well, I survived my first bus ride...

This is it - officially my inaugral Indian blog posting. This is my third day here, although in some ways I feel like I've been here alot longer. The trip was overall pretty smooth; planes these days are pretty decked out with amneties like personal video screens that you can watch episodes of House on (with the exceptions of Air Canada and perhaps Air Koryo, North Korea's national airline; check them out at http://www.korea-dpr.com/airkoryo.htm).

Right now, I'm in Kochin, Kerala, which is in the extreme south-west of India. Specifically, I'm staying in an area called Fort Kochin, which is one of the earliest European settlements in the country, with the presence of Westerners here dating back to the voyages of the Portugese explorer / trader Vasco de Gama in the early 16th century. It's a nice city, albiet a little touristy. The digs are alright although, unsurprisingly, TP is not provided. Nevertheless, when you gotta go you gotta go, and Jared and I officially became Indian the night that we arrived.

We're here until Friday, when we catch a train up to Turtle Bay, a couple hours north, where we'll spend a day on the beach. Hard work, eh? We officially start classes when we arrive in Mysore later in the month. Plenty of updates before then, though.

Concerning the title, today I experienced the wildest bus ride I could ever dream of, much less have previously lived out. I wanted to take a video, but I wasn't close enough to the front. Probably the highlight of the trip was the driver driving through the oncoming traffic lanes at toll stations, to avoid paying up. Hilarious. Hopefully my mom isn't reading this.

Speaking of the daunting toilet issue, I'm still not totally adapted to this left hand thing, so I'm going to go on a bit of an excursion for a western-style loo. Pictures on my next post - also check out my Facebook in the next few days. Hopefully you are all doing well in the new year.

- Tom