Next Week

Hard to believe that this time next week I'll be in India! It FINALLY seems real as I'm now packing my bags to see what last-minute errands I need to run this week after work. I've definitely been excited about this trip from the very first day I made the decision, swallowed my pride, and pleaded with friends and family to help me make it a reality - but I hadn't been very outwardly excited. Partly because I'm the type of person that doesn't want to count on something until it is really, truly, definitely going to happen, and partly because working across international borders on a daily basis can cause a sense of normalcy/numbness to the whole thing. "Oh, a trip to India? Yeah, no big deal. Just two weeks, wish it were longer. My friend went for a month and she said that wasn't nearly long enough. I'm worried about leaving work, blah blah blah..."

And now that it is closer I'm seeing just how ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS THAT IS! I'm going to India in one week and that is FREAKING COOL! So cool, in fact, that I haven't really been able to sleep for the past few days. (Or is that due to the malaria meds? Hmm. Maybe a combo...) This trip is unlike any of my others for so many obvious reasons, but it also the first time I've traveled overseas for something that wasn't school/internship/grad school/work-related. Yes, all of those trips were amazing in their own rights, but this is uncharted waters, here. So now I find myself packing up my (borrowed) backpack with a feeling of pre-adventure adrenaline that is both completely familiar and totally foreign.

For interested parties (which, let's be honest, if you've read my blog these past few years you've read many, many less interesting things), this is where we'll be in India. We'll fly into the airport in New Delhi (A), then fly over to Bagdogra (B), and finally bus it to the village we'll be working in (near C). You can see just how close we are to the Nepali border - wow!

The weather should be warm, but not the unbearable heat that comes with the summer months in India. (Forbesganj is the closest google-able town to where we'll be working.)

Bihar is 12.5 hours ahead of CO time (where does that .5 come from?) So for example, 10AM Denver time would be 10:30PM in Bihar. (Still not quite as weird as Australia!)

A few less-than-normal things in my backpack?

• Mosquito net
• Chalk, sidewalk chalk, and markers for the kiddos
• New GladWare containers as gifts for the adults
• Colorado postcards
• Toilet paper
• Family-size pack of wet wipes (AKA, portable shower)
• Malaria pills and some, ahem, stop-up pills should I fall victim to the Delhi-belly
• Work gloves

What have I gotten myself in to? Oh goodness...