![IES Banquet All 23 members of our amazing IES group at our Final Banquet.](http://blogs.iesabroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phillips.delhi_.crew_-150x150.jpg)
![Navdanya On my post-program tour, I stopped first at Navdanya, the seed-saving farm organized by activist Vandana Shiva.](http://blogs.iesabroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phillips.delhi_.navdanya-150x150.jpg)
![Camel Fair After visiting Agra again, we went to the camel festival in Pushkar!](http://blogs.iesabroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phillips.delhi_.camelfair-150x150.jpg)
![Pushkar Temple The city was overrun by people coming to the fair, but was also filled with small sanctuaries and quiet temples.](http://blogs.iesabroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phillips.delhi_.pushkar-150x150.jpg)
![Udaipur Lake Our next stop was Udaipur, a stunning city that has been nicknamed the Venice of the East.](http://blogs.iesabroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phillips.delhi_.lake_-150x150.jpg)
![Udaipur City From the City Palace Museum, we could see the entire town.](http://blogs.iesabroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phillips.delhi_.udaipur-150x150.jpg)
![City Palace Night By night, the City Palace itself looks incredible from across the lake.](http://blogs.iesabroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phillips.delhi_.citypalace-150x150.jpg)
![Kerala We also took a short break to visit the backwaters of Kerala in southern India.](http://blogs.iesabroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phillips.delhi_.backwaters-150x150.jpg)
![Isckon Temple Mumbai Finally in Mumbai, we had an interesting (but entertaining!) stay at the Hare Krishna Temple guest house.](http://blogs.iesabroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/phillips.delhi_.mumbai-150x150.jpg)
Sitting in snowy Minnesota, jet-lagged and catching up on all the holiday preparations I missed, this past month already seems more than a lifetime away. I spent the first few weeks with my mom, who came to join me on a DIY tour to visit Gandhi sites and NGOs around the country, then two weeks with my cousin, who had taken time off to come visit me. It was a busy trip, but it gave me the chance I needed to reflect on the semester and still experience more of this beautiful, insane, culturally rich and complex country.
In some ways I feel like I slept through five months and dreamt it all. To quote Yann Martel (yes, I am a huge fan), “It was as unbelievable as the moon catching fire.” I learned about an entirely different part of the world, and I learned about myself. I came to appreciate shower curtains, trash cans, and the ability to be invisible. And I made connections with people from San Francisco to London to Mumbai. I might be in no hurry to return, but that’s largely because I’ve taken so much of it with me, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.
Meridel