space, place, and where I think I am / was / will be...
4(ish) am, Tuesday, December 13: After a full 32 hours of travel, and 4 hours worth of sleep the last three nights, I was pretty, let's say, not awake, not asleep. I pulled my seat up, tray table all o that, put on some sappy, I miss the front porch, country girl kinda music, and pressed my forehead to the window to watch Chennai come into focus. For nighttime I noticed I could see insanely well. There were yellow street lamps flooding streets alleys yards with an apricot colored kind of light. I was surprised at how much it reminded me of flying into my own sweet home...flat, neverending, square blocks, perfect, even sized plots for each little orange roofed house...
I blinked. And for the second before everything became landing strip, dreamy Chicagoland obliterated into shadowy cement blocks crammed together with dusty blue tarp tents in place of yards.
This was how I entered India...a groggy mess of confusion and disappointment...with a serious knot in my gut.
In a million ways, this is a place I don't belong. In a million and one ways I am loving and relishing in every second of it. This is everything I loved about Peru, but more colorful, more decorated, more elephants, bigger return smiles, and more facepaint! This is easily the most beautiful place I've ever seen and I've only seen one muddy lil loud moped filled town, Pondicherry. (LIE! I managed to jump into the Bay if Bengal two times in Mahabalipuram between chennai and here...) And I think I've stepped in street-cow shit more times than I've realized already...(literally and metaphorically) and yes, street cow. :)
I blinked. And for the second before everything became landing strip, dreamy Chicagoland obliterated into shadowy cement blocks crammed together with dusty blue tarp tents in place of yards.
This was how I entered India...a groggy mess of confusion and disappointment...with a serious knot in my gut.
In a million ways, this is a place I don't belong. In a million and one ways I am loving and relishing in every second of it. This is everything I loved about Peru, but more colorful, more decorated, more elephants, bigger return smiles, and more facepaint! This is easily the most beautiful place I've ever seen and I've only seen one muddy lil loud moped filled town, Pondicherry. (LIE! I managed to jump into the Bay if Bengal two times in Mahabalipuram between chennai and here...) And I think I've stepped in street-cow shit more times than I've realized already...(literally and metaphorically) and yes, street cow. :)
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