Packing Up and Shipping Out.

At this point (as I sit on my bed in a hostel in Kathmandu, Nepal) this post is pretty late. But during my two and a half week trip through north India I didn't have internet access at all, so I never got a chance to post it. Better late than never, right?

With my friend Kairos on my last day in Coimbatore.

For the past week or two, I have been organizing, purging, and packing all of my possessions from the past three months of my life. Three months isn't that long, but since I didn't bring many possessions to India with me, I have accumulated quite a few things to fill up my room, my closet, the apartment in general. So I started early; cleaning out all of the folders from my classes, ditching the loose papers that I didn't think I'd ever look at again. It was a process. Not to mention, I had only one suitcase, limited to 50lbs, a backpack and a tote bag in which to fit all of my possessions, gifts, and souvenirs. The task seemed daunting.

Our little balcony, where we hang laundry.

What has really struck me though, is the perspective I've had packing. Now, if I were packing up from my apartment in Raheja Enclave and immediately boarding a plane back to New England, I think I would be totally geared up for going home. But in my case, for this trip, I am leaving Coimbatore, my home for the past three months, for two and a half weeks of traveling within India to places I've never been and one week to Nepal. Instead of feeling like I was leaving India for home, I packed up feeling as though I was leaving home to be a tourist, a nomad.

Isn't it interesting how one's perspective on home changes, just based on the next destination?

The gate of Raheja.

That being said, I am pumped for going to real home, a place where I have a culture in common with the people around me, where I don't automatically stick out because of the color of my skin and my knowledge of only one language instead of the average Indian's proficiency in two to five languages, where I can cook the food I like and know how and where to shop (usually, everything is available in one convenient location--how novel!) and can DRIVE myself there! It will be great. Aside from the fact that I'll be so cold that I'll probably never leave my bed.