With only two more days in Manipal and just under two weeks in India in general, it is surreal to think just how numbered our days are. With finals done, I’ve finally had a chance to begin to process what this means. I have been thinking about India and Kenya since I got to college and I cannot believe this chapter of my life has almost come to a close. But more of those sappy goodbye sentiments later, because thankfully I won’t be leaving India right away. For the next week and a half I will be traveling with two other girls from my program in a whirlwind tour of Northern India. We will begin our journey in Delhi and from there we will hit the Taj Mahal in Agra before crossing Rajasthan, stopping in Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Jaisalmer along the way. And eventually it is back to the US for all of us.
In an effort to make use of our last few days here, Claire, Lauren, and I spent our morning in Udupi, eating the best buns and dosas and wandering the Krishna Temple complex. This was the exact same thing we did one of our first weekends in India. In a way this is the perfect conclusion to our time here as it represents the end of a journey the how our experience has come full circle. It is a way for us to think how far we’ve come in these past four months. To see how much we’ve learned and grown and how much we’ve become comfortable in this new environment.
Monday night we have our closing ceremony where we will thank all of the staff and faculty at Manipal for hosting us and working so hard to make our time here fruitful and enjoyable. There will be performances by students who took bharatanatyam dance classes and slideshows from our travel week. There will be a discussion on our public health field visits, a presentation on our art classes, and a time to share our favorite academic and non-academic memories. It will conclude with a shared meal and before we know it, it really will be goodbye. Early Tuesday morning we depart for the airport where we will scatter across India and across the globe and our chapter in Manipal will officially come to a close.
In an effort to make use of our last few days here, Claire, Lauren, and I spent our morning in Udupi, eating the best buns and dosas and wandering the Krishna Temple complex. This was the exact same thing we did one of our first weekends in India. In a way this is the perfect conclusion to our time here as it represents the end of a journey the how our experience has come full circle. It is a way for us to think how far we’ve come in these past four months. To see how much we’ve learned and grown and how much we’ve become comfortable in this new environment.
Monday night we have our closing ceremony where we will thank all of the staff and faculty at Manipal for hosting us and working so hard to make our time here fruitful and enjoyable. There will be performances by students who took bharatanatyam dance classes and slideshows from our travel week. There will be a discussion on our public health field visits, a presentation on our art classes, and a time to share our favorite academic and non-academic memories. It will conclude with a shared meal and before we know it, it really will be goodbye. Early Tuesday morning we depart for the airport where we will scatter across India and across the globe and our chapter in Manipal will officially come to a close.