DELHI

I AM FINALLY IN DELHI. After 24 hours and 7000+ miles we arrived in Indira Gandhi National Airport.  I flew fr/ Dulles to Newark in one of those tiny planes with three seats per row and then sat in the Newark airport for a really long time, like 5 hours. Mostly I just sat in Starbucks and tried to walk around a little.  Then I went to the gate and met one of the girls in my program named Louise :D and I think we were both happy to have someone else there.  I'd say predominantly the flight was Indians, but there were a few Westerners, mostly older.  I was actually sitting next to this really sweet couple who live in LA, but the wife was born in and grew up in Mexico and the husband was Indian. They have two older daughters so they were very kind to me. The wife, Ofelia, asked me if my mom cried when I left and said that she still cries when her daughters leave or she leaves her mom.  The husband, Jesse, kept saying he was just like me in that India was a foreign country to him because even though he grew up there, he left during college and didn't go back for ten years and now, though he goes back fairly often, he always feels behind.  He kept saying that he couldn't tell me very much, but then he would go into long speeches about Indian history (when they found out I was a history major and the wife joked that he didn't know any Indian history), or about the people, or about his experiences, just to end with, "I can't give you advice, but this is what I can tell you" and then he would continue on a new topic.  They are here until September 12, and they gave me their contact info for both their Indian cell and their American number.  So I'm really happy that they were so friendly! And I thought it was really cool that English was the second/third language for both of them but they were married and so in love.
So Louise and I got to the airport and were really overwhelmed and then we got our bags and I changed money and there were three people waiting outside for us and they didn't really speak English so it was pretty intense and we went out into the street to wait for our car that was being sent for us (except for we didn't really know what was going on) and then we got in this random car! But first, let me just say that I LOVE the smell.  I mean I'm sure there are tons of bad smells, but the smell at the airport was just so rich and spicy and smokey and golden.  So we got in the van and drove through the streets for about 30-40 minutes (with no idea where we were going btw, we got these orientation packets in a little canvas bag along with half a cheese sandwich and an apple and a banana, and the calender says that homestays were supposed to start today, so we didn't know whether we would be going straight there or to the Ashram). On the streets there were a lot of people walking around under the trees that line the sidewalks.  Most of them were males.  I did see a few groups of women, but not many. All of the women were in traditional Indian dress.  There were also tons of dogs, some on leashes and some not. So we got to the Ashram and checked in and there is one other girl, Kerrie, here right now because her original flight was canceled too so she just got here yesterday night.  She was really helpful and explained everything that was going on to us! We and people who haven't arrived yet are staying in the Ashram until Sunday. Everyone else is at their homestays.  We are continuing orientation tomorrow and I think going to Humayun's Tomb!  So excited! Going to shower and probs go to sleep pretty soon, so peace out! Love!

Namaskar