Delhi

I've been in Delhi for two full days now and so far it's been amazing! My whole trip didn't start out too smoothly though--my luggage got left behind in Heathrow yesterday, but British Airways put it on the next flight so they delivered it to me this morning. I was lucky in that Carol and Jukka, my very hospitable hosts, sent a driver to pick me up at the airport, and he was really helpful in filing the proper reports and so forth. After my second breakfast of the day (my first being on the plane), I ran errands: registering at the Philippine Embassy and shopping for clothes in New Delhi. My break was Happy Hour at the Canadian Embassy where Carol works--it was SO hot out though, I wish we weren't merely sitting by their chilled pool but that we were in it!

Apparently the temperatures these last few days have been record highs: it hit 47-48 degrees Celsius today (116-118 Farenheit). And I was running around Old Delhi for five hours...it was hot, but definitely worth seeing! I started off by taking a cab to the Lal Qila, or Red Fort (built during the peak of the Mughal Empire) and walked around. Its walls extend for 2 km and there are several structures inside its massive walls--I was particularly struck by the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque--below), which one of the emperors built for his private use.

The Red Fort is at the end of one of the main arteries of Old Delhi, an extremely busy street called Chandi Chowk. I took a rickshaw ride to visit the Sikh Temple, went through the saree market, the silver market, the "wedding street" (where everyone goes to buy decorations for weddings--very colorful!), and ended up buying more salwar kameez outfits. While attempting to bargain with the stall owner, I met Boyd Wilson, Professor of Religion at Hope University in Michigan. Apparently he runs a traveling seminar throughout India every summer, and he was trying to identify shops where his female students could buy inexpensive clothing. It was serendipitous! Since we had the same goal to find cheap clothing stores, I paid the rickshaw driver and followed Prof. Wilson into the back alleys of this cloth market. After some success with shopping, we went to Jama Masjid, the biggest mosque in India. We left our shoes by the south entrance and made the mistake not to buy socks--the cement, having baked in the scorching heat, basically gave me third-degree burns on the soles of my feet! At least that's what it felt like....the mosque was awesome, its architect being Isa Khan, who also the main architect for the Taj Mahal in Agra--can't wait to visit that!

Although I'm excited to start my internship in Bihar, I'm a little sad to be leaving Delhi already. I feel like I'm just starting to figure out how things work around here and got to meet up this evening with Alla, Siobhan, Adam and Jay (who are all working for Fab India) but I'm leaving tomorrow evening. One funny thing though--whenever I tell an Indian national that I'm going to be spending my summer in Bihar, they give me the exact same "are you crazy?" look. I guess I'll see what they mean by that soon enough!