+To start off, I got to RIDE an elephant! How COOL is that?!+
Just one year ago, I was embarking on the craziest, most exhilerating, terrifying adventure of my life up to this point. I was in INDIA! Yep, I said India. Like the country. It was the first time I ever used a passport! It was amazing, and I will cherish the memories forever. I will try and make this somewhat short, because I don’t want to bore you. But since I now have a blog, I couldn’t resist but share a few of my favorite pictures from the trip!!
This breathtaking journey was a 3 week agriculture based study abroad experience that 2 professors and 10 students attended from the Univeristy of Wisconsin- River Falls (the college I graduated from in May) attended. We were able to learn how different agriculture (and life in general) really is in a country that’s half way across the world!
We stayed in 2 larger cities, Bangalore+Mysore and also a smaller rural town called Sutur. India really is a country of the very rich and also the very poor+the class difference is something I couldn’t comprehend without seeing with my own eyes. We were able to see and experience everything from people living on the streets in dirt houses without shoes all the way up to touring amazingly beautiful palaces built for the richest of the rich in India.
The agriculture: this countries way of farmer is multiple generations behind that of the United States, but the amount of different things they successfully grow is amazing! India grows everything we grow here in the U.S., including almost every other form of produce you can think of! They are known for producing large amounts of coconuts, bananas, rice, coffee trees, peppers, nuts, and many more things.
The city: India’s cities are HUGE! The infrastsructure is not as organized and well put together as the U.S.’s+ there are so many more people in these areas so it’s difficult to get somewhere in a short period of time. But the action and liveliness is breathtaking! There is ALWAYS something going on. Whether it be a worship at a temple or a late night street market selling you anything and everything you could want to buy! The traffic is absolutely insane!!! No exaggeration there. It is not uncommon to be 5 wide on a 2 lane road, I kid you not. The honking is non stop, but it’s fun! We were able to take these tuk tuk rides and really experience the full effect. They are the yellow 3 wheeled buggies, it’s India’s form of a taxi! The drivers knew we were American so they made sure we had a great time! OH, and yes, there are literally cows that roam the streets of India freely, it’s very common to see them around!
The culture: India has a wide range of popular religions. The most popular being Hinduism, followed by Budhism, Catholicism, and Islam. It was amazing to visit the different temples/churches and experience the real+live traditions of them! We were able to learn so much more about the culture, mostly by asking questions of our different tour guides. Tea is a VERY important part of the day in India. It’s between breakfast and lunch as is usually served with cookies of some kind. The tea is absoluetely the most delicious thing you’ll ever taste. It’s a black tea with secret ingredients that I can’t dispose! But let me tell you, if you go to India, you NEED to try the tea. I’ll pop some more facts in to go along with the pictures below! I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the trip!
Disclosure: sorry for the quality of some pics, alot were taken through the window of a moving bus, but you still get the feel of it!
BTW: if you make it to the end, you’re a true trooper but if you do, you won’t be disappointed because I saved my favorites for last!!
Enjoy!
{Disclaimer: these pictures were taken before I considered myself a professional photographer and truly understood the art of photography}
+A cow on the streets of Mysore painted yellow for their festival+
+A very productive dairy farm, the farmer here has 3 cows and they are tied to on his porch. He also has a little over 2 acres of land and has something growing productively on every inch of it (peppers, tomatoes, coconut palm trees, ect). He’s considered a very successful farmer in India+
+Rice Combine+
+Traditional transportation pictured above and below+
+A common place to take a bath and wash your clothes, the river+
+A market in the streets of Mysore, it’s very easy to get lost because the vendors stretch around every corner and wind down every street+
+A traditional Indian, the roof slopes to the concreted basin to collect water from the rains+
+On the right, Amanda and I are wearing saris. A sari is the traditional dress that Indian women wear made out of silk. All of the different patterns are absolutely gorgeous!+
+A pile of nuts ready to be processed for fuel+
+One of my very favorite pictures I took+
+At least this girl knows to cross the street with the people!+
+These little cuties are all over the place!+
+Yes, they have McDonalds in India in the big cities+
+The gates to this massive government building+
+This gentlemen is squeezing the juice out of sugar cane and selling the cups of the juice for 5 rupees, the juice tastes better than the sweetest, fruitiest juice you can imagine+
+A government building!+
+This is how rice is grown!+
+Inside a Buddhist temple, the detail and gold work is astounding+
+A tradition of worship near a hindu temple+
+A modern form of transporting animals in India+
+This beautiful jewelry is made out of silk pods!+
+”Wanna race? On your mark…get set….”+
+We were all CRAVING American food so we decided to make a pit stop at the local Hard Rock Cafe in Bangalore+
+The Breathtaking Bangalore Palace+
+The inside of the beautiful Bangalore Palace+
+Zach hanging out with an indigenous cow and me by a baby banana tree+
+A meat market on the street, disclaimer: refrigeration is a scarcity!+
+When we left the hostel we stayed at, the ladies gave us flowers for our hair+
+The astonishing Mysore Palace+
+The Mysore Palace at night, there are millions of bulbs on the outside of it to keep it lighted at night+
+This is a coffee tree, India is the largest producer of coffee trees in the world+
+Getting Henna drawn on my hand, it lasted about a week and cost me literally pennies to get it done, Indian money is called rupees and 1 dollar was equivalent to 60 rupees when I was there+
+Relaxing by the pool at our final hotel+
+The remainder of the pictures are taken at one of my favorite stops. We stopped at a school where 5,000 children live and learn, all in one area. They sleep on little mats but they are the happiest children you’ll ever meet! They are just thankful to have a life and to be healthy, that’s all they could ever ask for. Here, they are gathered around the stage for their daily worship session+
+They all wanted to hold my hand, how precious!+
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