Highs:
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shell hunting on the beach and three young boys jump in to help
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Learning how to make chipatti
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Communicating through charades and the belly laughter that follows
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Seeing all the colors people wear, especially the beautiful saris and kurtas on the women.
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Sari shopping with mom and getting the royal treatment because they brought out all the saris for us to look at
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Having time in the morning and afternoon to spend with the lord
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Having a western toilet when we were expecting only squats potties
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Chai time twice a day
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Meeting so many new friends
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Getting to hug my parents and welcome them dressed in my Saree.
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Riding in a tuk tuk with my parents for almost 30 minutes
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Being asked to take selfies with strangers and getting to see my dad relish in being asked for pictures
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Having an amazing Indian family take us in for the last five days and serve us American sized cups of chai and coffee
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Being invited back anytime to stay with my Indian mom and dad and sister.
Lows:
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the light not being able to turn off while trying to sleep on the sleeper train
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Having to sleep with the windows and doors shut because of bugs and modesty
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Swimming in your Kurta because of cultural norms and the weight of it makes the struggle against the current that much harder
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Running out of water when you are soapy in the shower
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Always forgetting where the ant colony is and stepping on it by accident and getting bit
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Only having small portions of chai. (I want an American portion please!)
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Only getting to spend 6 days with my Indian mom, dad and sister
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Our flights all being cancelled one day before we are supposed to fly out.
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Only 8 of us getting to fly out to Nepal on time and the other 16 humans on our squad staying two more days in India before meeting us in Nepal.
Bozos:
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you go to buy some kurtas from the mall and you get coaxed into paying for “gifts” that you didn’t want in the first place and it take over thirty minutes to pay because of language barrier. The funny thing is you end up needing that gift you didn’t want originally because it is soap and some oils 🙂
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Eating spicy curry when it is hot outside and your lips start burning because it is so spicy and your face starts to sweat
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Trying to pump water while the lid is on and not knowing why the water is not coming out
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Your entire team thinking you are getting kidnapped by a bunch of children but really mamma called the whole team to come over and you were the only one who heard her
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Being given many tasks without the supplies so you can’t work on any of them
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Teaching young children and they randomly get up and hit each other and not knowing how to tell them to stop
