I've arrived!!!!

Hello Readers,
Well I made it to India. I've been looking forward to this for such a long time (since I was in Harlingen) that I can't believe it's finally here. I had all these great intentions to post before I left but it didn't happen. It was quite hectic trying to find a place to live when I return that I didn't have a time. I have some great pictures of the contents of my suitcase that I'll post when I get access to a USB port. To say the least most of my suitcase contained granola bars, peanuts, bug spray, sun block, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and medicines (diarrhea, headache, malaria).

I made it in without a hitch on Sunday and slept most of yesterday. I'm happy to say that I was able to get a lot of sleep on the airplane and time just flew by. It's a wonder what earplugs and an eye cover can do!! I travelled and am staying with my friend and classmate Anne. We're basically doing all our rotations here together so we'll be spending a lot of time with each other. We're like sisters so I think it will work out great. Today we came to register at the CMC campus and got our rotations or posts as they call them here. I'm starting at CHAD (community outreach) tomorrow, then Internal Medicine wards, and the third week Medical ICU. We're also planning on taking some weekend trips with the whole group and then going to visit some of the highlights of India the very last week.

So what have I seen so far.....well when I got off the airplane I was reminded of Venezuela. There's more poverty but there were a bunch of people asking if we needed a taxi and trying to help with our luggage. Thankfully we had prearranged with the medical college to have a driver waiting for us so we didn't have to deal with the scary people. The ride from the Chennai airport to Vellore took about 2 hours. The best way I can describe the drive is controlled chaos. First thing I noticed as the driver got in the car is that he went to the right side of the car to get in. This was no problem and neither was the fact that we were traveling in the left lanes of the "highway". Through the city of Chennai the road was shared by pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, rickashaws, cars, vans, trucks, and yes cows. Thankfully there weren't any cows in the middle of the road, but since cows are considered holy here I'm not really sure what we would have done. Also there seemed to be the suggestion of two lanes going each way, but sometime people created their own. There were no arrows on the street for turns, traffic lights, of traffic signs. Let's just say that the "on ramp" for the highway was a mere opening in a cement block wall large enough for our car to get through. Oh and I can't leave out the honking. The honking what makes the chaos work in the first place. If you want the person in front of you to go faster you honk. If you want to warn someone that you're coming up behind them (quickly of course) you honk. If you want to move left or right you honk. Honking makes it all work. In fact the semi trucks encourage you to honk with the signs on the back of their trucks pleading with you to sound horn. I guess honking is such a part of everyday life here that today is no honking day in Mumbai (read it in the paper). Not really sure how that will work.

But we made it safely to Vellore. We've already met a group of students from Singapore who all speak English and at 2pm they're having an International Student gathering here at the college. Then off to pay for our time here and then to shop for some traditional clothing to 'blend in" haha. Well I will write more tomorrow.