Sam spends too much time wondering how many shirts to pack

I write to you, my dear friends and family, from my bed in Virginia, surrounded by heaps of papers, books, and clothing that will, in the next 48 hours, be placed firmly in the "going to Kolkata" pile or the "not going to Kolkata" pile. Two notable items already sorted are my new underwear and my small travel guitar. My father purchased the underwear for me. We went, initially, to look at the poly- fiber- nano- whosamawhatsit shirts, which sport odorless insect repellant and a $85 price tag. We settled, instead, on two paris of fancy-pants underwear. The advertising slogan for this amazing demonstration of modern technological know-how is; "6 weeks; 12 countries; 1 pair of underwear." (Incidentally, this is also the slogan for REI's jock itch cream). I bought the travel guitar in the hopes that it would be better than nothing for keeping up the ol' guitar chops. I was wrong.

In other words: I'm preparing to take off. I've started this little bloggeroni as an incentive for me to document my trip, in words and photos, and to keep all interested parties appeased. The intinerary, for those just joining us: I leave the US at 10PM on Monday, May 15th, and 22 hours and 9.5 time zones later, I arrive in Kolkata at 5:10AM on Wednesday, May 17th. I'll be living (I think) with a woman named Debarati, paying $150 a month for a room and a bathroom. Included in the very reasonable rent is daily breakfast.

"What kind of breakfast to the have in India?" some of you have asked me.

Subcontinental breakfast.

While in Kolkata, I'll be volunteering with an organization called Vikramshila, which is an NGO that provides primary education in the state of West Bengal. At some point, I'll leave Kolkata and go traveling, perhaps to Darjeeling in the north, but I don't know for sure. Finally, I'll be leaving from Kolkata to come back to the US on August 11th.

So, the next time I post, I'll be in Kolkata. I intend to update this blog regularly, I think, as soon as I can find the nearest computer cafe and what have you. Please: comment freely! It'll be good company.