The world around me

Well..to be honest...Agra is not part of my "places to live". The thing is that it is so different from Mumbai, which I completely loved!You cant go out after sunset, people are cheating you a lot as they are used to having rich tourists around, but for some reason they are much staring at white people then in Mumbai...but on the other hand I have lots of nice people around me.

Being in the CC is kinda like international conference, but it is different, cause the friendships are staring building, and i am sure that IC will be unforgettable experience for all of us....hehehe..all of us cant wait fo IC to start, but one big reason is Jaypee Palace...which is like a castle...when you enter the hotel you feel like a real indian Maharaja:) Some CC members already made a count-down calendars:)

The first week working for the CC was quite relaxed as the core CC wanted us to get used to new environment, and to be honest we probably really needed it:) So the first week was more or less about getting to know each other and getting to know India and Agra and the basics about IC. Next week will be already working week...cant wait to start:)work is getting excitingggg:)

Can someone send me some nice dumplings and some meat from praha??????i am mising czech foooooood:(:(:( cant wait to see someone from Czech...hehhehe...and so do Lucka and Evka...our most common topic is czech food...hehehehe

First bonding with the CC...56 CC members

Today was forst oficial day with the CC...getting to know each other, IC overview, eating first dishes from our lovely cooks(very good btw, and not spicy).
CC team is from 32 countries, so you can imagine how diverse it is....dont have much internet access, so I wil definitelly write more later....going for our first partyyyyy:):)

Reached Agra

After 22 hours on train in second class, non AC I successfully reached with Sarah to Agra. I guess I should have read something more about Agra before, cause in my imagination it was big city....well now I feel like in a village and to be honest I am missing Mumbai...I miss the rush, rickshaw with music, the stalls everywhere...but I guess it is all about getting used to some place, and I am sure I will get used to Agra as well:)

We were with Sarah the first teamsters who came to Agra, today evening and tomorrow the rest will come from Delhi. After arrival we had nice dinner on the roof of the hotel we are staying in with a view on Taj Mahal (cant be better:))

Mumbai…a place to live in

Spending 25 days in Mumbai made me realize that it is really the place to live in.
Transportation is very easy, even it takes long to come from one place to the other, but that’s cause Mumbai is so huge, but otherwise you are not bored at all while traveling. Usually you take a rickshaw and that’s experience like being in Disney park:) As the road are not perfect…you just jump all the time(I ate in rickshaw just once, and never after … hahaha, cause it is like eating on roundabout). The best is that when you are taking rickshaw you say the place you want to go…and either the rickshaw guy will be silent and move just a bit with his head = meaning that you should get on, or the guy will start speaking in Hindi = meaning never sit, cause he is not sure where to go, but he would love to take you around:)
Then you usually take a bus…that’s another experience. You have to be careful cause the number of the bus is written on side at the back of the bus (in front it is in Hindi) and you need to act fast:) Bus comes and you just jump on as fast as you can, then you say to the conductor where you want to go and give him money (he will be speaking to you again in Hindi, and he usually doesn’t understand English). So if you ask him to tell you when you should get down…he will answer five sentences in Hindi…so then you just gave up and start asking people around you…it takes time till you find a person who speaks English, but as you ask so many people everyone on bus knows where the white girl wants to get down, so you don’t need to worry that you will miss your stop, cause when approaching all people around you will start shouting at you the name of the bus stop:)
Then you usually take a train…. Mumbai’s trains are world known btw:) It does not really matter if it is rush hour or not, cause it is always packed, the funny thing is that you can buy on train whatever you wish…necklaces, whatever for your hair, some small stuff for your kitchen, food, snacks. Woman sing on train….it is real fun.
So even though you travel about hour and half to your work... It is good fun, and you are never bored:)
City is so diverse!! You can find the most beautiful buildings and slums next to it. In case your umbrella breaks or your shoes are not good, you can have it repaired in few minutes on streets. You find people from different religions, different origins, social status, different amount of salary…muslim woman covered in black, Buddhist monk, poor mum feeding small kid, beggars without legs or hands.
Somewhere I read that India has a special smell...before coming I didn’t know what to imagine under that “special smell” and now I know… It is hard to describe, cause the first day you take it as stench, the second day you get used to it, and I guess when you are leaving you start loving it:) and when you come back to your home country you miss it.
I think that people here are more relaxed, better businessman… they can sell you anything, their marketing strategies are just awesome and sweet…I love it!
Someone told me that people in India are more helpful...well…not on fully packed train:)there you can be even slapped or thrown out of the train.

Leaving Mumbai....bye bye mood

After 25 days I am leaving Mumbai tomorrow afternoon, and I am going to Agra to start working with the ER team as teamster at IC:)
Those 25 days were trully amazing experience for me...got to know so many new people, so many different personalities, got to know about myself so much, challenged myself in many ways. I just wanna thank to AIESEC Mumbai for hosting me, I spend one of best days in my life here...full of exploring..every minute was like getting to knwo something more...it is just cause the countries are so different.
Now I am moving on with my indian experience and I am going to start something completely new...Agra is like a different country for me, moreover working with many internationals...not like in Mumbai just with indians...so it will be change for sure:)

Life in Mumbai

IMGP0251
Originally uploaded by dankina.

Lovely animals:)

IMGP0257
Originally uploaded by dankina.

Feeling sleepy?

IMGP0258
Originally uploaded by dankina.

Sunday Beach

IMGP0267
Originally uploaded by dankina.

Would you like to do some shopping?

IMGP0287
Originally uploaded by dankina.

Old Parsee Man

noldParseeMan
Originally uploaded by dankina.

Jana(german trainee), Nick and Vaithegi(canadian CEEDers)and our new friend from Hnaging Gardens. That is the man who is 86 years old and who travelled to over 100 countries. I just loved the conversation with him!

Street

Street
Originally uploaded by dankina.

This is street in Kalbadevi...for some reason there is only just half of the picture..but at least this:)

HajiAli

HajiAli
Originally uploaded by dankina.

This is the mosque:)

Hali Ali

HajiAli1
Originally uploaded by dankina.

Finaly I am posting also some pictures from India. These were taken n sunday during our sightseeing in Mumbai. This is the way to mosque which is on sea.

Spent amazing sunday

What a sunday!!!!!!!!

In the morning when we woke up with Vaithegi(CEED from Canada, now staying with me in indian family), it took us a bit longer to get ready, then we had breakfast and realized that we are 45 minutes late for our meeting at Charni Road with Nick(another canadian CEEDer). It took us one hour and half to reach the meeting point...poor Nick and Jana(trainee from Germany) were waiting for us on platform in heavy rain for 45 minutes with empty stomacs. We went for quick breakfast and decided the plan for the day.

We took a taxi from Charni Road to Mumbaidevi Temple(the taxi guy took us a bit round..as usually)...when we reached the place we saw a crowd who tried to enter the temple so we gave up:) then we walked for about an hour in Kalbadev, which was amazing experience, just to see the life there, streets full of shops, some guys doing some performance with snake and small girl....then we reahced Victoria Terminus and took a train to Mumbai Central and went to see Haji Ali Dargah...it is a mosque on the see(awesome)...soon i will post some pictures, then we chilled out at Subway(yeah...am europian afterall) and then we went to see Mahalaksmi Temple and then took a taxi to Hanging Gardens, where we just chilled out and spoke for about an hour with one 86 years old man, who have been to over 100 countires, whose honeymoon was on motorbike going from Mumbai to Sri Lanka for two and half months...what a great discussion we had with him...about second world war, religions, cultures,....

Then we met one guz who is coming to Hanging Gardens every day and feed two dogs there with two packages of biskits..very sweet:)

Then we saw a beautifull Chaupatty Beach in the night and came back home completely dead:):)

I just loved the day!!!!

Finaly some update about me

the problem is that i dont really have access to internet, so it is hard to keep you all updated about what i am doing, but I will try to do that now:)

AIESEC Mumbai:
I am already 18 days working for AIESEC Mumbai. Mainly I am helping with recruitment(setting up the selection criteria, member education and induction, AIESEC promotion at universioties, selling forms to those who are interested in joining AIESEC Mumbai) and then I am changing a bit teh LC structure(implementing team leaders system here, training the teamleaders) and the last thing is working on SN side(implemented new way of assessing students who want to go for internship, sharing AIESEC Prague's SN preparation system and other stuff).

Mumbai as a city:
After being two weeks here I started sightseeing(really bad I know). So I saw the area around Churchgate(hundret times),Gateway of India etc. Yesterday I went with Evka Skokankova to see Babulnuth Temple and Hanging Garden...that was very nice:)
for more see:
http://www.bombay-india.net/attractions-of-mumbai.html
Mumbai is chaotic, loud, lots of traffic, lovely, full of polution, dogs... I feel like in Prague here already...familiar with places, know how to get from one place to the other.

My next plans:
On next friday i am leaving mumbai and i am going with Sarah(http://sarahrenfer.nomadlife.org/) to Agra to start working in ER team for IC 2005 as a teamster.

Great partying with the Duke...Mr. Bachooalli

Yeah...finally after one week I managed to go out with KB.
First went to Coffe Day ...as we realized that we live just 5 mins from each other:) and then we went partying to some club in some hotel...please dont ask me for the name...all i know is that in the hotel there was written: Our midnight menu will take you over the moon....or something like this...HAHAHA.
I was drinking my first Kingfisher(indian beer)...well....czech beer is czech beer...:)
Thanks KB for awesome evening, I really enoyed it....dancing on all those hindi songs....was fun!

I HATE MOSQUITOOOOSSS

i guess my repelent is just making me more tasty for mosquitos, cause they really really love my blod...it is ok unless some of them have malaria...hopefully not, but they are really irritating me!

Apart from mosquitos who make my life here more hard I am doing completely fine, busy with work, loving family where i am staying, travelling already by myself:] learning a bit of hindi(cause the bus conductor does not understand me, and that is THE MAN i really need help from always)...so for me the most imporant question to know in hindi here would be:"please let me know when I should get off".

The most unbelievable thing for me in India:
train arrives at the station...all people get off and on the train like it should live in one second(i have never experienced such a croud)...and then the train waits about one minute, noone is getting on the train...and then leaves...i feel like shouting always:"Dont you see that here is enough space for everyone, so you dont need to hurry so much!!!!!!"

The funnniest thing which happened to me:
i bought a sim card. the first day it was not working at all, the second day i could call the customer service, the third day i was able to do outgoing calls, the fourth day i was also able to receive calls and some smses which were two days old reached my inbox, the fifth day i could respond only to smses which i got, but not write new messages. Now after one week it is almost working...apart from some problems with smses:)