I've definitely reached the point in my semester where time is flying by faster than I could have imagined. Tomorrow morning, I'm leaving to go on an excursion to Agra (Taj Mahal), and many places on the way. We're spending the night in a tiger sanctuary (inside a hotel, sadly), going on a bike ride through a bird sanctuary, visiting several architectural sights, including some tombs, an abandoned capital city built by the Mughals, and, of course, the Taj.
I'm getting ready for and excited about my ISP that starts the first week of November. I'll be living in Banaras, supposedly the oldest city in the world, on my own, doing my own research. My topic now, for those who may be interested is:
"The Ganges River, to Hindus, is one of the holiest places; its water has the power to cleanse and purify whatever it touches. Devout Hindus often take pilgrimages to the banks of the Ganges in places such as Banaras. In these pilgrimages, people may travel long distances to have the chance to bathe in the murky waters of the Ganges. Scientifically, the water is far from pure: anything from corpses to trash to seemingly infinite bacteria can be found in this powerful river. The Ganges Action Plan, started in 1985 with international support, began a large-scale effort to clean the water of the Ganges.
This essay examines how Hindus fuse the contradictory views on their river and how the processing of the water through sanitation efforts affects the observed religious power of the water. Observations and interviews took place along the river in Banaras. Using interviews with Hindu scholars, sanitation experts, and Hindu worshipers, as well as the observation of worship and research of information released to the public pertaining to the projects, this paper explores the differing views on and reactions to the clean-up effort." (my abstract that I turned in for my project proposal)

Otherwise, all is going well. I was planning on going to a polo game this afternoon, but it was cancelled because the players fell too many times in yesterday's game and needed time to recover. Hopefully, the games will still be going on when I get back from Agra, because I feel like I need to see polo in the state where it started after spending so much time here.

Look forward to pictures of the Taj and the other sites soon!