One day when I was in Mr. Kiran’s office, I told him that I can’t get over how delicious the tea and coffee are here. He explained to me that the tea I like so much is called milk tea. It is made by mixing black tea with condensed milk. The tea is poured back and forth between two cups to mix it thoroughly, cool it down to drinking temperatures, and give it a frothy top. The coffee is made with a device that looks like two cups stacked on top of each other with a metal filter in between. The top cup is loaded with ground coffee and chicory and then pressed into a disc against the filter. Boiling water is added to this and then the whole contraption is left to filter completely. Boiling milk is added as the resulting coffee is very strong and the delicious coffee is served after being poured back and forth between two cups, similar to the tea.
After sharing with me the secrets of Indian tea and coffee, Mr. Kiran took me to get some! And along the way he spotted
a particular flower with all red petals except one. He told me that children take this one petal and eat it! It sounded a little odd to me, but then I told him how American children love to find honeysuckle, and how they’ll search and search for it just for that tiny bit of honey. He also told me how the leaves are slightly sticky on the inside. Kids take them and tear a bit off the end so they can stick them on their fingernails and it looks like they’ve got claws. I love hearing about little things like that. It's so nice to hear more about the culture first hand.
As Rachel and I walked home that evening, I told her what Mr. Kiran had told me. But as we were walking we heard this odd sound. It sort of sounded like birds, but not quite. And then I looked up in the trees and realized that there were monkeys! I’m not sure how we missed them until now, but there were actually monkey’s just hanging out in the trees!
The day after our “monkey sighting” was the day we were going saree shopping with our friend from work, Nitu. Rachel and I were so excited to see all the different kinds there would be, and quite relieved to go with someone who knew what they were doing. When we arrived at Saree Palace Friday after work, we were all a bit wet since the rains have already started, but not even the nearing monsoon could ruin the excitement. Before
we even made it to the saree floor we were distracted by the jewelry…we are girls after all. The jewelry in India is so much more ornate than what women wear at home; it's so beautiful! Rachel and I even got to try on this one necklace that was absolutely gorgeous, but incredibly heavy. After drooling over the incredible jewelry, we finally made it upstairs to the sarees. I think there must have been a saree in every conceivable color and level of beadwork. Some had very heavy work on them, absolutely covered with stones and sequins. Others were more simple and only had embroidery work on them. 
The women showed us saree after saree, and before long Rachel and I were overwhelmed
by all the glittering sarees. I tried on a beautiful red saree, and Rachel a royal blue one. These weren't the ones we bought, but they sure were pretty! With Nitu’s help, Rachel finally
settled on a beautiful emerald green saree with an orange/golden trim, and I on a royal purple one with golden trim.
After the excitement of picking out our sarees, we were ready for some dinner. It was so nice to have someone with us who knew what she was doing! After considering our options in the (comparatively) big city of Udupi, we set off in the drizzle to find Hotel Udupi Residency. We finally arrived, a bit damp, but in good spirits. Excited to eat Indian food with someone who could explain
to us what we were ordering, we sat down and set about deciding what we should order. We settled on a spicy appetizer of stuffed chicken kabobs. The stuffing was a combination of crushed nuts in a mix of green spices. It was so delicious, but I had to laugh as relied heavily on my water glass to douse the flames. Next we tried a coastal dish. We started with very thin, cracker-like bread that we crunched up with our fingers. Then came the chicken gravy that we ladled on top and mixed in. It was so fun to eat with your fingers and quite tasty too! Our next
course was Chicken Kolhapuri, another spicy dish. We ate that with naan and marveled at Nitu as she effortlessly used only one hand the entire night.
Eating with only your right hand is customary in India, however using cutlery is becoming more common. Rachel and I haven’t quite mastered the one handed, no cutlery technique, but we are working on it. To finish off the meal, we tried some buttermilk. It is also known as lassi and is thought to be good for digestion. Rachel could hardly swallow her first sip, but I thought it wasn’t too bad. Although, it wasn’t my favorite either. It tasted like very sour milk, almost like it had some lime in it. Nevertheless, it was fun to try it and learn a bit more about Indian culture. After our exciting and informative dinner, we hopped in an auto and headed for home. We said goodbye to Nitu, thanking her for a wonderful evening in Udupi. Excited but exhausted, and still a bit damp, we climbed into bed after a long day of work and shopping.
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