Welcome to India!

I only got internet access today (the 3^rd), but here is the journal I wrote on my first day:
Well I’ve officially arrived in India! Right now I’m writing this in my bedroom in my host family’s apartment. It’s about 6:30 in the morning on August 1st and it’s been a long almost 48 hours of packing and travel.  As I write this I’m in my pajamas and going to try and get some sleep soon. Meanwhile the city of Pune is waking up. Outside my window I can hear a mix of birds, alarm clocks and car horns.  I’m going to try and type everything up before I forget it since I probably won’t be able to upload this to my blog for a few days. This is going to be long, but here it goes:

After sleeping the whole flight to Newark, Audrey and I had to take a shuttle to get to another terminal for our flight to Mumbai. On the shuttle we met some lovely older women from North Carolina who were going to Ireland. They were very interested in where we were going and were so nice! After finding our way to our gate we had to get our visas checked and then waited around for a while. We met an Indian student named Ria from Mumbai. We had a fun talk and hopefully will be able to see each other sometime in the coming months. Also at the gate we met a girl named Mariana from Mexico who is being hosted by a Rotary club in Mumbai.

The fifteen hour flight was actually pretty good. I watched a lot of movies and got a few hours of sleep. We also got served surprisingly good in-flight food. I lost track of how many times during the flight Audrey or I would turn to the other and say, “We’re going to be in India!!!” The TV screens had a flight tracker so we were able to track our progress across the globe. Finally we landed, still in disbelief, in the Mumbai airport. As we left the plane we first got hit by the heat. We knew it’d be hot but it surprisingly didn’t seem too terrible until we remembered that it was 9 o’clock at night and the sun wasn’t even out! It was incredibly humid (according to my host mom 95%) and pretty soon the bottoms of my feet, of all places, were sweating. As we left the plane we went over to the side of the terminal to get all of our bags figured out and to change into our blazers. As we were doing this we realized on the other side of the glass wall a group of boys about our age were staring straight at us. Although we’d heard we would get stared at (since we definitely do not look remotely Indian!) it still made us uncomfortable. So much so that we stared laughing uncontrollably, which only made other people stare at us too.

Finally after going through customs we went to find our luggage. It took us some time but an airport employee took pity on us and helped us with our bags and going through the final security checkpoint and passport check. Then we headed outside to find our families. Luckily Audrey’s host father, Ganesh, was near the door and he showed us over to the exit, where host parents, Sameer and Rashmi, were waiting for us. My host mom had flower garlands for us and we took some pictures before heading out to find a taxi. It was even hotter and busier outside the airport. The waiting area for passengers was completely full and there were cars and taxis all around. We got into a taxi and headed out of the airport.

Audrey and Me: hot and tired, but excited!

My host mother, Rashmi, and me

Although Pune is only about 100 km (or 60 miles) away from Mumbai, but my host parents explained it would probably be a 4 hour drive. This was extra concerning once I realized that although I had a seat belt I didn’t have anywhere to connect it. So I held onto the door and tried not to imagine how concerned my Mom would be. Instead I looked out my window and watched the city go by. For the biggest city in India Mumbai looked very different than I imagined. It was actually pretty spread out and the buildings, along the road at least, weren’t that tall. Compared to New York or Chicago, where there are narrow streets and tall buildings right next to the road, it looked totally different. What it lacked in height however it made up for in crowdedness and sheer size. There were also people and stray dogs all over the place and if it hadn’t been dark out I would have assumed it was the middle of the day. It took what seemed like forever to get out of the city, but once we did we stopped at a sort of gas station-rest stop. I had fallen asleep, but as soon as I got out of the car I realized that I really was in India. Audrey and her host dad had also stopped and the two of us were the only non-Indian people there. We didn’t get flat out stared at, but I was really aware of how much we stuck out. I went to the bathroom and was a little surprised to find my first squat toilet. We also got some food, a sort of soup and bread and some sweet corn. I ordered some pineapple juice, without ice in the hopes of not exposing myself to unclean water within two hours of my arrival in India. I had assumed that it was prepackaged juice but it ended up being cut up pineapple in a blender, so I’m hoping my digestive and immune system can handle it.

On the long drive I got my first taste of the roads. Because it was night there were cars, but mostly trucks. The trucks are quite different than American ones. They are smaller, more colorful and highly decorated. Most have designs painted on them as well as the phrase “Honk Please” on the back. This confused me, but my host mom explained to me that in India people honk more as a means of communication, such as notifying others of your presence. The horns also sound completely different. They are all different tones and many sound like trumpets or musical chords. The horns are almost constant and make the noise of traffic more exciting.

We finally got to my host family’s apartment at 5:30 in the morning after more than 6 hours of driving! Before I even came inside I was greeted by a welcome sign design made out of colored powder that the friend of my host mother did and inside there was a mat made out of flowers that according to tradition I had to walk over. Even though it was the early morning I was totally awake so I unpacked my room and got set up.

The beautiful welcome sign

The welcome mat of flowers

My room

The view from my window

It still hasn't really sunk in that I’m in India for the next 10 months. Now that I’m in my host family’s apartment it’s more real. When I was sitting in the taxi every few minutes I would have a moment of clarity and realize that I am in India! It’s a mix between my stomach dropping and feeling like I could fly. Just a year ago I was excited by the idea that I might spend a year abroad and now here I am in a different country. The year which I’ve been waiting for is about to begin and I can barely believe it. My adventure is about to start!