Field Trip

I love field trips, and I think it is safe to say that everyone loves field trips. Field trips in the United States are fun, but I am pretty sure that field trips in India are better, way better.

On Friday we took a class field trip instead of having lecture and it was SO fun. We drove from Manali to Naggar, which was about 40 minutes away. We started off our day by visiting the home, artwork, and personal art collection of Russian artist Nicholas Roerich. I was interesting to see the blend of Russian and Indian culture both in a personal and professional setting. My favorite thing about Nicholas Roerich was that he created a flag known as The Banner of Peace.

From GoogleImages

Each circle within the flag respectively stands for art, religion, and science, and they are all surrounded by the infinite border of culture. 

After we visited his home and artwork, we were able to see the Castle of Naggar. The Castle was awesome! When we got there we were surprised with a group of people playing music and dancing. I am sad to say I did not take any pictures or videos of the scene, but trust me, it was awesome. We then ate lunch on the balcony of the castle, and had amazing views while eating traditional Indian food for lunch.

From GoogleImages

As you can see, the view from our lunch table was quite exquisite. After lunch came the real excitement, though. We went to a cheese factory! Yup, that's right, we saw mozzarella cheese being made by hand. Ok, so you probably don't know this about me, but I love to cook, and have actually made mozzarella cheese at home before. Even though I knew how the process worked, it was still super fun to watch on a larger scale. We ended up buying a Kilo of fresh cheese, which is about 2.2 pounds, and our hotel made us pizza with the cheese we bought! Yum! 


Today is a lazy day, mostly because I have a lot of school work to do. 10 page paper, ya dig? My teacher's family came to Manali a week ago and I have been super distracted playing with her kids (3 and 8). Also, since I know she is going to read this, I'm loving it and it's fun and I am not complaining about it :). 

Family Life

Something that has always been incredibly amazing to me is that children, literally, are the future of our world. Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit an orphanage, Dar-Ul-Fazl Children's Home, in Manali to see what it was like and interact with the kids. 90 children live and go to school on the campus, and an additional 100 children come for school every day. I assumed I would be extremely sad and depressed while visiting an orphanage, but I am happy to say that it was actually quite nice and pleasant there. All of the children seemed relatively happy, and even told us that they considered each other family. Something incredible, at least to me, is how music can unite people from opposite sides of the world. We sang songs with the children at a big assembly which was really fun.

Girls at the Assembly  

Boys at the Assembly 

I tried to upload a video of the singing, but my blogger doesn't like videos, unfortunately. 

After visiting the orphanage, I had the opportunity to go to the Day Star School and interview a group of tenth graders. For my research project, I have decided to study the daily life of adolescents in India, specifically in Himachal Pradesh. I met with a group of six students, four boys and two girls, all ages 14 and 15. I had to remind myself that I was still in India, because they sounded similarly to American teenagers. 

You may not know this about me, but I went to a rigorous private high school in Los Angeles. The children at my school and the children at this school in India all had very similar ideas and worries. The teenagers told me that their biggest stress is school. They wake up between 530-7am and study before they head off to school - normally a less than five minute walk from their home. The school day if from 8:55am - 4:05pm. After school, they study and maybe watch television before they go to sleep. There is not much interaction with their parents - they only talk to their parents about school, never about anything more significant. I will share more about my research when I have finished my paper, but here is a little taste of what I am doing. 

What Do I Stand For?

Being in India has made me grateful for the opportunities I have been granted by growing up in the United States. When you see the struggles and grave lives of the majority of the population in India, you cannot help but want to do something about it. One will inherently want to make a difference, it is impossible not to feel both compassion and depression while comparing your life to the lives of others. Part of me wants to go off and save the world, but a bigger part of me knows that anything I attempt will only reach a very small portion of the population. I, myself, may only be able to help one person.

Do I think that I will be coming back to India to make a difference here? No. But this has got me thinking, what do I stand for? How am I going to make a difference in my chosen career path? I am going back to the United States on July 7th, and am almost immediately moving to New York to start my masters program at Columbia University. I will be studying school counseling and mental health counseling at Teachers College. I hope that someday I can help adolescents conquer their fears and inhibitions in order to become the best versions of themselves possible.

So, what do I stand for? I stand for equality - I believe that all individuals should receive equal pay for equal work regardless of gender, race, and religion. I believe that no man can own a woman, and no woman should face domestic violence. I stand for love - I believe that all individuals should be free to love whoever they wish to love, a family with love is the best kind of family. I stand for kindness - I believe that one must exert less effort to be nice than to be mean, a smile can turn around a person's day even if you are unaware of it at the time. I stand for health care - I believe there is no reason for a child to not receive adequate vaccinations to ward off infectious diseases. I stand for education - I believe that an educated individual can make a difference in this world, regardless of chosen life path.

Cover of Some Nights by FUN. 

So, what do you stand for? Comment and let me know. 

I Love School

First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack of posting the last couple of days. My internet accessibility has been rather spotty and I have not had access for long enough to finish my post! So here it is.

But really, I love school. I can not describe how excited I am to spend the rest of my life working within a school. Let me back up a few steps. Today, we went to go visit a school, The Day Star School, in Manali. It was a Christian day school for grades K-10. I think it is very interesting that the private schools in India end at grade 10 instead of grade 12. We were able to tour this school and get acquainted with their facilities. I was extremely impressed with what I saw. They had a library complete with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys (among more scholarly books). We were shown the Biology, Physics, and Chemistry labs that were reminiscent of labs one would see in the United States. The school is also equipped with an indoor swimming pool and outdoor play area. The most impressive part of the school, however, was the facilities for special needs students. There was a whole room filled with learning aids available for not only special needs students in the school, but within the community as well. Just to give you an idea, the room contained a trampoline, swing ladders, and eye charts among many other learning aids. So cool.

Library!

Swimming Pool!

Kids at recess!

Study abroad trip with 10th graders in Manali!

My favorite thing about the schools was this poster hanging in one of the hallways.

I think it is a beautiful sentiment. The school is a Christian school, yet promotes being a good and honest person above all else. I really appreciated this poster and felt as though the children attending this school were being brought up to respect all different types of people. 

I was able to meet the school counselor, who is actually from Chicago. I will be interviewing him next week for my research project here in India. I hope to learn what adolescents are struggling with here in India compared to in the United States. Our classes here have helped me understand families on a more global scale than I previously had. Being culturally competent is a struggle for many people around the world and is a challenge for me as well. Sometimes I am worried that I am making a bad impression on Indians for all Americans, so I am trying very hard to be extra polite, stay on the LEFT side of the street (there are no sidewalks here), and to not talk about how much I would like to eat red meat. 

This weekend is a free weekend for us here in Manali. The majority of our group went on an overnight hike, but, if you know me, you know that is not my style. I really enjoy having a bathroom available to me. And I am going camping in August so I am saving up my stamina until then. Three of us decided to stay here at the hotel and do a little exploring on our own. Well, we ended up going to the "spa" and getting pedicures. It wasn't really a spa, which is why I put it in quotes. It was a little... unsanitary. In addition to getting a pedicure, I also got henna on my feet! IT IS SO AWESOME

MY FEET!

Well, I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend in the US, and I will blog more soon. 

Wait, I Have to Study?

Being in India has been great, except that I totally forgot I needed to study. And do homework. Let me tell you that this has been a challenge. Something exciting did happen today though, I officially registered for my first semester of classes at Columbia! YAY!! I have registered for Theories of Counseling, School Counseling, Ethics in Counseling, and Foundations of Counseling. I am so excited I cannot wait for the fall! I only have 2 classes on Monday and 2 classes on Thursday, so we will see what I end up spending my time doing.

I have really enjoyed doing yoga here in India. I have been doing it every other morning, which I am happy with. Yesterday I did a shoulder stand. I was happy I could do it because I thought I would fail for sure. I hope I am able to continue doing yoga in New York, as long as I can afford it.

I have realized that four weeks is an incredibly long time to be in a foreign country. I think it would be different if we were traveling around, but three weeks in a tiny traveler town might give me cabin fever.  Today, I really want to go back to the US, but I hope it will be a fleeting feeling.

Sense of Adventure

Yesterday, I tried very hard to be brave and adventurous, but it turned out to backfire. Womp.

I decided it would be a good idea to dye my hair with henna, in order to give it a reddish tint. How brave of me, right?

That is what I was expecting, but unfortunately, all I got was a wasted four, yes four, hours with henna in my hair and it is still the same brown as before. I was quite disappointed, to say the least. 

In other news, yesterday we went down to the school to set up a tour. I was excited to learn that they have a school counselor from Chicago who worked in the US and is now working in India. I am looking forward to interviewing him and creating my project around his work. I am meeting him tomorrow so I will post more about that when I have more details. 

Yesterday I was also able to pick up my jacket! Which was exciting because it was so cold! 

Um, hello, how cute is this $13 USD jacket?!? 

The Swing of Things

Yesterday was our first day of "normalcy" here in India. I woke up to do rooftop yoga, which was super hard. We then had our first lecture for the study abroad course. It was more of a group discussion than a lecture, which was really enjoyable. We just talked about pretty much everything I have been blogging about, so I won't go in to detail here.

After lunch we went to go get a tour of the Lady Willingdon Hospital in Manali. It is a mission hospital that, while small and rustic, was truly quite impressive. I'm not a huge fan of hospitals, so I didn't really enjoy the tour very much, but I did find it interesting. Part of our class here is to conduct a research project and write a 10-15 page paper about our research. Almost everyone on the trip is pre-med, and as you all know, I am not. While we were at the hospital we were told that they have two social workers that go in to high schools and counsel teenagers on any issues they might be having. If you know me, you know that is EXACTLY what I want to do with my life. I hope I am able to shadow those professionals and make that the focus of my research project. I will definitely keep you updated on that front, but don't you worry, I won't post my ten page paper on the blog.

Now I know this might surprise you, but it is cold in Manali. I was as surprised as you probably are right now. I didn't bring a jacket with me to India in the summer, who would? Don't get me wrong, it's not super cold, but it gets down to the 60's, which is pretty chilly without a jacket. So, long story short, I am having a jacket made for me. Yup, that's right, I got to pick out my outside fabric, inside fabric, and style. It is being made to my measurements, and I am only paying $13 USD for it. What!?! I'm really excited about it. I am getting it today so I will be sure to post a picture of me in it, it is going to be really cute.

During dinner, I felt as though I was experiencing a scene from The Lion King.

All of a sudden we heard loud noises coming from the street and we looked over and there was literally a stampede of sheep and goats. 

Yup, a real live stampede.