We Went to the Taj!

We have a new addition to our family! Miss Juls Lutz is from Idaho and has graduated high school early to come to experience India for a little over a month! :)

She just got here less than a week ago and we have already had so much fun together! I'm so thankful to have her here and excited to experience new things with her! Her dad, Doug, made a short trip out here to see her off and has adopted me as his other daughter. Not legally, but spiritually haha.

We finally went to the Taj Mahal! It was better than I expected and we all had so much fun! It is absolutely gorgeous and I'm glad that we got to go. The only thing that I didn't enjoy was the car rife there. Usually, people would take a train or bus, but we drove. Why? Because we do what we want. Just kidding ;) So driving there is supposed to be shorter, but it definitely wasn't. The way there took a little over three hours and he way home took more like five hours! There was a total of eight if us that went in the vehicle. The girls got the very back, which wasn't a very good idea. Every time we went over a bump we caught major air and by the time we got home, our tailbones felt bruised. Next time...train it is.

When we finally arrived, we were greeted by several boys trying to sell key chains, post cards, and a variety of other things. So from our parking spot to the actual entrance of the Taj was a little less than a mile, so what do we do? Ride a camel to the entrance of course!! That was my first ever camel ride and it was so much fun! Hemet really needs to get on that. The camels had a covering over their mouth to keep them from spitting on people, which was a comforting thing to know.

Once we got in, we were amazed at the beauty. We got to feel the 100% white marble building with our bare hands. We also had the opportunity to walk inside the Mosque that is just on the other side of the Taj and that is where all the fun began. Marshall and I were observing the ceiling and noticed a swirly type of design that was in the shape of a circle. When you see something like that, what would be your first reaction? Ours was spin in a circle as fast as we could while looking up at it and then stopping abruptly without falling. We did that a few more times until we felt confident enough to go show the others. When we went to go show everyone else, they wanted to try it too (who wouldn't?). The guys said that the girls ( Janna, Juls, and myself) should have a contest of who could spin the fastest and then stop without falling. I definitely lost. Long story short, I spun the fastest, but was the first one to fall. Not only did I fall, but I ran in to the wall on the way down. Mike got it all on video and I'll be sure to put it up when I can. Haha.

Oh, I forgot to tell you..The guys brought home flowers for all girls a few nights back, so our house is filled with the sweet smell of flowers! There is a flower stand down the street from our apartment and every time we pass it, I always say, "Look at all the pretty flowers". So they stopped at the stand one night an brought us all flowers! Isn't that the sweetest thing!? :) It's the little things that get me. Haha

We finally have our dryer fixed after about two weeks of not having one. That was a pain. I never appreciated having a dryer as much as I appreciate it now. It wouldn't be so bad if it was warm outside, but it's cold, so nothing ever dried.

On a more serious note, this Friday, Juls and I are going to start our first craft class with the Burmese Refugee children and the Ragpicker children. We have been discussing ideas of what kind of crafts to do and are excited to get the class going! Every Friday we will be in charge of the class and the craft and we can't wait to get started! This week the kids are learning about the different kinds of rocks, so we are going to have the kids paint designs on rocks. We are going to try and incorporate their lesson for the week with the craft we plan. This Saturday we are going to go to a girls home that is about an hour away to have a Hawaiian Party. As I type, Juls and I are brainstorming inexpensive ways to make this party happen. So far, we have come up with a few games and and decorations. One game is going to be "hot coconut" (like hot potato, but with a coconut) and a gift that we are going to give the girls is going to be flower bracelets that we are going to make. I'll be sure to let you know how the craft day and the party go!

Monique