Monday morning came whether we were ready or not. We weren’t! After our one-day weekend, we couldn’t convince ourselves to get out of bed to workout before work. Apparently Rachel tried to wake me up…it didn’t work. After getting ready for work and donning rain boots, rain coats, and grabbing our umbrellas, we opened the door to the dismal clouds and rain. Unfortunately the monsoon is here to stay. It won’t be over until October! We sloshed to work, entertained by our bright rain gear and the picture of us wading through the flowing streams of water. After our normal morning of work, we took a tea break where we met two MBA students who are also here on project with Manipal Press. They were friendly and very eager to hear how our stay has been so far.
On our lunch break, we were surprised to walk out into the beautiful sunshine. We were so excited; you would think we hadn’t seen the sun for days! Enjoying being in the sun, we walked to the Snack Shack. As we were sitting there enjoying our delicious Chinese dumplings and hot garlic chicken, the sky seemed to fall out as the winds picked up and a torrential downpour ensued. The rain was literally going sideways, as we watched in horror from the Snack Shack. We hadn’t even brought our rain boots! So after ordering a delicious ice cream to put off going out in the rain, we ventured out to see what stood between the office and us. We felt a bit like salmon swimming upstream, but we finally made it back. I realized quickly that both my umbrella and raincoat are completely insufficient for a monsoon.
That evening we sloshed back to our apartment, still amazed at the sheer volume of rain. We dried off a bit and hung our dripping clothes up to dry while we got ready to do our Insanity workout. In the gym, the trainer was again absolutely intrigued by our workout. We can’t figure out why, but people just stop and watch the workout as we’re doing it. People here don’t seem as exercise focused as America, but we can’t figure out what is so exciting about this workout. One man even asked if he could make a copy of it. After our apparently fascinating workout, I talked with the trainer for a while. He was very curious about America and asked me lots of questions. It’s so weird trying to explain things that we consider normal. He found it strange that we eat dinner around 6 or 7 (or 5 if you go to Wofford!); and that married women still work; and even that in a marriage the man doesn’t have to be older than the women.
After a cold shower (there’s no water heater!), Rachel and I were ready for some dinner. In the mood for American food again, we went to Planet Café. After washing down a lamb burger and French fries with fresh Musumbi juice, we even got some ice cream! After a delicious yet stereotypical American meal, we went back to our apartment to be lulled to sleep by “Mean Girls.”
This morning we woke up early enough to do our Insanity workout before work. After getting showered and dressed plus a short facebook session, we were off to work. Along the way we spotted an elephant just standing in the street! A man at a nearby fruit stand was feeding it bananas as its rider sat atop. As we stood there in amazement, we were motioned forward and actually got to feed and pet the elephant! Its skin was so leathery and rough, and it kept searching us for more bananas. And this time we got to take a picture with it! It was so cool, but I was careful not to stand to close to the giant. I may ride horses, but an elephant is a whole lot bigger than any horse!
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