Lucy's Locale: “Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did now know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places.”

My time in India is becoming more and more exciting and fascinating. I and another student in my group, Jamie, did a home-stay with a wonderful older Indian couple, “Auntie” and “Uncle.” They were incredibly hospitable and generous. We went for walks, ate more of Auntie’s food than we should have, and just talked about our friends, families, cultures, and countries. I came away from that weekend feeling much more informed about this incredible country. This past weekend, our entire group went to the mountain city of Ooty. We visited two villages and visited the Mudumali Tiger Reserve where we took a South Indian safari through the jungle. We saw peacocks (the national bird), elephants, deer with the largest antlers I have ever seen, countless exotic birds, and more monkeys than we could count; one even jumped on the front of our bus and rode with us for a bit. We also visited the Fair Trade Nilgiri Tea Factory, were we got to witness the tea-making process. I am not a tea drinker myself, but seeing the fields of tea plants and the precision and care that goes into this industry (the tea industry constitutes a significant percentage of India’s economy) was fascinating.