An emu farm?

This weekend Liz and I were invited to visit an emu farm, run by one of the students currently in new-hire communication training with another trainer. We were both surprised to hear that there was such a thing in India, so we readily agreed to go...even though we had to leave at 6:30 AM to get there!! (Ugh! I haven't been up that early since I got moved off of the morning shift!) The farm was located about 2 hours away from Chennai, a bit across the boarder in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with only a smallish town nearby. It was a big occasion because it was the second anniversary of the farm and it seems as if they had really done quite a bit with the land in that time. Besides the emus, they also raise turkeys & cows as well as several fields of corn and rice. The place seemed quite scientifically run-we weren't even able to enter the hatchery because it was a sterile environment. [It has to be since the eggs can each run upwards of Rs. 1500 (~US$35)]. We were, however, able to go into the pens and pet the adult birds, which were a bit softer than they looked. After our tour of the farm, they treated us to a nice lunch (Andhra food is generally spicier than that in Tamil Nadu!) and we headed for home to find our own animals crying for dinner. :)

Meow, meow, meow, meow

So in addition to all the Christmas shopping, Liz and I have also acquired some company in our apartment. We have adopted two six-week-old kittens that were birthed on Liz' friend's porch. Pet ownership, especially of cats, does not seem to be very common here in India; although stray animals roam freely in the streets. It some areas, these animals cause big problems. Some celebrity here (Amitabh Bachan?) needs to take up Bob Barker's crusade ("have your pets spayed or neutered") Although, I guess it would have to be "have the strays in front of your gate sterilized!" :)

But I digress. Yes, we now have two lively kittens running around our apartment. We wanted to give them good south Indian names, so we have chosen Lakshmi and Priya. Apparently, this many of our friends are shocked by this-they feel that pets should only have cutesy pet names, not real person names. For the first couple of days, we also referred to Priya as "the noisy one". She was constantly crying from the time we put her in the box to take her to the apartment to the time we let them out in the living room. She hated to be picked up and hated to be put down. It was a long night and it made me repeat my mantra ("this is why I don't want kids") over and over. :) Lakshmi was much more pliant. She reveled in the attention and was calm about being handled. However, after a few days of settling in, it seems as if the personalities have been reversed. Priya still doesn't like to be picked up, but she settles in next to you on the sofa without too much protesting. Lakshmi is now loudly demanding more and more attention, as if she has just now realized that she's not going to get to go back to her mother.

It definitely has brought more life to our apartment...especially the amount of time we have to spend cleaning up the messes!!!! UGH!!!! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, the cyclone seems to have passed us by or petered out somewhere before it hit much land. We all were a bit tense to know whether we would get stuck at work Friday night again, but luckily the rain didn't hit too hard.

Liz and I were quite happy because it meant that we could spend Saturday shopping for Christmas decorations for our apartment. One of our friends lent us an extra tree and we found a Christmas store in Egmore where we could buy trimmings for it. And buy we did! :) We got lights, garland, and ornaments to cover our 5-ish foot tree. Without planning it purposely, we ended up with a patriotic red, blue & white (the lights) tree. Hmm...maybe we are a little homesick!!!! We got stockings, a manger scene that lights up & plays 'silent night' and even mistletoe!!!! Afterwards, we went to dinner at the American diner that opened up recently. Sparky's diner is great-real American food at reasonable prices. I've been there twice now and had a real burger (with no extra spices added) and a meatball sub on homemade Italian bread. MMMMM!!! One of the best parts is the ambiance. It's decorated all over with Christmas lights and Christmas decorations. And they play real, honest-to-goodness Christmas carols the whole time. The owner of the place-an American himself-is even having a special Invitation-only event that we are planning on checking out on Christmas Eve. I never really thought of spending Christmas Eve in a diner, but I am really looking forward to it.

Please Pray!

This is an update that we are still being plagued by rain and flooding in Chennai. On Sunday, our pastor said that if the water rose another 3 feet, even our church building would be in the water. The water in the rivers is so high, officials are worried that any one of the bridges could give way at any time. Crowds were gathering on the bridges just to see the depth and the current in the river.

Not only is it a spectacle, but the flooding has already displaced the many people that lived in huts along the river. Our pastor pointed out that the more the flooding continued, the more money would have to be diverted for flood relief from other civic necessities.

Cyclonic storms are again predicted for the next couple of days, so I'm asking-PLEASE PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY!

Aloha!

I just got back from my quick trip to Hawaii and I'm feeling great! (Well, except for the jet lag, that is!) I guess a vacation to a tropical paradise is always good for the soul, no matter where you come from! :) I had a wonderful time in Hawaii celebrating the union of my friend Heather to her partner Alexis. They had a beautiful ceremony on the beach and all of the events were full of love from the family and friends surrounding the couple. They both made the guests feel loved and valued as integral parts of their lives. I greatly enjoyed getting to know Alexis' side as well as meeting Heather's friends that I had heard so much about during our time in college.

After the wedding, I was able to meet up with one of my close friends from elementary through high school. She now works as a dolphin trainer at Sea Life Park. I remember her saying that she wanted to work with dolphins from the beginning, so it is pretty exciting to see her now living out that dream! We even got to go "backstage" to meet one of the penguins and one of the dolphins and learn a bit about their training. It was such an awesome experience to be that close to both animals! I managed to survive my 7-hour layover in Singapore Airport, even though almost all of the shops were closed (which may not be a bad thing in terms of my budget!). Luckily I managed to find the movie theater to keep my mind engaged for some time. The trip back to India really reminded me of what I had been missing while I was gone. Indian Airlines has got to be one of the worst airlines ever! Everything about it was bad: the plane itself should probably have been retired at least 5 years ago-I was sitting next to the emergency exit and I could hear it rattle the entire time, the seat covers were all torn and falling off and there was no movie screen at all (for a 4 hour trip.) The food was horrible-completely unrecognizable and tasteless! I didn't know what to say when the steward who collected my tray said, "I hope you enjoyed your meal!" :)

One of the more amusing parts for me was that while we were descending for the landing in Chennai, the Indian passengers were all standing up in the aisles, opening the overhead bins for their carry-on luggage--completely ignoring both the seatbelt sign as well as the instructions from the crew! Then, the two people next to me got up and moved to seats in the front of the plane so that they could be sure to be one of the first ones to get off!

When I got through customs at the airport and was waiting for my luggage, the power went off! Welcome back to India! :)

In Transit

Well, I'm now about halfway through my journey to Hawaii. I'm currently in Nerita (Tokoyo) and I have to occupy the next 6ish hours here. All in all, the flights and transfers have, thankfully, gone smoothly and neither flight has been full. I left Chennai last night (I think!) :) and flew to Singapore via Singapore Airlines. That was a really great flight! I highly recommend Singapore Airlines (for those of you planning on coming to visit me!) ;) The food was good, the on-demand entertainment selection was quite extensive and there seemed to be a good amount of space between the seats-even in economy class. Singapore airport is great too; I'm glad because I have another 6ish hour layover there on the way back. There are plenty of restaurants and even several places to get a dayroom to sleep! One of the great parts is that the internet is free! (Unlike Heathrow, where you have to pay for it!)

Japan Airlines (my second leg-from Singapore to Nerita) is not bad either. There's a little less room between the seats and I don't recommend the Teriyaki eel for lunch. But the hostesses have been very helpful so far. However, Nerita is not an airport that I recommend for an extended layover; there doesn't seem to be many shops or restaurants, but at least the internet is also free here. I may take another trek around the terminal to see if I missed anything in a couple of hours. Or I may try to snag one of the reclining chairs around the corner and catch a few winks!

Speaking of sleep, I'm hoping that this has some coherence because I didn't really sleep much on either flight. But, I did catch up on some chick flicks that I had missed-Must Love Dogs and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-and I recommend both, as chick flicks. :)

I have one story for those of you that know me well. You know how I'm fascinated by the way Indians can find out someone's name and instantaneously know what part of the country he's from, what religion he is and what caste he is. Well, on the way here, I sat next to an Indian. When the stewardess came around, I found out his name was Ghosht (or however you spell that!) [Luckily I had just read an article about a Bengali author of the same name!] We chatted a bit, so I asked him if he was from Calcutta and he was. I was pretty excited to have been able to put it all together! :)

Leaving for Hawaii...

But, seriously, I'm glad that I was able to celebrate with Liz before I left. Tomorrow I'm flying off for almost a week in Hawaii to celebrate the wedding of my friend and college roommate, Heather. Tropical Paradise, here I come!!!! Hmmm...I think those words would have more effect if I was coming from a place where it was snowing already (see Sarah's blog) but I'm definitely looking forward to the event as it will be a very non-traditional ceremony. I'm honored to be in the wedding, as we've lived on separate coasts for almost 8 years now.


I'm hoping to be able to update pictures on here while I'm there, so stay tuned. :)

Happy Birthday Liz!

Isn't it great how some people like to stretch their birthday celebrations for more than one day? :) Well, we spent all weekend celebrating Liz' birthday, which is actually today. Saturday, we went out to a lounge in one of the big hotels here, Provogue. It was a fun time-the drinks were good (although a bit pricy) and another friend knew the manager, so they arranged for a cake for us to celebrate. We put out the word and people just kept showing up. The cake was good too-it felt more like an American cake than most of the ones that I've tasted here (Plus, it was chocolate!) Afterwards, we went to an after-party near the beach where the music & dancing were good. Sunday, we got up and went shopping to get Liz a saree to wear to work on Monday. We had a good time picking them out (she got two) and accessorizing them. After dinner, we went back to our apartment so that she could learn how to wrap the saree to wear into work. Let's just say that laughter was filling the apartment at the first couple of trials. :)

A few of us joined together and got a cheesecake and surprised her with it at midnight. It was a good time and such a fun weekend!

Festival season

It's still raining here. I read in the newspaper that the death toll due to the floods is now up to 148 in Tamil Nadu.

But the rains did not dampen the festival spirit that was here last week. Last Tuesday (November 1st) was Diwali (The Festival of Lights) for the Hindus and last Friday (November 4th) was Eid (the end of Ramzan, the month of fasting) for the Muslims, so everyone was experiencing the holdiay spirit. Liz and I celebrated Diwali, since we both had the day off of work. Diwali basically celebrates the triumph of good over evil from a story in (I believe) the Ramayana. It is, most probably, the biggest holiday in India (in some places the celebrations go on for 5 days!) and is compared to Christmas in the West. Most people try to be home to celebrate with their families. They traditionally mark the occasion by doing a pooja and putting on new clothes in the morning. Then, in the evening, lamps are lit along the outside of the home. Here is an explanation from an article my manager sent to us:

Diwali literally means a row of lights, and the main attraction is the candles and lamps, called diyas, that are lit in almost every home after puja (a ceremony where the lamps are made). The lights are meant to welcome Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity, and to bring joy, mirth and happiness in the new year, which starts the day after Diwali.

Liz and I celebrated by going shopping a few days previous to purchase new clothes to wear (like we needed an reason to shop!) :) We then watched a Tamil movie (Thirmalia? Something like that...) to feel culturally connected. :) We also took a walk down the street to the local temple to see the activities going on there. We came back home and lit lamps along our balcony rail and outside our front door.

The other thing that is done to celebrate Diwali is the bursting of crackers everywhere. It was so loud here for quite a few days! The kids started with pop guns the weekend before. Both the morning before Diwali and the morning of, I was awakened at 6 AM by people setting them off. I managed to sleep in a little bit, intermittently, but, for some reason, my dreams were filled with war images!

And the rains came to Madras...

As you might have heard, Chennai was in the news last week because of the major flooding that occurred here. It had been raining pretty much every day since I got back, so I didn't really realize that it had rained continuously for 24 hours, starting in the afternoon of October 26th. You might be thinking that a country that has monsoons should be prepared for something like this; however, I have been informed that Chennai doesn't actually have a proper monsoon. I actually once heard it described as a "reverse monsoon." The monsoons that hit the western coast of India head northeast across the country, but are driven back by the mountains. This backlash is what hits Chennai.

Normally, there is only moderate rainfall during this time. However, as I mentioned earlier, it had been raining almost every day since October 19th. The drainage here is not equipped to deal with a steady rainfall, which resulted in the flooding of October 27th. The parking lot in my apartment complex was covered with water up to my ankles. The road outside my apartment complex was covered up to my calves. In many other parts of the city, it was even worse. I heard 11 people actually died from stepping on downed power lines throughout the city. Needless to say, the company was unable to get a cab to pick me up for work. [Yes, I was still expected to turn up for work that day. In fact, I later found out that they wanted me to be there to help TRAIN the 90 or so students that actually made it to work then (that's less than half of the normal amount.) As if anyone was thinking about LEARNING in the midst of that! But that's what my boss was more concerned about, rather than the fact that we were facing an emergency situation. (Yes, let's bring in more people that we'll have to transport back, especially since they were unable to get the people that worked the shift that ended at 8:00 AM home until noon.) What a great company I work for!]

I did actually walk down the street in the afternoon to get some lunch, groceries and minutes for my phone. Boy, it was quite an experience-then only shallow part was in the middle of the road, which you had to share with the few cars, autorickshaws & bikes that were out. As you may imagine, I was completely soaked and ready for a nice, warm shower when I got back! :)

Lines/Queues-Part 2

So it has been a whirlwind time since I have been back in Chennai. I have many posts to write, but I'm trying to keep everything in order. Since I have been back, I have been assigned to work the morning shift (UGH!) Most of you can probably imagine how much work I actually get done starting at 8:00 AM. I've discovered this malt beverage called Boost that is helping me get through my mornings, but it was a hard adjustment-particularly since working night would've kept me on a similar schedule from being in the US. :)

But, what I really want to rant about first is my experiences flying back. Not that I want start a huge debate like the last time I brought up a similar topic. When I boarded my first leg of the British Airways flight in Chicago, they began boarding in a nice, organized fashion. First, they boarded people who needed assistance and families with young children. Second, the first class and premier world (or whatever.) Then, they began general boarding starting from the rear of the plane. Very organized. However, when I boarded the flight from London to Chennai, it was quite a different matter. First of all, they stuck us at a gate that was quite far from the main terminal-down a maze of hallways. Also, the PA system didn't work there, so even though they attempted to announce that the plane was delayed, it was ineffective. [I only heard it because I was at the counter verifying my boarding pass.] When the plane did arrive and boarding began, there was absolutely no organization; the British Air staff didn't even try! One woman began only boarding the passengers with small children and then ones who needed more time...but she didn't even say that out loud, just sent people away. The other line just started boarding general boarding, regardless of where your seat was in the plane. It was mass pandemonium-people were just headed en masse up to the ticket counter!

This is the second time similar incidences have occurred while flying to India on British Air. Has British Airways given up on trying to get Indians to board in an orderly fashion? Is this subtle discrimination? Or, is it an example of exemplary customer service in accommodating their Indian customers?

The fun part was, though, watching all of the other foreign tourists get annoyed with the Indians who tried to cut in line at customs. I think I've decided that the customs counter in the Madras airport is the only place where having white skin is not an advantage-the Indians go through much quicker than the foreigners do! (Yes, yes, I know the opposite is true when I hit customs in the US!) :)

I'm back...

Well, I've made it through the mess of airports and have arrived safely back in Chennai. I have many comments to make about the flights, but those will have to wait until I'm in a funnier mood. :) I arrived here about 4:15 in the morning, although it was almost 6:00 before I could make it through customs and collect my baggage to meet my friend outside.

I woke up later in the afternoon and managed to drag myself into work to check email. (Welcome back! The cab was an hour late! :) Some things never change...) There's nothing like sitting in a car decorated with flowers, party decorations and a statue of a cow on the dashboard [The only thing missing is that it wasn't blinking with little lights!] that's hurtling down a dark street (that's more like an alleyway) filled with people, bikes, and other vehicles coming at you from all directions while your driver swerves to avoid the potholes and other road work to welcome you back to India. :) Wow! I've missed this! :)

Reunion

There's nothing like a class reunion to bring out the cattiness and pettiness that you thought you had left behind in high school... :) The reunion was, in a word, disappointing. Before the reunion, we had a pre-party at the house of one of my friends, Noele. Mike, Sarah & I spent about 45 minutes driving up and down Main Street in Greensburg (which, let me tell you, is hardly exciting enough to merit one trip down it) looking for the cross street from the Google directions. We didn't have Noele's phone number to call; the only other person we could call was another out-of-towner, Shannon. We drove out to pick up Shannon at her hotel and used her directions to arrive at Noele's about an hour later than we said we would. :) Later, we discovered that Google was giving us directions to a street that ran parallel to Main St., not perpendicular. *sigh* My only consolation was to imagine how bad the directions would be if Google or Mapquest gave directions in India. :)

The pre-party was a lot of fun. Noele has three adorable kids, skinny and blonde, just like her. In fact, Noele's get-together was a lot more fun than most of the rest of the night-so much so that I propose that from now on all reunion functions should be held at her house. :)

We discovered the most disappointing fact soon after we arrived at the venue for the evening. Only 31 people registered to come to the event! 31! Our graduating class was approximately 300, so that's only 10% that registered. Actually, even less because there were about 6 guest (spouses/S.O.s) that weren't part of our graduating class! The turnout is especially bad since, according to classmates.com, about half of our class still lives in the area. Plus, about 4 people who registered didn't even show up! Can you imagine paying $60 for this thing and not even showing up?

Not that very many people felt that they got their $60 worth anyway. The buffet dinner was okay, but the DJ/host wasn't very good and it was a cash bar (which made very bad bloody marys, by the way!) Most of us skipped out early and went to a local bar (where, we were joking, we would probably see more alumni than at the reunion) where at least the drinks were more reasonably priced. All-in-all, most of us felt we saw most of the people that we wanted to see at Noele's. But would we have all planned to be in town in the same weekend otherwise to do our own thing? Probably not. At least I did get recognition for coming the furthest! My only competition was someone who was working in Norway!

Rochester

So I've managed to drive (safely!) back to Pennsylvania after FREEZING through my trip to Rochester. True to form, the sun managed to stay hidden for pretty much my whole visit there, reminding me (again) why I was so willing to leave for the warm temperatures of Chennai. :)

I was in Rochester to participate in the wedding of my dear friends, Stephen and Malinda. The wedding was very nice-small and intimate-which I think they were going for. Malinda was so calm, none of the detail that didn't go exactly as planned ever seemed to phase her. That's the way I want to be when (if?) I ever get married-full of grace and assurance that no matter what happens, I know I'm marrying a man who will help me get though the times that things don't go exactly as planned.


*Mental notes from the wedding: 1.) Make sure that if you are having the reception at the church that congregation is larger than your guest list because you don't want to have to be out buying flatware at Wal-Mart the night before the wedding. :) 2.) If you care about the bridesmaid's dresses being all the same, make sure that they are all stitched by the same person. Apparently there can be many interpretations to the same pattern. :) 3.) Remember that kids in the wedding party will be cute, but also unpredictable. Even the eldest one might need their hoopskirt tied in the middle of the ceremony. :)














It was great to meet up with people in Rochester again. I met many people and missed many as well. [Sorry guys!] But, I knew that was going to happen. It was hard to see people, get a little bit caught up on the past six months and then have to say good-bye all over again. *sniffle, sniffle*

But, hopefully, the next six months will fly by as well. Liz & I have many trips planned for our remaining time in India, so we have plenty of stuff to look forward to when we get back. Tonight, I'm getting ready for my 10-year high school reunion. Whoa, does that make me feel old! :) I can't wait to see many of my friends who I've only been in touch with through email, but I'm worried about recognizing others there. All I know is I better win the prize for who traveled the furthest to get here (especially since my friends from Guam & Hawaii aren't coming!)

Driving...

I was a little nervous about driving all the way up to Rochester alone, mainly because I've been watching cars drive on the opposite side of the road for six months now. Plus, I did experiment with driving once while I was in India. Actually, driving once while I was in India was one of my goals that I stated when I first got there. But, I did decide that I should wait and observe for at least three months before I attempted such a feat. One of my friends even offered to teach me...but he never came through on that offer!!!!

However, one night when we were leaving Fisherman's Cove another friend (Raghu) decided to let me try to drive his car (and no, this had nothing to do with the re-painting of his hood!). It was around 1 AM and it's a pretty deserted road between Fish Cove and ECR (East Coast Road.) I readily agreed! I was pretty happy because I didn't stall it out at all, even while shifting with the left hand and steering with the right! But I have to admit, the cows by the side of the road were a bit disconcerting!

Anyway, I think that I made the transition to driving in the US okay-the only problem is when I'm on an unlined road, I find myself drifting a bit to the wrong side. Hopefully I can correct that in the time that I'm here. :)

Visiting...

I'm home now...for a quick visit to the US. I arrived here Sunday night, overnighted in NYC and flew to Pittsburgh to meet my parents early Monday morning. Compared to India, NYC (at least around the airport seemed so quiet!!!!) The flight over generally was pretty uneventful, though. After flying Air India for my vacation last December, I'm always amazed when the flights are running on time, but I've had no problems thus far on British Airways. :) I ended up taking Independence Air from JFK through Dulles to Pittsburgh. Man, are they cutting back-they give you NO food on the flight-not even peanuts! *sigh* It was really rough coming from an international flight where they feed you something like every two hours, it feels like. :)

Anyway, I did manage to upload pictures from August and September and post them to my blog. Enjoy!

After staying with my parents for a couple of days (and trying to get on somewhat of a normal sleeping schedule!) I headed to Rochester for my friends' (Stephen & Malinda) wedding. Yep, I'm a bridesmaid...and I'm not thinking about the saying that goes along with that... :) Rochester is COLD right now!!!!!! I miss Chennai...the heat...now I remember what I was so happy to get away from in April! :) But it has been good catching up with people that I've been missing. Unfortunately (in some ways), I'll only be here for about a week, then I'll head back to Pittsburgh for a few days, then back to India!

Bangalore

Liz has been pestering me to visit Bangalore with her for quite some time now, so last weekend we made what I'm sure will be our first of many trips there. :) Bangalore is in the next state over, Karnatika, about a 7 hour drive from Chennai (I think). We ended up taking the bus both there and back. On the trip up, we took a bus run by a private company and on the way back we took one run by the state government of Karnatika. We left at 1:30 in the afternoon on Friday and arrived in Bangalore around 9:30. On the way up, we were treated to a Tamil movie for entertainment. Even though there were no subtitles, I had little trouble following the plot since it was almost an exact copy of the English movie "What about Bob?"

After getting there, we took an auto to Liz' friend's flat, where we were staying. It was quite a treat to find that the auto drivers actually use the meter if you ask them to. We ended up staying up for a while even though we didn't go out because the people on her street were still celebrating Ganesh's birthday by blaring loud music.

Even though they were up late the night before, her neighbors still managed to get up early and again start blasting loud music Saturday morning. We got up too and headed out to Martahalle (I have no idea how to spell that) where all of the outlet stores are. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to spend there as we had dinner plans with Liz' friends from Microsoft. We hoped to go out afterwards (all I've heard is how Bangalore has so much better night life than Chennai) but apparently there is a new police commissioner who has restricted dancing as well as the closing time for the clubs, so we were unable to go anywhere. We ended up hanging out in the room they had booked in the Leela Palace (a luxury hotel there.)

The next morning, we got up and had a fantastic brunch at the Leela Palace. Then, we were off to shop til we dropped in The Forum-the American-style mall there. I loved shopping there! But, after a while, the sheer number of people there got to us a bit. We stopped off to eat and have a drink at the 13th Floor. We stopped and visited another of Liz' friends who recently had a baby and then headed back.

The next morning we woke up and headed back to Chennai. The government-run bus was much nicer than the privately-owned one and a much better value. Unfortunately, they played two Hindi movies that I was not able to follow-one with Salman Khan (not that I minded missing THAT one) and one with a young Amitabh Bachan.

All in all I had a blast! Bangalore is such a nice city to visit-the climate is much more temperate than Chennai; the shopping was great (tho I've heard that I still need to go to Commercial Street!); and it was so relaxing to get away from the stress at work! I wasn't ready to come back!

Trainees

Somewhere along the way (last week) I finished up my second batch of induction trainees and started batch #3. Batch #2 was pretty fun and I liked the fact that there were only 12 of them instead of the usual 20. They all passed and were sent off to Microsoft & Dell. On the last day of class they surprised me by bringing in a cake and a gift-a model of the Taj Mahal. I was so touched!

My new batch runs again from midnight until 8:00 AM. I've decided that I actually like this shift better than the 4:00 PM-midnight shift I was just on. For me, it just interchanges my sleep time with my working times and still leaves me my evenings free to do things. Besides, I enjoy that fact that there are less people around the building and the temperature is usually cooler.

The weird part is that, on this least desirable of shifts, I have representatives from both of my previous batches. The ones I sent to HP from batch #1 are finishing their technical training; the Microsoft contingent from batch #2 are starting their product training and I have batch #3 for communications training. Kind of weird to see them all in juxtaposition.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the trip back home as a break from the teaching schedule. Hopefully my voice will recover during that time-I'm sounding pretty hoarse these days. Any seasoned teachers out there have ideas for recovering that?

I'm coming home!!!!

OK I knew that I got to come home after 6 months, but at first October seemed very far away. Now that I have my return tickets to the US booked it seems much more real! I'll be back in the US on October 2nd (and I have to overnight in NYC!) and then on to Pittsburgh the next morning. I'll head up to Rochester probably on the 6th and stay there for about a week. I then depart again to Chennai on the 17th.

I'm so excited!!! Much more than I thought that I would be! It will be wonderful to sink my teeth into a nice juicy hamburger (yes, Pete, I have tried them here-they're just not the same) covered in ketchup that is vinagary and not sweet! To travel in traffic that is neat and orderly. To have breakfast foods that I'm used to! Aaah, I can't wait... :)

Kanyakumari-Day 2

We actually were able to get ourselves out of bed early enough to see the sunrise this morning (I don't know when the last time I saw 6 AM was!) and boy was it worth it-especially after not being able to see the sunset the night before. Watching the colors change as the sun rose was indescribable.










After heading back to bed for a few more hours of sleep, we headed off for more sightseeing before catching the train back to Chennai. First, we stopped at the Sucheendram temple, dedicated to the blended form of Shiva, Brahma & Vishnu, but unfortunately that part of the temple was closed when we arrived. There is also a huge statue of Hanuman (the monkey god) in the temple as well. This is the first time that I've been to a temple with a statue of Hanuman; I found it interesting that they put a mixture of butter and paneer on the statue's tail because in the Ramayana the demon god Ravana sets Hanuman's tail on fire. The other interesting part was that we arrived at 'bath time' for the statue. There were 5 or 6 priests all involved in the task of washing the statue (which was probably 12 feet tall!)

After the temple, we headed off to Padmanabhapuram Palace, a tribute to the days when this area was part of Kerela. Unfortunately, we arrived during the time it was closed for lunch. Due to time constraints (of our train back to Chennai) and the onset of rain, we had to abandon the plan of seeing inside the palace.






Our last stop was Tripparappu Water falls. Here we found people bathing under the falls, while kids played in a very dirty looking pool nearby. Bathing under the falls would have been a fun experience, but we didn't bring enough clothes to change into. Instead, we visited a rather run-down aquarium that advertised with a huge garish fish outside of it. Inside we were treated to a personalized tour of the aquarium's various inhabitants. Not only did they have fish from all over the world, but they also had quite a few snakes. The 'tour guide', for some reason decided to only pull the poisonous ones out of their cages for closer inspection. Then he offered them to us to hold as well. Somehow I ended up holding a pittu viper (?). Ok, probably not the smartest move to make...but it ended up ok. (I only ended up breaking out in a cold sweat when the snake turned around to get a better look at me!)









Then we hurried back to pick up food and catch the train back to Chennai. As always, the vacation was much too short!!!