Made it back to the States!

We arrived at LAX on Tuesday, and the plane was not so quiet upon our touchdown! We were all happy to be back in the states, but I personally could have spent more time in India. The last couple of days of our trip were very busy with traveling, but full of fun as well. Here goes the quick recap of our final days in India:

We visited the Taj Mahal, which is quiet an amazing site, but at 6:00am with about 97% humidity, most of us did not need the hour and a half we were given to take it in. After the Taj it was back to the hotel for breakfast, a quick shower, and then it was back on the road again to see Agra Fort. I actually liked the fort more than the Taj, as there was more to see there. It also provided a nice view of the city, including the Taj, as well as more shade than the Taj! That afternoon it was back to the hotel for napping and packing.

We left the next morning to make the 6 hour bus ride to Jaipur, known as the Pink City. Upon arrival to Jaipur, we stopped at a temple, and then headed to our hotel to check in. The hotel provided us with evening entertainment, including two ladies dancing with fire and pots on their heads, as well as a puppet show. Several students also got their palms read, and others had bracelets made to their specifications. The next morning, it was on to Amber Fort, where we road elephants up to the fort, walked around the fort, and then went to City Palace. Jaipur was also hot and very humid, so after the palace, several of us elected to go back to the hotel pool, while others decided to take in the local markets.

The next morning brought a 6:30 leave time, when we piled back on to the buses to drive the 5 hours to the Delhi airport, and then flew to Goa. This was not our original plan, but given all that was going on in Mumbai (where we had our original connecting flight to Goa) it was decided that this was the better travel route. This route however meant we spent the entire day traveling. My flight reached Goa at 5:15, and we arrived at the hotel at 6:45. Some students were on a later flight, and didn't reach the hotel until 8:45 (their flight was delayed). It was a bit of a bummer to the beginning of our stay in Goa, but things certainly picked up the next day!

Our full day in Goa brought time in the pool and in the ocean. The ocean water was nice and warm, but the rip tide was pretty strong, so we couldn't go in very deep. The drinks at the hotel were pretty cheap, so most of the students spent the day visiting the pool side bar! That evening, we all had dinner together at a restaurant called Fisherman's Wharf, which was a 4 minute walk from our hotel. Following dinner, it was back to hanging out at the hotel bar, chatting the night away. The next day, we had a 3:30am leave time, so most students didn't go to bed that night. At 3:30, it was back on the buses, heading for the airport, to fly back to Bangalore.

We were all exhausted on arrival in Bangalore. We ate breakfast at our hotel, which thankfully let us check in early (we arrived there at 9:15am), and then most of us went up to our rooms to sleep. Other than sleeping, the day was also filled with repacking of suitcases, as the next day we were headed back to the states.

Delhi Delights!

We just arrived at our hotel in Agra, having spent the last 2 days in Delhi. Delhi was amazing, but with only one full day to explore, we were all very sad to be leaving so fast. Delhi is a much more mature city, with much better infrastructure than Bangalore. While the temperature was warmer than Bangalore, and the humidity a lot worse, the group consensus is that 8 weeks in Delhi would have been much preferred to 8 weeks in Bangalore.

The first night, we went out to a club that was open until 2am, which quickly had the students loving the city, and the late night scene it presented. On day 2 we took a city tour, seeing some of the tourist sites, including a Mosque, a temple, and a market. I was unable to see all of the sites with the students, as I had to return to the hotel to retrieve the passports of 2 participants that were departing from the trip, but what I did see I thoroughly enjoyed! The evening brought a trip to the mall where we walked around and had dinner. After dinner, it was back to the hotel via rickshaw, and then going back to the club we had visited the night before. Since it was Sunday night, it was only open until 1am, but we managed not to get back to the hotel until around 2.

This morning we departed for Agra, and the students were thrilled to get up by 8:00 to make this trip! The bus trip meant a lot of sleeping for most, and a 3:45 arrival at the hotel to check in. Tomorrow morning we leave the hotel at 5:30am to go see the Taj Mahal. We are all excited to see the Taj, but not so excited about the leave time! Seems tomorrow afternoon will be filled with naps for most of us.

Mumbai Terrorist Attacks

News of the Mumbai terrorist attacks made its way through our group yesterday evening, and for some, the proximity to such attacks is a little too close for comfort. A couple of students have changed their travel plans, and will now be flying home earlier, but for the majority of us, it comes as a reminder to be aware of our surroundings, and to take caution as we venture onto the streets of India. We are still in Bangalore, but will be heading to the airport on Saturday begin our travels throughout India. I am interested to see what sort of measures will be in place at the airport, but am not expecting too much out of the ordinary.

Should questions about our whereabouts come up over the next week and a half, here is my itinerary:

July 16 - Fly to Delhi
Stay at the Crown Plaza Okhla - Delhi

July 18 - Drive to Agra
Stay at Trident Hotel

July 19 - visit Taj Mahal

July 20 - Drive to Jaipur
Stay at Trident Hotel

July 22 - Fly to Goa via Mumbai
Stay at the Holiday Inn

July 24 - Fly to Bangalore
Stay at Chancery Pavilion

July 25 - Fly to LAX via Singapore and Tokyo
July 26 - Fly to Sacramento

Hope you all are doing well. We are very excited to leave Bangalore, and check out other parts of India!

Last Weekend in Bangalore

The final week of our stay in Bangalore has arrived. We were all excited to head out for our final weekend in Bangalore, which began with Hard Rock happy hour on Thursday night. Following happy hour, we headed over to UB City to check out Skyye Bar, a rooftop bar that has great views of the entire city. It is a cool place, but was pretty dead, so we headed to a club around the corner called Bacchus. Turns out Bacchus was pretty dead too, but it is a smaller club, and when 25 of us entered, we pretty much started our party. We didn't leave until after the cops arrived at 11, to inform the club that it was time to send people home.

Friday a group of students and I joined the professors to go look at an alternative location to house students in India next year. Turns out that housing American students that attend a university known for its partying at an ultraconservative Indian graduate school wasn't the best idea - and so using the some location to house next years students is no longer an option. The new location is much nicer than where we are currently, and most of the issues that the students are currently facing, most importantly the not so quality food, would not be a concern at the new location. Some of the students walked away from the viewing a bit bitter!

That evening a couple of the girls and I went to a restaurant called Little Italy, where we had some delicious pasta. We got there a bit before it opened (well, an hour) and therefore got to walk around the mall that was conveniently located across the street from the restaurant. After dinner, we went to Manchester United, a bar that was right around the corner from the restaurant. Many others from our group joined us at the bar, which had unlimited drinks for women for $10 and $20 for men. I have been asked more than once how they can make money off of this, and when the Americans are around, they don't. However, the Indians don't drink nearly as much as Americans, so they can make money off of the locals.

After 2 nights of going out, and with a big week ahead, Saturday and Sunday were spent on homework and relaxing. We leave Bangalore nice and early next Saturday morning - at 5:00am. Before then though, the students have a quiz, 2 tests, and a presentation to give, along with packing up all of our stuff. The week will be a busy one, but the count down to leave time will keep us all motivated!

4th of July Weekend

The weekend officially started on Friday this past week, due to Friday classes. However, since Thursday was such a fun night, we decided to take it easy, and only went out to dinner. The girls headed over to Crowne Plaza for dinner, taking in some wondeful non-Xime food. After that it was a night of watching movies and relaxing. Saturday morning, we headed out at 10:00 to do some shopping. We got dropped off at KFC (it took over an hour to get there), where we ate lunch, and then were offered a tour of the facilities. We gladly accepted, and were delighted to see how clean everything in the kitchen was and learn about their food storage policies (upon arrival back at Xime, we had a few pointers for the cafeteria staff). As we walked out of KFC we spotted a grocery market, and walked in, in search of peanut butter. We were excited to see that they had many American foods stocked, including Skippy peanut butter and goldfish. So, this was an excellent start to our day of shopping!

After the grocery market, we headed out to find Commercial Street, a street lined with small vendors as well as larger stores. The Indians only like to give you directions for as far as they can see, so it took us a while to find it. However, eventually we got there, and were excited to look at all that they had to offer. After about 2 hours of shopping, we took a rickshaw back home, where we quickly changed our clothes, and headed back to town to the Hard Rock. Rumor was that the professors were going to be eating dinner there, so several of us headed over. Turns out the professors changed their plans at the last minute, but we still had a good time there, and enjoyed their food yet again!

After dinner, we were ready to do some dancing, and headed over to the Ice Bar at the Taj Hotel. We were there until they closed at 11:30. Our rickshaw on the way home was stopped at a police checkpoint, and it turned out his license was not up to date. So, after some talking and a 100 rupee fine (the equivalent of $2) we were on our way. We were all ready for bed when we got home! Sunday was a day of relaxing for me, and a day of homework for the students.

Since we are not in the U.S., we had class on Monday, but we still celebrated in style. The boys played a game of basketball against the Indian students, and despite having been partying for several hours, still managed to easily win. The girls and the professors watched and cheered on the guys. After the game, it was off to the showers, as we headed out in buses to Crowne Plaza for dinner and fireworks. While we didn't have bbq, dinner was still amazing! It was a buffet, complete with a burrito station, pasta and fried chicken, and ice cream and donuts for dessert. After dinner, it was out to the patio where fireworks (large ones with big explosions) were set off less than 5 feet in front of us. As the embers were falling on people you heard quite a few murmurings of "only in India!"We had a good time that night, but 9:00 class the following morning wasn't as crowded as usual!

With only 2 weeks left at Xime, we are all getting really anxious to head out on our travels in northern India. This certainly has been an amazing experience, and an opportunity for tremendous learning, however, if you ask any person in our group how many days we have left, they will be able to tell you, and will probably mention that we are now into single digits (9 days!).

Fabulous Thursday

On Thursday, one of the students, Tara, and I walked over to a local salon (about a 30 minute walk). While there, we got pedicures for $6, Tara got her eyebrows threaded for less than a dollar, and then got a free ride home from the salon owners. When we got back, we quickly changed our clothes, and then headed over to Hard Rock for happy hour. Us girls are big fans of their raspberry lemonade, which are available in pitchers during happy hour! After a couple of hours at Hard Rock, we went to a local mall - UB City - which is a very upscale mall, on the opposite side of Bangalore from where we are staying. Several of the others in our group, as well as the professors, were eating dinner at the mall. We met up with them, and moved on to a different bar, called City Bar. Pawan joined us, and so did a few of his childhood friends. It was nice to meet them, seeing as how we have spent so much time with him. One of his friends had to head to work at the end of the night, and works right around the corner from where we are staying, so we got a free ride back home at the end of the night as well. Only paying for one rickshaw ride in a day is pretty unheard of, so that along with our cheap pedicures and happy hour drinks, made for one of the best days in Bangalore yet!

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!