...and we're off!

It’s New Year’s Day in India, and it was one hell of a year. I made it to 2008 a good 12 hours or so before you all did which is a fun thing to be able to say. If you had asked me a year ago today what I would be getting up to over the next 12 months, ending up in Hyderabad would have not even been a germ in my mind. But here I am, and I couldn’t be happier.

Well maybe that’s a bit of a generalization – I don’t actually know how I feel. Mostly overwhelmed, also terrified, excited, hungry for all the delicious food they feed me, sweaty, jet lagged, who even knows – I haven’t felt this many emotions at once in a long time. My body and mind are just confused, and I have a feeling the posts on this blog are going to get very interesting very quickly. I’m down to do anything here; I’ll sacrifice sleep for adventures in a heartbeat. I’ve got my malaria pills and a ton of Imodium, and am off to see what I can find.

Just took a nice hot shower which is a great way to deal with the chilly Indian winter nights. The days are warm though which is nice – it’s been up around 30 degrees Celsius here during the day. It’s a bit warm for winter apparently (even the Indians are sweating!), but nothing like summer, where I’ll be trekking around in 45 degree heat. A little bit different from the -30 whiteout I was in while skiing a week ago at Sunshine.

I’ve always been a strong believer in food being one of the most important parts of any traveling, and that is certainly proving to be true here. Feeding time is the best time, as we’re getting delicious Indian food every day and it’s an adventure at every meal. As a lefty I have an interesting challenge in front of me, as the left hand is traditionally only used to wipe certain lower parts, and it’s rude (sinister?) to use it for anything else. Including eating. I’m officially off cutlery though, and am tearing bread, mixing dal, and scooping rice entirely with my right hand!

Well there’s lots to come but here’s a quick recap. Flew through Dubai, which I’ve been dreaming about for months. It was just as weird as I expected it to be, and then some. Crazy welcome to this part of the world – huge palm trees, different kinds of people all over, people sleeping on their own personal carpets lined up along the moving sidewalk, etc etc. Got to India and am still trying to figure out where I am – I keep pointing towards the ground trying to point at my house to try and place myself on the globe, but am having a damn good time over here. Have been walking around the campus a lot passing things like water buffalo on the streets and monkeys in the trees. Getting out into the city too, where it turns out people love me – on the bus the other day a guy gave me his business card, another guy took a picture of me with his cell phone, and a third was waving at me and wanted to shake my hand. Our crew here makes up pretty much the only white people I’ve seen which is refreshing but also leads to us getting a lot of surprised looks. Went to a crafts fair where everything was beautiful and still dirt cheap, and am looking forward to going shopping for fabric and getting some rad Indian clothes made up for me by my new tailor.

Look at my pictures! They’ll be posted on my Picasa site – the link is somewhere on this page. Check back here early and often for more news from India!