A World Wonder

November 17, 2008 What did you do today? Oh, nothing much. I just went to the freaking Taj Mahal. We went to the Taj Mahal today. We had to get up early to meet our bus. It is a tradition for the women of the Social Justice, Peace and Development program to wear Indian Sarees to the Taj Mahal. We were up by 5:30am to figure out how to put them on. I really didn’t want to have to wear the thing but I didn’t want to break tradition. I wore it and I think that I actually looked okay in it. We drove 3+ hours to the city of Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. When we arrived in Agra, we were taken to a fort. I guess that I didn’t realize that we were doing more sightseeing than the Taj Mahal. From the fort we were able to get our first look at the Taj. It was awesome. It looked so amazing. I was getting really excited to finally get to it. I didn’t really pay any attention to the tour of the fort, because I just wanted to get to the Taj. When we finally left I was anticipating getting to the Taj. This was not going to happen right away. We were taken to a government store that sells marble statues. I really didn’t want to buy anything there. I sat around and waited to go. By the time we left it was lunchtime. I was a little frustrated that we still hadn’t gotten to the Taj and I thought that our tour guide was kind of a jerk. He wanted us to eat at an Indian restaurant, but instead several of us found a Pizza Hut. I had a chicken Hawaiian pizza and a Pepsi. How’s that for sticking it to him? After lunch, we were finally at the Taj Mahal. We got in a line to go through security. The women from our group got through really fast but the men took over an hour. While we were waiting for the guys to get through, people would come up to us and ask to take pictures with us. There were a lot of white people there, but I think that we drew a crowd because we were all dressed in our sarees. People would compliment us as they walked past us. It was nice to see that some people appreciated us wearing them. I finally felt okay wearing it. Once the guys were though we walked to the Taj. It was amazing. I have seen many pictures of this place before but none of them could ever compare to seeing it in person. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Everything about it was beautiful. It was one of those moments in my life where I literally didn’t know what to say about it. I couldn’t believe that I was standing in front of the most photographed and famous buildings in the world. I have been to the Eiffel Tour in Paris and I thought that seeing the Taj Mahal was a greater experience in my life. Maybe it is because I am older now, or maybe it is because of everything that has lead up to this moment. I wish that we had more time at the Taj to really look at it and get a feeling for what is around it, but we had to get back to the bus. This was an amazing day. I will take this day with me for the rest of my life and I will remember how being in this moment made me feel.