getting to Chennai

I knew this would happen. I've got too much to say on arriving in Chennai, that I'll have to leave off my first day for now.

Dad came up to DC for my last night in the states for a while. And while I was sitting at my aunt's house two friends (Clarice and Kento) surprised me by showing up to see my cousin who was just arriving in town from Rhode Island. That was a nice send-off. Dad had rented a car, so he drove mine home and I returned his rental. Just as he had taken off, I realized I'd left my camera in the car, and essentially made him turn around. It worked out well, because he'd left his bag at my aunt's house. It was very lonely and sad to drive myself to the airport to fly out of the country, but I suppose that was the most sensible option. In any case, I made my plane and immediately started chatting up the couple next to me. Turns out, they were traveling to spain for the annual Virginia Bar Association something-or-other. The woman sitting next to me turns out to be a math lecturer at NoVA community College. Furthermore, their son graduated from Temple University. Weird enough, but the real kicker is that the man sitting there had grown up for a few years in Kingsport, TN! I couldn't believe it! Anyway, sitting behind me was Tanisha Wright of the WNBA. She was on her way to play fall league basketball in Cyprus. I only had a short chat with her at Heathrow. At one point during the flight to London these two Indian women overheard me talking about my ensuing trip. They became very excited when they learned I knew a touch of Tamil. One woman said she'd love to invite me, but she lives in the USA and can't invite on behalf of her daughter and son-in-law. Oh well.
During the layover at Heathrow I met another interesting cast of characters.
I was sitting behind a Persian man and his 20-something gorgeous daughter. She turned around to ask me about making a call to Canada. I had no idea, so I sent her on some wild goose chase around the airport. Meanwhile I started talking to the guy thinking he was Lebanese. He told me he was Persian and that he speaks 5 languages. Although, he listed English as one such language, and I can certainly attest to the fact, that he DOES NOT speak English. So I went along my hilarious spiel of writing language names in their own languages, just to show him that because I don't speak Arabic or whatever that I'm stupid. He pronounced me Persian for knowing how to write "Farsi" in Farsi and for knowing that Tehran is the capital of Iran. Long story short, he asked if I was married... I suppose that may be the nature of his trip to Iran now (to marry off his daughter). I was not interested, and so they left. But it certainly makes for a good story if given proper embellishments. After that I was sitting with a foursome of Brits from Newcastle awaiting their flight home after having traveled Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Singapore. I told them their beer has no hops, I like their Scotch (they live less than 100 miles from Edinburgh), and that we agreed on liking the Archbishop of Canterbury, beacuse he's a little too outspoken to be a major religious leader, although he makes sense all the time.
Finally I met a middle aged French woman going to work at some place called auroville outside of pondicherry. Sounds odd to say the least...
Upon boarding the plane I learned my first Indian lesson. No one respects your personal space.
Lesson number two, when it comes to forming a line, forget about it. Get there as fast as humanly possible, sit down and then don't move. TOTALLY BIZARRE.
On the airplane they ran out of immigration cards, so I had to go through an embarrassing scene at immigration, but resolved it quietly. Finally I met up with the driver. He brough me to the institute and OF COURSE my name wasn't on the guest house list. So they just put me in some room with some other post doc. I couldn't sleep. But maybe tonight I'll have better luck.