I got the chance to be a tourist for a few days last week. The two med students, the therapist from Australia and I went to Agra to see the Taj Mahl and the Agra Fort. It was a long trip, but well worth it! We rode the train for 6 hours to Delhi on Wednesday night, then joined a tour group on Thursday morning that took us to Agra. We were on the tour bus all morning, then went to the Taj, ate lunch, went to the Agra fort and returned to Delhi arriving back at midnight. Then, we caught the 6 o’clock train the next morning back to Dehradun. The Taj Mahl is amazing! It took 22 years to complete and it is made entirely on white marble! For those of you who don’t know, the Taj Mahl is a tomb that was built by the king to honor his wife. Both the king and his wife are buried there. They carved very intricate designs of flowers, leaves, etc. using precious stones from all over the world! The Agra font was also pretty interesting. It is where the king lived (the same one who built the Taj Mahl). I will try to post pictures on facebook when I get the chance.
Nothing much exciting has happened since we got back, but last night we made Mexican food at one of the young couples’ house on campus. Celina, one of the med students, is mexican, so it was the REAL thing. We even had homemade tortillas!
Today is a big festival called Holi. Everyone throws powdered color on each other that is filled in a tube. Everyone said that it’s not safe to go out of the hospital because people get pretty crazy! But, we may have our own color-throwing party tonight at someone’s house on campus. It should be fun! I just hope that it washes off!
I leave the hospital this Thursday and will ride the train to Delhi. I will be in Delhi over the weekend and then my plane leaves on Tuesday. I can’t believe I am leaving so soon! It’s going to be very hard to say goodbye to everyone I have met!