June 6, 2012
Well world, today I made it to Chennai FINALLY! Although the
12 hour layover was rough sitting on a cold tile floor most of the time twiddling
my thumbs with what to do. I
learned quite a few things at the airport in Delhi. Apparently blueberry muffins are a dessert food, and are
served with ice cream and chocolate sauce. The flight from Delhi to Chennai was pretty smooth seeing as
I slept 2 hours and 35 minutes of the 2 hour 40 minute ride ;)
When we arrived in Chennai today, the shocks started for me.
What I mean is, everything my eyes witnessed from the minute I stepped off of
the plane was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The first thing I did was have my very first experience with
an Eastern style toilet. It is
very true that the foot grips are there for a reason, and I was not a huge
fan. It is similar to going in the
woods, however, for some reason, going pee behind a tree seems more appealing
than in an airport bath stall.
Must just be the country girl in me I suppose.
After that eye opener, we got our bags and headed out the
door where we met with Dr. Mohan Kumar, and a taxi van thing that was to take
us to TANUVAS. Holy cow is the
driving in India insane! The lines on the road, stop signs, and stoplights that
people in the US abide by so vigilantly are more of suggestions here, and there
is a ton of close calls and horn honking.
I cannot even count the number of times I almost saw a motorcycle get
taken out by a bus. Dr. Kumar says that it is just a trust thing here when it
comes to driving, but holy sh** you would never catch me behind the wheel of
anything here. I suppose I would
take the bus or walk instead. It was
also very interesting to just look around at my surroundings. There are very crowded and cluttered
streets filled with street vendors and merchants, COWS, and a ton of garbage. If I take one thing away from this
whole trip, it will be a thorough appreciation of how lucky I am to live in the
United States of America, and just how many things I take for granted.
After about 45 minutes of driving (around 3:00 p.m.), we
finally arrived at TANUVAS, and got to put our things inside our little homes
for the duration. The “hostels” as
they are called, are really quite nice!
I have my own bedroom with an attached bathroom, there is a large common
area, a kitchenette thing, WI-FI, and AIR CONDITIONING! It is so nice to have air seeing as it
is in the hundreds everyday here.
Once we dropped our bags off we were whisked away to the hostel guest
kitchen where we were served a delicious lunch by our personal chef
Rajinran. We had fried rice, a
potato dish, capati, and a chicken dish.
Needless to say, our bellies were full. Then, we went back to the hostel just to hang out, unpack,
try to stay awake after 48 hours of being up, and watch a little Indian
TV.
At 7:00 p.m. we went for a light dinner with my favorite
Indian dish so far. I don’t know
what it is called, but it is kind of like a potato soup thing served with a
deep fried puff thing…anyways it is delicious. I also got to try some awesome mango!
Now I am sitting here, alone in my room, after dinner, and
I’m feeling a bit homesick. Our
internet is down, so there is no chance of communication with my life back at
home, and I guess I’m just feeling a tad bit lonely in this big world. I’m also feeling a tad bit pathetic
because I am the one who chose to be here, and I know that I am going to have
the trip of a lifetime, so I should probably stop feeling sorry for
myself. Tomorrow we are taking a
tour of the vet school, and are going to meet some very cool people, and then
this weekend we are going shopping for sari’s. Hopefully our internet is back up tomorrow so I can video
chat with my loved ones…ahh one can only hope. Well goodnight world, this is
Audrey signing out for the night.
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