Namaste! I cannot believe we've made it to Delhi. The hotel ashok is our home for the night, before we fly to Udaipur tomorrow morning and the real fun begins.  First order of business was to find the hotel restaurant for water and naan (which was incredibly tasty and incredible inexpensive, considering the exchange rate is 56 Rupees to 1 Dollar; bad for India, but good for us). After a long day-ish of travel, I've finally stolen some time away.

The most shocking thing about Delhi was the 45º Celsius wall of humid heat that closed around us when we left the airport. 45º is over 100º Fahrenheit, and it was 7 pm, almost dark... I'm thinking back to the week of pre-departure classes from 9 am to 9 pm, and now regret how I complained about the over air-conditioned class rooms. (but having goosebumps in the middle of June did seem kind of unnecessary) 

The first week of Gesi brought a variety of experiences, the most valuable were when I talked with other students about the various countries they are visiting this summer; S. Africa, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Uganda, Nicaragua, and most importantly, India. Our student instructor, Rena, who worked in Udaipur two summers ago, was incredible. She gave us travel tips and tricks, "Make sure you take the train to the Golden Temple and eat at the Sikh kitchen... Be prepared for situations where people do not speak to others because of their caste." Her stories made me excited and impatient to leave northwestern and be done with the repetitive academics that were becoming increasingly boring. But being at northwestern wasn't so bad. Being in evanston the last few nights before I left allowed me to say goodbyes to friends. I wish I could stuff them in my suitcase with my various anti-malaria, nausea, sleeping, headache, and antibiotic medications, so they could come with me. 

But the week soon ended and Friday morning we left evanston at 10 am, drove to O'Hare and boarded flight 126, Air India, Chicago to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Delhi. Our sassy bus driver put us all in a good mood by cheering and singing over the loud speaker, he even reminded us to double check if we had our passports. So we left at 10 am Friday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed and arrived at 7pm Saturday night, tired and happy to stretch our legs. With the time change of 10.5 hours, I can safely say that is the longest trip I have ever taken, but it seemed like the shortest. With the help of tylenol pm, I slept about 10 hours, then watched slumdog millionaire (cliche, I know), and before I knew it, we were there... well here. We are finally here!