Tomorrow, I begin a two-week portion of the trip where we visit architectural landmarks in a few different cities of the South Indian state of Karnakata. I'm anticipating that this will be more of an adventure than the previous parts of the trip simply because I had a good idea of what to expect in North India. While there have been plenty of the small quirks and surreal experiences that a person expects while travelling in India, I haven't been hugely surprised by anything. Although I've been told about a few of the differences, I have less of a clear idea of what to expect in the South. A lot of South Indians maintain that the culture is quite different, although I've also heard a few say that, in the modern age, this is becoming much less the case. There is also a large political divide between North and South, so there are some sort of political reasons that an Indian devoted to his Southern heritage might want to say or not say that the culture is different. I guess I'll see for myself.
I have mixed feelings about this adventure. I'm pleased to be learning about architecture and getting to visit actual archaeological sites with an archaeologist. I love long walks and hiking, and am told that the trip incorporates quite a bit of this as well, so that's another thing to look forward to. I'm more hesitant about the warnings that we will have less free time, which I'm afraid I will find frustrating. We will also be doing a lot of travelling around by bus. This tends to really annoy me in the United States, although I've found that the Indian rode trip is novel enough that this often hasn't been the case here, so we'll see how I feel about that part of the trip. I've also stopped myself from reading some of my newly-acquired Indian novels that I'm especially excited for to bring on this trip. If I get annoyed during the travel, reading a good book is a great way to escape that frustration. So, hopefully, everything will work out to be a positive experience.
The biggest reason that I have mixed feeling about this upcoming trip, though, is that it marks the beginning of the last phase of our education here in India. After the trip, we have a few more classes, write an essay, and begin the train-and-plane journey back to the other side of the world. While packing for the trip, we've had to start thinking about how much room we have in our luggage and decide what is and is not worth taking back to America. I will miss a lot of things here, such as the fresh tea, the foliage, the weather, the ability to hear and speak Hindi all the time, and the feeling that I am seeing new things everyday. At the same time, I'm excited in certain ways for going back to the United States. I've missed my friends and family while I've been here, and I seriously cannot wait to go to the University of Chicago library. I've also missed soy sauce, steamed vegetables, sushi, hard pretzels, not getting shoved when the sidewalks are crowded, not getting treated rudely when I don't have exact change, and the existence of traffic signals that make it safe to know when to cross the street. So I really am sad that the trip's ending, but I do have some things to look forward to.
If this weren't being put online, this is probably the part of this entry where I'd write something cliche yet true about things I've learned during this trip and how I've changed, but I'll save myself the embarrassment of that and end this post here.
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