We have finally arrived! Our plane landed about 12:20 a.m. India time, which is a little bit before noon in Nashville. It took forever to get our luggage, but when we walked outside we were greeted by this amazing group of folks from Baptist Church Hyderabad. We felt like royalty!

Each one of us were presented with these gorgeous floral wreaths that smell unbelievably delicious. They weigh a ton, though, and we have left a trail of rose petals behind us everywhere that we've gone.

After a non-too-terrifying van ride to the hotel (or am I just getting used to the way they drive in Asia?) we made it to our hotel. The accomodations are very, very nice, although the pictures may have looked a tiny bit overblown. :)

Here are a few of us, jet lagged and all, but none too worse for the wear. I really have to crash, but wanted to share just a quick story.

On the flight from Frankfurt to India, we realized that our switch to minority status had fully happened. We were just about the only white faces on this plane.

Once our plane got up to cruising altitude and the seat belt sign went off, I pushed the button to lean my seat back, just like you always do at that point in the flight. Well, apparently the man behind me didn't like that and he pushed me right back. I can honestly say that's the first time that has ever happened to me!

So we all crashed extraordinarily hard at the beginning of this journey leg. This was actually the first real sleep I had since leaving Nashville. So when I woke up after about four hours, my mouth was as dry as the Sahara and I had that fuzzy tongue thing going on. I reached for my bottle of water, which was mostly empty, thankfully. Somewhere on the way to my mouth, I hit the arm rest of my seat and the bottle flipped up in the air and upside down on the floor of the guy behind me. I swear I did not do this on purpose. I let out a little yelp and tried to grab for it, but couldn't get it.

I looked behind me, and the guy was sound asleep. I knew my water was spilling all over his foot area, though, and I'm completely panicked. It really started to feel like a scene out of a bad Steve Martin movie. I'm reaching my hand around between my seat and the wall, trying to get to the water bottle without touching his legs, because I know if he wakes up and finds the bottle he'll be able to figure out where it came from. I'm terrified that I'm crashing his laptop or something. I did manage to get the bottle, and as I was pulling my arm back he shifted his legs and brushed my arm, so I jerked it back really quickly. I have no idea if he realized my arm was back there or not, but hopefully he was in that state of semi-consciousness where it might have just seemed like a dream or something.

Anyway, I never knew if he realized that the floor beneath him was wet, because I couldn't understand anything he was saying. But I've learned my lesson about water bottles and planes.

I think.

Since I have to be up in a few hours, and I'm probably not making a whole lot of sense, I'm going to get some sleep. Hope all of you are having a wonderful Tuesday.

Namaste!