India: an elephantastic time
Considering I was late to posting my first blog post it is no surprise that this one is a little late too.
The first two/three weeks have flown by. Probably the main event was the visit to the Taj Mahal in Agra. On the way there, we stopped at an elephant sanctuary and I learned all about how my mom shouldn’t have ridden the elephants when her and her friends went to India last year. We went to this place Wildlife SOS where they rescue elephants from captivity here in India and throughout Asia, which was pretty cool but would’ve been way cooler if we could pet the elephants but we could not. The next day, we went to the Taj Mahal. Easily one of the coolest places I have ever been, seeing the Taj in person was a very surreal experience. It even made me forget it was 100 degrees out with 80% humidity aka a sauna. While in Agra we also saw the Baby Taj, a baby version of the Taj, and Agra Fort, this cool fortress that had an actual moat.
Visiting Agra and Delhi opened my eyes to several aspects about living in Kolkata. For starters, both cities are much more developed than Kolkata, with fully formed highways and downtown centers, wheras Kolkata is a much poorer city with much less infrastructure. However, just being there for two days made myself and the rest of my placement realize how much more laid back life is here in Kolkata, which we were definitely missing by the end of the action-packed weekend.
Some other highlights and fun facts from the past two weeks living here
- The Fourth of July! This was my third year in a row not being in the United States for the Fourth of July.
- This Nepalese food called momos are fire and I tried to convince the gang to go to Mt. Everest Base Camp in Nepal I but got shut down.
- India has all these waffle stores that sell dessert belgian waffles with ice cream and stuff and they’re also really good.
- Went to a yoga class with the rest of the Kolkata fellows.
- Learned how to count from 1–3 and then from 8–10 in Bengali, updates to come on the rest of the numbers.
- Saw Global Fellows program director Tanya Monsef Bunger’s doppleganger at the Hard Rock Cafe, which, in addition to Chili’s, is way better in India than in the US
- Three weeks in and all of the food is still spicy.
- Book of the week: Term Limits by Vince Flynn
Lastly, a quick update on work: over the past week we had our first series of school visits. We went to four schools in various parts of Kolkata and outside Kolkata, and were able to see the different levels of schooling here in West Bengal. These all went pretty well, for some reason the students think we are celebrities but as our boss Diti reassured us, “it is because you are green rhinos”. The Green Rhinos program is ASEDs main endeavor and has the goal to create youth nature leaders, a program for which we have been creating surveys and now a testimonial video for. We also have been planning this fundraising/house party event for the end of July and still are unsure which of the two it will be.
More to come,
-Nick
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