July 18-20

I'm in India. My father and I left our house at 7:30 am on July 18. At the airport we met the three girls that we would be traveling with. There was supposed to be a fourth but the visas got delayed and so she didn't get her's in time. (We barely got ours. They came at 10 pm the night before we left.) We got on a commercial jet and flew to LAX. From there it was a 14 hour flight to Hong Kong. 

For me it is disconcerting to look around and not know what people are saying at all. In Europe I can either understand the majority, or pick up a few words here and there, but in Asia, it is a completely different language family, and I don't know what anyone is saying.

From Hong Kong we took a 5 hour flight to Chennai, India. There was one other Caucasian woman on the plane besides us. I couldn't decide whether to laugh or to feel incredibly awkward. In the end I did both. 

We arrived at 2 in the morning and the hotel picked us up at the airport. Everyone is extremely nice, but half the time I have no idea what they're saying because their accents are so strong. One person even asked one of the girls if she speaks English because she couldn't understand what he was saying :D

On the afternoon of the 20 we rented a car service and drove through Chennai. It is kind of overwhelming. There are people everywhere, no one uses the lanes on the road, no one uses turn signals, and they manage to fit more people on a motorcycle than there should ever be.

All in all though, everyone is very nice, and while the whole thing is overwhelming, I'm excited to get to Rising Star!

-EAW