I am going to blog so hard. There are a million thoughts in my head. Holy cow. (an expression which is entirely appropriate when talking about India.) I’ll try to keep it concise, but no guarantees.

On Tuesday afternoon, my flight took off from Cleveland. This morning at midnight:30, I arrived in Delhi. Here’s what happened in the middle:

• A wonderful layover in Boston. I got to meet up with my friend Catie whom I hadn’t seen in a while. Boston looks like this:

They have some great Italian restaurants. And cannoli. Boston! This might be my favorite American city I’ve never lived in.

• A nondescript layover in Frankfurt. Frankfurt, erm, airport looks like this:

• Consuming lots of media in the meantime. Noteworthy: Rang de Basanti. Indian films! They always throw me for about three loops! This one: haha, it’s the story of some college kids filming a thing, and there’s some historical context but they’re silly, until all of a sudden, bam, (ahem) stuff gets real.

And finally, yes, I am here, in Delhi Friggin’ India, sitting in my hotel. Oh yes, I am back in it, grotty cheap hotels (well, I let them upsell me from the $8 basic room to the $13 AC room; inflation happens), fake english (on trucks: “horn please; use dippers at night”), and genial extortion of a couple extra bucks here and there. (taxi driver: so you can pay the Rs600 ($12) taxi fee with the hotel later, but if you want to give a tip, for good service, or because it was so late at night, you can do that now [long pause]. me: You know, it is late and I am exuberant; here is Rs100. he: oh, just 100? but that is so small. In your country that is $2, that is nothing, people from your country have lots of money. me: [long pause] well that is just how it is.)

Dear Lord, Tao, Universal Consciousness: Thank you for my youth, because this is exciting!