namaskaram.

welp, i'm in vishakhpatnam, india, where i'm gonna be spending the next three months completing a field study/study abroad through BYU provo.

i've been here about a week so far, & what i've learned is:

india is a whole other world from america. really. like different universe.

my itinerary was like this--

ATLANTA --> CHICAGO --> LONDON --> HYDERABAD --> VIZAG

on 5 different airlines. absolute chaos.

everything went smoothly until i got to hyderabad.

i had trouble finding departures coming from international arrivals, but after a few minutes of wandering around i spotted some kids sneaking under a plastic rope & heading up an escalator so i followed suit & found my way. indian guards stood in front of the departures doors, however, demanding to see my ticket in order to get inside. but.. i had to get inside to get my boarding pass. they kept saying "TICKET!" and i kept pointing inside & after ten minutes of failed communication i think they were worn out enough to just let me in regardless.

once i got in, i had to find a way to kill six hours. i read my book, bought a toblerone, & walked into the bathroom... only to wimp out and turn around. an hour later, when my bladder was a little more insistent, i entered again.. and wimped out again. seeing the squatter with a bucket next to it in place of toilet paper made me realize i could hold it.

i decided to eat at mcdonalds, in hopes of feeling like i was home again.

(my roomies & i entirely subsisted off mickey d's for the month of october.. monopoly month).

it worked for a second. i got fries & a chocolate milkshake & it just wasn't the same.

finally i entered security, where i made an absolute fool of myself.

--first i entered the wrong line-- security in india is divided by males and females. who woulda known.

--after my backpack had gone through the x-ray belt, the worker kept shouting "BACKWARDS! BACKWARDS!" and i walked backwards a good ten feet.. it took a couple minutes to realize he wanted to run my backpack through again.

--upon complying, i was rewarded with a full body pat down.

--i had been reading at my gate for twenty minutes or so, when an indian man came up and asked me to check if i had my laptop.. nope. no i didn't. "follow me." i followed this security man up their employees only elevator, back to the x-ray line, where my hot pink laptop case sat on an empty table. when they ran my backpack through the second time, they took out my laptop because i forgot to.. and then i walked away happily without it.

walking back to my gate, i couldn't get this fat grin off my face.

all these airline workers must have felt so sorry for this stupid white girl who is never going to make it in the real world. the only comfort i had was that there were so many incidents that no one could have witnessed all of them, and therefore no one besides my stupid grinning self could possibly be aware of the gravity of my incompetence.

but... i made it. SURPRISE!!

but.. i forgot my camera battery at home. so fingers crossed that the ups man shows up at my door with a package real soon.

for now, check out this video my friend devin made of our trip to kauai for

SPRING BREAK 2010 thanksgiving break:

we hiked the nepali coast and explored the island a bit. it was gorgeous.

we also met some interesting hippies along the way, who imparted some of their wisdom to us & fed us a full out feast (3 turkeys cooked in the ground... really?) on thanksgiving night, which we ate off of leaves. charming.