Pre-India...

Monday, August 27

On Tuesday of last week, I stood outside of my car atop Emigration Canyon and simply stared out into the Salt Lake valley, taking a desperate break from the psychological, emotional, and physical stress I was feeling with regard to my upcoming adventure to India. At that point, I still had not received my Visa from the Indian Embassy (which was a fiasco 2 months in the making), had just found out that my computer (which was being held at the SLC Apple Store) would not be fixed before I left—a major problem—nor had I received my scholarship check from the University of Utah, and funds were tight. Suffice it to say that at that moment…I had seen better moods. I made myself stop and take a few deep breaths to help put everything in perspective. Though I was attempting to remain optimistic, I began mentally preparing myself for the potential that my departure date may have to be bumped back until these issues were resolved. This would have been not only financially burdensome to both me and my companion, Ali, but psychologically distressing as we were both highly anticipatory of this trip.

It was the next morning that I opened the front door to find a FedEx [to my progressive friends: I had no choice, I promise] package with my Passport & Visa. Later that morning my computer woes were slowly but clearly resolving, and that afternoon I received my scholarship check. This was when it really hit me: I was going to India for 4 months. Wow.

Flying East from Salt Lake City, the only layover our trip to Delhi included was 8 hours in Chicago. After an early morning departure, we arrived around noon and Jon was kind enough to meet us at the airport, take us to his place, walk around, and grab some food. It was a lovely day in Chicago, which is strange since it is the middle/end of August. As we were confirming our flights back at the airport some hours later, it turned out that because our flight was overbooked they were bumping some people to the same flight the following day (Sunday). Ali and I were two of those people; luckily we got a $500 plane ticket/voucher out of it, and obviously they put us up for the night. I don’t think either of us immediately realized that this setback was in many ways beneficial: I felt much more refreshed and stimulated this afternoon than I did yesterday afternoon.

As I’m writing this, we’re about an hour and a half from landing in Delhi; the passenger windows in the plane are all shut (and have been since nearly the beginning of the flight) so it’s strange that we’re about to watch the sun set again after watching it set as we took off. This fifteen-hour flight could have been worse; luckily Ali and I are apparently quite good at entertaining ourselves/each other with random enterprises, including (but not limited to) movies and music powered by my computer (thank you, American Airlines, for the electricity!).

I have no idea what to expect. I’m an hour away from experiencing something so completely new and foreign to me; there really isn’t much to say. I’m excited in more ways than I ever imagined possible. I know that this experience will change my life in innumerable ways, and the lack of expectation only raises my anticipation to another level.

I’ll be posting as soon and as frequently as possible… My next post will be my first official India post, and I'll include my contact information in that one.

… See you in India.

☺