I have been travelling in different villages of Rajasthan in India since February. I was occupied with a story of a kid who was working towards his dream while struggling for all kinds of basic amenities. He kept telling me every day while I documented his story that I should not worry about my housing in Washington, DC. He had more faith in me than I had in myself. In the month of May during a hot afternoon, I was waiting for my bus to go to Jaipur City. I was trying to find a signal on my phone to make a call to my friends who were supposed to join me there. I climbed up to the roof of the bus and the very next moment, I got an email. It was from ISH-DC and I could feel my heart rate racing as the mail was taking too much time to load due to the slow speed of the internet. These kinds of emails are not necessary to be fully read because two words are enough and they are either ‘congratulations’ or I ‘regret’ to inform. Luckily, for me it was “congratulations”.
I missed that bus as I wanted to take my own time to get back to the reality that I have made it to International Student House. I really wanted to stay at ISH-DC ever since I was admitted to GW Law and I had gathered various positive reviews from my seniors from India about it. I am the kind of person who prefers living within a community rather than renting a separate apartment and ISH-DC was a perfect stay for me. Since my childhood, I travelled to different places around India as my father had a transferable job. It helped me settle in quickly among a diverse group of people coming from different regions and cultures. I am already excited and looking forward to meeting other housemates who will be from different parts of the world. In addition, I also felt safer about going to DC once I got the acceptance from ISH-DC as it gave me that sense of security of living with a community without worrying about anything.
I am already reading and doing research about Washington, DC to prepare myself in advance so that I don’t miss out on anything. I have been fascinated by the information on Capital Bikeshare, Free Museums, DC’s Green Side and the walk on pedestrian. Washington is known as a pedestrian’s dream, and walking by far will be the best way to see the city for me. I will look forward to exploring the city with friends from both ISH and GW Law.
The past few months have passed by so quickly that now I’m left with only two weeks before I land in Washington DC. It’s a mixed feeling where I am both excited and nervous to leave India and move to a distant country. I am avoiding these thoughts by having dinner and movie plans with friends and relatives almost every day. These goodbyes would have been incomplete if I wouldn’t have had dinner with my friends and well wishers from law school one last time. Hence, I travelled all the way from Delhi to Bangalore to meet them and share the happiness before I leave for Washington, DC.
Goodbye meal with my friends in Bangalore
This will be the first time that I will be missing all the festivities of India for a year. Due to the same, I am looking forward to celebrating festivities in DC especially Diwali and Christmas. I also look forward to catching up movies with housemates every Thursday and other days, in cinemas, in the city and meeting guests from different embassies at the House.
During this one year, I want to keep writing about my experiences and capturing them in still and moving images to embrace these memories for a long time/forever. I am hoping and looking forward to meet you all at International Student House.
