It’s 10:40 PM when I arrive in Delhi. With a classmate from Toronto, we met two staff from the program, who put us in a pre-paid cab. Shades of tap-taps in Haiti; “lanes” on the highway seem meaningless, dust and hot air, people congregating randomly on the road sides.

The heat. This is how hot it is: the counter around my bedroom sink is marble. I accidentally touched my bare stomach to it, and it nearly burned. It felt warmed, like from hot bread. The sheets and pillows constantly feel as though they are dryer-fresh. I have two powerful fans in my room, and they cool sweat, which is nice, but I’m never really not warm. Today, actually, I feel better. Sweaty around my hair and under my skirt, but it’s tolerable.

But last night, we arrived late, and the dining room–with the fresh, clean water–was locked. I had no water. I was immediately thirsty. I slept two hours, woke up, and was terribly thirsty. I took a second bucket shower and washed my hair, careful not to let any water get in my mouth. I read one of my Detective Wexford mysteries to try and distract myself. So hot, dry, and thirsty.

I said a prayer of thanks for all the times in my life I’ve had endless supplies of fresh water: even to clean the floor, wash my hair, for recreation…all immediate and clean enough to drink.

And then I began to daydream about ice and water and crisp fountain sodas. At 4:00 AM here in Delhi, in a strange room on a hot bed, here is the thing I wanted most: a Quick Trip fountain soda container, filled to the brim with the crushed ice pellets. And an ice cold can of Diet Pepsi on the side, so I could pour it myself, and watch the bubbles and hear the crisp ice. Eat some ice off the top and then sip some cold soda. I was making myself crazy. I even weighed the cost of actually drinking shower water and getting terribly sick. Would it be worth it? If breakfast was open at 7:00 AM, surely after six o’clock there’d be someone there to open the hall. I kept reading, kept distracting myself, kept daydreaming.

At 6:30 AM, I went down: blissful water available. Filled up my water bottle, drank it all. Cold water! Filled it up again, drank again. And a third. Back to my room, got ready for breakfast. What a difference six servings of water makes.

Breakfast: first things first–hot tea. Oh, the warmth and civilization. Tea bags, hot water, sugar, and milk–either cold or hot. Making my tea, drinking my tea, smelling hot breakfast, and meeting people from around North America…I finally felt really good about being here. The heat didn’t bother me, I was excited about the day, hungry for good food and excited to hear what people were studying. It’s amazing–three bottles of fresh water and a small cup of good tea: I was unstoppable again.

For those of you willing to follow along, here’s what we had for breakfast:

A sweet cereal akin to Cream of Wheat, apparently made with butter, and with slivered almonds. I poured hot milk over mine, but people were also eating it just in kinds of chunks.

A curried rice with vegetables–spicy and delicious.

A banana.

Toast. For some reason, after the hot tea, fresh toast with butter and orange marmalade was about the most delicious and nourishing thing I had ever eaten. I was so thankful for that bread, butter, and marmalade.

This summer, I was blessed with the opportunity to study with the International School of Jain Studies in India. This is the first of a series of entries I wrote as I traveled.