Day 7 - Taj Mahal and Agra Fort

AGRA
On Saturday (19th November) we were exploring Agra. We have been to Taj Mahal which was built in memory of one of the Shah Jahan's wifes. Inside of it there is her grave. Taj Mahal is very beautiful and all made of marble.
We had a great time there and took a lot of pictures!

After that we went to Agra Fort, which is a former imperial residence of the Mughal Dynasty. It was very interesting place. Here are some pictures.

Than we came back to the hotel to have a tasty lunch and came back to Gurgaon to our families.

Text and pictures by Weronika Stolzman

Day 1 of 10 (They have arrived…)

They arrived! The wait for over a month to meet our Polish friends came to an end. Waiting at the airport at midnight was not tiring, may be because we were super excited. Seeing our friends coming through the airport exit gate was one of the happiest moments. Hugs and smiles were  shared and the photographs  were clicked, we did not want that moment to end. Everybody was introduced to each other and each of our Polish friends met their host families. Veronica met her's i.e. us and we headed back home with her.
We brought her back home. I had made  rangoli on the  doorstep to welcome my friend . Veronica handed us the gifts she brought for us from Poland. After the excited meet and greet, we caught hold of our beds and fell asleep.
After a good sleep, our first day together had begun with masala tea and biscuits. For breakfast we had Aloo Paranthas and Omelets. Fed and freshened we were ready to take Veronica out for her first day of sightseeing.  We took her for a small family gathering and then went for a tour of the Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate followed by street shopping and dinner at the centre of the capital city – Connaught Place. We got updates on Shubhangi and Carolina's attempt at getting mehendi put and Julia,Ania and Paulina visiting the Ambience mall along with Filip, Jeremi and Denis for couple of rounds of ice-skating.  Abhya took Gosiato for a visit to the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara and Humayun's tomb. Back home after a fulfilled day, we're off to bed looking forward to tomorrow. Day one was a great one.

Text and pictures by Apurva Giri Sunder

Get Set Go….. (2nd day)

Today we all met at Dilli Haat and went for a shopping spree.  There were varied and colourful items, which were eye-catching. The students wore traditional Indian clothes like kurtas and lehengas. The highlight of the visit was application of Mendhi at Dilli Haat. As it was Guru Purab (a Sikh festival), the students took their partners to the Gurudwaras to celebrate the occasion. The Polish students experienced their first auto rickshaw rides today, which was  fun. Lunch for all was Gol gappas and Puranpoli ( Indian snacks).
After lunch, some of the students went to India Gate others to Hauz Khas Village and Connaught Place. Some students took their partners to a nearby village to see the crops growing in the fields.
Visiting these new places was a fruitful and a learning experience for all. On the way back, many of us travelled via metro and clicked lots of photographs.
It was a tiring yet an exciting day for the students!

Text and pictures by Khushi Boken

Day 2: Dilli Haat

After having traditional Indian food, parantha for breakfast, which is  a kind of bread stuffed with mashed potatoes, 

we went to Dilli Haat via auto rickshaw and metro.

On the way to the metro station, we saw a lot of street vendors selling fruits and vegetables,
which was unusual to see, because they carried the products on carts.

We also had an opportunity to enjoy the view of beautiful landscape of Gurgaon.

Dilli Haat is very colourful and loud, full of life and bargaining! On the way to Dilli Haat, the host families taught us about bargaining and that “if you like something, go away!”. The place is full of shawls, handmade paintings, diaries, traditional clothes, and  a lot of shiny little things, which were very attractive and drew our attention.

  It was also possible to get your name on a grain of rice.

As soon as we reached the place, we were attacked by a group of women, asking if they could braid our hair with colourful threads.

Then we saw a man painting a very old form of art, which was interesting to see, but the painting itself was very expensive. The painting showed an Indian goddess named Kali who was standing over a demon with her lion. It showed that she is a powerful goddess and can easily kill a demon.

Later when strolling around the bazaar, we saw a woman who was an astrologist. She was using a laptop, which was amusing to see since we don’t find modernised fortune tellers in Poland!

Also, we saw some fennel seeds, which Indians use as mouth fresheners, which is a quite different approach to plants.

It was surprising to find some space at the back in the otherwise packed bazaar.

It was time to go back home and have dinner with the family. Afterwards we went to an Indian sweet shop where we got gulab jamun, kalakand (on the photo) and rasgulla. All of which are made of dairy products and sugar. 

Some of us got our first mehendi (henna tattoos), which look really beautiful. Interesting fact about the tattoos is that they are light at the beginning, but then get darker after a day or two.

It was a memorable day!

Teacher's life (first two days)

Teachers stay at the guest house of the Delhi's Public School in Gurgaon. First day, that was a short introduction to Gurgaon which is famous place for both Indian and International companies. Every big firm should have an office here.

First selfie at Cyber Park Gurgaon (pic. A. Twardowska)

They spend first day sleeping and visiting New Delhi. India Gate - iconic monument of capital city was the second stop. It is famous picnic area for all New Delhi's citizens as well.

At the India Gate ( pic. A. Twardowska)

India Gate is nearby Indian goverment prominent offices (pic. A. Twardowska)

Suddenly they go to Janpath Road, which is famous shopping area (not only for tourists) near Connaught Place. Connaught Place is a good example of British architect's planning and it's still financial centre of the city. Anyway, there were no shopping becsuse of money shortage in ATMs.

The second day was dominated by temples. There was local gurdwara - Shikh's temple as a first one. That was becasuse of Guru Nanak's birthday holiday on that day. And it was opportunity to discuss different aspects of Indian religoius life as well.

At the beginning of Sih's holiday ( pic. R. Uliszak)

Hidu temple was the next one. There were a lot of different parts dedicated to different avatars of God. That was a lessonn especially about hinduism.

Atmosphere was so excited, so we decided to take a selfie with Hanuman (pic. R. Uliszak)

During the next stop there was an opportunity to meet all Polish and Indian pupils and discuss first impressions about our visit. It was the first place to do some shopping as well. Some gifts were bought. Some hands have been painted (unfortunately not teacher's ones).

Sooo nice :) (pic. R. Uliszak)

On the way back to home one of the oldest Delhi's centers were visited and learned a little bit of Indian history.

Another historic place, another possibility to take a selfie (pic. A. Twardowska)

Hauz-Khas was developed in 14th century, but now it's popular picnic area for younger generation as well (pic. R. Uliszak)

This day was so full of emotions and great feelings. The end of such day could be organized in one way only - Bollywood film ;) Bollywood is probably the most common aspect of modern Indian culture which is easy to recognize all over the world. We can't miss such opportunity...

"Ae dil hai mushkil" poster (pic. R. Uliszak)

Thank you Mamta and Renu for such a great introduction to historic and living India!

Day 1: Flying to Delhi

Our story begins in Balice Airport at 4:20 a.m. on 12th November 2016. After checking in, we took off to Amsterdam. Me and Karolina Giza were asked to change our seats and there was a fuss about putting our hand luggage into a shelf above heads. During the flight, it turned out that I'd lost my passport and flying tickets which I'd had with it. When we landed and people began leaving the plane, I started looking for it, but I couldn't find it! Me, Karolina, Mrs Twardowska and Mr Uliszak were very stressed. It turned out that Karolina accidentally (or not? 😜) had taken my passport and had put into her pocket.

Then, we had an hour for ourselves in Amsterdam airport. Most of us went to Starbucks. After second checking in, we were given an immigration paper to fill.
We took off at 11:20. During the flight, we were doing a lot of things, for example sleeping, watching cartoons or films, listening to music, etc. Finally, we landed at 23:30 in Delhi and we met our Indian families. It was really exciting! Our Indian partners had prepared some posters with "welcome" in Hindi and our names. It was very kind. That was how our adventure here began :)

PHOTOS WILL APPEAR SOON.

First "where is my passport" panic is just behind us. We are on our way to AMS-DEL flight's gate at the Shiphol airport.

Pic. A. Krzemińska-Kaczyńska