Finally Here!

Hi guys!... I hope you haven't been waiting in anticipation for too long!  I am sorry I have not written on here sooner but the past 72 hours have been jam packed!... where do I begin!

Having booked with Virgin for their reliability instead of the dubious sounding Pakistan Airways or Air India, the flight was cancelled. We travelled around the runway reaching speeds of upto around 30mph before having to stop due to, and I quote from crazy passenger 'funny sounds coming from below the aircraft'.... I heard no such sounds.. but it got to the point where mass panic was about to take over, people had no idea what was going on and so started packing their bags and getting off the pane. Unfortunately one man sat next to Charlotte who no doubt was the starter of this situation and began to shout at fellow fliers, and Charlotte in particular 'we should all get off the plane, you should get off the plane, lets get off the plane'.. Our group however found this thoroughly amusing, with me at one point saying 'damn it I have paid for this flight, if its going down I'm going down with it' .... it was only when the pilot later stated that 'he would rather be down here wishing he was up there, than up there wishing he was down here' that I quickly changed my statement and packed my bags.

To put the rest briefly we then had a 2am picnic in Heathrow Airport with free access to costa coffee goodies, and then we were transferred to a 5* hotel.  Although it was around 4am we eventually got to this hotel there was no way I was going straight to bed when there was so much fun to be had in the room! What can I say, Virgin are pretty impressive! ... I'm talking tv's at the end of the huge king size bed, tv's in the bathroom at the end of the bath, lots of free products to use, a dressing gown and around 15 towels, which I made the most of and used all of them... its getting quite ridiculous when you decide to use a different towel for drying each body part, but hey, the rich must do it. I then settled in the bath and caught up on the latest corrie episode, poor Roy Cropper is having a few mother troubles.

So we caught the flight, and got to Delhi! The YMCA is pretty decent, on the condition you get the good half of the building which I did, although instead of a tv, the shower is well equipped with 2 buckets for washing. I am in a room with two of the best girls, Florence and Georgia, who have a pretty good sense of humour. Although the majority went to the protests last night, having had no sleep for quite a while us three went to bed......at 7.50pm, a good plan at the time, but not so great when you are up and ready for action at 3am. Next time I shall go to the protests. Everyone else came back at around 12ish and had a great time, some got so into it they are now just heading off to watch the man himself not eat some more in a park somewhere (not mentioning any names, Adele)

This morning we had 7am yoga... I have said I will stick with it, but I'm not sure yoga is for me in the long run, but hey, everyone, guys and girls from the programme were doing it, in a relatively small room, so it was an experience. Breakfast was then from 8-9am, with a choice of curry (which will also be the same curry served for lunch and dinner), toast, porridge e.t.c.. I stuck with toast. By 9.30 we had then all boarded a coach for a tour of Delhi visiting India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Qutub Minar and Humayun's tomb. Each one of the visits was more beautiful than the last. Due to being at an internet cafe the connector I have brought with me will not be allowed on this computer so I am not sure whether I can upload photos which I am a bit annoyed about, but what can I do?

We were also given a briefing yesterday. it is going to be pretty packed. today for example I had yoga from 7-8, then form 9.30-1.30 we were sightseeing, then back for an hour for lunch, and then lectures from 2-5 with Dr Ravi Chopra from the People's Science Institute discussing the Indian Environment and the Environment in Delhi. Just a few facts to chuck in here, 80% of people in India are living on 20Rs. (25p) a day, yet the Gvnt. say that the number of people in poverty are around 25%... dodgy figures I think?

There was also the argument about moving India towards a welfare system, and it has taken moves to reach that to create more balanced development such as village councils, with around 15% of these councils being represented by women, however the end goal instead of 'full welfare' is really more of a participatory democracy.

Anyway, more about the programme. Our itinerary is pretty full, for example (Wednesday):
7-yoga
8-breakfast
9-British Council
9-30-1The relationship between India and Britatin
1-lunch
2-3.30- India's pre-colonial history
4-5.30-Astronomy and Indian Heritage
6-5.30- dinner
7.30- depart for Dilli Hart


i.e.... little free time bar the weekends. Although I'm not sure anyone cares about that for saying just how amazing it is and how much fun we are having. These introductions are just for the first week however, as in the second week we will be at our placements which will be announced on Friday. They have managed to get some great places, however so I am pretty excited. Yet jealous at the same time as 15 have already been announced, and they will be flying to most likely Mumbai to have a placement with the huge corporation that is TATA. To be fair the students all seem to be able to speak a multitude of languages so I am sure they will be well suited.

I shall now love you and leave you even though I really could go on forever as Dinner is in half an hour and I really would love some time doing absolutely nothing!

Post a comment if you could, that would be great! Thanks!
xxx