View from the Roof

   Friday we climbed up to the very top of the library roof. It's still under construction, so we had to scale this rickety little bamboo ladder but it was so worth it. The view from up there is spectacular! There was a nice cool breeze blowing, as we watched the sun sink behind the (not very) distant mountains. We could see and smell the smoke from many cooking fires. Reminds me of a quote by David Livingstone, "I see at time's the smoke of a thousand villages..."
    All you you in Texas can be jealous of the nice weather we are having here. Stays between 80 and 90 degrees during the day and cools down nicely at night. That may sound hot to some people, but compared to the sweltering 100+ degrees we were enjoying in Texas, 90 degrees is really nice. :) They say it does get REALLY hot here, but this is a cooler season. Nice for us. :)

Campus Tour part 2

The Cherian's house. We eat lunch here everyday.

The snack shop

Main Auditorium

Tree-house and soccer field

Volleyball

So there's your small tour of the main campus area. There are more dorm and faculty housing, but I don't want to bore you. Until next time...

Campus Tour part 1

In this post, I'm gonna try to give you a little feel for the setting we are living in here. The college campus is located in a village on the outskirts of the city of Coimbatore. 

Here is an overhead view of the campus.  The shaded areas are not owned by the college.

This is the "academic block" where all the college classrooms and library are located.

The Guest House. We are staying in the room top right. More about this later...

Looking toward the academic block from outside our room.

The students dining hall. There are over 300 students plus boarders who are attending the matriculation school who take their meals here. They eat in shifts that are announced by a very loud gonging dinner bell thing. I think the first shift eats breakfast at 5:00 am. We are not allowed to eat here. Apparently the food isn't all that great.

College girl's dorm

Home of Hope orphanage

Going Shopping

Hey everyone! I can't believe we've only been here for a week and a half. So many new experiences! I can't decide what to post about first. :) I think I'll start with a few of the interesting things we've seen while out shopping. The Friday and Saturday after we got here we got to go to a few stores. Shopping here is a little overwhelming, especially when everything is swirling because of jet lag. We are starting to get the hang of making a mental currency exchange every time we look at an item's price tag. For the most part, things are cheaper here. Most people here are Hindu and strictly vegetarian, so it is hard to find meat for sale. Especially beef because cows are particularly sacred. But if you need bananas, rice, or curry seasonings, no problem.

The results of our first trip to the grocery store, notice the "pupped rice" lol

Anybody care for a banana? The itty bitty ones in the first picture are the best, very sweet.

You know, I've really been craving a good eel. lol

Mom, I was gonna bring him back just for you, but he didn't fit in the suitcase ;)

This is the poultry market.

Travel to India

Departure - 2:00 pm Tuesday, July 10

We're off!

Tuesday July 10, 2012 – Takeoff
   OK, so the morning of our departure wasn't exactly smooth sailing. We started the day with zero money in our pockets for the trip. But between 3 trips between Bastrop and Austin, a small fender bender, and several other frustrating hangups, we made it to the airport just in time to board our plane with $3,000+. He is always on time.

1^st stop – Chicago
   Made it to our gate in time to grab a bite to eat (chicken and crunchy veggies between flat-bread, and fruit, yum!) before taking off on the long stretch to Amman.

2^nd stop - Amman, Jordan
   Wow, rough flight. Tim lost his “airplane curry” on the landing stretch. If the terrorists use royal Jordanian pilots we should feel relatively safe, they'll probably crash in a cornfield somewhere lol. Speaking of terrorists, being in Amman, was quite the experience. Looking through the mosque-shaped windows we saw that it's in the middle of the dessert so even the air has an orange haze from all the sand. Much stranger than the terrain tho was being surrounded by Muslims. There was even a group of guys prostrating towards Mecca on the tarmac as we were climbing the steps to board the plane. Talk about unnerving! I discovered quickly not to look them in the eye and smile. They will stare back at you, but never smile. We never even saw them smile at each other. But then, most of the ladies where completely swathed in black with only their eyes showing, so maybe their smiles were hidden. Doubt it, glaring eyes do not usually accompany smiles. Tim whispered to me, “What does it feel like to be an infidel?” Kinda creepy.
   We had a couple hours to wait in the airport, so we found a little cafe with comfy chairs and rested a little. Tim got this amazing chocolate cherry frozen yogurt, and I ate a Twixt bar.
   Going through security, I started to take off my shoes, but the security guy, with a horrified expression on his face told me, “No, no, ladies are special. You must go over there.” He must have been so relieved to see me slip my shoe back on and go through the door marked “ladies”. Lol Americans just have no sense of propriety haha.
   I also had my first experience with toilets that are only equipped with hoses. Apparently these are used for cleansing yourself as well as the toilet seat. It is a little hard to get dry with this system. I prefer toilet paper.
   Another funny thing, when we got to the green sign that marked gate #3, we were a little confused as to whether we should go through the open door and down the dingy stairs where the arrow pointed, or through the glass doors at the other end of room, or wait in the chairs. We decided to sit and wait. I wish we could have videoed the looks of consternation on the faces of all the other passengers as they faced the same confusion as we did. Everyone would walk to the sign, peer down the stairs, look around, and look confused, shrug shoulders, take a seat. Lol Maybe it was only hilarious to us because we were beginning to be very tired by this time.

3^rd stop – Mumbai, India
   Yay, we are finally in India! Wow, everything and everybody smells like curry lol. Thankfully our flight from Amman was fairly empty so I had an extra seat to stretch out in, and was able to sleep a little. It takes me a while to get tired enough to sleep on a plane, and when I do it's more like a coma brought on by sheer exhaustion lol.
   Upon landing in Mumbai, we had to wait in line to go through immigration, wait in line to get our luggage, wait in line to take said luggage through customs, wait in line to get tickets and leave luggage with new airline, wait in line to get on a bus, drive 10 minutes to the other side of the airport, wait in line to go through security, again, only to be told that we were too early. So we had to go back out to the “holding tank” while we waited for our next flight. It was about 5:00 in the morning (India time) and our flight wasn't scheduled until 4:30 in the afternoon.

   We spent most of the morning listening to a Sherlock Holmes audiobook and finishing off the rest of our granola bars. For lunch I bought a chicken sandwich, some sort of Indian flauta thing that turned out to be really spicy, and juice. After another hour of waiting we were able to go back through security for the 5th and final time. We both passed out for the rest of the afternoon, and nearly missed our flight. Thankfully we woke up in time to get on our plane.

Last stop – Coimbatore, India

   At last, we made it! All our luggage made it too! Michele and one of the campus drivers picked us up for the 30 minute drive to the college. We arrived about 7:45 pm. Just in time to eat supper with the Cherian family (they had waited for us). 

Arrival - 7:45 pm Thursday, July 12