By Erin Haley
After the conclusion of my internship about two weeks ago, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to different parts of India, including Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi. Jaipur was beautiful and offered many historical sites to see, the favorite of mine being the Pink City and Galtaji, also known as the monkey temple. I even got to feed, walk, paint, wash, and ride an elephant! (See the pictures below for the Michigan-inspired elephant painting!) Delhi and Agra were similar in the sense that each and every time I turned around, I seemed to find a new piece of historical architecture to explore, making for an activity-packed few days.
This was a nice change of pace from Pune’s modernity; as much as I loved the city I came to call home, it was admittedly very nice to explore a few new cities that had many historical sites. Further, I originally (and wrongly) thought that I had experienced the full culture of India simply by living in Pune. Now that I’ve travelled to different areas of the country, I can see that India is a mosaic of many different cultures, each city and state claiming its own traditions and foods. I hope I get the opportunity to explore new areas of India soon!
