First India Post!

First off, sorry for the delay in writing this first post.  We've only been here one week, but it's been hectic and crazy (in a good way).  We arrived in Mumbai last Monday, and as the plane descended we could see all of the slums surrounding the airport.  It was a really incredible way to enter the country, and we were both pretty astonished to find out that it is the largest slum in India.  (I think 8 million people live there.)  Despite the horror stories we heard about trying to leave the airport and get a taxi to our hotel, everything went rather smoothly.  Our cab driver wasn't a talker, and Nathan and I were both too stunned by the freeway and the sights along it to carry on typical post-flight chatter.  Cars, auto-rickshaws, mopeds and cows crowd the highway, each vehicle blaring it's horn to warn the one in front of it that it's coming up behind.  The slums along the edges are such a sight too, it's just one ramshackle hut after another, and they go on and on and on but everyone seems so industrious.  Everyone is doing something--embroidering shirts, sewing soft shoes, selling goods, or more likely, picking up trash and carrying tons of it in bags on their heads.  (We figure the reason that so many people here have great posture is that they carry loads of things on their heads--we saw men leaving the train station with giant baskets of flowers on their heads one early morning, and the women selling saris on the beach typically carry them that way too.)

After a bit of miscommunication with our driver and the fact that street names are hard to come by, we got a bit lost but ultimately made it to our hotel in the Fort area of Mumbai which is near the giant Victoria Terminus central train station (where we departed for Goa two days later).  Fort is a very commercial area, and so after sleeping off our jet lag, the next day (our only full one in Mumbai) we walked through the wide streets and beautiful old colonial buildings (including the university) down to Colaba, the southernmost part of Mumbai.  We saw the few sights there are to be seen there (the Gateway to India port, the Taj Mahal hotel that was attacked last year) and then headed to a lackluster lunch.  Later we wandered up to Chowpatty Beach, where I thought the stench of trash was rather unbearable and we didn't stay long before heading to a really nice dinner near our hotel. 

We left early the next morning for Goa, so we didn't get to experience too much of Mumbai.  There are a million things more I want to write about it, but I'm already feeling foggy and the internet cafe is closing in a few minutes, so I will just tell you my favorite thing about India so far--the head bobble.  Nathan's friend Gabe introduced us to this concept, but it's really awesome to see it in real life.  When the people here are telling you "yes" or that "something is fine" or "thank you" or "your welcome" they don't often say those words (although they all speak English VERY well), instead they do this loose-neck head bobble while staring at you.  I had to stifle a laugh the first few times because it's pretty adorable, but now I look forward to getting that gesture.  The only problem is that whenever we try to tell a salesperson NO (which happens quite often), Nathan and I tend  to shake our heads in the negative, which is then confusing to them since it means the opposite.

OK gotta run.  I promise another update soon!

And if you're worried (parents!), we're both doing fine, sleeping plenty and eating healthy.