Adventure!

Hello friends! I've slacked so far on a blog post, so I figured I better get my act together. I've taken 374 pictures so far on the trip. I'll share two with you in this post.

There is so much to share, but I'll try to share a few stories that have been unique to my own experience so far. I've been fortunate enough to have several little adventures, while small, packed full of excitement. On the first day here, a few of us took a small car to Commercial Street. My first experiences of Bangalore in the daylight were sitting in the hatchback of the car because there was no room in the front. To experience the crowded streets of Bangalore from that position was very exciting! Commercial Street

itself was also an adventure. I'll show you:

Yesterday, we took a group trip back to Commercial Street. On that trip there was an incident in which someone needed to get their money back from a purchase, so I and one of our gracious guides stayed behind from the group to argue for the money back. I listened to a whirlwind of arguing in Hindi, but finally we were able to get the money back. Then, we took an auto-rickshaw that was under the payroll of a store. He offered a trip for only 10 rupees back to the seminary but then stopped halfway to take us to the store. We ended up finding a different auto, but the whole thing was very exciting. Just zipping around the city in the auto is fun.

This afternoon we went on a little adventure for soda. The train station across the street has a little shop that sells it. Once we got back to the seminary, I set up my own shop to re-sell the soda for 2x the rupees! (of course I'm kidding)

On several occasions we have had beggars approaching us on the street. The poverty is heart breaking but perhaps most heart breaking is the children.

I'm very glad I've had opportunities to get out and about. So far, everything has been wonderful here, and a whole ton of fun. Everyone we meet is very friendly and welcoming.

Dr. Sebastian promised me monkeys tonight, so stay tuned!