(no subject)
I just found a nice internet cafe about 5 blocks from my apartment block that I can walk too.
So I should be able to update more. And they have realllllly good mango smothies. Jamba Juice eat your heart out.
Best of all, it's very very western. A little peice of home in a sea of, ... well, definitly not home. And the music they have in the background is great!
Seems trivial, but its really really nice to find. and to have to escape to every once in a while.
I love India. I really do. It's so..... diffrent is such a sad word. Everybody says, and every other book starts with, "India is a land of contradictions" Well, it's true. I prefer the countryside to the city.
Delhi is a little too polluted and a little to sprawling and dirty for me. The countryside is beautiful though. But then in the city you see a lot of middle class, a lot of well off, rich people, a lot of buisnessmen. Most of the people you see in the country are very very poor. Then again, you can see very very poor people in the city too. And middle class in the country. ... anyway, I have lots more to write on contradictions. Practically a whole novel about it in my head, and lots more to write about India in general, but I think the cafe is going to close soon.
In general though, I'm having a really good time. My volunteer placement is going well. I'm working at an NGO (non govermental orginization) called Akshay Pratisthan. They work with physically disabled and underpriviliged kids. Providing education, and vocational training for the disabled and for women. It's a great place, and I'm learning a lot. My roommate, Esther, also works with me there, and is staying the same amount of time (8 weeks) in India, so it works out real well, and we get along well.
As I said before, I went to Jaipur and Agra last weekend with some of my fellow volunteers. It was really great. Saw the pink city in Jaipur, and the Red Fort. It was very intresting. Then we saw the Taj Mahal in Agra. That was amazing!!
I didn't go anywhere this weekend. I've been sick on and off for that last two weeks, and I'm just getting over that and a bad cold, so I've stayed in and rested this weekend mostly. I think I'm really finally done with being sick though. I feel tons better then I have the whole time here. I'm finally getting used to the atmosphere, the pollution, and the food. One weekend I'm thinking about planning a trip to Vairanasi, which is kind of the seat of the Hindu religion and is supposed to be very intresting.
I really love India, and I really love this chance to see the "real" India. One day I'd like to come back and do some really posh, really expensive, Globus like bus tour that goes all around India and to all the famous sights and stays in all the 5 star Taj Hotels. But that will be really far in the future. And there's really nothing like what I'm doing now. This is really the best way to experince a country.
And in other news a blurb from an article I just read on Barack Obama:
"It is Obama himself who may best describe what it is that he brings to the table and to his party. "I think that part of my challenge over the next several years," he has said, "is to see if I can distill what I know in my gut in ways that can be franchised, that can be taken by other people and used in their campaigns and that the Democratic Party can use more broadly to win elections."
Tall order, but even more remarkable than the high expectations is how willing Obama seems to get his shoulders firmly under them.
"I think that the Democratic Party should stand for economic policies that give opportunity to all people, a foreign policy that's tough and smart and a vision for the future that combines individual responsibility with a sense of community," he says. "Now that’s not as neat as 'no taxes, small government and a strong defense,' but I'm not a sound byte guy."
He delivers this prescription during his campaign for the senate, and it lasts almost exactly 30 seconds."
Good God. I love this man.
yeah, and my spelling throughout this whole thing is attriocious, but I'm rushed. :(
bye for now.
So I should be able to update more. And they have realllllly good mango smothies. Jamba Juice eat your heart out.
Best of all, it's very very western. A little peice of home in a sea of, ... well, definitly not home. And the music they have in the background is great!
Seems trivial, but its really really nice to find. and to have to escape to every once in a while.
I love India. I really do. It's so..... diffrent is such a sad word. Everybody says, and every other book starts with, "India is a land of contradictions" Well, it's true. I prefer the countryside to the city.
Delhi is a little too polluted and a little to sprawling and dirty for me. The countryside is beautiful though. But then in the city you see a lot of middle class, a lot of well off, rich people, a lot of buisnessmen. Most of the people you see in the country are very very poor. Then again, you can see very very poor people in the city too. And middle class in the country. ... anyway, I have lots more to write on contradictions. Practically a whole novel about it in my head, and lots more to write about India in general, but I think the cafe is going to close soon.
In general though, I'm having a really good time. My volunteer placement is going well. I'm working at an NGO (non govermental orginization) called Akshay Pratisthan. They work with physically disabled and underpriviliged kids. Providing education, and vocational training for the disabled and for women. It's a great place, and I'm learning a lot. My roommate, Esther, also works with me there, and is staying the same amount of time (8 weeks) in India, so it works out real well, and we get along well.
As I said before, I went to Jaipur and Agra last weekend with some of my fellow volunteers. It was really great. Saw the pink city in Jaipur, and the Red Fort. It was very intresting. Then we saw the Taj Mahal in Agra. That was amazing!!
I didn't go anywhere this weekend. I've been sick on and off for that last two weeks, and I'm just getting over that and a bad cold, so I've stayed in and rested this weekend mostly. I think I'm really finally done with being sick though. I feel tons better then I have the whole time here. I'm finally getting used to the atmosphere, the pollution, and the food. One weekend I'm thinking about planning a trip to Vairanasi, which is kind of the seat of the Hindu religion and is supposed to be very intresting.
I really love India, and I really love this chance to see the "real" India. One day I'd like to come back and do some really posh, really expensive, Globus like bus tour that goes all around India and to all the famous sights and stays in all the 5 star Taj Hotels. But that will be really far in the future. And there's really nothing like what I'm doing now. This is really the best way to experince a country.
And in other news a blurb from an article I just read on Barack Obama:
"It is Obama himself who may best describe what it is that he brings to the table and to his party. "I think that part of my challenge over the next several years," he has said, "is to see if I can distill what I know in my gut in ways that can be franchised, that can be taken by other people and used in their campaigns and that the Democratic Party can use more broadly to win elections."
Tall order, but even more remarkable than the high expectations is how willing Obama seems to get his shoulders firmly under them.
"I think that the Democratic Party should stand for economic policies that give opportunity to all people, a foreign policy that's tough and smart and a vision for the future that combines individual responsibility with a sense of community," he says. "Now that’s not as neat as 'no taxes, small government and a strong defense,' but I'm not a sound byte guy."
He delivers this prescription during his campaign for the senate, and it lasts almost exactly 30 seconds."
Good God. I love this man.
yeah, and my spelling throughout this whole thing is attriocious, but I'm rushed. :(
bye for now.