So, on my old blog, I promised a breakdown of my trip to India and never got around to blogging because it was a pain to blog and I just didn’t do it.  But I’m really loving this new blog, and it’s so much easier to blog, so I will probably actually write in my blog.  Probably.  So here’s part II of my trip blog, as taken from my journal that I kept on my trip.

The plane touched down at Indira Gandhi International Airport in the afternoon, and I was exhausted from the flight.  I didn’t sleep well on the plane.  I sat on the plane with two other teachers who I had become friends with on our pre-trip studies, and we stayed up all night talking like school girls at a slumber party.

We were told that when we got off the plane, we would be greeted by a “sea of humanity,” and to look for our professor in the crowd.  But, when we landed, there really wasn’t the crowd we expected, and I was, honestly, quite disappointed.  I was looking forward to being engulfed by people speaking different languages and wearing unusual clothing, smelling food I had never tasted and maybe grabbing a snack on the way through the concourse.  

We were herded to the baggage return, picked up our bags quickly… except for my two friends.  The bags stopped appearing on the carousel, and there stood my friends, sans luggage.  They headed to the baggage desk, only to be told that their bags had never arrived in Delhi, and to call the next day to find out what happened.

That’s the thing about India, we learned very quickly — the 24-hour customer service and instant information that we enjoy in America just doesn’t happen in India.  This is a good and bad thing.  In some ways, it’s good to have to wait… to have an excuse to put things off until the next day, and not be in a breakneck hurry to do things all the time.  On the other hand, when you’re in an unfamiliar country and everything you need is in that suitcase, waiting really sucks.

We met up with our professor exchanged our money, and boarded a bus for our home for the next few days — Jawarlahal Nehru University.   We had spent a lot of time trying to figure out what happened to the luggage, and we were very tired and hungry.  We had a full schedule for the next 10 days, and we needed to get some rest (and showers!)  We looked forward to getting to the university, which was supposed to be near the airport.

That’s another thing we learned about India — travel is slow.  ”Near the Airport” could still take a lot of time, as the bus wove through traffic and obstacles (cows!) to get us to our destination.  Oh, and we found that “sea of humanity.”  It was not at the airport, because it was all out in the streets!  I have never seen so many pedestrians and bikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, bike rickshaws, motorcycle rickshaws, carts, carriages, and just about any other form of transportation imaginable.  We seemed to be carried by osmosis more than internal combustion through the landscape and onto the JNU campus.  

(to be continued.)