Journal 9-3-2010

Journal 9/3/10

This morning I woke up at 6:30am and went for a run with Matt. Matt has been running every day we have been here at ICSA. I think that I will try to start running every day also. Running in India is a very interesting experience. In the early morning people are awake and doing all sorts of work getting ready for the day. As a result, the street is quite busy with people. But, there are only a few cars and auto rickshaws. This is really nice because it allows you to run in the center of the street. We only have to run on the street for a short distance, probably about 1/3 of a mile before we get to the Police track. Once we get there we can just do laps. Today we did 16. The Police track is a very odd place to run because it is so dilapidated. Last night it had rained, so today a whole curve was under water. On the other curve there were 3 giant sinkholes that were fenced off with rusty yellow roadwork fencing. We avoided all the obstacles by going around them. When we were about halfway done, cars began to arrive and park on the track.

Later in the day we went to a Hindu temple. Which was an amazing experience. Hinduism is very different from other major religions because it has roots dating back to 1500 BCE. Making Hinduism the oldest major religion. Hindus also believe in many gods. Ill skip the details and get to the pictures.

This is the Main (Front) entrance to the temple compound. Once we were inside the compound we were not allowed to take pictures. So regrettably I have no pictures of the deities or the Hindu priests. This Entrance is HUGE it must be at least 8 stories tall. It is also incredibly detailed. Every inch of it is carved with figures of gods, prophets, saints and sacred animals. This temple is over 500 years old. A neighboring temple is around 1300 years old.

This is a bathing area at the back entrance to the temple. Until recently, people used it to bathe before the entered the temple. It was closed by the government because the steps leading down to the water are slippery and people kept falling into the very deep water. This pool is also huge, probably the size of 4 football fields.

This is the smaller rear entrance.

The streets around the temple are filled with neon lights and vendors. It is very beautiful at night because the whole area glows.

Katie and Leah got their first bindis (the dots that Hindu’s put between their eyes).

Later that night we decided to go out. We went to a very nice hotel that is a couple blocks away from ICSA on the way to the track. We accidentally stumbled into an all male (really lame) bar and were immediately asked to leave because the girls were with us. Then we went to the rooftop restaurant and had some food and drinks. It was expensive, but it was a nice place to be.

I also got to talk to Claire on my cell phone for the first time!!!!!