Geronimo!

And to my friends who I miss and love and who have expressed some concern and sympathy . . . 

I am having a very good time.  I am safe and healthy and enjoying an incredible cultural experience.  It is intense and frustrating and inconvenient at times but totally, totally worth it.

Another analogy.  SuperK rolls her eyes: "God, not another one of your analogies."

This is like being blindfolded and loaded onto a rickety airplane.  You bounce and bump for a while, the air blasting through an open doorway gets colder, and suddenly the blindfold is pulled off and you see you're thousands of feet above an empty plane.  Someone gesticulates wildly and jabbers in Hindi, showing you a ring on what appears to be a parachute on your back, poorly packed.  He mimics a pulling motion, puts the blindfold back in place, and shoves you roughly out the door.

Geronimo!!!