This Is India! (T.I.I.)

I AM IN INDIA! WOOHOO! The past couple of days have been amazing, India has been quite a culture shock to me. However I think the most interesting was my journey..... 

 After traveling for 25 hours straight, with 2 layovers and barely any sleep,  I got through customs (which was shockingly easy) and was at the baggage claim. They said people have lost their luggage before but I didn't think it would be me. Boy was I wrong! I'm pretty sure my luggage didn't even get out of the states. Meaning, i only have my backpack! (good thing I packed another pair of clothes) Then after the hour long process of filling out the paperwork for my luggage, I went out of the airport to find no one there to pick me up. I've got the luck I can tell you that, haha! I continue looking around just hoping and praying that they were playing hide-and-go-seek with me or something. Nope, it just turned out to be Friday the 13th is all! In the end I finally got to the hotel and found out my reservation was cancelled for some odd reason. (I'm sure you think I'm kidding, and I wish I was, but I'm not. I promise! Haha) By this point all the workers noticed I was super tired. So they drove me over to the Radison, where Carl met me about an hour and a half later!! That's where my bad luck ended, because Carl is the best! I haven't seen him since the middle of May, and I've been deprived of my anna (Tamil for older brother) 

Instead of writing in paragraph form I'm just going to have a checklist of what I've done so far:
-Have had a REAL Friday the 13th
-Ate with only my right hand on a banana leaf, on the floor
-Had DELICIOUS Indian food (made by a friend we know in India). Southern Indian food is so super good!
-Rode in a Rickshaw (a small motorized vehicle)
-Went shopping (bought an Indian dress, pictures will be up soon!)
-Met the coordinators of Rising Star Outreach!!

So far, India has been an amazing experience for me! Carl was laughing at me the other day because I started saying something like, 'When I come back next year...'  and he was like, 'Emily, you've only been here for a day and you're already planning to come next year?!' Well of course I'm coming back to India next year. I mean I haven't even started volunteering at Rising Star Outreach and I absolutely love it here! Love. Love! LOVE!!

Eskay (one of my dad's friends from India) invited us to a Brahmin Hindu wedding. I'm super lucky to be able to go to a traditional Indian wedding, and I'm super excited! So that's what Carl and I are doing today. Then tomorrow we head to Rising Star Outreach! WOOHOO!!! I'll post pictures later this week :) 

Oh! And the title of this post is the name of my brother's blog, but it fit so well so I used it :) And you should really read his blog! It's: Www.carlhashey.blogspot.com