Blogs from Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 152

(I wrote this a few days ago and was going to re-read, edit, and finish it , but it seems every day we are on the go from early until late and I never really had the time to do it or anything on the internet until now. (even now, I only have less than an hour from waking up to shower and be ready to be on the road to Japur) So here it is, although not re-read, edit, or finished. Since I wrote this we have traveled up to Delhi and done a lot more. That's a story for another day. If I don't get this entry up now, who knows when it will be.) We arrived in Coimadore a few days ago but it seems a lifetime ago. I have seen and experienced ... read more

My favorite spot  This is supposed to be about my favorite spot. But it probably is yours as well. The space where little girls in braces could dream about winning beauty pageants, where unaware passers-by lead to fantasy tales, where some one’s poor grandmother grew a distinct resemblance to a witch with a broom stick. Where self-identity was amoeboid and the air breathed exhilarating, spiked substantially with a substance called dreams. My ‘spot’ is physically located continents away in a little stairway (8 steps to be precise) in the Nilgiri Mountains in Southern India. The Nilgiri Mountains are also called the Blue Mountains because of a perpetually blue mist that hangs like a veil over the dense eucalyptus -forested slopes. The privileges of belonging to a nature-loving family included an apartment to camp in ... read more

We started the day with a huge buffet breakfast at the hotel. Among the many choices I found plenty to fill up on. I can't tell you the names of anything, nor will I take the time to describe it right now, but I can say it was enjoyable. Check out this link to our hotel, it's beautiful! The Residency Towers After breakfast our driver picked us up and Ruth and I had our first daylight view of the streets of Chennai. The one thing that surprised me most was that I was not nervous or anxious in any way as we drove through the rather chaotic streets. Anyone who knows me well will also be surprised to hear this. In fact, I have such bad traffic phobias that I brought along some (prescription) "calm-me-down-drugs" just ... read more

After a worrisome morning yesterday (or however long ago that was), I was reunited with my luggage at the San Francisco airport. They decided to store it for us instead of delivering it. Praveen and I found it all locked up with a bit of other "bad luggage" like lost animals in an animal shelter. I can't express how relieved it was to finally lay eyes on them. The international terminal at SFO was hectic and crowded. We got there early because Praveen was told that was the only way for us to get good seats. Guess what? wrong. All the seats were already assigned and we were going to have to sit seperately. Ruth decided to let Praveen persue that little problem, saying that she was sure he'd be more diplomatic and polite than she ... read more

I don’t think I’ve written yet about the Sea Olympics that occurred before we got to India…so here’s a little bit about it. We are divided up into “seas” and each one has their own RA. There are 9 all together, including the professors/staff/adult passengers who made up the “Vitamin C.” I am in Baltic, and we didn’t have very much spirit. But those of us that did made up for everyone else. The night before the Olympics we had an opening ceremony and a talent show. I was able to put my radio editing software to good use and made the music mix for our parts in the talent show and in synchronized swimming the next day. It was tons of fun and I got to know some new people in my sea really well, ... read more