Thank You Mr. Monaghan for Dominos Pizza

Saturday finally arrived, and oh how glad we were to see it.  It was a fun week, but let’s get real, the workweek has nothing on the weekend.  We planned on a big night out to celebrate our being here for four weeks.  We both woke up in really good moods, excited to go out and dance later that night.  All that stood between us and Blue Waters was a nine-hour workday.  Keep in mind however, that Saturdays are much more relaxed.  I suppose they have casual Saturdays here instead of casual Fridays.  The morning went very quickly, broken up an early tea break when Rachel’s Internet connection stopped working briefly.  Downstairs at the tea/snack station, we saw the woman who took to me the doctor when I was sick.  Although we’ve haven’t figured out how to pronounce her name yet, we spent some time visiting with her.  She is so friendly, and we were glad to have someone to chat with.  She told us about some of the different snacks that are commonly consumed with tea.  One is a puff pastry shell filled with vegetables, chicken, and spices.  Another was a fried piece of dough, kind of like homemade doughnut holes.  They were delicious, but we’d better be careful not to have too many of those!  After our educational break, we made our way back to our desks to continue working until lunch.  We broke for lunch and ventured to Dollops, one of our favorite restaurants.  We had one of our old favorites, Chicken Kurma.  Mmm, it was a delicious as ever.  Rachel finished off with an “end of the week” sundae, and I with a delicious cold coffee. 

The second half of the day went a bit slower.  We stayed busy however, and finally it was nearing five o’clock.  As the workday wrapped up, one of Rachel’s coworkers in the Think Tank, Akshata, invited us to get pizza after work.  She is so nice, and we were very excited to spend some time with her outside of work.  We were a little worried to give Indian pizza another go though.  Once we checked out, we on our way to Dominos Pizza.  Walking into Dominos, it looked familiar.  It smelled familiar.  Now to see if it tasted the same.  I prefer to stick to the classics so we ordered a plain cheese pizza despite the tempting paneer, peppers, onions, and capsicum varieties.  When we opened the box with our Margarita Pizza inside, the smell was heavenly.  We tentatively took the first bite, and much to our surprise it tasted just like home!  Well, not exactly, but close enough that we gave it our American seal of approval.  We were starting to get a bit homesick again, and this was the perfect taste of home.  I don’t think I have ever been more excited about pizza, and I guess Rachel felt the same way because we demolished that pizza.  All I have to say is “Thank You Mr. Monaghan for Dominos Pizza.”  It was about 7 o’clock when we finished our pizza, and we commented on how odd it was to eat that early.  How quickly we’ve gotten used to the later meal times!  When we explained to Akshata that we eat dinner at 5 o’clock when we’re at school, she just stared at us.  This is pretty common by now.  “Then what do you eat later at night?” she asked.  “Well, sometimes we have a snack, but nothing really,” we replied.  Quite content after our early dinner with our friend, we thanked her for inviting us to join her.  We walked back to our apartment waving as she rode off on her motorbike. 

After our scrumptious meal, we were so full.  We started getting ready for our big Saturday night out.  Saturday marked out fourth week here in India, and our almost halfway point.  That translated to a celebration at Blue Waters, the nearby club.  We had a lot of fun listening to music as we got ready.  It seems like we hardly put any effort into our appearance here because it’s either wet because it’s humid or because it’s raining.  It felt so good to get dressed up and wear makeup; we almost forgot that we could look pretty!  We helped each other with our hair and makeup before slipping into the outfits we had picked out earlier.  I pulled on a red belted dress and Rachel sported a cute skirt with a colorful tank top.  After snapping a few pictures, we stepped out to see what the night would bring. 

When we arrived at Blue Waters, we were surprised at how much more crowded it was than the last time we were there.  Only a few minutes after arriving, a friendly British student introduced himself.  He was very nice, and we were glad to have someone to talk to.  Soon his roommate, who was from Maryland, came over along with the rest of the group he was with.  Everyone was from the States or Canada; what a surprise!  It was so nice to talk with them, and quite the relief to be able to understand people without asking them to repeat themselves five times.  After a bit of dancing, we met some of Emily Anne’s friends from when she came last summer.  We knew it was them as soon as they came over, because they asked us if we were from Wofford.  Mike, who is from Ohio, and Mani, who is from Sri Lanka, were very nice, and we spent the rest of the night talking with them about life in Manipal vs. America.  Mike is in med-school, and Mani is doing his medical internship.  Unlike American clubs, Blue Waters closed around 12:30, so we went to Mike’s apartment to watch the US-Ghana match.  Despite the upsetting ending of the game, we had a really good time.  We were so happy to make some new friends, especially ones who were so nice. 

By the time the game was over it was nearly 2:30, and I was practically falling asleep.  So Mike gave us a ride back to our apartment.  We climbed into bed, falling asleep almost instantly with the mutual understanding that we were not setting an alarm for tomorrow.  When we woke up the next day around 10:30, we were starving!  We set off to find some food since our kitchen is less stocked than my dorm room.  We have got to start grocery shopping!  We were happy to discover that Subway was open, so we both got sandwiches and sat down to enjoy our second “American” meal in two days.  After we got back to our apartment, we officially decided that today would be a “bum around and do nothing” day.  And how lovely it was.  Rachel lay out by the pool, and even got a bit burnt, and I napped in the room and watched a movie.  Even though we only have four Sundays left, a day of absolutely nothing was exactly what we needed.

About 5 o’clock I made my way over to Christ Church for Mass, while Rachel set off on a run.  After the short auto ride, I sat down in the still empty church; I had gotten there a bit early.  It was so nice to sit there and have time to pray and reflect.  Soon the little church was filled up, and it was time for Mass to begin.  When I realized the processional hymn was one I knew, I smiled.  Even though I was still homesick, it felt like God was letting me know that things aren’t so different here.  That’s how I feel every time I go to Mass here.  It is such a great reminder of how connected we all are.  No matter what else we don’t have in common, when we’re at Mass together we are all the same.  We profess the same faith, we celebrate the same Mass, and sometimes we even sing the same songs.  Needless to say, it was an especially beautiful Mass, and I walked back to our apartment refreshed. 

As I walked in, Rachel was hanging out on the bed reading a magazine.  I didn’t think I could watch any more TV that day, so I asked her if she would like to play some cards.  We played Rummy for a while, betting on ice cream to up the stakes.  And don’t be fooled, ice cream is pretty hefty.  It could very nearly be our calcium source.  At least that’s the excuse we’re going with.  Anyways, I won by quite a bit and was looking forward to being treated to delicious ice cream after dinner.  We cleaned up our cards and made our way to China Valley for dinner.  We ate leisurely and finished up with the promised ice cream.  Then Rachel completed our lazy day with an early bedtime, while I spent some time skyping with my parents.  It was so good to talk to them and catch up.  Satisfied that I was sufficiently caught up on the goings-on after a family beach trip, I finally went to bed.