Expectations for Culture Shock Upon Arrival in Delhi

Looking forward to my arrival in Delhi in four days, I imagine I will be a bit shell-shocked the first day or two. Though I've been to Delhi a couple times before and will be heading straight to Majnu Ka Tilla, the Tibetan colony I once stayed in, I think my mind will be reeling as I attempt to adjust my expectations (which are based of foggy memories and highlighted imprints) to what I am actually experiencing. Some filmmakers do wonders capturing the beauty and detail of the world but they are always lacking the tactile and the periphery. Similarly, it takes a lot of effort for me to bring those essential details into my conceptions of The Way Things Will Be.

On the Privilege of Having the Opportunity to Travel

These thoughts might be better voiced at Thanksgiving but they've been a necessary part of my process preparing for this trip. Since I don't have definite plans of schooling, working, or volunteering, I've been trying to come up with ways to make sure I will feel justified in making this trip. So far, I plan on writing (hence this blog), drawing and other art, practicing my Mandarin and learning other languages, and reading a lot of books. I have also been thinking about what makes it possible for me to take a trip that few people can. So I find it necessary to outline as best I can what elements of my life have led me to a time and place in which I am capable, as so few people are, to spend five months traveling in Asia.

To begin with, I am a young white, college-educated American. I don't mean to say that belonging in such a category is necessary, but it sure helps. My parents have always encouraged me to do whatever suits my character and still continue to support me in many ways. The small, liberal arts college I attended in the Northwest (U.S.) sends about half of its students abroad, creating a campus culture in which the idea of studying abroad is hard to avoid and students can all find a program that will cost them no more than their school costs for that same time period.

At college, I was also lucky enough to have a good friend who studied Mandarin and had spent a gap year during high school in India. Hearing his stories and having been raised to feel capable of tackling most anything, it was easy to believe that traveling for long periods of time in places as foreign as Asia had seemed was actually possible.

As did half my classmates, I went abroad two years ago to the School of International Training's semester-long Tibetan Studies Program in Northern India and Bhutan. Including a summer intensive Mandarin course in Taizhong, Taiwan and some travel in between, I was abroad visiting eight countries in nine months.

Thus is my luck of the draw...