Leaving tomorrow

Tomorrow, I am flying from the Dallas/Fort Worth airport to London, where I will have a 2 hour layover - during which I will reunite with the wonderful Liz - and together we will fly from London to Chennai, India, arriving at 1am Indian time. (Which is...1:30pm Dallas time? 12:30pm? Something like that.) Everything that I need from home for the next five months has been packed into two bags, a large backpack and a duffel bag. It's weird, trying to compress the things you think you'll really need (contact solution, Dr. Bronner's soap, pictures of friends, and meds upon meds, among other things) into two bags, but I made it work. I'm an efficient packer, I think.

In other news, I am currently fighting off a cold. Or severe dust allergies. I'm hoping to feel completely better tomorrow. I'm not too worried about it, though I wish I had gotten sick earlier. Oh well.

It doesn't feel like I am really leaving for India tomorrow. A few of my friends who have gone abroad already said it didn't hit them until they were on the airplane...maybe that will be the case for me, too. I'm spending my last day at home hanging out with family, reading...it just feels like any other day, though. Now that "going to India" is a reality rather than simply an idea, I am getting a bit nervous. But also excited. I've read so many different blogs and articles about traveling to India - as well as following currents news - that I feel like I have so many different perspectives telling me what going to India will be like, I need to just let go of everything and not have any expectations. Which is easier said than done...but we shall see.

Once I get to Chennai, I will travel to Pondicherry with the other students from my program. We'll spend a few days in Pondicherry, and then we will be taking a nine day tour of the neighboring states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. I'm really looking forward to it!