First days

We're here! This was the scene when we emerged from the Chennai airport at 2 am: a silent scrum waiting for passengers. We had to try to find our name on one of these cards. Which we did! 

The Fulbright people had arranged for someone to pick us up and bring us to this little hotel with a pretty roof garden. After we slept a few hours, we went to breakfast and then lounged around a little in the garden.

In the afternoon, we had our orientation at the consulate and that was the extent of our ambition for the day. We were able to eat lunch and dinner in the same little tented dining area at our hotel.

The next morning, today, we left at 6:30 am to fly to Kochi. There were several pilgrims on our flight. 

This has been in the news; it is pilgrimage season at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala, and the Supreme Court recently ruled that women were indeed allowed to visit, overturning previous practice. But lots of protests have resulted, with women being turned away and harassed. The pilgrims on our flight were all male, barefoot, and wearing traditional garments, carrying their offerings on their heads. 

After getting settled at our hotel and having lunch, we went over to St Theresa's College and met our hosts there. Sona, our main contact person, welcomed us and took us over to the apartment she has reserved for us. There is too much to tell! We met the chief nun in charge, the principal, the whole international center team, our landlord, the building superintendent, and we took ur first tuk-tuk ride. (The tuk-tuks seem a lot safer once you've tried walking.) Our apartment is wonderful. I will update in more detail on that later. For now, we are trying to build out our basic competencies. Our tasks in the morning are to change money so we can pay our apartment rent, and to investigate how to get SIM cards so people can contact us. In the afternoon, we will go back to the college and meet with Sona to work on our foriegn registration papers, go back to the apartment on our own to check out what we need to purchase or arrange before we can move in, and go over the schedule of activities and obligations St Teresa's has arranged for us. Meanwhile we are shacked up at the Grand Hotel, eating lots of curry.