Back

I just got back to the US on the 8th. All the flights home plus layovers amounted to over 30 hours of traveling, I think. I flew from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. I was worried about the 5 hour layover at Mumbai, but going from the domestic to international airport took so much time that I actually only had an hour or so to kill before my flight left. My two large, checked bags were over the weight limit so I had to pay $50 for each to get them home. And to make more of my luggage allowance, I purchased a rolling, carry on and took my huge laptop backpack. Along with these bags and shipping home all my research books fro $100, everything made it back, and happily only one glass lantern ended up broken out of everything!

To go from the domestic to international airports, for security reasons even though all my luggage was checked through, I had to wait for it to come of the luggage belt and identify it before they would send it onward. Finally after that, I had to wait in line for the shuttle to the international airport. For some crazy reason, there was only one shuttle that came only once every 30-45 minutes! As I lugged my carry-on done the stairs and then up the steps on the shuttle, I was reminded how difficult India must be for anyone disabled!

I have to say I felt kind of sorry for the American flight crew with a plane full of Indians. They had a hard time getting them to put on their seatbelts. Repeatedly they had to tell people that their children could not just run around the aisles but needed to stay in their seats. One father would not keep the seatbelts on his kids and himself. The flight attendant said that if they did not keep their belts on over their blankets, she would have to wake the kids up to see if the belts were on. Later he assured her that his belt was on. I heard her say, "Sir, I can see your seatbelt hanging down from your seat there!"

One of the things I had really missed besides American food, was American bathrooms. I'm not talking about the squat toilets or anything, but just the more luxurious feeling of our bathrooms. Indian bathrooms are small rooms completely tiled. Although there are often shower heads, everyone fills a bucket of water from the tap and uses a cup to pour water over themselves. I did this for most of the time, until it got really hot, and standing under the shower was a respite from the heat. There is rarely hot water, and believe me sometimes in the winter there, you do want it. If it is needed, they may purchase a 'geezer' which is a unit that attaches to the wall and warms the water. You have to turn it on 10 minutes before your bath to get the water warm. Or get a plug in heating rod that you put in the bucket of water to heat it up.

Adjusting to life back in the US hasn't been much of a problem at all really. One of the only things that really hit me was taking a shower for the first time. At home there was a new showerhead with multiple settings. I turned the shower on, and the water came out so hard that I felt like I was standing under Niagara falls! I changed the setting to the one that seemed to come out the most gentle, but still I felt horribly guilty about how much water I was using to get clean! Compared to the small amount I had been using in India, even when I did use the shower - there I was able to turn the shower off while I soaped my hair and back on to wash the soap off, and the water pressure was a mere trickle compared to this! And I will admit, I have never been a very environmentally conscious person, I know it's bad, but I'm not, but the shower made me feel horrible!

The funniest part was though that later that day, Sam and Mom just happened to be talking about the new shower head. They were complaining that they didn't like this new one because the water pressure was way too low! I couldn't believe it!

And I must say that I do kind of miss the outsidey-ness of India, despite my promise of never going outside again when I came home. I woke up in my bed the first day back (which was fabulously comfortable) and missed my open balcony doors. And, yes, I realize my hypocrisy because I'm sure the minute I'd be back in India, I would be complaining about the heat and the pigeons getting in, and the dirt, etc from having the doors open. But the bed is great too. Mattresses in India were pretty thin and hard, I mean it wasn't uncomfortable but there's just nothing like lying in a big, fluffy mattress with lots of nice bedding!

Here are some pics of me arriving back home. They made my favorite dinner of steak and Caesar salad, and I gave the family all of their goodies I brought back. Sam was excited about the cricket T-shirt I brought; he said it was a perfect bike riding shirt.

Monsoon!!

So finally! Here is the big monsoon! Almost every single day it has been raining, often more than once. As this has cooled the temperature dramatically, I do not care in the least about the wetness! However some days the insane humidity does get to me.
We were watching Indian Idol yesterday, and my roommate asked me, "How is her hair so smooth and shiny?? They don't have humidity there??"

The three of us roommates got ourselves niced up to go out for my going away dinner with some friends. We got outside and it just started raining. And when it starts raining, it can be hard to find an autorickshaw. All the autowalas suddenly have an attitude, I suppose knowing that now the whole city is depending on them, they refuse to take anyone anywhere, and when they do, they increase the fare. We finally found one that night, but not before the effort of fixing our hair and all was for naught.

Part of the problem is that there is no stormwater drainage system, so low points just flood with nowhere to drain. Traffic gets completely jammed as everyone is in a hurry to get where they are going, and no one will give way to each other. That night we sat at an intersection for 10 minutes at least because the vehicles coming from either direction just kept moving forward without letting the others pass. Finally no one could move at all. All the poor people on motorcyles and scooters were completely drenched. Finally our heroes, the autowalas, hopped out and started directing traffic and got things moving. Even after this trouble, we still were the first to arrive at the restaurant.

In this humidity, the clothes that dried on our balcony in a day, now take days to dry, so we have to bring them inside under the fan.