"One more photo Auntie, one photo..."

So I know that my last post had a definite note of finality to it but I realized I have to blog about my last day in Chennai and the journey home! Especially because my last day in Chennai was AWESOME and HILARIOUS!
My last night at Rising Star (as documented in the last post) was a late one. Between blogging, packing, playing in the rain, and everything else I didn’t get to sleep until 3:30am. We were scheduled to leave the next morning at 9 to go to Chennai so I had to get up around 7:30am to be able to have time to get everything organized and out the door. It’s crazy how settled in you can get even living out of a suitcase. After three weeks I had a serious organizing and packing task ahead of me. At around 9:30 we all finally headed to the bus and out the door. After Rajenderon (our driver) had loaded all of our luggage onto the bus, everyone just stood outside for a minute not getting on—no one really wanted it all to end. Finally, though, we said our good-byes to Kristin, Katie, and Dani and headed off to Chennai.

Once in Chennai we checked into the Marriot and dropped our bags off before heading to Spencers. Spencers is a huge, labyrinth of an indoor mall. It has tons of stores and passageways and tons of people milling everywhere. The group had yet to split up because the earliest flight didn’t leave until 6:00pm so we all went to the mall together. After shopping around for a little bit and eating lunch we slowly started loosing people. Heather and Raygan went in search of a bank before meeting the RSO bus again, then Eliza, Audrey and Matthew had to leave to catch their flight. Tenney separated from us to head back to the hotel so finally all that was left was Soren, Lauren, Anne Marie, and myself. We were all EXHAUSTED and therefore really punchy and delirious. We were laughing at everything from the out-landish Indian clothes that are sold in the mall to comments we would say or even just stupid facial expressions. It was one of those days where it was only funny if you were there. We all had tons of fun finishing up our shopping and roaming around the mall for the day. Before we left we all sat in the smoothie shop and laughed and ate and generally lived up to the stereotype of loud Americans. We also all got take-out food to eat back at the hotel room for dinner.

The most reliable means of transportation in India is rickshaws. Unlike the rickshaw I took in Delhi, most are little motorized cars that can barely seat four people if you really squish. After we were all done shopping and had all gotten food, we headed outside to catch a rickshaw. Everyone in India jacks up the price the minute they see Americans. The hotel had told us we shouldn’t pay more than Rs. 100 for a rickshaw to the hotel. Of course when he first saw us he tried to charge Rs. 250. With some bargaining and threatening to go to another rickshaw he conceded to 100 and we were off. Between all four of us, the driver, our food, and our shopping bags we were crammed in the rickshaw. By this time, though, we were beyond punchy and just being downright ridiculous. The driver put on tamil music and we would imitate the singer’s high voice and dance in the backseat. The driver thought we were hilarious and was laughing with a crazy maniacal laugh before we started mimicing the singing too!! Then we started doing all these crazy Indian neck dance moves and we just couldn’t take it anymore—we were all dying laughing. To make this all even better, motorized rickshaws are completely open-aired, they don’t even have doors. This fact combined with the large amount of people in India that ride motorcycle and the complete disregard of lanes when driving in India, means that we were putting on a show for everyone around. Whenever we would stop at a light there would be at least six people staring at our nonsense and laughing. That rickshaw ride was a great, fun moment to start winding down this trip with.

When we got back to the hotel room, we all crammed onto the bed, ate our pizza and just relaxed and continued giggling and laughing until it was time to head to the airport. At one point (while Anne Marie was being really good and going to the gym) Soren, Lauren and I decided it would be fun to have dessert in bed. We went to the lobby and bought some delicious looking pastries only to get back up to the room and have all of them taste disgusting. With the crazy, sleep-deprived mood we were still in, though, we thought this was hilarious and just added to the awesomeness of the day. It finally came time, though, to head to the airport. We said good-bye to Soren and the three girls headed on our way. Lauren and I parted ways with Anne Marie at the airport and we are now sitting in Frankfurt waiting for our next flight to Chicago. We will finally split up in Chicago and my Rising Star Adventure will officially be over…for now.

I have been missing the kids and Rising Star all day today and yesterday. I spent the flight (when I wasn’t sleeping) looking at all my pictures and videos and wondering what all the kiddos were up to. While we all shopped at Spencer’s we continually took phrases from the kids that we would hear all the time. These included saying, “Super!” with our hand motion and accent, calling each other Auntie and Uncle, asking each other for Boomers (“Auntie, boomer!”) and asking to take pictures and see them. It’s amazing what an impact these kids had on our lives just in the past two weeks. As I have said before, they are all amazing, special spirits that I love SO MUCH!

Well, that’s all for now!

Vannacom!