Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Kerala

Our last week of touring was very fun. Kerala was an interesting place. It was strange to see the whole state go on strike. It was a slight inconvenience but we got to see/do most of the things we would do anyways. I think the best part about Kerala was how beautiful the scenery was. I could write much more, but we will be home very soon and this is our last day in India, so I should get ready for our last trip into town.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

News Update

It looks like tomorrow we will be visiting a village. Just to see what non-urban India is like.

Tomorrow evening we will eat dinner at Dr. Alexander's house.

The combination of these two means we have to do our homework today (2 days before it is due vs. an hour before it is due) which is upsetting some of the guys. :P

Between now and the end of the "semester" we have to come up with a project presentation (on a general Indian topic - I think I am doing marriage laws/ceremonies), study for a groundwater quiz and a groundwater test.

Tonight we are ordering from Pizza Corner. It is the highlight of our Wednesday.

I should start working on my marriage presentation.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Monday and Tuesday

Monday:
Dr. Alexander took us into town. We did a lot of shopping (some of it souvenirs for people who read this blog). We also ate at a very nice restaurant. The napkins were aprons/bibs. You had to ask for silverware so most of us decided to eat with our fingers like everyone else in the restaurant. The food was very very good.

Mints at Samar Kand:



















Riding in the Rickshaw:














Tuesday:
Today we cut culture class short to visit two children's homes. The first home was for children of prisoners or abused children. They were having recess while we there. The majority of them came over to look at us. The second visit was to Visthar (http://www.visthar.org/). They do many things but they have a home for devadasi children (children of temple prostitutes). The girls there sang for us. That was very neat. After our visits we had our Groundwater test. Now we are all working on homework (kind of).

Precious Children Home (Prison Fellowship India):

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Weekend

Precious Sleep:














Downtown:

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Free Weekend

It is nice to have this weekend off. Sleeping in was especially nice.

Last night Johnathan, Troy, Adam, and I went into Bangalore for a few hours. We went to a couple grocery stores looking for granola bars. My favorite part was when we ate at a local coffee shop. Right before we came back to ICMIS they also stopped at a Subway.

We plan on going back into town tonight. I think we are hoping to see a movie.

Monday we are all going shopping with our culture teacher, Dr. Alexander. She is taking us to a nice mall and is going to help us buy Indian clothes without getting too ripped off.

I would enjoy spending the whole weekend downtown but we are all very busy. There are two tests in Groundwater this week and I think one quiz. A book report is due in our culture class on Tuesday. We also have to give a small presentation on an art form on Wednesday. On Friday we will be giving larger presentations on topics of our choice.

Although knowing this is our free weekend makes me feel very lazy, I should probably go to work on one of those.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Hassan and More

Our weekend trip went well. I, at least, am pretty tired from it so this is just a few pictures:

We climbed up this, barefoot...



















...To see this:



















Everywhere we go, little children want their pictures taken:














We saw a lot of carvings like this on Sunday:

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Future Plans

This is because I'm sure the parents would like a clue as to what we are doing. As the itinerary stands right now this is what we are doing:

This weekend we are traveling to Belur - Halebid. I think we will be seeing a Jain temple.

The next weekend is our free weekend. We are allowed to go on a trip of our choosing but at this point I think we are all going to stay and see Bangalore.

The last week we will take a train to Cochin. After spending a day in Cochin we will move to the Allepy Backwaters and spend the night on a houseboat. Then it is on to Thekkady, where we will see a spice plantation. After that is Munnar, with a visit to a tea plantation. Finally we travel back through Cochin to get to Bangalore again. And then the trip is over and we will be getting ready to come home to the US.

Right now we are taking a brief break from homework. Back to that.