First Week of New Classes

When we got back from our weekend out of town, reality set in with the start of new classes on Monday morning. This section of classes includes finance and business communication. During the first week, the students had 2 quizzes and a test - when classes are only 4 weeks long, there is a lot to fit in! On Thursday night, the classes were completed, and all that stood in the way between the students and the weekend was a business visit on Friday morning. Well, they didn't let that stand in the way of having a good time. We all loaded into auto rickshaws and headed to Hard Rock to celebrate making it through a week of the new classes with happy hour! We had a good time at Hard Rock, but some/most of the students found getting up the next day for the 8:30 leave for the business visit a bit difficult.

Friday's business visit was to Infosys in Bangalore. The visit to Infosys in Mysore was a lot more interesting, so that made the students despise the 8:30 leave time even more. But, we were done there by 10:30, and had the rest of the day free. That evening, some of the girls and I went to the Taj Hotel for ladies night. After that we met up with some of the guys in our group at a club that was open till 3am. We didn't stay that late (got home about 1:45), but in Bangalore most places close by 11:30, so this was a real novelty.

Saturday was a day of getting some stuff done, and lounging around. The electricity kept going out, so getting things done (which for me was mainly on the internet) proved very difficult. That evening some of us headed over to the Crowne Plaze Hotel (one of the few things relatively close to where we are staying) for dinner. We had heard that their burgers were delicious, so most of us opted to try that. The burger didn't disappoint! During our dinner, the manager came over to ask if we were with some of the others in our group who had previously eaten there and recommended the burger to us - we are really making an impression around here!

Sunday was a lazy, hazy day, with little electricity yet again. The list of things we now realize we take for granted in the states gets longer everyday! The students seem to be getting home sick, and are counting down the days till we are done at Xime and get to travel again. With 5 weeks already gone by, I know we will be leaving here in no time. Man, how time flies!

The Fun Continues

On day 2 in Kabini, we woke up to heavy rain. By 11:00 it had died down and the sun broke through for a bit. Which worked out well, as we were then able to see the elephant that the resort has as a pet. We got to pet the elephant and then the elephant headed down to the river, where students were able to sit on the elephants back and have the elephant give them a shower. I had already showered, so I opted out of that experience.

Later in the afternoon, it was my groups turn to go on the safari. The rain had started to fall again, but  they provided us all with ponchos and away we went! We had to take a boat across the river, where we loaded into a jeep, drove through a small village, and into the national forest. Our group got very lucky on the safari, and saw more animals than any other group including monkeys, deer, elephants, wild pigs, wild dogs, and a leopard. Leopard's are very difficult to see, and we were lucky enough to see one climbing out of a tree.

After the safari, we were all cold and a bit wet, so it was back to our huts to shower and warm up before heading to dinner. After dinner, most of us hung out in the bar, waiting to head over to the designated party huts. 3 of the students had birthdays the next day, so we were celebrating that night! Pawan and I arranged to have a cake delivered to my hut a bit before midnight, and then moved the party on over, as a surprise for the birthday boy and girls. The party continued till 3:30, and then it was off to bed.

The next morning I was up at 5, as I had the privilege of going on a second safari - this one leaving at 5:30am (we wanted a teacher or t.a. on each safari and so, I sucked it up and went again). There were suppose to be 16 of us on the safari, but for some reason, only 5 of us made it. We got to take a smaller jeep and check out different areas of the forest, but didn't see as many animals as I had seen the day before. This second safari was a bit more difficult to stay awake for.

When we arrived back at the resort, it was time to quickly eat breakfast, and then shower and pack up all our stuff. At 11:00am, we sadly loaded on the buses, and headed back to Bangalore. The bus ride back was pretty quiet, as most of us were catching up on the sleep we had failed to get during the trip. The weekend was amazing, and really brought the group closer together.

On to Kabini

After 2 days in Mysore, it was time to head to Kabini. On the way, we stopped at a silk factory and got to see all the steps invloved in getting the silk from the worms to the finished goods - sarees and ties in this case. It was very interesting to see the process! After the silk factory, we headed down the road to a sandalwood factory, where soap and incense are made. This factory tour wasn't terribly entertaining, as our guide spoke very little English and was difficult to hear. However, we did see the factory workers hand packaging the incense, manually counting out bundles of 100. In India, labor is so cheap that the idea of automating these processes doesn't even occur to them. After a stop at a liquor store (students had to stock up for the next 2 days) we were finally headed down the road to Kabini.

After 2 hours, one of which was spent on a dirt road full of potholes, we arrived at Orange County Resort. This place was amazing! It is an all inclusive resort, on the river, and very secluded. Once we got there, there was no leaving until the buses rolled out 2 days later. Each set of roommates had their own hut with a jacuzzi in it. I don't have a roommate, so I had my own hut, and due to all my hard work on this trip, got upgraded by Pawan (our tour guide) to a hut with a pool!

Upon arrival we had an amazing lunch - all meals there were amazing, as they had a very large continental buffet, and served butter naan at the table. Following lunch the students headed to the pool with the professor, while I worked out the details of the upcoming safaris that we would all be taking at some point over our 3 day stay. After the pool, it was on to naps, showers, and taking in a cultural dance before dinner. After dinner (which lasted about 3 hours as we would sit and talk for some time afterwords) we had designated party huts, where the majority of our group of 66 gathered. We had a ton of fun, and given that there were no curfew or noise rules, didn't manage to get into any trouble (the first on a Friday night for our group). For me, this meant I actually got to relax, as I knew where all students were, and that they were all safe.

When we finally made it to bed, we all slept well that night!

Sightseeing

The 2nd day in Mysore we were off to see the training center for Infosys. The site was amazing - a city in itself. They have the facilities to train and house 14,000 people at any given time, and have all one could ever think of onsite: gym, bowling alley, pool, salon, doctor, bank, grocery store, cafeteria, walk climbing wall, and more. The students wanted to stay there for the rest of the time we are in India, as the accommodations are much nicer than at Xime. When our tour of Infosys was over, it was back on the bus to head to Chamundi Hill.


Chamundi Hill is a hill that allows for amazing views of the entire city of Mysore, as well as is home to a temple. It is named after a powerful goddess. The road to get to the temple was lined with vendors trying to sell us just about everything one can imagine. There were monkeys and cows in the streets, and since this was our first time seeing monkeys, we were very excited! We didn't spend much time on top of the hill, before we got back on the bus, and headed down to see Nandi - a 16 ft. elephant statue carved in granite. After a quick view of the temple, it was off to lunch at a local hotel.


Following lunch, we headed over to Mysore Palace. The palace was huge, had amazing wood work, as well as stained glass work. One of the professors that was traveling with us, brought along his family, which included his 3-year old son, Seth. Well, in the process of spending the day sight-seeing, the two of us became best friends. So, I can't really tell you the details of the palace, as Seth and I took a somewhat abbreviated tour of the palace. I can tell you that the Indian people love little kids with blonde hair. Seth had his picture taken at least 12 times while we were in the palace.


When the palace tour ended, it was back on the bus to head back to the hotel. We were all pretty tired at this point, and so most of us elected to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant. After dinner it was back to the rooms, where the American college students did what they love to do - hangout and drink!

Bus ride to Mysore

In heading to Mysore, we left the city and headed through more rural/agricultural areas. Here are some of the pics I took on the ride:

Mysore!

The students finished their first session of classes on Wednesday, and so we left that afternoon for a long weekend exploring other parts of India. We were all very excited to be leaving Bangalore, and to spend the weekend in hotels with nicer beds and better food. The hotels did not disappoint!

From Bangalore, we traveled by bus to Mysore, a 4 hour journey. Mysore was the original capital of the state we are staying in, Karnataka. The first night we were greeted with a wonderful buffet/bbq poolside. Good food and a pool really got the trip off to a good start.  Following dinner, a group of students and I decided to walk through town and visit a local market/bazaar. The market was outdoors, with a row of vendors selling fruit, veggies, and spices. The 2nd isle we walked down had vendors selling wood works and jewelry. The third isle was full of saris and silk goods (Mysore is the silk capital of India). Walking through the market was a fabulous cultural experience.

Getting back to the hotel, I was very excited to take advantage of the bathtub, and to sleep on a comfy queen sized bed (amenities the dorms do not provide).  I had a terrific first day in Mysore, and was excited to explore more of the city the next day!

Another week down

It was a dramatic week, which makes the weekend so much more welcome! Today (Friday) we had a business visit to Biocon, a biotech/pharmaceutical company. I found the visit to be very interesting for several reasons:

1. Biocon was founded by a female back in the 70s, who remains the CEO today. This would be pretty cool in the U.S., but is amazing in India, a country which continues to be mainly male dominated to this day.
2. Two of the XIME students are interning their this summer. I had the opportunity to discuss their school and internship experience with them, which allowed for comparison to the U.S. experience. Here, summer internships are mandatory, and are actually a class MBA students must take. At the end of the internship, they have a lengthy paper they must submit to the college. At U of A, internships are only highly encouraged, and no credit is given for them.
3. We toured part of the facilities in which the drugs are created, packaged, and shipped. It was amazing to see such a sterile environment in a country that otherwise seems very unsterile and not clean. The facilities were huge, taking up 240 acres - much larger than anything else we have seen in Bangalore thus far. 

The visit was a great way to finish off the week!

After the visit, we all headed back to campus to change our clothes (no need to stay in business casual longer than absolutely necessary!) and finalize dinner plans. A group of 7 of us decided to head to the Hard Rock Cafe. We were excited to get burgers actually made with ground beef, real bacon, ranch dressing, and soak in the Americana! Turns out the Hard Rock proved to have both ground beef and bacon, but not so much ranch as we are used to back in the states. Two out of three was fine with us though! We had a good time, thoroughly enjoyed the food and music, and all walked out very full. There is a good chance we will head back there another time before our stay in India is over.

Didn't Make it out of Round 2

While I made it through round 1 of the stomach bug without being caught, I wasn't so lucky when it came to round 2. The good news is that round 2 didn't seem to be as bad, but I was still down for 6 days. So, I spent last week doing a lot of sleeping. The students on the other hand had a marketing paper due and 2 tests. I had the pleasure of grading the marketing papers, as well as creating and grading one of the tests. So, I was pretty busy when I wasn't sleeping!

All of this not feeling well made for a pretty dull weekend, which turned into all kinds of fun on Monday morning! Seems that on Saturday night, while I was busy sleeping, the students were busy partying in the male dorms. The dorms are actually across the street (a kinda busy street - the students equate crossing it to playing frogger - did I mention that pedestrians definitely don't have the right of way in India?) from each other, so I had no idea what was going on. Well, apparently at 11:30, 12:30 and finally at 1:30 the Dean of the college had to ask them to be quiet. Here, it is the law that noise not be heard outside of one's home after 10:30 at night, and this is why the Dean was concerned (breaking this noise law is grounds for arrest). So, these actions led to a talk with the Dean this morning (Monday) as well as Dr. Umashankar (head professor on the trip). Normally, my job is to make sure all students are in their dorms (girls in girl's, boys in boy's) and are quiet by midnight. Fell down on this job since I wasn't feeling well. Not to worry though - next weekend I will be back on duty!