Three blog posts in one day? Can your life get any better?
...eh, probably.
As I said earlier, I didn’t update my blog as I expected on
day 2, 3 and 4 because I wasn’t feeling too hot and was still out of it due to jet
lag…and probably the heat…and maybe the food also. And to make it even better,
I think I have allergies due to pollen or something here. But it’s okay because
I’m feeling fine, my nose is just going to get torn to shreds due to the
continuous snot and the rough toilet paper I use to blow my nose into.
Okay, enough of the gross stuff. The five other Americans I’m
with are pretty cool which has made this trip better. It sure is different
though than my Turkey group when I was with thirteen crazy guys and a roommate from
China and Lithuania but it’s nice being in a smaller group. And I’m extra happy
I’m not the group leader. I’ll give you a short synopsis of the people I’m with
to give you an idea:
Morgan: the other girl in the group also in civil
engineering. It’s nice having her as a roommate because we are both equally
confused as to what we should wear in public and can stick together in ways
like that. She’s also my partner for my research stuff.
Evan: flew with Morgan and I and is pretty laid back. He has
blond-ish hair and is all about being on the beach and wishing for a place to
rent/borrow a surf board. Oh, and he’s a biosystems engineer
Mike: is an electrical engineer and loves basketball. He’s a
goofy guy as well and spills corny comebacks without noticing all the time. For
example, if you say, “this is super spicy” he’ll respond with, “you’re supper
spicy.” He’s also recently very into his new mustache that he’s had for a
whopping two days, a record for him.
Tim: just graduated from undergrad as a mechanical engineer
and can be very charismatic with his reactions to things. He’s probably the
most productive out of all of us when it comes to our research and was
designated as the group leader unwillingly. But he’s been super helpful with
taking initiatives to plan and find things so that’s been very nice. Oh, and I
think his laugh is awesome and odd at the same time and he’s the one with
glasses in the pictures.
Bob: is the only non-undergrad person and is not from MSU.
He did his undergrad at Purdue and is now at Iowa State studying NDE stuff. He’s
a quite chill guy and I’m always curious if he gets tired of hanging with
undergrads just like I can get tired of hanging with high schoolers. But he’s
cool and is fun to joke with. Oh, and he’s the tallest one in the pictures.
So that’s my group, one of these days I’ll tell you about
the Indian friends we’ve met but I don’t want to overload you with this kind of
stuff.
Highlights of the past couple days are as follows:
Saturday: went to
the mall and I didn’t expect it to be so western and especially for there to be
so many western clothes. Especially because women rarely wear even jeans and a
t-shirt. The top floor however had the clothes for Indian women but we later
found out that it was all overpriced. In the moment though Morgan and I didn’t
know any better and we wanted to get one outfit so we chose a place to go to
and they helped us out a lot. Soon enough though they kept throwing stuff in
our room and you could tell they were trying to force us to buy more.
Sunday: We went
to Fisherman’s Cove private beach. We were thinking about going to a public
beach but we thought we would probably be an attraction there, the beach would
be crowded, and we knew the resort had a place to eat. We took our first taxi
ride out there and that sure was an adventure but we got there safe. Once we
got there we couldn’t believe how nice it was, how friendly the lifeguards were
to help us out and talk with us, and how large the waves were. I’ve never been
to Cali and I was told Cali has big waves but Evan said the waves off the coast
there were larger. So the waves were fun to float on and Morgan, Bob, and I
only got plowed by a wave once. Bob has the battle wound to prove it.
Monday: was the
first day of work. We showed up at 10 a.m. as they told us and no one showed up
until 10:30. They then spread us out throughout the lab to work on stuff but
none of us had a clue as to what we should have done. So then after lunch half
of us went back to the hotel while the other half stayed there and talked with
our Indian friends. They were able to get two cycles (bikes) with flat tires
and asked stuff at the international office. Then when they went to fill the
tires up at a nearby hostel (dorm) Morgan set down her backpack briefly and a
monkey came up and stole her water bottle from her outside pocket, uncapped it,
and chugged it. Then more monkeys came out, they felt uncomfortable and left
for lunch from the hostel who’s bike pump was broken.
Tuesday: We didn’t
show up until 10:45, fussed with the internet for too long and then half went
to lunch early and then Tim, Morgan and I went later. We tried this place
called Café Coffee Day that was air conditioned, had toilet paper, and
sandwiches. I ordered a sandwich of course but I really didn’t like it and wish
I would have gone to Tifanys. We were just chilling for a while though so then
I got a frappe sort of thing because I felt like having some coffee and
something sweet but it was a bit too much towards the end of the drink.
We then went back for one of the lab member’s son’s first
birthday party. It was a big deal and everyone in the lab stopped what they
were doing to be there which was really nice. They had a giant butterscotch
cake, three different types of food, and some pop. We just ate though so I
couldn’t really eat much even though it was all tasty. Then we talked for a bit
and then left the lab to go home but got stopped because we had to be in
pictures. Then they took pictures for what seemed like an hour which really
didn’t bother me but it was interesting how they kept passing the baby around
so people could get pictures taken with Raskrishnan (the baby boy). Soon enough
we left and even were able to get SIM cards from Dr. Krishnan and went back.
Then we wanted to go to a specific place for dinner and it started to pour so
we turned back and had dinner at our place.
Oh, best part of my day though was being able to talk to Dr.
Krishnan’s wife about doing some volunteer work with a local school that helps
mentally-challenged kids. I sent an email to Dr. Udpa a while ago and then also
to Dr. Krishnan if I could do some volunteer work of some kind when I was not
working but there was no response which I wasn’t worried about. Then today I
found out from Dr. Krsihnan’s wife that this school is looking for engineers to
help build small things that can improve the kid’s motor skills. I imagine they’re
looking for something along the same lines as a Rubicks cube but we’ll see. We
also found out she’s a dance teacher and asked if we could see some
performances and she said she could help us out. I’m really looking forward to
both of these things.
So once again, I have another long blog post but hopefully it
wasn’t too bad. You all are probably snuggling up with hot cocoa next to a fire
inside your house right now though because I see it’s a chilling 72 ᵒF or so there.
Nothing compared to 95 or so with humidity. But I’m getting used to it and I
still like it better than the cold.
TTFN though, I’m guessing I won’t post again until after our
trip this weekend to Pondicherry…unless something crazy happens before then. Night
night.
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