Ok bear with me...I have never written a blog before.
Well I have finally made it to India after 36 hours of traveling! I left on Tuesday at 5:55pm and got to the school at 7:00 pm today. It was one crazy trip though! I had a 10 hour layover in London which was fine because I got to hang out with my friend Alex from when I studied at Cambridge. In a short 10 hours, I was able to travel from Heathrow to Knightsbridge via the tube, go to a park overlooking the city, and have dinner at an amazing crepe restaurant. I made it back to the airport with 10 min to spare! I had a lot of people asking me why I was going to Mumbai as we were boarding the airplane. There were many Brits on the flight, but they were either with people or men...so a lot of people were curious why I was by myself. The flight to Mumbai was another 10 hours, but I watched a lot of Friends, Big Bang Theory, and Modern Family so it went by pretty fast.
Mumbai airport was probably one of the most stressful experiences. I started off with going to the wrong place to connect flights. I went through security, realized I had the wrong boarding pass, got yelled at by the guards, and snuck my way back through security to get back where I needed to be. So after all that, I was told that I needed to collect my luggage even though at LAX they told me it would arrive in Bangalore. I found out though that you go through customs and immigration at Mumbai and then you have to recheck your bags for your connecting flight. I freaked out a bit when I couldn't find my bag, but eventually saw it on another belt. Flying into Mumbai, you could see the slums everywhere. Next to nice buildings, even the airport, there were rows and rows of basically cardboard shacks. It was my first introduction to the poverty of India and I honestly gasped when I saw it.
The Mumbai airport is designed poorly and thus domestic flights are in a whole other part of town basically. I fortunately was escorted to a bus and from the bus to security. However, when I went through security they singled me out and made me take out everything. They also wouldn't give me back my boarding pass because I supposedly needed a stamp on it from my airlines. I didn't know how to get that stamp, but eventually a nice employee ran out of security to get me the stamp. After all that though, I boarded the 2 hour flight to Bangalore.
I was picked up at the airport by a man named Babu(isn't that the monkey from Aladdin?) Another girl volunteering for the program arrived as well. Her name is Nanji and she is from Germany. She is my roommate, but doesn't speak English very well. She seems very nice though. Driving to Shanti Bhavan was an interesting 3 hour drive. First of all, driving in India is scary. lol There are no traffic laws and lanes don't really exist...lots of beeping. I fell asleep for a good majority of the ride because I was so exhausted. We honestly went to the middle of no where. Dirt roads, no lights, and only the occasional house. It seems to be a very secluded area.
Once I got here at 7pm, my bags were taken to my room and I met the other volunteers...all female. lol I had a dinner of rice, which was okay....I really need to get used to the food. I've talked to a few students and they all seem very nice and typical teenagers. I caught one reading The Kite Runner so of course I had to mention SCU since the author went there and was my commencement speaker.
Well it's 9:30, but I'm pretty tired and have to be up at 6am :( Soooo, ya day 1 of India!
