A Big Wide World to See...

So the real reason I'm working retail, AGAIN, is because I'm planning a very lengthy, wonderful trip to India in March. Traveling is a very large passion of mine and once I've been to India, I'll have been to 12 different countries and four different continents. The list in order of visitation:
Australia, Mexico, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Wales, Spain, Turkey, Germany and very, very soon, India. In future posts, I will list some of the fun and funny experiences I've had while abroad. :)
But let's talk about India; I am going because while in Wales getting the prized Master's degree, I roomed with a fabulous and wonderful Indian woman whose job at home is organizing and taking groups of foreigners around India. We also roomed with a couple of German girls, as well as the required Welsh girls, and towards the end of our time in rainy Wales, we decided we needed to do a reunion trip and India was all of our first pick. So Manjiri put together a fantastic trip, 21 days worth, that will span a good chunk of the country and includes riding a camel, a house boat, and an elephant... to go and see the tigers. Oh yea.
But prepping for India has not been so peachy. Upon returning from Wales, I discovered I was more financially screwed than I'd thought and since the country is still in a recession, I was forced to once again return to the bookstore. I have to say it is a gift from God that they have been willing to take me back- 3 times total over the years. But retail is one of those jobs that makes you HATE your fell human beings- enough that you plot their murders, consider chucking books at them and gleefully imagine giving their children a large latte and a free puppy (thank you REI for the idea). When I first took the job again I thought, "sure, okay, I can do anything for six months. Six months, that's not a lot of time really!" Except now that I'm 3 1/2 months into that said six months, I'm thinking, "no, no I CAN NOT do this for six months, not without losing my soul forever." It is that bad. Seriously.
But the up side is that I also have a job at a school in the after school daycare program and THAT is fun. Quite fun. I love my kids and if it would just pay a little better, I would be more than willing to just do that- but I still need both paychecks and I will continue to still need both paychecks. Blah. India, India, India...
The other wonderful part of going to India was the shots. Now I avoid needles like the plague, as I'm sure most of us do- they scare the crap out of me. But to appease my father, who's a rather large worry wart (his whole family is- as well as narcassistic, which we'll get into later) I went to the travel clinic to get a run down. Nothing is required to travel to India, which is a plus, but somethings are heavily reccommended. So the nurse, who's terribly nice, runs through everything with me, telling me not to drink the water (duh) and to watch the mosquitos (duh) and to watch the sun (No duh- I am as white as the abominal snowman) and then she tells me which shots she thinks I should get; they sound impressive enough so I ask where she's gonna stick me (cause if it's the underside of my arm, screw that) and since it's the upper part of my arm, I'm nervous but I agree. She gets them ready, I'm trying not to freak out, she sticks me once then twice and I prep my other arm for the last one, the big one, and she sticks me and all of a sudden my head is spinning and I tell her I'm really dizzy... and the next thing I know she's holding some foul smelling thing under my nose and I'm jerking awake; I've passed out. I've never passed out before. My fingers are tingly, my feet are tingly, she's propping me up with her shoulder and I feel like I'm going to be sick which is very unusual as I have the stomach of steel. I really really need to lie down so she takes me to another room and I spent 45 minutes in absolutely excruciating pain- I mean, holy cow, let me die now please. I had to call my mom, moaning out a few unintelligable sentences before the nurse took the phone and told her what was going on, and get her to call work because there was no way I was going to be there on time.
So yes, I've put a lot of effort into this trip- and it's the only thing keeping me sane at the moment. God willing, something else will come along here soon so that when I get back from India, and have nothing exciting to look forward to, I won't kill the crazy customers at the bookstore.
All right, enough moaning from me for one night. Peace out peeps.