A Day of Pampering

Monday morning, Rachel had an 8 o’clock appointment for the ayurveda massage and I a 9:30 appointment.  However, we still didn’t have our oils!  So when Rachel went to her appointment, the doctor said he would have the oils sent over and rescheduled our appointments for 2 o’clock that afternoon.  Rachel made her way to work after calling me to let me know the plan. 

Neeta, who works in the Think Tank with Rachel, joined us during our tea break.  It is always so fun spending time with her, and she told us all about her son.  He’s nearly two and looks just like her; he has exactly the same eyes as Neeta.  She promised to bring him in to work one day so we can meet him.  We can’t wait!  She also talked to us a lot about the joint family living situations here.  Most married couples live with the husband’s family.  Because of this, her mother-in-law watches her son while she’s at work.  By the time lunch rolled around, we hurried off to eat something quickly before we had our appointment at two.  We went to Valley View, which is right across the street from the hospital, for lunch.  There were so many delicious foods!  We had naan, biryani, paneer masala, a veg masala, and so many other things.  Valley View is always delicious, and we always stuff ourselves when we go. 

After our delicious lunch, we walked across the street and climbed the five flights of stairs to the ayurveda department.  After signing in, Rachel disappeared quickly, and the nurses ushered me into a large room with a plastic table in the middle.  The nurses handed me a hospital gown and told me to undress.  First off was a scalp massage.  After pouring warm oil on my head, the nurse worked the oil through my hair.  Despite the idea of my hair being saturated with oil, this was my favorite part of the whole treatment!  After the scalp massage, the nurse instructed me to lie down on the table for a full body massage.  The nurses used more warm oil, and between this and the complete silence in the room, I nearly fell asleep!  After the massage, it was time for the shirodara.  This is a treatment where warm oil is dripped on your forehead in various patterns.  It too was so relaxing.  I did fall asleep this time!  I woke up at the end of the treatment, and the nurses helped me slip off the table and slide into the bathroom to shower off.  And I say “shower” loosely.  It was more like a bucket of warm water and a cup.  But I was absolutely covered in oil from head to toe, and any chance to rinse off sounded great!  I used the prescribed bathing powder, which when mixed with water, turned into a kind of exfoliating scrub.  It worked pretty well at getting the oil off my body, but my hair was still a greasy mess when I finished.  I emerged from the treatment room and saw Rachel with equally gross hair sitting in the waiting area.  After agreeing about the necessity of showering as soon as possible, we walked home as quickly as we could. 

Rachel won the “who can get in the shower faster” game, so I waited impatiently for her to finish up so I could have my turn.  I have never been more thankful that I 

brought deep cleaning shampoo!  After two

washes, my hair was degreased and good as new.  Shortly after I got out of the shower, the caretaker and several men came to reinstall the hot water heater.  Yes, hot showers!  After they finished we thanked them, and decided to complete our day of pampering with ice cream and a pedicure.  We had to do our day of luxury right! After a delicious ice cream treat at Piccolos, we visited Profile (the salon where Rachel had her hair straightened) for our pedicures.  Soon we had beautiful toes and we shuffled back to our apartment.  First making sure our toes were dry, we got ready for our workout.  After Insanity, I enjoyed, for the first time since moving into the apartment, a hot shower!  It was wonderful.  You have to understand, I love hot showers.  At home if there’s no hot water, I often refuse to shower until there is.  So needless to say, I took a longer shower than usual. 

After finally getting out of the shower, Katarina texted us to ask if we wanted to go to dinner with her.  Of course we did!  We got dressed as we settled on a time and place to meet.  We decided on Saiba, already thinking of what we could order that wouldn’t be too spicy for her.  What a change to be the ones who know what’s going on!  Soon we were all at the restaurant, excited to hang out again.  It is so fun to spend time with her and hear about her experience with the Indian school system.  We decided to order hara bara kabobs, egg biryani, chicken kurma, and paneer kadai.  We explained to her what everything was, and told her what was spicy and what wasn’t.  After tasting everything,

 she concluded that she liked it all, even if she still had to get used to how spicy everything was.  

I had to laugh because that was me thinking everything was spicy only 2 months ago.  It’s amazing how much we’ve adjusted to India, the culture and the food and even understanding the accents.

We sat and talked for a while longer before helping Katarina get an auto and thanking her for such a fun night.   Then we grabbed an auto and went over to watch a movie with Mike, Nitin, and AJ at Mike’s apartment.  I have never seen Anchorman, so Rachel took it upon herself to fix this catastrophe.  After we arrived, I curled up in a comfy armchair and prepared myself for what Rachel assured me would be a life-changing experience.  By the end of the movie, it was midnight and I was almost falling asleep (as usual).  So AJ dropped us off at our apartment, and we called it a night. 

We’re In Business!

After our late night, Rachel and I slept in until 11 on Sunday!  After we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, we settled on toast for breakfast.  Rachel decided to be adventurous and sprinkled the seasonings that come with pizza on her toast.  I looked at her like she was crazy: oregano, chili powder, and garlic on toast for breakfast?  But when Rachel displayed a look of amazement as she tasted it, I had to try it too!  Much to my surprise, it tasted like garlic toast.  Although not my first choice in breakfast foods, it was pretty tasty.  Rachel was very proud of her creation. 

After a little facebooking, it was time to go meet Divya.  We had plans to meet her at her house to discuss more details of our business plans.  We had to call Divya to explain to the auto driver where she lived, and we made it to her house after a short auto ride.  She welcomed us into her house, and we met her sister, her mom, and her dad.  They were all so welcoming and generous in inviting us into their home.  After introductions, we went into Divya’s room to get to work.  We decided on everything from inventory to shipping costs to profit margins.  We plan to sell our jewelry at “jewelry parties” and will try to get local boutiques to carry our jewelry too.

  After we were satisfied with our progress, we had lunch with Divya and her sister.  Divya’s mom made a delicious rice dish with thin gravy.  It was so fun sitting and talking with Divya and her sister.  As usual, they had lots of questions about American culture.  We had questions too, and the four of us enjoyed learning more about each other’s culture.  We told them how we think all the children here are absolutely adorable.  They laughed and said they think the same thing about Western children.  When we talked about how we always want to play with the kids we see, they told us that here it is acceptable to go play with the babies and tell their parents how cute they are.  As soon as they said that I laughed out loud.  They may have unleashed baby-snatchers!  After sitting and talking a while longer, we decided it was time to head home.  We took a picture of the three of us to commemorate the beginning of our business, and we thanked Divya and her sister for inviting us into their home. 

Soon after we arrived back at our apartment, our friend Aseem dropped by to say hello.   Unfortunately his visit was cut short because I had to get to Mass.  After thanking him for visiting, I said goodbye and slipped out the door to start on my way to Mass.  Walking into the Church, I saw a few of the friends I’ve made and waved hello to them as I sat down.  Mass was wonderful, yet again, and afterwards, I saw some more of my friends and talked with them for a while.   After saying goodbye, I walked home to see what Rachel wanted to do for dinner.  We unanimously 

decided for Planet Café, needing a more American dinner.  After dinner Rachel opted for an early bedtime, while I sat in the hallway to Skype my family.  It was so nice, because my Dad had just arrived in France earlier that day, so I got to Skype with him, and then only minutes later I caught my Mom and Lisa online.  Catching up with family and friends always lifts my mood!  So after I had sufficiently caught up with my family, I crawled into bed excited for our massages tomorrow!

Our Last Weekend In Manipal

Saturday finally came, and thanks to our 10 o’clock consultation with the doctor for our ayurveda massage, we got to sleep in a bit!  Anyone who knows me knows that I love to sleep in and that getting out of bed in the morning is close to impossible for me.  Poor Rachel has had the pleasure of dragging me out of bed several times this summer.  So sleeping in was a great start to the day.  After waking up refreshed, I went down to the gym to do my Insanity workout while Rachel skyped her roommate.  After showering and having breakfast, we walked to the hospital, excited to be one step closer to our massages. 

After checking in, we met with the doctor.  He looked at the two surveys we had to fill out and asked us a few questions.  He looked at our hands, eyes, and nose.  He took our height and weight, checked our pulse and blood pressure, did a few calculations and finally concluded that we were both Pitta-Kapha.  He explained that the philosophy of ayurveda is that there are three different body types, Pitta, Kapha, and Vata.  These body types explain one’s nature and behaviors.  For example, Pitta-Kaphas tend to be disciplined, stubborn, and athletic.  We decided that we agreed with this description.  After making this declaration, he sent us up to the fifth floor to the ayurveda department.  There we met with another doctor.  He explained that based on our determined body types, he would prescribe oils and bathing powder for our treatment.  After talking with us about the treatment, he sent us on our way with prescription in hand.

Back at the apartment, I decided to have an early lunch before I headed into work.  I made one of our boxes of macaroni and cheese for lunch.  It was so delicious.  Macaroni and cheese hardly ever fails.  As I was eating my delicious lunch, we heard a knock on our door.  Our caretaker and several men came into our apartment, telling us that they were going to fix our hot water heater.   At the thought of a hot shower, I welcomed them in with open arms!  Before they were finished, I left to go to work, but couldn’t wait to take a steaming shower when I got back from work.  Little did I know, they ended up taking our hot water heater with them, and we would have to wait until Monday to get it back!

Work went quickly, broken up with a meeting with Mr. Simhan about our trip to Goa and organizing train tickets.  Since Rachel had taken the rest of the day off for a business lunch and a hair appointment, I made the executive decision for a two-person sleeper car and a few other particulars of the trip.  On the way home I stopped at the ayurveda medicine house to get our “prescriptions.”  After guessing as to which shop was the right one, I walked up to the lady behind the counter and handed her our prescriptions.  She studied them for a minute, went into the back room for a minute, and then handed me the slips of paper and shook her head.  I was slightly confused, “You don’t have these?” I asked her.  She just shook her head again, “No.”  Confused and at a loss as to how I was supposed to get these oils now, I walked back to the apartment.  After her business lunch, Rachel had spent the afternoon getting her hair permanently straightened.  I could hardly wait to see how it looked! 

As I opened the door to our apartment, Rachel was standing in the middle of the room with a huge smile on her face.  Her hair was perfectly straight, and she looked so great!  We had one of those squealing, jumping up and down, girl moments, as I gushed over how wonderful her hair looked.  She was so excited and told me all about her lunch and the experience of getting her hair straightened.  As we were talking, Rachel got a call from an unknown number.  Confused she answered the phone and realized it was Mrs. Pai calling.  She invited us to a party she was hosting at Valley View. She told us it was a fancy gathering, so make sure to dress up. We assured her we would be there, excited about the last minute

 change of plans.  She told us the party started at 7:30, and as we looked at the clock and realized it was already 7 o’clock, we had to hurry to get ready. 

When we arrived at the banquet hall, we found out that it was Mr. Pai’s parents’ 40^th wedding anniversary.  What a great thing to celebrate!  We said hello to Mr. and Mrs. Pai, thanking them for inviting us.  Looking around, the hall was a huge room with a stage at the front.  IT was decorated with streamers and a banner that said “Happy 40^th Anniversary.”  Everyone looked wonderful, and we met so many new people.  One girl we met is a German university student, Katharina, who is here studying jewelry management for a semester.  She had only been in Manipal a few days and was definitely still in the adjustment phase.  We were so excited to get the chance to share some of the things we had learned about India and Manipal.  We also ran into Rahul, one of the people we went to dinner with at China Valley.  It was nice to see him again, and he introduced us to one of his friends.  The five us of started a “young people” table and sat around talking.  Meanwhile there was a small presentation going on up on the stage.  There were a few songs, a little boy played drums (quite impressively too), and a few girls performed a dance.  Our favorite performance, though, was when Mrs. Pai, her two daughters, and another woman and her daughter performed a dance they had made up.  They had a surprise dancer, 

when another little girl decided to join.  It was so cute to watch them all having fun up there. 

After a wonderful evening, it was time to go visit Mike and AJ.  We were supposed to go over to Mike’s apartment much earlier, but when Mrs. Pai called us, we made a few adjustments to our plan.  We invited Katarina to come along, and the three of us grabbed a rickshaw and made our way to Mike’s apartment.  A few of our friends were already there: AJ, Aseem, and Nitin.  We all hung out and talked and played games.  It was pouring the whole night so we just had a fun night staying in.  Before we knew it, it was 3 AM!  We wrapped up quickly, giving Katarina our numbers, thanking Mike for having us over again, and went home to get in bed.  

Planning for Goa

For our lunch break on Friday, Rachel and I went to the food court.  We decided to branch out from our usual choice of Saibia and try the North Indian restaurant.  After surveying the menu, Rachel settled on a veg Chinese thali, while I opted for the Healthy Dosa Thali.  Now, keep in mind that I have very bad luck at the food court every time we go.  Usually Rachel is finished with her lunch before I’ve even gotten mine!  It’s turned into a kind of game now.  We’ve even started to experiment by seeing what happens if I order first.  But it never fails; I always get my food way later.  Lunch proved that again.  I ordered before her, but Rachel’s Chinese thali came first.  It looked like so much food!  She had soup and rice and noodles and some kind of paneer.  My food came eventually, and we were both surprised by how similar this meal looked to the regular veg thali.  And even though my “healthy dosa thali” had no dosas, I just assumed that they knew what they were doing and I had somehow gotten confused.  So I dug in, remarking on how delicious this “health food” was.  A few minutes later, the waiter came rushing over to tell me that they had accidentally given me the wrong thali.  This was the regular veg thali, not the healthy dosa thali.  After assuring the waiter that it was no problem, Rachel and I laughed at our reaction.  We had underestimated ourselves.  We knew more about Indian food than we thought! 

We finished our lunch and made our way back to the office.  Shortly after we arrived, Mrs. Pai called us into her office.  She told us all about Goa: the good hotels, the best restaurants, the prettiest beaches, and also the places to avoid.  She even took the time to draw us out a map.  We were so thankful that she took the time to meet with us.  We were getting more and more excited!  We would be in Goa this time next week!  And we had also talked with one of our coworkers about Goa, and he told us about the dinner cruises they have.  He said we absolutely had to go on one.  So needless to say, we spent some time looking up Goa on the Internet.  It is beautiful! 

After work, we stopped at the Gift House to see if they had any of the souvenirs we were looking for.  The owner assured us he had exactly what we were looking for and went off to get them.  We moseyed around the shop, looking at all the knickknacks and jewelry and knock off purses.  When he didn’t come back after twenty minutes, Rachel and I decided that he must have forgotten about us and made our way for the exit.  On our way home we stopped to get groceries for our perpetually empty kitchen.  We stocked up on delicious fresh fruit and our other staples.  The rest of our evening was quite predictable: Insanity workout, China Valley for dinner, and then it was bedtime.  I’m pretty sure we both had dreams of vacationing in Goa that night. 

Hanging Out With the Sisters!

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty uneventful at work.  I continued work on my cost sheet and met with Mr. Kiran about perfecting it.  After work Mr. Kiran dropped me off at the St. Joseph Sisters of Cluny convent for the celebration of the feast day of their founder, Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey.  I walked into the chapel where Fr. Francis had just started the Mass.  The little chapel was packed with the university kids and other parishioners who wanted to celebrate with the Sisters.  It was such a beautiful Mass.   I always love Masses when they're celebrated with a smaller crowd; they seem so much more intimate.  

After Mass, most of the adults left and all the students gathered in the Sister's "living room" to play some games.  It was so fun to play silly retreat games.  We started off singing rounds.  There was one called "Little Tommy Tinker" and another called "O how lovely is the morning." We had 4 different moving parts so everyone had to focus to sing their part.  It’s much more difficult than you would think!  My group’s strategy was to sing as loud as we could so we couldn’t hear anyone else and get confused.  It was so fun even though it's so simple.  Then after singing songs, we played some games.  There was one called Ping Pong that everyone really enjoyed.  Everyone sat in a circle and the leader would point at a person and say ping or pong.  Ping meant you had to say the person's name to your right and pong meant left.  If you weren't fast enough you were out.  And you got up and switched places every so often so you learned more names.  It was such a good way to learn names, but I got out pretty quickly because I panicked under the pressure!  

After singing and playing games we prayed and had dinner that the Sisters prepared for us. There was biryani and white rice with fish curry and toast and salad and a chicken curry.  Then for dessert there was custard and a delicious pound cake.   Dinner was so good and everyone just sat around talking.  I got to meet so many new people.  There was even a girl from California there.  It was so funny because she asked me where I was from, clearly had an American accent, but I'm so used to responding with USA that I just said America. We all sat and talked for a while before we realized that it was already 10 o’clock!  So we thanked Srs. Narcissa, Violet, and Lucia, and all 10 of us started walking home together.  Even though I've only known these kids for a few weeks at most, I feel so at home around them.  And as we were walking, one of the kids who had disappeared on his motorbike came around the corner with a string of autos for us.  How nice!  So we divided up into the autos and went home.  I was so excited about my evening that I couldn’t fall sleep!   

Birthday Cake!

We were so glad when we got to sleep in on Monday morning.  We still woke up tired though, since we had gotten in so late after staying up to watch Spain win the World Cup.  And unfortunately, I also woke up with a cold.  I had felt it coming on for a few days, and I guess not getting enough sleep was the final straw.  Work was uneventful, until Prasanna, Mr. Pai’s assistant, called us to tell us that he wanted to meet with us.  We were a little nervous until we sat down in his office, and he asked us what we would like to do culturally in the last few weeks of our trip.  We told him that we had heard wonderful things about Goa and would love to get the chance to go.  He agreed that Goa is a nice place to visit and gave us next Friday and Saturday off to travel.  It would only take about five hours by train to get there, and he told us that Prasanna could assist us in finding a hotel and arranging the train tickets.  Because of the monsoon, it’s off-season right now, but we are still so excited.  Goa is famous for beautiful beaches, historic churches, and impressive restaurants and shopping.  One of the churches, the Basilica of Bom Jesus, holds the incorrupt body of St. Francis Xavier.  He was, with St. Ignatius, a cofounder of the Jesuit order and played a big role in evangelizing India.  The Portuguese influence can still be seen, and in Old Goa there are a lot of historic buildings and churches. 

Rachel and I were so excited about our upcoming trip, and stopped to say hello to Prasanna and tell her about our vacation.  She was happy for us and got started looking up train times right away.  We thanked her and went back to our desks, both of us taking some time to research Goa for a bit.  Soon our workday was over, and we walked home.  On the way, we got a message from Mike that he was rounding up people for a birthday dinner for AJ tonight.  We eagerly replied that we would be there.  By the time we reached home I had to take a nap before I could start our Insanity workout.  A thirty-minute nap later, Rachel and I were downstairs doing pushups, suicide drills, and squats.  After showering and getting dressed, we were ready to meet Mike, AJ, and all their friends at the restaurant in Valley View.  We took a rickshaw, afraid that we were late, but when we got there a few minutes after nine, no boys!  We forgot about India time!  As it got closer to 9:30, the boys all showed up.  There were seven of us all together, and we practically had the restaurant all to ourselves.  After a delicious dinner, Mike presented AJ with the card everyone had signed along with a gift he had gotten in Kerala.  In Kerala, it is common to find dried palm leaves sewn together to form a kind of paper canvas with

borders carved out by hand and images painted on them.  Mike had given Rachel and me smaller versions.  Mine has a crucifix in the center and is surrounded by different images from the life of Christ.  It is beautiful and so thoughtful of Mike. After dinner, we went to Blue Waters, which had stayed open specifically for us, where three more people joined us to have cake.  

The cake had a great picture of Mike and AJ on it making a funny face.  It was obvious that they always have a good time together.  After making sure to take a few pictures of the masterpiece, including one with them replicating their funny faces, AJ dug into the delicious looking cake and started handing out pieces.  And I do mean handing out; for some reason we didn’t have plates so everyone just ate the cake with their hands.  Soon after that the icing fight broke out.  Everyone scattered as icing flew and faces started getting splattered with sticky icing.  Eventually everyone was covered with icing; I personally had icing all over the side of my face and in my hair.  It was so sticky, and

 I could feel it drying on face.  Yuck!  After hanging out a bit longer, we decided that it was time to get cleaned up and head to bed.  

AJ dropped us off, and we wished him a happy birthday and thanked him for a fun night. 

World Cup Finals!

Sunday was a true day of rest, as Rachel and I let ourselves sleep in until 9:30.   It was so nice!  Especially since we’ve woken up at 6:30 for the last week and a half.  After lazing around a bit, eating breakfast, and catching up with friends on facebook, we got dressed to go to the cultural event the Manipal Press was putting on.  We felt like dressing up a bit, so we wore the pretty dresses we bought the day before. 

We finally made it to the Syndicate Bank Banquet Hall, and I immediately wished we had arrived sooner.  As we walked in a dance number had started.  There were 7 dancers on stage in brightly colored green and orange costumes

and one woman stood on a raised platform wearing a green saree holding a large Indian flag.  We assumed she was some representation of “Mother India” when all the dancers appeared to be performing for her.  After the dancing competition, the winner was announced, and the talent competition started.  The competition included everything from 

dancing to singing to stand-up comedy to short dramas.  Although all of it was in Kannada, the local language, Rachel and I really enjoyed getting to see everything.  Soon there was a break for lunch, and Neeta, two other guys on the cultural committee, Rachel, and I went to Dollops.  We really enjoyed getting to talk with our coworkers.  One, Sandeep, was really excited about his wedding coming up in about 5 weeks.  It’s in Mangalore and sounds like it is going to be quite the event.  When we asked how he met his fiancé, we were so surprised to find out that this was an arranged marriage.  He only started getting to know her once they were engaged.  At first Rachel and I didn’t know what to say.  He explained that it is fairly common here because family and class are more important than love.  I appreciated his honesty, but I’m sure glad that’s not the custom at home!

After lunch we went back to the banquet hall to watch the rest of the competition.  There was more dancing, singing, and acting.  But after a while, Rachel and I had headaches from the loud music and trying to figure out what was going on.  The whole audience would be laughing but we had no idea what was going on!  So we took a breather and went outside.  We walked to Snack Shack to get an ice cream sundae and kill some time.  After devouring delicious sundaes, we went back to watch the performances.  I had to leave shortly after that to get to Mass, but I didn’t mind too much because my head was pounding from how loud the music was.  It probably didn’t help that we were really close to the speakers. 

Mass was great, and I even recognized a few songs!  After Mass, Aditi came up to me and told me that there were some people outside she wanted to introduce to me.  I saw Myron again, and met Clemitha, Salma, and Walter.  We visited a while, and they told me about their Jesus Youth meetings on Thursdays.  I hope I will be able to make one of them!  We also talked with Fr. Francis for a while.  Myron requested some frankincense to burn in his room to get rid of the mold.  Mold covers everything here; it’s so gross.  But apparently frankincense remedies that!  Father showed us some frankincense he had from the Holy Land.  I don’t think I’ve ever really seen frankincense before that.  After a bit, Aditi, Myron, Salma, and I decided to walk back to campus and say the rosary together.  It was so nice to have more church friends, and it only helped that it was a beautiful night to walk back. 

Only when we went our separate ways, did I realize that Rachel had been trying to call me. Oh no!  I realized that she was locked out again since neither of us remembered that she would need the key.  I called her as I walked as fast as I possibly could back to the apartment.  When I arrived in the hallway, Rachel was talking with someone she introduced as Ian.  He didn’t have cable, so Rachel invited him to watch the game with us.  We decided to meet up closer to game time (midnight), and Rachel and I went inside.  After apologizing profusely to Rachel, we went to get dinner at the food court.  After getting back, I skyped with my parents for nearly two hours!  I always love catching up and hearing what everyone at home is up to.  After filling my mom and dad in on what was is happening here, I signed off as Ian came down the hall, and the three of us made our way to Mike’s. 

At Mike’s apartment, AJ and few of his other friends were there too.  They were so nice.  One guy was even from Miami!  Everyone watched the game in rapture, yelling at the TV, throwing up their hands in disgust, and cheering at the appropriate times.  I watched with significantly less animation as I was fighting to stay awake for most of the game.  After two agonizing overtimes, Spain finally won!  About 30 seconds after Spain’s victory, I dragged Rachel and Ian back to Pearl City and fell asleep instantaneously.  I was so tired, and work was going to come very quickly!