Announcement: Please do not let my parents or any of my family members know about this blog. I would really love to write totally uncensored, and I know that I would not share everything if I thought my parents could read this. If you have mentioned this to my parents already please let me know. I'm sending my mother watered down email versions of what I am typing here. That being said...

The Plane Ride:
After dealing with another flight cancellation I finally board the Boeing 777, Continetnal direct flight to Delhi. Overall an interesting 10 hour ride. There was a baby girl sitting next to me not even old enough to speak, who unbenounced to her mother would pinch my nose every time I fell asleep. It was probably the most adorable thing ever. I was really excited when I saw that every seat had a screen in the back of the headrest, of course mime was the only one on the craft that was broken. :) And the highlight of flight was, drum roll please...someone shit on the plane. That's right. I'll say it again. Someone shit on the plane. Some guy took a crap in his seat.

Interesting Story:
So the first person that I speak to when getting of the plane in Delhi is this well dressed man with his wife and kid. We talk for about 5 minutes and it turns out he lived in Niles. Crazy huh? He leaves me with one piece of advice for traveling in India: "Do not trust anyone."

India, an attempt to describe:
Heat that you can't even imagine. Humidity that makes the air thick and heavy. Sweat dripping off every part of your body. Traffic that any Chicago commute can't compare to. Often there are no lanes just however many can fit go. Seas of men in motorbikes with women in saris riding side saddle behind them. Pedestrians. Animals. Ashley was asked to remove her glasses in one area because monkeys will come up and grab them off your face and break them. Stray dogs. Goats. Hogs. Camels. Elephants. And cows, tons of sacred cows, everywhere. Sidestepping all the animal feaces that cover the street, along with human excretions as well. I saw hundreds of people who live on the side of the highway. Before we even get out of the car a little girls runs up to my window and asks for food. And once we do get out, children run up to us screaming, "Pen! Pen!" They ask tourists for pens because they can't go to school without them. Suddenly being white means something totally different. I am the minority. People stare at us like were celebrities. Kids leave their parents and run up to us to say "Hello" and shake our hands. They ask to take pictures with us. Quitting smoking. Only speaking 10 words in Hindi. Converting from 12 hour time to 24 hour time. Converting from American to metric. Converting from dollars to rupees. Just converting. I realized within a few minutes that there are far more men out that women. It took me until lunch today to realize that the men at our table are always served before Ashley and I are. Food that I've never imagined before. And so much of it. All of us have been told repeatedly about the dangers of drinking the water here. Every house that we enter they bring out water for us to drink. To refuse it would be offensive. So we drink it and hope for the best. For the next 6 weeks this is home.

5/28/06:
We took a 4 hour car ride to Jaipur, visited Suds's relatives and The City Palace. We heard stories about maharajas who were 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide. We saw carpets, weapons, paintings, and writings that were hundreds of years old. An incredible day.