6/30/2012 Saturday
Last night was so crazy late! We flew into Chennai right at 12:00am and had to go through customs. Luckily, they still had many people there working; however, it still took us about an hour to get through. Then, we waited another hour or so to pick up our checked bags. As we soon have come to realize, waiting and patience are very standard things here... We're still working on that. :)
Finally we got out of the airport, Anu (our program director) picked us up, and we arrived to MCC's campus at 2:00am. Once here, we got a brief introduction, including brief "tutorials" on bathing (buckets or showers), waking up, and upcoming schedule. However, we were so beat, that we just wanted to sleep. We all managed to get to sleep in the room with A/C, which felt so good.
We were all up by 7:50am, and Anu met us mid-morning to meet with our warden of Martin Hall, the place where we stay. She told us about campus, a little about daily life, and general housekeeping things.
Anu took us on a walking tour of campus. It was quiet because of the weekend (a Saturday). We got our first introduction into the "mess", where our food is served. Anu taught us to eat with our hands!!! I absolutely love doing that. Beware when I come home... :)
The afternoon we had free, so we kind of did some easing into the heat and humidity. I was feeling uneasy, my stomach was in the process of adjusting and balancing that with the food. By 5:00pm, I was ready to keep moving, thinking that would help my stomach feel better.
Anu came and got us, because we needed passport photos for our immigration card. This trip was by far the most challenging for me. Remember, this is only the first day we've been here, and we had 5 hours of sleep.
The campus of MCC is very quiet, wooded, with few cars, noise, or people, but immediately after leaving, we were in the middle of it all! Traffic, noise, people, dirt, everything- you name it, we were in the middle of it. Anu took us walking, literally, right beside traffic.
We walked a half mile or three-quarters of a mile like this, and then made it to the first grocery store, "Heritage." It has all of the basic food and supplies someone in college would need to survive- including a Ramen-like package!! We're set! ;)
I know it's the stereotypical thing to see, but we couldn't believe it when we saw a cow standing in the middle of the street, not to mention several stray dogs. Okay, so the dogs are everywhere... What was really hard the first couple of days was telling myself to refrain from interacting with them- they need love too!!! :) I was skeptical if they'd be mean, instead of friendly, but really they are very indifferent to people, traffic, cows, etc.
We were all so happy to finally get back to what we knew, eat a little, and go to sleep. It had been a huge day. Anu was smart and told us not to sleep at all during the day, saving it all for the nighttime to adjust from jet lag.
Last night was so crazy late! We flew into Chennai right at 12:00am and had to go through customs. Luckily, they still had many people there working; however, it still took us about an hour to get through. Then, we waited another hour or so to pick up our checked bags. As we soon have come to realize, waiting and patience are very standard things here... We're still working on that. :)
Finally we got out of the airport, Anu (our program director) picked us up, and we arrived to MCC's campus at 2:00am. Once here, we got a brief introduction, including brief "tutorials" on bathing (buckets or showers), waking up, and upcoming schedule. However, we were so beat, that we just wanted to sleep. We all managed to get to sleep in the room with A/C, which felt so good.
We were all up by 7:50am, and Anu met us mid-morning to meet with our warden of Martin Hall, the place where we stay. She told us about campus, a little about daily life, and general housekeeping things.
Anu took us on a walking tour of campus. It was quiet because of the weekend (a Saturday). We got our first introduction into the "mess", where our food is served. Anu taught us to eat with our hands!!! I absolutely love doing that. Beware when I come home... :)
The afternoon we had free, so we kind of did some easing into the heat and humidity. I was feeling uneasy, my stomach was in the process of adjusting and balancing that with the food. By 5:00pm, I was ready to keep moving, thinking that would help my stomach feel better.
Anu came and got us, because we needed passport photos for our immigration card. This trip was by far the most challenging for me. Remember, this is only the first day we've been here, and we had 5 hours of sleep.
The campus of MCC is very quiet, wooded, with few cars, noise, or people, but immediately after leaving, we were in the middle of it all! Traffic, noise, people, dirt, everything- you name it, we were in the middle of it. Anu took us walking, literally, right beside traffic.
We walked a half mile or three-quarters of a mile like this, and then made it to the first grocery store, "Heritage." It has all of the basic food and supplies someone in college would need to survive- including a Ramen-like package!! We're set! ;)
I know it's the stereotypical thing to see, but we couldn't believe it when we saw a cow standing in the middle of the street, not to mention several stray dogs. Okay, so the dogs are everywhere... What was really hard the first couple of days was telling myself to refrain from interacting with them- they need love too!!! :) I was skeptical if they'd be mean, instead of friendly, but really they are very indifferent to people, traffic, cows, etc.
We were all so happy to finally get back to what we knew, eat a little, and go to sleep. It had been a huge day. Anu was smart and told us not to sleep at all during the day, saving it all for the nighttime to adjust from jet lag.
I guess that's why Bob Barker always tells us to make sure our pets are spayed and neutered. Also, I hope you took good walking shoes. Sounds like you'll be doing a lot of walking? I'm slowly reading your blog, and so far, you have me hooked. Take care!
ReplyDelete--Andrew Suhre