the adventure really has begun

The monday after our first big excursion out of Delhi and I am reeling. We have traveled 12 hours by train in the past 2 days and had the full-on study and tour of Amritsar. I do have photos, but until I get my computer (soon) I cannot get any pictures up on this blog. I know, it's a disappointment, but for now the words will have to do.

The trip to Amritsar really was amazing. We attended a lecture on Sikhism at Khalsa College, a very prestigious and beautiful college in the Punjab. The lecture was a bit bizarre, but fun in it's own right. The professor informed us that, whether we accept it or not, the scripture of the Sikhs (that's pronounced "sick" not "seek," just so everyone knows. We westerners have been mispronouncing apparently...) provides the moral code that could rid the world of "AIDS, smokings, drugs, and other world troubles." Yes, you heard him, smoking and drugs. I am making a conscious effort to open myself to the religious and spiritual rntings and ravings here in India, but sometimes (like in that lecture) I find myself faced with statements that are just... well... different. I do have to say it's been eye opening thus far in the amount of tolerance everyone has for each other... but I'm not sure how much tolerant they have for Godless atheists. We definitely have a few on our trip, which is interesting.

Of course, then we visit places like the Golden Temple (the holiest of holy place for Sikhs) and all of my cynicism is washed away by the grandeur of what can be constructed from pure faith. It's pretty incredible. The Sikhs have also been some of the most welcoming people I have encountered yet. We were whisked into the communal kitchen at the Golden Temple and asked to take pictures of women making chipoti, and a very old bizarre man told us crazy stories and wrote his name on a sheet of paper in English.

There's almost too much to tell about this trip to Amritsar, a phenomenon that I'm sure will keep happening. We also saw Bhangra dancing and we watched the Indo-Pakistan changing of the border guard. That was particularly awesome--especially in the way of a political performance. We're talking stadium seating, screaming Indians, and border guards who can do high kicks. It was like a military dance/festival/pride fest. I loved it.

I loved it despite the fact that not two minutes earlier I had gone to the bathroom and had a little, well, incident. You see, Indian toilets are holes in the floor, and this particular hole had a lot of water around it and well... I fell. I just tripped a little bit and down shot my foot, right into the Indian toilet bowl (a hole) into my favorite Indian smell, caca-poopoo-fecal matter. So, whilst watching the Indo-Pakistan changing of the border guard, my foot was covered in poo.

But that's my trip so far--absurd and exhilirating. The jewel is in the shit, as they say.

Love to all.