The next day we visited Fatehpur Sikri, a deserted city built by Mughal Emperor Akbar as his capital to honor a Muslim saint who prophesied the birth of an heir. It was a remarkable red sandstone palace that took 15 years to build and was abandoned after only 14 years because the water supply was not able to sustain the population.

We also visited Mother Teresa's Ashram. This was a home for children and adults; some are normal, some are mentally challenged and some are handicapped. We saw the infant room first and then went into the children's area. The "normal" children are able to be adopted, but the mentally challenged and the handicapped children will never be adopted - they will live in this home their entire lives. We also visited the adult sections where men and women are separated by gender and mental capability. This was an incredibly sad experience and I think we all felt helpless. Many in our group gave rupees (Indian currency) to the nun that was showing us around, but I think we all wished that we had done more than just stopped by and said hello.

After the Ashram visit we went back to the train station in Agra and boarded the Taj Express for New Delhi. This train ride was VERY long. The train was late, the car was very dirty (although air-conditioned) and a 2 ½ hour ride turned into a four hour one, so we got to the hotel around 11:30pm.

The next morning in New Delhi we drove along the Rajpath (royal street) and saw the Indian Arch which is a World War I memorial for the 90,000 lives that were lost while the Indians were under British rule. We also saw the Parliament House, Secretariat Buildings and the official residence of the President of India, Pratibha Patil (who, by the way, is a woman).

Next, we visited the Gandhi Museum; here we got to see the actual spot where Gandhi was assassinated. It was a fascinating place and it was so interesting to read about all Gandhi had done.

At the end of a long day we took a plane from New Dehli to Chennai. The plane was an hour late and then they had trouble getting us through the gate at the port, so we didn't get back to the ship until 2:00am. Once we got back we had to stand in line for 45 minutes because each student's bag had to be inspected... ugh! Time to rest!