A visit

It was really exciting for me to have my close friends, Stephen & Malinda, come to visit me for a week last month. I couldn't wait to show them around Chennai (not that there's a whole lot to see here!) and show them what my life was like here. It was great to be able to talk about people and things back home and not have any cultural barriers in the way. As with all international arrivals, they got in around 2:00 AM Saturday morning. :) Luckily, I'm still working nights (9pm-6am), so I was awake to greet them. :)

They spent some time here with me, but then went off on their own to visit Ooty and Mysore. (I'm so jealous because I haven't even been there yet!!!) The time we spent together was good. We visited Mahabilipuram, parts I hadn't even see yet (where Malinda and I both got sunburned pretty badly) and did a lot of shopping in T. Nagar, Besent Nagar, and Mylapore. We also got to see the St. Thomas memorials-St. Thomas mount, the Little Mount, & San Thome Basilica, which holds the tomb of St. Thomas. I have never seen any of this in my time here! Unfortunately, they also got to experience the worst time ever with an auto driver-who didn't want to negotiate for the whole trip and then complained to the nuns and priests at the Basilica that we were cheating him. Sigh....well, I guess that's a good example of the fascinating (for lack of a better word) contrasts in India! We even did a drive-by viewing of Marina Beach and Fort St. George.

Introducing them to the food here was fun as well! Of course we had to have a good south Indian thali, dosas, south Indian coffee and of course fresh juices! (Mmmm...fresh grape juice-I will really miss that...fresh lime sodas....sweet lime juice...ok I better stop now before I get too misty-eyed!)

I just wanted to finish off and say that I was really glad that they were able to come-it was a very special time for me-so anyone else from home who wants to come visit me should definitely consider it....