On Friday, I stayed in the office until probably 11p, putting the finishing touches on my 1st response paper. It turned out mediocre, but that’s because I really forced my argument. These days I’ll take any opportunity to acquaint people with terror management theory, though it might lead to slightly convoluted writing. I’m working on being able to fit it into everything else I’m interested in.

This morning I received a mail from the Indian Consulate indicating my visa and special travel permits (for restricted areas) have all been approved, finally, so I should go in to pick them up, but not today because it’s a special Indian holiday called Mahashivratri. The Indians have more holidays, I think, than any other place. So excellent.

My memories of India are influenced strongly by the stage of life I was in when I first arrived there. I landed alone in New Delhi at age 16 and it was my first time out of the country. Prior travel included Ann Arbor Michigan, and a four day trip to Colorado, and the rest of my travel was all inside of my home state of NH and Maine.  My general state could have been described as “astonishingly underexposed to basic things.”

It is an odd thing to have your first real city exposure be in a third world country. When I first stepped out of the airport, I was bewildered, dizzied, awestruck, terrified. Beards and robes and turbins zipping by on scooters, heavy smog and oppressive heat, black and yellow stripes on all the curbs, and my $20 green backpack, no waist belt, digging into my shoulders. I spent about three days in absolute terror, unsure of what to make of anything I was seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling. I was completely disoriented– to my self and the world.

But I bit down. After a couple months passed I was locked on and began the first true adventure of my life, taking everything in that I could. I was robbed, I was deathly ill twice with dysentery, I always felt one step behind whatever was happening, but it was great.

When I go back, in 9 days, it’ll be my first return since 1999. I’ll be expecting chaos, especially internally.

I’m ready for adventure and my body is fidgety. I’m excited by not knowing what to expect.