We've arrived! The flight was long, as I knew it would be. It wasn't too painful. I watched a few movies...a couple good ones, one bad one and one painful. There was a German film about some mountain climbers in the Alps in 1938. It was tragic and sad, but did the trick to transport me out of the airplane. We spent a total of 18 hours in the plane yesterday. I woke up this morning to many new animal sounds. I thought maybe it was monkeys but it was actually bright green parakeets playing in the cocanut trees outside the hotel window. We've spent the day driving around Chennai, going to some amazing temples. The first one was a Shiva temple called Kapaleeshwarar. Chandru had a man take us on a little tour and tell us about the temple. It was one of those Gopura style temples and it's 1500 years old. He told me about the holy Trinity here, describing it as G.O.D. Generator (Brahma), Organizer (Vishnu), Destructor (Shiva). Non-Hindus were not allowed inside the sanctorium, but I got to light a ghee candle outside it.

The man told me that because the 9 planets favored me, the opportunity for me to arrive at this place, at this time was made possible. I walked 9 circles around the 9 deities, representing the 9 planets. Somehow, the Hindu people knew long ago how many planets were in our solar system. He blessed us with ash of cow dung on our forehead to remind us of Shiva's destructive nature, and red Vermillion to cover the third eye. His version of the reason for this was a little funny...the red dot covers your third eye, making it impossible for someone to hypnotize you. Traditionally, the red vermillion dot represents fertility. So it will be seen on women who can bear children (not on widows--they wear black)...

We also visited a Goddess temple by the Bay of Bengal. It was a temple dedicated to Lakshmi who is the wife of Vishnu. We made an offering of flowers and were blessed again by a Brahman priest.

Now, we are in the house where Chandru grew up. We had an amazing lunch, prepared by his mother and served on a bananna leaf.

The sights and sounds of the city are incredible eye candy. The city is impossible to digest all at once. I can only take in corners of it at one time. From the car window, it is a cacophony of color and sound. I cannot believe the traffic here. There seems to be a special frequency that everyone tunes into and somehow it all works. People on foot, bikes, motorcycles, cars, vans, three wheeled carts....all going somewhere. Somehow everyone knows when to go, moving around eachother, taking turns. I am so thankful we have a driver. It's amazing and inspiring to be here. I feel like I'm beaming, plus I just ate two helpings of this amazing pudding with ghee and cardomum.