Will's Post-Trip Post :)

This trip to India was AMAZING! I would go back in a heartbeat!
We had lots of fun sightseeing.

On Monday we went to an Islamic Mosque, where Muslims go to pray and
worship, although a few people in our group were not allowed in the mosque
because they were wearing shorts, the Islamic faith has a very strict
dress code and if tourists are not dressed properly they are not allowed in to
see the mosque. The mosque is a very old building that was built hundreds of
years ago on a jetty that juts out into the Arabian Sea.
After that we went to a Jain Temple. The Jains are a group of Hindus that
are unlike most Indian Hindus today. The Jains never beg for money (They
feel that their gods will provide for them in their own ways), and the
Jains that have money give most of it to provide for the temple, they only buy what they need, not what they want. The temple was very beautiful, with many
statues of gods and elephants.
Then we went to Gandhi's house where he lived when he traveled to Mumbai.
The house is now a museum that has many pictures and exhibits on Gandhi and the work that he did while he was in India.
After Gandhi's house we traveled all the way back through the city to Juhu
Beach, Mumbai's biggest and most visited beach. We had an authentic Indian
meal of chicken masala, dal, and naan bread, and the best chocolate ice
cream i have ever tasted for dessert.
And finally we traveled back to the hotel. We were all so tired we all
went straight to bed and slept for about 10 hours!
But that was only the first day!

On Tuesday we took a ferry across Mumbai bay to Elephanta Island. This was
my favorite place so far! They ancient temple was very beautiful. The
temple was cut right out of the stone cliffs in the center of the island. Shiva
was the Hindu god that was worshiped in this temple, there are many murals,
rock cuttings,and statues depicting Shiva and some other gods as well. On this
island, monkeys can roam free almost everywhere. I have never seen so many
monkeys in one place in my entire life!
When we got back from Elephanta Island we shopped for the rest of the
afternoon. and returned to the hotel even more tired than we were on
Monday!

Wednesday was the first day of the conference. But today was also the day that i got sick! I think i got because i took my doxycycline on an empty stomach! i missed the tour of Mumbai with the other students, but kaycie said i didnt miss anything, except another chance to shop. That night we stayed with our host families, Ishan was our host student, he is pretty cool. He lives with his mom and their two servants. Their house is pent house on the first floor with a big terrace veranda and a view of the sea. that night i slept like a dead baby because my medicine that i was taking made me so tired!

On Thursday, i met my teammates in my group for the Flat Classroom project. Beatrice was from Korea Intl. School, Jeongmin was from Beijing (BISS), and Arjun from ASB. We had 3 virtual participants, Riki from Japan, Nancy from Madrid, and some girl from Germany. Our project was IMPACT, Inspirational Museum Promoting Arts by Children through Technology. I think we had the best idea, and the most votes for our pitch.

Friday was just another work day, we worked on our project all day and gave our pitch and moved on to the next round with Like-Write and AHA! teams.

Saturday was the bad day. we advanced to the next round and the finals and had to create a video about our project. we worked really hard until about 1:30 when all of a sudden... ALL of our work was gone!!! we dont know how it happened but it did so we were pretty mad! so we had to work really hard and almost didnt make the deadline! Our video wasnt as good as we wanted it to be but Beatrice is working on a revised version of it so maybe we can get more votes and possibly win and get our project made into a reality!!! maybe...

That night was the night we left for home. Our flight left at about 12:00 midnight from Mumbai and then we took a 15 hour plane ride back to Newark and then we returned home! the first thing i did when i got back to Camilla was go to McDonald's and get Big Mac!!! it was SOOOOO good. then i went home , took a shower, and then slept for about 12 hours!!

This trip to India was a once-in-a-lifetime trip and i enjoyed it very much! I learned alot about technology and education. Next year i plan to go to Beijing for the next conference! i hope to see all my new friends there next year!!

Thank you mrs. vicki and mrs. betty for taking me on this trip!!! I LOVED IT!!