It's a resurrection.
I knew that school and life would be the downfall of this blog. It didn't have staying power and was likely doomed from the start. I couldn't get into writing much beyond a new status update on Facebook, let alone regular blog posts that take time, thought, and effort. I'm still unsure if I spent time, thought, and effort on all of my coursework last semester. In any event, I knew it would falter and that I would pick it up again when I travel.
I'm writing this from Vienna, on the way to Mumbai, which constitutes travel for sure.
I celebrated the new year somewhere over the Atlantic, likely watching a fragment of Knocked Up, The Simpsons Movie, or The Lookout (I couldn't seem to get on the movie schedule and caught each somewhere in the middle). Mumbai's 10.5 hours ahead of Eastern time; I couldn't really figure out what to do about sleeping, so I kept myself up until I couldn't anymore. I figure showing up tired is better than being stuck in another time zone and wanting to sleep all day and be awake all night. My flight gets in at 11:20pm tonight, so I'm going to get my bag, a taxi and go where I'm staying as fast as possible to get to bed.
I'm renting a room in an apartment in a nearby suburb called Malad. I'm going to be almost exclusively in the northern part of the city, which consists of the airports and much of the nicer parts of town (including expat neighborhoods and beaches). The southern part of the city where the accommodations were more of my budget was thought to be too far away, or too long of a commute. I may not have shortened that by much, but at least I'm not going to be living in a hotel for three weeks. The thought of doing so seemed dreadful.
I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do about getting downtown everyday--there's a rail system that will get me where I need to go, but to say that it's crowded during rush hour is a huge understatement. Anything that has something called Super-Dense Crush Load just isn't messing around. So I'm going to give myself the better part of the week to get oriented, try it out, and see how it goes. This whole trip should be flexible, so maybe I'll just rock an 11-6 sort of schedule. I doubt the roads are much better, but maybe I'll take an auto rikshaw. That's definitely a step up from the Mchinji bike taxi.
And speaking of work, that remains a bit up in the air. The long of the short of it is that I'm going to be working with a GLBT (more GBT to be accurate) health organization in some capacity, likely working on some data or something else in the background. The history of this trip is more or less the following:
1. The place I worked before going back to school does work with them.
2. I got reconnected with them through a circuitous route that involves a HMS professor who is on the board of the organization and also holds an appointment where I used to work.
3. He suggested this as a practicum for last summer; Malawi came up and I thought this might be a better Winter Session experience. January isn't monsoon season, for one.
4. I applied for some funding to do a needs assessment of HIV+ transgender persons whom this place serves. Got the funding.
5. Reconnected with folks I used to work with, four of whom are going to be in Mumbai for shorter periods of time to do some work there. It seems to make more sense to tag along with their programs, even if that means I don't know what exactly I'm going to be doing while I'm there. Like Tim says, we'll make it work.
I want to have something to show for three weeks somewhere (and have some ethical obligation to do so given that I'm traveling on someone else's dime), but I'm trying to go easy. I'm trying not to force anything, just show up and go with the flow. No expectations + lots of footwork = something good will happen.
In the meantime, I'm planning on chronicling here how it goes. I'll have internet at the apartment, so catch me on email, GChat or Skype. It might be the airport, but my phone doesn't seem able to get a signal here, so I'm not actually too hopeful that AT&T will pull through with their ridiculous ad campaign (think Washvienumbai) and get service in all those places. But let's see.
Sitting with a good cup of coffee, watching gentle snow fall (albeit on airport machinery), with free wireless in Austria isn't a bad way to kick off the new year.
I knew that school and life would be the downfall of this blog. It didn't have staying power and was likely doomed from the start. I couldn't get into writing much beyond a new status update on Facebook, let alone regular blog posts that take time, thought, and effort. I'm still unsure if I spent time, thought, and effort on all of my coursework last semester. In any event, I knew it would falter and that I would pick it up again when I travel.
I'm writing this from Vienna, on the way to Mumbai, which constitutes travel for sure.
I celebrated the new year somewhere over the Atlantic, likely watching a fragment of Knocked Up, The Simpsons Movie, or The Lookout (I couldn't seem to get on the movie schedule and caught each somewhere in the middle). Mumbai's 10.5 hours ahead of Eastern time; I couldn't really figure out what to do about sleeping, so I kept myself up until I couldn't anymore. I figure showing up tired is better than being stuck in another time zone and wanting to sleep all day and be awake all night. My flight gets in at 11:20pm tonight, so I'm going to get my bag, a taxi and go where I'm staying as fast as possible to get to bed.
I'm renting a room in an apartment in a nearby suburb called Malad. I'm going to be almost exclusively in the northern part of the city, which consists of the airports and much of the nicer parts of town (including expat neighborhoods and beaches). The southern part of the city where the accommodations were more of my budget was thought to be too far away, or too long of a commute. I may not have shortened that by much, but at least I'm not going to be living in a hotel for three weeks. The thought of doing so seemed dreadful.
I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do about getting downtown everyday--there's a rail system that will get me where I need to go, but to say that it's crowded during rush hour is a huge understatement. Anything that has something called Super-Dense Crush Load just isn't messing around. So I'm going to give myself the better part of the week to get oriented, try it out, and see how it goes. This whole trip should be flexible, so maybe I'll just rock an 11-6 sort of schedule. I doubt the roads are much better, but maybe I'll take an auto rikshaw. That's definitely a step up from the Mchinji bike taxi.
And speaking of work, that remains a bit up in the air. The long of the short of it is that I'm going to be working with a GLBT (more GBT to be accurate) health organization in some capacity, likely working on some data or something else in the background. The history of this trip is more or less the following:
1. The place I worked before going back to school does work with them.
2. I got reconnected with them through a circuitous route that involves a HMS professor who is on the board of the organization and also holds an appointment where I used to work.
3. He suggested this as a practicum for last summer; Malawi came up and I thought this might be a better Winter Session experience. January isn't monsoon season, for one.
4. I applied for some funding to do a needs assessment of HIV+ transgender persons whom this place serves. Got the funding.
5. Reconnected with folks I used to work with, four of whom are going to be in Mumbai for shorter periods of time to do some work there. It seems to make more sense to tag along with their programs, even if that means I don't know what exactly I'm going to be doing while I'm there. Like Tim says, we'll make it work.
I want to have something to show for three weeks somewhere (and have some ethical obligation to do so given that I'm traveling on someone else's dime), but I'm trying to go easy. I'm trying not to force anything, just show up and go with the flow. No expectations + lots of footwork = something good will happen.
In the meantime, I'm planning on chronicling here how it goes. I'll have internet at the apartment, so catch me on email, GChat or Skype. It might be the airport, but my phone doesn't seem able to get a signal here, so I'm not actually too hopeful that AT&T will pull through with their ridiculous ad campaign (think Washvienumbai) and get service in all those places. But let's see.
Sitting with a good cup of coffee, watching gentle snow fall (albeit on airport machinery), with free wireless in Austria isn't a bad way to kick off the new year.
Labels: airports, mumbai, transportation, travel
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