Last few days

For the following couple of days, we visited some companies, including Infosys (amazing), DSCL, PwC. They did a lot of presentations on different aspects of a company, such as employment, marketing, strategy. I have to admit that as a sophomore I really don’t understand some of the stuff they are saying, but I guess I will learn them later in school so I wasn’t really worried about that. On Saturday we went to the Taj. The camel ride was all right. I told Jess to take a picture of me and the camel, the camel seems to understand what’s going on and kissed my head when Jess took the picture. This is cute. The Taj is magnificent, of course. But somehow I lost interest in the end and just wanted to take a long nap. After we got out of the Taj, there are tons of people trying to sell us stuff. They touched and grabbed me. Same thing happened to my classmates, and some of my classmates were yelling at them to go away. The thing was, I wasn’t really annoyed at all for some reason. Because they were just trying to make a living, maybe their mom’s ill, maybe their brothers or sisters need to go to school. So I just want to say, don’t yell at them, just because you are lucky to be born in US, doesn’t mean you don’t need to think from their perspectives. I am pretty sure if we were born as Indians and put in their shoes, we would do the same thing, touching, grabbing. The second day I went to visited more temples. The weather’s nice that day and I got to talk to professor a little. The whole trip I was quiet and didn’t talk that much. We went to the airport and going back to US. I just want to say, during the whole trip, the professor’s really nice and did give us the freedom to explore on ourselves. After another 14 hour flight, we got to New Jersey. It was morning in US when we got here. I was in a rush going home, because I know my mom prepared congee, bread, and milk for me. =D

Bike Tour and LPU

I got up so early today just for the bike tour. That’s 30 dollars and I thought I was kind of expensive just to ride a bike around the city for couple hours. Oh well, I guess it would be the great learning experience. We were separated into two teams. I stayed all the way in the back when we were biking and I was talking to the tour assistance when I was biking. He’s college student and works as a part time job. I asked him if he ever wanted to go to US, he said he might go and visit US but would stay in India for the rest of his life. I was impressed. I was born in China and came to US 4 years ago and I still don’t know where I would spend the rest of my life, maybe Europe. That’s why it got me thinking even though some Indians are poor, they are willing to live in their lives and still happy about it. Maybe India is really united country. I don’t know, that’s what I came up with, because in China, everyone tries to move to North America. So after the bike tour, we went on a 8 hour bus ride to LPU. It wasn’t that bad actually, because I pulled back my seat a little and was sleeping the most of the time. When we got there, we called our e-buddy’s name and sadly I forgot my e-buddy’s name. Good thing was that later I found out that she wasn’t there and would come the second day. So I stayed with Jessica’s e-buddy. She’s really nice and friendly. We talked about a lot of stuff. We even talked about arranged-marriage. I was surprised to find out that she doesn’t mind about arranged-marriage. Later we had a bonfire, I danced a little but I wasn’t the type to dance so I stood there for a while. I think I need to change a little and open up a little like the rest of the classmates. When I saw that LPU student dancing like there’s no tomorrow, I was really impressed by Indian’s spontaneous expression. They are not shy in front of strangers at all! Later we went back to our dorm and I had to use the bucket to take a shower and the blanket’s short and small. The second day we visited the campus. There are so many schools, pharmacy, management, architecture…est.  We had a meeting with the chancellor I think. He’s a straightforward guy. When he’s asked about what he expects his student to do after he graduates, he responds right away: They do whatever they want to do. I was really impressed when he said that. He’s really straight and not pretentious. I don’t like those speakers who try to come up with a paragraph of elegant speech just to satisfy the audience. And when he’s asked to shed some lights on Indians Business markets, he said right away that he’s not going to talk about it. I really like him. Yes, we, as students, are supposed to do whatever we want to do after we graduate. The social norms sometimes expect us to do this and do that and I really don’t like it. Later I saw my e-buddy during lunch and she said she’s going home right after the lunch. I was really disappointed because I saw her for only 30 minutes. Then we went to the temples again. This one is huge and it introduced us a lot about Indian religions. I got so much candy in the end. Then there’s bonfire again and I was just so stressed out and went back to my dorm and sleep.  Tomorrow we are going back to the hotel.

Auto Expo and Lotus Temple

We were on our way to the auto expo and we stopped at the India gate. I heard it commemorates those soldiers who got killed during the war. The most impressive thing I saw of course is the marching parade. The soldiers are so tall and I wonder if there’s specific height qualification for being a soldier. I thought it might be rude to go up to a soldier to take a picture with him, but I did it nonetheless because I don’t think he would shoot me or something, but he’s nice though. Then we saw a bunch of kids and students, we waved at them and Melissa danced with the kids. They are so pure, open, spontaneous, and absolutely adorable. But it made me thinking. If a group of Indian tourists go to US, would American kids do the same thing? Unfortunately, the American kids wouldn’t. That’s why I really like these kids. However, on the other hands, if these Indian kids were raised up in US, they wouldn’t be as open and spontaneous. The culture really shapes a person’s personality. Finally we got the auto expo. Even though I have car, I am not that into it. I know one day we would run out of gas and turn to electric car, that’s all I know. Cool thing I saw this Honda robot, even though I don’t know the importance of that robot, I just think it’s cool. We were walking around, and finally settled down to eat some food. I got Asian noodles and it didn’t serve me well as my stomach started to feel funny after a while. So finally we got out of the auto expo and we went to the Lotus temple. It is magnificent. Maybe it is because the foggy weather, the temple looks extremely heavenly from far away. We were told to take off our shoes and we got into the temple. It was really quiet because no one’s allowed to talk. I heard that this temple allows any religious visitor, doesn’t matter what religion you are. My parents were Buddhists and they said I get to choose whatever I want to believe in. Even though I respect religions, I don’t really follow any of them though. While I was sitting there, I looked to the top, I asked a question:” Whoever it is out there in the heaven, give me some inspirations”. That’s all I thought about when I was sitting there. Later we tried the Indian cuisine, I didn’t really like it. The service was really great, they kept giving me food and they were so spicy I was in dire need of a drink in the end. Tomorrow we are going to LPU. 8 hour bus ride!

First day in India

We arrived at New Delhi after almost 14 hours flight. The ride was so stressful because I got my India visa at Manhattan around 6 pm and my flight was around 8:30 pm. It was intense and on the plane I was unable to sleep because the seat is really small and uncomfortable. I didn’t watch any movie or TV show either because that gives me headache. Nevertheless, I got to New Delhi safe and sound. The first impression that I had about New Delhi is the foggy weather. After we got out of the airport, I just followed my classmates to the bus and didn’t really pay attention to the surroundings because the visibility was really low and the foggy weather didn’t really get me excited. The porters were trying to get some tips by pushing our trolleys and I don’t think any of us gave them any money. I wondered that the reason they were there to be porters is because some tourists they do give tips. If that’s the case, then it just made us the “cheap” tourists. We got on the bus and the curtain’s orange color and I thought that Indians really like orange color. Of course the professor gave a welcome-to-India speech and told us that India’s using non-plastic bags and I thought it was pretty cool. After we got to the hotel, we checked in and I wanted to take a shower right away. I got to the bathroom and I was surprised a little when I saw there is no curtain or no tub.  I thought that the whole bathroom would be flooded with water. It’s relieving to see that there’s a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom because I heard we needed to bring our own toilet paper and I didn’t bring any. I was so busy in New York City worrying about the India visa, let alone the toilet paper. The servants seem to be really nice. I wonder if it’s because we are foreigners. I really want to see how they treat native Indians. The shower was not that great and I had trouble getting hot water at the beginning. After a brief shower I went to bed right away despite the damp blankets. I went to sleep when my parents just got up from bed in US. I didn’t really check the itinerary but I’m sure it will be fun.

Second day and the American Center

We got up and had the first breakfast, at 6:45am! This was kind of crazy because in US I usually don’t get up till 11 or 12 am. Anyhow, the food was a little bit disappointing because there’s not that much to choose but the hot milk really warmed me up a little. We went out and took a walk on the street. It was mind blowing to see those poor little kids performing circuits on the street with their parents just to earn some money. It was great when I saw a bunch of school girls and boys in uniforms walking to their schools, they said hello to us and we said hello back and we waved at each other. They seem to be really friendly. But it’s a little bit shocking when I saw around 8 or 9 school kids got off a little car. We walked around a park and there are so many stray dogs roaming on the street and I wondered who feed them and what they really eat? Since a lot of Indians are vegetarians and the poverty is still a major concern, who would be kind enough to spare some meat for the dogs? Then we went to the American Center. We went through two metal detectors and they separate us by gender. Two ladies there talked to us about the relationship between India and US. Even though it doesn’t concern business market that much, I still learned a lot about how complicated the foreign relationship can get. They talked about how they got their jobs and the selection processes and I thought to myself that it really requires a lot of skills and training to be in their positions. Later we went to exchange money and when I got to the exchange place I was surprised to see that there’s no window or any protections at the exchange place. Any armored robber could just walk in and rob the place like a piece of cake. Maybe that’s where the culture shock kicked in. Then we stayed the McDonalds for a while to get food. I got a chicken burger and a strawberry shake. The burger tastes the same as in US but the shake tastes a lot different, maybe there’s a  little bit of psychological effected involved. Then we passed through a lot of stores and got to the Parliament Museums. The security is tight as usual and I learned some Indian history, even though I seem to be unable to remember those Indian names. Then some of us went to see the temple and I was just really tired of all the walking and went back to bus. We had our reception dinner at the hotel and they put the red dot on my forehead and wreaths over my neck. The foods great and the manager came, he’s really friendly. This is the second day of India. Tomorrow we are going to the auto expo and it will be my first time to go to an auto show.