New Summer, New Adventures - INDIA

Hello friends!

My summer has officially started. I found myself waking up in Mumbai (Bombay), India yesterday! After traveling for almost 24 hours, a great majority of our group from Northeastern University made it to Mumbai. Coming here, I did not know what to expect at all, but I can say that I am pleasantly surprised by everything. Every now-and-then I encounter something that reminds me of Mozambique: whether it be the pushing and shoving/cutting of queues in the airport, or the sincere kindness of the waiters/helpers. This definitely helps making me feel more comfortable and less culture-shocked.

Despite arriving and checking into our hotel at 3AM, we were still made to start our day with some lectures at 10:30AM yesterday. This may not sound so bad, but we actually had to wake up at 8AM in order to shower and make it to breakfast on time! Talk about arriving and "hit the ground running". Fortunately though, the lecture in the morning and afternoon were about Indian background, culture and customs, which was easy to process.

Before coming to India, our professor let us know that we would be in the south during monsoon season. I didn't think much of it as I was coming from Boston; I was certain that my umbrella would suffice. Oh boy was I wrong! After introducing ourselves in the lecture, the guest speaker decided to take us on a quick tour of the neighborhood so that we were more familiar with our surroundings. Seeing as it was sunny and hot, I didn't take my umbrella out with me. About twenty minutes into our small tour, it begins to rain. Just my luck. After five minutes of slow rain, the heavens open on us and suddenly I am drenched. I was not a happy camper during the walk back to the hotel. We then headed back to the hotel for some more hours of lectures, went out for some lunch, got even more drenched, and went to finish up our lectures. I guess the good thing about the rain is that it breaks the heat, except I haven't experienced any heat because it has only been raining. Hopefully this will change as we head north.

Towards the end of the day though, we took a bus tour around the city (because it literally.never.stops.raining.) and also went to the house that Gandhi lived in, in Mumbai. One thing I would like to note about Mumbai's roads, is that there is an unbelievable amount of taxi cabs! The driving here isn't as bad as people say Indian driving is, but it still can be quite scary just because the roads are so congested, and pedestrians here have no right of way, ever in Mumbai. Oh, and also, honking is like second nature after breathing to drivers here. So you can imagine how lovely it is to walk the streets of Mumbai!

I didn't actually mean to write this much for my first post, but I am so overwhelmed with everything that is going on around me, that I cannot help but try to express everything here. I started off wanting to upload 42 pictures of my day, went down to 29, and finally 23. So please enjoy my careful selection of images that I found most fascinating on my first day in this beautiful country :)!

Emalisa xo

Seeing as I was in India, I had to try a real mango lassi, and I was not disappointed!

Part of the group, out at lunch between lectures. 

An older cab, Fiat. All the cabs were black with yellow tops.

The city of Mumbai stretches along the Arabian Sea. 

Mahatma Gandhi museum.

Gandhi above the four major roles women do: grinding wheat, sewing, milking cows, and grinding spices. 

Evolution of Gandhi's clothing from 1917 to 1934.

The actual place where Gandhi lived and worked. A man who needed nothing.

The museum had many captions of Gandhi's quotes and achievements, but this one struck me the most. We definitely need a Gandhi in our day and age. 

"Gandhi in his characteristic moods."

Letters that Gandhi wrote to Hitler and Roosevelt.

A good majority of the Northeastern group as we left the museum.

The Vaangat. A "gat" is a stepped are near a body of water for religious ceremonies. The water is not still; it meets with a river. 

In this Banganga area, it was common to see men grinding wheat and grains into a thin powder by using their own re-invention of the wheel.

This is the Dhobigat, where the Dhobiwala's (boys who do Dhobi/washing) wash others' clothes for a living.

After hand-washing all the clothes. They hang them up to dry and iron them. They do the laundry primarily for small hotels (curtains, sheets) seeing as more, and more people now have access to washing machines in India.

The government subsidizes the agriculture of grains, but since there is an increase in the middle class, more Indians want vegetables and proteins, making the price of these foods quite high and continually rising.

In this Banganga neighborhood, we found slums/settlements right in front of the Arabian Sea. Makes me appreciate what I have a lot more.

These would be considered homes for lower-middle class people.

While we were extremely worried about the rain, stray dogs, and flies, little children were just playing in the street, completely content with their surroundings and activities. Makes you take a second to think about your priorities. 

What most of the houses and buildings looked liked in this neighborhood.