Preparation

Preparing to travel to India is a huge challenge. Not only are there many different challenges that are known in advance, but there are doubtlessly hundreds of issues and problems that will arise in the course of traveling to any third world country, particularly for an undetermined amount of time.

So I made sure I had my passport. I filled out the application for my Indian visa. They ask you what your address will be while you are in India. Hmm, how about "will hopefully be meeting up with my friends in a section of Delhi known as 'F Block,' from which they will take me to where we are staying." Does that work? Oh, doesn't fit. After getting that resolved, I made the two trips to the consulate to get my visa. I went to the travel clinic, where I was lucky enough to get shots for influenza, typhoid, hepatitis A, polio, and tetnis. I thought I was going to India, but in reality I am apparently heading out on the Oregon Trail. I better bring enough oxen. Oh, and the malaria medication. The best part is the malaria medication. Every single place in India is a high-risk area for malaria, meaning that the entire time I am traveling and for a month afterward, I need to be taking doxycycline. So I get a huge bottle of one-a-day medication to keep with me at all times. Cool.

Packing is a whole other issue. How do you pack enough for six weeks (including 3 nice big bottles of deep woods off for those pesky mosquitos), but still pack light enough to be able to take treks across the tropical country? So I did the best I could, taking a bunch of old clothes that I will have no problems throwing away on my journey. Especially if I can get some sweet new Indian clothes.

The best (read: worst) part of the trip was leaving on Christmas. Last minute frantic Christmas shopping (thanks to my sister for the help), driving to my girlfriends' grandparents' house for dinner on Christmas Eve, stopping by her parents' house on Christmas day to exchange presents, and finally to my parents' house to exchange presents and eat strada were all crammed into 18 hours so that I could make my 7:20 pm flight on December 25.

The reason for this, of course, is because I needed to meet up with Mike and Sam, my two friends that I will be traveling with. Anywhere in the U.S. or Europe and I could have met them at almost any time, at almost any place. But in India, as they have told me, you need to be so careful about these things because for every trip, seven things will go wrong. In this case, I needed to meet them in Delhi, because the flights in are somewhat convenient and they would be staying there for a few days and were certain they would be able to meet me there. We'll see how long being prepared helps me.

Ok, all done with my first blog post ever. I hope the following ones are much more action-packed.