Day 6 – 3:00am

So much for sleeping through the night as I’d hoped. Sleeping from 10pm to 3am is better than sleeping through the middle of the day though, so I’m getting closer to the time change. It’s an 11 hour difference from home, so I’ve basically flipped my sleep schedule on its head.

Despite how different it is from home here, I’m still comfortable as far as all the necessities go; I’m not hungry, I have a shower at my disposal (albeit the hot water is in limited supply), and so far I’m not sick. All things considered I’m doing better than probably 90% of the population of India.

I wish you could teleport to these extremes, and then retreat to the familiarities of home on a nightly basis. I’d love to be hanging out with dad drinking an MDG right now, but I’ll have plenty of time to do that when I’m home in April. I need to remember that this opportunity isn’t ever going to happen again, and while I’ve been pretty good about it so far, I do miss the little things, like cuddling with my dog.

The Flying Pig’s (hostel that I stayed at in Amsterdam) motto is “home is in your head,” so I’m trying to keep that in mind, as it’s definitely true to a point. Home is also where your friends and family are though, so I can’t fool myself completely.

I realized yesterday that I’ve lost my sunglasses. My brand new, practically unworn perfect Ray Bans. I think I lost them in Amsterdam, and my guess is that they fell out of my backpack at some point, as I don’t think there was any opportunity for them to be stolen. I’m a little bummed, as I really wanted to have decent quality sunnies when I got to the places I’ll really need them (definitely Egypt and possibly Greece), but oh well.

India is foggy. Someone told me it’s because it’s winter, but it looks more like pollution to me. It’s been really cool, and occasionally cold (like in the back of an auto-rickshaw), so I’ve been wearing jeans and a sweater and it’s still too cold sometimes. I knew it wasn’t going to be sweltering, but I thought it’d be warmer than this.

My room is warm now though! The front desk brought me a heater and it’s now nice and toasty in here.

Bottled water is ridiculously cheap, like Rs 20 cheap (about 50 cents), so I’m less concerned about getting ridiculously sick. I just need to be on the ball about brushing my teeth with bottled water, and avoiding any uncooked vegetables, and hopefully I won’t have any major issues. Diarrhea is even more terrifying when you know you’ll be faced with managing it on a squatter toilet.

And so far no malaria! Which is always nice.

I’m meeting Michael at breakfast at 9 today, after which we’re going to head into New Delhi. Hopefully it’s not as chaotic as Old Delhi, but I’m not holding my breath.