Itinerary

I bought a ticket a few weeks ago. Its fucking scary. After trying to find someone to tag along with me and find the best time to go I just decided to purchase a ticket and say fuck work. Work is eating me alive right now so it feels like there is no good time to leave. I tried for a while to find the right time but it just doesn’t matter, I can’t allow work to dictate too much of my life so I just bought a ticket, trying to avoid the super hot season. Earlier would’ve been better but this will work.

Trip Details Below:

Trip Name – Part I: Fuck, I’m Scared
Trip Duration – March 23 – April 9 (17 days)
To – New Dehli, India
From – Chicago, IL

Tentatively my plan is to stay in New Dehli, try to track down a lead or two at hospital it is rumored I may have been born. Then, I’ll head south, to Trichy, for 5-6 days and spend time at the orphanage and see if I can wrestle up any other clues as well as just spend time in Trichy and at the orphanage. The remaining 5-6 days I am leaving open to whatever.

The whole idea of really trying to plan this trip out seems practically impossible but having some tentative outline is all I really need, I guess. I thrive on structure and planning so going into this trip without a grip on any of the pieces is rather terrifying. I am scared because I know India is not a place I feel comfortable and I am worried that it is going to be a very rough emotional journey and going alone seems dubious to say the least. That all being said, I am pretty good at taking care of myself and have spent a lot of time alone in places I’m uncomfortable so should be ok. It’s just hard to know.

Logistically, I think things should be pretty straight forward in that I’ll most likely stay in hotels, although I’ve contemplated trying to locate some home stay options. I’ve got my travel visa, that was a nightmare, although nothing compared to the utter fucked up bullshit people are going through now with the Trump/Bannon administration’s executive order. I’ve scheduled my vaccines and once those are done all I need to do is calm my nerves. I had considered trying to learn some Hindi before leaving but it just doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen. I’m also studying for an exam, or at least trying, and not sure I can do both at once.

Lastly, I am strongly considering bringing an audio recorder along with me to capture a lot of what I experience via audio. Why not a camera? Well, I’ll have a camera but I have more experience editing audio (albeit not much) than video, plus visuals are much harder for me to turn into a cohesive story than audio. Its a lot easier, for me, to manipulate audio than video.

Glad I posted this. Feeling scared but somewhat relieved that I now have a date and this trip is FINALLY happening.