Please excuse the incoherence. I'm very tired.

We were scheduled to fly from DC to Chicago to Delhi on Friday the 11th, it all seemed so simple back then...

We arrived to the DC airport Friday morning to general chaos--there were about 50 of us trying to check in all together (the 20 or so in my Jaipur program, and more students from other India programs). The airline employees were overwhelmed by the large number of us but were also trying to explain to us that we might miss our connection due to bad weather in Chicago. For the next four hours we ran amok throughout the DC airport trying to re-route 50 tickets to India. Eventually, after a hundred different rumors, it was declared that we could leave for India from Toronto on Saturday.

We returned to our fancy DC hotel, which thankfully still had room for us, then left again at 3am for a 6am flight to Toronto.

We made it to Toronto at about 7:30am and our flight to Delhi was scheduled to leave at 6:10pm. This is a very very long time to have to spend in the Toronto airport.

Under-slept, after nine hours of boredom, when my sanity was already seriously waning, we boarded the flight to Delhi, but I couldn't help but notice all of the announcements telling us that this flight was going to Brussels. I survived six hours next to a very large, shrill, Eastern European woman wrangling at least four screaming toddlers. And then all of the sudden I was in Belgium.

Ours happened to be one of those flights that makes two stops. The airline doesn't clearly mention to the Delhi passengers that they are going to have to spend two hours in Brussels in the middle of an already hellish journey. They obviously realize that people will be angry about this so right before landing, they play a 15 minute video explaining why Belgium is wonderful and you should really be honored to be there. "Brussels is not only a picturesque city, but it is also the capital of the EU! Marvel at Brussels airport's astonishing selection of fine Belgian chocolate! Brussels airport is often considered to be one of the world's finest!" So we all had to de-plane and go experience the miracles of the beautiful Brussels airport. I made the best of this strange predicament and found myself a waffle.

Waffled, refreshed, deliriously tired, I boarded the plane a second time to go to Delhi. The horrible family had left in Brussels only to be replaced by an obnoxious American man who snapped at all of the flight attendants and reeked of cologne. Seven more grueling hours of flight time brought us to Delhi...but then we couldn't land for an extra half-hour because of turbulent weather.

We landed finally, our bags all made it, we made it to our hotel.

The never-ending journey to India was redeemed by a few things. Namely, when we re-booked our tickets we switched from Amercian Airlines to Jet Airways, an Indian airline. This, of course, is a MAJOR upgrade. Jet Airways is a wonderful wonderful company that provides you about one delicious meal of Indian food per hour, lots of free booze, hot towels, and all sorts of other gestures of hospitality. Having just finished my tenth-or-so delicious meal about an hour before landing in Delhi, I saw the flight attendant coming down the aisle again handing something else out. I reached up as she walked past and she handed me a dark chocolate ice cream bar! I almost cried tears of joy.

As soon as I stepped out of the airport I was flooded with all of the smells, sounds, sights, and memories of India and I am unspeakably happy to be back here.
We will be in Delhi for a few more hours now before hopping on the bus to Jaipur. Our program put us up in one of India's most glamorous hotels for the night so it will be bitter-sweet to leave this place, but I'm excited to finally get to our destination.