“Don’t let school get in the way of your education.” –Jessica’s grandpa and Mark Twain
As per normal, I procrastinated packing until the morning of. My excuse is I couldn’t pack last night because I had to wash my clothes, but if I had done laundry on Sunday night I wouldn’t of had that excuse. Oh well, we ended up with some extra time after packing so we Skyped Kathrine and Martha in Pullman. Great to talk to them! =)
We still had left over cake from Amanda’s birthday, so we decided to take it to school to give to the other students. Well, we hadn’t even made it out of the NGV gate when four little boys asked if they could have some. The smiles on their faces were priceless when we said yes. At one of the bus stops on the way to University, there is a man who lives there so we stopped and gave him a piece also. A little bit further on we saw a mother with a child asking for food so we gave her a piece as well. Not the healthiest food, but at least it was something. By that time, we only had one piece left which Amanda and I ended up splitting because we didn’t see anyone else asking for food on our walk. I’m glad we were able to help the people we did, even if just for a couple hours.
Quite a few students left before classes were done for the day (groups going to Sri Lanka and New Delhi over the break), so we didn’t end up doing much in any of my classes. In my last class, Women’s Issues, we didn’t do any official work but did have a fantastic conversation about various aspects of Indian culture with our professor. I feel like those types of conversations I learn the most from.
At 4:00, Amanda and I caught our cab in front of Christ. The ride to the airport
Ready to travel!
took about an hour (which we expected and planned for) and we saw parts of the city we have been meaning to visit. Our cab driver was fantastic because anytime he heard Amanda and I questioning what something was, he would tell us. The ride only cost Rs. 640, about $14. I don’t think I will ever get used to things being so cheap here. I’m used to having rupees now, but whenever I convert rupees to dollars I am still astonished at how cheap things are.
Security to get into the airport
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time, went to check in, and……..found out our second connecting flight was cancelled. So we spent the next hour waiting while they found us another flight that arrived in Colombo three hours earlier, booked it and printed tickets. A bit of a hassle but mostly just sitting around and waiting. As we discovered later, being on the flight we were turned out to be way more fun.
We made it through security with no issues (the frisk everyone and have separate lines for women and men) and ended up eating dinner with Brian, the visiting professor from University of Idaho who teaches Social Stratification. Turns out we were switched on to his flight (he was also going to Sri Lanka) so we had someone else to talk with until the flight left.
First flight to a town in the far south of India went smooth and I attempted to sleep, which didn’t work too well but luckily it was a short flight. When we
Kingfisher taxi
landed, the flight attendants told anyone who was traveling on to Colombo to talk to the ground staff after exiting. Considering one of our flights had already been canceled, we were a bit worried. In addition to Brian, Amanda, and I there was one Indian guy (mid-twenties), Aashish, continuing on. Turns out, the International Terminal was completely separate from the rest of the airport and the airline staff arranged a taxi to take us there. On the way we passed by the coast and saw the Indian Ocean!
Talking with Aashish, we found out he lives in the same part of Bangalore as us! He was headed to Sri Lanka to meet a friend of his from Pakistan who he met at
Empty flight!
school in London. We had a great time talking and our conversation continued through the next flight as well. There were only nine people on the plane! A bit like a private jet, just not as comfortable =) We made plans to meet up with Aashish and his friend in Sri Lanka because our itineraries overlapped a couple of times. I am really looking forward to it! Definitely think we made a new friend.
We arrived in Colombo around 2:00am and all parted ways. I will probably regret not sleeping on the flight only because our driver isn’t coming until 5:00 and its never easy (or smart?) to sleep in an airport. Oh well! At least I have my computer.
Sri Lanka!
"The world is a book..." 