Traveling plans solidified!

On Thursday, I am catching the bus to Chennai to meet up with Elyse and Nicole! (Arriving in Chennai laaaate Thursday night.)

On Friday morning, I will be heading to Pondicherry to meet up with Nicky and his work friends for an awesome Pondi Diwali weekend. Huzzah! Elyse and Nicole will meet us after work. We are staying at what the Rough Guides India calls "the most characterful lodge" of Pondi. It's close to the beach, overlooks Government Place (which sounds bureaucratic, but actually houses a bunch of gardens), and reportedly has a great bar with dollar beers. Exciting!! We'll be in Pondi all through Diwali weekend until Sunday evening, when I will catch a bus with the Bangalore folks back to Bangaluru, because...

...on Monday morning, I fly out to Chhattisgarh! I will meet a group from work, and our plane will take off at 11:50am to arrive in Chhattisgarh at 5:50pm (there's a layover in Delhi). We're spending the week in Chhattisgarh evaluating their adaptation of our methodology. I am excited that Raju-sir is leading the trip (I have to start using -sir and -akka, because when I say "Mr." and "Mrs." instead it just sounds awkward and not at all respectful/formal), because he has the best sense of humor. Awesome.

The following Monday (the 26th), I will fly with the team back to Mumbai, from where I will catch another flight to Jaipur in Rajasthan. I get into Jaipur at 4pm, and I'm very weary that I will not make the bus to Pushkar that night, so I'm hoping to find some cheap rooms there for the night. (This is proving to be somewhat difficult...) On Tuesday morning, I'll head out to Pushkar to the Camel Fair and Pushkar Festival, which should be hella exciting! There, I will be meeting Jenny, and awesome fellow Fellow and a group of her friends. Yayyyy!

On the 1st, I will have to head back to Jaipur from Pushkar to make it to my 6am flight to Bangalore via Hydrabad to get back to Rishi Valley. I wonder if it will feel like coming home.

Pretty exciting stuff! That's a lot of traveling and a lot more logistics to be figured out, but I'm really excited about it! Yay! I'm working all throughout the travels (save Puducherry Diwali weekend, because there will be dollar beers and intoxicating non-vegetarian food options), so this should keep things exciting and reduce any chance of boredom. I have a lot of work to do! :) Also, I need to write three more Personal Statements/Letters of Intent for grad school applications, so I don't see myself ever having nothing to do, which is the way I prefer it.

Sorry if I don't update much between now and the first days of November -- not sure what my internet situation is going to look like during traveling. Come November, there will be updates a plenty, hopefully including some pretty awesome camel pictures!



**I changed up all the old/new city names just to mess with yous guys.