It's finally here! I'm glad the flight leaves in the afternoon so I had time to pack all day. I have a suitcase, backpack and purse. I keep checking my bags to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. I have the essentials, though: passport, money, and plane info.

  We fly from Wilmington to Atlanta and then have a 3 hour layover. Then we have a 14 hour flight from Atlanta to Dubais. We stop in Dubais for about an hour and I doubt we even get off the plane. Then we fly from Dubais to Bangalore. We’ll arrive in India at 3am their time on May 11.

  I’m kind of nervous and not looking forward to the 24 hours plus of travel. At least I will be traveling with classmates. I also need to finish reading “One Night at the Call Center” as part of the course. It is really interesting so far, about young Indians working at an appliance call center.

We will be traveling in southern India with the course for 2 weeks. On May 23 a few of my classmates and I will stay longer and fly to New Delhi in northern India. We will see the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Ganges River at holy Varanasi.

I bought some candy, toys, cards, and colorful pencils for kids on the street and kids in the orphanage we will visit. I also have a flash drive with our group presentation on Women in the United States. We will present the talk to womens studies students at the University of Mysore.

I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to update the blog depending on availability of internet and free time. I will be returning on June 1st and will update the blog and pictures then!