Travel High: Arrival

As I flew into Chennai a wave of nervousness overtook me... was my luggage going to be there, would I get through customs smoothly, will I be able to find whoever was picking me up. Well I moved through customs and security without a problem. However waiting for my luggage was a little stressful as I waited for 20 minutes until mine came through but there it was and I was off. This airport was very small (this was helpful as I didn't have to walk very far) but the first thing I saw as I walked through security from the baggage claim were masses of people waiting to pick up those arriving. Was I ever going to find the apartments manager with my name on a little board, I scanned about 10 name plates until I found mine... yay!!! I had done it traveled all that way by myself!!! The 3 men that were there to pick me up were very nice and helpful, grabbing all of my luggage from me and taking it all to the car.

The drive to the apartment wasn't very long, maybe 20 minutes. As we were driving though I literally felt myself sitting up as straight as possible and completely wide eyed taking in everything I was seeing. My first impression as I walked out of the airport reminded me of Mexico, lots of men trying to sell their cab service to you, but not as quite as pushy. As we drove down the street to the apartment it was kind of hard to see, it was 1am and everything was dark. My first, oh my gosh I'm in India moment, was seeing a cow eating from the trash piled on the side of the road. Then as we got a little further I saw what appeared to be a young couple on a motorcycle, she was on the back holding on tightly while wearing her sari. Other than the clothing this was nothing different than what I would see at home and it was comforting.

Then... we arrived at the apartment, as we entered I was thinking this must be a joke, or there must be someone else living with me. The place is huge... 3 bedrooms (two, with beds and linens) 4 bathrooms (each bedroom has a bathroom and then a main bathroom) a bigger than I could use kitchen ;) (stocked with dishes for 4, some staple foods to get me through until I find the local grocery store, and 3 water jugs to get me started), a great sitting area and dinning area (with table, already set up with table cloth place mates and napkins, and a box of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal). But that's not all... each bedroom and the sitting area have a walk out balcony! The windows already have curtains, the beds have linens and there was one bath towel waiting for me (thank goodness because all of mine are being shipped, I forgot to pack one!) Also the phone and internet were already set up for me.

Completely jet lagged I was up until 3am local time slept then for an hour. At around 4:30am I couldn't lay in bed anymore so I got up to look around the apartment. The car was coming to pick me up at 8am for my first day of work so I had some time to kill... around 6 I decided to take a shower, not knowing at the time that I had to turn on the hot water heater in order to take a hot shower... needless to say my 1st Indian shower was a cold one. In my mind I was thinking well I guess this is just what I have to get used to... until I was informed about the hot water heater! YAY! The next day I had a nice hot shower!