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.
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