I took a 27 hour train from Calcutta to Chennai (Madras) and arrived last night. I can't believe I spent that much time on a train! South India is vastly different to the north. The English language abounds! Hooray! You don't know what a RELIEF it is to see internet, restaurant and cafe signs in English. The official language down here is Tamil, but most people speak English. There is less pollution, the less littering. Chennai has a beautiful beach that lends it amazingly cool and refreshing breezes...I took a walk along the beach last night, reveling in how nice it felt to move around after being on a train for so long.

    Being in India is a bit like being in one of those corny children's tv programs where the main character is running and the background scenery quickly flashes from snow-capped mountains to windswept desert. Except, MY running is through quicksand and then on thudding cement. I'll be sinking and treading, gasping for air, choked with fear - but when I look down to check my footing, I'll find my feet firmly planted on the hard cement. It's an unruly sensation - feeling like I have absolutely no control, and yet complete freedom at the same time.

    It's difficult to hurtle through an adventure and savor it, isn't it? Savoring requires an intellectual effort, and the best adventures are often experienced with an unconscious awareness - one that frequently can only be tapped into in hindsight.

    But I'm determined to bottle at least a FEW of these intangible moments to take home - if only to sip on during those long Rochester days! It's funny because I want to memorize the present, but not in the asshole way of taking three steps and then having to stop to analyze how they felt. That's the tricky bit - learning to live in the moment with abandon, while retaining just enough sensitivity to be mindfully aware of it.

~Hope