I departed Baltimore with a heavy heart as my beloved ones were left behind, however my heart was full of curiosity for the new world to be discovered. I embarked on my 6 month adventure in India on June 14, 2016, during a blue spring morning. As it is customary now and it has been for the past fourteen years!! We do things family style, everyone goes in the car when an important event is happening, so Bill, Camille and Flash accompanied me to the airport. 

The adventures started at the airport when I spilled all my pill supply for six months on the floor of the gate. My white, minuscule pills blended in so perfectly with the granite that it was a chore to find them.  I was already practicing “Asanas” even before my first Yoga class. Thankfully every passer by was so busy in their own world that none stopped their fast pace march toward their gates.

I hope I collected all of my medicines but I will only know once this trip is almost over. In any case, I collected more than my pills, there were hairs, papers and even a piece of gum. Iak!

My trip was pretty much uneventful. I sat in the middle seat of a large plane with first class in the top floor. The staircase of the plane hinted that at the top of that staircase life was so much nicer than where I was. I saw a few bottles of liquor,  selected wines, and obviously a big barrier that stopped me from going up. I was in the slums, dealing with crying babies with better lung capacity that a football player, a neighbor that wanted to borrow my blanket and pillow and a middle seat that would “recline” forward. Thankfully, I had movies, hundreds of them! I watch a grand total of five! Sleeping was hard, so I indulged in movie updating.

Dubai greeted me with the amplest airport I have ever seen. There are no walls, the elevators were as big as my living room and there was a waterfall amidst of the luggage belts. It looked luxurious, new, rich, rich and also rich. The “immigration” and customs process was simple and friendly. No harassing questions at this airport. Very easy.  I had reserved a transportation service that was waiting for me. For the moderate fee of $38, Burton Travel my travel company of choice, arranged for an air conditioned sedan that offers you water and  comfortable leather seats. The driver was from Kerala, so I asked him to teach me a few words in Malayalam. These were very hard to grasp as the language sounds nothing like the ones I know, but it was important to learn how to say thank you in the local language upon arrival in Cochin.

I met with my fellow student Marisa who was already at the hotel reserved for us. It was Ramadan, so I was able to check in regardless of the time of the day. The hotel was located in Jumeirah beach. It was sober and sterile. The reception was decorated with the Prime Minister of Dubai Mohammed Bin Rashid, Sheik Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan and President of the United Arab Emirates: Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan. These portraits were familiar faces to me as the hospital where I worked for a decade of my life received a large donation from Sheik Zayed. The familiar faces didn’t make me feel at home necessarily. Dubai in June was like stepping into an oven, my face felt kissed by the fiery breath of a dragon. Thankfully, public transportation is air conditioned in general. The only moment where I truly struggled with the heat was while wandering in the old town. My friend and I ventured to the spice market and the gold market in the middle of the day. It was a test to our endurance and our body  temperature. At 2:00 PM it was aver a 100 F! I almost fainted. A lady in a store took pity of us and even though during the entire month of Ramadan is impolite to eat or drink in public even if you are a tourist, she gave us water and allowed us to sip in hidden in a back office. Ramadan presented interesting dichotomies because on one hand you feel people might be very strict about rules but on the other hand they are also very kind as part of their religious behavior.

Old Dubai is a typical, costal town with a fishing economy. The places I had a chance to visit were: The gold market , which was unbelievable! With gorgeous intricate designs and large items. Some of the items were so big and luxurious that they were almost obscene. It made me feel curious to see it in an actual person and made me wonder if I ever would meet such person face to face.

I still doubt we went to the actual spice Market. We did see a few shops with a variety of spices but never like the variety I have seen in the Turkey Bazaar. They were dusty and rather small. Nothing remarkable. 

When Oil was discovered in Dubai in 1962,  the city sprouted like a long winged butterfly coming from a chrysalides It became too fantastic for words. We saw unbelievable buildings that would shame any labyrinthic  design depicted by Borges’. They have a dynamic building which has rotating floors so that each floor has a different view at any given time during the day; the tower Burj Al Arab, the tallest building in the world emerges proudly amidst hundreds of other fabulous buildings.  The Mall is so big that a taxi is required to go from place to place; the palm development is a manmade complex of houses, hotels, shops and the Athlantis aquarium and mall. The trunk of the palm is the main roand capped with the mall. The branches are houses with manmade private beaches.  I couldn’t help but feeling a bit inadequate in such display of wealth. My favorite part of that visit was definitely the aquarium. It was large, blue and filled with ruins that pretended to be as old as the ancient civilization. I studied the beautiful fish on display, they offered a plethora of color.  I recognized my own sense of compassion for these animals. Sense that was instilled in me by a good friend with whom I spent a few weeks in Granada, Spain last year. She hasn’t been my only influence but certainly a very important one.  I recognized my sense of shame just by participating in this display by visiting. But, it was undouble a beautiful sight.

Back in the airport I met my fellow students. I will spend the next six months of my life with them. A total of 8 students are visiting India for a period of six months.  We flew in Emirates airlines but we did not seat together. Upon arrival we had to go through a long immigration line. I remember the covert camera which decoration was an elephant. I noticed men with dark hair and streaks of reddish hair. That seemed to be the sign of some kind of hair dye, perhaps henna? Not sure. We waited for about an hour for our luggage, my was certainly the last bag to come out, so we were delayed severely. We were greeted by two very friendly students that took us to our new home located right on front of the college gate.

The cots were distributed in a first come, first served basis. Since my Colombian friend and I were the last in the van, we got the last room.  The pros and cons of each of the rooms didn’t become apparent until a few days later.  Each cot has a mosquito net and a mattress that is less comfortable than a board. The net gives me a sense of security and privacy even though is completely see through.  There are three rooms and two bathrooms and we share two common spaces that we will call the dining room and the living room. 

We went for our first breakfast at the campus and were greeted by very friendly people. They had the Indian version of a pancake but made of rice. To accompany this pancake there is a vegetable stew and the most tasty banana.  The sense of happiness was overwhelming, much more powerful than my desire to sleep. I just wanted to get to know my surroundings, so right after breakfast we went for a walk around the campus. I could feel the stares of the locals. We were, as one of my fellow students describes it, a “walking museum”. Part of the reasons why we were observed was because we were in western clothes. In this case some of us were using tight fitting pants and shirts. We stood out from the crowd.  The need to buy clothes was totally apparent at that moment. I felt almost naked walking on the street, I was violating a rule of the culture.

We arrive on a Friday early morning. That same day my fellow students went to the nearby mall. I stayed trying to catch up some much needed sleep. On Saturday we went to explore the surrounding neighborhoods. I bought my first sets of bindis, a rain coat and a small mattress to supplement the one offered by the school. On Sunday we went back to the mall to buy some much needed clothes. The mall was just like any other mall anywhere in the world, except the stares were continuous. Two of the students have their hair braided and that causes a lot of curiosity.  Let me say I felt the stares but I am pretty sure they were address to my beautiful African friend. She is tall, slender and simply gorgeous. We bought what we needed and we went back to the house, not before we allowed a tax company to rip us off. We paid 500 rupees for a taxi that normally costs 80 rupees ($1=66 rupees). We learned that we don’t need a taxi for that, we could just get into an Otto and call it a day.

The “Otto” (Malayalam pronunciation” is a three wheel diesel vehicle. It is an inexpensive way to get around if you are in a small group.