Cold weather but a warm welcome

I know England is freezing and I should have been used to the cold, but I was expecting India to be warm and its not! Its very cold in Delhi and strangely foggy which creates an eerie atmosphere and you can't see beyond your immediate surroundings. The dramatic thunderstorm we awoke to this morning was even more strange for the this time of year, glad I'm not up in the mountains!

Because all the buildings are built to keep you cool in the hot weather, the climate Delhi sees for most of the year, its very hard to get warm. You end up wrapping up in a million layers and looking really silly. Looking forward to traveling further south where it is warm and sunny!

Although the weather was unexpectedly cold, we arrived to a very warm welcome. On arriving at the DIA university in Delhi we were welcomed with vermilion bindhis on our foreheads and gifts of roses, we felt like royalty! We were later told that guests in India are treated as if they are gods - they definitely show this and always make time to look after you and make sure you are ok. Such a nice change from the too busy English!

Our first day was spent seeing sights around Delhi, the mughal forts and ruins. Much of the day was spent driving. DIA is situated in Noida, a seperate suburb of the city. Getting anywhere takes ages normally with the traffic anyway, but they are building a tram line and many of the roads have diversions. There's enough entertainment on the roads of India for it not to be boring though!
The sights were very interesting although hard to concentrate on the history when being followed by gawping men, making us feel more like celebrities being papped than royalty. We could not understand why. I was quite used to it having spent time in India before, but the rest of the girls didn't know how to react feeling a mix of amusement and anger. I think a group of young western girls is something of a novelty for them! You find yourself in a culture clash, the boys pointing camera phones in our faces without asking, trying and failing to be discreet, and us being too polite and English and too embarrassed to tell them to stop. You end up just laughing it off and accepting it is just a massive contrast in culture and we'll never completely understand each other!

The business and craziness of inner-city Delhi knackered us enough to get a long well needed sleep last night. I'm now ready to start on work. Although, the students are holding a welcome party for us today...
I can tell I am not going to get as much done as intended, it never seems to happen in India, too many unexpected surprises!
Funny Indian quotes:
'I'm no ordinary man', 'I make you happy, you make me happy' - tour guide at the Red Fort