Today, as my family and I were driving home from ice cream I heard a honk come from a car at a busy intersection. This automatically flashed my mind back to the streets of India, where there is honking everywhere. It is inescapable!

To me, it is a sound that brings me joy and a smile. It reminds me of home! When my Dad and I were there, it is the sound you would hear late at night as you were falling asleep, and it would be the sound you would hear when you awoke. I always thought of it as
"The India Reveille" -- but more pleasant.

I think it's funny that this moment in the day sparked a memory that would most likely have been forgotten by now. But apparently not! This is one of those comforting sounds I look forward to hearing again when I go back, don't ask me why, I just do!

Well I haven't even been back for a week yet, and I already I want to go back!
I miss it! I guess the more and more I think about I realize how much I enjoyed the trip, and that it was the trip of a lifetime. I would turn right around and go back in a heartbeat! It was wonderful,
life-changing experience in ways that I haven't figured out how to express yet. But I can tell you that one of the biggest things I got out of this journey was having a much bigger sense of pride in where I am from!

I started the trip out feeling very uncomfortable in my home city, Kolkata, but as the trip went on and the day arrived to leave Kolkata, I didn't want to leave. It really felt like home. Now as I'm back in the States I wonder now, after experiencing what I experienced, how much I consider America my home anymore. I would seriously consider living there, but then I hesitate and think, "Would I really leave all this behind?" 

It breaks my heart to feel like I want to leave everything that my parents gave me, but my heart is screaming "Take me home!" 

Sailing over a cloud of oceans,
I'm homeward bound.
But I know the journey is not over
no, not now.
I still have a long way to go
emotional boundaries to cross,
stories to tell.
Oh wow, oh hell!

I wrote this on one of my first flights home from Delhi to Kolkata.

I am home now, safe and sound (and still sick unfortunately)!
It has been an incredible journey, and like I said in my poem above --- it's still not over!

Saw the Taj Mahal in the early morning light this morning!
Beautiful!
It really makes a difference when you're looking at it with your own eyes and not just through a picture frame! Being there at first and getting the first glimpse of it as you walk into the garden makes you want to smack yourself in the face and ask yourself, "Am I really here right now? Or am I dreaming?" Seriously.

So I actually did get some really good pictures, and can't wait to share them with all of you when I get home!

Today and tonight are my last in India for a LONG time, I start my long journey home tomorrow!
I can't decide if I like it here or not, and whether it will be something that I will miss dearly, and whether I really am ready to go home...either way, I'm coming home!

Yesterday, while waiting in line to go see the Lotus Temple, Dad said totally out of the blue:
"We're not in Kansas anymore!"

No, we are most certainly not!

For the first time on this trip (thankfully towards the end), I got really homesick yesterday.
I just had gradually started missing home more and more, until I couldn't hold it in anymore. I was trying to be "brave" and not give in to the feelings of missing and wanting to be home, but realized shortly after I had a good cry, that I felt much better.

I think we are both just about ready to be home, we are "winding down" as my Dad said earlier today. But we have one more stop, in fact it's probably the most important stop besides the orphanage of course, that we HAVE to do before we leave: The Taj Mahal!

We are going early tomorrow morning to watch the sun rise over the Taj Mahal!
I hope I get some good pictures!

(cont. from last post)

Humayun's Tomb was very similar to the Taj Mahal, it was actually the precursor to it. It was built with red sandstone and more white marble than Qutb Minar, but actually significantly less than than the Taj. We were there for for a very short time, and it wasn't really that interesting.

The last place we went to was the Red Fort, it was huge. You walk a ways down around to the entrance on the outside of the fort. It took us 15 minutes just to get to the entrance, the fort was that big! Again, like every other place we saw, it was made out of red sandstone.

The inside, before you actually get to the fort itself was a very crowded shopping bazaar with shops trying to lure tourists in to buy, buy, buy! But the fort itself had a very pretty garden with blooming flowers and water fountains.

By that time at the end of the day, we were both very worn out and were looking forward to getting to our back to our hotel room!

We got some much needed rest!