Mumbai, I'm here!

So I've made it!
My travels have been good so far. I met this guy Jose in Seattle who was in the oil industry. He said, "America is searching for black gooey stuff in Alaska. People don't know it & the people who do, don't like it." For a 4am discussion, it was pretty interesting. I don't know how it happened, or why, but from Seattle to Newark my seat got upgraded to First Class. There's a first time for everything. The guy next to me was really nice & funny, we were the only ones who laughed out loud while watching Penelope.
Arriving at Newark, I made my rounds of calls. Then I met up with a good friend from high school, Edimund, who works in the airline industry. It was so good catching up with him.

Then 15 hours of airplane goodness. I've been blessed with a gift of being able to sleep through what others consider unbearably lengthy travel conditions. I do not take it for granted at all.

I arrived in Mumbai at 9pm and it was humid and hazy from what I'm guessing is the pollution. My professor & I had the same flight from Newark to Mumbai so arriving here I felt some comfort already knowing someone. She had told her family that she was arriving with one of her students.. being me.. & so when they picked her up they had a bouquet of flowers for her and me! Her mother shouted at me, "WELCOME TO MUMBAI!!" Her family was extremely nice. I could tell that they really want me (& the other students as well) to get a good first impression of India & they did so wonderfully. She had her driver take me to my hotel after dropping them.

The airport is considered to be in the suburbs of Mumbai & my hotel was "in town." The driving time between the suburbs and town is about an hour and a half. This city is huge. I think a lot of it has to do with sitting in traffic & many abrupt stops to not hit the pedestrian on the street. So many things here remind of the Philippines.. it's crowded, polluted, humid, cars running amok, children on the street, street vendors. Because I got a glimpse of Mumbai only in the night time hours, I'm too excited to see when light shines upon the city.

While people speak Hindi here, the people I've run into thus far understand and speak English. There is some struggle understanding under thick accents but I like it. What I found ridiculous however was when my professor's driver turned on the radio and 50 Cent was playing. I didn't want to be rude and ask him to change the station but I really do hope I won't have to hear any more American pop music while I'm here.

Oh & since being in the hotel room, I've got a glimpse of beautiful, heavy, warm rain.. & I've been watching what looks like an Indian soap opera. I have no clue what is going on but it looks really dramatic.