Thursday, January 7, 2010

Jan 7, 2010

            I have to start with last night. 6pm Mahima picked us up. Benny, James, Emma, Neha, Mahima, and I drove to Bangalore city. She swears like a sailor. I love it. No need for radio. The girl is so little but she just screams at everyone on the road. It’s great.
            Insane amounts of traffic, valet-ed the car, and went to a shop to get Indian desserts! We had one thing that was deep fried and soaked in sugar haha- yes it was delicious. Another dessert was what Mahima said was similar to our cotton candy, although it was made with wheat and was like a pastry. Melts in your mouth, though. Lastly we had this small pastry that is rolled in silver! How ridiculous. Apparently silver is good for your immune system… who knew? I am going to eat that more… It is really very cool to eat something rolled in pieces of silver… or foil… either way. Really cool.
            Then to the coffee shop where I met some of the people from last week. They are all just hanging out and followed us over to the Tavern for ladies night. The Tavern is in a really nice hotel, and the bar is nice itself. You can get any drinks you want for free, if you have boobs, that is. We all smooshed into a booth for a bit, but finally I left and got to dance with a bunch of the girls I had met last week. They have a lot of personality and are such good friend. The group is extremely diverse, all ages, all sexualities, all different life styles. It is so interesting to be with these people.  We were there for a good while before leaving and heading back to TEMPTATIONS.
            Temptations is anything BUT tempting. There is nothing sexy about it… unless you consider dirt, beer, and a large quantity of older drunk men sexy… We hung out there with a large crowd. Emma and I were approached by two boys from the group who started feeding us TERRIBLE pick up lines. We supplied them back, in much greater quality and quantity-scared them away-literally, I turned around and they were gone.
            We got more dessert and Mahima drove all of us sleeping in the back- home. We walked into our house and into our beds. I got to talk to mike only for a second before my voice completely stopped working and I fell asleep.

            I woke up at 5 am this morning for no good reason at all, and laid in bed wishing sleep upon myself, it didn’t work. I finally got up and showered, got back to my computer and my presentation. I still don’t have internet which is frustrating, and we had no water this morning either (after my shower that is). My toothbrush is turning green- which is disgusting. For the record, I don’t think the green is coming from my teeth. I’m gonna need a new toothbrush very soon. Dead cock roaches grace the floors, better than scampering ones.
            Breakfast was a pancake thing with tomatoes and dill and the very strange chutney thing that I am trying VERY hard to like. Now that I wasn’t expecting it to be hot, it was much better. Benny, Emma and I walked to class, although I went a different way (different campus). I talked to Mike, though, so that was much nicer. I like talking on the phone with everyone at home, although there are so many people at home and its dangerous for me to even start being on the phone when I wouldn’t otherwise be doing nothing because it could turn into a habit that keeps me tuned out of the India that is going on around me… Im not sure that makes sense…
            Another work day. I am not used to actually getting time in classes to work, so this is a nice change. Its helpful to be given the opportunity to talk things over with the professor and get links throughout the day regarding what I am interested in. I am exploring a lot of ideas, and suddenly am getting slightly concerned about the desired simplicity of my site. I think I need to take a step back and think about usability and how to create a very simple, easy to understand interface before I get carried away with all the information and different things I want it to contain and do. I will work on that tonight, away from my computer, along with asking questions. I have emailed a group from home the questions and in about 12 hours I should have responses- hopefully!
            I can’t get over how relaxed the class is. The professor is like one of the students. He sits on the table in bare feet and has a conversation with us, he never talks at us. He is very cool, You can take a break when you want and don’t ask to go anywhere, although I still feel like I should. You are just expected to be working, and everyone is. That is also a big change. In my classes at U of M, it was a lot of studio classes where the professors would talk for 6 hours and tell you to be freaking out about the projects you have due next week. Meanwhile, all the students would be on facebook and instant messenger. It is refreshing to see everyone working and hear the conversations the groups are having. The students (and everyone I have met so far-except Umesh) are very outspoken. They have their own opinions that they voice and no one is a push over. This is also very different from Michigan, where everyone is just trying not to offend other people, that they just agree with everything others say, and go with the flow. I am completely guilty of that, and am going to try and be much more conscious of the fact.
            It is awesome that my professor sends us massive amounts of links and such, it is very helpful. Anyways, it is beautiful outside. Very hot, sunny, tropical-still. Lots of work going on in here. 6 days of classes 9-5. Insane. How to see India with that one day?
            PEBBLES this Saturday with Mahima and Kris. J Something to look forward too. Also we are going to try and go to some gardens.

Still to do:
Ride an elephant
Get henna
Yoga with auntie
visit some temples!
Circus
Indian street food- dosa
This is a working list…

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