The End of SIT

So it would appear that I never left Ahmedabad. That's false. I happily packed up my stuff and left on an overnight train back to Jaipur. and by overnight, I mean that it left at 5:30 PM and arrived at 2:30 AM. But like most trains in India, it left late so we assumed that it would arrive late as well. False. It was early. What?! Luckily I was having trouble sleeping and realized we were rolling in to Jaipur when I started seeing "Jaipur Junction" signs. So I harassed Andrew until he woke up & we jumped off the train and in to a rickshaw to the program center, where we slept in the meditation room. Where they had conveniently put two really comfy mattresses.

The last week in Jaipur was spent editing, printing, binding, turning in, and presenting on my ISP, which I never really wrote about on here. But basically, I worked with a fair trade producer group in Ahmedabad called Saint Mary's, and studied how the structure of their organization promoted peace & communalism between the different women that worked there.

Our program moved us to a super nice hotel for the final banquet and presentations. It even had a swimming pool & really great showers. I hadn't felt that clean since January. I started calling it the Jaipur Marriot because I felt like I was at the Palm Springs Marriott. It was actually called the Hotel Gold Palace, and its logo was a dollar sign. All the girls dressed in saris for the final banquet, and mine was definitely one of my favorite things I've worn. I wish I had a reason to wear it again. We'll see.


(we call this the "Mafia Family Portrait")

The banquet itself was really fun too. My host family was one of the first ones to show up and my host sister immediately told me it was time to "get the party started," so we went up to the DJ booth & she requested some songs & we went on to the dance floor. I had no idea she loved to dance that much! It was really great. The DJ's played a mix of Indian & American music but got super repetitive. At the very end, when all the host families had left and it was just us, someone requested "Telephone" by Lady Gaga and we all danced to that. Great way to end the program.

The next day we bussed back to the program center and had a re-entry in to America session, which really freaked everyone out. My friend Aviva and I were more upset, because we're both staying in India longer so are trying to avoid the "going back home!" mindset. Then we went around in a circle and said nice things about each other, which made everyone start crying, watched a slideshow from the semester, got funny superlative awards, and had pizza & cake for lunch. It felt like the last day of school for sure.

That evening Andrew, his friend from home, and I left to travel in South India. But those are different stories for a different time.