Thursday, May 8

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Hi Everyone,

I arrived safely in Mumbai last night after a long day of travel.  The highlight of the travel was in Munich where we had a short layover at 9:00 am local time (4:00 am east coast time).  I bought a pretzel for breakfast.  As I walked up to the register and handed the man my 2 Euro coin, he asked “Pretzel, no beer?”

We arrived to our hotel in Mumbai at about 2:00 am local time.  My roommate and I were not tired, so it was 3:30 before we went to sleep.  Surprisingly, I felt great at 8:00 this morning (the crash came later).  We took a combination bus/walking tour of part of the city of Mumbai.  The humidity is very oppressive, but luckily we avoided being outside during the hottest part of the day today.

My gtoup visited the Ghandi Museum, the house Ghandi lived in during part of his life.  The museum included his bedroom, dioramas depicting his life, and many quotes.  We then visited a Hindu temple where a wedding was taking place.  There were about 60 Indian people at the wedding singing and clapping.  We roamed freely around the ornate 30-year-old temple.  The group had lunch together at a vegetarian restaurant next door to the temple.  It was a delicious first meal in India complete with dosas, naan, curry, and mango lassis—for only $5!

During the afternoon we were briefed about visiting India and the structure of our classes.  80% of the group felt a major jet lag crash during the talk.  We took a walk around the area near our hotel for about an hour then came back to the hotel for dinner.  Dinner was a buffet—the fresh naan was especially delicious.  If I don’t get sick from eating the food (fingers crossed), I will probably get sick from eating too much food as I usually do at Indian restaurants.


Tomorrow we visit the US Consulate in Mumbai and have our first class session.  Waking up at 6:00…

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