They keep us pretty busy every day, and we have lots of meetings and activities.  The most noticiable thing about India when I first arrived was the smell (it’s cliche but true) there’s nothing like it.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing.  A overall musky smellinterupted by wafts of jasmine flowers.

The campus is HUGE.  It takes about 20 - 30min to walk from the Intl. student dorm down to the front gate.  There are wild animals everywhere, and everyone keeps to the main roads; cows, water buffalo, boars, peacocks, and dogs.  The dining area is great too; awesome indian cooking at every meal.

My first full day here (since I came at the end of the 1st day) was great.  We had a few lectures in the morning, and then they took us out on a bus tour of the surrounding.  We had a chance to stop into some of the shops, and get a real good look at the area.  When we got back to campus there was a performance by a band of local musicians.  Unity Fusion Band is a group of classically trained musicians that play a music that combines traditional indian and western classical styles.  I was able to get a 10min video of one of the songs they performed, and I’m hoping to get it up online in the next few days if the internet cooperates.

The second day they sent us out into the city with our soon-to-be language peer tutors.  We were given 100 rupees to break into smaller change, and we had to use as many modes of local transport as possible.  There are 3 and 7 seater auto rickshaws (autos), but that really means 8 to 4.  The buses could be compared to getting the T after a sox game at rush hour…all the time.  The CIEE program staff really do a lot to make sure that we’ll have the best, and safest, experience possible while we’re here.  They know all of our names, and have helped us get all sorts of forms and paper work filed with the state/local government.  They also have great suggestions about local shops and entertainment and can arrange transportation for us if needed. After our lil trek around the city we came back for lunch and then they took the group out to see a bollywood movie (ridiculous songs, and all) at a local theater…a group of us are already planning our Harry Potter outing in the coming week.

Today was the first real day where we had free time for more than half an hour, and then they took us out to Fusion 9 (a REALLY nice restaurant) for our welcome dinner.  Myself and another girl in the program got to cut the welcome cake (which was delicious chocolate) because we were the 1st and last students to arrive on campus.

It’s been a really busy couple of days, and tomorrow they’re taking us shopping for clothes.  So, there will definitely be pictures to come of everyone decked out in Salwar Kameez and Sari…