Home at Last

Well, I'm home.

Delhi wasn't so bad after all, and thanks to the very kind, very helpful people running AMA Guest House in Majnu ka Tilla, I got to the airport with time to spare. Indian airport security is, in my opinion, quite a bit more lax than American. I'm not complaining; let's just say I'm not a fan of the TSA. Maybe it's statements like this that get me singled out all the time at the airport? Regardless, Indian security is, in my opinion, sufficient without being invasive.

I got to my gate early and decided to take a walk to the end of the terminal since I'd be sitting for quite a while in the near future. When I came back, there were a couple members of airport personnel setting up a queue in front of the gate for additional security screening, and a western woman who had just finished speaking with them was making her way toward seats out in the terminal. I followed her and sat down in the same area; she complimented the chupa I was wearing and we got to talking. As it turns out, she's a fiber artist! She lives in Texas and, over the course of the next hour and a half or so, we had a nice little talk about our adventures in India and in fabric artistry back home. She even has a friend named Magda, so she had no trouble pronouncing (or remembering) my name.

It got closer to boarding time and we made our way through the second security screen of the evening. I guess it was supposed to be stricter because we were headed into the US, but they didn't give either of us any trouble.

Long story short, I had a 15-hour flight from Delhi to Newark. On it I sat by the window; seated next to me was a very friendly Canadian couple who were impressed at my choice of first destination outside the States.

I slept for much of it, just as I'd done the last time I traveled between countries. Just as I'd done before, I woke up as we were flying over Greenland. Since the plane left around midnight and we were flying west, the entire trip was made in darkness. I lifted the shade on the window hoping there might be some moonlight on the ice or something, because the sight of Greenland had been so striking the first time I saw it. Instead I was greeted by a cloudless sky and, incredibly, by stars. Orion floated just outside my window, crisp and clear. It was as though I could reach out and touch him. I've flown more than a few times in my life, but never before have I seen anything like I saw the other night up there. I sat and stared at my celestial companion and let myself get lost in the feeling of oneness with the sky.

I alternated between napping, chatting with the Canadians, and watching a few episodes of Twin Peaks on my laptop (I haven't finished it yet! Don't tell me what happens!!). Eventually we touched down in Newark.

Now, I was not aware that I was going to have to go through customs between my connecting flights. I thought I'd have to do that at O'Hare, when my trip ended. Nope. I had to sit and wait at baggage for my suitcase, recheck it so it would follow me to Chicago, make my way through customs, go through security again, figure out which gate my plane was at, and then race there (it's kind of a big airport) all in an hour.

I just missed it; they had just closed the door. The lady told me "the flight is closed" or some such nonsense and even though I pleaded with her, saying that I'd just gotten off my other flight and got there as fast as I possibly could, she was unsympathetic and directed me toward the customer service desk 3 gates down.

At this point I'd been basically traveling for two days straight. I was sweaty from rushing around and I was so close to being able to just chill at home, and now I was stuck.

I was also, however, in the US and so I could text message from my phone again. I got in touch with my parents and also started mentally making a contingency plan if I had to stay in the general area for more than a couple of hours.

The line was long and so tortuously slow it was like I was being made to watch a Will Ferrell movie or something -- I thought it would never end. Eventually I did get to the front and I did my best to be polite even though I just wanted to kick and whine and slap somebody. I was sure my bag was on its way to Chicago and, with my luck, it'd be lost or buried in a closet or something by the time I got there.

To my surprise, the lady handed me a boarding pass and told me I'd better hurry, because my new flight was leaving in fifteen minutes and it was a few gates down. Stunned, I stared at it a moment before uttering a thank you and racing off back down the hall.

So basically, everything turned out alright. My dad even told me later that his alarm hadn't woken him up on time so it was really no problem at all that I arrived an hour later than I originally should have. I thought for sure for a while there that I was going to be stranded "so close and yet so far" for at least a day.

I got home, though, and spent the day with family. Today some friends who may as well be family came to visit, I hung out with my dad, and I plotted and planned all the things I'm going to do now that I'm back here. I should be getting my sewing machine back from being tuned up (thanks, Mom!) any day now, so I can start sewing again. My Etsy store is open again, and I plan on adding quite a bit to it in the coming weeks. If you are in need of any kind of vinyl decals or wall art, let me know! I did go to art school, you know, and custom orders are always fun. Plus, as I was reminded as soon as I stepped off the plane in the States... Xmas is on its way. Support your local independent artists!

Go with what you know

Well, friends, this is it. Yesterday I spent the entire day running around McLeod Ganj spending time with my remaining friends; all the other foreign teachers at Tibet Charity have taken off already. It was a busy day, but a fun one.

I went for lunch with Kalden and Mike at Tibet Kitchen. I figured I should have Tibetan food for my last meal in the home of HH.

Mmm, thenthuk.

Then we went down to Nick's for dessert. Nick's has the best dessert in town.

And apparently their cappuccinos are good, too!

Me in my cool new hat Kalden gave me (it really goes with the chupa, doesn't it?), with Mike on Temple Road. XD

I had tea with the managers at Villa Paradiso and visited a few other friends before packing the last of my things and heading downstairs. Anil made me some gobi parantha for the road. While I waited on that, I looked out over Dharamsala one last time from the balcony. It's a view I'm going to miss.

The taxi that the guys at New Varuni called for me took me up to the bus station where I was met by a bunch of my students, Kalden, and Mike.

Yup... more katas!!

After half an hour of teary goodbyes and lots of hugs -- how can you not get a little misty-eyed when your students tell you things like "I will never forget your kindness"?? -- I got situated on the bus ("a very nice Volvo," just like when I first came here) and away we went.

If you look reeeeeeeeeeal close you can see me in my turquoise blouse in the middle of the bus.

And so the 12ish-hour bus ride to Delhi was underway. This time I was seated next to a youngish jewelry salesman named Dhaval who was quite friendly. I popped a couple motion sickness pills but still had to lay back, close my eyes, and concentrate on not vomiting for the first 4 hours or so. They even handed out little plastic bags, I assume for this purpose. I love the mountains, but I do not love driving in the mountains.

We stopped for dinner at a nice haveli; I didn't eat because it didn't seem worth it. I was sure I wouldn't have been able to keep it down.

When we reached Delhi, the bus drivers wanted to drop everyone off at the Kashmere Gate. Apparently it's where most tourists go, and as far as I can tell it's more or less a hub for travel. Luckily, there was one Tibetan guy on board who also wanted to go to Majnu Ka Tila, the Tibetan colony, so we stuck together and they took us there. He helped me off the bus with my things and down to AMA Hotel, where I stayed way back in July when I first arrived in India.

My plan was to stay in a neighborhood called Paharganj, per Brij's recommendation, but I was unfamiliar with the area, the hotel guy there wasn't the best about giving me information over the phone, and I had gotten dropped off IN DELHI at 4:30am. I was by myself at this point and not comfortable with hopping into any random taxi. So I went to AMA and the hotelier there was very friendly even though I'd woken him up at a ridiculous hour. It took us a little while because of the language barrier -- his English was fairly decent, but my Hindi is limited and my Tibetan is practically nonexistent -- but eventually I decided I'd just take the one room they had left and they'd book a taxi to the airport for this evening for me.

It was such a relief to get to a familiar place. If you're ever in Delhi, this is a nice place to stay. They have a really excellent restaurant downstairs, too!

I went out into Delhi via rickshaw to grab the last couple of Indian things (as opposed to Tibetan ones) I needed before coming home. I didn't even freak out! It was surprisingly unstressful during daylight hours. There are about a zillion people, sure, but I guess I'm more or less used to it now. It's not so bad.

One thing I've found that has made traveling solo much more bearable is that most people are helpful if you just ask. It's also been a tremendous help going places with people who know them the first time, and then returning later on my own. In this case, I was in Majnu ka Tila with Kalden and Palsang a few months ago, so now I don't feel so anxious about being back here. I don't particularly want to run around Delhi on my own for an extended period of time, but in this particular area I feel fine. The same thing with the Rajasthan trip: I passed through Pathankot on the train with Brij on the way down, and so when I went back on my own, I kind of knew what to expect. If I hadn't, then the whole train-breaking-down-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing would have really done a number on me.

I explained to the proprietors at AMA that I'd been here and I trusted them to take care of me, and they have been more than helpful. (I gotta write a bunch of TripAdvisor reviews.... maybe I'll do that at the airport!)

So now I'm hanging out in my hotel room, responding to "hey, just want to know how the trip is going" messages. Once I hit "publish" on this thing I'm going to take a shower, get dressed, grab a bite to eat at the restaurant downstairs, and make sure my luggage is arranged the way I want it. The taxi picks me up to take me to the airport in just over 2 hours... It should take about an hour to get there, and my itinerary requests that I report at least 3 hours prior to my flight time, so I should be fine. I'd rather be safe than sorry! Then I guess I'll see if I can find some airport wi-fi or sit down with a book and wait to board the long, long flight home. Altogether it's a little over 19 hours travel time, including the brief layover in Newark (only 1.5 hours this time). And with that... I'll be on my way back to American soil!

For all its shortcomings, India has endeared itself to me. I think I'll come back sometime. Who wants to join me?

Where has the time gone?

Bus ticket has been booked. Flight has been confirmed. Pretty much all the other foreign volunteers have gone...

And in less than 24 hours, I'll be on my way out of Dharamsala. It's so nuts to think about... Four months ago it seemed like I'd be here forever, and now my bags are packed and I've spent the last three days meeting with friends and students, saying goodbyes. I've met some really fantastic people during my stay in Himachal; I hope I can keep in touch with at least a few of them.

My aunt and uncle told me years ago that college would be the best years of my life, that I'd make the friendships there that would last the rest of my years. It didn't really happen that way. Sure, I made a handful of great friends, most of whom I keep in touch with thanks to the magic of Facebook, but for the most part college just wasn't for me.

This, though... I think this is what they meant. It's on this trip that I feel like I've grown and come into my own. I'm ready to tackle some new directions in life; I've got a bunch of great new people who have earned places in my heart. It's a great feeling.

That being said, I'm full of a mix of emotions. I'm glad to be getting home to see friends and family, but I'll definitely miss this place and the people here. I was offered a job, invited back for a wedding, and asked by at least a dozen different people if I'd be back next year. I don't know, guys. Maybe the year after. I've got to earn some money before I can afford to do the volunteer thing again, and get some things sorted out in my "real" life. I'm ready for it, though. I needed a break, I needed something totally different -- and I got it, and now I think I'm refreshed and ready to take care of business.

Bring it on, Life.

For those of you in the States, my plan is to reactivate my phone # on Thursday so I can turn off airplane mode once I land. I'll do my best to answer your messages in a timely fashion. ;)

It's been fun, McLeod. Maybe we'll meet again someday.

A Motorbike Adventure, and Kashmiri Hospitality

The countdown is moving faster all the time! I'm now in my last 48 hours in McLeod Ganj. It's amazing how you can feel like you're getting things done but once the deadline gets close enough, it seems like there's no way you'll accomplish everything you want to before you go.

Yesterday I went on an adventure with Neil. I know early on I swore I'd never get on a motorbike here in India, but the circumstances were such that I decided I'd take my chances in this particular instance. We rode the back way out of Lower Dharamsala, where I'd never been before, through a little village called Khanyara, and into the mountains. When the road got bad enough we were worried about the bike surviving the trip, we parked it and walked the rest of the way.

We found a valley full of slate (I think?) with a river at the bottom. We made our way down to the river where we took photos and video of the rushing water before finding a big, flat rock to use as a picnic area and eat our lunch. It's pretty amazing... looking at the way the rocks in the sides of the valley had clearly moved due to some kind of tectonic activity at one point or another was stunning. Millions -- billions -- of shards of rock littered the ground; it was like a geological boneyard. Standing there pondering this, I couldn't help but think that nature is so huge and so incredible, the sheer randomness of everything that happens in the world is poetry on a huge scale. In the grand scheme of things, none of it means anything... and yet there is such detail and such beauty and such intricacy that it feels like there's no way we could possibly ever discover everything there is to see.

The world felt enormous beyond comprehension.

A gigantic boulder "menacing the path," as Neil said.

Can you see the caves?

As it has since I returned from Rajasthan, once the sun goes down the temperature drops ten degrees within a matter of minutes, and then keeps on going. We rolled back into McLeod Ganj bundled up in multiple layers. The guys at New Varuni House, where I'm staying, had invited me for dinner around 8/8:30. At about ten after I got a call on my room phone informing me that food was ready and I should come downstairs.

I should know by now that the Indian definition of "come for dinner" is a bit different from the American one. What they meant was "Come down for snacks, drinks, and conversation, and we'll have dinner in a couple of hours." Regardless, I had a good time hanging out with Sanjay and Anil as we talked about all kinds of things. Apparently the Kashmiris are known for their hospitality, and these guys definitely lived up to the standard. We had aloo gobi (that's potatoes & cauliflower for those of you less familiar with Indian food), a chicken dish that isn't on the menu, and chapatti (roti/bread). I mentioned that they didn't offer channa masala on the menu (chickpeas) and that it's my favorite -- Sanjay told me that as a matter of fact, they bought some channa earlier and they'd be happy to make it up for me before I left.

So that's what I'm getting ready to do right now: go down and have some channa masala made just for me. :3 If last night is any indication, I won't be making it back to my room until midnight or so, so I'd be wise to tidy up a bit before I go. My bus ticket is booked for Wednesday evening, I finished all but the last few tiny bits of shopping today (Sanjay even offered to drive me out to Bhagsu to look for one piece in particular), and so I figured I'd start packing. I'm pretty sure by the time I give most of my old clothing to some of the locals and toss things I neither want nor need, I should be able to fit everything else into one checked bag, a carry-on, and a personal item (admittedly one that just barely falls within the measurement restrictions).

Earlier today I met Kalden and Van for lunch since Van was all set to leave for Delhi this evening. One by one, the volunteers are leaving. I was one of the first to get here and it seems I'm the last to leave. I've been saying goodbye to all the friends and acquaintances I've made here; there are a handful of people I wish I'd gotten to know better, earlier. So it goes. I guess it gives me extra incentive to come back.

I Heart Army Guys

Friday was our final day in Rajasthan. It had been a very fun three weeks, but all good things must come to an end sooner or later, and I did also want to get back in time for the end of the semester at Tibet Charity. After one last morning of breakfast and chilling at the hotel, we made sure all of our belongings were segregated into the correct bags and headed into Jaipur.

I saw Brij off at the travel agency where his bus was parked, and then I made my way up the main road to the train station. I had made plans to head back to Dharamsala the way we had come, via a place called Pathankot. The train would take me there from Jaipur (over the course of some 13-odd hours), and then I'd catch a bus back to the mountains and my home base here in India. Altogether the trip was scheduled to take around 18 hours.

People treat me differently when I'm by myself. In the case of people who want money from me, i.e. rickshaw drivers and shopkeepers, they usually hike up the prices enormously and expect that I won't know any better. In the case of most other people, they actually tend to be quite nice. As I made my way down the train platform -- with a bit of attitude, because you gotta at least look confident at times like these -- I scanned the area trying to figure out where I needed to be to catch my ride. I stopped to consult my ticket and an Indian man in his fifties approached me and offered to help. Seeing as I didn't have a whole lot of wiggle room on the clock and the last thing I wanted at that point was to miss my train, I let him. As it turns out, he was going to the same train. We walked down, down, down to the signs stating the sleeper cars would stop there. He told me he was going to Alwar (which I had never heard of, but I'd become quite familiar with over the next day) and that I should stop off with him and stay at his place for a while. I'd like to think it's genuine hospitality that motivates people to make these sort of offers, as it's not the first time it's happened, but luckily I was able to politely decline by informing him that I really did need to get back to Dharamsala and just for good measure, I said that my husband was waiting for me so I couldn't afford any delays. That usually works. Regardless, he was very friendly and gave me his business card, saying that if I needed anything I should call him. There's no harm in having contact info, I suppose.

Bye bye, Jaipur! It's been fun!

Train toilet empties directly onto the tracks. There are signs posted asking passengers to "kindly not use the toilet when the train is at a station." Note the handle on the wall so you can keep your balance.

Every time we passed through a town, motorbikes waited in packs at all the railroad crossings. It was still early in the day when I boarded, about 5pm, so it was too early to sleep. I took a seat near the window in my berth and contemplated my surroundings. The car wasn't too full early on and I was by myself, so I was less self conscious about practicing my Hindi. I asked the people around me where they were going and got answers like "Jammu" and "Alwar." They asked if I was going to Agra and I responded "Nahin, mai Pathankot ja rahi hun." They all nodded and smiled politely, but nobody tried to keep a conversation going. I decided to study.

Every so often the guy who said he was going to Jammu would look up from his phone at me; when his dinner came he offered me some, but again I politely declined. Once an old Indian guy boarded and gestured for me to get up so he could set up his bed (the seat I was using) and Jammu guy told him to take it easy, motioning to me to just chill where I was and not worry about it. Time went on and the sunlight faded; we all got into our beds and arranged our belongings as comfortably as possible. I caught a few of the guys in my berth (there were 8 beds in it, mine was on the top on the one side) watching me and held eye contact long enough that they'd know I had noticed. I heard people say "Pathankot" in conversation from time to time and couldn't help but feel like they were discussing me. As a woman traveling alone in India, there's plenty to be cautious of.

I settled in and tried to sleep. My stop was scheduled for 6:05am, so I set my alarm for 5. In India, the cell phone companies send their customers messages whenever state lines are crossed; not long after I got the "Idea [the phone company] welcomes you to Delhi!" message, I noticed the ride got considerably louder and the car began shaking. It passed, though, and I decided to go back to minding my own business.

Some time later I realized that the train had suddenly become much, much louder and was packed with people. The man in the bunk next to mine told me that we had to get off the train; there was something wrong with one of the wheels and we were stopped, waiting for a new one.

What he said seemed consistent with what I'd observed earlier, and everyone seemed to be getting off the train anyway, so I decided to trust him. A young man of maybe 25, sitting on the bunk across the aisle, told me in pretty-good English that he had pulled the emergency brake and we were stopped in Delhi, and that he and his friends in the next berth were soldiers in the Indian army. He patiently explained to me that we had to get off the train while they either fixed it or a replacement was found. He offered for me to stick with them, which I gratefully accepted.

Delhi's chilly in the middle of the night.

We hopped out of the train onto the tracks, them giving me a hand down, and walked down the platform until we were in an area that was better lit. Some time later, an announcement directed us to Platform 5; the army guys helped me carry my bag and made sure I was with them the whole way. They asked where I was from, if it was difficult not speaking much Hindi (toro toro, I told them, which means "a little bit"), and they told me it was their duty to make sure that I was safe. They asked my name; I have taken to telling people my name is Maggie because it's difficult for native Hindi speakers to pronounce Magda and the noodles with the same name are very popular here. It's quite funny.

When the new train finally arrived and the PA system instructed us to board, Sandeep (the young guy with the good English) instructed me to follow -- "chello, ma'am" -- and they got me situated in the new train car and bought me a cup of tea (vendors come through the train every hour or so selling the stuff. It's big in India).

Around 2am, some 4 or 5 hours after we had first stopped in Delhi, we were on our way again. I managed to sleep a tiny bit, but I was anxious about missing my stop even though everyone knew where I was going and I'd like to think someone would have woken me up when we got there. In India, there are no signs or notifications for where the train stops, you are just expected to know when yours comes up. Not being very familiar with the area (<<understatement), I was relying almost entirely on other people to make sure I got where I needed to go, especially now that we were so off schedule.

The sun came up and people folded the beds back into bench seats. Sandeep and the guys invited me to sit with them; when they busted out their breakfast of parantha and subji, they insisted I eat with them. The moment I was finished one of them handed me a bottle of water.

It was such a huge contrast to the way I'd been feeling a few days prior. Brij had given me a pep talk the other night where he told me that even for him, days were sometimes really good and sometimes really crappy. Blending in with the locals wasn't always a good thing; the way people treat you can change 180 degrees from one day to the next, he said, and you just have to try not to let the bad days get to you. I definitely experienced that. Whereas earlier in the week I felt like people were marginalizing me whether because of my race or my gender, on this train ride I felt an immense amount of love and respect from these people I didn't even know, like I had suddenly acquired half a dozen big brothers who were not about to let anything happen to me. As I thought about it, I realized that most if not all of the guys who had been paying extra attention to me earlier were also soldiers; rather than being creeped out by them staring at me I probably should have been grateful that they were staying alert.

My Indian army guardian angels. <3

When Sandeep asked what my opinion was of the Indian army I responded as honestly as I could without admitting too freely to my ignorance on the subject: all the soldiers I'd met had been very kind and helpful. He seemed happy with this answer. He told me that it had been a privilege to get to know me and to help me, and to speak English with me, and that he hoped we could keep in touch. We talked about all kinds of things and upon his assertion that "it doesn't matter what religion people are, we are all humans" I told him that was a very wise thing to say; he humbly accepted the compliment and I could tell he made a mental note of the new vocabulary word.

When my stop finally came up, 4 hours later than originally scheduled, they helped me off the train, carrying my luggage just as they'd done for many of the other passengers before me. "We want to come with you to the bus station to make sure you get there okay, but we have to get to Jammu," Sandeep told me. They were all on their way there to take exams so they could be social studies teachers upon retirement from the army. I thanked them for all their help, they took a bunch of photos with me, and we wished each other good luck.

From there I had to take a rickshaw to the bus stand and catch a ride to Dharamsala, which was still 4 hours away. The guy dropped me off on the side of the highway which I only allowed because there were other people there who confirmed they were waiting for the same bus I was. When it finally arrived (about 40 minutes later), I breathed a sigh of relief because the trip from there on out should be relatively straightforward. I eventually made it back into familiar territory, caught a local bus up to McLeod Ganj, and stopped in to Tibet Kitchen for some momo soup because by that time I had been traveling for a straight 24 hours and I was beat. Kalden was out hiking for the day but had graciously left his place unlocked so I could go take a shower and a nap before setting out to find a place to stay for the remainder of my time in India.

Mmm, momos!

First thing this morning, that's what I did. I elected to splurge a bit and have a place with wi-fi and a restaurant, just a couple buildings down from my former residence of Pause Dwelling. Only 19 more days!

Sleeper-classing our way to victory

Brij is pretty much the dopest person like ever. (<< He even helped me write this post.)

He got us train tickets to Jaipur so we didn't have to take a bus the whole way from Dharamsala through Delhi and into Rajasthan. See? Super dope. Anyway, Thursday we said our goodbyes to D'sala and made our way to the bus station. It was only after arriving and asking around that we realized nobody seemed to know exactly when the bus we needed was leaving.

Notice the number of people sitting in the bus station... and then how many chairs are occupied.

We had heard 2:00, 2:30, 3pm... Just as we were getting into a solid discussion regarding contingency plans, this pulled up. 

I think this one goes to Pathankot!

A few hours of cramped bus riding later (the above photo was taken before it really filled up) and we arrived at Pathankot train station. Or rather, we got dropped off down the road and across a few sets of tracks from the station; luckily, there was an army guy on the bus who was also going to the train station, so he offered to escort us there.

Only the finest in amenities at the Pathankot train station.

So anyway, we nommed on some super cheap veg thali (40 rupees each) and eventually our train arrived; we had to run to find our car before it started moving again, but we figured it out. Sleeper class was fun, if loud and crowded, and we slept for most of the 13-hour trip anyway.

Brij has hookups, so we managed to get a room in a fancy pants hotel for the next two nights. It wasn't supposed to be until tomorrow, but we were tired and hot and hungry and didn't feel like dealing with searching out a hotel when we finally arrived in Jaipur, so we found a driver and rolled up to one of the most luxurious hotels I've ever been to in a rickshaw, laughing the whole way.

EIGHT pillow options? What luxury is this??

Sooooooooo yeah. We spent last night on tiny vinyl train beds, and tonight we swam in a pool, hung out in a sauna, filled up on free drinks and canapes in lieu of ordering an expensive dinner... and tomorrow morning there's poolside yoga and perhaps another visit to the spa in order. Rajasthan is great so far. ;) I'm all about having the "real India experience," but every now and then it`s nice to be comfortable.

Really comfortable.

Observations on India 1

I present to you a random collection of some observations I've made while in India:

* Generally speaking, it smells a bit.

* The roads are wide enough for (usually) two cars and a pedestrian, but only barely, and if you're a little bit creative. Traffic passes much more closely than anywhere else I've ever been, but nobody seems to mind.

* You can drive the wrong way on the road as long as you stick to the outside and put your hazard lights on. Everybody does it; it's just how you get around here.

* There are an awful lot of animals in the roads, mostly dogs and cows. They seem to have an understanding with the drivers that they will move reasonably out of the way as long as the cars make an effort to go around them.

* There are cool birds here I've never seen before.

I'm not sure what these are, but there are a lot of them in New Delhi.

* In New Delhi the streets are filthy, but the subway is pristine.

* There are very few trash cans in public places. Most people throw their garbage on the ground. You can imagine how much I'm loving this.

* Almost all prices are negotiable.

* All the signs are in English but everyone seems to make up their own spellings.

* All the signs are in English, but most people speak Hindi unless you start speaking to them in English (or unless they are trying to get you, an obvious Westerner, to buy something).

* "Fog" is the default weather condition on the mountain in monsoon season. When it really rolls in, you can't see anything in the valley or more than a few dozen feet in front of you.

* Due to the fog, nothing ever really dries here. This means if you leave the windows open your blankets (and your clothing, and your towels...) will be damp.

* There's no air conditioning. Instead there are "coolers," fans with water dripping down. They actually work pretty well to cool the area, but not so much to take out the humidity.

* The menus include "buff," which at first I took to be a misspelling of "beef." You can't kill cows in India, though, and I was later informed that "buff" is in fact buffalo.

* Most menus don't have an explanation of what the items on them are, even when they have vague names like "special dumpling" or whatever #2 is on this one:

Is it made with real goblins?

* Coca-cola is huge in India.

* The vast majority of Indian women wear beautiful traditional clothing, even when doing hard labor like construction.

* Everybody wears flipflops, all the time.

* The power goes out at least once a day.

* Most bathrooms have a shower. It's one room, all tile, with a shower head, a sink, a toilet, a bucket, a squeegee, and a water heater with a switch. No shower curtain. You just take your shower and then squeegee the water on the floor into the drain when you're done.

* If you want toilet paper in a public bathroom, you better bring it yourself. If you want a seat, you might need to shop around.

A traditional/standard Indian toilet.

 
* Many of the floors are made of marble, even in otherwise modest buildings.

We went to a restaurant last night where, in order to get to the bathroom, you had to go outside and walk through some hallways and down a few flights of beautiful marble steps. I seriously felt like I had entered some dungeon or temple in a video game. Obviously this was the highlight of the evening. :)

New Delhi Noob

So today was my first day actually "in" New Delhi. I'm going to apologize for the lack of photos first, because the internet here is super spotty and it's taking me forever to upload from my phone to my computer. Hopefully that will change when I get to Dharamsala in a couple of days.

Today Kalden and his friend Palsang (a Tibetan monk) and I went to the Red Fort, which was (if I remember the story correctly) built by Emperor Shah Jahan (the same guy who built the Taj Mahal), and there was a big revolt against the British that happened there in the mid-1800s over the fact that some sort of "beef grease" was used in rifles at the time. Cows being sacred to Hindus, which most Indians happen to be, you can see why this would be a problem.

Oh, and yes, I have seen some cows lying in the street, just chilling. And pigs. And one cat. And lots and lots of dogs.

We got some cool photos of the architecture at the Red Fort (which I will upload at some point, I promise). As we walked through and he explained the history of the place, an Indian man who apparently worked there as a guide began chastising him in Hindi, which Kalden later translated to me that he had been angry that Kalden was explaining things instead of hiring a guide. He wanted us to pay him a bribe; Kalden refused, of course, and the guy tore up our tickets. We walked off (well, I just followed because frankly, I had no idea what was going on) and saw the rest of the fort in peace. Afterward, Palsang had  to go to the Chinese Embassy to take care of some paperwork, so Kalden and I headed over to the biggest mosque in Delhi, where they made me take off my shoes and cover up my bare shoulders, and wouldn't let Kalden in since they saw he had a camera. I went in to check it out and wouldn't you know, every third person had a camera. I'm sensing a bit of a double standard around here.

I am kind of digging the whole rickshaw thing. We have been taking pedal rickshaws and autorickshaws around the city, which seem to be able to be hired for about 20 rupees. The subway system here is also really nice. According to Kalden, it's new. It shows. The trains are sleek and quiet, and the subway stations are all sparkly clean. Unfortunately, this stands in a fairly stark contrast to much of the New Delhi "overworld:" there are nice areas but we've also gone through plenty where trash, well, litters the ground, and I've even seen piles of garbage and mounds of actual feces. The toilets are also weird (just a hole and a bucket of water, sometimes a little spray hose, almost never any paper). Plus you have to pay to use the public restrooms. Needless to say, it's an exotic place and that's cool and all, but I can see how I'll miss some of the comforts of home. Like sanitation. I'm keeping in mind, though, that billions of people live like this every day, so there's no good reason I can't manage for a few months. It'll be good for me, right?

I also got to see one of New Delhi's malls, which is strikingly western. So western, in fact, that I had trouble tracking down some "real" Indian clothing; everywhere we turned it was Starbucks, Tommy Hilfiger, McDonald's, even a Haagen-Dazs store. We also visited the Indian National Museum which was full of very cool sculptures of Hindu gods and Buddha, paintings involving an awful lot of cows, and even a human skeleton preserved from some hundreds of years ago.

Almost all of the public places we've gone so far have had security checkpoints in which "ladies" and "gents" form separate lines, put their bags on a conveyor belt into an xray machine, just like at the airport, and you walk through a metal detector and get a quick pat down by an official of your gender. So far I haven't had any problems, but it's a little weird. At least they're generally nicer than the TSA.

Tomorrow evening I board the "very nice Volvo" bus to Dharamsala. Palsang is also going, but on a different bus; a less nice one, perhaps not a Volvo. We should arrive around the same time, so he's going to accompany me to the Charity and make sure I get settled in. A few hours after that is the opening ceremony, and then I'm told I can sleep the rest of the day if I want. Depending on how jet lagged I am (so far, not very), I may, but I think it might be more likely that I check out the charity and try to make a couple new friends, and determine what essentials I might need to pick up from the store. The next day Kalden and Julie, another foreign teacher, will arrive, and he'll help me get settled into whatever room I'll rent for potentially the rest of my stay. I'm going to make "solid internet" a priority when choosing a place. If that's not plausible, I'm going to do my damnedest to find a place in town (Tibet Charity, maybe a library) that does have it so I can stay in touch with all of you. :)

EDIT: Updated to spell Palsang's name correctly. :)

Losing a Whole Day

I've done a little bit of traveling in my life. Generally speaking, I really enjoy traveling by plane; I'm a person whose only reason for shying away from flight is the bureaucratic omnipotence of the TSA, not because of any fear of the transportation itself.

Until yesterday, my longest plane trip had been the first one I made to Florida some ten years ago. The flight itself wasn't that bad, but I did have a 7 hour layover in Atlanta (it was a Thursday... I remember because it was also Thanksgiving). It was a long day, to be sure, but it's not much compared to a 9.5 hour layover followed immediately by a 15 hour flight.

The day started at 4:30am when I woke to a very Sheldon-Cooper-esque “*knock knock knock* Maggie *knock knock knock* Maggie *knock knock knock* Maggie” on my bedroom door. Not the worst way to start a day, really. Dad and I loaded up my stuff, picked up Mom, and made our way to O'Hare. It was definitely nice having them both see me off, as you can see in the picture in a previous post.

Upon check-in I was relieved to find that the suitcase I'd packed was in fact only 43 pounds (well under the 50# limit) so I wouldn't have to do any last-minute rearranging of things into my carry-on. Security was a breeze, and I didn't even get picked for additional screening like I usually do... I guess I look less like a troublemaker at 6 in the morning. The flight from O'Hare to Newark was easy and uneventful. Nothing I hadn't done before.

Upon my arrival in NJ, Brandi gave me directions on how to get to Brooklyn so I could meet her and have a 9.5 hour layover that involved something other than sitting around Liberty International Airport. I congratulated myself on making it through the AirTrain and NY subway on my own like a big girl, and Brandi and I enjoyed some pretty darn good Mediterranean food and a very nice visit before she saw me back to the station and I returned to the airport. I did have to step out for a pat down (I'd rather that than radiation) but then I was on my way to plop down at my gate until we started boarding.

Protip: There aren't many outlets to charge your phone at Liberty International, at least not in Terminal C. Prepare accordingly.

After a flight delay and some moments of “holy shit, this is really happening,” we finally got on the biggest airplane I have personally been on, a 777. You know, one with two aisles and three columns of seats, like you see in the movies. That in itself was a little surreal.

I took my seat near the window, 38L. The leg room in the economy seating area of the plane may not have been anything special (luckily I'm a smallish person to begin with), but the fact that the two seats next to me remained vacant meant I could stretch out all I wanted. I win! Of course, that would have to wait, but I smiled knowing that I was going to be a whole lot more comfortable for the next 15 hours than most of the others on the plane.

Everyone took their seats, the boarding doors closed, and the plane taxied to the runway. It was then, as the plane waited on the tarmac in that customary way that always lasts longer than I expect it to, that I became acutely aware of the sound of the engines. There was something about the way the sound rolled in waves that built my anticipation -- like the wind howling through the woods or an orchestra poised for the director's downbeat – the plane hesitated on the runway as if it were trying to decide whether it actually wanted to take off.

Of course, eventually it did. The engines roared and the plane hurtled down the runway, its nose lifting into the air. It was at this point that I first really, truly, felt at peace with my decision to go to India. In this moment I teared up for the first time since I'd begun planning this whole trip, and in this moment I knew that (nevermind it was was too late to change my mind at that point) it was honestly what I wanted to do. I felt good about it. I could see the wind rushing over the wing of the plane. The pilot pulled us into the air and circled over Newark once, as if extending one last invitation to say goodbye to the only country I'd ever known.

And we were off.

Those of you who expressed a wish that I be able to sleep on said 15 hour flight will be glad to know that that is exactly what I did for most of it. I had 3 books and a loaded, fully charged iPod with me just in case, but I only managed to get through a couple of chapters. I guess 3 hours of sleep the night before will do that to you.

In fact, I slept through the dinner service (which I was quite upset about, because damn did it smell good). Even as I lay there half asleep, I smelled the spicy, aromatic deliciousness that I know to associate with Indian food and knew it was going to be a good trip. Somehow I missed them when they came through the first time, but the nice flight attendant hooked me up with a vegetarian meal once they were done serving drinks, so it all worked out.

Struck with a case of “the itis,” as Joe used to say, I settled in for a nap as the little kid in front of me seemed to work on perfecting his Zanta impression.

I woke up to find the in-flight map showing that we were over the eastern coast of Greenland. Just cracking the window shade was enough to fill the cabin with light, so bright was the sun reflecting off the ocean, the ice, and the clouds. I tried to pick out the shapes of animals, boats, anything, but I'm not sure I actually saw any.

I read for a while and took another nap. Each time I woke up I checked the screen at the front of my seating section to see that a couple more hours had passed. I got through a few chapters of Something Missing and checked the window every so often, but mostly I just saw clouds. After another nap I woke to find that we were within the last 4 hours of the flight. According to the map we were over Afghanistan crossing the border into Pakistan. I took a moment to consider that this was likely the closest I'd ever get to either of these places, and just being able to look out at the parched, cracked earth and know that that's where we were made them more real to me. It was at this point that I started to feel a little anxious. This was really happening. Until now, India still seemed far away both in distance and in time. But now, if I chose to finish my book or flipped through the movies on the screen in front of me and put on Braveheart, I'd be landing by the time it was done.

It was precisely for this reason that I did neither of these things.

I wanted a chance, my last chance, to really think about what was going on. I began to wish I'd learned more Hindi before I left. I wondered if I packed the right clothing. I hoped my contact at Tibet Charity, Kalden, would remember to pick me up at the airport (as it turns out, he did).

As if to echo my own disbelief, the child in the seat in front of me asked his mother “Are we in India?” as we left the airspace over Pakistan.

As we approached Delhi from the northwest, I lifted the shade over my window again. Clouds rolled by, and lightning illuminated the sky beyond the wing. It was incredible. I felt like India was welcoming me, painting a sky more beautiful than any I'd seen before. The lights on the plane would blink and brighten the area for a moment, and then lightning would arc some distance off and reveal the depth and the texture and the massiveness of the clouds.

An hour or so later we finally landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. Upon disembarking, a flight attendant reminded us not to drink the water; some of the high school kids whose t-shirts identified them as a volunteer group of some sort laughed and announced to each other that they would have forgotten. Not me... I have my UV water bottle handy, and I'm ready to use it. I made it through Immigration (I threw out the pineapple and dates I'd brought after getting paranoid over a story how my uncle had gotten in trouble once for bringing fruit into a foreign country... turns out they didn't even check), got my bag, and found my ride.

One of the first things I learned about India was that taxi drivers are even more .. umm.. assertive here than they are in, say, Chicago. Granted, I don't have a whole lot of experience traveling in big cities, but suffice it to say I was glad I had someone with me who knew what he was doing. Apparently here it's not uncommon to turn around on a road and head back the wrong way, either. You just put on your hazards and people more or less get out of the way. Kalden explained to me that “you can do this here,” and that road rage is nearly nonexistent because this is just how it works in India.

Two traffic jams and as many hours later, we made it to the hotel. I thanked the taxi driver who responded in like, smiled, and bowed, and Kalden and I headed up what I would consider alleyways to the building. I noticed on the way some stenciled words announcing that the area supported Tibetan autonomy. This made me feel strangely welcome and as if I were in fact in the best hotel I could be. (Kalden has informed me since that this whole area is a Tibetan neighborhood.)

My hotel room is small but clean, and it's a bit funny but I find it more comfortable than many hotel rooms I've stayed in in the US. Maybe it's the cleanliness thing. 

The restaurant here is really nice, too. For breakfast I had muesli with yogurt and nice, big chunks of fresh apple, a boiled egg, and milk tea. Yum!

Today is Tuesday, even though yesterday when I left it was Sunday. I'm feeling pretty good so far, so we'll have to see how hard the jet lag hits me in the next few days. Kalden is going to show me around Delhi today. I think I'm going to opt for some scenic destinations, cultural points of interest and whatnot; he tells me he went to see Wolverine in 3D yesterday and it only cost him 150 rupees (about $2.50) so who knows, maybe a movie will make it into the schedule just to say I did it. Tomorrow evening I'll board the bus to Dharamsala which is where I'll be staying for the next 4 months.

P.S. It's hot here. Really hot, and really humid.

P.P.S. Everything here is in English, which makes it really easy to get around. I guess that's one perk to traveling to a country that was a British colony for a really long time.

FYI

Hi guys,
This is just a quick post to let you all know I'm safely on the ground -- and in a hotel, in fact -- in Delhi. Details and photos to come!

I'm not sure that I'll be able to use my phone, so in the meantime, you all should get Skype and friend me (stillcountingstars13, or search my name). ;) I'm sure the next few days will be crazy for me, but hopefully within a week I'll be more or less settled in and have my technology situation figured out.

Adventure, ho!