Jinny's Wild Asian Odyssey

I hadn't ever been on a plane before, let alone a train or a bus. I'd only seen those on TV.

I wasn't sure what to expect from my mom's trip with the company, but I had been looking forward to it for so long. I was literally bouncing in my seat, waiting for her to finish getting ready as she told me to be patient.

She walked out of the bedroom and smiled at me proudly.

"So, I have a surprise for you..." she said, pausing to scour the room with her eyes before quickly spotting what she was looking for and walking over to her suitcase. She pulled out a large box and placed it on the floor in front of me. "Go ahead and open it."

I tore into the package eagerly, pulling away the wrapping paper and seeing a brown leather-bound book inside. The cover read "Notes from Across the World," and there was an envelope sticking out from inside it.

"This is so exciting!" I exclaimed, grabbing the envelope from its place between two pages within the book and tearing it open. A folded note fell into my hands:

As I read the words, a smile slowly crept onto my face. My mom had been planning this for months! This was going to be so amazing! We were going to eat samosas, see temples, ride elephants... just imagine all these things that I would never get to see otherwise! It was going to be so much fun!

My mom gave me a funny look as I expressed my excitement while still trying to read her message. "Is that everything?" She asked after a few moments of silence. "You didn't forget anything else?"

"Uh..." I looked up at her questioningly, still smiling widely. "What do you mean?"

"You look like you're planning your next adventure already," she laughed, walking closer to where I sat on the couch. "That's great! But did you read everything? Did you see what it said about taking money?"

She pointed towards the last paragraph on the page, which only now caught my attention:

After reading that part of the note again, panic settled in my stomach as memories of all those travel shows about pickpockets started flooding back into my mind. Would there really be people who try to steal money from other people? What if someone tries to steal from me? What if they steal ALL of my money and then I can't buy food? What if they find out that I don't have any money because they stole from me and then they rob me or something?

I tried really hard not to show how scared then suddenly felt as I looked up at my mom with wide eyes and a slightly quivering voice: "But... but what am I supposed to spend money on? Food?"

My mom sighed and crouched down in front of me so we were at eye level: "Jinny... Listen carefully." Her face grew serious as she spoke: "You don't need money to eat in India." She continued after letting that settle into my mind for a moment. "There are two options: You can either bring some cash with you - which is probably not going to be necessary - or you can go hungry for a couple days until we get home." She added quickly when she saw how terrified I looked at that prospect: "You're gonna love it here Jinny; trust me." She assured me happily, standing back up again. "Now go pack your bag; we gotta go soon."