New Delhi

We arrived in New Delhi yesterday morning at 3:30 - it was a couple of hours left. Even at 3:30, the airport was crazy. People were everywhere and outside there were taxi drivers going bonkers. The whole environment was overwhelming. I myself got a bit of culture shock just on the drive home. Outside, there was an eerie bit of fog, and it made everything look quite creapy. Not to mention the in action construction going on at the very wee hours of the morning. That was a bit odd.
The section of housing that contained our guest house was guarded by a gate, which was raised and lowered by a rope and three men sitting by a fire. As we pulled up, we got out and were greeted by the fellow who owns the place. He was nice enough and showed us to our rooms. The rooms were small and had two twin beds and a tv. We also got two water bottle size containers for water. The bathroom had a toilet, a sink, and then an odd sort of shower into the wall that had no tub or anything around it - just a large plastic bucket and the tile floor. To this moment I'm still not sure how to use the thing (and have coincidentally not showered since Germany... yummy).
We slept for a good 5 hours after that, and then rose for breakfast. The guest house served a good meal of toast, an omelet, some soup, and good juice. Indian breakfasts seems almost as good as German ones.
After breakfast, we went for a little walk around the neighborhood, and headed over to a park where there were supposedly free roaming deer and flamingos. We saw neither, but there were countless dogs and birds. We saw a few ducks and geese in this drained little lake, and that was cool. A few of the dogs were the cutest puppies I'd ever seen, just running around and playing. I was trying to think of a way to keep one, but to no avail :]
Walking to the park, we saw a few men peeing on the big wall that surrounded the deer park. There were these wet spots on the brick every few meters, and I was quite careful not to step in any of them (EEEEWWWW). There were also, ehem, many turds on the ground. Apparently public sanitation standards are different in Delhi than Lincoln. You can potty where ever you like, and just leave it there. That's got to spread disease!
After walking for a bit, we all walked back to the guest house and got inside our first official taxi ride. It was pretty wild. The driving here is nuts. There aren't exactly any rules that are followed. Lanes don't seem to apply, and the speed limit is the pace the rest of the cars are going. They honk constantly. Honking is apparently a tool used by drivers to alert those in front and behind that they're about to do some obscene move, and it's to give them a split second to react before they do. There are surprisingly little accidents :/
Once we arrived at our destination (the fulbright house where Wendy had her meeting), we went in and took a brief glimpse. It was this large, beautiful house in the front with a green yard in front and back. It also had a cafe and an office building in back. It was really nice. After meeting the fulbright fellow and what not, my dad, my brother and I left to go walk around a bit. We went to this center with all of these shops and an assortment of people present. There were american shops and odd Indian shops combined, and it was a complete scene. Upon attempting to withdraw money from an atm (and still not knowing how much a bloody Rupee was), we discovered that the atm likely didn't even contain more than $50 in USD - we only withdrew 2000 Rupees.
After that we walked back and hooked up with Wendy again, and went to dinner with our family and a fellow fulbrighter. We went to this semi odd center of shops and restaurants and we walked around a bit first. All through our journeys there have been beggers everywhere of course, but there was this really tall creepy guy that was especially scary (he only bothered my dad and my brother though, thank god). That completely scared the crap out of me, and I was in a funk after witnessing him in action.
We soon decided on a restaurant and went in. We ordered our food - Indian, of course- and ate. Most of the meals were quite spicy, and I had a bit of a hard time. In America I have no problem but here, the spices are a tad high for my liking. Even my lamb curry was too much. I ended up drinking a LOT of water. At the end of the meal, they brought each of us a small dish of warm water with lemon and rose petals to freshen up. It was a nice touch, definitely :]
Upon leaving the restaurant, we went to look for transportation. We all ended up taking a rickshaw - Greg, the other fulbrighter, took one back to the fulbright house. My family, all four of us, boarded one ourselves. As the ride proceeded, my water that I drank at dinner had caught up with me pretty quick. I had to pee really really bad. Our driver pretty much ended up getting somewhat lost on his way to our guest house, and that made my potty situation much worse. After the third time of him asking directions, I jumped out and convinced my stepmother to come with me so I could go pee. I ended up going in this parking lot with only a handful of cars on the perimeter and a few little boys playing. That made things a bit odd... I felt very much relieved after the fact, and was very glad I took care of it (even though it required urinating in front of a few little children). Our driver finally got us somewhat close to our house, and we ended up walking the rest of the way.
Once we got home, my brother and my dad walked around outside a bit more, and my stepmother and I stayed at home. I went to bed :] Very very tired, as I only slept 5 hours the night before. Jet lag and what not.
And so, here we are. Today I believe we're going to some craft museum with crafts from all over India, and maybe some shops again. We're leaving here on thursday to head to our home city of Baroda. I'm pretty excited for that - Delhi's a little too big for me.