finishing up

Tonight's our last night of the trip. It's so hard to believe. Tomorrow we fly to Chicago and we'll be hanging out in the midwest until we move to Urbana in August, where I will be starting grad school in the fall.

The last few weeks of this trip have been very different from the first few months. Leaving SE Asia to go to Bangladesh and India was a big change; we found the regions to be very different from each other. Bangladesh was absolutely amazing. It definitely was one of the most satisfying parts of the trip for us, in large part because of how friendly and helpful everyone was. We met so many nice people.

At the end of our time there, our luck took a turn for the worse. We had booked tickets for a 30-hour boat trip which we were really looking forward to, then missed the boat because our cab got a flat tire and then we were delayed at the passport office, getting a form that we ended up not needing anyway. We thought we'd just re-book for the next day, but they cancelled the boat due to weather. So we caught a bus to Calcutta, and in the meantime I started to get sick. We spent four days in Calcutta, all of which I spent flat on my back in bed. We made our way across India by way of two overnight trains and one day-time train, all of which had major problems and delays. I started to feel better, but then got a sinus infection. When I went to get it checked out, the doctor insisted I stay at the hospital and get an IV for my dehydration. Two days there brought us to the end of our time in India. That night we headed to the airport, only to find that our flight was cancelled. What a crazy couple weeks! I have always dreamed of going to India but spent most of it in a hotel/hospital room. The little bits I saw were fascinating...and very different from what I expected.

Now we're looking forward to going back to the states and wondering what it will feel like! Catching up and keeping up on this blog didn't go as well as expected, but I hope to post a few more things once we're back in America.