Saturday began normally: yoga at 7, work by 9, tea break around 11, and lunch at 1. You might say that I like schedules. Today for lunch, George took us to a restaurant called Dishes. It had a really good vibe, bright red booths, blue walls, and white trim. How appropriate for our early Fourth of July! We sat and talked and planned our trip to Mangalore the next day. It was a nice lunch, and it’s always nice to have someone who can tell us what’s good.
When we got back to work after lunch, Akshata told us that we had permission to leave early as a kind of holiday for July 4th. We were so excited, but I almost didn’t know what to do leaving work at such an early time. Rachel did though! As we walked back home, we called Mike and asked him when we wanted to start cooking. He told us to come over whenever we were ready, so we stopped to pick up groceries and drop our stuff off in the apartment. When we realized how many ingredients we had, we decided to be innovative and loaded up my book bag with everything. Walking through the rain to Mike’s apartment, I couldn’t help but laugh at all the cooking supplies weighing down my backpack. My book bag was nearly bursting. After a bit we arrived, and we were so excited to actually get to cook.
Pulling out our supplies and turning on some music, we got started. Rachel started peeling the apples for the apple pie while I started making our homemade piecrust. Meanwhile Mike worked on stuffed mushrooms, and I could hardly wait to taste everything. We had a few minor setbacks, but nothing we couldn’t manage. We forgot our apple pie needed a crust, so after looking up a recipe online we set about making a homemade piecrust. Because of the humidity, I wasn’t able to roll out the dough very well, and we had to settle for a crosshatch design on top. But despite our innovative fix, we hoped that it would come out all right. Our lemon bars however, did not have such a sunny outlook. After accidentally using melted butter instead of softened, the crust on the lemon bars was far too fluffy. When we gave up on the crust, we decided to pour the lemon mixture in and see what happened when we cooked it. Much to my horror, the lemon mixture fell through the intended crust. I called Rachel over and we just stared at it for a while. Finally we decided that we might as well bake it and see what it decided to do.
After a few hours of hard work, Rachel and I had apple pie and potentially lemon squares to show for our hard work. Our lemon bars weren’t out of the oven yet, so we hoped to come back to something edible at least. We left Mike to finish his masterpiece, while we went home to workout and get changed. An Insanity workout and a shower later, Rachel and I were back at Mike’s door. The delicious smell of food welcomed us in, and we went straight to the kitchen to find lasagna in the oven, broccoli in a pan with melted cheese, and garlic bread in foil waiting to be warmed up. It looked and smelled heavenly! Now you may laugh because this whole meal is more Italian than American, but it looked like home so it didn’t matter. After surveying what Mike had done since we’d been gone, our eyes landed on the ominous lemon squares. We grabbed spoons and prepared ourselves to taste our concoction. Much to our delight, it tasted like lemon squares! Given its unorthodox look, we affectionately renamed it lemon blob. We were very pleased with ourselves and snacked on our dessert while we helped Mike finish up. When Mike jumped in the shower
to clean up, we searched for dishes to set the table and put all the food on serving plates.
After what seemed like forever, Mike emerged and Aj arrived with his famed cheesecake. We sat down to eat with our mouths watering. The food was delicious. I could hardly believe how good it tasted. I didn’t realize how much I missed American food until then. After we gorged ourselves on the wonderful meal and thanked Mike for his hard work, it was time to dig in to the apple pie. Much to our delight it was delicious! We declared our homemade crust a success! We voted to save the cheesecake for later, cleared the table, and started playing games while we waited for the rain to stop so we could set off the fireworks. We finally gave up on the rain and went out to Blue Waters for a bit. It closed at 12:30 again, but we found out that it was the club owner’s birthday. We made sure to tell him happy birthday in between meeting Mike and AJ’s friends. We were invited back to Sandeer’s birthday party and decided to go for a little while. Soon we were all getting tired and headed back to Mike’s apartment. After sampling AJ’s cheesecake, which was absolutely delicious, we went back to our apartment to crash.
Sunday morning came way too early as I woke up to go to 8 AM Mass. As I grabbed a rickshaw, I thought about how lucky I was that church was so close. Mass was beautiful as usual, and as I was walking out the Mother Superior remembered my name and stopped to say hello. I wish I had remembered hers! Then I passed Fr. Francis who also stopped to say hello. It was so nice to have some friends at church. I walked home content and looking forward to our day in Mangalore. Rachel and I met George at the bus stop at 11. Well, Rachel and I got there a little before 11, and George got there closer to 11:20. We always forget that everyone is on “India time.” We hopped on the fancy new A/C bus after buying the Rs. 65 ticket ($1.40) and I fell asleep for most of the hour and a half ride there. When we arrived, we jumped off the bus and started for Bharath Mall. The first thing we did was go
to the food court. We surveyed the different restaurants: North Indian, South Indian, Chinese, a sweet shop, a fresh juice stand, and a few others. After a few minutes’ consideration, Rachel and I opted for the North Indian thalis. After enjoying our lunch, we walked around for a while looking in all the different stores. Rachel found a pretty necklace, George bought a new pair of jeans, and I picked out a pair of running tights. After shopping, we decided to go see a movie. Rachel had been dying to see “A-Team,” so we stood in line for tickets, looking forward to seeing what Indian movie theaters are like. After purchasing our ticket for only Rs. 170 ($3.60), we headed for the concession stand. Hey, if we’re going to see a move, we’re going to do it right. When we got to the front of the line, we got to choose between caramel, cheese, or salted popcorn. Such variety! Sticking to the classic and getting salted popcorn, we made our way to our theater. Even with George there, we went into the wrong theater on our first try. Luckily we made it to the right one on our second try, and sat down in our assigned seat. The theater was huge, and the seats were so comfy. Soon the previews started, and finally the main feature began. As Rachel and I munched on our popcorn we excitedly watched the movie, almost feeling like we were back home. However when intermission rolled around, we looked at each other in confusion as to why a cartoon was dancing around on the screen. Since when are there intermissions for movies? But George assured us that there is always an intermission, so we sat back and talked about how much we like the movie. Soon “A-Team” returned and we sat enjoying the second half of the movie. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to see a hilarious action movie.
After the movie, Rachel and I were both exhausted, so we jumped on a bus heading back to Manipal. This time it wasn’t an A/C bus, and everyone was crammed together some even having to stand during the long bus ride back. Luckily Rachel and I both got seats, Rachel perched on the edge of a row and I squashed between a man and a woman. The crowd thinned as we went through Udupi and got closer to Manipal. After what seemed like forever, we arrived in Manipal and Rachel, George, and I gratefully leapt off the bus. We thanked George for our fun day and made our way back to our apartment looking forward to an early night. Rachel had some cold lasagna and fell into bed. But not being a fan of cold leftovers and only sometimes knowing how to operate our microwave, I ordered a grilled chicken burger and some fries. I seem to eat way more unhealthy food here than I do at home, but I guess it’s the only thing that tastes like home! After inhaling my food I passed out beside Rachel, and our day was officially over.
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