We are Americans...

On Thursday, the students had their first test, and so that evening they were ready to celebrate one milestone of this journey being complete. After over a week of little meat, and almost no red meat, the students discovered a steak house here in Bangalore. So, Thursday evening we all loaded into cabs to make the almost 2 hour trek (but only about 17 miles, more proof of the horrible traffic) to Millers 46. We had made reservations, and so they had a whole floor of the restaurant set aside for us. It was a very fun and authentic place, complete with a picture of  John Wayne on the bathroom door! The steaks were large and cheap (about $8 each).

We are walking entertainment where ever we go, and Thursday night was no exception. The Millers 46 waiters seemed to thoroughly enjoy our visit. When we finished dinner, we headed back to Purple Haze, where we were met by hellos, handshakes, and hugs from the staff that fondly remembered us from the prior week. By the time we piled back into the cabs to head home, I think everyone in our group had had their picture taken with at least one person working at Purple Haze. It was a great evening, and a great start to the weekend!

8 days in...

So, I have been a little busy lately. Doing what, you ask? Mainly taking students to the local medical clinic to get checked out. 8 days into our stay and the stomach issues hit us; 8 students in the last 3 days have been seen by a doctor. The clinic is much nicer than I ever imagined. And much cheaper than imagined as well! One of the students was pretty dehydrated and had a very low blood pressure, and thus had to be admitted to the hospital. Her 7 hour hospital stay was less then $65, with about $12 worth of meds. The charge to be seen by the urgent care doctor - $6.

The nurses and doctors all recognize me at the clinic at this point, and are all very kind. When I visited with a student today, they asked me about the student who had the hospital stay, wanting to know if she is feeling better. At first I had a local person who works on campus go with us to the clinic, but now I am a seasoned veteran - taking the students by myself. Luckily, I have not gotten sick yet!

Getting around

As I have alluded to before, traffic in Bangalore is horrible! Lane lines are clearly only suggestions, horns are used instead of signals, vehicles of all types share the highways (buses, cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, horses) and pedestrians have no right of way. What is amazing to me, is that I have yet to see an accident. This is one place where I could never imagine driving!

We have now ventured out using all types of public transportation - taxis, city buses and rickshaws. Transportation here is cheap - so far the most we have paid is about 30 cents per person to travel by bus one way, $2 by rickshaw one way, and $10 per person to take a taxi into town, have it wait for 3 hours, and take then us back home. Students seem to prefer the rickshaws, as they are airier than the other options, and therefore don't get as hot. I'm not sure how many of them will be getting on the city bus anytime in the near future, given how crowded they are, making getting off difficult, and also for a very warm ride.

We are learning our way around, but the fact that we are about a 10 minute car ride (given very little traffic) away from town, makes getting around a bit more difficult than most of us are used to. However, we continue to have a good time, and entertain the locals wherever we go!

Class Days & Purple Haze

Classes started on Thursday, which has helped to develop a daily routine. For me, it is up by 7, shower and get ready for the day, then breakfast at 7:45 followed by class at 8:30. Morning classes end as lunch is ready at 12:30. Twice a week the students have afternoon classes from 2 - 4:00, otherwise the afternoon is spent doing homework and getting ready for the next day. Dinner is served at 6:30, and bedtime has been coming early these days. By 10:00 all have been asleep!

After 2 days of class, the students were ready to learn about the nightlife in Bangalore. We piled into cabs and headed into the city. Since Bangalore traffic is some of the worst in India, it took us about an hour and 15 minuted to get to our destination - Purple Haze. Purple Haze, of course inspired by the great Jimi Hendrix - is a pub that continuously plays rock music from the late 70's, 80's and 90's. The music was loud, and pub fare was good, and the drinks were plentiful. Needless to say, we all had a really good time!

Open Bar...

To celebrate our first full day in India, a welcome dinner was arranged at the Crowne Plaza Hotel for us. The hotel was a little nicer than our dorm rooms, and we were feeling pretty good about putting on nicer clothes for a nicer meal. When we arrived, we were informed of the open bar. Who doesn't like an open bar?? Certainly not the 56 UA undergrads (almost all of whom are under 21) who finished finals, packed and moved in the 3 days leading up to the departure from India. When we were heading out the door at the end of the evening, one of the bar tenders noted that he had never seen a group of people drink so much. It was a  great evening in which everyone had fun and really began to bond as a group. But, I don't think another open bar will be seen on this trip!

India, We have Arrived

It was a long, tiring journey, but as of 1:00am Tuesday May 17, we had finally made it to XIME (Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship) in Bangalore, India. The trip over was 46 hours long for me, however longer for some of the students. My trip started with leaving my newly emptied and cleaned apartment for the Tucson airport. From Tucson I flew to Las Vegas, where after about an hour, it was on to San Francisco. San Francisco is where the staff and students met up, and after a 4 hour layover, we departed for Hong Kong. The flight to Hong Kong was 13 hours, and when they gave us the choice of deplaning or staying on board, we all quickly gathered our belongings for the chance to walk around the terminal for an hour, while the airplane was refueled and a new crew boarded.

Next up was Singapore, where we spent 8 hours. That airport is huge! Several of us took the free city tour, an amazing idea of showing the passengers waiting for connecting flights around the city. The tour proved to be a success for the tour guide & the Singapore tourism council, as many of us are now looking forward to visiting Singapore in the future! Departing Singapore, we were exhausted and ready to finally be done with the traveling. Our next stop was to be our final one - Bangalore. We all vowed that we would stay awake on the flight to help us get on local time, but as soon as the plane started taxiing - that clearly wasn't going to happen.

After getting our luggage, accounting for everyone, we were off to XIME - about an hour bus ride from the airport. Once again we tried to stay awake, but failed! However, after 46 hours, 6 airports, and 4 countries, we had arrived!