Six Weeks Down

6/24/11

Today is six weeks since I arrived in Bangalore. What a whirlwind six weeks! I officially have only two weeks left in the Department. I’m trying to finish up this Alcoholism study manuscript; I need to add to the qualitative data results section and rewrite the discussions and conclusion sections. It shouldn’t take me longer than a few more days. Dr. Avita asked me to meet with her to talk about some data she would like analyzed. The two following days she was not here; she ended up spraining her knee. It’s now Friday and I wouldn’t be surprised if we just waited until next week to discuss the project. Hopefully I have enough time to help her with it.

One of my goals while being here has been to continue my job search for when I get back home. Come August 6^th, I will desperately need a job! Those student loans aren’t going to just disappear. I interviewed back in early May for a clinical trial study coordinator position at a research center near Clearwater and yesterday I received an email from the guy I interviewed with. He said some coordinator positions opened up and asked if I was still interested in working there. I guess this counts as an informal job offer, no? I don’t want to speak too soon. I’m meeting with him as soon as I’m back in town to discuss specifics and learn more about this opportunity. In addition, I had an interview with the company I currently work for a couple weeks ago over Skype. It went well, I think, but it’s just so hard to tell when it’s over the phone and not in person! That’s a huge disadvantage I had going into that interview. The woman I interviewed with told me to get in touch with her when I get back, so we’ll see what happens. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Although the work week was only 4 days long for me (due to my vacation day Monday), it feels like this week dragged on forever. I’ve had a ton of work to do and by the end of the day my eyes burn from staring at the computer screen. After work I usually work on my special project for another few hours. My advisor wants the draft by next Friday..as in, ONE WEEK from today! Next week I’ll have to crack down big time….not looking forward to it, but I’m so close to graduation..just have to stay focused on the prize….

I’m leaving for Munnar tonight with Vanita, Corinne, and Marissa. Munnar is only a 5 hour drive due east of Cochin, where I was last weekend. It’s in the state of Kerala. So excited to go because it’s supposed to be absolutely gorgeous with big rolling fields of green tea plantations. One of Rohini’s and Steve’s cousins has some properties there and is letting us stay in one of the houses. From the website it looks very nice: www.pulimoottilestate.com. We are hiring a driver (car) for the weekend because the place we’re staying is about 10km from the bus stand. We’ll have him the whole weekend so hopefully we’ll do lots of sightseeing. I want to get up to the top of the highest cliff and overlook the plantations! The only problem with the weekend is that we are taking a bus, and it’s only a semi-sleeper on the way there and just a seater on the way back!! It’s a 14 hour journey…sighhhh. I’ll bring my laptop and ipod, as I’m sure I won’t get that much sleep.

Anyway, wish us luck on our journey and I’ll post pictures early next week! TGIF!!!

Cochin Trip (Kerala) 6/18-6/20

Rohini's parents' backyard, overlooking the river

Lounging on the houseboat...

This houseboat is much bigger than the one just the two of us took. They have such cool architecture!

Rohini driving the houseboat!

The houseboat we traveled the backwaters with is in the background

Coconut water, straight from the coconut. Not my favorite, but I had to at least try it!

With some flowers at the Gateway Hotel

This weekend I took a trip to Cochin (also called Kochi). It’s barely a 1.5 hour flight south of Bangalore, and on the west coast. Kochi is in the state of Kerala. I waited at the wrong bus stop for half an hour before moving to the correct bus stop, where I waited an additional hour for the number 7 bus to come. This is the only one that goes to the airport without having to switch buses. It’s nice too, and air conditioned. The flight was on time and Rohini was there to greet me in the airport when I arrived. Rohini is a classmate from USF who is also doing her MPH. She is interning with an insurance company in Cochin and she is from Thodupuzha, about an hour away. Saturday after I arrived we went to lunch at the Grand Hotel then did some window-shopping in Fort Cochin. We saw Jew Town, but the famous 400-year old synagogue was closed. We also went into the Dutch Palace, a famous spot in Cochin with a museum of old artifacts. Afterwards we had coffee and went to a spectacular 4 story sari shop where brides go to buy their bridal saris. Such a cool experience—you sit down in chairs and the women who work there bring you different saris and you tell them what you like and don’t like. They have thousands and thousands. They bring you coffee or tea if you want it…kind of like they bring you drinks at the bridal shops at home. Next we stopped at a gold jewelry store, just to look. That night we went to dinner at the spectacular Gateway Hotel (looked like we were in NYC or something) and returned to Rohini’s very nice furnished, air-conditioned apartment.

Sunday we headed south near Allepy to Kumarakom to take a houseboat tour on the Kerala backwaters. It’s so beautiful there. Really makes you forget the crazy city that is Bangalore. After lunch at a resort we spent 3 hours on the boat, just relaxing, learning about the surroundings, and enjoying coconut water (straight out of the coconut) and a huge meal at the end of the trip. There was fresh cooked fish, omelets, chapatti, pineapple, some kind of curry, and appam (unleavened bread popular in Kerala; you use toddy to make it). We had one of the staff on the boat go out and get us toddy, or this drink you get from the coconut tree. I’ll have to research this more because I didn’t quite understand the process when Rohini was explaining it to me. Anyway, toddy reminds me a bit of yeast. It smells a little like yeast and if you keep it in a water bottle with the top on tight, after ‘some time’ when you untwist the bottle, a ton of air escapes. Strange, right? Have to keep the bottle top on very loosely or else it might explode. The backwaters were soo beautiful… the pictures don’t do it justice! It’s the rainy season right now in Kerala and Rohini told me it’s been pouring all day for weeks. For some reason though, the whole weekend was perfect- all sun and no rain. It did rain a bit Monday though, but the rain is so pretty to look at and we had no plans, so it didn’t ruin anything.

After the backwaters we went to Rohini’s parents’ house in Thodupuzha. They have a beautiful house where Rohini and her two brothers grew up. Her mom fed me, of course, (so nice, but I wasn’t the least bit hungry after all the food on the boat!) and I went to bed early. It was so great to meet Rohini’s two little girls! They’re 4 and 5, and very cute. I can’t explain how hospitable everyone here is. Rohini and her family took such amazing care of me! It really makes you think about how many wonderful people there are in the world. On Monday Rohini’s mother drove us around town and showed us some of the sights including this very old foot bridge that crosses over the river that backs to their house. It’s very rickety and shaky…kind of scary if more than one person is walking on it and it’s bouncing all around. We also saw the rubber trees and I learned that they are one of the main things grown there. I got a little lesson in how the rubber is harvested from the trees. The trees aren’t ready to be tapped until they are about 7 years old and they have to be drained of the milk every day. Afterwards, we stopped at Rohini’s grandmother’s cousins house, where we were fed payasum (vermicelli noodles in milk with sugar and raisins..so good!). Next, we went to her grandmother’s house and had fresh passion fruit juice, fresh pineapple, beef cutlets and fish cutlets. As if that wasn’t enough, Rohini’s mother fed us chicken biryani, mango, and cake for lunch! I can’t eat for three days. Everything was so good though and it was neat to get some Keralan food as it’s a little bit different than Bangalorean food.

I got back to Bangalore Monday evening and worked on my special project all evening. My short work week will start Tuesday! This coming Friday night, Vanita, Corinne, Marissa and I leave for a weekend trip to Munnar, which is also in Kerala. I think I plan on staying the following weekend in Bangalore and spending the last in Pondicherry (east coast former French colony). These last three weeks in India will be so short!

Fifth Week

6/18/11

My fifth week passed by just as quickly as the past four, if not faster. It seems there are never enough hours in the day (seems this is a problem all over the world…what else is new?). I work all day in the Department on my internship projects and when I get a break, download articles to use for my special project. When I get done for the day in the office I go back to my room or, more often, to a local coffee shop to work on my special project (the proposal I submitted for it last week got rave reviews by my epidemiology advisor…yippee!). My favorite coffee shop is fast becoming my least favorite because their free wi-fi has not been working now for a while and probably won’t be fixed for “some time.”

I must explain about “some time.” You see, it’s an expression Indians use when they really have zero idea of when something will happen. So I asked when a bus will come and the response will be “some time,” or I ask when the wifi will be fixed…the response is, you guessed it, “some time.” At first it seriously annoyed the hell of out of me, but now I can see why they say it and I think I’ll adopt it because it really helps to say it when you have no idea but don’t want to look entirely stupid. Truthfully, everything happens in “some time” but I was asking WHEN(!), which calls for specifics here, people! Now I just laugh when people say “some time.” Yes, I think I’ll start using it.

The next two weeks are crunch time- I’ve got to finish 3 manuscripts in the Department and also do some data analysis for my supervisor. In addition to the internship, my special project is DUE July 1^st..as in, less than two weeks. This is going to suck. I’m going to stick to a motto though- ‘work hard and you are allowed to be rewarded. But no hard work, no reward!’ So funny how before coming to India I was so worried about having zero social life and nothing to do, no way to pass the time, and afraid of the food. Now all I do is eat and make plans with friends (aside from work and studies). I never have a spare moment to myself. It’s the total opposite of how I thought this trip would go. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so thankful for all the great people I’ve met and all the cool things I’ve gotten to do. It has certainly been an unforgettable time.

Aside from work in the Department this week, I was lucky enough to get out of the building and go to Mugalur again. That place is really growing on me. Friday (6/17) was the Unit of Hope clinic, which is a rehabilitation clinic for kids. One of the pediatricians and one of the post-grad students plus an occupational therapy student and I made the trip out in the morning and arrived just in time for tea (shocking). The clinic was cool- got to see a kid with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy and watched him fail the tell-tale test for diagnosing Duchenne’s. We had him sit on the floor and get up. He had to use both of his hands to get up…not a good sign. Also helped with a minor ‘operation’ if you want to call it that; a little boy about 8 years old came in with some glass lodged between his toes. Poor thing…he was laying on the table while the doc was using some forceps-looking-thing to pick out the glass and cut of the dead skin, and he started crying and freaking out a bit. Little guy was brave though. I just stroked his hair and tried to keep him calm while still trying to watch the doc fix him up. You know what else is growing on me? Medicine. Who knows…maybe I’ll study for the MCAT and give it a shot someday. An MPH and MD could be a cool combination.

This little guy wanted to stand next to me and wait for the bus, too

The tailor at the silk shop writing down all my specifications for the 3 kurtas I am having made. The red material is for my mom, the green for my aunt, and the bluish/green/gray color underneath the green is for me

Flower market in Bangalore

One more story I just have to tell:

After Domino’s pizza for dinner and a few Corona Lights at an awesome lounge/club with some friends, we headed back to the campus around 11:30p to go to bed. When we arrived at the gate we found the other girls also staying in the Annex and they informed us that the guard would not open the gate for us without an ID badge, which none of us had. The head sister that runs the annex had to be called and she came out to the gate to vouch that we lived there so the guard would let us in. She was pissed too, and informed us that the rules clearly state the campus and annex are locked at 11pm every night; no entry permitted after. Now I don’t know if this was a good idea or not, but I promptly told her that there have been several nights I’ve been back past midnight or 1am and been let in with no problem. Eh, whatever, she already has a low opinion of me since I am Western, so I gave up a while ago trying to win her respect. She didn’t look happy and also didn’t believe me. She again mentioned the rules, to which I told her there is no rule sheet in my room and I don’t know what in the world she’s talking about. Then, if you believe this, she told me it was my responsibility to ask for the rules. I said, “in my country we don’t have rules for people in hotels. You pay your money, you stay, you pretty much do what you want. You can leave and come back whenever. I think that’s a cultural difference you didn’t realize and I would have no idea that I’m supposed to ‘ask for rules.’” She agreed about the cultural difference. Seriously though, so, so, so ridiculous. I have been extremely open and tolerant up until this point about everything in India. After all, who am I to come into another country and say they are wrong? But I just thought this incident took things a little too far. A curfew? Really? It’s just ridiculous….I am an adult and I paid my good money (and a lot of it, too) to come and go as I please, not to be told by some crazy nun that I’m “breaking the rules.” You’ve got to be kidding me. I haven’t had a lecture like that since the 10^th grade. Somehow, I seriously doubt that if a students' parents were staying at the annex and came back after 11pm that they'd be given a lecture and told to refer to the rules. Sorry to rant, but I just had to.

Sari Madness!

This is the Sari Andre (my coworker) wore for her nursing school graduation. So beautiful!

This is the South Indian style of draping it.

So much fabric! Aside from the gold blouse underneath, the sari is just one long piece of fabric.

The sari measures at least 5.5 meters (6 yards) of fabric (= 18 feet long!)

The traditional North Indian style of draping a sari

Love the colors!

A traditional sari from Assam (northeast region of India), where Andre's husband is from

Some Weekend Pics

Lalbagh Botanical Gardens

Australian tree at the gardens

Andre with her husband and the huge 100% home-cooked meal!

Mmmm so much food!

Eventful Weekend in Bangalore

Snapshot from the wedding.

Bride and groom are in the middle with the garland around their necks. Next to me is Andre, my coworker, and her husband is beside her

6/12/11

It is Sunday evening and I’m thinking “what happened to my weekend?” I was so busy with so many wonderful things; I hardly know where to start.

Saturday I went into work for a few hours in the morning and then in the afternoon went to Sukh Sagar (which has become one of my favorite restaurants) for lunch. I went to Cuppa by myself afterwards to get some quality work done on my special project. It was such a cute little coffee shop with a few tables outside under an awning. Thank goodness I sat under the awning because just as I was about to leave, there was a downpour and I had to wait to head back to the annex.

Saturday night I got to go to a real Indian wedding! I was really hoping I would get to attend one while in India. I went with a woman I work with, Andre, her husband and her neighbor. It was her neighbor on the first floor off her apartment building’s wedding. The couple that got married is Hindu. Interestingly enough……..they are also first cousins. Draw your own judgments because I don’t want to go into that conversation. The wedding really wasn’t what I expected. There were maybe 500-1,000 people sitting in stackable plastic chairs (these chairs are a favorite in India, no matter where you go) looking at a stage where the bride and groom stood posing for pictures. There were very bright fluorescent lights and little decoration except for the backdrop on the stage. People don’t really even dress up for weddings, it seems. There was also one large television on each side of the stage and a videographer walking around broadcasting live video of the event onto the TVs. Everyone forms a line and goes up to wish the couple congratulations, and there is also a meal afterwards. Because there are so many people to feed, people are fed in batches. After lots of staring and some great pics with the bride and groom, we were escorted outside the building, around the back, and into a secret entrance where we skipped the whole line of people waiting to eat and were seated right away! The meal was served on a plantain leaf. Many servers came around with big buckets of food and ladled endless amounts onto the leaf. As soon as you get close to finishing something, they’re back again with more. I even got a coconut to take home as a party favor! Once you are finished with your meal, you grab the side of the leaf furthest away from you and fold the leaf towards you, to signify happiness. If we were at a funeral, we would fold the leaf the opposite way to convey sadness.

We were only there for about an hour and a half, so I don’t know what all that business about Indian weddings taking days is about. I’m sure in some cultures and religions this is true, but not the one I went to. The reception started at 7:30 that evening and probably ended around 10:30. The ceremony, oddly enough, was the following day and Andre told me that will be 2-3 hours. I did not attend the ceremony as I had other plans the following morning.

Sunday

After a bloody encounter with a huge black ant that bit my toe, I went to Bangalore’s Lalbagh Botanical Gardens with Vanita, Corinne, and Marissa. Marissa is a new girl that just arrived here from Harvard. She’s a very sweet girl, and also very young- she is just entering her sophomore year of college next year! The poor girl never wanted to come to India but got suckered into doing a research project here last minute. She’s never been out of the country before. The gardens were very pretty and we wandered around for a couple of hours taking pictures and soaking in this little bit of nature that Bangalore offers.

After the gardens we wanted to try Mavali Tiffins Room (MTR) restaurant, as we have all heard great things about this historic place. We got there about ten minutes before it opened and were shown a side door to enter, where we stood only about 10 back in line waiting for the cashier to starting ringing people up at 12:30. By the time it was 12:30, there was a huge line behind us and many people standing around. Now that’s how you know it’s a great restaurant! There is only one thing offered at lunch, and it’s some sort of all inclusive meal. After you pay you go upstairs and sit down, and the many waiters start bringing around endless amounts of food. All different curries, basmati rice, white rice, unlimited puris, salad, a sweet dessert type creamy, soupy dish, a fried slice of capsicum (green pepper), and even ice cream. Of course as soon as you are running low on a bit of food they come around with another heap for you. I learned a word at the Indian wedding the previous night that I think will serve me well here- I think it sounds like “sulpa” and means “less” or “little bit” in Kannada, which is the native language here. I used it today at MTR and the staff was pleasantly impressed with my Kannada (as were the other girls I was eating with!)!!

This past week Andre and I got to talking at work and I told her how much I enjoy Indian cuisine and trying all different foods. She graciously invited me to her house for lunch on Sunday to meet her husband and have a home-cooked lunch. I went over around 1pm and didn’t leave until 5! They fed me an amazing lunch, which we ate sitting on the floor (loved it!). Afterwards Andre dressed me up in two different types of saris, gave me a mango and a cucumber to take home, gave me 4 books to read by an Indian author (Chetan Bhatan) and showed me pictures of her from recently as well as her childhood.

Andre’s husband works as an accountant and all of his clients are Americans, namely in Connecticut. (Side note: He is so funny- he told me that he read in a book one time that now in the U.S. instead of mothers telling their children “eat your food, there are children starving in Africa,” they now tell their children “study hard, or an Indian will get your job!” ) They are both, especially Gogoi (Andre’s husband) extremely fascinated with American culture and learning about other cultures in general, so we did a lot of comparing of our cultures and asking each other questions. It’s so refreshing to see someone so interested in the way other people live their lives. Americans aren’t the only people in the world, you know, and we’re not the center of the world either. I don’t think Americans truly understand this until they travel abroad.

It was so much fun for Andre to dress me up in a sari (also seen it spelled ‘saree’). Aside from the top underneath the fabric, a sari is just a long, long piece of fabric wrapped, tied, and pinned a certain way on the body. She dressed me and did my hair, drew a bindi on my forehead, put me in the sari and then also wrapped it on me in the northern way. Said I looked “damn good”..and she said it twice! Her husband said if I went out and walked the streets I would get 200-250 marriage proposals. They probably took 25 pictures of me and had me pose in different ways and even got out some props!

By the time I left, it was already 5pm. I went to Mr. Beans, my new favorite coffee place nearby. They have free wifi! How did I not discover this until halfway through my trip? They have the most delicious coffees and milkshakes, and a huge menu of drinks to choose from. I really like their cold coffee. I need to go there every day after work to continue work on my special project. I’ve got 40 references now..just need to write up the 30 pages of text!! By July 1^st!

Fourth Week (Already!?)

This past week was busy, as usual. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I worked on research in the Department. Thursday I went to a village about an hour away for a meeting for the PREPARE project. More about that later.

One of the days I worked in the Department, I brought some Easy Mac (microwavable macaroni and cheese…could I be any more American?) to make for lunch (yes, I packed Easy Mac in my luggage). Everyone stops whatever they’re doing and joins together at 1:00pm for lunch either in the classroom or the conference room. It’s a very nice practice, considering a lot people in the U.S. just scarf down their lunch alone at their desk. So everyone sits around, and all the food everyone brought from home for their lunch comes out in containers and everyone passes in around and shares. It’s wonderful because I get to try all sorts of delicious homemade foods. I love it! Sharing food here is the norm, everyone shares whatever they have to eat and is always offering. I get the impression that if you didn’t try at least a little bit, it would be rude. Sharing water is also common. Indians don’t put their mouth to the bottle, they just pour it in. Obviously they’ve been doing this their whole lives so they are good at it, but every time I try, I just spill water all down my shirt and look like an idiot (fail).

Monday night I had a Skype meeting with my epidemiology advisor, Dr. Borenstein. We really needed this meeting to go over the details of my special project, which is a requirement of my graduation. It was quite a stressful conversation as I realized just how much work I have to do in the next few weeks. It’s part of the reason I decided not to go on any trips this coming weekend (6/11-12). The project is very extensive and I’ll have to do some calculations to project incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in China in the next 30 years. I’m just taking things day by day and setting goals for my progress.

My spring 2010 semester at USF I had to take a class called Database Management for Public Health Researchers, and Dr. Rajaram taught the class. I have to say that he had some influence in me wanting to go to India for my field experience. When I started my Master’s program, I knew that in two years I would have to decide where I would want to go for two months, and many places crossed my mind—Australia, Geneva (Switzerland), Costa Rica, and in the back of my mind—India. Since learning about global public health in college, I’ve had this desire to see Asia and more specifically India, which is the second most populous country in the world. From everything I’ve heard, India was so vastly different all across the country (both in geography and people). Considering how short my attention span is, I thought this would be a great fit for me. I distinctly remember googling St. John’s in Dr. Raj’s class and thinking, “wow, this might be a great place for my IFE!” I then approached Dr. Raj after class and told him I was interested in going there, to which he replied, “I am from Bangalore!” He put me in touch with Dr. Wagner in the Dept. of Environmental and Occupational Health, who has a relationship with the faculty here in the Dept. of Community Health at St. John’s, and the rest is history.

As luck would have it, Dr. Rajaram travels extensively to teach classes and happened to be in Bangalore for part of my trip. Tuesday evening I went out to dinner with him! His family’s driver picked me up and we went to the Forum Mall, very close by. There is an awesome restaurant in the mall and it’s got an actual train car inside, with tables and chairs in the car. The restaurant is very fancy for Bangalore and American standards. We got a bottle of Indian merlot (with a twist-off cap of course; India is not very well known for its wine…) and had delicious appetizers of tandoori baby corn and sweet potatoes, and paneer and vegetable kebab. (Side note: tandoori is a type of oven used to cook all sorts of things in—veggies, naan bread, chicken, etc., and paneer is cheese but to me it tastes more like tofu) For dinner we had a palak dish (spinach) and chicken biryani. It was so great to catch up with him and hang out with someone from home so far away from home. I hope to see him again during my trip.

On Thursday I traveled with two doctors from the Department to a small rural village outside of Bangalore. It’s one of the 13 villages that will be participating in the PREPARE cardiovascular disease clinical trial, which is just getting underway. The meeting was to inform the community and village leaders of how the program will work, and to build trust and rapport with the people. We took a taxi and made several stops first (in true Indian fashion), so it took us about 2 hours to get there. The meeting was held in a small pre-school room an lasted about half an hour. Of course after the meeting we had two requests for consultations. Whenever a doctor comes to a small village like that, the people use this opportunity to ask their medical questions. I guess doctors all over the world get this. “Oh, you’re a doctor? What do you think about this pain in my side I’ve been having? What could that be?” Anyway, there was one woman with a thyroid issue and another woman who approached us asking about her daughter, who was mentally retarded. The daughter was about 18 years old. The parents were requesting that she get a hysterectomy for hygiene and safety issues. If she were to be raped and get pregnant, that would be a whole host of problems. The doctors informed her that they need to go to NIMHANS, which is India’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-sciences. There is a special commission there tasked with examining cases of women just like this, who are mentally handicapped and the families want hysterectomies. They would first need to get approval there. I never thought about this issue..how do we handle it in the U.S.? If a mentally handicapped woman’s family wanted her to get a hysterectomy, would that be allowed to happen? There are such huge ethical questions surrounding the issue.

Here are some pictures from the village meeting:

Village meeting for the PREPARE project
Note the little kids lined up against the wall on the right; This room is used as a preschool

Little preschooler :)

For every one of the 13 villages in the study, a village map has to be drawn up so anyone is able to find the correct study participant's house. Sorry, no google maps for this place.

Thursday night was Katinka’s birthday! About 15 of us went to Rendez Vous, a bar/restaurant that has grown to be one of our favorites. Some of the guys surprised Katinka with a chocolate fudge cake, her favorite. It was such a nice evening and I’m glad Katinka could have a great birthday celebration while abroad.

Friday I turned in my 20 page long mid-point IFE report to Dr. Wagner, my IFE advisor back at USF. It’s pretty dry but if any of you are interested in reading it….just let me know. We also had a mid-point Skype meeting with my supervisor here, Dr. Avita. It went very well and I think he’s pleased with my progress thus far. It’s nice to have gotten that out of the way!

Janine and Katinka left Friday night to go back to Germany. It was bittersweet—sad because they have become good friends to me and happy because they finally get to go home. I think they had some great times in India but were getting increasingly annoyed with all the ridiculous rules, so I think they will be somewhat happy to get home. I imagine there will be some reverse culture shock when they reach Germany. Things are just so, so different in the Western world. They were kind enough to donate lots of items to me as they packed up- an electric hot water heater (I can make tea and coffee all the time now!), a bunch of maps, bowls, plates, cutting board, hangers, soaps, food, etc. I’m sure when I leave in a month, I’ll pass these items onto others. Such a great little system here J After a fun dinner and some farewell drinks at Legends of Rock, we waved goodbye as their cab drove off. Whatever will I do without them!?! With my new friends Vanita and Corinne (new French girl!), I think I’ll be OK. I’m sure others will come too.

This morning, Saturday morning, I decided to come into the Department for a few hours to get some quality free internet time. I need to download some articles for my special project. I just got to talking to one of the women in my office, Andre, and she invited me to go to wedding reception with her tonight. I GET TO GO TO AN INDIAN WEDDING!!!!! This is very exciting news. There’s 3 things I think of when I think of traveling to India: going to the Taj Mahal, going to to an ashram, and going to an Indian wedding. Since the Taj is extremely far away and most likely out of the question, and I don’t think I have the patience for an ashram, I am so happy to be going to the wedding and crossing one thing off my list of Indian to-dos. No idea what I’ll wear yet though, but Andre (roll your R when you say her name!) has assured not to care what I wear, that people will be so excited to see a foreigner that they won’t care what I wear (hah!). Can’t wait to go and don’t worry- I’ll post lots of pictures!

Sunday I plan to go with Vanita and Corinne to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens and then get something to eat at MTR, a famous Bangalorean restaurant everyone assures us we must trust. Afterwards, Andre has invited me to her home to have a home-cooked lunch with her and to meet her husband. She is so sweet; she told me she’s very excited to be receiving me as her first foreign guest. She has asked me several times what I want to eat but I really don’t know what to tell her—I’m sure anything will be delicious!

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful weekend!