I think home will always be home and...

I think home will always be home and that is definitely a feeling that can't be avoided-- I don't think there's anyway to avoid some sense of alienation while living in a foreign country, and probably that's partly what makes it so exciting. That said, I think after your first big hump of homesickness you will find yourself unconsciously starting to fit in more. I remember my first realization of this when I discovered (very much to my surprise) that I could walk down the street in Raja Park without paying much attention at all. Also, you begin to come across differently as an unconscious factor of having lived there for a while. Your physical sensibility must somehow change because after about two months, rickshaw wallahs would stop piling over themselves to get me a ride while I was happily walking the street. Actually, this began to backfire...by the end of my program, I couldn't get an auto to stop if my life depended on it!

On another random note, I am so jealous that you get to be around all the Jaipuris in their adorably ridiculous winter clothes. Every time I saw some woman in a fuzzy sweater vest over her salwar or an autowallah cocooned in a Lawrence-of-Arabia-style blanket I wanted to run up and hug them.

written by Josh on January 30, 2008

Heading South?