I had the intentions to write a bit before leaving on the day of my departure, but unfortunately that just didn't happen. My packing just barely happened. Time leading up to the day started to speed by so fast with visiting my loving family for the Christmas holidays, and saying as many goodbyes as possible, that it ran out quicker than I wished. Christmas eve and day floated by like a short, sweet dream of family and friends. The day I had been planning for for months was here, and there was still so much to do. I didn't feel ready, but who would? My dad helped by printing 85 copies of my boarding passes, and ordering me to put this 200$ in my pocket. Just in case. My mom hung in there- and it was all I needed. Eric gave me a big hug before heading off to work. (Congrats for getting into your first college yo!)
My parents and Joe accompanied me to the airport, and it still did not feel real that I would be in this foreign place for four and a half months. Even as I passed through security and waved my last goodbye. Even in Heathrow, where I spent 8 long hours staring up at these gigantic fruity-colored balls dangling from the ceiling, I couldn't wrap my mind around it. When my gate was announced for my flight to Hyderabad I started walking with a pit in my stomach, wondering why I was putting such a wonderful life on hold. Saying goodbye was the easy part. Being gone is where things start to get hairy.
Flying from Boston to Heathrow went smoothly. It was neat being in a window seat at night, observing the spider webs of tiny bright lights clustered at major cities. I read a bit, and tried to reason with myself that this was a good choice. I found it funny that three of the names that the voice on the intercom kept paging were names of people of I just finished working with on my internship- "Lang, Kimball, and Robson"! The layover was pretty brutal, but I did end up befriending an Indian girl of my own age as she searched for a place to plug in her laptop and had me test her new perfume. She studies computer sciences in Canada, and was headed home to see her family for a month or two. We watched a bollywood film on her laptop, and she translated everything for me, laughing hysterically. She said that there were about 5 bollywood stars walking around the airport that she recognized, but nobody really noticed. She also claimed to have seen Britney Spears in Canada a year before.
Waiting at the gate for my final flight, I finally found the young people crazy enough to be going on this trip with me. My worries faded, and my stomach began to feel more normal. They had all of the same problems as me, and had the same questions and concerns. And they all are turning out to be kind, interesting people. We survived the long 9-hour flight to Hyderabad, and most of us are far upwards of 24 hours without sleep. The bus ride to the University would have been an opportunity for sleep, but the images flying by of some of the lowest slums I have ever seen kept my eyes at attention. Wide open even. After settling in, we took a walk around the campus, followed by about 4 stray dogs at all times. We were generously invited to join an international conference on data mining, which I am not even sure is defined as, where we saw a neat ritual performed and listened to a singer. The speeches were way over my head.
I know I am rambling and probably skipping around and missing major details and making catastrophic sentences with outrageous spelling errors, but this is the best I can do until I get some sleep. I have no concept of time at this point. But know that I am safe and happy and my adventure has gotten off to a great start. Love you all, Miss you too!!!! :)
