On the shuttle bus, I immediately feel drawn to the seats reserved for ladies, and a short while later we’re already driving through the darkness of the metropolis. Along the roadside, there's a dense cluster of garden allotment huts, which were probably not built purely for leisure purposes. Also, palm trees. With huge, heavy, yet somehow fresh-looking leaves. In my mind, they appear in an elegant dark green, but in reality everything is grey and black. Arrival at the airport — and it's actually just after midnight. The terminal opens at three. So I pace up and down the entrance hall, caught between not being able to sleep and not quite being awake. “Please don't spit!” the signs on the walls remind me. Outside, fat round raindrops are falling.

The flight is delayed due to technical issues. We’re getting a new aircraft, and I get a seat with extra legroom. In my opinion, the engines make all the wrong sounds during takeoff, but no one else seems to care, and somehow we do stay in the air. From above, everything is green. There's a tasty wrap and coffee (had I known it would be the last one...)

The next time I look out, all I see is brown. Brick factories everywhere as we begin our descent. Rajasthan: desert state.

Jaipur airport is tiny. The air is dry and hot — completely different from Mumbai (unfortunately). This climate somehow reminds me of sandpaper. I grab my suitcase; outside, an angry mob is protesting. So I sit down next to two men dressed in white with turbans and look around to see if any IAESTE people might be waiting. Once the protesters are gone, I head outside — but no one’s there either. Hmm. I activate my international data plan (Thanks for the smartphone, Mom :)) and start asking around, while the two turban guys leave the airport surrounded by fifteen bodyguards.

And from that point on, everything happened pretty fast… Manraj and Owais rolled up in a taxi just a few minutes later, and I was more or less dropped straight off at my new home. Bedsheets, mosquito net, sleep. Three hours later, lunch. Lots of people, lots of names — didn’t remember a single one. Unpack suitcase, sleep, dinner, introduction round on the lawn. Now I’m wide awake and have to go to bed 😐 I killed my first book that night.

But before I tell you how things went on, let me first write a bit about my new home. JECRC University opened in 2012, but to this day, it’s still not fully built. In fact, only the entrance area is actually finished — as you can clearly see here:

Next is the “Girls' Dorm,” and at least it’s only the top floor that’s missing. Unfortunately, that still means we get woken up in the mornings by jackhammers and cement mixers.

The rooms, however, are really well equipped — each unit has a common room with a sofa, TV, and fridge, connected to three furnished bedrooms and a shared bathroom.

Apart from the Girls' Dorm and the three Boys' Dorms, the university consists of the Engineering Block:

...the Science Building: (the one you can see from the entrance area)

...and an Administration Building, which also houses the cafeteria and the dining hall. I actually think the dining hall is pretty good, even though I seem to be the only one with that opinion. For breakfast, they serve pancakes with onions and chili sauce, along with chai. For lunch and dinner, they serve something like this:

Sometimes with different ingredients, but it pretty much always tastes the same 😄. And at five, there’s a snack with tea, usually something fried...

The owner of the university (it’s a private one) is a vegetarian, so the dining hall serves vegan (!) food with milk. Everything else is taboo. And when we eat chicken off-campus, we’re not allowed to tell the staff 😂. They’re a bit strange here...

In this spirit, best regards from the green campus in the desert!