Initial Observations.

1. India is every bit as wonderful as I'd imagined. I've waited for this moment since reading Interpreter of Maladies while sitting on a train traveling through Switzerland in 2002.
2. It is really hot here.
3. I have almost been killed at least 7 times--by rickshaws, cars, people, tripping over things, and the like.
4. I think I saw a dead woman on the sidewalk? That was unsettling. Poverty isn't abgle to be shrouded behind a red curtain like it is in China (not is the blow able to be softened for Teh Poorz like in Mommy-State China). It's here.
5. FOOD. I didn't eat at all today because I was a bit scared of getting ill so early in the trip, but I just had the most amazing dinner ever with 5 vegetable gooey delights and naan and a sweet sweet ball of sweetness for dessert. And I used my right hand, which was a bit difficult, since I'm a lefty and tearing bread with one hand of either persuasion is difficult.
6. I am so happy to see animals here. Birds, chipmunks, cows, dogs, cats. China has practically no "wild" animals. I watched a beautiful green bird circle a temple this afternoon.
7. I do not feel like that much of a foreigner here. Life seems so frenetic as it is that no one has time to notice that I am not Indian. It's been nice.
8. I'm looking forward to having a partner in crime when Theo arrives tomorrow. I forgot how difficult traveling alone can be. Not even for the practical reasons; it's just nice to do scary things with someone else.
9. Yes.