I am in India!

Hey guys!


Like the title says, I have arrived in India, safe, sound and happy. I finally had a chance to check my email and update you all.


Getting here was quite an adventure. First, my bus ride to Chicago flew by without me even noticing. From there, I made my way to O'Hare in record time and got on board my first flight without any problems. While on the flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, it seemed to be taking forever. But once I was enjoying my layover in Germany, it seemed like I had just left Chicago. Regarding the flight on Air India to Frankfurt, I have never been on much an active flight in all my years. There were so, so, so many children on board and everyone was getting out of their seats to walk around. There were also about 3 screaming babies withing three rows of me, but I had earplugs. So it didn't drive me crazy.


On the flight from Frankfurt to Delhi I accidentally slept. I actually wanted to sleep on my flight to Frankfurt and stay up on the flight into Delhi, but it didn't happen that way. I was so sleepy I was seeing double!


Once I arrived in Delhi I found an ATM and prepaid for a taxi. I gave the guy at the booth a map for my hotel, the Pallavi Palace, and paid roughly $5 for the ride. When I got in the taxi, the location the man at the booth had written on the slip was not the location I needed to go. Although the taxi driver used a map I printed from google to do his best to get me there, there was a point where he turned around in his seat, pointed to a closed road, and told me me quite simply, "No taxi. Rickshaw." I was then hustled out of the taxi and loaded onto a carriage pulled by a bicycle. I asked the price and the young man said 50 rupees.


I would like to interrupt my own story for a moment and thank Blogger for automatically saving my entries. The Internet cafe I am at just lost power and thanks to the auto save, I don't have to start from scratch!


Back to my story, the driver said 50rupees, I halfheartedly said ten. Although I knew 50 was a rip off, I just wanted to find my hotel, put my bags down, and get something to eat. I agreed to 50 rupees, hopped on the seat and we took off down the dodgiest street I have ever seen in my life. There is no way for me to accurately describe my surroundings. I had to hold on for dear life because of all the bricks in the road, bricks that had fallen from the surrounding dilapidated buildings. I wish I could have seen myself!

The rickshaw driver didn't know where to bring me. The young man was maybe 16 years old. Although I had a map, he seemed clueless. At some point in the adventure, he turned his head and said, "now 100 rupees." When we finally arrived at my hotel, the young man asked for 100 rupees. I said no, and handed him a 50 note. He argued in what I think was Hindi, and I argued back in English.

So that's the brief summary of how I got to my hotel from the airport. This morning I woke up at about 4:00 and stayed in my bed until 6:30. I got up, dressed and took a walk around New Delhi looking for food. I'm a little hesitant to eat any and everything just yet, so I ended up heading back to my hotel for breakfast. I ordered aloo gobi from room service, and the staff looked at me like I was a little crazy. I got the impression that aloo gobi is not breakfast food. I guess it's like walking into a Denny's and ordering a plate of spighetti at 7:30 a.m.

Now I am off to go shopping for clothes and a sim card for my phone. I'm a little nervous to leave the area around my hotel because it was so hard to find my way here last night. But I'm brave, so I'll do it.

Love!!!!

MCC