I’ve got a lot of updates for all of you. I know most of you have been following facebook since “Neptune” day, but a lot has gone on on the ship. First of all, India was perfect. Everything went so well. We did end up missing our flight on Sunday, but it gave us a day to explore Chennai and we still got out by Sunday night. We arrived in Delhi after midnight and Rajan had a driver to take us to his apartment. Namrata was in Jaipur for the night, so we stayed up with Rajan for a little while and gave him his gifts. Catherine and I had brought both of them Semester at Sea shirts, and Joellen and Gavin had Maple syrup from New York, plus Saratoga racetrack gear for them. We fell asleep around 2, and had to get up at 6:30 the next morning for our drive to Agra. Manoche, my driver from last year, was our driver again! My mom and I loved Manoche, and I had fun catching up with him while the C, J, and G slept in the back. Monday was just a seriously perfect day. We met up with Salim, the same hotel manager as last time, and dropped off our stuff. Then we saw the red fort and had an amazing Indian lunch. Afterwards, we held snakes (one of Catherine’s fears conquered), and made our way to the Taj. The Taj Mahal was sooo beautiful. I love it so much. We took a ton of pictures and our guide really made it 20x’s better. Catherine and I had our first motorcycle ride back to the hotel, and then Salim took us to see his sisters! I was so excited to see them. Joellen and I had brought a semester at sea shirt for each of them to have. I brought pictures of us together, and we stayed with the family for a while. They did henna on us, and we listened to one of the little girls in the family sing us English songs. It was so cool to be back there with them and see my “friend” two years later.

We left for Jaipur the next morning, where we toured forts and did LOTS of shopping. Catherine and I got our outfits for the ball. The theme is International Royal Masquerade, and we’re going as Jasmines. Matt and Gavin got pants and will be going as Aladdins.

We spent our third and fourth day in Delhi with Rajan and Namrata, and visiting a slum.

Overall India was so fabulous and everything I expected. Catherine, Gavin, Joellen and I were a great traveling group and had lots of fun pictures and videos together. We were also able to use a lot of your stickers, so thanks so much!

Sorry India blog is so short, things have been crazy here and I’m trying to get done as much as possible before Singapore in a couple of hours.

Ok-now most of you are avid facebookers and have already posted a bazillion comments, but for you dinosaurs out there, if you haven’t heard, I donated all of my hair along with like a hundred other SASers to Locks of Love. And when I say all, I mean ALL of it. I look totally different, but I love it! Thank you so much for all of the amazing comments you guys have posted on my fbook pic and wall…a couple people have forwarded them on to me through email and it’s been really cool to see how much love I’ve gotten from family, friends and even strangers! Friends on the ship have given me girly clothes and jewelry and scarves to borrow, and I’ve had so much fun dressing up every day with my new style. Definitely no regrets, although I have heard of some girls being super upset by their new do’s.

On to Japan…

Unfortunately, due to the devastating tsunami that took place earlier this week, Japan has been taken off our itinerary. We are all sad that we will not be able to visit our last country, but our hearts go out to all those affected by this tragedy. We will be going to another country, but there is no official word of where it will be. So far, ISE is saying that the decision will be made between South Korea, Taiwan or the Philippines. Not sure if I have a preference, so we’ll just have to go with the flow I guess.

Ok that’s it for now, pictures will be up soon hopefully. Only a little more than a month left….wierd.