Initial Response

Hi.
This might end up being long because I need to explain some complicated situations and I will detail my severe culture shock. Also, I mean no harm- I respect India and it's people wholeheartedly.
We accidentally woke up at 7am. We ate breakfast and left with a driver of the hotel for a day of sightseeing.

.... my god, where do I start...

That is a picture from the roof of our hotel.
So first we went to a monument called, "Qutub Minar". I didn't know what this place was until the end of the 30 minute visit. So as Dad and I are walking around this place aimlessly, several girls walk up to me and ask for a photograph. This made me feel like Paris Hilton. So anyway. The monuments we cool and everything... I just didn't understand what the heck I was looking at. Well... until this guy came up to me.
This dude was 22 years old and very nice and wanted pictures and wants to visit New York and told me a lot about the freakin' things I had been staring at. Very nice.

Ok so next we went on over to a food market! People were selling all types of fruits and vegetables! Like this:
There were just rows and rows and rows of this stuff happening. (Main observation: It seemed like every single person was selling something, but every single person was buying NOTHING!)
After this small food market journey our driver took us to an annoying situation in a textile/jewelry/figurine shop. Huge, 2-story shop with several different sections of goods, each manned by an EXTREMELY persistent salesman. You think those people selling hair straighteners in the mall are annoying??? WHAT IN THE WORLD, these men wouldn't STOP for NOTHING/ANYTHING!!! Very nice people, but I just could not take the persistence. It was unbearable. I was unable to bare it. I bared not. One hour later- we left that shop.
Key word- "Henna Assault". Definition: When a woman at a tourist site physically grabs your arm (as your father continues to walk down the path, not noticing you're being assaulted) and begins to apply a henna tattoo without asking or saying a word,,, and then asks for too much money.
After this we went to The Lotus Temple. Google that.

After all this sight seeing we took an hour nap then got on the road to Agra.

This next section will describe some thoughts I had while on this 5 hour drive.
- This country does not have any sort of care for road rules, road safety, or road anything at ALL. Can I tell you something?- I ALMOST DIED TODAY. Several times. And actually, the dog we hit probably DID die today. Did you laugh at that!? Our driver did. Awk. Anyway, I can't even EXPLAIN this to you. No stop signs, no stop lights, no lanes (well, they HAVE lanes, they just aren't respected), no bike lane, no helmets, I mean, literally: NOTHING. You just fly down the crowded highway in any lane at any speed, just make sure you honk several hundred times an hour to alert everyone where you are. I almost lost my life, Mom. Here is a picture sequence that doesn't show the look on my face or my tense body parts.


That is a 2-lane road.
Sometimes this happens:

-Trash is just everywhere. If countries could be opposites, India and Japan would be opposites. I'm not trying to highlight the bad things about this country. Really. I'm merely highlighting the major sources of my culture shock. The roadside from Delhi to Agra is covered in trash. Just littered. Photo:
(Also, free animals) Now, I think this just comes with the severe poverty+serious population density.
- I saw some very, very poor people today. While driving, a young child ran up to the window with bunches of flowers to sell. I declined with a shake of the head... but the girl persisted (common theme), shaking her head 'yes'. She then made a movement with her hand that resembled eating. And so I was like, :-O. And the car started driving faster... and so she ran, knocking on the window, and finally the trunk as we sped up. Poor, poor people. I saw two children pooping on the ground. Just squat-pooping. Severe poverty.
-I've only seen a few police personnel.
-There are hundreds of half-built buildings lining the streets. No construction crews. Just empty half-buildings all over.
- It's hot here. But not humid like in Georgia. This means that you can wear long sleeves and not die. Most men wear long sleeves and long pants on 100+ degree weather.
-Some of you (Briana/Kelli) would cry over the skinny dogs we saw today. Oh yeah, our car hit one.
-It's midnight. Everyone is honking on the street.
-Everyone here loves cricket.

I'm tired now. Taj Mahal at 5:45 in the morning. It's midnight. Can I sleep? :-) Loves. BTW, I don't read this after I write it. So pay no mind to typos.

Landing

Well, I'm absolutely exhausted, ya'll. Plus my head hurts. Plus I am sweaty. Can I tell you something? I walked out of that airport in Delhi and my sweat pores BURST OPEN like wild animals and I became sweaty.
So now, I'll talk about the flights in about 4 sentences:
We flew first class on the way to Amsterdam and I felt like a princess. When we arrived in Europe (my first time there) Dad said, "This is like a black person going to Africa for the first time." Ok, then we got on the plane to India with about 4000 Indians. I was uncomfortable the whole time but I made it and we got a taxi and drove to this little hotel and I was scared the whole way.
I'm really sorry... but I'm gonna sleep now. <3

Before the Flight

Ok, so after unrelenting pressure from my fans (Hi, Mom!) I've decided to write a blog about my travels to India. As you might remember, I was pretty funny when I wrote about my travels in Japan. Unfortunately I need to warn you that I'm 3 years older/more mature... which means I have lost much of my humor (also, I'm quite nervous that I won't live up to ya'lls literary expectations). This is where I will document the important memories so that I won't forget them when I get old and sloppy (beta.amyloid.protien?!). Anywayyyy- I hope you enjoy all this.

Here is what's (supposed to be) happening on this trip: Fly from Atlanta & land in Delhi, India. < That is the key step. From Delhi we go to Agra, India to sight-see (Taj Mahal). From Agra, back to Delhi. And from Delhi we depart on a 12-hour drive north to Dharamsala, the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is where we will spend the bulk of the trip. There's an illustration below for you curious people.
Oh, Delhi doesn't look like it's 12-hours away from Dharamsala, you say? Good point. I will now introduce an anticipated major theme of the trip: ROAD CONDITIONS. And then comes the work/enlightenment. Here's the website for the group I'm going with and what it's all about: http://www.tibet.emory.edu/scienceandspirituality/ETSI.html So, to sum up that website: His Holiness thinks it is important for his/all Buddhist monks to be educated in science among other topics. Therefore, he has requested that a group of Western thinkers come teach the monks. So, that's that. That's what Dad and I are doing.
At this time I will now give a brief brief brief brief history of the Dalai Lama and Tibet/China/India.
So here he is just chillin' and being thankful. Like I said, this will be brief and in some serious Layman's terms. Brief. >>The 14th Dalai Lama is like the Pope to the Buddhist people. You know how the Pope is situated in Rome? Well, until 1959 His Holiness was situated in Tibet (which was/is between India and China). In 1959 the Chinese booted His Holiness out of Tibet for fear that he would stir up some religious trouble in their communist state. So, he and thousands of his monks traveled on foot to Dharamsala where they have lived ever since. Now, Tibetans want to be Tibetan but China says that Tibet is just part of China- so everyone is arguing. This is what has influenced several Buddhist monks to set themselves on fire in protest: ( http://caribflyer.com/carib/eighth-tibetan-sets-himself-on-fire-in-southwestern-china/ ) Big Big Conflicttt. Ok, so that's all I really wanna say about this. It's just so complicated and Dad is trying to get me to go to the Verizon Store to get our phones to work in India.
Oh, our flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam is at 5pm. We have 3 hours there, then we fly to Delhi. Dad said that's 20 hours of flying. At least I have banana chips from Whole Foods.


***Update: I will not have a phone in India; Verizon is stingy. Skype/Facebook/Blog/Tumblr/YouTube/Google+/Tweet/hLIgfihkhg me though!***