Indian plane food? Not so delicious.

Because I'm not really sure how to start this blog entry, I guess I'll just say that to begin with, I'm safe, happy, and loving India thus far. Now, I'll back track, and tell you about the 20+ hour journey it took to get me all the way here....

We left my house around 8:45 am on Friday morning. This was probably a little early in retrospect, but anxiety forced us out the door and down to Grandma's a little early. My brother was working that day, so he and I said our goodbyes in the kitchen after the obligatory family photos before my departure. We picked up my grandmother, then made a pit stop at the jewelry store where my ring was getting repaired. They didn't open until 10 and we were there around 9:45, so we just sat around and talked about how the employees didn't seem to care that we were clearly in a rush.

When we arrived at DIA, we obviously expected to say goodbye before security, but a thoughtful Continental employee let my family come out to the gate with me. We bantered a bit with the security guys and ate a very American lunch at Panda Express. After exchanging a few dollars for Rupees (about $7 worth, or 250 rps) and giving 50 of the Gandhi-adorned notes, we finally made our way to the gate. A short while and a few thousand pictures more and I was saying goodbye to my parents at the gate.

The flight to Newark was very uneventful. I took a dramamine and slept for about an hour, and made friends with the New Hampshire teenager and 20-something Manhattanite I was sitting next to. Once we were in Newark, I found a pay phone to call my parents, since my beloved (but tragically, American) Blackberry is still sitting on my bedside table back in Evergreen. I had to pay an entire dollar for a three minute conversation, which seemed more than ridiculous--not to mention obsolete, I actually got a few stares from New Yorkers trying to figure out why a girl, clearly in her 20s, was using a pay phone. Then it was time to find my gate, and typically, it was on the opposite side of the concourse (even though I flew into gate C113 and departed from C98).

The flight attendants were checking passports and visas when I got to my gate, so I joined the throng of passengers. Soon, I was joined by Liz, another girl on my program who was taking the same flight. We verified our passports and travel documents with the crew and then found somewhere to sit. A few minutes later, Nate, another ACM-er, joined the party and we all chatted while we waited for first class to board. I quickly found my seat, an aisle in an exit row and right behind the bathrooms midway through the plane, and settled in. I popped two more dramamine before stowing my backpack above me, and before I knew it, we were off. Because it was trans-Atlantic, and I may have the worst luck on flights ever, I was seated next to the obligatory crying baby on the plane. It was hard to be irritated though, his parents were young and looked as though they would be soon introducing him to family in India and were very apologetic for his crying.

Thanks to dramamine and a lack of lights, I got a nice 8 or so hours of sleep on the flight. The total time on the plane was about 14 hours, so I watched a few movies on the private touch-screen viewers they had for every seat. The rest of the time was spent draining the energy on my now-dead iPod and solidifying my sleep patterns with American time zones. As a side note... Indian plane food? Not so delicious.

The flight ended surprisingly quickly, and with breakfast, despite the fact that we arrived around 8:30pm Mumbai time. Liz, Nate and I found one another relatively quickly and made our way to customs. We were greeted, immediately off the plane, by uniformed Indians carrying machine guns and wearing surgical masks. That's right--H1N1, swine flu, has hit India. There have only been a few cases so far, but most of the locals are taking extreme measures to prohibit the spread of the flu as much as possible. Obviously, in a country like India, the masses of poor in slums are easy targets for large numbers of infected individuals in only a few weeks. All of the customs agents were also wearing masks, and we were forced to fill out forms assessing our H1N1 risk along with regular customs forms. Many Indians debarking from the plane were also wearing masks and protecting younger children.

Besides the surprising factor of the surgical masks, customs was very easygoing. We were ushered through fairly quickly and found the process surprisingly easy. The hardest part was finding our bags in a throng of people from our flight crowded around the carousel. And then...

Welcome to Mumbai. The last hour or so of easygoing airport officials did not prepare me for the sensory overload that is outside the Mumbai airport. The first thing that hits you is the heat, the humidity. It was instantly overwhelming and you could feel it on your skin long before making your way outside. Sometime during your first breath of 'fresh' Mumbai air, the volume hits you. Hundreds of Indians are crowded around gates keeping them from overcrowding the door leading outside. Many of them are waiting for family members or waving to friends arriving from some flight. Most of them are working for hotels or touring companies, holding signs with Western names on them that they would shake excitedly if I looked at them. Nowhere could Liz, Nate and I find a sign denoting that ACM students should follow them, we stood around looking sufficiently lost.

A friendly Indian airport worker was quick to our rescue, as he pointed out another student looking for our same group. Allison had been traveling for two weeks prior to the program's start by herself, and was meeting us at the airport. Once we were all together in a group, we decided to simply stand still and let the directors find us instead. Soon, Gene, Sucheta, and Aaron (the other CC-ite I had never met) were wandering towards us, and suitable introductions were then made. Soon we were following the rapidly disappearing backs of Indians from our hotel in Mumbai towards the van taking us to check in. The drive was incredibly stressful, that's all I can really say about it. There seem to be no rules, other than that you should generally drive on the left side of the road and usually stop at red lights. Honking seems to be the way of directing traffic around here, a way of signifying to cars and motorcycles that you are about to pass them on the right in the same lane they're currently driving in. Turns are tight and maps are nearly unreadable, but the drivers seem cool and collected and more than prepared to drive in what I can only see as utter chaos.

The next few hours were mostly uneventful. I got to hang out with the other kids in the program, which was a welcome rest from the long, solitary silence of the flight. Soon, Ben and Garrett joined us from their flights that got in around 11pm, and then eventually we were joined by Sydney and Logan, who both got in around 1am. Soon enough we had the whole group together in one room and were making introductions. Of course, to our American brains (except for Allison, who's accustomed to the time zone already) the middle of the night seemed like the middle of the day, so 3am after a shower turned out to be an acceptable bedtime. I only slept for about 3 hours, using this morning as time to catch up on a little reading and enjoy some Indian TV (which is an amazing mix of Hindi and English).

This morning, we were treated to Indian breakfast at the hotel, which was an interesting experience. A little later, we were repacked and jumping into a bus for the 3 hour trip to Pune. The ride was a good experience, and overwhelming in a lot of ways. It was a chance for more bonding with the rest of the group, as well as observation of the outer limits of Mumbai and the countryside on the way to Pune. I was surprised and amazed at the miles and miles of slums that lined the expressways, so obviously wracked with terrible poverty. These lean-tos quickly gave way to miles and miles of the most beautiful forest I've ever seen. We are, quite literally, in the middle of the jungle here.

Now that we're checked into our hotel in Pune, we have regular internet and comfortable beds. I have to go now to a meeting with the doctor about staying safe and healthy in this H1N1 scare, as well as digestive and traveling health in general. I hope to hear from you all soon, and happy travels to those of you who haven't left yet.