Chandni Chowk and more IVHQ headaches

  So.... it has been a few days since I last wrote, and I am sure you are all wondering what in the world is going on!! Well to begin, I want to add in what I forgot to add in last blog entry.  In my title I mentioned "Celebrity Status" and I totally forgot to mention that part!! It's rather amusing and quite flattering Lol, so while at the Taj Mahal groups of guys (and some girls) kept coming up to me as well as the group I was with and asking if they could take a picture with me or all of us.  At one point, it literally was about every 5 or 10 minutes that they would come up to us, or if they weren't coming up to us they were standing near by staring and trying to work up the courage to ask us.  It very much gave us all a glimpse into what it would be like to be a celebrity with paparazzi and fans following our every move. 

  Anyway, so moving onto the present time, so yesterday Alice, Sam and Nicola took off for Thailand to go and work at the volunteer project which Alice was previously working with before coming to India.  It sounded like quite a neat program and is free! but I decided to stay here, plus couldnt afford another plane ticket.  So it is now just Richard, Catalin, Raj, and I who are here.  Raj and I braved the mass crowds at Chondni Chowk Market/Bazaar today, and were quite successful in barganing for various gifts to bring home :-)  and no I am not saying what I got because then it wouldnt be a surprise!! Lol I actually bargained myself for one item and was quite proud of myself, the rest I left up to Raj since he speaks fluent Hindi (very very helpful!!) So then we came back to Jim's, I made dinner (well part of it, it was an addition to the many leftovers we had in the fridge).  Then we checked our e-mails to see if there were perhaps any good news reply's from IVHQ about this whole mess of a situation.  Wishful thinking....
  In the past couple days emails have been flying back and forth between our whole group and IVHQ and it has turned into the biggest case of "nuh uhhhh!!! ya huh!!!!!".  So not amusing, at all.  Basically, they are saying they cannot refund our money because they have paid each of our programs in full.... well here's the thing.  They also keep saying "if you would like to switch to another program we can certainly assist you with that."  But wait... didn't you guys already pay our programs in full??  So, if you cant refund us our money because you have already paid them... then with what money exactly are you going to use to put us into a different program?? Also they told us that they don't like to give us our placements until we arrive so that they can meet us and figure out what the best placement will be.... ok well first of all, we didnt get our placements until like the day of our departure to them... plus! they never actually gave me an exact placement, it kept changing up until I made the executive decision to go with Nicola to her placement.  So where exactly did my money go??
   AHHHH!!!! This whole situation is so completely frustrating and agonizing.  The responses that we keep getting back from IVHQ keep beating around the bush and dodging our points or questions.  They keep telling us "well we like to always tell people that volunteering in New Delhi (which actually none of our placements were in New Delhi, in fact that were very far away from there) during the summertime is hard because of the heat and not having any A/C" ................ No one, not once, ever made any type of complaint regarding the heat or lack of A/C!! Who cares!! yes it is really really hot, but I have no qualms with taking 2 showers a day, in fact I rather enjoy taking a nice refreshing cold shower in the evening to cool off, its quite soothing.  Yes it is uncomfortable at times, but that in no way has ever been an issue, I was quite aware of what I was coming into weather wise when I signed up.  RAWR!! Ok, sorry guys, I am going to stop venting now, but I... well actually all of us just get so angry when we talk about this because we all feel like we were taken advantage of or have had the wool pullen over our eyes or something...
  So, tomorrow I am making my many phone calls to the various organizations that Jim and his wife have graciously provided me with (total god sends they are!!!) and hopefully I'll be able to set up some lunch dates or something like that for next week.  This weekend I am going with my new travel buddy Raj to Punjab to go see the Golden Temple.  So excited!! I think we are going to end up staying at the Golden Temple (which is a Sikh temple) as all Sikh temples provide free food as well as free lodging! It will be quite an experience for sure! But I am excited, and have no idea what to expect.  I will of course update when I get back since I highly doubt they have internet. 
  That's all for now, cross your fingers everyone for all of us that we get some type of supportive news or positive news from IVHQ.  I am just hoping for some type of compromised resolution out of all of this. 

 Namaste