I just wanted to update my sponsoring club on what I am doing as of late…

I really just want to thank you guys for giving me this opportunity to be here in India.  This next segment is from my blog, but I think it pretty much sums up the month of November.  Right now I am at a new school and a new family.  Christmas is tomorrow and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

As of December 15th, I have been in India for 3 and a half months, though I feel like I have been here much longer.  I have just returned from a Southern tour of India.  I am now living with my second family, in the outskirts of Hyderabad.  They have a house, instead of an apartment, and I have a room to myself (mostly).  The little community where I live has a pool and a gym and I like to go swimming regularly.

Right now I am sitting in the garden of my host parents' house, watching the afternoon sun cast deep shadows over the other side of the street.  I hear the ferocious bird squawks of my 7 year old host sister's party favor break the silence as they dash around the house, screaming.  In this neighborhood, it is almost to easy to forget that I am in India.  More foreigners live here than I have ever seen in Hyderabad.

This past month I went on a tour of Southern India with a group of exchange students from all over India.  Every single day we saw something or experienced something that was entirely new to us.  However, I am only going to share with you the most memorable parts of the trip.  I am only going to write about the places that really struck me and imprinted a picture that I can see clearly right now.

First stop- Mahabalipuram

From Hyderabad, we took a train to Mahabalipuram. Now, this was my first time on a train in India and before that I had only taken the train in the U.S. once or twice. In India, the faster way around the country is by train, mostly because the roads are unreliable, bumpy and train tracks can be found everywhere. There are two types of trains in India. at least to my knowledge. sleeper trains and regular ones. Sleeper trains have bunks in them and are very nice for over night journeys. These two types have two subtypes: AC and non AC. On this trip, we only took sleeper trains both with and without AC. I much prefer the AC trains as they have better security, and are supplied with mostly fresh blankets and pillows. The bathrooms are

usually cleaner too. However, it does get hella cold in AC trains and the

windows don't open. These trains are usually more expensive, but I think you get your rupees worth out of it.

Mahabalipuram was one of my favorite spots. It was a small town, but very touristy. There were shops and small little inns up to our ears. but not a lot of the India that I know. We stayed at a small motel. It was more like a resort though, about two minutes from the ocean. We stayed there for two days and had a lot of free time to see the shops and swim in the ocean. Near the place where we stayed was a shore temple.

Apparently there were more of them. About three, but the others are now under the sea. When we left Ahabalipuram we got to see a silk factory, which was quite amazing.

Next stop- Bangalore

Keep in mind that on this entire tour we either traveled by bus or

Train, ranging from 16 hours to 10 minutes. I have had some good, memorable times on both. You know when you are an experienced traveler when you know exactly how to get comfortable and get to sleep on the floor isle of an Indian bus (as I said before, Indian roads range from new to potholes –mostly the latter, though).

We got to see a national park in Bangalore, where we saw lions, tigers and bears.and there was also a zoo there, where we saw other animals.

I think the weirdest part was all the monkeys - everywhere. I saw one snatch a chocobar from a little Indian child - smart monkey. On the whole trip I think we saw about 2 or 3 zoos and maybe 3 botanical gardens. We also went to MG road (there is one in like every city in India) and had a lot of fun seeing American brands for the first time in a long time.

Mysore is also known as the city of palaces. I really liked Maharaja Palace.  Just walking in there, you see the most amazing artwork apart from the gigantic architecture.  You look at the walls, the ceilings, the floors, and they are all painted vibrantly in motifs or scenes of fighting warriors. The tiling is gorgeous!

Ooty from hotel room balcony

I think Ooty was one of the places I had the most fun. Ooty is just fun to Say, but other than that, it is a hill station. The elevation was around 8,000 feet. Near Ooty, you can find Doddabetta, the highest peak in Southern India. There we found a tea factory, in which we found out how the production of tea takes place. I think Ooty was my favorite because it wasn't hectically scheduled and the icy coldness felt like home.

To get there, we had to go on so many dirt roads, but the scenery was amazing. There had been a mudslide 3 days before that killed around 100 people and it was a struggle for our two mini-buses to get up there, because the roads were in such bad shape. We staying in an amazing hotel in which, for the most part, we all got under the blankets, and ordered hot chocolate.  Room service is the best invention in the world!!  Especially when it is raining, and cold and your room doesn't have heating.

The town of Ooty

To get to Ooty, Pollachi, and Munnar, among other places, we had to travel through various national parks and sanctuaries to get to the towns. Needless to say, the scenery was beautiful.  In Munnar, we did the thing that everyone does when they go to India, we road elephants It was much like riding a horse, with the rolling movements and such.  Although they don't look like it, elephants walk surprisingly delicately.  Maybe it isn't a surprise though, when you think about what could happen if one were to fall. They are able to put one foot in front of the other with their feet almost in a straight line with each other.

This was my most favorite part of the entire trip.  We were on a houseboat for 2 days.  Actually, we had two houseboats, because one wasn't big enough for all 18 of us.  It was as nice as a really great hotel, and it was on water.  They were both about 80 feet long, with 4 rooms, and a dining area/ lounge towards the front.  We were on the backwaters of Kerala…and it was the most peaceful time. We also went swimming off the side of the boats, when we stopped for the night. Kinda creepy when you can't see through what you are swimming in.