Day One

Over 24 hours of travel, but I'm here! A plane from Roanoke to DC, then DC to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Chennai. We arrived in Chennai at around midnight, grabbed our luggage and were picked up by 2 vans from the college. One van was entirely for our luggage and the other for us. There are 8 students total and our virology professor, Dr. Subbiah. His wife Ruby has also come along, which should be really fun as she would like to do some shopping while here. I am definitely planning on buying some Indian clothes.

We have 2 apartments on the college grounds. Carrie and I are sharing a room in an apartment with Erin, Valerie, and Amber. Jen, Ana, and Wallace are right across from us in the other apartment. It's simple, but nice. The bathroom is taking some adjusting to for all of us. Mostly the concept of needing to turn on the hot water heater for 10 minutes before showering. Also that the shower is just a corner of the bathroom, no curtain or anything, just the corner with a grate in the floor. It's difficult to keep the water from flowing over to other parts of the bathroom. But everything is clean, there is wifi, and the air conditioning works well!

Last night I unpacked and looked around the apartment a little bit and crashed around 3am. I woke up at 6:50 and couldn't get back to sleep, so by 7:30 I got out of bed and showered. Breakfast arrived around 9, which was good because Wallace and I were getting really hungry. We have individual meals (they kind of look like microwave meals) of rice bread, potatoes, some sort of rice dish, and a mild curry-like sauce. We also got a pot of delicious chai! We are going to make sure 2 pots get brought on other mornings as most of us wanted more than one cup.

We haven't really done anything yet; we need to wait until Dr. Subbiah comes to let us know where we can roam, etc. Also, we don't have any rupees. It's not too hot yet, but then again it's only 10:30. Last night at midnight it was around 85 degrees. I am going to miss shorts and sleeveless shirts while I'm here, but I stocked up on capris and lightweight t-shirts. The drive from the airport to the college was only about 20 minutes. We got to see different parts of the town; there are the complexes of rich houses (it's easy to spot them because they are surrounded by huge gates) and then immediately adjacent are hovels. Lots of people sleeping out in the streets and sidewalks. A spotted a few whole families sleeping out together. Also lots of stray dogs. We have been warned against touching any of the stray animals here; too much Rabies in the area.

Another interesting thing I noted last night was how people use car horns here. Basically they are used in 3 circumstances: 1) if someone is in your way, 2) if you are about to enter any intersection, or 3) whenever you feel like it. At 1am driving through the streets it looked and sounded like DC in the middle of the day. I'm almost afraid to see the traffic during the daytime.

We are going to try to get some shopping done today (I might try to buy a sheet since our bed just has a bottom sheet and a blanket) and then we are going to the beach tonight. I'll probably be able to post almost daily since we have wifi in the apartment. Orientation starts tomorrow!