I'm counting my blessings
Whenever I get pulled out of my normal bubble, I get new perspectives. Well, I got a TON of perspective on this trip. I saw so many blessings in everyday life.
A major miracle: no migraines. I typically have to take something for migraines every week, sometimes multiple times. That's on top of the preventative medication I take every day. Due to a horrendous mistake by my pharmacy, I ran out of my prevention medicine, AND I could not depend on my abortive migraine meds because of risk of drug interaction with a new medication my doctor had put me on. So I found this out the week before my trip. Three days before I left the country, I asked my home teachers (men in my church assigned to watch over me) for a priesthood blessing, because I was VERY nervous. After the blessing, I found a way of (legally, I promise) getting enough preventative meds to get me through my trip. The night before my flight, I had an awful migraine that left me hunched over in pain and incredibly nauseated. But when I got on the plane, all I had was a headache, which shortly went away. The day before my trip ended, I had a slight headache, but it went away with Aleve (no, I'm not advertising for them). The day after I got home, I had a major migraine. But oh how blessed I was to have not ONE the whole 2 weeks I was in India! In fact, I had no health issues (including the typical travelling woes) of any kind, excluding the slight headache and a minor sore throat for 2 days. I didn't even get a sunburn.
None of my flights were cancelled. If I didn't exactly get to my destination on time, I at least got there the same day, and with minimal hassle on my part.
I could stay in touch with my family. It wasn't that I didn't have a SIM card (which I didn't); it's that I was in the "International" category; i.e. calls are expensive. But everyday I was able to assure my parents through email or other internet messages that I was safe, and that's pretty impressive because I mostly was using WiFi to accomplish that, and WiFi isn't too common in India.
I had money. I had tried to change money in the U.S., but the banks didn't have Indian rupees. So I just brought my credit card and hoped for the best. Really what I should have done is brought dollars to change to Indian rupees in India, and that's what I recommend, but it all worked out, even if I did have some hassle with ATMs.
Another miracle: I was not arrested in customs. Seriously, it was a concern. See my traveling to India post. The security official who had approached me while I was on my phone just walked away after I gave a brief explanation.
Also, I was safe the whole trip. As several people pointed out to me, it is not wise for a young single woman to travel alone in India. And especially not good that I was in India during a major political spat between India and the United States. But overall, no problems. My friend Tamanna (or rather, her mother) arranged for someone to be with me until I could reach Goa and the security of familiar faces.
Then there's the blessing that I was able to make friends. The Swedish guy in the Jaipur airport was a terrific conversationalist, and also helped me not feel alone. I quickly got along with my travelling companion Christina, and we were able to have both lively AND deep conversations.
And Tamanna's family was amazing! I had met them briefly before at Tamanna's wedding, but really all they knew about me was that I went to bed early. I knew approximately the same amount of information about them. So staying at their house for a week could have been a disaster. But it wasn't. I felt right at home [minus the staying up late part...].
A major miracle: no migraines. I typically have to take something for migraines every week, sometimes multiple times. That's on top of the preventative medication I take every day. Due to a horrendous mistake by my pharmacy, I ran out of my prevention medicine, AND I could not depend on my abortive migraine meds because of risk of drug interaction with a new medication my doctor had put me on. So I found this out the week before my trip. Three days before I left the country, I asked my home teachers (men in my church assigned to watch over me) for a priesthood blessing, because I was VERY nervous. After the blessing, I found a way of (legally, I promise) getting enough preventative meds to get me through my trip. The night before my flight, I had an awful migraine that left me hunched over in pain and incredibly nauseated. But when I got on the plane, all I had was a headache, which shortly went away. The day before my trip ended, I had a slight headache, but it went away with Aleve (no, I'm not advertising for them). The day after I got home, I had a major migraine. But oh how blessed I was to have not ONE the whole 2 weeks I was in India! In fact, I had no health issues (including the typical travelling woes) of any kind, excluding the slight headache and a minor sore throat for 2 days. I didn't even get a sunburn.
None of my flights were cancelled. If I didn't exactly get to my destination on time, I at least got there the same day, and with minimal hassle on my part.
I could stay in touch with my family. It wasn't that I didn't have a SIM card (which I didn't); it's that I was in the "International" category; i.e. calls are expensive. But everyday I was able to assure my parents through email or other internet messages that I was safe, and that's pretty impressive because I mostly was using WiFi to accomplish that, and WiFi isn't too common in India.
I had money. I had tried to change money in the U.S., but the banks didn't have Indian rupees. So I just brought my credit card and hoped for the best. Really what I should have done is brought dollars to change to Indian rupees in India, and that's what I recommend, but it all worked out, even if I did have some hassle with ATMs.
Another miracle: I was not arrested in customs. Seriously, it was a concern. See my traveling to India post. The security official who had approached me while I was on my phone just walked away after I gave a brief explanation.
Also, I was safe the whole trip. As several people pointed out to me, it is not wise for a young single woman to travel alone in India. And especially not good that I was in India during a major political spat between India and the United States. But overall, no problems. My friend Tamanna (or rather, her mother) arranged for someone to be with me until I could reach Goa and the security of familiar faces.
Then there's the blessing that I was able to make friends. The Swedish guy in the Jaipur airport was a terrific conversationalist, and also helped me not feel alone. I quickly got along with my travelling companion Christina, and we were able to have both lively AND deep conversations.
And Tamanna's family was amazing! I had met them briefly before at Tamanna's wedding, but really all they knew about me was that I went to bed early. I knew approximately the same amount of information about them. So staying at their house for a week could have been a disaster. But it wasn't. I felt right at home [minus the staying up late part...].
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