Week 1

Here some shots with a small description of my internship in India at Amrita University, where I’m studying the medicines prepared from local plants.

I got some pictures by Chloe (blog link).

View from my room at the Ashram, Kerala. The Ashram it’s like a Western monastery, a place where devotees live close to their guru and where people come for spiritual practice and teachings. Here, the guru is called Amma. Amma is also the guide of Amrita university.

During my first week here, I shared the room with a Finnish girl, Peppiina, and we could get used to the tiny dirty room easier. While we washed our clothes, 4 power cut occurred and we realized we were not home anymore.

I arrived in India 2 days after the government announced that 80% of current notes were not valid anymore, but did not imagine a situation where people is standing in line for hours and ATM are out of cash.

To escape the money situations, we went to Varkala beach for a long weekend, a tourist place still accepting the old notes.

On the way to Varkala. Open trains makes the journey more pleasant enjoying the landscape

Just 2 minutes before, the indian guys were staring at me and my two girl friends, which made us feel uncomfortable. A juggler successfully distracted them! Funny to notice the physical proximity between guys here.

As first inside into my project, I had the opportunity to undergo an orientation of local plants at Amrita school of Ayurveda. I had a guided-tour of the garden where I could have an introduction of approx. 50 local plants.