As I dive into the third week of my internship I am finally letting the fact that this will be the place I call home for the next 8 weeks sink in. The excitement of the unknown has slightly subsided and I am starting to get use to the way of “Indian life”. I have created my own little sanctuary in room 203 of the Silver Jubilee International Hostel. My air conditioned room, cable TV (only my room has cable and I am currently watching friends while writing this blog post),“American toilet” (as opposed to a squat toilet) and my shower that is a refreshing escape after a long day keep me humble and thankful for these simple pleasures. I am missing food from home at this point, a cheeseburger, salad and sushi have been my most recent cravings however I have brought enough snacks from home that I am not completely deprived from familiar food yet. Other then food cravings and obviously missing my family and Taylor I am really enjoying experiencing a culture completely different from my own. Throughout each day something will randomly hit me, and I will think “I cant believe I’m in India”.

Kylie, Peyton and I

This weekend Kylie, Peyton and I ventured out of Loni to spend a weekend exploring the Ajanta and Ellora caves. Our first weekend trip was an adventure to say the least! Our only struggle we had over the weekend was our driver because he spoke little to no English and had a bit of a wandering eye problem. Needless to say we have spoken to our director Dr. Soma and Mr. Nana (yes his name was Mr. Nana) will not be driving us anywhere again. As far as our hotel, food and of course the caves everything went extremely smooth. Our first stop was the Ajanta caves which date back to around the 2nd century BC to the 6th century AD and are among the earliest monastic institutions to be constructed in India. These caves were all intractly designed and constructed by Buddist monks who ate, slept and worshiped in these caves. After being deserted, the caves were reclaimed by the wilderness and were later discovered in 1819. We were told that when the Ajanta caves were discovered there were bengal tigers living inside among the ancient painting, carving and pillars. Seems like something that would be out of an Indiana Jones movie. These bengal tigers still live in this area and are sighted regularly around the caves in the evenings coming out around 6pm. There are 30 caves that make up a horseshoe-shape bordering the Waghore River.

Ajanta Caves!

At the lookout point!

On the second day of our weekend adventure after staying the night in Aurangabad we set out to explore the Ellora caves. However we first made a pit stop to visit the Bibi-qa-Maqbara or the baby Taj Mahal. After visiting this monument we continued on to the Ellora caves. Our previous day at the Ajanta caves completely exhausted the three of us and because the Ellora caves are spread out so far (some a coulpe miles apart) we decided to just visit cave 16 also known as the Kailasa Temple. This temple was breathtaking and is known as the worlds largest monolithic sculpture. The detail of the rock-cut architecture that was constructed over five centuries was like nothing I have ever seen and the whole experience was surreal. This rock cut temple was built by King Krishna of the Rashtrakuta dynasty in 760 AD and was built to represent Mt. Kailasa.

Bibi-qa-Maqbara (or the baby Taj)

Ellora Caves