Yesterday we arrived in Sri Lanka early morning, two of us lost our luggage and experienced a hectic time of figuring out how to deal with it. We both found out that the people here are so welcoming and want to help as much as possible. Eventually, we were able to find our luggage and our driver was willing to pick up my baggage and drive 9 hours to help me out! From the airport we traveled from Colombo to Kandy. Our first stop was our hotel which overlooks the city and is beautiful. We then got a chance to walk through the rural part of town, where everyone was extremely friendly and curious about who we are. After walking for some time we caught a bus to the inner city. Once we were there we were able to walk around and experience the busy city of Kandy. We then drove outside the city for about an hour to an elephant orphange where we were able to see nearly a hundred elephants bathe and eat. We were even close enough to touch some of them! Our first day we were able to see how the Sri Lankan people are very open and welcoming to visitors and were so friendly to all of us.

Our second day we woke up extremely early due to jetlag and got breakfast. The food here is amazing and a lot different from the “traditional” American food. Once breakfast was finished we went to the Temple of the Tooth which is an amazing Buddist temple in the middle of Kandy. We were able to get a tour around the whole temple and were taught the importance of Buddaism in this culture. We learned that in very sacred areas, such as this temple, it is important to take your shoes off and walk around barefoot. It was definitely a new experience for many of us. After some rest time at the hotel we went ot the Royal Botanical Gardens and were able to see wild monkeys. The gardens were so beautiful. We then went to see a huge statue of Buddah that towers 88 feet high. Once again we took off our shoes to walk around out of respect to the culture. We then came back to the hotel and reflected over the day over another delicious meal.

Sincerely,

Cassandra Klebanoff
Second Year Doctoral Student
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology