Namaste!

Welcome to my India blog! I'm hoping I'll be able to post regularly so my friends and family can stalk - er, keep tabs on my adventures.

For those of you who may not know where I'm going or what I'll be doing... join the club! Neither do I!

The basics are: I saw an ad in the newspaper back in October saying that Rotary District 7470 was sponsoring a Group Study Exchange trip to India. They were looking for four professionals (Ha! Fooled 'em!) between the ages of 25 and 40 who would be willing and able to spend a month traveling around India, representing the district. Apparently they do this ever year - send people to different countries, and then host their exchanges.

The opportunity presented itself at a really great time. For those of you who may not know, I am currently on a year-long sabbatical from my teaching job in Mountain Lakes. I was granted a leave of absence to pursue a dream I've had since graduate school: to organize the first New Horizons Band in New Jersey.

That's been a blog in and of itself, but the experience has been going really well. I work with a great bunch of people at The Music Shop. And I am so fortunate to work in such an amazing school district. Not many would have granted me this great opportunity.

Huh? Oh yeah... India... right. So I was sitting at the kitchen table on a Saturday morning when I saw the ad. I asked my wonderful fiance, "Hey honey, wanna go to India for a month?"

I read him the ad and he considered it for a moment before answering, "Nah. Cause if we both applied and I got it but you didn't, I wouldn't wanna go without you."

"Oh," I replied. "Well... can I apply?"

This is the part of the post where I thank him. If he told me he was going to spend a month in a foreign country, traveling with strangers and living with even stranger strangers, I don't know if I could handle it. But Wolf knows that I have an incurable itch to travel - it's part of who I am - and he has been wonderfully supportive throughout the entire process. I am so very lucky to have him in my life. Honey, if you're reading this - I LOVE YOU! And yes, I will miss you.... A LOT.

Okay. So I applied for the trip. Was accepted. My new boss (also a Rotarian) was incredibly awesome in allowing me to take a month away from work. As he put it, "So um, you want to take a sabbatical from your sabbatical?"

Everything is set. But... what are we actually doing over there?

The team, comprised of four members and a team leader (that's five for all you musicians) will be traveling around the Goa region. We're staying with eight different host families, and will be giving presentations about New Jersey and District 7470 to all of the Rotary clubs in their district. When we're not presenting, we'll be visiting schools, seeing sights and all kinds of other neat things which I will write about as they happen.

We leave tonight at 8:30 PM from JFK. I am all packed and vaccinated. I've also started my anti-Malaria pills (which have some very unpleasant side effects - but I guess they're better than having Malaria). We're meeting at one of the team member's homes around 3:30 and shuttling into the city together.

In case you really care, I'll be flying British Airways flight 114 into Heathrow. After a two-hour layover, I'll be on British Airways flight 139 to Mumbai. After that, it's anyone's guess!

So dear friends and family, I bid you adieu - for now. Check in from time to time, I'll do my best to keep in touch!

Jen