My first day

30 hours later I got off the plane and rammed into hundreds of people and screaming babies filling out cards for swine flu. The leaky crumbling airport was so simple I was shocked when I saw a woman, Esha, holding my name because it meant I must have went through customs without knowing it.

The car ride didn't click. It just looked like one of the many youtube videos I watched in preperation: no lanes-cars/people/cows/rickshaws weaving through the streets, mountains of garbage with similar looking wild dogs and people looking through them, huge billboards advertising Samsung cell phones and a naked boy beneath them. FOR REALSIES PEOPLE.

I was very distracted from the window because Esha kept asking me what my background in biochemistry was, how was I selected for this program, was I familiar with genetics processing? I couldn't tell if it was shop talk or hazing.

We go straight to the institute, which shockingly is also falling apart. In the labs I learned they reuse everything. Pipette tips, broken beakers, kim wipes are toilet paper. No gloves are used and there is no hazardous waste receptacle, everything is just autoclaved. Eew. "Just wash your hands a lot so you won't get Cholera. We're already immune." Super.

After I met everyone (so nice) and saw the institute they handed me a stack of literature to read. The words were swimming and I used all my concentration not to fall asleep. Michael and I insisted on having Indian food for lunch and we were accompanied to a restaurant and had delicious Bengali food, Naan and chicken masala. OMG itwas so fucking delicious. I have never been so full.

They took us to our tempoary guest room and we passed out (4pm). 2 HOURS LATER another lab director knocked on our door to take us to dinner. No. Go Away. What, really?

We get into a van and see Kolkata at twilight. The birds and barking dogs sound like a jungle. A man sillougheted under some propped up fabric stirring a pot. Children running around in so much garbage. But laughing. The director was playing "country road, take us home, to a place, where I belong, West Virgina..." We just had to laugh. I will never think of that song the same way again.

We get to a modern mall and he takes ust o Pizza Hut. I'm too weak (and still so full) to argue about authenticity and ate the damn pizza and went "home" to bed. (guest room again).

Day 1, still not sick!

Where the fuck am I?