Welcome to India!

We’ve arrived in Delhi. After flying from our respective U.S. locales, we all met up in London on July 1st (with the exception of two of us, whose flights were canceled and then rescheduled) to fly on down to Delhi, the capitol of India. It’s been awhile since I’ve spent THAT many consecutive hours on a plane and while I can’t say I loved it, I can say I was incredibly happy to arrive safely and without any hiccups other than swollen feet and ankles. (Note to self/others: Compression socks are great, but ya still gotta move on these long haul flights). We arrived around 11AM, did the airport stuff, and met Rajesh, our fearless leader while in Delhi. We then departed for the hotel, where we unpacked and enjoyed a delicious Indian buffet lunch. We will stay here for five nights where we have busy days planned that include visits to a variety of school settings (rural, urban, government, private), meetings with Department of Education officials, stopovers at cultural, religious, and historical sites, and briefings to get us ready for our field experience break out locations. I will blog about these comings and goings during our “down time for blogging” time blocks. Lastly, while we’re laying low in the hotel for the rest of the day, the few observations I can make about Delhi, as seen from a van window, are these: Delhi is big and crowded (we knew this, but still, nearly 20 million people live here; it’s just on such a different scale than cities back home); it is incredibly hazy, dusty, and hot during this time of the year, which is noticeable from the plane (the hazy and dusty part) and the minute you step outside (the feeling of getting hit by a wall of heat part); and it is full of incredibly interesting sites just on the road from the airport to the hotel alone — lots of military officials in fatigues stationed around, various grand government agency headquarter buildings, monkeys casually chilling on trees and fences, rickshaws sharing crowded multi-lane roads with giant buses and passenger cars alike, and some beautiful monuments. I’m very much looking forward to getting out to explore (while walking incredibly slowly so as not to pass out from the heat) over the next several days!