I’m in India as I write this, and I can hardly believe it. It's been an incredibly long day! Most of the India group arrived in XNA at around 9:00 this morning, with a few stragglers coming in a little later. Clint, my boyfriend, sent me off while my family stayed asleep at home…I think I travel too much! Sending me off is no longer a novelty to them, especially when I’ll only be gone for a few weeks. After checking in at the front desk and going through security, we gathered outside the gate and spent some time hanging out and getting to know each other. It’s funny – the class has spent essentially an entire semester together, but besides the people in my group, Honey, Aaron and Jarred, I don’t really know anyone else. I hope I don’t struggle with names too much on the trip, though I bet we’ll be ridiculously close before we know it. Study abroad tends to do that to you.
We boarded the plane to Chicago and arrived about two hours later, with plenty of layover time, so some of us decided to go and grab some lunch. We picked Macaroni Grill (I had never been), tried to sit with people not in the group (yay for effort!) and had a semi-awkward time trying to make conversation. It went okay. After lunch, we spent a bit of time milling around, and eventually boarded the plane for Delhi! It was a lot of fun seeing just how varied everyone’s levels of preparedness for the flight were: some were clearly experienced and not at all fazed at the prospect of taking a 13 hour flight half-way across the world, while others were comparing theories on the efficiency and efficacy of taking Benadryl for passing out on the flight.
We arrived in India four and half movies and a two hour nap later, and I started getting super excited! After deplaning, we went through customs and baggage claim - the Delhi airport is pretty cool.
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| Arrival Hall at the Delhi Airport. |
Dr. Anand and Dr. Ellstrand dispersed the first of our allowance while waiting for everyone to gather, and some folks wasted no time using it to purchase some coffee at a local coffee shop. We got to experience our first bit of getting stared at/called after/chased while leaving the airport, and got to cross a road with Indian traffic (!). In the bus, we settled down and received a sort of welcome packet with some very American food, including orange juice and “American-Style Cream & Onion” potato chips. There was also a mayonnaise sandwich in the welcome packet, which was…interesting. Yeah. We also received flower necklaces much like leis, and we definitely felt welcomed!
We arrived in IDSA (something like a military encampment) later that night and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. After the innumerable horror stories my family members and colleagues had told me about accommodations in India, I had prepared myself to be sleeping on a straw mat in a thatched hut swapping stories with a cow, but we were all pleasantly surprised. IDSA was neat, organized and clean, and best of all - there were Western-style toilets.
Dr. Anand wasn’t kidding when he said that India was a service-based country – everywhere we went, people offered to help us with our bags and other belongings in exchange for small tips. Some of the students reveled in getting pampered, while others were clearly stressed out and put off by having someone "pestering" them non-stop. I was a little taken aback by how serious the bellhops/hired help were when it came to tipping. It seemed like they were looking to make a 100 rupees off of us, rather than genuinely trying to help, which created awkward situations at best. It makes me wonder if people in India are so service oriented because they really are that kind or if it's because they're simply trying to make a buck. I certainly hope the former is true - we shall certainly see.
In any case, after we brought our bags up to our apartment, we had the chance to explore the place, and we took plenty of pictures. My roommates are Kaleah, Mary and Ariel, and they’re super fun, which I’m very thankful for.
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| 1st night in India! |
Later that night, the girls and I all got the chance to use the local Indian phone we received as a group to call home, which was nice. It’s ridiculous to me that countries considered “more advanced” with “better infrastructure” than India like the United States and England have substantially higher costs for calling internationally. Oh well. Before heading to bed, we had the chance to explore usage of the showers, as well – absolutely hilarious watching Kaleah and Ariel trying to figure out the Asian water heater + bucket combo.
There was a shower head, but after discovering how pathetic the water pressure was, Mary (who has been to the Philippines many times) and I had to instruct Ariel and Kaleah on how to use the buckets! It was funny to see how less modern methods can hold up so much better in certain places. Reminder to keep an open mind.
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