I seriously failed at updating this once I got back in the United States. I have, in fact, made it home safe and sound and have already finished one week of classes back in Gainesville.
I arrived back in the United States around 1 a.m. on August 11th and in the comfort of my pillow-top memory foam bed at 3:30. (seriously, Indian beds are the hardest things in the world, although they told us Americans that they find our soft beds equally uncomfortable.) So far I have unpacked, repacked, worked my last two days at summer camp, baby-sat and visited friends and family before I headed back to school, along with tons of reflecting, processing and thinking.
Of course, the first question that everyone asks is "how was it?!" I never thought that that simple question could ever be something so difficult to answer. I don't think one word could ever do this experience justice and as time moves on, I feel like my answer will continue to evolve. It's easy to say it was a "good" trip or "trip of a lifetime" type cliche answers peppered with stories of animals in the streets, casual exchanges about the food, culture and weather, and the occasional joke of how Americans don't have the leg muscles to use Indian toilets, but these surface stories and impressions could never do a country as complex and incredible as India justice.
There are sights, sounds and experiences that you just have to experience first hand to describe. How does a simple one-word answer describe a huge country of one billion people? Or the vulnerability I felt as a minority for the first time? How do I replicate the feeling of constantly being stared at or having your picture taken where ever I went? How do I articulate the questioning of all that I have ever known, and my own purpose in the world, or whether I was just another idealistic college student?
One thing that India did was make me feel small. Obviously, when you enter a country full of a sixth of the world's population, you are going to feel tiny, miniscule, and utterly unimportant and vulnerable. That feeling only lasts a week though. I soon found that it was liberating. That feeling of "smallness" meant that I didn't have to do it all, (Or, I guess it reaffirmed my previous blog posts.) That I was free to discover and make mistakes. It showed me that eternity is so much bigger than I could ever wrap my weak mind around.
For now, I guess it's safe to say that the trip was good. It was nothing that I could ever plan for or expect, and it's still difficult to articulate all my experiences as I'm still reflecting and learning exactly what the trip taught me. It's definitely safe to say that I fell in love with India and have a serious case of wanderlust, so please be patient with me and give me grace if I can't give perfectly clear and concise answers to your questions, but I promise answers will come soon enough.
I arrived back in the United States around 1 a.m. on August 11th and in the comfort of my pillow-top memory foam bed at 3:30. (seriously, Indian beds are the hardest things in the world, although they told us Americans that they find our soft beds equally uncomfortable.) So far I have unpacked, repacked, worked my last two days at summer camp, baby-sat and visited friends and family before I headed back to school, along with tons of reflecting, processing and thinking.
Of course, the first question that everyone asks is "how was it?!" I never thought that that simple question could ever be something so difficult to answer. I don't think one word could ever do this experience justice and as time moves on, I feel like my answer will continue to evolve. It's easy to say it was a "good" trip or "trip of a lifetime" type cliche answers peppered with stories of animals in the streets, casual exchanges about the food, culture and weather, and the occasional joke of how Americans don't have the leg muscles to use Indian toilets, but these surface stories and impressions could never do a country as complex and incredible as India justice.
There are sights, sounds and experiences that you just have to experience first hand to describe. How does a simple one-word answer describe a huge country of one billion people? Or the vulnerability I felt as a minority for the first time? How do I replicate the feeling of constantly being stared at or having your picture taken where ever I went? How do I articulate the questioning of all that I have ever known, and my own purpose in the world, or whether I was just another idealistic college student?
One thing that India did was make me feel small. Obviously, when you enter a country full of a sixth of the world's population, you are going to feel tiny, miniscule, and utterly unimportant and vulnerable. That feeling only lasts a week though. I soon found that it was liberating. That feeling of "smallness" meant that I didn't have to do it all, (Or, I guess it reaffirmed my previous blog posts.) That I was free to discover and make mistakes. It showed me that eternity is so much bigger than I could ever wrap my weak mind around.
For now, I guess it's safe to say that the trip was good. It was nothing that I could ever plan for or expect, and it's still difficult to articulate all my experiences as I'm still reflecting and learning exactly what the trip taught me. It's definitely safe to say that I fell in love with India and have a serious case of wanderlust, so please be patient with me and give me grace if I can't give perfectly clear and concise answers to your questions, but I promise answers will come soon enough.
