Welcome to India, Alyssa

First off, I want to thank The Lord for getting me to India safely! I am here healthy and in one piece! Secondly, I want to thank everyone who helped make this all possible! I really can no express how truly appreciative I am! And finally, I LOVE IT HERE!

I am going to highlight some of the main things that the past 5 days have thrown at me:

My flight started in PDX, from there to Atlanta, and then on to Amsterdam. How I would describe boarding the airplane in Amsterdam is like trying to shop at Best Buy on Black Friday! No joke, everyone knows that only the certain rows have been called but EVERYONE rushed to the door once they hear the words, “We are now boarding rows…” And no one wants to tell a crowd of tired passengers that they need to wait. So that is what Amsterdam held for me.

Once I got to India, I met up with the rest of the India Studies Program (ISP) students. And they are some of the most amazing people in the world! At this point, everything was going great, I wasn’t experiencing jet lag because I was taking herbs, and all we needed to do was get our luggage and go… Unfortunately, my luggage never came. So a manger-type-person came over to help, called Mumbai, and told me I had to fly back to Mumbai!!!!!! (We were in Coimbatore which is southern India and Mumbai is in the North.) Of course, that upset me seeing as I didn’t want to ride anymore planes for awhile. But praise The Lord that Kirk, the man in charge and a God-send, talked the manager-type-person out of making my fly back! So to make a very long story short, they found my luggage and where sending it on the next flight. (Which would come in the following night.)

Now, even though my luggage was lost, I was burning hot in my sweats and sweatshirt, I hadn’t showered in over 2 days, and my body was extremely sore, I was in India and I was going to love every second, both good and bad!!!!!

Skipping ahead, Kandyce (also a God-send) took me shopping later in the day so I could get some clothes and other necessities. This is where the real fun began; I rode in a Rickshaw for the first time, and it was so much fun! Pretty much what a Rickshaw is, is a tiny, yellow motorized vehicle that drives ridiculously close to other vehicals. I’ll try to post a picture as well. If you have ever been to Disneyland and gone on the ride like Indiana Jones, that is what riding in a Rickshaw at night is like… but on steroids!!! I asked Kandyce what side of the road they were supposed to be driving on and the driver answered, “wherever there is room.” And it is amazing how little room a rickshaw needs to maneuver in!

But I loved it, all of it and will always remember that my first day in India included losing my luggage, being told I had to fly back to Mumbai, meeting the Indian students, dropping off our bags (my one bag) in our apartment, attending a welcome ceremony for us ISP students, going shopping, riding rickshaws, and then going to a fancy restaurant that I can not pronounce, let alone spell! So, Welcome to India, Alyssa!!  

For now, I am going to leave it at that because I need to get off the computer. I have a lot more to tell so be looking for my next post hopefully tomorrow but maybe a little later. Also, feel free to comment below if you have anything you want to ask me about what I wrote or if you just want to comment, I look forward to hearing from you!

OH! And I know you where all so worried about my luggage, but no need to anymore because it arrived and I have it now! Opening it up felt a lot like Christmas morning, like I was opening a present and I knew exactly what it was and I was so excited to get it! Anyway, it is here now so don’t worry, because I knew you all where ;)

Hope all is good back in the states, and just know that you are in prayers! Love and miss you and God Bless!