Spring 2015 - Day 63: India

I woke up early in the morning and made the strange decision to check my email. I had an email from Disney requesting that I schedule a second interview. I immediately panicked because after tonight would be at sea for 6 days. 

 

I used my precious internet minutes to log onto the website and see when I could schedule it for. By some stroke of miracle the only option was March 18th, the exact day we were going to be in Mauritius. At first I was using the same 12 hour time difference I used in Vietnam and was afraid that there wasn't an interview time early enough but then I realized that we would only be 8 hours apart by that point and it would work out perfect. It was a sign. 

 

I went back to sleep so relieved and excited. 

 

Sometime later in the morning Jessi called to tell me they were leaving at 10. I decided to not go with them, it wasn't a hard decision. I didn't have anymore money and I was tired of feeling constantly overwhelmed and uncomfortable. 

 

I ended up sleeping until 11:30. It was wonderful and exactly what I needed. After waking up at 3am, 4am, 6am, and then 3am again, I was exhausted. 

 

I handed in my passport and landing card, I wasn't getting off the ship again. I ran into Quinn up at the pursers desk and we went to lunch together. 

 

Jessi and Andi joined us at lunch after a while. They had only stayed out for around 2 hours. But Jessi said it felt like it was the entire day. They found a market and then found wifi. One of the cab drivers had a hot spot, so they just stood outside the ship and used that. I am still glad I didn't go with them, I really needed the sleep that I got. 

 

After lunch I lounged in my room and watched a movie. Then I went to dinner. After dinner I talked to Brittney and Kaitlyn about their time in India. Then I got ice cream, which was completely amazing. 

 

I sat in the piano lounge and worked on my vicarious voyage letters. I don't think I have ever told you about vicarious voyage. It is a program I signed up for before the voyage even started. You are partnered with a classroom and you send them pictures and letters about the things you do. They ask you questions, it's adorable. The classroom I am assigned to is an ESL classroom in New York State. Because it is ESL there are a range of ages. I sent them things after Hawaii and Japan but then became overwhelmed with blogging and school work and how fast the countries were going. I fell out of it until just before India. I felt terrible because I had really slipped up on my obligation and I really needed to get some more stuff to them. 

 

So I told myself that that is what I would do tonight until I finished. 

 

I took a break for post-port though. Mama Shelley had invited us to go to post port as a family. I have only gone to post-port one other time but of course I couldn't leave mama Shelley alone. 

 

Mama Shelley was supposed to go on the yoga trip to the ashram but when the time came to pack for the trip she decided she didn't want to go. Instead she wanted to just explore Cochin. She has been to India many times, her son even lived there. But she always did lots of things and spent a lot of time traveling. This time she just wanted to stay in the port city and explore one place for multiple days. On the first day she went and saw an eye doctor. After Myanmar she could see something in her peripheral vision and thought it was just a floater. The doctor said she actually had something blocked in her eye and so lost that vision permanently. She's ok though, and it shouldn't get worst. So scary. 

 

Post port was actually really awesome. They had a panel of SASers talk about their different experiences in India. Some traveled independently, some with SAS, some stayed in Cochin, some went to the north. The most interesting person to hear from was Anish, who is from India. 

 

He talked about how he was excited to go home but the most interesting thing for him was the reactions of SASers before and after India. When we were being told about India and everyone said that it would challenge your senses, he didn't understand what that meant. It was just India, there wasn't anything crazy about it. 

 

He was amazed by the experiences people had and the awe there was towards India. He realized that, by being from the country, he got too used to it and stopped seeing some of the beauty in it. He didn't experience the country like it had experiences the others on the voyage because there wasn't anything special about it to him, it was just home. He said that when he returns to India again he is going to look at it through the eyes of a tourist. To hope on a tourist bus and go to all of the tourist places in his city that he has never been. He challenged us to do the same thing. To go back to our home countries and travel through them as though we were tourists. 

 

It was something I had never thought of. How many things in Connecticut so I think are boring because I have lived there all my life? I have only been to the beach once the entire time I have lived in Florida because living there made it seem less exciting. It was always an option. I could go there whenever, which meant I never went there. 

 

We should start exploring the places we live and start seeing the beauty in them again. 

 

The theme of post-port was discomfort and the way that we can use how we felt in the rest of our lives. Everyone gave examples of how they were uncomfortable during their time in India. Most were about language barriers, gender discrimination, and cultural differences. Some were about how them pushing back against their discomfort made them even more uncomfortable. 

 

I don't know why people don't like going to post-port. I find it a really good space to think about how I am feeling, and ask myself even more questions based on how other people feel. It opens my mind and adds another story to what India is. 

 

After post-port I went back to my spot in the piano lounge and worked on my vicarious voyage stuff until midnight. Jessi and I sat together worked in silence, only talking if we needed help with something or to say random, disjointed things. 

 

Sleep was good, and needed. I still felt exhausted and was glad that I was able to sleep in.