From Birmingham to Delhi…

Group meeting with Dr. Jones
 
Meeting Phil
Heritage Hall 225... Our second and last meeting. We were getting excited as Dr. Jones gave us more details about India. We were about to see the Himalaya and Dr. Jones' description of Dharamsala had us dreaming. For the first time, I allowed myself to the excitement of anticipation... I was going to India and I was a week away to depart for the Himalayan mountains!
At the time, much of our concerns were about the food which might make us sick if not chosen carefully and we all wondered about the best ways to remain appropriate in a country which customs were entirely foreign to us. Discussing proper outfits for the group, and most of us were females, we learned that the length of our sleeves and skirts would define the level of "unwanted attention" we would get. We discussed the fact that by simply being foreigners, we would get much attention from the locals and that this might means some harassment for much needed money in a country where poverty was striking and overwhelming...
I barely knew anyone in the group and as I was watching my future travel companions, I couldn't help thinking about the adventure we were about to share and I was wondering what we would mean to each other just a few weeks later...

Genevieve
Some of us would fly together for part of the trip...
I met Lauren officially in the plane to Chicago. We shared our excitement with at once the distance of newly introduced people and the proximity of those who are about to share something out of the ordinary...

Lauren
I had the opportunity to interact with Jade before, as she was a TA for the Intro to Peace Studies class I just finished. We would spend more time together in Chicago as our connections would leave us with a few hours to kill.

Jade in the plane to Chicago
We would use this time to get to know each other. I certainly enjoyed Jade's impressive thirst for knowledge as well as her facetious personality... Here she pointed at "Clark Kent":

Leaving Jade and Chicago, I flew to Newark where I would meet Bryan and Nicole. Shortly after introducing each other, we would embark and greet each other with a "See you in Delhi!"
My neighbor was an Indian leaving in the US, he told me a bit about the different religions in his country and tried to prepare me to what I would see and experience...
I slept and woke right above the Aral sea (below):

Above the Sea of Aral


Finally, we reached Delhi airport...

And found the "Way Out" =D

The cars reminded us we were in India and the thick air that we had arrived in Delhi... But from that point and despite the pollution, we would go from an amazement to another...

Here, Bryan is checking us in at the Godwin Hotel in New Delhi as he received his flower necklace.

It was hard to go to bed just then so we went up to the hotel's terrace and watched the rickshaws in the street for a moment...

These little cars/motorcycles would become part of our daily life for the next few weeks =D