Our first experience of the real India.

The majority of the next 4 days in India were spent in a conference room during our ICO (in-country orientation) apart from one morning spent on a tour of old Delhi, which was our first experience of real life in Delhi. We gathered early and headed to the nearest metro station where I first realised that being a female here is very different than in the UK, as the girls were split up from our male teammates and had to queue separately to get through to the platforms. I was also surprised by the level of security as we passed through a metal detector, scanned by security staff and had to put our bags through an X-ray machine. Going through security barely added any time to our journey so I find myself wondering why the underground in London doesn't have such levels of security. Comparing the metro to the London underground was rather surprising. The metro is cleaner, cooler and much more spacious than the underground, plus it's a lot less confusing for a rookie to get from A to B.
In old Delhi we were taken on a tour of the history and architecture of the area. We visited Jama Masjid mosque, one of the largest mosques in India which was stunning, yet pretty hilarious, as the inappropriately dressed western tourists were forced to wear floor length hospital-type gowns with garish childlike patterns printed on them in bright blues, pinks and yellows. They were utterly hideous. It just goes to show that being respectful pays off in many ways and we all felt more than a bit smug with our shawls and full length trousers.
Next was something I'd been looking forward to since I found out that I was going to India. We tried our first street food. We crowded round tables of curry and some fried breads -Poori Aloo. This food was full of flavour and spice and was so much lighter and fiery than our hotel food. We were surprised to hear that the national volunteers found the food very spicy whereas the majority of the international volunteers, myself included, found it amazing! We then headed back to the hotel for the rest of our training.