Finally Arrived in Madurai

Please excuse the length of this post in advance. It documents my entire journey to get here, starting in Eugene.

Waking up to my alarm clock at 3:45 in the morning to leave Eugene was quite a way to begin my trip around the world. I got to the Eugene airport, checked my bag and got on the plane with no delays. Everything looked good as I sat in my seat, looking out on the rainy morning in Eugene, until I reached for my money belt to get a piece of gum. No money belt... As I frantically tried to remember if I had put it back on after going through security and searched my bag, I heard a little dinging sound and the clunk of the plane's door closing and locking into place, separating me fom my two debit cards, credit card, and my driver's license on the other side.

I hit the flight attendant call button so hard that I think I scared the guy sitting next to me. "No", I was told - they would not reopen the cabin door. However, they did manage to locate it in the airport (on the floor where I had been sitting, waiting to board). It would be put on the next plane to Eugene, which would arrive with more than enough time to let me get to my Frankfurt flight. With a sigh of relief, I sat back in my seat and tried to fall asleep (although even after sleeping only three hours the night before and at 5:45 in the morning, my racing heart after the nearly avoided brush with a minor crisis would have none of it).

Four and a half hours later, after a short flight and an agonizing three hour period of pacing through the San Francisco Airport, I was reunited with that dumb, ugly belt. Very much relieved, I headed to the international terminal.

The next four and a half hours passed without incident, or really anything for that matter. With no more free internet, eyes too tired to read, no cell phone, and finding myself not at all hungry, I laid down on a stretch of seats (pinned down under the armrests that I barely slid under) and closed my eyes.

The flight departed half an hour late. The flight was lonnnnng. And since I was rebooked from the Lufthansa flight to the United flight, my favorite parts of flying internationally (free wine and the personal in flight movie screen) were unfortunately not present. I watched Extraordinary Measures, Invictus, part of Crazy Heart, and tried to sleep a little bit.

The Frankfurt airport was, as usual, one of the more stressful experiences of my life. Although it is my fourth time flying internationally (first time alone), I swear that I will still never understand how to navigate the place and the rules on how to move through the airport. To clarify, we arrived in Frankfurt with under an hour until my flight to Chennai was schedule to depart. After taking a bus to the airport terminal, I was ushered up the stairs to a line for "Passport Control/Baggage Claim/A gates". There was also another sign off to the left pointing to "B gates", where I needed to be very soon, but which did not require me to go through any sort of Passport control or to claim my bag to be rechecked (which I think I had always had to do in the past there). I tried asking an airport woman where I needed to go and she pointed me toward the "B gates". I soon found myself in a huge security line which I passed through fairly quickly and ran to my
gate. Upon arriving at my gate (oh yeah, forgot to mention that United had been unable to print my final boarding pass for this next flight in Eugene) I waited in line to talk to two young German Lufthansa ladies. Through a heavy German accent, I was told that my ticket did not exist and that I would have to pay $250 as a change fee for not taking the flight the day before (which I had missed because of the canceled flight). Exhausted and slightly emotional, I explained to the woman my ordeal that had begun the day prior. Whether my explanation was adequate or if she just took pity on me, I have no idea, but nonetheless I walked from her desk right to the boarding line and onto the plane. From what I could understand, my bag was being transferred and I had somehow correctly navigated my way through the maze of Frankfurt.

This flight, although my second long haul of the day (9 hours), was actually significantly better. I had the two seats to myself on the side of the plane, which meant that I had plenty of room to stretch out. My goal was to try and stay awake for most of the flight so that when I arrived late Thursday night in Chennai, I would be able to fall asleep. About two hours into the flight, I realized that this was going to be totally impossible as I had been traveling for over 24 hours and hadn't slept more than an hour or so. A three-hour nap brought me back into a state of normal exhaustion. When I awoke, I saw on the map that we had flown almost directly over Tehran and were now flying high above some of the mountainous Pakistani terrain.

Flying over Karachi, I opened my window to a dark sky and the most amazing display of stars that I think I have ever seen from a plane. It was really somewhat hard to imagine that I was flying over these places that have so much focus and attention in the media and that we talk about in school, but that always seem to be so far away that I can't even really imagine them existing. Although I obviously didn't stop off at any of these places, a part of me still felt some of the "impossibly far away" feeling about this part of the world shrink a little bit.

The flight arrived in Chennai a little after midnight. As the flight monitor screen showed us lowering in altitude, the outdoor temperature monitor began to rise. I walked off the plane through what I can only describe as a "wall" of heat. I stood in this humid, 90+ degree heat in line for customs for 45 minutes, then went to search for my bag. The bag arrived, although I had to wait another half hour for it to appear on the belt. I kid you not when I say that it was the last bag loaded onto the baggage claim, so by the time I saw it, I had pretty muh given up all hope. I walked through the exit and saw my host brother, Doodle, standing and waiting with a sign. We proceeded to find a taxi and go to our hotel for the night. Driving through Chennai validated everything I had ever heard about driving in India. Even compared to the Chinese, I would have to say that Indian drivers are the most daring and reckless that I have ever seen.

After 36 hours with no conversation longer than with the gate agent in Frankfurt, it was so great and welcoming to have Doodle to accompany me back to the hotel. He also works for the program that I am going to be working with, so in addition to answering all my questions about the family and the town, he was also able to tell me all about the company and my job placement.

Got into bed (or I suppose I should say onto bed since there were no sheets) and went to sleep around 2:45am.

The next day (Friday), I had a good bit of Indian food, which was all very good. We then took a 9 hour bus ride to Madurai and an "auto-rickshaw" to the house. The family is wonderful and there are a bunch of other volunteers for me to talk with as well.

I found a wireless signal for internet which is how I am finally posting this very long blog post that I have been working on on my iPod for the last couple days. Very tired and now, some 55 hours after I left home in Eugene, I have arrived at my new home for the next month.

More to come soon about India!