Journal 11

Dear Journal,

History is a very important aspect of learning about a different culture, and museums are usually a fairly good way of “seeing” history or at least items that represent the past eras. To learn a little bit more about India’s history, we went on a trip to Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad.

The Salar Jung Museum exhibits 40,000 objects originally acquired by Mir Yusuf Ali Khan, popularly known as Salar Jung III (1889-1949). Right away when we drove onto the property, through the gates and past the security, we realized that this was probably a pretty important collection. We walked through the museum for what seemed forever, simply because the museum was very big. The only thing I didn’t like and that I will never be completely comfortable with is people (well, mainly men) constantly staring at me. It just makes it so much harder to relax and really enjoy what you are doing.
The museum was interesting, but also exhausting, so after we had seen most of it we decided to go and have a cup of tea somewhere.

We decided to try “Barista,” which is a big chain coffeehouse (kind of like Starbucks in the States). Barista definitely has a western feel to it and right away we were greeted by a friendly server, who then directed us to our table. After one look at the menu, most of our group was pretty excited to get a “little taste of home.” I think it is funny, how simple things like a smoothie or a sandwich can make us feel closer to home. After we finished our snacks, we headed back to the guesthouse, where we celebrated Christine’s birthday with chocolate cake and tea (of course, more tea J). It was really fun to just hang out with the group and talk. I don’t really have any philosophical thoughts for the day, so I will just leave this as a pretty “standard” Journal entry.