Resort life is temporary?!

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 bonds with one another that’ll last for a lifetime. The first night, the Americans (on YES) needed to grab their phones provided by AFS, and during this, everyone headed to the dining room for dinner. Once we were finished, we also headed to the dining room and were welcomed with screaming “Happy Independence Day”, red, white, and blue balloons everywhere, and a beautiful cake for the 4^th of July. At first, we were wondering why there was this surprise for us, as we all forgot it was Independence day back home! We followed by signing the National Anthem. It was such an amazing surprise as we just met one another, yet it seems like we’ve known each other for a lifetime.

To highlight this bond, the Italians and I got in a heated debate about pineapple on pizza a little later that night. It was so heated that during their country presentation the next night, they created a play about an individual (referring to me) being shot when he said he liked pineapple on pizza. Although the Italians and Americans were trash talking on which presentation was going to be better, our American music fest didn’t beat the Italian’s play and national anthem. After everyone finished their country presentation, the AFS staff put on Indian music and taught us how to dance the Indian way. Madison and I stuck with one another as we were both not the best at it.

The next day, (and every day) we had a fun time at the pool and then got introduced to a self-defense class where we learned how to strategically fight back if you encounter danger. Again, Madison and I stuck with one another as we both had no clue what we were doing, but in the end, we mastered it (with intense practice afterwards). The same night, we were welcomed from representatives from the Embassies of the US, Thailand, and Italy. The US representative invited us to spend the night with her at embassy during the ten-month duration. The final and last day of the orientation, after registering for the FRRO process, we were not able to go swimming in the pool due to some individuals who snuck out of their room at night (pesky Americans and Italians). Instead, we all hung out with each other during the day, before the groups slowly left to their destinations. As I am in the outskirts of Delhi, I was one of the last to leave, so I was able to say goodbye to everyone. Some had to take a plane, and others even had to travel 12 hours on a train to reach their host families. All in all, the Welcome Orientation was great and can’t wait until we meet again at the mid-stay! Now comes the realization, the shielded resort life was just temporary, now onto what we’ve been talking about for the past few days, creating a life in India.