Leaving on Jet Plane

The long journey

As much as I hate to start two posts in a row similarly, I absolutely CANNOT express my disbelief that in a little less than two days I'm leaving for India! My trip will consist of a 4 hour drive to New Jersey a couple more in the actual Newark airport. And then the actual flight will take about 15 hours. Hoping for lots of sleep to make the trip less...long.

It's safe to say that I have been fluctuating to different sides of the emotional spectrum. One hour I'm frantically nervous and the next I'm bouncing up and down from uncontainable excitement. This energy has mainly been used to pack obsessively.

The preparations of a sane person who is not at all nervous...

Everything is lined up on a spare cot and carefully selected to be packed up tomorrow morning. For those who know me, this is an unprecedented level of organization and care. And a rare enough occurrence to even be a sign of the apocalypse. But to be fair, it has been difficult to decide on what to pack. India has a more modest dress (meaning no shoulders, upper legs, or chest), which complicates packing for 85 degree weather. I've also been trying to save room for all the fun things I'm hoping to bring back!

The double-edged sword of anticipation had definitely kept me on my toes these final days before departure. Between obsessive preparations and sad goodbyes, I have hardly had enough time to truly reflect on what is actually waiting for me on the Subcontinent.

My goals for my study abroad experience are pretty simple. Mainly, have an adventure! I know it's cliche, but I genuinely am pumped to see and do things that I won't have a chance to do any other time in my life. Also, get a new perspective on, well, everything. As someone who's only idea of what I want to do with my life as post-graduate is to travel, I'm hoping that my experiences inside the classroom where I'm taking a wide range of classes (Social Justice, Public Health, Hindi, Contemporary India) will work in tandem with my experiences outside the classroom to provide some sort of direction.

Oh, and my most importantly goal: ride an elephant (obviously the whole reason I'm going to India)

I can't believe this is happening. It is (almost) literally insane. In 10 days I will be hopping onto a plane to spend 4 months in Pune, India!

Usually this time of year you'll find me getting ready for a new year at American University, where I am an International Studies major. But this semester I decided to apply for the Alliance for Global Education's Contemporary India program. Here is a accurate depiction of me when I found out that I got accepted:

It's going to be an experience, no doubt. I have never been anywhere outside of the US before. Not even Canada! When I tell people that I'm studying abroad in India the reactions I've gotten range from appalled confusion to unbridled excitement. The reactions to my obsessive very accurate countdown of days until departure are a different story.

Despite all of my jumbled-up emotions, I couldn't be more excited or thankful to be getting ready to embark on  this adventure!