Flying and Arriving!

I made it to India! I am currently sitting in the living room enjoying the beautiful view out the window of the bay and the Arabian sea. :) But more about that later.

I left Anchorage at 8 a.m. Saturday morning, flew to Chicago, then on to DC, Dubai, and finally Cochin. I arrived in Cochin at 3 a.m. Monday morning. I haven't really figured out exactly how many travel hours that totals (after subtracting the time change), but I know I was in the air for approximately 25 hours. I kept myself entertained by playing Sudoku on my iPod, listening to podcasts, crocheting a doily, watching a couple movies (Up in the Air & Bright Star), and sleeping for 8 hours. I don't recall anything else too interesting about the trip until I got to Cochin.

When the plane arrived in Cochin, I was waiting in line to get off the plane and they announced over the intercom “would Mr. Chadwick please see the ground crew as you leave the plane”. Since there were only a handful of non-Indians on the flight, I had to assume that Mr. Chadwick really meant me. (They like to write my name as “Chadwick, Amandaj”, which generally in India would usually look more like a male name.) Anyways, so I talked to the ground crew as I left the plane and was informed that my luggage had not made it on the plane with me in Dubai. The man was super helpful though and helped me get through customs and get all the necessary paperwork filled out so that they could just deliver the luggage to me when it came in on the next flight. Of course it took awhile, but I think I actually left the airport a bit faster than the other 350ish people who were all waiting around the carousel for their luggage. Anyways, he said my luggage would be on the 9 a.m. flight and that one of their drivers would bring it over as soon as it came in. So I should have it by about 11 a.m. If not, I’ve got a few phone numbers to call.

When I made my way out of the airport to where all the drivers and everyone wait to pickup people, I was very happy to see that my driver was Jaleesh, the same driver we had when I left last time! (We had gone through about 4 different drivers in only 3 months last time, so this was somewhat unusual from my experience.) He is very sweet and he is careful to slow down over any bumpy areas so as to not jar us too badly. His English has improved quite a bit since I last saw him too.

When I got to the apartment, Jaleesh hadn’t been given a key to give me, so I had unfortunately had to rely on knocking and ringing the doorbell at around 4 a.m. until Alana and Carina finally came to the door and let me in. I felt bad waking them up, but I didn’t really want to sit in the hot and muggy hallway until they woke up at 6:30ish. On their part, they were worried it was someone else trying to hurt them or something! Fortunately they did let me in though. Then I crawled into bed for a couple hours of sleep until morning.

This morning I got up at 7 so I could say hi to Alana and Carina before they headed off to work. And also I wanted to get up at a “normal” time so I could start adjusting to the time change faster. After they left for work I made a few phone calls to let people know I made it safely. Then I tried to take a shower, but for some reason the water wouldn’t turn on. *shrug* I haven’t yet figured that one out. I should ask Rosily the maid while she’s here. I did get to change out of my travel clothes though. (I actually remembered to put a change of clothes in my carryon and I’m sooooo glad I did!) I’ll deal with the shower after my bags get here in a little bit and I have access to my shampoo and such. *crossing fingers* I had turned on the AC in the living room at some point this morning since it was quite hot and humid. But a while later I realized that it was dripping water rather quickly and there was a huge puddle on the floor! So now I’m sitting here with the fan on high and towels on the floor. I guess you could say I’m trying to get myself accustomed to the heat. With the fan on it’s not too bad, as long as I don’t move too much and I don’t put my laptop on my lap.

Rosily the maid was happy to see me. I was sitting near the door when she came in and the surprised look on her face was wonderful! She remembered my name immediately and she had to call her daughter right away too and have her talk to me for a minute.  Last time I was here, Rosily helped me find and buy my sari. And then her daughter helped me put it on when I wore it the first time. So they were both very happy to see me back again. The daughter is expecting and is due on the 19th of next month!

Well, I think that’s a pretty decent update for now. Unfortunately this may have to be actually posted later though, as the internet crapped out on my while I was writing (I was able to copy and paste what I had into Word and have been writing it there) and I can’t seem to get the internet to connect again yet. I also need to tackle getting the wireless router to work. I’ll take pictures of the apartment sometime soon as well. (It’s very similar to the apartment I was in last time, so you can go look at those pictures from my last trip if you want. They should have been posted sometime around November 2008.

P.S. - I got the internet to work. So I'm posting it at about 11 a.m. And I'm hoping my bags will be here any minute!