Sorry for the late post but I have had an absolutely insane week! After last week of not doing too much, it was important to me that I made sure to get out and see some sights along with going back to working everyday. I bought paints and brushes and canvases to bring to the elderly home and for the last few days we have all been painting together, which has been absolutely wonderful! As much as I love it there, it can be very hard because the people who live there speak very little English and we can barely communicate without help. Art is so universal though, and I feel like I’ve gotten to know them better through their paintings than any of our short conversations. The shelter is amazing as always, there are so many new kittens and puppies to take care of everyday, and the monkeys are creeping closer to their release back into the wild!! The troop of adolescents that I have been watching over since I got here is closely bonded now and will be able to take care of each other, so soon they will leave the animal shelter and hopefully live long happy monkey lives. Also during the week I went to see the city palace (Hawa Mahal) in the main tourist part of Jaipur! I had an afternoon free and I went by myself, saw the palace and museum and got lunch on my own! It was beautiful and had such amazing history.
This was only my week though, as this weekend I went to Jodhpur with my friend Erin!! Jodhpur is the blue city of Rajasthan and it’s known as a tourist destination for the beautiful city center, forts, and palaces!! We left on Friday afternoon, and went by train, so it took about 6 hours to get there and we went straight to our hotel to get some sleep. The next morning, we first went to Merangarh fort, which was so beautiful and historical! It sits on an impressive hill overlooking the city and it is so historical as the central point of the city. We got lunch and wandered around the clock tower market, which is basically the main bazaar of Jodhpur and sits next to a historical clock tower which was so gorgeous. That afternoon we went to a white marble palace next to a lake called Jaswant Thada, which they call the Taj Mahal of Jodhpur. That night was halloween and we went to a nice restaurant and just hung out to celebrate which was lovely! Sunday morning, we walked through the Mandore gardens, which have cenotaphs and temples from 12-1300!! We also went to the current royal palace of Jodhpur, a small section of which has been turned into a recent history museum about the maharajah. We went back to the hotel for a quick rest, and I even finished up a few college apps! That night we went to go see the stepwell in the city center and have dinner overlooking the fort, because they light it up at night, it was so stunning and amazing! Obviously we had a great time and I got to learn so much cool history about a city I never knew about!! This week is Diwali so look out for my next post all about that!
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