James and I arrive in India 2 days ago at 12:20 am local time after traveling from NYC with a stop in Heathrow. Once we arrive the journey began. We had a person waiting for us as soon as we got out of the plane and they told us where to go. We arrived in the new British Airways terminal which was a beautiful building that had amazing local art diplayed all around. After walking almost a mile, we arrived at the border and handed out passports, which did not take long. Once we were cleared, a British Airways worker meet us and helped us with our luggage. That took a little longer that expected and we had our social sponsor waiting for us outside the terminal. Immediately following getting our bags we thought that we were done, we were mistaken, now we had to go an clear customs and check what was in our carry on bags. We are glad that did not take that long and we were able to meet our social sponsor after that.
He had a car waiting for us at the airport and once we got all of our stuff in we were gone. The trip from the airport to our new home only took about 20 minutes. Once we arrive at the apartment it was about 1:30 am. Kevin showed us our apartment and explained what worked and how some things worked, what he failed to show us and explained to us was that our balcony sliding door laches behing you once you close it... So if you're thinking what I'm thinking... you are correct, James and I got stuck on our balcony for almost an hour. At the beginning we tried opening it, trying to get it out of the rail, ect and nothing worked. I got the idea of yelling out to see if anyone could help us. Thank God, Allah or whomever for 24 hour security that was able to hear us and they were able to call someone to get a key to our place to let us out. All I kept thinking is that, I can't believe this is happening to us on the FIRST DAY... and I did not want to take it as a sign of what our lives here would be like. I panicked, of course, I panicked, you do not want to be stuck in a balcony in a foreign country on your first night or ever...
Once they helped us we were too awake and shocked that none of us could go to bed. Instead, we started unpacking, took a shower and at 5 am actually went to bed. We woke up about 11ish and we looked to see what was around us that we could go to. Our sponsor lend us his driver for the day, but we did not take advantage of it right away. We walked down to the ocean front to get some Costa coffee. Now is where the fun starts.
You know how in the states we have sidewalks, well here they have them too, BUT, shocker... No one walks on them... People here walk against traffic on the road and when I say road, I mean 2 cars can barely drive on them.
As we walked down I was taking in the scenery and realizing in what a different world we are in. People here walk a lot, there are not as many people (at least in our neighborhood) as I thought we were going to encounter, that there are certain places where the smell is greater than other places, and that sometimes, if you have to go, you have to go... Yes, you guess it, I experienced my first person (it was a kid actually) pooping on the street!
We made it to Costa and the coffee and muffins were both delicious. We walked back to our apartment and we decided to take the advantages of having a driver for the day. The driver met us in the lobby and took us to Choice Market... Now this market will be our friend. This market has a lot of the comfort food items that one might need and if you call them... they deliver it. We bought some stuff there and we asked the driver to take us to see if we could get new Sim cards for our phones to use them here in India, but it turns out that you need an Indian reference, so we have to apply for one through the Consulate.
Once we made it back to our apartment again our sponsor called us because he heard the story of what happend to us and he wanted to check up on us. He invited us over to his apartment later on in the afternoon, so I went and took a nap.
Around 6:30 we went down to Kevin's apartment where we met Justin and Michael. We had some beverages and Michael invited all of us to dinner because he was going with James' fellow 176ers to dinner. So we set of on a night adventure. We took a rickshaw to dinner to fnd out the place was closed, so we walked to another place in which we founf iut it was an Indian restaurant. Once there I explained to Kevin that it was my FIRST, yes my first time eating Indian food, so he was kind and ordered for me. As it turns out it wasn't bad nor spicy (at least what I ate). James and I only ate a small amount of food because we feared that we would get sick. The best part about it was the cost of the food, we paid 200 ruppees each, which means that James and I had dinner for $6.00.
After dinner we ended up at a local bar for a little bit and we left since we were tired after one beer.
Needless to say, James and I are happy to be here, and yes, this will be a big adjustment since there are a lit of things that we need to get used to (smells, poverty, standards of living, etc) but I am certain that we will learn to love this place.
Mumbai is a great place and it has very kind and manificent people and I can't wait to explore it more. For now, James and I are taking it easy and just exploring it in smalls amounts of time to not over stimulate our senses and experience.
As you can see we accomplished a lot in one day. We can't wait to see what day 2 and the rest of the days are going to bring.
Nats
He had a car waiting for us at the airport and once we got all of our stuff in we were gone. The trip from the airport to our new home only took about 20 minutes. Once we arrive at the apartment it was about 1:30 am. Kevin showed us our apartment and explained what worked and how some things worked, what he failed to show us and explained to us was that our balcony sliding door laches behing you once you close it... So if you're thinking what I'm thinking... you are correct, James and I got stuck on our balcony for almost an hour. At the beginning we tried opening it, trying to get it out of the rail, ect and nothing worked. I got the idea of yelling out to see if anyone could help us. Thank God, Allah or whomever for 24 hour security that was able to hear us and they were able to call someone to get a key to our place to let us out. All I kept thinking is that, I can't believe this is happening to us on the FIRST DAY... and I did not want to take it as a sign of what our lives here would be like. I panicked, of course, I panicked, you do not want to be stuck in a balcony in a foreign country on your first night or ever...
Once they helped us we were too awake and shocked that none of us could go to bed. Instead, we started unpacking, took a shower and at 5 am actually went to bed. We woke up about 11ish and we looked to see what was around us that we could go to. Our sponsor lend us his driver for the day, but we did not take advantage of it right away. We walked down to the ocean front to get some Costa coffee. Now is where the fun starts.
You know how in the states we have sidewalks, well here they have them too, BUT, shocker... No one walks on them... People here walk against traffic on the road and when I say road, I mean 2 cars can barely drive on them.
As we walked down I was taking in the scenery and realizing in what a different world we are in. People here walk a lot, there are not as many people (at least in our neighborhood) as I thought we were going to encounter, that there are certain places where the smell is greater than other places, and that sometimes, if you have to go, you have to go... Yes, you guess it, I experienced my first person (it was a kid actually) pooping on the street!
We made it to Costa and the coffee and muffins were both delicious. We walked back to our apartment and we decided to take the advantages of having a driver for the day. The driver met us in the lobby and took us to Choice Market... Now this market will be our friend. This market has a lot of the comfort food items that one might need and if you call them... they deliver it. We bought some stuff there and we asked the driver to take us to see if we could get new Sim cards for our phones to use them here in India, but it turns out that you need an Indian reference, so we have to apply for one through the Consulate.
Once we made it back to our apartment again our sponsor called us because he heard the story of what happend to us and he wanted to check up on us. He invited us over to his apartment later on in the afternoon, so I went and took a nap.
Around 6:30 we went down to Kevin's apartment where we met Justin and Michael. We had some beverages and Michael invited all of us to dinner because he was going with James' fellow 176ers to dinner. So we set of on a night adventure. We took a rickshaw to dinner to fnd out the place was closed, so we walked to another place in which we founf iut it was an Indian restaurant. Once there I explained to Kevin that it was my FIRST, yes my first time eating Indian food, so he was kind and ordered for me. As it turns out it wasn't bad nor spicy (at least what I ate). James and I only ate a small amount of food because we feared that we would get sick. The best part about it was the cost of the food, we paid 200 ruppees each, which means that James and I had dinner for $6.00.
After dinner we ended up at a local bar for a little bit and we left since we were tired after one beer.
Needless to say, James and I are happy to be here, and yes, this will be a big adjustment since there are a lit of things that we need to get used to (smells, poverty, standards of living, etc) but I am certain that we will learn to love this place.
Mumbai is a great place and it has very kind and manificent people and I can't wait to explore it more. For now, James and I are taking it easy and just exploring it in smalls amounts of time to not over stimulate our senses and experience.
As you can see we accomplished a lot in one day. We can't wait to see what day 2 and the rest of the days are going to bring.
Nats
