permanent brain damage

so last time i wrote was during my first layover in amsterdam.

now i am in vellore, registered for my rotations which begin this afternoon, checked into the hotel and already a market connosieur (don't know how to spell that).

but the times in between then and now... let me tell you...

so during our overnight layover in mumbai (or bombay for those of you not "with it" yet), we were supposed to be able to have a free dinner and lounge at a nearby hotel... there are two airports one is international the other is domestic--well there was no one there to pick us up to take us to the hotel, so we ended up on a shuttle where carla and i thoroughly explored the mumbai airport... found internet, indian junk food, the lounge we got kicked out of cause we are not "elite", and then a restaurant we got kicked out of cause we bought our food at the downstairs counter instead of the upstairs counter.

when we finally got to chennai we got a taxi driver. probably the only one in india that followed ALL the traffic rules. some might like this given the "i'm going to die" feeling i usually have when i travel on the roads in india. but after 48 hours without no sleep, i was looking forward to an aggressive driver for our 4 hour trip to vellore. carla and i just gave each other a sad look everytime someone passed us...cars, lopsided buses, rickshaws, people on foot, cows. i mean seriously, he drove the speed limit the whole way, and even stopped for tea.

so i did not sleep during the entire trip... im just not an airplane sleeper. so after 48 hours of travel time (including the longest layovers of my life) we arrived in vellore and decided we had to get situated. Somewhere in our delerium we decided it would be better to finish errands rather than sleep. so off we went in search of toilet paper, hand soap, a cell phone so you peoples can call us, photocopier for the documents we needed to register the next day, passport photos (oh they are lovely, let me tell you, without having brushed my hair or showered for three days, and now it is on my CMC ID card!) Why we did not go to sleep i do not know. but at some point, carla and i realized we had been waiting for someone that said "be right back" for an hour, and we still had no cell phone and both of us were too tired to realize it! so we decided to go to the hotel.

at the hotel, they first told us they didnt have any a/c rooms with two beds, which we had confirmed they had twice before we left. so carla and i have to get comfy. then, we got to our room to realize there is an elaborate key system that makes it so you cannot have the electricity on while you are gone, not a big deal, accept on hot days where it wuld be nice to be greeted with AC and that oh yeah, if we want to turn off the lights, the ac has to turn off too since none of the switches are actually connected to the light bulb--just to the superkey! we chose the airconditioning and sleeping wiht lights on since we were exhausted. but after a bit of rest, i awoke around midnight to find carla standing on the bed and desk unscrewing light bulbs. she is brilliant! i would have been sleeping with the lights on for three weeks without her. She also said something, but i can't remember what, that made me worry that our staying awake so long had caused permanent brain damage.

before we went to bed, carla and i decided to order food. poor delerious carla on the phone, lets just say that after a 20 minute conversation and four clarification phone calls on trying to order two items and two drinks... we got, half our food, he informed us the rest was still cooking. then he brought in the next order ten minutes later and the bill. then he brought the change 15 minutes later. then he came back to get the dishes. they don't like to knock here either.

now if we can just figure out how to get the hot running water they promised us...i think we will be okay.

okay, so it might sound like im complaining, but in my delerious state, i actually was enjoying the craziness of it. carla and i were giggling the whole time. when we first hit vellore it felt overwhelming, usually i get in "travel mode" when i get to another country but lack of sleep and food, made everything seem a bit surreal. its just about a different way of life, coming from someplace with a certain way of life and integrating, quick like, just takes being with it. but even if i usually consider myself travel savvy... a few things i learned... prioritize the basics when new someplace... sleep and food. they you can figure out the fancy stuff later...

but so far, today has been a blast. we both registered for our electives. This week, I am doing pediatrics. Next week I will be doing home visits and hospital rounds at the community health and development hospital. The following week will be at a rural location! i am really excited. everyone here is really nice, not just at the hospital, but also in the city. sure they want to sell you their stuff, but they are also willing to help you find something if you are lost, even if they don't speak your language or understand anything about you. Mostly, i would just describe the folks here as "curious", just like us. Even if they are staring at us, taking us in... we are staring back and taking it all in. in the end, its all the same. I keep my guard up, just like I do anytime I'm in a city, whether its New York or Belo Horizonte, but this is probably the most comfortable I have felt in a city. I'm excited to make this place home for three weeks. its very managable.

Well, this blog just came out as a regurgitation of events, not quite what I wanted, what I really wanted to do was tell you my thoughts on all these actions. my thoughts on dressing in indian clothes, being ethnically indian, but inherently american and here in this country as foreign to me as any other. but i think this blog came out the way that my first day felt, just event after event. so i'll get to the good stuff in the next one i suppose.