This trip has been my first experience abroad where I am not traveling as a tourist. I'm not lugging around my camera and swimsuit while my American family and I look for a beach. Rather, I'm staying with a local family. I have found many advantages to doing so. This is better because instead of staying in a fancy hotel and eating at restaurants every night, I am able to experience the atmosphere and the conditions of an Indian family, and the daily rituals and customs that fill their every day. I am able to see religious practices, student life, household chores, neighborhoods, transportation and food. We are shown the little places in the back alleys that we would have otherwise never known existed. Not only is it a more realistic experience, but it is also quite safer and easier; our host families know what we should and shouldn't eat, and when they take us places, we are better protected and in places of familiarity. I have learned more about India through just living in a household than any book could have ever taught me, not to mention the relationships I've developed with the people here. I will be leaving this country with an entirely new family.
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