blog#3, 29 November – by Maarten Klaversteijn (Windesheim University of Applied Sciences)
I woke up at 6:30 AM and felt quite tired because we arrived the day before in Ahmedabad at 10 am. We already had a long day after the back full of being shown around the campus of CEE and exploring the city. Me and my fellow classmates, both mechanical engineers travelled to New Delhi a few days before the Wetskills kickoff.
Today was my birthday and I was quite excited for what surprises were ahead. After breakfast we went on the heritage walk in the old city center of Ahmedabad. On this trip we walked through the old city center and we were sightseeing several Hindi temples and Muslim mosques. As we travelled through the heritage walk I realized that most buildings were completely left to nature. Such a shame! The old city is in huge contrast with the ‘new city’. There seemed to be an endless supply of old walkthroughs and small temples. With the turning of every corner, a new community appeared with it’s own beautiful architecture.
After the heritage we went off to the an old stepwell. It was inspiring to see a functional structure be so beautifully decorated. Some local teenagers took group pictures with us. Not much later many followed and it appeared we became the tourist attraction.
Back on the campus we dressed up for dinner and I realized that we still didn’t celebrate my birthday. The restaurant had a traditional Gujarat kitchen. The food was quite spicy for most of the Dutch students while to my surprise I could cope and really liked it. When we were almost finished with our food I got the impression that everybody forgot that it was my birthday, at that moment Stefan and Sebastiaan got me a stunning tie and Johan got me a cricket set, everybody of the program sang carols for me. I felt really happy that I joined Wetskills during my birthday and I really hope I can attribute to this program.
