After a long journey (30 hours, give or take), Nancy, Megan, and I have arrived at our hostel in Chennai, India! There were definitely some hiccups along the way and some interesting stories...
Now here's where the story gets interesting (mom, I'd suggest you stop reading!)... After making it through customs, we headed outside to find our taxi driver, where we were greeted by sooo many people. Mind you, at this point, it was like 1:30 AM local time and CRAZY hot. Unfortunately, there were some miscommunications and our pre-paid hired driver was not there to pick us up. So, there we were: three American girls, stuck outside the airport in a foreign country with no means of communication, at 1:30 in the morning. Luckily, we were approached by a college-aged student who had just gotten off an international flight and offered to let us use his parents' cell phone. Megan, being the rockstar that she is, went with him to find his parents (we know - separation isn't the best of ideas, but we had a mountain of luggage that needed to be guarded). However, the guy couldn't find his parents, so the two of them ended up convincing a local cab driver to let them borrow his cell phone. Anyway, long story short, Megan called one of our instructors who came and picked us up (mad props to him, by the way, for leaving his wife and 21-month-old daughter at 2 AM to come pick us up) and brought us to our hostel. On a side note, what they say about Chennai drivers is true: they are seriously crazy drivers. Words can't even explain the drive we had on the way back, and our prof was being super careful/cautious!
Now onto our current living arrangements (don't worry, I'll post pictures soon)...
Let's just say that after more than a day of travel, we were already a little stressed and just wanted to take a quick shower and pass out. We passed through the security gate to our hostel, unloaded the mountain of luggage, and signed in at the empty check-in desk, where we were given the keys to the massive padlocks on our doors. We soon discovered that we had some additional roommates in our hostel room (e.g., fun geckos, less-than-fun giant cockroaches, and evidence of mice). We were very grateful, however, to discover that they supplied us with a few rolls of toilet paper! (For those of you who are not familiar with or are curious about Indian toilets, I suggest you google it!). Plus, we have wireless internet access, air conditioning, and three meals per day! And all of this for about 500 Rupees (i.e., about $11) per night.
Even though we all claim to be fairly low-maintenance, I'd be lying if I said we didn't have an initial freak out about our current living conditions. However, I think we're already adjusting fairly well... We've come to terms with the loud monkey calls outside our building, the stray cats/dogs, the lack of walls in common areas, and we even met some business (MBA) students who are staying in our buildling. All-in-all, it's been an interesting first day/night.
More updates (and pics) to follow soon!
Today's temp: 102 Fahrenheit, heat index 112.
We were a little nervous we wouldn't even make our first flight (St. Louis to Chicago), as the entire state of Illinois was getting slammed with severe thunderstorms on Wednesday morning, but somehow we were only delayed 4 hours. Luckily our 8-hour layover at O'Hare gave us plenty of time to make our connection despite the delays in St. Louis. Unfortunately, the inclement weather ended up causing a cancellation of another classmate's (Allison) flight, delaying her trek until the next day.
When the three of us boarded our plane to Brussels, Belgium, we were pretty excited that the plane was fairly empty (read: more space to spread out!!). However, as soon as we got on the plane, the pilot came on the PA and said that we were going to wait an additional hour for some more passengers so we could fill up the plane a little more, which meant we didn't get to sprawl out. Two-and-a-half hours later, we were on our way (7.5 hour flight).
As we had only a two-hour layover in Brussels, we thought we might be stuck in Brussels for a night because of the delay in Chicago. Somehow we made the last call for our plane from Brussels to Chennai (9.5 hrs), despite there supposedly being volcano ash in the London area. This last plane was pretty posh, with the sweet first-class pods and tv screens for every seat. We were given two pretty delicious Indian meals and a Belgian ice cream bar!
When the three of us boarded our plane to Brussels, Belgium, we were pretty excited that the plane was fairly empty (read: more space to spread out!!). However, as soon as we got on the plane, the pilot came on the PA and said that we were going to wait an additional hour for some more passengers so we could fill up the plane a little more, which meant we didn't get to sprawl out. Two-and-a-half hours later, we were on our way (7.5 hour flight).
As we had only a two-hour layover in Brussels, we thought we might be stuck in Brussels for a night because of the delay in Chicago. Somehow we made the last call for our plane from Brussels to Chennai (9.5 hrs), despite there supposedly being volcano ash in the London area. This last plane was pretty posh, with the sweet first-class pods and tv screens for every seat. We were given two pretty delicious Indian meals and a Belgian ice cream bar!
Now here's where the story gets interesting (mom, I'd suggest you stop reading!)... After making it through customs, we headed outside to find our taxi driver, where we were greeted by sooo many people. Mind you, at this point, it was like 1:30 AM local time and CRAZY hot. Unfortunately, there were some miscommunications and our pre-paid hired driver was not there to pick us up. So, there we were: three American girls, stuck outside the airport in a foreign country with no means of communication, at 1:30 in the morning. Luckily, we were approached by a college-aged student who had just gotten off an international flight and offered to let us use his parents' cell phone. Megan, being the rockstar that she is, went with him to find his parents (we know - separation isn't the best of ideas, but we had a mountain of luggage that needed to be guarded). However, the guy couldn't find his parents, so the two of them ended up convincing a local cab driver to let them borrow his cell phone. Anyway, long story short, Megan called one of our instructors who came and picked us up (mad props to him, by the way, for leaving his wife and 21-month-old daughter at 2 AM to come pick us up) and brought us to our hostel. On a side note, what they say about Chennai drivers is true: they are seriously crazy drivers. Words can't even explain the drive we had on the way back, and our prof was being super careful/cautious!
Now onto our current living arrangements (don't worry, I'll post pictures soon)...
Let's just say that after more than a day of travel, we were already a little stressed and just wanted to take a quick shower and pass out. We passed through the security gate to our hostel, unloaded the mountain of luggage, and signed in at the empty check-in desk, where we were given the keys to the massive padlocks on our doors. We soon discovered that we had some additional roommates in our hostel room (e.g., fun geckos, less-than-fun giant cockroaches, and evidence of mice). We were very grateful, however, to discover that they supplied us with a few rolls of toilet paper! (For those of you who are not familiar with or are curious about Indian toilets, I suggest you google it!). Plus, we have wireless internet access, air conditioning, and three meals per day! And all of this for about 500 Rupees (i.e., about $11) per night.
Even though we all claim to be fairly low-maintenance, I'd be lying if I said we didn't have an initial freak out about our current living conditions. However, I think we're already adjusting fairly well... We've come to terms with the loud monkey calls outside our building, the stray cats/dogs, the lack of walls in common areas, and we even met some business (MBA) students who are staying in our buildling. All-in-all, it's been an interesting first day/night.
More updates (and pics) to follow soon!
Today's temp: 102 Fahrenheit, heat index 112.
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