be prePARED.

(Hope everyone got the Lion King reference.)

In anticipation of leaving for India--whenever that may be--I've been searching through travel blogs in order to see what people have to say about specific places. I'm preparing myself; every time I read a "blah blah blah BUT I should have remembered--" or "I wish I'd known--" I make a mental check and add it to the list of things to keep in mind. I feel like a boy scout.

Apparently, the most popular travel blog domain in the universe is "[yourname]in[country].blogspot.com". Because I have a friend in China right now using this pattern, I thought I'd give it a try for India. I probably spent more than an hour just typing names in--Kate, Leslie, Anna, Anne, Ann, Mary, Jessica, Jen, Ashley, Michael, etc--and reading what came up. And the thing is, more names than not were legitimate domains of people traveling/living/studying in India. Many of them were Jaipur-based. One was even in the MSID program. It was like an instant connection to a million anonymous travelers.

Some Things To Expect:

--Occasional sexual harassment
--Constant attempts to be taken advantage of, monetarily
--Bottled water with broken seals (i.e. bottled tap water)
--People wanting their picture taken
--People using the streets as a toilet facility

I am a bit surprised by some of the recommendations I've been given, and just how extraordinarily different almost every aspect of life is going to be. Because Jaipur is in a fairly conservative region, I've been advised to leave my clothes here and purchase an entirely new wardrobe upon arrival. This advice is almost martial--it takes a tone of, "If you don't do this, you will be mistaken for a dirty slut and then harassed into oblivion."

Water. Food. Sitting positions. Eye contact. Toilet usage. The most fundamental things may need to be rethought. One thing that surprised me was the absolute ban on getting even mildly romantically involved with the locals--not because the organization takes a parental adherence to you, but rather because such an association has the potential to irreparably tarnish that person's social status in a way that's not at all intuitive to a Western mindset. Apparently in the past a village girl became associated with an American and as a result was targeted as "dirty" and not marriageable. Another story mentions a suicide. I don't know how broadly these kinds of examples apply, but I certainly won't be frivolously kissing any pretty Indian boys beneath the lovely Jaipuri moon.

[Of course... that does sort of kill the romance. But the romantic conception of two entirely different individuals with entirely dissimilar backgrounds and belief systems falling in love is less than realistic anyway. (Although that confused guy on the train was sort of sweet.)]

Anyway... it's not that I feel bad about all of this. I'm really thrilled to experience a place where almost everything is different. I would love to come back to America and see it through the scope of another country... "God, this bread is so weird."