Last One from America

It's a beautiful morning in DC, and we're to depart in just a few hours. At 1pm, we'll leave the hotel for our late afternoon flight to Chicago. From Chicago, we'll leave directly from India and land after a 14-hour flight in Delhi at almost 9pm local time. We'll spend Saturday night and Sunday in Delhi before departing to Lucknow via plane. I think we'll arrive in Lucknow on Monday, but it could be different from what I understand, too....

Once in Lucknow, I'll arrive at what I think is going to be an apartment. I'm living with three girls (Aqilah, Behnaz, and Elizabeth) in a flat that's supposed to be near some beautiful gardens and have a terrace which will hopefully overlook the gardens.

I'm nervous, and I don't even know why precisely I'm nervous, but I'm excited to finally be there. I'll be happy to finally arrive in Lucknow on Monday, and I'll be happy to finally be in Delhi tomorrow night.

Again, the people I'm going with are super fascinating. I will be in Lucknow with a group of about twenty other students, and they're ridiculously fabulous and cool. One just spent a semester studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. Another just wrapped up a documentary project in India. Another has assisted at a human rights summer camp for middle schoolers. Another studied abroad in Morocco this past semester and has some wild (not exaggerating) tales about Dijoubti, Ethiopia, and Somaliland (the semi-autonomous state in northern Somalia). Another has worked for Pakistani interests at the United Nations.

Again, I'll be with super fascinating, interesting, and intelligent people this summer who have a knack for exploration and interaction with the world they live in. They've all been super nice and congenial, so I think I'm in for a good trip. :)

Last night, after a day of meetings that were semi-useful and a delicious dinner at DC Chophouse that surprisingly didn't involve beef, a few of us headed out to the Mall. We saw the Washington Monument, World War II Monument, and Lincoln Memorial by moonlight, and with the lighting unique to each, they absolutely gleamed. It was so lovely and beautiful.

Love you all, and I'll be writing next from Delhi!