I've finally arrived in the land of backwards roads and motorcycles!

After about 21 hours of flight time and 20 hours of layovers in various airports, I'm finally in Trichy! After our first flight to New York, we were in the JFK airport for six hours. Since our flight was so far away, we didn't have a gate when we arrived so Morgan and I aimlessly walked around until we found a good place to sit. When we finally got our gate, it was listed as B29 on our phones. We were already in concourse B so we tried to find our gate, but the signs all skipped gates 21-31… Eventually we found a departure screen and our gate was simply listed as TM4, which we took to mean terminal 4. Now, finding terminal 4 was a different story… We first had to find an airtrain which involved leaving the terminal, going halfway around the gigantic airport, and finally going through a long line of security without knowing if we were actually correct. Finally, we arrived at our correct gate and boarding out 13-hour flight to Abu Dhabi, UAE! 


We only stayed at the Abu Dhabi airport for an hour and a half then we took another four hour flight to Chennai, India! Both of these last two flights were through Etihad Airlines, which turned out to be extremely nice; we were even given really nice meals on both flights! During the flight to Chennai, dinner was served to us around 1 am India time, which we thought was a strange time to eat, but the food was good and we were hungry, so we ate it anyway. I was also seated next to a young couple and their one-year-old little girl. At first I thought this might be disrupting, but the little girl was so taken with me she often just stared. They did have some trouble getting her to sleep during the flight, but eventually, with her mom sitting at the foot of the chairs feeding her and her dad feeding her mom the meal, she was out like a light! By the way, we were in the first row of economy class, so she wasn't quite so squished as she would have been in a normal sized airplane row. 

The meal we got on our flight to Abu Dhabi with real silverware!

We got off our plane in Chennai around 4 am India time. And, boy, was that airport confusing… about half of the airport is under construction so we had to go through customs, leave the airport, walk around all of the construction, and find our way to the domestic flights. Meanwhile, there were very little signs pointing us in the correct direction. So after much confusion and frustration on both Morgan's and my part and about two hours, we found our way to our gate. Which was right next to the "food court." The food court, which we traditionally think to have many different food options, was really just one cafe with a couple sandwiches and some drinks. The seats in the cafe were very comfortable though, so we sat there for about 8 hours until our final flight to Trichy took off!

Now that I'm finally in India it actually seems real! The experience I've been anticipating since September is finally here! When we arrived at the Trichy airport, we were met by Dr. Relton, who is in charge of our program here at BHC, as well as his wife and son. When we got in the car, the steering wheel was on the right side which was already a little strange, but Dr. Relton proceeded to say, "Is this your first time in India?" When we said yes, he said with a laugh, "Well, this is a different kind of road here!" It definitely is… people honk constantly and don't really drive in their lanes. In fact, even though the roads go in the opposite direction from ours in the US, occasionally someone will drive by going the opposite way on our side of the road, which was pretty scary. Having gone to Haiti before, a lot of the buildings on the road were similar; however, A LOT more people ride motorcycles here, which in conjunction with bikes and motor scooters are just generally called "two-wheelers." And women ride on them side saddle when they are wearing skirts, which seems fairly unsafe to me to wear a skirt on something with spinning wheels anyways…

This is called "Two-Wheeler Parking"

We arrived on the Bishop Heber campus around 5 pm and were taken to our room in the International Hostel. They call dorms "hostels" here, so that's taking some getting adjusting! Morgan and I are sharing a room which I will post some pictures of in a bit. It's a pretty big room with A/C, which is very nice when it's 106 degrees outside! And all of the drinking water on campus is purified mineral water, so no need to worry about that, but we are still being very careful by brushing our teeth with bottled water and being sure not to swallow any shower water. So far we have met the cooks and our "RA" Solomon. All of which have been very friendly and accommodating, though I haven't quite perfected the art of understanding the Indian accents yet, but I'm sure it will come with time. We have determined that this culture is very comfortable with silence, and we in America are not, so that has been interesting as well. 

This morning Morgan and I took a walk around the campus and took some pictures! So here are some of those! 

This is where the BHC Principal's office is as well as some of the classes

This was BHC's first building, now the Department of Physical Education

One of the many beautiful buildings on campus

The college's sign. There is an English one as well, but this is in Tamil and reads "Bishop Heber College (Autonomous) Accreditation by MAAC" from right to left

I thought this was pretty cool!

This cute little guy is right outside of our hostel! 

And this is where we live! I love all of the landscaping on this campus.

Anyways, I'm sure I will have a lot more to post following my first day at the clinic tomorrow! Also, I apologize for this being so long… I didn't realize I had so much to say and share! 

Until tomorrow,
Marissa

P.S. I'd really like to thank some people who made this trip possible:

Mommy and Daddy: Thank you for being so supportive of this trip as well as all of my dreams. I know it isn't easy to send your "baby" halfway across the world, but you are both so amazing and were willing to let me go. I love you so so so much and I miss you already! 

Taylor: Thanks for being the best big sister ever and helping me so much to get ready. Packing would have been even more terrible without you and I think I would have been completely lost in Europe when we get there four weeks from now… I miss you lots and I'll be sending you lots of wonderful thoughts for your first day of orientation at MGH in Boston tomorrow.

My step-parents, Christine & Gary: Thank you both for being supportive of both me and my parents. You are both so amazing to our families and I'm very glad to have you in my life. I love you lots!

Dr. Leslie Jones and Dr. Relton: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come to India and learn about the medicine in this culture. I can't wait to learn all that the doctors and clinics have to teach me! 

The Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship: This scholarship has been amazing. Because of them, I am able to spend my time in India without worrying about the financial cost as they are covering my entire trip. Thank you so so so much for all of the aid you have given.

The Ronald & Marilyn Mitsch International Education Scholarship & The Jerri Heltzer International Education Scholarship: Thank you for the scholarships given to me by these wonderful donors and the Honors College at ASU. Every bit of help has been so amazing!