So now I'm sitting in a little internet cafe in Macleodganj, a town near Dharamshala in the Himachal Pradesh. It's a big change from hectic Delhi, because it's a lot more peaceful here. But before I get to today, I'll tell you a little bit more about my experiences in Delhi.

We ate lots of yummy food in Delhi, especially the stuff we had with Rekha. Rekha took us to her house one day and all the gappers sat down for beautiful breads, some dahl, chickpea thing and even a pizza. Ha. The food at YMCA was kind of boring, but now that I've made it to my placement I realise that it wasn't so bad...

We also bought heaps of cool clothes in Delhi, because we went to markets - which by the way are EVERYWHERE in this country. Little kids and people selling things follow you everywhere, hassling you to pay them, they "give you good price" haha. The thing in India is, people are pretty desperate for money. People will do anything they can to get money and will cheat you to get to it. As Rekha told us, tourists are merely people that the locals see as people to take advantage of. All they really want is their money.

A funny point in Delhi was our last night. Matilda (my gap partner) and I were about to head off to sleep when Dan, another gapper, came in and was like, "Uh, there is a Tibetan man down in the foyer who wants to see us". (it was like 11pm at this point). So we headed down and met with a man who was rea;;y nice. We ended up jumping in his car and heading off for a drink. He said on the way, "So would you like, Chai, or a REAL drink." I replied in a polite voice that we should go for a "real" drink. haha. So we ended up in a little restaurant bar, an empty one (social drinking isn't really done in India), and sat down to some drinks. They were actually really strong, and we ended up back at the YMCA at about 2am, maybe a little bit tipsy. haha. The car ride home was really funny though, because Phunsong (tibetan man who took us out) put on "My humps" hahaha and was dancing to it whilst driving the car. It was actually so funny.

On Saturday arvo we headed off for our bus to our placements. Rekha took us and gave us all a big hug before we got on our funny old bus to Dharamshala. At first we were rapped because we were the only ones on the bus. As we were leaving Delhi it was amazing to watch the people go about their day to day lives. One little boy selling books came up to our bus window selling books. I wanted to buy the book White Tiger off him so I yelled out "50 ruppees?" to him and he screamed some hindi at me which I assumed meant I could buy it for that price. The bus then pulled away and I hung 50 ruppees out the window while the little boy ran and kept yelling at me trying to hand me the book. The bus was too quick for him in the end. But in India people sell things everywhere just like that. About an hour into our trip we stopped off at a tibetan refugee village where the bus picked up a full load of passengers. Unfortunately this meant We had to spend the rest of our trip crammed in seats without seat belts, right down the back of the bus.

The bus ride was the most uncomfortable one I've ever been on, but also the most hilarious trip. There are a few funny things about India which just seem so bizarre and you can't help but just laugh it off. This bus ride was one where I would be trying to sleep, and then I'd be woken because I flew off my seat, up into the air because of huge ditches in the road. And we passed through the most strange towns, some quite creepy actually. I woke at one point to see a huge group of Muslim men wandering the steets, and people riding on crazy cars playing weird music. There were people wrapped in white sheets lying on a concrete slab and big signs with faces of Muslim Indian men. I also noticed heaps of fairy lights in all the towns we passed through.

We finally arrived at Mcleodganj at around 7am on Sunday morning, after a full on ride through the mountainous landscape. It was much colder than Delhi and we noticed lots of cows and stray dogs. We were all exhausted, cos the trip took 12 hours and I think I had about an hours sleep in total. A man, Migman met us at the bus stop and took us to breakfast. It was so peaceful and we sat down for a glass of boiling water (strange huh) and I had muesli. Everything felt a bit surreal, mainly because we were all so exhausted.

We headed for Tashijong after a few hours looking around Macleod. We went in a taxi, and I noticed that our driver had coloured chalk on his head. You see, yesterday was Holi festival in India, where everyone gets covered in colourful chalk mixed with water. I'm not even sure why...it's a hindi festival. So anyway, I asked our taxi driver if we could join in and next time we came to a stop he wound down the windows and two Indian men came up and smeared bright pink across mine and matilda's faces. Pretty cool.

We arrived at Tashijong after about an hours drive. It was pretty scary actually, because when we arrived the people didn't even seem to know who we were, nor did they seem like they were expecting us to be there. In fact, they didn't even talk to us, a woman just pointed and a whole group of monks laughed at us and pointed and stared. Soon we found out that some of the monks we on a puja and weren't able to talk that day.

After about an hour of waiting and wondering where we were going to stay and what the hell we'd gotten ourselves into, we were taken to a room which we would call home for the next few months of our lives. It was simple, but had three beds and quite a lot of space and a window looking over a playground where little monks were running around and playing. The monks at Tashijong are from as young as 6 years old.

We spent the afternoon feeling a bit worried about the whole thing. I felt pretty worried and really homesick, daunted by the thought of being there for so long. For dinner we had a simple meal of rice and dahl. The food seemed so odd, and didn't sit very nicely in my stomach.

We decided to have an early night, I think I fell asleep at about 8pm, and then I was up early today, at around 7, for salt tea. Salt tea is quite strange too.

This morning things took a turn for the better. I felt good because i'd slept so long and we were able to talk to some really lovely monks. One monk in partcular was really friendly and wanted to talk, and he could speak english quite well. He showed us around and showed us to a room filled with books and other things that the past gappers had left behind. I felt so much better about being at Tashijong and especially when I realised a past volunteer had left behind an essendon bombers footy. Haha. I will definitely have to teach the monks some AFL.

So Matilda and I decided to take an overnight trip to Macleod, because we aren't beginning teaching until wednesday. We took a bus and ended up chatting to two Indian boys on the way. One of them said I looked like Emma watson and gave me his facebook. haha. They also asked us if they could have a photo with us. It's funny being such a novelty to the locals.

Now I'm sitting in Macleodganj in an internet cafe. Tonight matilda and I are staying at a little hotel called Yellow house, overlooking the himalayas. It only cost us 5 dollars each to stay the night. India is ridiculously cheap.

I'm missing everyone, but now I'm feeling quite positive about the next 5 months in this country. Each day I don't know what to expect at all, which makes it exciting and an engaging place to be.