India

I made it! Just barely. My flight was from JFK on the 26th at 4:20pm. I took an 8am bus from Boston and made it to JFK with plenty of time, and chose to ignore the fact that the snow was coming down harder and harder as I watched the Patriots game at an airport bar. Miracle of miracle, though, as I watched most other flights on the board get cancelled or be majorly delayed (one was the Air India flight I had wanted to book, but was sold out when I actually tried. Everything happens for a reason!), mine continued to be on time. We got on the plane and after waiting on the runway for two hours while they de-iced it we were off! It was a bumpy, nerve-wracking flight, but we made it to Amsterdam without any problems and was then onto Mumbai a few hours later.

I arrived at the hotel in Mumbai finally around 1am on the 28th and crashed into bed. The next morning I met up with my other Goodenough friends from London at breakfast and we started our shopping extravaganza. They helped to outfit me with two different sarees and managed to help me find a tailor who could make the blouses in a 24 hour turn around time - apparently generally unheard of. That night we went to the henna ceremony at the bride's house where I was most definitely the only white person. The next day we continued with the shopping and managed to pull together some last minute accessories for my two different outfits.

The 30th was the day of the wedding. We woke up early because my poor friend Gayathri had to tie three different sarees. We went to the actual ceremony in the morning, went home to change in the afternoon, and went to the reception at night. The wedding itself will require a different entry. It was very interesting and educational, though.

OK, am running out of time on the internet, but am heading north tomorrow on a train ! Will write more when I can! Happy new year, everyone!