India Bound!

Today I embark on a six week journey in Chennai, India followed by a 11 day European tour! I will do my best to update you about my experiences in India and Europe. My journey starts with an eight hour flight followed by a nine hour flight. I am all packed and ready to head to the airport. I am full of a mixture of emotions! I am beyond excited to have the opportunity to take part in this amazing experience but I am also a little nervous for traveling and culture shock. You are probably wondering why I am going to India? Well here is the background story of my trip...

      In February I received an email to do research at IIT Madras in Chennai India. I thought to myself 'mmm that might be fun but idk' so I didn't delete the email but made no further actions on it. The next day a friend of mine said she was going so then I immediately made moves to go too so that we could go together! After my friend opted out of going I was less motivated to turn in my resume for the program and left the email alone in my inbox yet again. After pushing thoughts of the trip to the back of head for a few weeks, I received an email from the professor organizing the trip congratulating me on being accepted to go to India. I was surprised because I had not actually applied and simply spoke with the profesor in office hours about my interest but apparently she liked me haha But as time passed and I went to information meetings about the trip I decided that this was something that I was going to do! Why not let someone pay for me to go to India? 
        So I will be doing research at IIT Madras in Chennai, India for six weeks. The research is NDE Research so I have been training in the NDE Lab at Michigan State University the past few months so that I am prepared to use equipment in India. There are a total of six of us going in our group and there will be other students from other universities there as well. I am eager to do research as this will be my first time doing any sort of engineering research. 

Initial thoughts- I thought it would be good to write down my initial expectations/cautions that I have for this trip and then compare them to how everything actually is once I am there. 

Weather:Everyone I have talked to about india has said it is HOT! So I am expecting to be sweating a lot and applying sunblock like it is lotion. We will be staying at a hotel which has air-conditioning and the lab where we will be researching has AC also so that will be nice. I have never lived anywhere with AC so this will be another first for me!

Food: I have been a vegetarian my whole life and a picky eater so I will for sure be trying new foods. We have been told to only eat cooked vegetables and only eat fruits with tough skins. The students that went last year said there was a food court on campus including a McDonalds that they ate at often so maybe I will become a regular at McDonalds haha I am prepared for the food to be very spicy though

Water: We are not allowed to drink the water in India so we will be drinking bottled water. Our hotel provides each guest with two complimentary bottles of water daily so that will be helpful.

Safety: I plan to stay with our group at all times. There are four boys and two girls in our group. It is safer to travel with a male so we will stick together!

People: There are a lot more people in India. So when walking on the streets it will be much bigger crowds than I am used to in East Lansing or Clarkston. We have been warned about pick-pocketing so I have taken precautions to ensure that I don't lose anything or get injured myself. 

That's all for now! I am off to have my last meal before I leave....Mac and Cheese and Hot Dogs! Then off to the airport! The next time you will here from me I will be in India!

Morgan