Five planes, 1 day and 20 hours, and 24 solid hours on a plane after I left Portland, I arrived in Vijayawada, India with the ankles of a 500 pound woman (I believe the kids these days call these "cankles," but I'm not sure yet how PC I'm trying to be on this blog). Thank you, high sodium food and pressurized cabins.

The flight(s) overall were rather uneventful, aside from the child who sat behind me during the 15 hour flight from Newark to Mumbai and wouldn't stop kicking the back of my seat for three hours. With 125 movies from which to choose for my viewing pleasure, though, my anger was somewhat quelled. Seriously, why do we need 125 movies?! I was a little overwhelmed. They served "Indian" vegetarian food for dinner and breakfast during the flight, and it was probably the best plane food I've ever eaten (despite its obvious contribution to the cankles).

I was greeted warmly by Carol Faison and other members of Care and Share in the tiiiiny airport of Vijayawada, and taken the short distance to the the childrens' homes. I was given a very brief tour, and told to go sleep. I didn't realize how tired I was until I woke up at 11 pm...after sleeping about nine hours.

I've not had a chance to see much of the compound, but so far everything seems very lovely. I have my own, secured room with a bathroom....with toilet and shower, a mini fridge, wireless internet and, get this, air conditioning!! I feel too lucky...I didn't even AC in Portland! Right now I don't have it on, as it's a "very, very cool" day (as I was told), and besides, I don't really feel like I'm in India if I'm using AC. I'll change my tune when it his the 100's, perhaps, but I'll try to be stubborn for as long as possible....

It's 1:30 am right now (12.5 hours ahead of you west coast people, fyi), and I'm unpacked and wide awake. So much for beating jet lag. I've taken a few not very exciting pictures picture of my room--will take more interesting ones when it's light outside!!

Ewwwwwww cankles. No, the Keens don't help anything.

Bathroom!!

My room--isn't it adorable?

They supply me with shampoo...it's supposed to "nourish dry, dull faded hair and make it shiny and looking black." This is legit. After one washing, my hair looks no blacker, nor does it look longer.