Stroll in the Park

After a fitful sleep on a brick-hard pillow, all the volunteers that had already arrived met for lunch at the Indian Social Institute where we are staying. This is a residential block with a canteen in the basement serving breakfast and lunch. We were given some cash on arrival which was four weeks worth of allowance to see us through dinners and travel expenses whilst on ICO (in-country orientation).

So meeting for lunch meant going done two flights of stairs to meet everyone in the canteen for, you've guessed it, curry. It was all vegetarian food with one type of curry, one delicious potato dish, plain rice and an amazing lime chutney which blew my head off and didn't compare to any I'd had in the UK. I'm going to enjoy this coming year.

We decided on a stroll after lunch and ended up in the Lodhi Gardens 15 minutes away from our new home. As you can see from the pictures, it's an impressive local park. From current volunteers' pictures that I have found on Facebook, it seems I will be here quite often. No complaints about that here. There's also a jogging track where we saw Indian women dressed head to toe running around. It is only about 30 degrees at the moment and I don't know whether people will run in the heat later when it gets over 40. Especially fully clothed. There's already talk about entering the Delhi half marathon next November and I'm planning my first run here on Thursday.

We are also based down the road from Mehar Chand Market and The Habitat Centre which is Delhi's answer to The Barbican in London. VSO training tells you to take your time in the first few weeks to get used to the area, relax and settle in slowly so as not to induce culture shock.

It seems though that Delhi is similar, in some ways, to other places in Asia. Much horn-honking, you need nerves of steel to cross the road and the food is great. If I get any form of culture shock I imagine it will be a bit later. And I am sure it will happen at some point however much I think it won't.