On the night of Obama’s inauguration, I paced the dirt paths between rice fields on my cell phone as my Dad held me up to the TV. The server in Hampi went down an hour before the inauguration therefore no internet or satellite TV. Hearing the cheers over the phone as Obama took the stage was exhilarating…until my SIM card ran out and I lost the call. My new travel BFF Marci and have resorted to always allowing one frustration a day while in India. I had to shrug this off as my inevitable exasperation for the day.
The following day the internet was still down to check my train reservation status so I packed up and said my goodbyes, took the boat across the river and the bus to the town with the train station. There, I found out that I was still waitlisted…there went that frustration for the day. As always, the day improved. On the bouncy bus ride back to Hampi, Marci and I proudly read the transcript of Obama’s speech amongst giggling school children in uniform. I realized I wasn’t ready to leave Hampi afterall.
