It's been a long while since my last post. Not much has happened, and yet so much has. I'll start where my last post left off: my voyage home.
My last day in Ranchi, I did make the changes I wanted to make at the printer's office, I had a shockingly delicious lunch at a nice restaurant, I said my goodbyes, and I boarded my planes. I noticed how different the people at the airport were from the general population--the difference in wealth was extremely apparent to me. I also noticed that even though I was surrounded by all Indian people and mostly men, it didn't feel strange to me anymore. I thought about the fact that soon I would be seeing more white people, and it made me just slightly nervous for reasons that I couldn't put into words.
When I got to Delhi, my hotel's driver was waiting for me with a sign, and he took me to my cushy hotel. Since my flight out of Delhi was international and at 5 in the morning, the receptionist said I should plan to leave at 2 am. Okay. I went to my room, Skyped with my parents, and relaxed in the huge, soft bed. Right before I went to sleep, I checked the printout of my itinerary that I'd received in Ranchi and had barely glanced at. I wanted to check whether my morning flights were on it, because Indian airports don't let you in unless you have a printout of your itinerary and your next flight is within 4 hours.
My next flight was on the printout. The problem was that the flight was at 9:30 that evening. At this point, it was 8:30 in the evening. Even if I was dressed and showered and packed and ready to go right at that moment, I wouldn't be able to get through security in time. My first reaction was utter horror and dismay, with a tinge of panic. I looked online for the 5 am flight that was listed on my online itinerary, and it existed, and it still had seats available. Good. After only 2 hours using Skype to call Etihad and then American Airlines, a nice man whose voice I will remember for a long time got me back on my original flight at no additional cost. I got a solid 3 hours of sleep before I had to get up and go back to the airport.
Apparently what had happened with my flight is that the airlines switched my flight (for some unknown reason) and couldn't contact me because Priceline.com hadn't given them my contact info, or something like that. To their credit, I had received an email saying that the airline had made changes, but I had also gotten an email after that with the same 5 am flight on it, so I don't know what their deal is.
I had a 4ish hour flight to Abu Dhabi, then a 15 hour flight to Chicago, then a long line at customs, then a painstakingly long wait for my suitcase, then an even more painstaking wait to leave the baggage claim area, and then, finally, there was Jeff waiting for me with flowers. So that was fantastic.
Driving back to Kalamazoo was odd, with the car on the wrong side of the street, and the streets so smooth, and the cars so fast and shiny, and everything so segregated and organized. We had sushi for dinner and I fell asleep around 9 pm, I think.
My first week back I had to focus pretty exclusively on moving. I arrived home on a Tuesday evening, and by Saturday afternoon I was all moved into Jeff's house. We had another week or so in Kalamazoo before Jeff and I spent 10 days visiting my family in California. In that visit, we managed to squeeze in two In-N-Out lunches, two sushi meals, two barbecues, and a camping trip with an epic hike.
A few days after getting back from California, we went camping with our Kzoo friends for a couple days. There was no hiking, but there was a disc golf course, gorgeous views and sunshine, a guitar lesson, and some raging campfires.
Now I'm gearing up for my second and final year of my masters program. This blog is going to transition from an India blog to a life/school blog for the time being. Things I'm thinking about today include:
My last day in Ranchi, I did make the changes I wanted to make at the printer's office, I had a shockingly delicious lunch at a nice restaurant, I said my goodbyes, and I boarded my planes. I noticed how different the people at the airport were from the general population--the difference in wealth was extremely apparent to me. I also noticed that even though I was surrounded by all Indian people and mostly men, it didn't feel strange to me anymore. I thought about the fact that soon I would be seeing more white people, and it made me just slightly nervous for reasons that I couldn't put into words.
When I got to Delhi, my hotel's driver was waiting for me with a sign, and he took me to my cushy hotel. Since my flight out of Delhi was international and at 5 in the morning, the receptionist said I should plan to leave at 2 am. Okay. I went to my room, Skyped with my parents, and relaxed in the huge, soft bed. Right before I went to sleep, I checked the printout of my itinerary that I'd received in Ranchi and had barely glanced at. I wanted to check whether my morning flights were on it, because Indian airports don't let you in unless you have a printout of your itinerary and your next flight is within 4 hours.
My next flight was on the printout. The problem was that the flight was at 9:30 that evening. At this point, it was 8:30 in the evening. Even if I was dressed and showered and packed and ready to go right at that moment, I wouldn't be able to get through security in time. My first reaction was utter horror and dismay, with a tinge of panic. I looked online for the 5 am flight that was listed on my online itinerary, and it existed, and it still had seats available. Good. After only 2 hours using Skype to call Etihad and then American Airlines, a nice man whose voice I will remember for a long time got me back on my original flight at no additional cost. I got a solid 3 hours of sleep before I had to get up and go back to the airport.
Apparently what had happened with my flight is that the airlines switched my flight (for some unknown reason) and couldn't contact me because Priceline.com hadn't given them my contact info, or something like that. To their credit, I had received an email saying that the airline had made changes, but I had also gotten an email after that with the same 5 am flight on it, so I don't know what their deal is.
I had a 4ish hour flight to Abu Dhabi, then a 15 hour flight to Chicago, then a long line at customs, then a painstakingly long wait for my suitcase, then an even more painstaking wait to leave the baggage claim area, and then, finally, there was Jeff waiting for me with flowers. So that was fantastic.
Driving back to Kalamazoo was odd, with the car on the wrong side of the street, and the streets so smooth, and the cars so fast and shiny, and everything so segregated and organized. We had sushi for dinner and I fell asleep around 9 pm, I think.
My first week back I had to focus pretty exclusively on moving. I arrived home on a Tuesday evening, and by Saturday afternoon I was all moved into Jeff's house. We had another week or so in Kalamazoo before Jeff and I spent 10 days visiting my family in California. In that visit, we managed to squeeze in two In-N-Out lunches, two sushi meals, two barbecues, and a camping trip with an epic hike.
A few days after getting back from California, we went camping with our Kzoo friends for a couple days. There was no hiking, but there was a disc golf course, gorgeous views and sunshine, a guitar lesson, and some raging campfires.
Now I'm gearing up for my second and final year of my masters program. This blog is going to transition from an India blog to a life/school blog for the time being. Things I'm thinking about today include:
- prepping for my PE class--the first class I will teach
- finding out about my TA assignment for the fall; I'm with the course "Women in Developing Countries," which I'm really excited about!
- working on a book about fertility, population growth, and culture with my dad
- applying for a PhD program--the deadline is January 15
- creating a more professional profile for myself: business cards, a website with my resume, better email address, etc
- finishing my CPR/AED/First Aid certification tonight
- soaking in the rest of my summer vacation
More to come later! Thanks to everyone who has supported me this wild, eventful, and impactful summer.
