Time to kill in Heathrow

I had a take a little bus ride from Gatwick to Heathrow to catch my flight to Chennai. P.S. Mom and Dad the free ticket worked fine... but the lady stamped both of them so I'm afraid we're fresh out of free bus tickets for the next trip. During my brief excusion into the lovely British countryside, I noticed a couple of things that haven't changed since my last visit.

First, I still read the To Let signs (meaning For Rent) as large signs advertising toilets. This is probably due to the same brain malfunction that causes me to read retinal as renal (this was especially problematic when writing the section on the retina in my thesis).

Secondly, they still drive on the wrong side of the road.

And finally, the little British houses on the side of the road still look very sad and dingy. However, this could be due to the weather... which is very sad an singy.

My attitude right now is, unlike British houses, very upbeat and optimistic (as much as I can be functioning on little sleep with no promise of an upgrade to business class in my near future... speaking of which, I should eat before I get on the plane). I'm really excited about getting to Chennai. Or maybe I'm just excited about getting to me hotel room and sleeping in a bed. Which reminds me... what time do you think a eye clinic in India opens in the morning? Do they expect me to call them at 8am? 10am? afternoonish? Getting in at 3:25am is not condusive to a productive first day.

Speaking of 3:25am. I hope the money exchangers are up then, because it's apparently illegal to exchange Indian Rupees outside of India (a fact unknown to many in the British money exchange business... they kept telling me that they were out until I finally got to someone who knew what they were talking about). If they're not open, I guess the cab driver will be getting dollars. Maybe I should look up that exchage rate.

I'm starting to ramble... or maybe I never had a point... anyway, the next time I post, it should be from an Indian internet cafe.

Let the adventure begin!

T-3 Days and Counting

I leave for India on Thursday morning. I've started to... I take that back, have been freaking out for a while about leaving. Despite all of my world travellerness and bravado, this will be a first for me on many levels.

1. First time I change airports in London by myself (doesn't seem like a big deal, but I can't really miss my plane).
2. First time I've travelled to a third world(ish?) country by myself.
3. First time I've travelled somewhere that I don't know anyone. Well, that's not entirely true. There are family of some friends of ours in Saudi who live there, so I guess I'm not totally alone.

It's a little bit strange how travel kind of just happens for me. Since I've been planning this trip, many people have told me how much they want to go to India, have always dreamed of going to India, want to take pictures of India, etc. In fact, get this, Mrs. Julie Zeringue loves India and watches Bollywood movies! She even knows what Indian state Chennai is located in... I feel bad now for thinking that she wouldn't even know where India is. She beat me...I didn't know where Chennai was until I looked it up. I've never wanted to visit India. India has always seemed like a dirty and crowded place that I wouldn't like. When I applied to Unite for Sight, I just assumed that I would be assigned to the Ghana clinic. I was actually suprised when I found out I was going to India. I think it's good for me though. I've never understood why some people say "Lord, I'll go anywhere... just don't send me to Africa". Africa doesn't seem like such a big deal for me. But now that I think about it, India is my Africa.

I don't know how much I'll get to post while I'm there, but I'll try to post (with pictures) as much as possible.