In case you haven’t heard, starting in August, I’ll be more than 7,000 miles away from home in Pune, India. I’m living there from August 16th to early December (after which I plan on spending at least a few weeks traveling around India–a dream of mine). Pune’s about 3 hours southeast of Mumbai by train. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for anything, ever.
I’m not entirely sure why the study abroad process has to be so painful, but it is. Unnecessarily painful. I’m sure my fellow CC study abroad-ers can attest to this as well. The process started almost a year ago, with thinking and looking through all of the options and places to do study abroad. Here it is, a year later, and I’m finally actually preparing for my trip to India.
Everyone that I’ve talked to that’s been to India (Americans, at least), they say you can’t prepare. So I’ve stopped trying. Instead, I just plan on blogging my way through the experience, hoping that I’ll figure things out as I go.
As it is, I’m 86 days from my departure to India. Things I’ve already accomplished: applying to program, getting accepted to program, discussed plans with financial aid and the registrar, figured out credits to work with my major, completed first steps to getting a visa, and visited the doctor for my vaccinations. I’m currently vaccinated against typhoid, Hepatitis A, and gotten my polio update, have a prescription for 160 days of malaria prophylaxis–oh, and gotten a nice handout on all of the diseases they can’t vaccinate me against (Dengue fever, anyone?). Things I still need to conquer: irrational fear of parasites. There are tons of other preparations I haven’t even thought about yet, though I’m sure my mom is currently making a mental list of absolutely everything.
One thing that required a lot of thought was my letter to Sucheta, one of the program directors, about my host family. One of the coolest parts about the program I'm doing with ACM is the fact that instead of staying in an apartment or a dorm, I get to stay with a host family. I wrote to Sucheta that essentially the only thing I'm really concerned with is having kids my age. I hope that if they have kids around my age, maybe a bit younger, I'll get to see some really good parts of Pune. I want to spend time with Indians, and though I'm sure I'll have a blast with the other Americans on my trip, I want to get out of my comfort zone. I hope that living with kids my age will help with that aspect of my trip. I hope I get placed with a Hindu vegetarian family, because why not? Veg is healthy when done right and it is India, after all.
Time to go look for some flights....
