Chandi-chandi-chandigarh

Well I am now in Chandigarh, in northern India, in the Punjab region. Chandigarh is interesting because it is a planned city. After the Partition, the capital of Punjab was a part of Pakistan so they had to come together and make a new capital. To do this they employed Le Corbusier to design the city. It's so different from Delhi. Delhi is crowded and, well, crazy. Chandigarh is segregated into different sectors and the thought behind it was to make each sector self-sufficient. It's been interesting because we only had one day of class (we arrived by train from Delhi on Thursday night) and then we've had the weekend so we haven't had too much background info on this city before we have been able to go out and explore. Autos are different here and it's a bit harder to catch one (and figure out where to go). I'll do a mini recap of what I've done so far:

Well our hotel is pretty nice. Air conditioning is key because it is so freaking humid here. On Friday we took a bus tour of different areas, including the parliament and other official designed buildings by Corbusier. The symbol of Chandigarh is the open hand, to represent that it is here to give and receive and that was also Corbusier's idea. Sadly he had constructed an open plaza right near government buildings as a place of open forum and debates but because so many assassinations have taken place (car bombs etc) there is such heightened security everywhere that most people can't get in. We had crazy amounts of documents with all of our information to get cleared to go in and we still couldn't get into to some places. By this time we were all dripping from sweat. We are all trying to get used to it but it's just not natural to sweat this much (even for me!). So the hotel is a nice sanctuary.

After the tour we had lunch outside the architecture college and then went inside for a series of 6 lectures on Chandigarh. It was pretty interesting with a lot of information thrown at us in a short amount of time but we had some good speakers. I'm intrigued to see how our other classes which start tomorrow show us Chandigarh. I think we have some sort of site visit planned soon so I wonder what we will end up seeing.

The past two days have been free. It's been nice to sleep in and have everyone in the same hotel. Our homestays in Delhi were really nice (I love my family and will see them again at the farewell dinner) but it's nice to just lounge around in each other's rooms and find everyone easily. Some people planned a trip to Shimla, a city near the foothills of the Himalayas. I would have loved to see the mountains but it seemed like too short of a visit to go too far away. I think my body needs the rest to get over being sick, so I opted out of it. I haven't had much of a conversation with anyone who has went yet but I hope I don't regret not going. I've convinced myself that I will be back here so I'll come when I can spend more time up near the mountains. There is so much more I want to see that I would regret not being able to spend the small amount of time I have in the place that I am.

Yesterday we went to the rock garden in Chandigarh. It was so cool! I'll have to get some pictures up here soon so I can show you guys the depth of the rock garden. Also our booklet doesn't tell us much about what it is or how it was made so maybe I can get some more information too. Then we went to the lake where we rented a paddle boat and boated around. Everyone was paddling up to us to ask us where we were from and we were definite celebrities, getting our picture taken everywhere. It was nice to just be in a small group (there were 4 of us). I do enjoy the entire group but moving around in a smaller group is much easier and more enjoyable (especially bc they are also the people I feel closest to so far on the trip).

Today's been chill. Very relaxing and classes start tomorrow, which is crazy. This whole trip is moving so quickly, I dunno if you all feel that back at home. I can't believe that we leave here on Thursday and then leave for South Africa in a week. Earlier I was feeling very overwhelmed that India has flown by. I haven't taken as many pictures or bought many things at all!! In the beginning I just wanted to take everything in and now I realize that I didn't have enough time to really do that so I feel this pressure to go and absorb everything quickly. Also my sickness has been a deterrent from feeling my best (after my fever had an infection in my mouth that wasn't good at all). Pictures have been very upsetting because they warned us not to take too many and to be respectful of the people/places we are taking pictures of but I feel like because of that I don't have any pictures of everyday life in Delhi. I'm determined for the few days when we get back to take as many pictures (respectfully of course) as I can. Same goes for buying things, the time to look has passed and now it's grab and go time! Ha.

Ok, I guess that's it for me for now. I'll try to put up pictures soon.
xoxo
Lizzie