Finally have Internet! (Kyle)

So much has happened since my first post last Saturday. Unfortunately, I can not put it all down, but I'll do my best to provide an overview...

The Holi celebration last weekend was extremely fun but the colors have still not come out of some of my classmates hair and skin! It was neat to celebrate a holiday that the whole country was a part of. That same weekend we also saw some EMPI student presentations consisting of dance and music, a puppet show, and a monkey dance. We were so excited to see the monkies, but little did we know we would see so many more just hanging around in the streets off campus.

The sightseeing we did in Delhi was incredible. We saw the Lotus temple, the India Gate, the Ghandi memorial and many others. While sightseeing we were all dressed in beautiful Suris that EMPI gave to us. Don't worry...pictures to follow. While out we are treated like celebrities. It actually has become unbearable to always have our pictures taken by strangers or just to be stared at. When we took a group photo at the India Gate, surrounding visitors gathered to take their own "snaps" of us. It was different.

Our time spent in Dharmshala was also wonderful. Despite the motion sickness many of us felt from driving up and down the Himalayas, the things we did there were so fun! The most amazing thing for me was to see the Dalai Lama in person. We walked through the temple while he was teaching. My heart flipped and my eyes filled with tears instantly. When we all left the temple the majority of us were crying because it was so moving.

Following that we went to a Tiebetan monk monastary and the Norbulingka Institute (where we saw beautiful handicrafts being made by their students). I bought some beautiful frames (hand made and painted by the students). We also did some street shopping and the Jammu University students who were accompanying us to Dharmshala taught us how to bargain. They did not realize that bargaining doesn't really exist in the US, and that instead we have fixed prices.

After leaving the Himalayas we have come back to Delhi via train. This was something many of us could not handle. At that point, I was just feeling Indian culture overload and missed home. I am feeling much better today now that we are at NIILM campus, which is where I am writing from.

Hopefully, we will have another to chance to blog again, but the Internet has been difficult to access.