First Day in Delhi

This is a procession of Hindi pilgrims carrying water from the Gangees river. I was told the total route will be over 250km. Many of them are barefoot and with small childres in tow. The police have taped off a small area on the side of the road for them.
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So, I arrived last night in Delhi at 8:00pm(7/21/06). Needless to say after sleeping for 10+ hours on the plane I wasn't able to sleep a wink last night. So, this morning I got up around 8am after sleeping for about an hour. I went down to the front desk first thing to find out how I could call home. They directed me to a little telephone place around the corner that let me here some familiar voices. Call home from India, 10 ruppees a minute (25 cents.) Familiar voices, priceless.

So, after my uneventful breakfast my hotel called me a taxi to go to university. To my great relief, I did get ahold of Shane Boris. He studied at JNU last year as a Rotary scholar and is back this year, so he has a lot of good advice. We met on campus and went for a long walk/tour.

This is my 120 ruppee snack (=$3). It's fresh squeezed mango juice, water, and a plate of fresh fruit. It's still probably grossly overcharged because I'm in a hotel, but it sure was good.
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The campus is much quieter than the city. It is huge and quite jungle like. I really didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't what I expected. JNU is supposed to be one of the best universities in India, but much like Delhi itself it is in a bad state of disrepair. The buildings are very simple, no air conditioning...anywhere. My future accomodations are in an all female dorm that is supposed to be one of the nicer ones. The rooms are very small and share small communal bathrooms. There is a twin bed and a shelf in each room, that's about it.

Ah, air conditioning sweet air conditioning. After touring the campus today and seeing that NOTHING is air conditioned I am staying in my room here until I have to leave tomarrow. It's a nice haven with my own tv and private shower for the next 18 hours.
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So, for the good news. The foreign students I met today were all very nice. There is another girl from the states comming to JNU as an ambassadorial scholar. Also, according to Shane, many of the foreign students like to travel and professors are usually very flexible about attendance. So, hopefully I'll get some breaks from the city now and again.

I am still very excited to be here. Delhi is a city of extemes that may be hard to handle right away. But, after talking to Shane for quite a while today, I feel like I have a more realistic idea of what this year will be like. It's going to be a bit rougher than I had imagined but I think as long as I stick to my plan of getting involved earnestly and as soon as possible, I will be fine.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to move into a temporary place on campus so that I can begin the admissions process as early as possible on Monday. I may not have computer access right away but I'll post more as soon as I can. Love you all.

Lora