I have arrived.

I expected being in India to be just as overwhelming as it was the first time. That is not the case. As I looked out the window of the plane as we circled over Mumbai, I felt the nerves dissipate to be replaced by excitement. When I stepped off the plane into the airport, the sights and smells seemed more familiar than frightening. I found myself smiling as I walked the corridors.

I fell easily into the pattern of getting stared at mercilessly while at the same time getting crazy perks. What could a white woman traveling alone possibly be bringing into the country? Go right past the long line at customs without so much as a glance at my passport much less my luggage. Nevermind the customs officer staring at me like he could eat me for dinner.

The only moment of butterflies I experienced was stepping out of the airport into a sea of unfamiliar faces. But my in-laws spotted me immediately and all was calm again. I was met with just as much happiness and smiles as the first time, even though I’d left their son at home.

One of my few fears going into this was that, depending on how well I handle being here, this could either be wonderful for my relationship with my in-laws…or it could destroy it. You see, I get quite a bit of performance anxiety, for lack of a better term. Expect me to keep a conversation going with someone I don’t know well (or even sometimes with someone I do) and there will inevitably be very long awkward silences. Expect me to say something in a language I am learning (or even one I know fairly well) and I will do my best impression of a deer caught in headlights. Take me out of my comfort zone and I will fight like hell to get back in it. So you see, I figured a lot could go wrong here.

What I didn’t take into account was how easy it is to please my mother-in-law. Just the fact that I came on my own seems to have made her very happy. She offered to speak only in English and Hindi while I am here, and to write things down in both languages so I would have something to refer back to. I asked her to teach me to speak in Gujarati also and I thought she was going to bust a gut she was smiling so big and giggling so much.

Thursday brought the first rain of the season. It poured terribly for about 30 minutes, and now it is down to a nice steady rain. The rain brought with it a noticeable drop in temperature. And by “noticeable drop” I mean that it went from being so hot I could only lie as still as possible in a dark room because anything more than that would possibly give me heat stroke, to I’m dripping with sweat but can move around the house without fear of passing out.

This is good since after today I will be expected to actually do something. I reached home at about 4am here (that’s 6:30pm on Wednesday for you east coasters). I’d been traveling for 29 hours, so I slept the day away. Now, though, the real adventure begins.