Packing for India
In general, the people of India love Americans and are so thrilled that you have decided to travel to the other side of the world just to see their culture. There is huge honor in that and what you pack can really limit or enhance that connection. It’s not only about the clothes you take, but the other items that will keep you comfortable inside and out in the hot, sticky Indian climate.

Part 1: Big Girl Pants
Dr. Phillips of the Ball State University Anthropology department sent the mass callout email for students who might be interested in doing an India summer field study. While I have the rapid delete thumb of my grandma and a bingo marker, this headline provoked me to scroll through the email.

Part 2: Anthropologie
If there is one thing I learned abroad, it’s nice to have a group of people very different from yourself. I am the only one in the group who has really ventured the world on my own and I feel very prepared emotionally and mentally to make this trip packed with fun, new adventures.

Part 3: The Cool Dad
Parents can have one of two reactions when their child drops a bomb on them: they can support them even if they are dumb beyond measure, or they can lose their marbles and still not change the situation.

Part 4: Upchuck and Away! 
That’s when it hit me- like a semi. As I was hurling my stomach into the toilet, I was trying to think of what unGodly object I had consumed in the meer 10 hours I had been there.

Part 5: Sari Not Sorry
As we were standing by the bath on the top of the temple, a monkey sprinted over our heads and dove a good 12 feet into the pool. I lost my mind. It was the single funniest thing I have seen all week. To make matters more gross, many Indian men were bathing in the pool below where the monkey filled water drained.

Part 6: Hide & Go Sikh
The purpose of sitting on the floors is that everyone is equal. There is no caste, class, or difference among the people once they enter the door. These people were still barefoot, had dropped their donations in some form, bathed in the koi pool, and were now going to partake in a meal at no expense with a room full of strangers.

Part 7: This Bazaar Life
The Taj Mahal was quite miraculous, but still not quite the giant wonder I had expected. However, we did end up seeing another giant wonder. Kevin Durant.

Part 8: Bindi Over Backwards
There are bad roommates and then there are roommates who wake you up to squealing pigs. Our new plan is that we are waking up the girls in the room next to us at 5:00 am to listen to the pigs with us in the bathrooms that have open windows.

Part 9: Naan Fiction
I told myself if I was going to do this, I was going to ham it up. And oh boy, did I ever. Nobody else had been using the stage to sing on (weird, right?). So I took the mic, and serenaded the crap out of the Indian men. By the time I was done, girls were hugging me all the way back to my seat and hi-fiving me.