Chennai ... Day 1 actually in India

It seems a little strange that "yesterday" was Tuesday and now it's noon on Thursday! We arrived in Chennai around 4 am, local time, about 3:30 pm Wednesday for y'all back home. I basically skipped Wednesday on the airplane. When we got to the airport, Professor Raj was waiting with an air conditioned bus and 2 helpers to get us to the hotel and checked in. The air conditioning was a blessing because as soon as we stepped off the plane we could feel the intense humidity! Customs was a breeze, thank goodness, and we were on our way. Out of our group of 31 students/faculty that arrived this morning, only 2 bags were misplaced. Not too shabby.

There were thousands of people standing around the streets outside the airport, despite the emptiness of our arrival area and baggage claim... I'm guessing (hoping) more flights were set to arrive after ours, otherwise I have no idea what all those people were doing there at 4 am!! There were a lot of people along the streets and driving around on the way to the hotel too. We arrived at our hotel, about 20 minutes bus ride from the airport and got checked in. I'm sharing an "apartment" with 2 other education students in my section, Cally and Dana. Cally has text on her iPhone, so I was able to let Mom and Dad know I was safe in the hotel. So far, my roomies are getting along great! We've had some house guests all day because there's only one key per room and 3 people per room and roommates keep getting locked out. Somehow, our room became the congregation site.. but that's just fine with me. We napped for a little bit, then went to breakfast. My first Indian meal was an epic failure. For those of you who know me, you know how I am about textures of foods... the stuff here was NOT GOOD! lol. The flavor was strange to me, but that's to be expected. There was a rice dish that was really good, but kind of a weird texture... that was the bulk of my breakfast. Then we also tried several dipping sauces with a bread type pancake thing. I don't remember what the guy called it. I also tried some tea, which tasted a bit like a watered down latte ... I added lots of sugar. :-) So far, I can't I'm impressed with the food, and I'm hungry! lol
After breakfast, we showered and cleaned up. The shower situation is interesting here. The shower head is on the wall of the "toilet" (bathroom), but it points pretty much directly at the toilet & sink. The water pools on the floor and drains behind the toilet. The water pressure was good, though and the temperature wasn't too cold.
We exchanged our money with a banker that came to the hotel, then a large group of us went to the one of the biggest shopping centers, just down the road from our hotel. There's a cyclone on the coast here, so it's very windy and rainy, and if you watched the YouTube video I posted about traffic, you can imagine how crazy the streets were. Probably the most shocking and disturbing thing so far has been the amount of garbage lying around. There is just piles of trash everywhere! We've seen rats and human feces on the sidewalks. It's pretty gross. I am happy to say that we successfully crossed the street twice! But, I've almost been hit by a car twice too. :-) I spent about 500 Rupees ($9) on a Saree, a traditional Indian dress for women. All of us girls that went shopping at the Big Bazaar bought sarees to wear for the New Years party we're having on the rooftop of our hotel in Madurai!! It should be really fun. I was a model in the store today so the sales woman could show us how to wrap the saree (which is basically a really long/large strip of colorful material). We'll be taking lots of pictures at our NYE party!
We are headed out here in about 20 minutes to take a bus tour of the city of Chennai. Then tonight, Prof Raj has arranged for us to see an Indian Ballet and have a banquet dinner. We'll sleep in this hotel tonight, then board a bus for Madurai in the morning.