In Trichy at last!

        I had much better sleeping success on the flight to Delhi from London. Once we landed in Delhi we had a couple of hours before our next flight to Chennai. We spent most of those hours just trying to figure out how to get to our plane. We tried to get to the ticket gates so we could print out our boarding passes…but they wouldn’t let us through without boarding passes…another pair of tourists were having the same issue and they eventually just let us through.  When we made it to the ticketing station they told us in would be 100Rs (rupees) to print our passes because we didn’t do it online (which we, of course, did not have access to while in London).  Unfortunately, the currency converters were on the other side of security and therefore we did not have any rupees yet and couldn’t pay this man to print our passes.  He eventually sent us to someone who printed them for free.  Once we had our passes we moved on to check our bags…now here’s the thing about the metric system: its very convenient and logical, except when it is shortened.  Just saying “2Kilos” can mean, 2 kilometers, 2kiloruppes, 2 kilograms…all of which we learned today. We were originally told that checking our bags (for our two domestic India flights) would be 2KRs (about $50).  But when going back to the counter and checking our bags they took them without charge.  This is of course after Dawn and I went and got Rupees to pay for it…all of this is basically to say that getting through the airport was very confusing.  But we did eventually make it to our gate with time to spare.  The airports in India look like airports everywhere else in the world (complete with Starbucks).

            The American population decreased significantly with every flight. By our final flight (from Chennai to Trichy) Dawn and I were the only non-Indians left.  Our flight from Delhi to Chennai was significantly longer than Dawn and I thought (2.5 hours).  I fell asleep for most of it until a meal was served…it was about 4pm so I’m not entirely sure how to classify this meal (plus it was 10:30am London time (and 5:30am Boone time)).  Regardless of the time, our Indian-airplane food was delicious! It was served to us TV-dinner style and they even came around afterwards with ice cream.  A far cry from what American airlines typically give you on a 2.5 hour flight (peanuts and soda if youre lucky).  The flight attendants on this flight were all young and beautiful, it was like traveling with a plane full of Indian Models.  I am, however, a little suspicious of the pilot, who looked barely 21.

            I met a pharmacist on this flight who was flying home to see his parents.  He was thrilled to find out I was from the US.  He told me all about celebrating his 10^th Anniversary with his Wife- they took a helicopter tour of London and finished off their day at (his words),“a very nice meal at a new American restaurant in town.  It was the best food ever!  You should try it, it is called Fridays.”   He asked if I’ve ever had the opportunity to eat at a Fridays and I filled him in—he was pretty disappointed to learn that it wasn’t quite a delicacy in America.  

            Our plane left Delhi late and it left us with a 10 minute layover to catch our flights to Trichy…that turned out to be quite an adventure...it involved taking a bus across the runway.  We were shocked that we managed to catch the flight and were genuinely impressed when our checked luggage showed up too- well done Jet Airways!
            When we got off our flight in Trichy (which was on a tiny propeller plane) that night we really had no idea what to expect.  We wandered out towards the taxis and a man stepped forward and introduced himself as Dr. Relton (the professor that has arranged this trip).  Dr. Relton drove us to Bishop Heber College and showed us to our dorm (known as hostels in India).  Emily and Danielle (who arrived about 6 hours before us) were already here and settled in.  The four of us walked over to the International Dining Hall and had dinner before finally going to sleep.

            We have wifi in our hostel but the pictures are taking a long time to load- I will try to have some up soon!  We plan to spend most of Monday touring the campus and finalizing logistics- our internships start on Tuesday.

Also- ignore the time and date at the top of each entry- its not right- we are 9.5 hours ahead of Boone!

Sorry this post didn’t have anything interesting--- I am far too tired to think clearly!

-al