My first day in India will be seeing the Taj and Agra fort. Unfortunately, my roommate was sick, and I wasn’t feeling well. We both woke up pretty late, and Neetu needed to bang on our door to get us out. The 5 left behind were pretty tired (I was one of them), since we arrived at 2 AM that morning to catch a little shut eye. We definitely slept on the way to the Taj Mahal. But when we got there, it was an eye-opener. The Taj Mahal is a double dome structure, meaning it has a smaller internal dome and a larger external dome. The Taj is the tomb of the emperor’s (Shah Jahan) wife, his most beloved wife. The pictures were perfect that day, and even after 400 years, this monument still stands with architecture still unknown today. India clearly had power at one point, and maybe they are taking it back.

The marble inlay factory in Delhi was equally impressive. Stones are sanded and cut by hand and placed in with “special glue” that does not fall off after a few years like other glues, or so the salesman says. Amazing enough, a single table runs for about $1000, but it is one of the most beautiful tables I have seen. I said to my colleague that I will get one when I have enough money one day. The colors presented were mostly dark: green, red, brown, and a dark yellow. From these plain colors, they were able to make floral patterns, animal patterns, spirals, squares, rectangles, triangles, and many other ornate patterns. Very amazing.