Today was so amazing! I’m finally here in India! I can’t believe it! On Monday my trip started off with about a 45-minute car ride to the Denver airport, then a 3-hour flight to the Chicago airport, then a four-hour layover in Chicago, followed by a 15-hour flight from Chicago straight to New Delhi, once in New Delhi a 30 minute taxi ride, followed by a 1-hour wait at the train station, followed by a 6-hour train ride, followed by about a 3-hour van ride up winding roads, and finally ending with a trek up a steep hill to Oaklands… the place I will be staying for the next 4 months. Phew!.. It’s Wednesday now… and I started all this on Monday. Wow, I am sooo pooped! It was very exhausting, but very exciting all at the same time!.
First impressions: wow the India airport was amazing, it’s new, and it’s the best airport I’ve ever been in…. but I soon was pushed into the world of India, when I had to use the squatty potty, and while entering outside the airport I breathed in, but chocked. I got the taste of the Indian air: hot, muggy, and hmm smelling oh so “good.” I loved it though! We all hopped into this small car with our luggage; some stuffed in the trunk, two luggage just barely hanging on the top, and the rest pilled on our laps all the way to the roof. We were all sweating miserably! But seriously, I loved it! And I’m not being sarcastic. Haha! Ireally did enjoy it, buzzing through traffic, barely missing other cars and people, music blaring, horns honking (wondering if this is how I’m going to die? Just kidding). The train ride was even more of a culture shock! We each got our own “beds”: A 2.5’x2.5’x6’ fold down cot. I ended up sleeping next to a family with two little babies… the dad sleeping right across from me. And there wasn’t enough room for all of us to put our luggage underneath at the bottom, so I ended up sleeping with all my luggage… meaning now I only had a 2.5’x2.5’x4’ space. Haha! What an experience! Then in the van, I got to ride in the front seat, and absolutely loved it… there was so much to take in… all the sights, the people, the poverty, the cows, the monkeys, the mountains! Wow! It was too much! Driving was crazy here too, because the roads were windy, back and forth, barely slipping past people and cars and the sides of the steep mountains. Once at Oaklands, I was so exhausted, but we were finally here. We started off with breakfast; the day had just begun. Yikes! They wouldn’t let us sleep either, because they didn’t want us to have jet lag, so we all moseyed around the rest of the day as we had orientation and introductions, waiting for dinner to finally come so we could go to bed. :D And now finally, SLEEP!
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