How time flies...

I am in India...with my family!  It is such a good feeling.

The first step off the plane I smelled the familiar Indian air, slightly foul mixed with humidity.  It made me smile.

As we left the Chennai airport for our hotel chaos surrounded us.  Hundreds of Indians lined the barricades at the baggage claim.  They stand there staring as I gather my chicks and push through the crowd. It was similar to the red carpet events in Hollywood.  

We are the celebrities.

I loved watching them look at my kids.  I loved my kids bulging eyes at them!  There is so much going on, so much noise.

We pile into 2 cars and begin our journey.

  I am in a car with Jennica and two volunteers from Utah (Trina Goodwin Wright from my HS and her sister Daneen).  I am like a kid at an amusement park giddy with excitement.  I am so happy to be back in India with my family.

I'm sitting in the front seat next to the driver, who is driving from the right (or should I say wrong) side of the car, with my video camera out the window.  

Let the madness begin!  

We are "Beep, beep, beeping..." all the way to the hotel.  

Traffic isn't bad at all, it's still early in the morning, but enough is going on to keep us all peering out the windows with our camera's. 

Jarom, my 10 year old, is ahead of us in another car with his head and arms hanging out the window absorbing the energy outside.  Men on motorcycles are zooming by close enough for him to high five the drivers,,,AND HE DOES!  

My heart swells with excitement when he turns to me in traffic and mouths 

"This is the BEST car ride ever!!"

Later in the afternoon I am riding in a Tuk Tuk with Jace (6 years) on my lap and he whispers in my ear that he thinks he will live here when he is older. 

I take a look around me and all I see is run down buildings, garbage and crazy traffic and I wonder what provoked his comment.

By 3pm most of my company is unable to stay awake.  I even heard:

"No Mom, lets NOT have dessert can we PLEASE go back to the room and take a nap?"  I never dreamed I'd hear that from my kids.

By 4pm most of us are asleep, including myself.  The jet lag won this battle today.

Now I am alone in the dark.  Everyone is asleep except me.  My clock reads 23:48.  

I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I have a gut feeling that it means I have a long night ahead of me.  It's all good though.  At least I am not in an airplane!

 Flights to India are not complete with unexpected events!  Yes, crazy things happened on the way here.  

Just when I thought we were almost here we had to make an emergency landing in Bangalore.  A poor man had a heart attack on board so we landed at the nearest airport, then we sat on the runway for an hour before we took off again. 

Once we were finally here

Trina and Daneen's luggage never showed up!!

 And since our flight was late landing we missed our shuttle to the hotel.

We started off with lots of patience at the airport!

Arriving at Abu Daubi aiport for our 3 hour layover 

 a little staring contest goes a long way

Off ALL the TV shows in the world they are watching

The Christmas Story

(the one about the boy shooting his eye out with a BBgun)

I have more pictures but don't know where to look for my camera in the dark.

I'd hate to wake up the kids while the night is still young.  If they wake up (they have been sleeping since 3pm) I wouldn't know what to do with them.

Tomorrow begins our day at Rising Star!

Oh yum!  I just found some Naan in the darkness!  Sam must have ordered room service