Beginning of the Good Stuff

So I'm in India. That's right, me. I know a lot of you are probably thinking "about time!" and me too, believe me. Let's do the recap:

Good long flight. Flew to Chicago from Detroit, then got on the plane that was 16 hrs direct to Delhi. The flight really wasn't too bad. Not that I got anything done. I was planning on doing major reading/journaling (both personal and academic) but nothing was accomplished. Got some sleep though, so I'm happy.

Then we landed!! We spent last night and are going to spend tonight in a hostel and tomorrow we are going to our homestays. I'm pretty jetlagged because of waking up at 4:30am (it's 9.5 hrs ahead here) but I'm trying to stay up tonight so I can get back on schedule. Believe me, I'm pooped but today's been good. It was a free day, which we all appreciated. Had breakfast at 7:30 then had the morning to wander. We went to Khan market and got some coffee and looked in the shops. Then went back to meet everyone (including our new country coordinators). We did this beautiful ceremony where we lit candles among flowers to commence our time in India. There our new coordinators explained a bit about the next day or so and also our neighborhood. We'll have our first class tomorrow and also go to our homestays after lunch!

After our meeting and lunch at the hostel we went out again. We got sim cards for our phone which was quite the process (need pictures, copies of our passports, activation papers...) and explored a bit more of our neighborhood. Then I ventured with some people to another market and looked around. I was too tired to even think about buying anything (surprising I know) and we headed back. It was nice to have a free day and also to move around in smaller groups (we already stand out so much that not being in a group of 33 or more is a lot easier). Just had dinner and I swear if I see my bed I'll never get back up so a few of us ran out to find computers.

I'm excited for my homestay. I will be staying with Fatima. I really like her and we've had some great talks (she's Muslim and we've had some good religion discussions as well as the usual conversations). I'm nervous to figure out who we are staying with and the neighborhood we are in. I'm hoping that more of my friends will be in my neighborhood ( we are all in 4 clusters) but of course, I wanna get to know other people in my group.

I know I'm going to spend soo much money here, luckily the exchange rate is pretty good. It's about 47 rupees to the dollar ( I round to 50 in my head). I want to get everything...you all know this is my dream come true, but I'm trying to check things out first before I buy stuff, I mean, it's only the first day.

As for India itself, while I haven't seen much, I know it's amazing. Ha. But really, you can't help but smell the country. Sometimes it's not too pleasant but other times its incredible and spicy even. The food has been delicious but I know the homestay will be even better! It's not so much of a culture shock because it's similar, in a way, to Thailand. Granted, they aren't the same but I feel as if I can recognize a lot between the two. The rickshaws (autos) are, um, thrilling. Ha, definitely gets your blood running. Of course it's hard with the children in the street but it's part of the experience. We are looking into doing a community service project (or several) while we are here and one opportunity might be to work with street kids. Sometimes I have to remind myself we are in India. It's incredible to be here and I'm so excited for the next four weeks. I can't tell you much about Delhi yet, but hopefully more to come. I can tell you that I was very surprise to see so much in English. Maybe I'll find out why soon.

Ok well I really have to go. Thank you to everyone who has been emailing me. I apologize for my lack of communication. Keep it coming! It looks like the internet might be better here (who knew?!) so I'll be able to respond.

XOXOXO Thinking of you all...
Lizzie