Highlights from a traveler...

All I can say is that I'm excited to come back!

I have had some of the wildest months of my life, but its getting hot and I am ready for some good Canadian weather. I feel so good about my last three months of "research" (AKA traveling India looking for great places to visit and projects to volunteer on).

I often have to give myself a reality check about how different my life is in India then back home. I forget how crazy certain things were I first I arrived in India last year that seem totally normal now. Things like cows walking down main streets. Women in full beautiful sari's walking around the markets. People asking to have a photo with me every five minutes. Having fresh squeezed fruit juices and cane sugar juice on the streets. Religious men wearing nothing but a loan cloth. Festivals and parades on the streets every few nights. Temples and praying happening everywhere at all hours. Men trying to sell you things you don't need. Taxi and rickshaw drivers trying endlessly to get you in there vehicle. People stopping you just to shake your hand or say hello. These are some of the things I have become accustomed to. Some things I will not miss and others I will miss dearly. 

Everything Happens For A Reason

Eland Bronstein : Volunteer Relations Coordinator / India Tour Guide

One thing I am constantly reminded of on my journey is that everything that happens, happens for a reason. Sometimes we cannot understand this until much later after the fact, but sometimes the universe offers little signs to make us realize this much sooner. In this story I am about to share with you, the universe offered me many of these little signs. 

It was 48 degrees Celsius in Varanasi, the Holy City. We had been delayed to leave by one day due to overbooking on the train, but now we had our backpacks on and ready to go. After a long walk through the markets we were approached by many auto rickshaw drivers (as one always is while wearing a giant backpack). It's always a race to see which rickshaw driver gets to the tourist first in India.