First morning

We have been in Chennai a week and a half now and still trying to get settled, moved into Char's classroom and getting our bearings. We are definately feeling like strangers in a strange land, even though the school has been very supportive with our orientation. The hardest part is many of the natives do not speak English, or speak Tamil as their primary language, or the English is difficult to understand. But let me back up a bit and give my impressions of India.

We arrived in Chennai at midnight, walked right through customs with a wave from the customs official where we were greeted by a school employee and taken to our apartment. After a day and a half on planes and a 12 1/2 hour time difference, it was hard but we forced ourselves to catch a few hours of sleep in a thankfully horizontal position. Waking up the next morning I walked out onto our little balcony, looked out onto the street and saw women in Saris, some with bundles of sticks in their hands sweeping the streets, men on old delapitated tricyles, auto rickshaws put-putting along ,beeping their horns and whole families on one motorcyles, with the women riding sidesaddle. That is when it hit me..... I'm in India now!

The first thing you notice about the city is the traffic, it is not like anything we are used to in the States. It is more like a flowing river with a thousand tributaries, with cars, buses, motorcyles, pedestrians, autorickshaws (tuck-tucks), water trucks, bicylces, tricycles, all fighting literally for inches of space. When you throw in the fact that everyone is driving on the wrong side of the road, it is very disorienting and difficult to look beyond it to see the world around you. Despite what seems like total chaos to us, it works and begins to make some sense after a few days. I'll never again think someone is actually tailgating me!