Emmy in the Rice Paddy: First day in New Delhi, India!!!

My first day in India was absolutely wonderful, and filled with many things that I both expected and didn't expect. I had a lovely Jet Airways flight, where the flight attendants had beautiful yellow Indian coats! Anuj and Melissa (my two friends from college) and I didn't have any plans as to where to meet at the New Delhi airport. I was shocked when I deplaned, as there were so few people in the airport. However, by the time I made it to an escalator leading down to the customs lines there was a sea of black heads. I frantically looked for Anuj and Melissa as my escalator descended. No luck. So, I got in line! I had only waited in line for about 10 minutes when I spotted a very dazed looking pair...could it be?! Melissa and Anuj!!! I ran out of line with my big red backpack, and the three of us just embraced in a giant hug for a very long time. There were only men in the customs line (interestingly). I had an older man who was very kind and kept repeating "Welcome to India!"

After customs, we met Anuj's uncle (who'd come to pick us up) at the airpot. He was a very nice man, and he had the cutest little "Emily" sign written on a small piece of paper in case they couldn't find me. This meet-up was almost too easy...all of our flights were on time and they were within 5 minutes of each other. We then drove to Anuj's family's home. I was amazed at how uncrowded, uncrazy, and sort of gloomy the weather was. There were not people and cows everywhere (as I'd expected in my head), and the weather was cool and gray. I couldn't believe this was India! And that I was with Anuj and Melissa across the world! When our car finally pulled up to the apartment complex, it was SO cool to see the "Rastogi" sign on the door of his cousin's apartment... all the way in India! We drank some Indian beer, and met Anuj's cousin Shirien, his aunt, and their silly dog Misty. We also sat down to our first meal in India! (Interestingly, it was cooked by two young- maybe 12 or 13 year old) helpers in the family's kitchen). I'd seen on "Oprah" before I came here that having helpers is quite common in India haha. In the evening everyone went to a great market that was about an hour's drive away. This was where I had my first taste of real Indian traffic (there are no traffic lanes...aka two lanes becomes five lanes sometimes). At the market I was incredibly impressed by the craftsmanship there: there were intricately drawn Ganesh etching on palm leaf, amazing wooden and stone inlaid carved furniture...the art here was hands down better (not even comparable, really) to Thailand's. We walked and looked around, didn't buy anything (yet!) and headed to a chic area of New Delhi called "Hauz Khas" for dinner. I was amazed at how trendy and fashionable this area was! It was filled with cute boutiques and walk-up rooftop restaurants. We had an amazing dinner, before heading home to go to sleep. The next day was...

AGRA!!!!! (The Taj Mahal :))