Written at the Frankfurt Airport

7/11/10 - Frankfurt

I don't think I'll be able to access wireless until we get to India, but welcome to the first entry of my blog!

As I type this entry, I'm in the Frankfurt airport (learners: Frankfurt is in Germany.) Although the clock on my computer reads 6:26am, it's 12:26pm here and our flight will board in about an hour. The Frankfurt airport is interesting. There are people riding bikes and a lady behind me is taking up a whole row of seats, snoring loudly. I don't blame her!

I left Philadelphia what seems like centuries ago, took a short flight to Washington DC, and met up with the rest of my group. Britta, Christopher and I met up at the airport and shared a taxi from Dulles to our hotel. Britta teaches science and art in Seattle, and Christopher teaches journalism in California. We got to know each other a little bit on the long taxi ride, and then we checked in at the hotel.

We met up with the rest of our group and with the wonderful folks from American Councils, the organization that put together our Educational Seminar. They took us (the 8 of us traveling to India, plus a small group of principals about to go to Thailand) to a delicious dinner, and then we had a nighttime tour of some DC monuments. Though I'd been to the monuments before, I don't recall ever having visited them at night, and I was very much looking for something to occupy me and expend some nervous energy so I could get a good night's sleep… mission accomplished!

Saturday was a blur of presentations and information. We learned about communication difficulties to anticipate as we attempt to interact with a different culture; we learned more about daily life in Delhi; we learned more about what to expect out of our experience at our host school; we got information to think about regarding post-trip grants we can take advantage of after we return. It was a whole lot to take in! Although all that information is now a blur to me as I sit here in the middle of Germany, I know that once I get to Delhi it'll all come back to me.

After training wrapped up we went to the airport and after a nice long wait in various security lines and at the gate, hopped on the plane… I slept for maybe 3-4 hours, I tried to read, I watched a couple episodes of Mad Men (my favorite show!), I drank 2 cans of seltzer, 1 water bottle, and 1 can of ginger ale and ate "dinner" and a "snack". Pretty standard for a 7+ hour flight, I guess?

What's next? Another long flight to Delhi, waiting in line at immigration, then meeting up with the folks from USIEF, who will drive us to our hotel, the beautiful Taj Ambassador in New Delhi. We'll have a few hours to rest and then more training and meetings… if I recall correctly, we'll be starting our experience with a couple days of observation at our host school before we actually start doing any teaching.

Right now, I'm feeling tired and like I could use a shower- it's been about 24 hours since my last one, and it'll probably be 10-12 more until I'll have the privilege- seems like forever! Apart from worldly concerns like showers and naps, I'm excited about what lies ahead, but nervous too. It seems like so long ago that I found out I would be participating in this program, and now that it's finally here I can't believe it's happening! I'm looking forward to acclimating myself to India (even if it means getting sick from the food!) and serving my host school to the best of my abilities.

I'm looking forward to documenting my adventures, too, through this blog- hope folks at home will enjoy reading it as much as I'll enjoy writing it.