Oct 28

           Today was the first day of our exchange trip to Mumbai. Although we arrived Mumbai at 1:00am and we didn't go to bed until 3:00am, I woke up early at 7:30am...which means I only had 5 hours of sleep. Still, I was really excited to get to know my host Parmangana's family and India. I had breakfast with my host family, and chatted with them about Mumbai, Indian food and their culture. I've learnt that Mumbai is actually similar to Hong Kong in some ways, for example the crowdedness, the lack of land, the British influence, etc. The religion, however, is completely different; Parmangana told me very interesting stories about their Gods.
           
           Then we went to a lunch meeting with all the host families and teachers. The restaurant-"The Village"-was a traditional Indian restaurant decorated to resemble an Indian Village with stands offering different cuisine from different parts of India. Although the flavour was very different from what we usually eat and some of them are a bit too spicy to our tastes, we all enjoyed the food very much. Four of us left early for Parmangana and Muskaan's football match-they won the semi-finals and had to compete with another J.B. Petit team for the champion. The game was very exciting and the other team won in the end. Throughout the day, I have seen the poverty of India and the rich British culture brought to the country during the colonial period. The architectures were very special and interesting as they were infused with both British and Indian cultures.
           
            After the match we went to the mall in High Street Phoenix for some (window-)shopping. The mall was very nice, and we went home after getting ice cream.
           
            We had theplas(thin pieces of pastry) and some other traditional Indian dishes for dinner. They were very delicious and tasty.
           
            After dinner we watched some tv(football, Manchester vs Chelsea) and then rested. This was surely a great day and I can't wait to see more of India.

--Yan Chan
28th October, 2012