India Semester, Sample Itinerary
The following is a sample itinerary based on past courses; actual itineraries may vary.
-
WEEK 1
Upon our arrival in Leh, we’ll take jeeps to our orientation site about a half hour away. We’ll get everyone settled, review health and safety information, and start getting to know each other on a deeper level, all while taking it easy to acclimatize to the altitude. Our orientation will be a mix of activities meant to help us get to know one another, important information on staying safe and healthy in this new environment/altitude/climate, and visiting some of the nearby sights, including an ice stupa and the local monastery. We will also do our Wilderness First Aid (WFA) training. -
WEEKS 2
We’ll travel a few hours outside of Leh to the site of our homestays, near the Indus River. The families there are incredibly welcoming, and usually there’s some young people around who speak English. You’ll also have fun practicing a few words of Ladakhi with incredibly charismatic grandmothers and grandfathers who stay busy tending to the fields and taking care of livestock. We’ll be meeting as a group during the day for lessons, activities, and day trips. We may get to help with harvesting in the fields or go for a hike up to the village’s summer fields. We’ll say farewell to our homestays and travel to another village where we’ll prepare to start our trek. -
We’ll go over all the essentials of how best to pack our bags, and instructors can help fit your packs in advance of our first trek. Trekking in the Sham Valley is gorgeous and a great way to practice our skills. We’ll cross a few mountain passes to get our bodies and minds primed for the environment. We’ll be staying in small villages each night, enjoying the company of the generous and hospitable families who host visitors as a means of creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves.
-
WEEK 3
Moving on from the lunar landscapes of Ladakh, we make our way to the more verdant Himalayan foothills near Kalimpong. Here we attend a retreat at a Buddhist monastery where we rest our bodies and flex our mindfulness muscles through meditation and yoga. Eager to explore further, we set off for a 3-day walk from village-to-village, practicing basic Nepali greetings with the folks we encounter and starting to get a feel for the place and staying in small lodges along the way. -
Our hike ends with an extended homestay in Kalimpong, where we live and learn alongside our hosts, diving into independent study projects, language learning, and an exploration of the region’s complex history, politics, and environment with a variety of guest speakers and visits to local NGOs. We explore the impacts of environmental changes within the community and discuss grassroots sustainability initiatives.
-
WEEK 4
Saying farewell to our host families, we stop in the historic tea growing capital of Darjeeling. We spend our time tasting varieties of the region’s renowned tea, meeting local scholars to learn about the central role this place played in India’s colonial past, and visiting the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Center. From Darjeeling we shift into the state of Sikkim, spending time with the indigenous Lepcha community whose ancestors have called that sacred land home for generations upon generations. We learn about the Lepcha’s efforts to preserve their culture and environment in the face of threats from outside their region, including hydropower plants and language policies that undermine the preservation of the Lepcha language. -
WEEK 5-6
Leaving the mountains we descend by train and bus to Kolkata, the bustling hub of Bengal, where we witness the diversity of city life, from towering skyscrapers and wide-tree lined avenues to the very real difficulties faced by many who migrated from rural areas into the city looking for economic opportunities and a fresh start. From Kolkata we move further south, traveling by road and by ferry all the way to the Sundarbans, the UNESCO world heritage center and home to the famous Royal Bengal Tigers. -
As a gatekeeper for the Bay of Bengal, the Sundarban mangrove forest is incredibly ecologically important but also imminently threatened by climate change, rising ocean levels, and other environmental stressors. We explore this area by boat and on foot, learning about environmental pressures from the perspective of local communities and scientists who call the Sundarbans home.
-
Using all the skills learned in the previous weeks, the students take the reins to plan their own adventure. In the final days of the course, the group settles into a slower rhythm once again for transference, a time to reflect on the adventures and learning and to intentionally consider how those lessons may be integrated into life back at home
