Antici……pation

Weeks Four and Five definitely saw things turn around. I’d be lying if I said the rough patches were behind me, but sometimes having something to look forward to helps turn things around.

The first part of week 4 was hard. Really hard. I felt I had hit a breaking point, and genuinely felt like there was no end in sight. However, it’s darkest before the dawn, as they say. Toward the end of the week I ended up getting amazing news. Originally they had told us that we were going to have to stay another week longer and that extra week was going to be in Chennai–for the agents this meant another week away from their families, and for me it meant another week alone, away from family and friends. Then it ended up that we didn’t need to be extended and I was going to be going home exactly when planned.

Then the next day I got even better news. My friends knew what a difficult time I was having in Chennai and since my birthday was coming up, they wanted to help me out. They called me and told me they had gotten someone to cover one of my shifts so I could take a long weekend and visit a new city with them. While the news of being able to actually get out and travel was exciting, the biggest gift in all of this was the lengths they went to to help me. Not gonna lie, I cried when they told me.

So began the planning of my birthday weekend–originally I wanted to go to the Taj Mahal, but quite frankly it was too much traveling for a weekend trip. Mumbai was brought up, but it would be almost as much travel time. Through some of my research I stumbled upon Mysore. It has a lot of the things I love–history, amazing buildings, markets, zoos….

I decided on Mysore for the weekend and there ended up being 4 of us who went. Since it was a pretty quick turn around time we had to limit what we wanted to do, so we narrowed it down to the Mysore Palace, the Mysore Zoo, Devaraja Markets and the Mysore mall.

I’d say the palace was my favorite, with the zoo being a close second. Honestly, it was just amazing to walk around and see something new. Mysore is apparently one of the cleanest cities in India, and you could tell. Everything was so green. It was cooler there and it rained just enough to keep the temperature down but not too much to keep us indoors.

I was bummed we missed the lighting of the Mysore Palace. At night they light everything up and apparently it looks really neat. However, it’s only lit up for about 15 minutes and we missed it by about a half hour. We still went to the palace at night and just walked around which was nice. Again, the weather was actually quite tolerable so it was just fun being out and about.

I will say that the Mysore Palace is just as beautiful during the day as I’m sure it is at night. There were parts of the palace that were unbelievable. I found myself constantly thinking, “what it would be like to have actually lived here.” It’s everything I’d imagine an Indian palace to be–beautiful tile work, intricate inlays, bright colors that somehow haven’t faded in the bright sun…overall gorgeous.

The zoo was also really fun! I think my favorite animal was the albino peacock. A few elephants and monkeys, animals all native to India. The zoo was incredibly clean and frequently had signs regarding it being a plastic-free zoo. Other signs were a little less…serious, though. Educational and entertaining!

Devaraja Markets was a little disappointing. It was more of a market for locals, with a lot of fruits, vegetables, and grains. We went to the mall which was small but nice. I ended up buying my first sari which was exciting. My final week in Bangalore will be spent buying many more things, I’m sure.

Regardless of the palace, the zoo, the shopping, really at the end of the day the thing I enjoyed the most was just being with good people. I felt cared about. I felt loved. I laughed more and harder than I had in weeks, and I (mostly) forgot about my recent struggles. I didn’t worry about work. I didn’t worry about much. I walked in the rain without worrying about getting wet. I got some sun. We drove with the windows down, blasting music while driving through a foreign countryside. I saw street cows. Street dogs. Street monkeys. I saw trees, and hills, and forests. Plantations and street vendors. I experienced exactly what I needed to. I felt a weight lifted off of my soul. It was only a weekend, but it did so much for me.

I had some wonderful birthday wishes from family and friends, old and new. My amazingly beautiful teammates got me a delicious birthday cake (Irish coffee!) on my first day back. Overall, it was a better birthday than I expected. Based on my first month here I was fearful I would be miserable and alone. But it’s amazing how life works out and gives you exactly what you need.