Life in the Abroad - India

Blog 7 - First three weeks of school! It’s almost been a month since we first touched down in India, and of that month, a lot of time being spent at school. I am attending Amity International School, Sec-46 Gurgaon. Unlike some of my friends, I am the only exchange student at this school, making it a great immersion! I arrived to my host family on Saturday evening, and was then going to school on Monday. As my temporary host mom is a junior school (K-5) teacher, she was able to guide me on where I needed to be and go. When we first arrived at school, I was told to go to a conference room to wait for Principle Ma’am and my teacher. During the wait, I reviewed most of the AFS India handbook, which was really good to have as it was a revision of everything we discussed at the orientation. Once I met Principal Ma’am and Pooja Luthra Ma’am (my teacher), we went outside in which students traditionally welcomed me with tilak (die on forehead), following by a picture with some administr...

Blog 6 - Meeting and venturing with host families! Part 2 On my second Sunday with this host family, I wanted to invite them for dinner before the host family switch, so we all went to Delhi, where I had the experience to see the capitol, consisting of embassies, the parliament, President’s home, India Gate, and more! Unfortunately, all the restaurants they wanted to show me were closed due to some unrest (in which I did not notice anything except for closed restaurants). Instead, we headed back to their society and went to a restaurant there. At that restaurant there was the Final World Cup match, allowing me to watch France’s victory on taking the trophy home! The next day, as they did not let me pay, we went to Ambience Mall, a kilometer-long mall with 5 floors! They bought me a Kurta (Indian traditional wear), and then we went out to eat at a delicious Indian restaurant. The two weeks flew by so quick, and then it was time to switch host families. Roshan (...

Blog 5 - Meeting and venturing with host families! Part 1 Being one of the last ones to leave the Ashok Country Resort on July 7th, Heena Ma’am (AFS Staffer) brought me to my host family. I was notified about my host family situation and where I was going to be placed just two days before at the resort. I learned that I will be staying in Gurgaon (Gurugram) in the state of Haryana, just outside of the National Capital Region (NCR or Delhi) with a temporary family until the 18 th , and then move to a permanent family after that. As they did not allow us to use the hotel WIFI, I quickly managed to send an email introducing myself to them the night before at 2AM due to my T-Mobile plan allowing me to have unlimited, but 2G, service in India.    On the twenty-minute car ride to my host family, I was so amazed by the immense skyscrapers and the beautiful architecture complementing the beauty of the old and run-downed buildings. When we arrived, my host parents were not hom...

Blog 4 -Resort life is temporary?! We arrived at the Ashok Country Resort at 2 am on July 3 rd . The next morning, I went to the breakfast hall fairly early, as I was not tired as I slept on the whole plane ride to Delhi. Surprisingly, there was a huge table already eating breakfast, all new faces except Louisa, though she was a fairly new face too as I met her not even two days before, back in the US. The people making up this table came from so many different places like Hungary, Turkey, Canada, Italy, Germany, Japan, US, and more! The Italians arrived a whole day before us, so they were familiar with the resort and toured us around. We went into the pool a little later as we had a good amount of time as the orientation started at 11. We were all welcomed with a flower necklace (a lei in Hawaiian) and a strip of red dye on our foreheads! Over the next few days in session, we learned so much more than I would have ever thought, and most importantly, we created strong bond...