I have never done this before. The blogging thing has always made me feel a bit overwhelmed. I look at the screen and the blank box before me and I don't really think any of my experiences are quite perfect enough to be published out into the vast inter-web or bloggersphere. However, after I discovered that I had been accepted to participate in the Global Engagement Summer Institute in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, through Northwestern University, I suddenly had this feeling that blogging would seem right this time around. So with a short spout of musings about blogs, I guess I'll hop to it.

The title of this blog has several meanings. First, I really like how it sounds. Second, I like how the word Digging is also frequently associated with curiosity and looking for information. Third, my perspective as a child involved ambitions of digging to China as is common of American children. If you look at a map, however, you will realize that if any ambitious, freakishly strong, child would actually dig through the entire 12,756.2 km of rock and molten iron, to the other side of the earth from Chicago, Il, that little champ would end up in the Indian Ocean.
(map: http://www.peakbagger.com/pbgeog/worldrev.asp)

So in that sense completing the task of Digging to India is actually impossible. It isn't something you set out to do, just to get it done. I see my summer as something along the lines of Digging to India. Although I will learn a ton while I am going through GESI, I will also be challenged to reconsider what is possible in International Development and what I want this experience to mean for my future. I am a rising senior at Northwestern University, and while many of my friends seem to have their ducks in a row with Banking, Consulting, Analyst, Film, and Engineering internships, I am embarking on a journey to a part of the world I have never been before.

Today was the first day of orientation and after saying goodbye to my mom as she dropped me off with my backpack and rolling bag, I checked into the youth hostel in the loop and GESI began! We started with icebreaker games and our first journal assignment at the school of continuing studies, then we split up into groups and spent our afternoon doing a scavenger hunt around chinatown with our newly befriended teammates (pictures to come, we had such a great afternoon). We finished a long but rewarding day with delicious thai food at Star of Siam, and rap performances about where and what each group experienced while they explored chicago. Everyone is exhausted and must be up to re-locate to the Evanston Campus tomorrow morning at 7:00 am... oof. T minus 6 days until we depart for India.