Culture Shock One Oh One

Well. I've left India, and arrived in England, specifically, Oxford. The first thing that popped into my head stepping off of the plane from India and into the West was: "It's COLD." England is, to put it mildly, FREEZING. : ( When I left Delhi, it was 38 or 39 C. Hyderabad was around there, a bit warmer (40?). Here, in England, it's (ready? ready?!) THIRTEEN DEGREES. And it's strangely quiet. And no one stares at me. And everyone wears jeans. And the signs are all in only one language, and that's English. And everyone is WHITE. Basically, I'm completely disoriented, I don't know what to do or say anymore, and I miss home and people in India. The minute I sat down on the plane I wanted to run off it and jump on the nearest train back to Hyderabad. Specifically, 9 Lakshmi Enclave...

Okay, I'm done complaining. Oxford is actually a beautiful town. I'm staying with one of my close friends from Columbia, Caitlin. And it has been SO GOOD to see her again! It's been great to catch up with her. : )

But, how to update you on everything that's happened since I last wrote? I think that's kind of impossible. But some say that a picture is worth a thousand words. So, I'm going to post some pictures here (next post) from my travels around south India after the semester ended. I actually only have pictures from my trip to Munnar, where I went with a lot of people from my host family (whom I feel I should refer to as just "family" because that's what they are to me). I only have pictures from Munnar because, as I wrote in an earlier post, my camera broke...so these pictures are actually pictures I've stolen from the camera of good friends : ). (Thank you Viroop, Sowmya and Andrew).

I'm home in nine days. New York, here I come....for better or for worse : )