Hello from the (steps of) the Himalayas

Greetings from the verdant green and fresh air of Mussoorie! It's cool and clean here, and there are trees and green cliffs and hillsides all around us. Mussoorie is a former hill station of the British Raj which now has multiple convent schools and a major Hindi language school, and the landscape is absolutely beautiful. I feel almost like I'm home in Washington!

Yesterday afternoon I caught the train with two other students from Lucknow, and we took an overnight train to Dehradun, leaving Lucknow around 5 pm and arriving in Dehradrun around 7 am. On the train we were in "Third AC class," which was quite comfortable and clean. Managed to find one's bunk and make sure that no one else is occupying it can be a bit of an adventure, but we managed it and then took up residence with the three of us sitting on a bunk, looking out the window, and chatting into the night. Come time for sleeping, the benches fold down into narrow bunks, and we were each given two linen sheets, a flat little pillow, and a heavy red woolen blanket. I wasn't expecting to get much of a night's sleep, but I actually got around six to seven hours, though I woke up and was disoriented a time or two. We were pretty much surrounded by families traveling together, so the environment was comfortable enough. Using the train bathroom was a bit of an adventure that I hope not to have to repeat too many times (standing toilets + wildly swinging bathroom car=excitement!) but I survived unscathed. :p

Having arrived in the hustling and bustling transit city of Dehradun, we were very glad to be with our experienced Mussoorie traveler friend, who knew how to navigate the crowds and catch a shared taxi up the mountain to Mussoorie. The drive takes about an hour, winding all the way through the hills until we truly arrived up in the clouds.

We are currently at our other classmate's wife's place, though they are about to leave on a hike, and then we will venture off to explore town. Tomorrow or later this afternoon we should be meeting up with two other students from the Urdu program who will be heading up here with a personal car and driver.

A few pictures from the ride up:

From Mussoorie

''

From Mussoorie

From Mussoorie