Hello!

Been some time since I have written. I have been pretty busy. I attended a 3 day orientation in Ahmadabad, which was a long train ride from where I am. We are talking 7 hours of traveling. Woke up at 3am to get on the train with another exchange student who is from Brasil, nice guy. And we were on that train forever. Got there and was escorted to some cars to drive to the resort we were suppose to stay at. The rotarians here are sooo nice. They really take care of you. The other students that I met are very nice, we all get along just fine. Though our group is not as diverse as I thought it would be, mostly people are from the USA, Canada, France, and one person from Brasil. Still, we are rockin' out. It was a lot of fun to be with them and just talk to them about how things were going for them.

The resort we were staying at was AMAZING. So pretty, it was a topnotch resort. We are talking about the whole thing. Nice swimming pool. A GYM, which I was so happy about since I haven't exercised in forever and I feel like a lazy slob. The GRASS, was even perfect. Perfectly cut, and green, soo pretty. There was this huge fountain and there was a sort of fountain show at night. It was heaven.



The rooms, AC with nice beds, soft and nice. The room was gorgeous. So much fun. I was bunking with this exchange girl from France, Fanny. She is soo nice. She was sort of sick for most of the orientation though, I felt awful. Though the second and third day, she felt good enough to come out with us and go swimming and play cricket.

Speaking of cricket, I love it. =D



It was great to be physically active.

The third day we did a little bit of site seeing. Rode on a cart pulled by a CAMEL. What a great experience. Hahha, loads of fun.


Went into the city, really busy, we got stared at a lot. Visited a Mosque, a BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE made of sandstone and marble. So amazing.





And we were able to visit Mahatma Gandhi's House. We were all stunned. It was just surreal to see where he sat and pondered things, did his work. Slept, live. Too cool.



There were these wild monkeys just roaming around the city, so our tourguide bought us crackers and we FED THEM. That was a pretty neat thing. One of them almost attacked us though...hahha. That was pretty crazy.




It was a fun three days. The train ride back was a lot shorter than the one there. We were chatting the whole time. It was sad at the same time as we slowly said good-bye to each other at the designated stops where students had to get off. At the end, it was just Mr. Brasil and I. He lives 30 minutes from where I am staying, he is in Vapi. So we ended up getting off at the same stop. By the time we got off, we were completely hysterical because it was 1am in the morning and sleep deprivation had gotten to us. We started on the train at 6pm, mind you. It was a long train ride, we at 3 bars of chocolate to stay awake. hahahhahaha.

Two days after the great adventure in Ahmadabad, I drove to Bombay with my host family to drop off my host brother, he was leaving for his exchange. What an emotional day that was. People crying and everything. I was a bit sad too that he was leaving, he was my first friend here. He looked ready to leave though, and he looked really excited as well. Sending him off was pretty sad for me.

I am now taking his place here in this household. I am suppose to do all these errands if asked, which I am completely fine with. The fact that the language is getting in the way is a bit annoying. So now, I can say the learning really begins. Before my host brother left, I was in the position of talking English with him and he was my translator, but now I can't do that anymore. Time to buckle down and learn. =)

Hope everything is well.