INDIA!

Greetings from India! For those of you who hadn't heard, Mandi and I recieved for Christmast this year the incredible gift of plane tickets to visit our sister on the other side of the world! So, after a good 28 hours of travelling (including a taxi ride during which I couldn't decide whether to giggle like a little girl on her first "high-speed" scooter ride, or fear that the last sight I would see in life would be the rapidly-approaching view of the back-end of an over-loaded semi-truck with the words "Use dipper at night" painted neatly on the back tailgate . . . let's just say, for all of you who were praying for our safe arrival, THANK YOU!), we're finally here.

I seriously don't understand what in the world the painted phrase meant, but it appeared on the back of almost every truck that we passed, along with "Please Horn." Before noticing the request, it took me a while to realize that all the honking going on in the craziness of the streets of Delhi wasn't out of road rage . . . to tell the truth, our taxi driver prefered not to honk, but to flip them off . . . and on, and off, and on again---speaking of his brights, of course :) I soon considered this the more thoughtful way to let trucks know that you were passing, because not only does it seem a bit less offensive (at least to us westerners), but it also is more considerate of the residents of the small villages that we passed through, where people were sleeping all over the place---in cots, in wagons, or just on the ground alongside the road.

All in all I was quite impressed with our taxi driver. He managed to get us from Delhi to our destination in the foothills of the Himalayas in just under 7 hours . . . and miraculously managed to avoid causing any roadside carnage along the way.

Mandi and I have taken the last couple days to tackle the jetlag, and we both think that by tomorrow morning, we'll be right in the swing of things, which is perfect, since it is Tami's day off. I'm hoping to be able to post some of the pictures I'm taking soon . . . I just haven't unpacked my chord yet, and it's getting kinda late over here. We'll try our best to keep you posted. But for now, if you think of it, please pray that we'll escape sickness while we're here. Our stay is not super long, and it would be a real bummer to be stuck in bed for any length of time throughout the trip, you know? Thanks a bunch, everyone!

Hey, in a bit over an hour, I'm going to beat you all to Monday! This is so cool . . .