9 January 2016

One of my professors told us before that when the previous group had visited India, the first day was pretty awkward for all the students involved. I think I should have realized that this probably wasn’t going to apply to this group that I had grown to love and appreciate. If there was any awkwardness, I think we all got over that very quickly.

These students were very nice upon us first meeting them. It was a little awkward of course with them just randomly joining in as we began our tour of the Holy Cross College. But once we got through the obligatory “Everybody go around the room and tell us something about yourself” part of the first meeting, things just really seemed to meld together. It was nice that our teachers matched us all into groups to see if there would be any way we could all connect on some common ground and I’m glad to say we all did manage to find something interesting to talk about among ourselves.

Despite looking like a total dork in this picture, I was just so happy to talk to someone about what I’m passionate about – my major. (I honestly hoped I provided some insight for her because she was a really nice girl and I get really excited about what I do.) After the ice breaker session, we had to eventually deviate slightly from our plans to ensure we could see certain sights.

We made our way to Heritage park (pictured at the top) and it was completely fascinating. All these tiny dioramas of actual sites to see in this particular part of India. My favorite part was the fact that both groups of students were just getting along so well that our teachers were able to hang back while we all kinda explored this little place together. It was nice to see some of the places they had intended to take us a little bit more along during the trip, but more than anything I just enjoyed feeling like a normal student again. Having laughs with friends, new and old, and even going to that one temple where we all made wishes (I may have almost done it wrong but my friend corrected me about halfway through).

Our last stop for the day was going to see the Border ceremony. This part of India was right next to Bangladesh and apparently there’s a regular ceremony at the end of the day where on both sides of the border, the dressed up military-esque people take down the flag and people from both sides get to wave at each other at the end of it. I think the fascinating part of this was just the whole idea of how there’s bone-heads like the great Trump-kin who wants to put up a wall at the US borders in some vague attempt at border control. It’s just like that part of Looney Tunes when Bugs Bunny keeps drawing the line in the sand where Yosemite Sam just easily keeps walking over it.

These borders are just lines and we’re still all people. Man made these lines that divide us. We’re still all trying to tell the story of humanity together, no matter what part of the world we may be in. If I learned anything especially today, it’s that we aren’t all that different from each other. These two groups started off awkwardly and then were all singing and joking around together by the end of the night. If humanity could just remember to keep these good parts going and not foster a society of ignorance towards others who are different, just imagine what this world could be like.

I don’t know, it was just a really good day. Til next time!