Rise and shine, my curious friends!

This morning, I woke up realizing we were already 2/3 into the trip. We all got ready and ate our breakfast, which was bread and butter with a banana. The hotel was surprisingly quick with our breakfast compared to our first incident. The breakfast wasn’t filling, but it was enough. Right after, we met our guide, Golu, and went to Raj Wada for our first landmark of the day. We also learned that Kaelyn was our leader, replacing Jennifer!

We stopped at a random street where Kaelyn instructed us to follow her to Raj Wada. The walk took about 10 minutes through a market that was opening at 11am. When we arrived, Golu explained that the previous landmark, Lalbagh Palace, was the home of the last daughter of the king of that landmark. Her name was Devi Ahilya, which was also the airport’s name, interesting…! We explored and learned about Naraji, the god of dancing, also known as the destroyer. People would ask him to cleanse the evil spirits, and he could fulfill those requests by dancing. The destroyer also had a third eye, which he used when he danced and which represented his rage. His outrageous dancing would cause earthquakes and possibly make the world collapse, and he couldn’t control it. So the people intentionally put a baby on the floor for Naraji to step on and realize his mistakes, which would make him calm and close his third eye. There were two floors to explore, and we entered Devi’s worship room with her bedroom above. We then entered upstairs, where there were sculptures of Hindu gods with beheaded heads. When muslims wanted to conquer Hindu, they forced Hindu people to destroy  their gods’ heads so they could convert to Muslim and if they didn’t, they would be beheaded themselves. We explored and learned about the saree machine, where workers would work on sarees with very specific designs, and it would take an average of 20 hours to complete one saree. After exploring the Raj Wada, we walked back and discussed our plans. We decided not to go to a restaurant but instead to a coffee shop for light food.

We pulled over by Namo Sandwiches, where we were able to get some snacks such as chocolate sandwiches and different drinks. For instance, Amelie got an Oreo shake, a luxury drink with whipped cream on top, Oreo pieces sticking out, and a shake on the bottom. We all were able to taste a bit of it and it was delicious. After that necessary stop, we drove for like 5 mins and arrived at the school for the second time in a row.

When we arrived, the boys and I were split up from the girls for unknown reasons. We were led upstairs to the filmmaking room, where we were given tunics to change into. Our tunics were very nice and good quality, too. You guys might not know, but tunics are pretty hard to put on as they are very small and don’t provide a lot of space either. We then led to a classroom where students were already there. The teacher opened our Texas School for the Deaf website and called Sean to show him where the international studies page was. The students were very eager, and Antonio and I took over to pick which day they wanted to watch for our vlog. We ended up showing yesterday, Holi Day, and Jaipur Day, and they were very curious. After a while, we were taken back to the girls' area, where we would be split into groups for our activities with the students. I ended up with Madison, Amelie, Kaelyn, and Ciara. We went downstairs, but dropped the split plan to collaborate instead. The first game we played was This or That, where we asked questions like tea or coffee, south India or north India, and math or English. The kids seemed to enjoy it. The next game we had was Bear Hug, where we had to hug a certain number of people based on the number mentioned. Most of us were talking with students who were grouped with us. We chatted about our schools, how different America and India are, etc. After that, we had the chance to get our fingerprints taken and sign a tree, where we were also offered coffee or tea. I learned that the IDBA’s tea, which was so good, was made from boiled milk, black tea, and sugar. Simple as that, it is still one of the best and most comforting drinks in the entire trip. After that, we were also allowed to change out of our assigned clothes. It felt a lot better to take off our clothes because it was fuming hot under my tunic. After that, Antonio and I went downstairs to chat with the students more, and we also shared a lot more, including artificial intelligence and NASA. Neither of us realized we were supposed to go to the office to chat with the president and founders, so we went later and missed the good stuff. We still learned that we received a gift from the Indore Deaf Bilingual Academy: letters and comments inside a book, with our signatures and a tree too. The comments they made for us were really nice and touching. We definitely enjoyed reading every single one. The staff then led us outside once again to take pictures, where we also got our individual handmade portraits with all of our faces and bodies, and a touching letter in the back of the paper. We also collected books, pencils, and stickers to give out to the students, but we ended up giving them to the staff, who would give them to the students tomorrow, unfortunately. We were still able to chat a little and take pictures with students who were really disappointed to see us leave. When we left, we didn't realize that the founders’ house was across the street, and our guide’s wife’s parents are the founders too! We quickly left for the airport because we were supposedly running late.

When we arrived at the airport, we collected our bags and checked in, only to find out that we were early for our flight, which was almost two hours later to Kolkata. We were disappointed but still happy since we were able to get food from a nearby store. I got bread omelette and fresh watermelon juice. The omelette was very delicious, decorated with green onions, jalapeños, and tomatoes. After we got our stomachs full, we used the extra time to work on our journal. One piece of advice for all of us is to always use our extra time for journals, since it is our first priority when it comes to daily chores. Anyway, we got on our flight at around 9:40pm and departed at 10pm. The flight was almost two hours long, and we landed at around 12am. After a while, we finally landed in Kolkata, our fifth city of the trip!

Kind regards, Huey Zhang