One of the guys I have been in contact with who has been helping me out with my study, is in India and has recently hooked me up with an orphanage in Calcutta to work with. It turns out they don't need much to have donated, but rather something much more meaningful and dear to my heart.

The lady who helps run the orphanage who I've been in contact with, said that the girls at the orphanage would love for me to come and talk with them about my life here in the U.S. and that they would love  for me to bring pictures of my family, and friends, and life at school to show them.

This, if anything, has made me more excited to be making this trip. To know that there are people on the other end, the other side of the world who are excited to see me, makes it all even more worthwhile!

For those of you who have been out of the country before, you probably know (or don't know) that you need a visa to gain entry into certain countries. My father and I applied for our visa's earlier this year so we would be able to get into India. Let me just say this for those of you who have not done it before, there is a LOT of paperwork to fill out and send off to the Indian government in order to get permission to come to their country. And it's not even just sending passports back and forth, and getting your passport photos retaken and updated. It can be increasingly frustrating also.

Multiple times, I have had to send and resend paperwork that I thought had been cleared with Travisa, the visa processing company. I send all my paperwork in, at least what I think is all my paperwork, and then they shoot me an email a few days later saying there is a problem with my transaction and that it cannot be completed. Those emails can tend to give you a mini heart attack, especially when you automatically assume that you're not going to be able to go because they "couldn't process the paperwork".

Getting ready for the journey as it nears closer and closer, especially in acquiring granted permission to be able to go on my trip itself, makes me realize that there is more than just buying your plane ticket and hopping on a plane to where you want to go. This will be the only time I have ever been out of the country to a not-so-touristy destination. And quite a destination it is.

More on that later! 

Lately the topic of my identity has come up in conversation, and how it will transform during, and especially after the trip. You know when I think about it, I get kind of petrified on the thought, and I don't really like to think about it, but I do anyways. And when I do think about this, I stop and wonder.... what will my identity be like when I come home? And will, politely speaking, America even be my "home" anymore? Physically it may be, but what will I see as the home I rightfully belong in after the trip? Will it be where I started all along? In India? Wow, I'm getting really emotional here writing this. I'm actually crying.

I think that concludes tonight's post....