Arrival.

I met all of the other students on my flight as we got off the plane...we more or less congregated in a slightly-scared-and-out-of-place group. The IES people were late, but we were waiting for another flight with two more students, so we just hung out near customs. Delhi was orange and foggy/smoggy (we're not entirely sure how much of each) last night, so it was kind of strange. We took two cars back to the residence, and the drivers were huddled around us begging for U.S. dollars: "Please, just one US dollar! Please, dollars!" "Please, ma'am, I carried your bags and I have a bad back, your friend gave him money, please ma'am, any money you have..." and on and on. No, sir, I carried my bags, and you lifted them 18 inches off the ground to put them in the back of the car. Oy. 

Reeta, one of the IES people, yelled at them and they stopped asking for money.

The house here in Neeti Bagh is pretty (but DUSTY!), and we have a park across the street, though we have to walk around to the other side to enter through the gate. There's a guard right outside our building as well as at all three gates to the neighborhood, and two out of the three gates are closed and locked at night. There are four floors to the house. The basement is a rec room/lounge area, the first floor has the dining room plus four bedrooms (one of which is mine), along with the kitchen we do not have access to (there's a full time cook). The second floor has a center room with a big table for work or whatever, with four additional bedrooms. The third floor is the terrace, as well as the bedroom and office of Parul, the residence coordinator who lives here with us. 

I woke up this morning to much noise from lots of strange-sounding birds. It's beautiful and sunny here, and the fog cleared up quite a bit this morning. Apparently today was the sunniest day Delhi's seen in over a month. 

My roommate's name is Marie, and somehow her luggage ended up in France even though her travel route was the same as mine (Boston-Newark-Delhi). She's from New Hampshire.

Reeta told us last night that nothing was planned for today and that we could sleep in late, but not too late....breakfast was at 8 a.m. Sorry, but that is not sleeping in. Breakfast was toast and fruit and hardboiled eggs. And, of course, tea. We have the tiniest tea cups I've ever seen. I may have to see if I can find a large one I can buy sometime in the next couple days.

We went on a grand adventure today to find cell phones, which was only partially successful. Apparently in order to activate a SIM card and get a number, one must have a copy of one's passport and visa and a passport-sized picture. Cate, the director of the program, said that everyone always wants pictures when you're doing anything. It's kind of strange. Anyway. After the half-failed adventure we came back for lunch (a delicious spicy-ish veggie soup, grilled cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, fruit, and guava juice!) and had a mini group meeting. The guy who was supposed to bring over our booklets with our schedules and stuff never showed up, so we didn't actually do much. Reeta negotiated a deal with the guy she buys her cell phone minutes from, and he's coming over in a little while with our SIM cards and contracts.

We walked around Neeti Bagh and the surrounding neighborhood for a while this afternoon, and I got a delicious iced mocha for 57 rupees. It was wonderful. Tonight we have a big Indian welcome dinner at the Neeti Bagh Club on the other side of the park, which they won't really tell us about. I guess it's a surprise.

IES classes don't start until January 26th, so we've got a pretty long orientation and a couple field trips before all the work starts. It seems like we've got a good group here, and the people who signed up for homestays are going to be here in the group residence for the next ten days, which will be nice. Everyone's really excited to be here.