18 Days Left!!!!

I’ll come back to India once I am done with dental school to see family for probably 10 days.

So far my trip has been a mixed bag. The day I arrived I started get weird symptoms of fatigue and massive headaches. Turns out that was just dehydration, which is something I have never experienced to this severity. In the states I rarely sweat unless I am working out, so just sweating balls just sitting on the couch is new to me. Also my family has adjusted better than me so this raised even more concerns as I was the only one going through this dehydration. Thus I have been needing to drink 2x the water and have had to supplement with electrolytes constantly otherwise I just get fat headaches. I wake up every morning dehydrated which sucks.

Also, the constant noise, crowds, and lack of personal space are starting to overwhelm me. In the beginning, with the dehydration and the heat, I was feeling completely overstimulated and it was a lot to handle. But I'm slowly adjusting and getting better day by day. Looking forward to leave this country and go back to the US.

Since it's monsoon season, it has been raining on and off 24/7 and will continue to do so for the entire summer. I haven't seen the sun since I left Dubai, which has probably been affecting my mood and energy levels. The rain just comes out of nowhere, and it's still 86 degrees. The constant rain and humidity make everything feel damp and sticky. So I stay indoors unless we go out to a mall or go out to go shopping, because if I stay outside for too long I start sweating balls and that leads to more dehydration.

One thing that I've had to be careful about during my trip is what I eat and drink. Unfortunately, I can't risk eating street food or drinking any of the street drinks because of the risk of food poisoning, as that has happened in the past. Additionally, I have to be cautious about speaking to vendors, as once they hear my accent they will raise the prices. Also I cannot speak Hindi that well so communicating along with my thick American accent makes it difficult.

People from India just have a different definition of fun and what they enjoy doing. The culture is completely different than the US. Most people here play cricket and soccer, while in the US I play basketball and golf. Esports and video games are not prevalent here at all at least from my experience also no one I know really listens to hip hop (there is Indian hip hop but it isn’t that big compared to Bollywood or American pop music, K-pop is still huge here tho) or goes to concerts like that, because it just doesn’t exist. As now I am older and have solidified my identity in the US, visiting India makes me feel distant and alienated as this is not my country, and will never be.

Also everyone here is a savage and you have to fight to get what you want. Lines don’t exist here, nor do traffic lanes. My aggression and anger in India always go way up because I always have to be on the lookout for any suspicious people and my guard is always up. There is no order as there  is in the states. Its super muddy and dirty everywhere and pollution is so bad that is gets hard to breathe outside especially with the humidity. I have seen so many dead rats, all the street dogs look ugly af and disgusting, and every middle age man has a pot-belly no cap.

I am grateful for my family here who is doing there best taking care of me and trying their best to give me the best experience. They have been super accommodating and have always made sure I am doing okay with my health, physical condition, and food. I have eaten some good food and have seen some cool places. It also has been great reconnecting with cousins and my grandma who I haven’t seen in couple of months.

The thing that makes me the most sad is the fact that once I come back I have 3 weeks, and within those 3 weeks I need to move to Philly. Everything happened so abruptly that I have to rush goodbyes back in the states as well as balancing moving to a city I have never seen before. I wish I wasn’t here for this long so I could spend more time with my friends and utilize the life I set up in Cerritos over the past year one last time. I am excited for Philly but once dental school starts, it really starts, being 9-5 everyday and I have already received emails from my profs telling me I should start reviewing and studying for some of the classes now, two months before school starts!!!

Honestly I wish all my family in India just moved to the US so I wouldn’t have to comeback here, but as much as I love the US they love India and have established their lives here. Thus I will comeback to visit them but for a week to 10 days max in the future and I will do it on my own terms.

Thanks for reading, let’s grow together :)