Travel Journals, Travel Blogs and Travel Experiences of Living Routes Travelers

Social sustainability and practical ideas to spread change

by: baxelrod

created on: Mar 21, 2010 | Puducherry (Pondicherry), India

I truly resonated with the UHU seminar we had this morning at the Unity Pavilion. The presentation was on Social Sustainability with community building and diversity. This was the final one out of a 7 part series. There were two speakers, one women named Cathy who works over at a local village school called Tamari. Her goal is to create a bridge between local Tamil villagers and Aurovillens by setting …
Mid-semester reflections

by: DanielGreenberg

created on: Mar 20, 2010 | Puducherry (Pondicherry), India

We're mid-semester and have just completed a week of intense reflection, integration, and celebration before leaving for 2.5 weeks of travel tomorrow morning. We organized the week around Ken Wilbur's Four-Quadrant Integral Model and spent time exploring our "Interior and Exterior" "Individual and Collective" experiences. It was very enlightening and inspiring. Also, this morning, we had the last of seven public seminars that Living Routes collaboratively offered with Auroville. Today's topic …
He shoots. He scores!

by: DanielGreenberg

created on: Mar 20, 2010 | Puducherry (Pondicherry), India

A basketball match isn't exactly something I expected to watch while in Auroville, but they take it pretty seriously here and since one of our students (Ben) and both our "Cohort Coordinators" (Boomi and Segar) were playing -- and actually made it to the finals ... well, I couldn't resist trying my hand at a little sports journalism. Okay, Howard Cosell I'm not...
Half-way!!

by: MollyW

created on: Mar 20, 2010 | Auroville, India

Hello!! So it's more than half-way through the semester and my bag is packed for our travels!! I'm soooo excited for everything that has happened, and is about to happen! For the last 6 weeks, we've had a pretty regular schedule of yoga with Shambo (THE MAN) in the morning, then breakfast, then service learning, lunch, class, dinner, meeting/sleep! It was wonderful to be able to get into a groove of …
My Life in Auroville

by: GabrielaBella

created on: Mar 17, 2010 | Auroville, India

WOW. Where to start? I am in India! It is everything I thought it would be, and so much more. It is everything that I couldn't fathom, dream, or imagine. I am living in the first settlement in Auroville, blessed by the great Mother herself. I sleep in a thatched hut nestled amongst the grand banyan trees. A mosquito netting around my bed has been serving me well and I …
The last few weeks...

by: Gcmoore

created on: Mar 14, 2010 | Yoff, Senegal

Maybe you’ve been wondering where I’ve been. Some are convinced the screaming cats of the sub-Saharan night have finally caught up. Others are wondering if I forgot to look both ways when I running across the three lane highway one morning before school. (Like the dead dog that no one will move off of the sidewalk. Solution: cover its rancid body with sand. Ah, yes.) Or maybe it was the …
Auroville adventure while remaining still

by: LizzieB

created on: Mar 14, 2010 | New York, United States

Auroville has been an adventure while remaining still; it's been a whirl around at the same time as growing settled and rooted, all of which has been beautiful painting in the highs and lows. The internal and external worlds are constantly dancing and it's been such a learning journey to walk across the bridge between the two daily. Auroville fosters growth, especially to the yoouthful mind (no matter how old …
Almost halfway through the semester.

by: etauber

created on: Mar 11, 2010 | Auroville, India

Well, today we spent the day in a shared program with Pondicherry University, hearing presentations from students in their Sustainable Development Masters Program, giving our own, and creating dialogue between our two programs. It was quite fascinating. I think it was a great opportunity for our students to get to interface with Indian students looking at environmental issues from the perspective of a fairly traditional university. Afterwards we went to …
Campus Sustainability comes to India

by: DanielGreenberg

created on: Mar 12, 2010 | Puducherry (Pondicherry), India

Last December, I received an email from Dr. G. Poyya Moli, a professor at Pondicherry University who has been intrumental in developing a new M.Sc. program in Sustainable Development -- a rariity in India as well as in the U.S. Ethan, and I went to visit Poyya at his home before the students arrived in January and after many emails, organized a full day meeting on Campus Sustainability yesterday, where …
First Days of Semester Mammallapuram

by: LarkspurMorton

created on: Mar 08, 2010 | Auroville, India

Jan 30th Kaalai VaNakkam (good morning in Tamil) We began the semester (on Sat, Jan 23) by learning a few very basic words and phrases in Tamil. Vanakkam is hello and when paired with Kalai, it's good morning, and with Malai it's good evening. Nandri is thank you, however, "you're welcome" yet eludes me. Even nandri is not a common expression though I notice that we Americans have a big need to …