So says the girl who blogged almost a year to the day about wanting to go somewhere far. Last April, I waxed poetic about wanting to feel the dirt beneath my fingertips, my desire to see a thousand colors.
Be careful what you wish for, right?
In less than five weeks I'm embarking on one of the most phenomenal adventures a girl could conjure. After a night in my old stomping grounds in Connecticut and a night on the biggest island worth $24 in beads, Wingman and I will jet off to the spicy, vibrant surroundings of India.
It's a trip we've been planning since last November. He tossed out the idea over a bite at Maribelle's Tavern in the East End. Do you want to go to India?
Does the Pope shit in the woods?
This adventure is a little bit different than my previous foreign travels. Paris/London/Amsterdam/Vienna/... They didn't require a series of shots and an anti-malaria prescription. Ditto on getting a visa. Previous international expeditions only required a passport. As one of my colleagues pointed out this morning, "It sounds like you're doing Out of Africa or something."
Almost.
To be honest, I have no idea what to anticipate. After a few visits, Europe is pretty predictable. But India. The touts, the unusual toilets, the culture that's vastly different from my own... it's a lot to intimidate and excite a girl.
As I've told some of my friends, I am really looking forward to the extreme culture shock. I hope the experience pushes my expectations, introduces me to different versions of "normal" and helps me learn a little bit more about humanity.
This trip to India isn't just a vacation. It's not two weeks away from the office and my email and voicemail and commitments and reality. Okay, maybe it's a little bit of that. But I'm really hoping the big picture involves me changing as a person, even just a little bit.
Patience is a virtue, and God has blessed me with an incredible amount of patience, resilience, and determination. I've been patient enough to wait for this life-changing experience.
I can't wait to see where it takes me.
Kate's Random Musings by Kate the Great is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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