari script exam and apparently we all got 100s so that's a good sign, though I don't think we actually all got everything right...but our teachers all seem really amazing and are very impressive people on paper so it should be a good semester. Also, the food at the program center is amazing, and they actually serve us salads and raw fruits and veggies that are safe to eat which is incredibly exciting! And the chai is the best I've ever had, and probably will ever have. Don't think it could get any better. Actually all the food I've had here has been really good. All the faculty and students went out to dinner at a nicer restaurant last night, and the food was superb. I remembered to take a picture at the last minute, so they had already taken away some dishes but here we go:
The big pot (it's huge and could serve like 6 people but we were sharing it between two of us...mistake...) is Murgh Makhani, so chicken in a creamy tomato-based sauce with incredible spices. Then there is garlic naan which was also the best I've had, tandoori paneer, and there also used to be stuffed tandoori mushrooms but they took them away right before I snapped the photo. Also, the hands on the left are being dipped in warm rose water to clean and sweeten them! Trying to perfect my eating-with-hands skills. Also had the best mango lassi I've ever had, it actually had a tartness to it and wasn't ridiculously sweet or heavy like most of them in the US. Okay well gotta pack for my homestay! I just realized that the title of this post is jetlag and I didn't say anything about it, so let me just say it's been rough, especially yesterday, but today I managed to sleep until 5AM HOORAY so I'm pretty pleased with that.
Lots and lots of love to all,
Namaste
Clare
Two days ago we went to Humayun's Tomb, which was the tomb built by the great Mughal Emperor Akbar (literally meaning "great") for his father Humayun. It's important because Humayun had actually lost the Mughal empire in India and had just won it back before his death when Akbar took over, so the tomb was meant to indicate to the Indian rulers that the Mughals were there to stay this time. It was very beautiful with deep blue skies while we were there but also incredibly hot! I think that though northern India at this time is around DC summer temperatures numbers-wise, it is actually much hotter since the humidity is very high all the time and it does NOT cool off at night. And I think the sun is hotter here right now. I mean, we are closer to the equator. So here is a picture of Humayun's temple:
We've had our Devanagari script exam and apparently we all got 100s so that's a good sign, though I don't think we actually all got everything right...but our teachers all seem really amazing and are very impressive people on paper so it should be a good semester. Also, the food at the program center is amazing, and they actually serve us salads and raw fruits and veggies that are safe to eat which is incredibly exciting! And the chai is the best I've ever had, and probably will ever have. Don't think it could get any better. Actually all the food I've had here has been really good. All the faculty and students went out to dinner at a nicer restaurant last night, and the food was superb. I remembered to take a picture at the last minute, so they had already taken away some dishes but here we go:
The big pot (it's huge and could serve like 6 people but we were sharing it between two of us...mistake...) is Murgh Makhani, so chicken in a creamy tomato-based sauce with incredible spices. Then there is garlic naan which was also the best I've had, tandoori paneer, and there also used to be stuffed tandoori mushrooms but they took them away right before I snapped the photo. Also, the hands on the left are being dipped in warm rose water to clean and sweeten them! Trying to perfect my eating-with-hands skills. Also had the best mango lassi I've ever had, it actually had a tartness to it and wasn't ridiculously sweet or heavy like most of them in the US. Okay well gotta pack for my homestay! I just realized that the title of this post is jetlag and I didn't say anything about it, so let me just say it's been rough, especially yesterday, but today I managed to sleep until 5AM HOORAY so I'm pretty pleased with that.
Lots and lots of love to all,
Namaste
Clare
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