namaste

I'm back! I'm so so sorry about the lack of updates- technology was not very appealing in my days of jet lag. India has been incredible though, I love what I've seen of this country. Everything is significantly different- there are a lot of things that I didn't expect. For example, crossing the street is not a small task in India. Everyone here makes fun of me because I am not aggressive enough. I can already see that I have been pushed in a lot of areas and challenged to grow by being here. I'm not sure if I will recognize myself when I leave this place and I'm not mad about it. So far we have explored Mumbai, tried Indian food (which I liked and had no side affects from), taken the taxis and this little golf cart-esqe things called rik shaws? not sure how to spell that. and we have gone out and meet college students in the area that we live in. That was so much fun- even though we are worlds apart we have so many common interests. I talked to one girl I met for about 45 minutes about random things. We are both lovers of the show friends and chai tea. I think I can show you my experience better than I can tell you, I haven't really gotten the hang of this blogging thing yet. Pictures are always more interesting than my ramblings so here ya go!

  my roommate Kyleigh and I at the airport in Amsterdam!

I met my first Indian friend on the plane! Her name is Nilofer and she's a college student too so it was great talking to her and getting an idea of what it would be like to meet other Indian girls. I found out she was muslim and actually got to share the Gospel with her on the plane. She was so impressed with my use of Hindi words- it showed me how important contextualization really is!

  

finally arriving at our apartment!

 

me and Kyleigh's room for the summer! it's pretty big and has a couch and TV on the other side- we love it.

 

Thundering up at 6:30am our time. dedication.

  

first time out to eat! We went to an Indian place called Mini Punjab. Yes, the spiciness was real, but it was good!

  

the makings of an Indian meal: butter chicken, butter naan, and two other things that I forgot the names of...

 what Rachel referred to as a scene from Aladin... the market on the street! I bought bananas out there today.

Hannah, me, and Rachel on our first train ride! We went to south Mumbai and the area was beautiful! It was much cooler there too because it was close to the shoreline. 

 Kelby and Kevin, two of our leaders for the summer. We were eating in south Mumbai at a place called Leopold Cafe- so good!

 

  

at a HUGE mall in Mumbai called Infinity. look closely at the top-there's a rollercoaster!

 

In the mall, Rachel tried on a sari!

 me and another team leader, Bonnie, in our first crazy taxi ride!

At Marine Lines. this picture does a good job of disguising how dirty the water is. I mean.. dirty doesn't really begin to cover it...

 

 me and all the girls on my team at the shoreline- they are all so great.

  

My whole team. This is truly an incredible group of people. Such a blessing! I'm really bad at ending these.. so until next time!