9 Days left...

We are down to the final days of this trip, and while the students are busy finishing up all the last minute assignments, I have been busy coordinating to see the last of the tourist sites for the trip. Last weekend we headed to the east coast of India to Mahabalipuram, which is outside of Chennai. We stayed at the Chariot Beach Resort, which is on the Bay of Bengal, and has the largest pool I have ever seen. Many of us chose to just spend the weekend relaxing. It was hot and humid, so when we were outside, we were usually found in the pool! On Sunday, it was back to Bangalore, and time to prepare for the upcoming week.

For me, the weekend has been about setting up site seeing trips for the 2 faculty members that are teaching this session. Yesterday, I accompanied them to Shiva Temple:

It was a great experience, and we were all glad we took the time to visit. Today they headed to Lal Bagh, the botanical gardens. However, since I have already been, I stayed back to work on some other things. This weekend we are planning on going to Cubbon Park, as well as getting in some shopping for the remaining souvenirs we have yet to buy. Our time in India ia quickly coming to an end, but for most, the excitement to get back to friends and family in the states is growing exponentially with each day.

An Indian 4th

The past week has been pretty boring - just really filled with homework, quizzes and tests. But all of that changed today. It started like any other day, up at 7:15, breakfast at 7:45, class at 8:30 - which today included a finance test. After class I got to grade part of the finance test, so that kept me busy for a bit. But this evening, we were all off to Manipal County Resort to celebrate the 4th of July. We started the evening with chicken and lamb kebabs, then the open bar opened (this wasn't really necessary, as the students had been pre-gaming since noon, and it was 7:30), and then the 25 minutes of fire works began. Everyone got sparklers so that we could all personally take part in the evening's light show. This year we were standing a little farther away from where the fireworks were being set off, so I felt much safer. However, there was no fire truck standing my this time, so perhaps that was a false sense of safety! Following fireworks we had dinner, dessert, and then dancing. A good time was had by all! Hope you all enjoyed/are enjoying your 4th.