I can’t believe that the second portion of our trip is already ending! With just over a month left in India, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on Chennai, as well as hope to get as much as I can out of the trip from now until December 6th, when I depart.
During our time in the state of Tamil Nadu, located along the south-eastern coast, we were not only able to explore Chennai, but also visited Pondicherry, Auroville and Thanjavur, giving us a glimpse at south Indian culture outside of Chennai. 
While in Chennai, however, we had many incredible guest speakers, including a couple of my favorites, tamil poet Salma, and tamil journalist Kavita Muralidharan, attended a classical indian music concert with the famous singer T.M Krishna (who also came to speak for us!), experienced tamil cinema-going, and took classical indian dance classes, just to name a few things.
As far as the city goes, Chennai had its ups and downs for me. While in Delhi, I think I took for granted the complex metro system and it’s “women only” cars. I felt very safe taking the metro in Delhi, and though I never took it alone, it gave me a certain sense of agency to be able to get around the whole city so easily. Chennai does not have a metro system yet–except for one line which is pretty far away–which 
made it much more complicated to get around. This forced us to learn the basics of taking the local busses which was good and helped me out of my comfort zone, but which also was harder to navigate and understand than the metro. Another difficulty we ran into was just knowing what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go–basically what existed or what we could feasibly get to. I did have some amazing experiences, one being a visit to a shrine during the day, where I and a couple friends were welcomed into the ceremonies. Though only one man there spoke english, everyone there was so excited to show us what they were doing, and to let us watch–knowing that we wouldn’t know what to do, instead of skipping over us for certain rituals, they walked us through the steps. After the ceremony was over (it was a food-offering ceremony), we believed it to be our time to depart. As we started to put on our shoes however, people started fussing, gesturing us back. I was nervous that we had done something wrong or 
disrespectful, but we quickly realized that after the ceremony, all the people who had attended were fed and ate together! They gave us little bowls made of big leaves, full of foods (grains?) which I had never seen before, and we stood around with all the other people, eating with our hands. We couldn’t communicate in words, but the whole experience was filled with gratitude and a welcomed feeling.
Bay of Bengal, Chennai, India
Another good part of Chennai was the proximity to the ocean! Our hotel was only a 10 minute walk away from the beach! While swimming here is not really customary, it was still extremely refreshing to be able to walk to the beach, watch the waves, clouds, and wade in a tiny bit (the water was ridiculously warm!) There was also something relaxing about the coast after so long of being in crowded cities where the sprawl and noise and bustle seems endless. Just knowing that there was an edge, that I could see physically where it all stopped and became totally calm, instilled a sense of security in me.
Last, but certainly not least on the list of great things in Chennai,… the JUICE STAND!!!! Located just below our hotel was a little food-cart type stand where you can order fresh smoothies or juices for just about 1 U.S. dollar. If you come on this program, I highly recommend that you visit the juice stand an chance you get! You will not regret it. Ive overcome my hatred for bananas while in India, and got a banana pineapple smoothie almost everyday, except for when I got date, fig, banana. I highly recommed either and all. (I am in fact sipping one now as I type) Yahoo!!
However, overall I would like to express the gratitude I have for my peers and leaders here on this trip. This Chennai segment was rough, both in feeling a bit less able to move around, not knowing what to do, dealing with difficult themes and situations, and have had some very emotional discussions. And theres a certain slump that came with it being the middle of our trip. We’ve been wearing the same couple things for almost 2 months, eating the same kinds of foods, growing our body hair out and living with new people. I am proud and awestruck with everyone here, as well as grateful for their support. Without turning this whole post into a sappy love letter, I wanted to conclude with this, as not a day goes by here where I do not think about just how much I have learned academically as well as personally and emotionally from each and every person on this trip.