Reflection

Since being back into the routine of school, it's crazy to think that just two months ago I was preparing to go on this whirlwind adventure to India. Whenever I pass by others from the trip, we always smile at each other and jokingly say, "remember that time we went to India? Did that really happen?" The trip flew by, and I genuinely miss it--the people, sights, food, adventure--and would love to go back. It's come to the point where I make Indian food for dinner at least two times a week since I miss it so much!

Like I expected, learning about the culture in a classroom is nothing compared to being fully immersed in it. In my pre-trip perceptions, I wrote about how I thought there would be many populous urban areas but for the most part, it would be rural slums which was pretty accurate. I was surprised that the cities were not as built-up as I expected. There is still a lot of development going on throughout the country--even Mumbai which was the most cosmopolitan area we visited. The amount of poor areas was expected, but still a little shocking to witness firsthand. The contrast between wealthy and poor classes was much larger than I expected. 

I also expected that the presence of religion would be all over the place but that wasn't really true. Many of the museums and sights we visited showed the strong importance of Hindu and Muslim religions and the offices we visited had little religious sculptures on most desks, but it wasn't something that was everywhere.

Another thing I expected (thanks to the movie industry) was that there would be bright, rich, beautiful colors all over--and you know what? I was right on this one! Before the trip, I found and posted a bunch of pictures of India onto my Pinterest account. One of my friends commented on it by saying the pictures were beautiful, but that India wouldn't really look like that. Surprisingly though, for the most part, buildings, fabrics, and even trucks, were decked out in color.

After seeing the movie, Outsourced, I assumed the companies we were going to visit would be similar to the office in the movie--run down, small, with various technical problems--but that wasn't the case at all. Nearly every building we visited was very nice and westernized. Women mainly wore traditional Indian clothing and the desks were not personalized, but besides that, they all seemed very similar to offices you might see in the United States.

The office from Outsourced

A final perception I had back in December was that the culture shock from Outsourced (yes, most of my expectations are from movies) was over exaggerated. It emphasized the commonality of people and kids begging for money and food, mass amounts of people everywhere, and crazy driving--all of which were very accurate. 

All in all, I couldn't be happier about my experience in India. I can't imagine getting to know the country any other way. While it was a trip with constant moving, we saw so much from a business and tourist perspective, which I am so grateful for. I met some amazing people, saw breathtaking sights, ate the most flavorful food of my life, learned an overwhelming amount on outsourcing overseas, and learned some very unique beliefs that I have never been exposed to. It was the trip of a lifetime and our group was so blessed to have such helpful people leading us through it. I'm hoping an opportunity will fall into place in the future that will allow me to get back to the beautiful country!