Arriving in India - 08.04.19

Good morning! We made it to India! We landed, had to fill out an information card, get our e-visa approved, exchange our money, and find our luggage. We arrived at midnight and our expected pick up was for 11 AM. We took so long at getting through customs that we had our luggage waiting for us at customer service. Another thing that was quite culturally different at the airport was that there was always a restroom attendant in the bathroom at all times. We finally settled in at the airport and we waited until 6 AM to call the School of Ancient Wisdom to see if we could have an earlier pick up time. They answered and said they would come and get us in twenty minutes. Fast forward twenty minutes and we are informed that they are outside and I see a man waving us down. This is where the story really begins. Gabs and I are shown to our tiny van that only fitted us and our luggage. When entering the van, my backpack was too large on my back and literally flung me out of the van. There were no seatbelts, they drove on the wrong side of the road, and the driving was worse than New York City (tons of honking). We saw three people riding on a motorcycle, wild dogs, lots of palm trees (like Florida), and trucks that looked like they came from Indiana Jones. The cars and buildings do not have air conditioning but it was not unbearably hot. The Ancient School of Wisdom is a sanctuary with beautiful gardens, ponds, and statues. It is lush and peaceful. After we arrived, we settled in and ate breakfast. We ate a pancake like bread with two curry sauces with our new friends - Clara from France, Anna from Italy, Jasmine from England, and Andrew from England. We had good discussions about European and American politics. During breakfast, we saw some stray kittens. After breakfast, Gabs and I took a five hour nap in which we accidentally missed lunch. Luckily, we woke up ten minutes before we were supposed to leave to go into town. We walked for about 30 minutes each way to get to a small coffee shop, we had to cross six lanes of highway traffic as well. At the shop I got a delicious mango smoothie. When we got back to the Ancient School of Wisdom we had white rice, tortilla bread, cucumbers and tomatoes, watermelon, lentil curry, and a potato chip like bread for dinner. After dinner, we went back to the room and took on the experience of an Indian shower. The bathroom had no separation from the shower and floor, it was all connected. You had to hold the shower head in one hand and skillfully maneuver it to wash yourself. It was far more challenging than expected and cold. It felt nice to get at least somewhat clean but I was already looking forwards to showers back home. I forgot to mention that we eat all our meals at the school outside and that the mosquitos were really bad. I slept inside of my mosquito net and used a lot of bug spray. While Gabs and I were about to go to bed, we saw a large lizard on our ceiling. We hoped that it would bring us good luck on our Indian Adventure!