Good Morning!

Here it is on a beautiful Sunday morning and I have just finished my toast. So, I figure it is time for another journal entry from the trip. Hope you enjoy:


Saturday-I think. Not sure of the date but will check on that later.
We had an amazing day so far. We had breakfast which consisted of toast, a banana, porrage, an egg and this potato pancake thing that was spicy but real good. I am sure I will pay for that later. After breakfast, we had a little meeting with the girls.

The girls talked about their highs and lows and voiced some concerns about being stared at. They liked it and felt guilty about that, but it also felt weird to them as well. Interesting.

While we were talking David came in and we all listened as he gave us some history on Hinduism and on some of the gods they worship. There are over 33million gods! He said that people are beginning to ask questions about the actions of these gods and finding that their gods can't give them the answers. He gave us a lot of information and the girls asked a lot of good questions. An awesome moment to watch and participate in as well.

It was then time to pile into the SUV and drive through town. It was hot and very humid and uncomfortable. So much to see on the drive. Things that tug your heart in all directions. To many emotions to process.

We were taken to the underground mall. It is what it is called. A huge mall that is under a park. We were taken to a place to exchange our money. The room was small, and so humid it was foggy. I have a ton of rupees which is kind of cool. It kind of makes you feel like you have more money than you do. I plan on bringing a few home for school purposes.

To exchange money, we had to take turns signing our travelers checks, hand them over to one guy who calculated the rate on a piece of paper, and then he passes it on to another guy. The first guy whipped out a bunch of money, and so much that it is all stapled together. The next guy filled out the exchange form, and after we sign it, we are done. It took a while for all of us to go through the process, but once we were done, it was time for shopping.

We found ourselves in a shop and before we knew it, outfits were flying everywhere! The girls picked out some very pretty clothes to wear on the train to Agra and Damoh. I wasn't so lucky so I will get to shop in Damoh and have some clothes made. I can't wait to meet Sheela. David and the other guys who's names I can't say just yet have been wonderful. I will get into that later. So after the shopping spree, we left for the Lotus Temple. Very cool looking, and again, very hot. We could see the Harri Krishna (spelling?) temple and could hear the bells ringing and the people chanting and singing. Weird. Next it was off to lunch. We had cheese pizza of all things! The place we ate at was sweltering hot and we were very tired and unsure if we wanted to continue on with the sightseeing, but sucked it up and continued the day.

We ended up at this very old temple tower that was built in the 1300's I think. Amazing that they could build such things. And the carvings were incredible. There were many native people there and they were so interested in us which is funny because we were interested in them. The sky opened up with rain and it was awesomely refreshing. We played in the rain which made us the center of attention. Oops. Suddenly everyone wanted to watch us, and take pictures with us and of us. The rain woke us all up and we were full of life once again. The best day so far.


-Well, there is some more from my journal. Hope you enjoyed it. I wasn't always awake enough to write everything as explicit as I wanted to. I left some stuff out of course. There is just so much that we were seeing and it was way too much info. to write all down. This particular day was one of the most fun for me I think. As a group anyway. If you are interested, I have tons of pictures! Have an awesome day and thanks for reading.