The day I didn't get any sleep...

I've been really blessed with a lot of advice.  Really, it's astonishing how many people have actually been to India that I know, so already India has helped me.  It's opened up conversations with people that in turn tell a lot about themselves.  Keeping that  in mind, I've compiled a list of things that have been heavily advised, and this is what I actually remembered to get and what I'm working with:

100+ promised readers
3 or 4 actual readers (hi mom!)
A vague idea of where I'm going
A spice tolerance on par with applesauce
A suitcase that is 90% bug spray (with an ingredient list that CANNOT be safe, not that FDA approval is an issue in Pune) and toilet paper (apparently they use something other than paper...)
Clothing that would make a nun feel like a slattern next to me
brownie mix (duh)
a growing sense of disbelief that I'm going
Malaria pills that may be more dangerous than the disease itself
and
the knowledge that I'm really going to miss my friends and family (despite my current wanderlust)

So tomorrow it's off to MUMBAI (with a quick layover in Newark, NJ, which is kind of appropriate, like a warm up for lack of sanitation) and then on to Pune for 3.5ish months.  Well I certainly hope I like it!