Day 1 (and 2, kind of) - Travel!

I am not going to lie and say that I wasn't really really really nervous about this trip to India. Aside from an 11th grade trip to Italy with Notre Dame High School and a Disney Cruise or 2, I haven't done any world traveling. While I'm fine traveling alone through the United States, the prospect of flying to INDIA alone was daunting. But I'm here, checked in & fine!

The flight plan, as scheduled:

4:23 PM - BOS to Dulles
7:15 PM- Dulles to Frankfurt
12:30 PM (Frankfurt time)- Frankfurt to Bangalore

Shaun brought me to Logan Airport just around 1:00, the set 3 hours prior to an international flight. Good thing, too... because after I settled down with some reading for the trip, I happened to wander by a Departures board that listed my 4:23 flight as cancelled. It also showed a 2:21 PM flight to Dulles as "boarding", so I ran for it and made it onto the earlier flight.

I will note that I realized in Logan Aiport that my comfy chenille sweater sheds a lot.

I had about 3 hours to kill in each airport- Dulles was fine (I still had internet access on my phone... and there was a bar. And I bought a much-needed lint brush for my shedding sweater.) The 8 hour flight from Dulles to Frankfurt wasn't bad - I wasn't able to sleep as much as I would have liked, but I did watch "The Informant!" with Matt Damon- GREAT movie, highly recommended, and a few episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" that were on our seatback screens. We got a meal - I chose the pasta, which was good! When I arrived in Frankfurt, it felt like 3:30 am but it was really 9:30 am. That airport is crazy. Tons of security checkpoints that are poorly organized (I thought that Germans were famous for their orderliness?) and no gate was listed for my flight because it was too early. So I killed some time, bought a Coke light and a bottle of what I thought was an orange smoothie but had too many chunks to be called a "smoothie." I handed the clerk $10, and received 2 euro coins as change. I don't know the conversion, so I have no idea whether 2 beverages really cost close to $10 in Frankfurt, or maybe European currency comes in high change denominations.

Finally my gate for the Bangalore flight was posted; while waiting at the gate I saw our Dean, Jay, his wife, Gayle and the professor for our class, Tareq. SO glad to see familiar faces! They were all in business class, but it was nice to chat before we boarded and get some advice as to how it would go once we got to India, as they had all been there before.

Boarding that flight was insane- no calm, orderly fashion like at American airports (I miss you, Southwest Airlines!). It was like a herd of cattle going through the gates, with nothing really explained. I was in seat 49K - fortunately a window seat (as on my previous flight) and nice people next to me. I slept for more of this flight. The first meal that we got was definitely traditional Indian fare. I ate the roll and butter, but the green tint to the entree just didn't look appetizing (Indian food + airplane food = DANGER! to me) and I'm not quite sure what the dessert was either. There was also a salad and something called "Mango Pickle." Let's just say that I ate the roll and butter and was fine. The second meal was a chicken with mushrooms in a cream sauce, and came with rice pudding. I chowed on that - much more my speed.... and perhaps the best rice pudding I've ever had.

Once we landed in Bangalore (1:30 am on Sunday 1/3, Bangalore time; 3:30 pm on Saturday 1/2 US time), going through Immigration was not fun; I just always pick the wrong line. People in front of me didn't have their paperwork filled out, etc., plus more poorly organized queues (they severely needed a queue attendant). I made it through without any problems, once my turn FINALLY came. When I got down to baggage claim, posted was "MR. KRISTIN CHEBRA PLEASE SEE LUFTHANSA BAGGAGE SERVICES" - yup, that's right. My luggage did not make it to India. (Oh, and the "MR" is not a typo- much like CVS, which lists me as "MR" on all of my receipts, Lufthansa somehow thought I was a male.)

It will be on the next flight... which will arrive in 24 hours from when my flight arrived. The attendants were very nice, and provided me with 4,000 rupees (about $80 US) to purchase clothes, and assured me that my bags will be delivered.

I was so fortunate that Jay, Gayle & Tareq were there - Tareq was really helpful with making sure I had all of the information I needed for the baggage recovery process. They offered me the toiletry bags they were provided in business class, and Jay even gave me a short-sleeved shirt to wear (since it is about 70 degrees here, and I was wearing my aforementioned chenille sweater... still shedding). I have to say I kind of expected not to have my bags; I have bad luck with baggage (see: Chebra family trip to Hawaii, 1996 and Niki's wedding trip to Vermont, 2006 as examples)- so I didn't pitch a fit or anything. I'm confident the bags will get here eventually, and Lufthansa provided me with the tracking number via text and the website. Our official activities don't start till Monday morning here, so everything should be here by then.

We had signs with our names for our cabs from the airport to the Infosys campus, where we are staying. The cab driver was very nice - I sat in the front seat and it was my first time in a car driving on the left side of the road! Because it's the middle of the night here, I only caught a few glimpses of things through Bangalore - it reminded me a bit of Acapulco/Mazatlan in Mexico, but I'm sure that in daylight it will be completely different. This is definitely going to be an eye-opening trip, that's for sure.

Arrived at Infosys, went through security again (my laptop has never been in & out of its bag so many times in a 24 hour period) and were taken via Pargo to the accommodations building. I have my own room which is utilitarian but nice... with a bed, TV and bathroom with shower. That shower was DELIGHTFUL, by the way. There are also 2 huge bottles of Aquafina- I used bottled water to brush my teeth for the first time!

Put on the long sleeve t-shirt and comfy pants I have had on since 10:30 am US Eastern time on Friday, until I can do some shopping when the Infosys campus store opens at 12:30 pm Bangalore time (it's 9 1/2 hours ahead of Boston, FYI) and get some alternate clothes. Continued to lint roll my pants, computer bag & purse to get rid of the chenille fuzz that's all over EVERYTHING... and happily had internet access so I could write a bit about my trip.

I'm not really tired, but I know I have to sleep a bit more. For now, I'm just happy that I made it safely, keeping my fingers crossed that my luggage will arrive by this time tomorrow, and thankful that I got such great help from Jay, Gayle and Tareq with this leg of the journey.

Sunday is supposed to be a "resting day"- for me it will also be a shopping day - but I plan to write more as soon as more happens. That's about enough excitement for now. :)