I've arrived!

I landed in Bangalore at about Midnight and then arrived at my new apartment around 1:30 am on April 9th. The commute from the Airport was a little long- about an hour, but I barely noticed as I was taking in all of the sights and sounds as I whipped past things on the streets.

I haven't slept much yet, as I was anxious to unpack and get somewhat familiar with my surroundings. So, needless to say I am pretty sleepy, but I should be able to get on a regular sleeping pattern starting tonight. Hopefully :)

The flights in general were LONG. I spent about 8 and a half hours on the first leg to Paris and another 8 and half on the second leg, which I mostly slept on. (Luckily) As I was preparing to leave for India and then on the first leg of the flight, I had a few learnings. Insightful revelations, if you will.

1. You can live without a lot of things. I thought packing my life into three suitcases for five months would be tough, but in all reality there are quite a few things you can live without. On the other hand, there are quite a few people you can't live without. Leaving things behind and packing = easy, Leaving the family and friends that you love and knowing you won't be able to see them for five months is a lot tougher. At the end of they day, five months will zoom by, it really puts into perspective what is important in life and who you truly care about.

2. Wearing sunglasses is always a good idea. First, per the primary use of sunglasses, they keep the sun from blinding you, which in India is bright. Second, it can hide puffy eyes (due to tears. I can cannot confirm or deny if I used sunglasses to conceal my eyes for this reason, but for those of you that know me very well- you know that a few tears were inevitable. I will say there were no hysterics!) Third, they make you look famous. Sunglasses have many purposes and I was really glad I had mine.

3. It is not as comforting as you might think sitting close to the pilots of the plane. From Mpls to Paris, I could see into the cockpit, which was fine until I saw all of the buttons and nobs. It looked a lot like a keyboard, but much bigger. Then I thought to myself- I make plenty of mistakes typing on my keyboard by hitting the wrong key. I sure hope the pilots paid more attention in flight school than I apparently did during my 5th grade typing class. Please don't let me go down over the ocean, please let me make it to India and taste real curry.

4. All you can eat food and all you can drink wine seems like a fabulous idea on the plane until you are so full you are ready to burst. However, will very quickly realize that you might have just put down a bottle of wine and three pieces of cheesecake and you have no where to go. Meaning you are stuck on an Airplane with a miniature bathroom, and miniature personal space. Not ideal.

Overall, the experience was not nearly as bad as it could have been traveling for 24 hours. Although, I was happy to be on solid ground after that last leg. I will share more about my apartment and my first few days in Bangalore very soon!