A Weekend Away

Note: this blog is written for the weekend of July 15

So, we woke up at 2:30 AM and drove two hours to the airport. I sat in the front seat and it was so entertaining to watch everyone drive. When you want to pass someone you flash your brights a ton at them so they know you are coming. So we safely arrived at the airport and then had a three hour flight to Delhi. Lots of traveling. In Delhi we rode in bicycle rickshaws to the spice market which was way sketchy and dirty but way super awesome! The town of Old Delhi was so old!  the alleys were so compact and there were so many people in the millions of tiny traditional shops. We ate at this kinda expensive Indian place and it was delicious!! I love Indian food! And there was this snake charmer outside the restaurant so we took pictures of us with snakes! He brought the snake out and slung it across our necks. Then, I held a king cobra!!! It was kinda terrifying! There are tons of street sellers with little trinkets like bracelets, key chains, post cards, shirts, etc. It was so much fun at first to try and get the prices as low as possible but by the end of the day it was annoying how many would swarm us as soon as we stepped off the bus. Then we took an 8 hour bus ride to Agra. I slept a lot of the way. So in Agra we stayed in a wayyy nice hotel it was so cool! We all went straight to bed we were so tired. We woke up early again to go see the Taj Mahal!!!!! Wow it was incredible! We took tons of pictures! Then we went to the Red Fort which was like the ancient palace built and added onto by many kings of India it was incredible! Kyle and I took a picture to take to Mr Bracken, our World History teacher who showed us a movie with the fort in it! We went to a rug factory where the rugs are all hand made and the weavers sing the tune pattern to each other. It takes weeks and weeks for rugs to be completed. Next stop was the marble factory, home of the descendants who made the marble inlaid designs in the Taj Mahal. Everything there was incredibly expensive! Then went shopping! The first town we went to wasn't actually very fun haha until the end when I bought two pairs of Indian shoes for way cheap! Then we went swimming at the hotel which was freakin awesome! It felt so good because it's so hot here. Next morning we got to sleep in a little. Til like 7 haha. We started on our bus ride back to Delhi. We stopped on our way back to ride elephants and I had a monkey climb on my shoulders. Pretty cool. We stopped once more to shop and I went to town! Shopping in India is awesome! Anyways we got back at midnight after more airplane and bus rides and went straight to bed. It was so much fun to see more of India, do cool things, and become so much closer to my fellow volunteers here at Rising Star but by now I was looking forward to another week with the kids I missed so much!

P.S. Still no pictures I'm awfully sorry!