Welcome to my blog!

The purpose of this blog is to share with you my upcoming internship in Mumbai (Bombay), India and the journey in preparation for it. It has so far been an interesting experience and I have not even started my trip yet.

Why the name? I will be in Mumbai during June and July, the beginning of the Monsoon season. Learning to wade through flooded streets and work with this natural phenonema is to me very similar to the learning experience I have had so far and am sure to face in India. Most of India's water supply falls during the Monsoon season. It is kind of a feast or famine on water. I found this analegous to India itself, a nation of extremes and it will be my challenge to learn to work with and within it. From what I have understood of India, this amazing nation will both pull on me like the raging flood waters and at the same time fascinate me like the tranquility of a steady stream.

I have the priviledge to travel with another student who has now also become a friend. She is as talented as she is kind and fun. Together we will set out to work with an inspirational company that is dedicated to empower women in deplorable situations, often in the slums of Bombay, to better their lives. The company works with small textiles producers and our task is to develop a plan to standardize the production process so they can deliver a more uniform end result.

Before I continue with this blog I want to take a moment and thank my family, friends and college. They have been very instrumental in making this trip possible and encouraging me as I am learning to have the two most important things in this journey: patience and endurance.

I hope my blog will entice you to consider traveling to India and help you with your preparations.

Let's start swimming!!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Are we there yet?!

Yay!!! We have our tickets!! After extensive shopping for both the best routes and the best prices we ended up with two options: Minneapolis - Amsterdam - Mumbai or Minneapolis - Newark - Mumbai.

It is a long flight no matter how you go about it, so we opted for as few stops as possible. The Newark route had been highly recommended by someone here in the area who is from India and travels there frequently. However, by the time we had the exact dates of our internship, the flight had increased by $240 (yikes!) so we looked at the Amsterdam route and decided that, because it is such a long flight, we might actually appreciate a break and walk around a little in Amsterdam airport. Money wise, it ended up only being $50 cheaper, which I am sure we will spend in the airport, but the break really appealed to us.

So, we went to book our flights on-line, something we had done so many times before. But, for some reason, whenever we selected any of Amsterdam routes (different layovers), we received a message that basically said: is not going to happen. We were able to select the Newark route, but by now, we had our hearts set on the break in Amsterdam, but were really getting tired of the difficulties with the tickets. We had been shopping for tickets for weeks and just wanted this step to be done! But, we pushed through and went to AAA who came through for us. They got us on the Amsterdam flight, with the layover we wanted and we have our tickets!!!

So, what did this part of the trip cost? $1,530!! Yeah.....
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