Last day in India

This day, Wednesday, June 20., is my last day in India on this trip. Tonight I need to be at the airport at 11pm. Flight is at 1.10am. I have been in Hyderabad since Saturday night. On Sunday I spent time at a friend’s laptop, reading and sending lots of emails. I did a little bit of shopping also, last minute souvenirs. In the evening we went to Mocha, which has always been the traditional Sunday night hangout. Magda was in a conference in Kerala for the weekend so I could borrow her scooter to go there. It is fun to drive in Hyderabad, especially in the evening when there is less traffic.

On Monday I went to the office where I used to work to ask for a receipt of my salaries for the Finnish tax officials. I also went to Koti bazaar and got myself a fake Adidas sports bag to put some stuff in. Even after buying this new bag I still had to go to the post office to send a 9kg parcel to Finland. Yesterday night we had a farewell dinner at Angeethi, a nice North Indian restaurant on road number 1, opposite to Fusion9 and upstairs to Barista, in the Reliance building. Today I will go buy a couple of DVD’s for German trainees who were here last year and who made a small appearance in these movies. So I have to go to the post office again, but it won’t be too much of a trouble.

I am happy about going home. In the last couple of months I got very used to being a traveler and I will probably miss that lifestyle when I get back to the chores of normal life back in Finland. On the other hand I was homesick at times too. I missed sauna, chocolate, coffee, my family and friends and our beautiful summer cottage.

I will spend Midsummer at home with my family. The weekend after that is Saimaa Summer, a traditional summer event organized by one AIESEC committee in Finland. The weekend after that I will throw a house warming party in my new small flat in Kortepohja, building D. I will be back working in my old job starting from July 3. The Finnish summer is there, my friends are there, my bicycle and badminton racket and everything are there. And I will stay for a while now in Finland itself only.

It was a truly wonderful year that I spent here in India. I learned and experienced so much that I can really call this an eye-opener for me, a very educating and enlightening journey. I met tons of people on the way and that is the one thing you don’t get if you only sit at home in your familiar comfort zone. I met people with opinions, life experiences, expectations, dreams, strengths and weaknesses totally different from mine. That is the truly educating experience you get when you are abroad. The people I met here were practically without exception open-minded, brave, positive, social and adventurous. I loved spending time with them and I hope I managed to give also them something in return. I made some very good friends here and I want to see them later too, sooner or later.

I will write the last posts to this blog once I get back to Finland. I want to write about my experiences after coming back, if it really is the kind of a shock I have heard others talk about. This is it for now. I need to run out to do a few more things today and then spend some time here in the flat with these wonderful people. Then it is chalo Finland!