We woke up Wednesday morning feeling refreshed after going to bed so early. As Rachel rolled over to check her phone, she shot up, “Nicole, it’s 7:30!” Oh no! We were supposed to be at yoga at 7 o’clock sharp! We were so embarrassed that we had missed our very first yoga session. As we sat there wondering how we could have possibly missed the alarm, we finally decided that there was nothing we could do about it now. We decided to make the most of it and went back to sleep for another half hour. We got ready in time to walk to work, hoping no one would ask us about our first yoga session. We barely sat down when Stella came by to bring us some of her homemade rava dosa. How nice! And when she asked how yoga was, Rachel couldn’t help but blurt out that we had overslept our yoga class and how embarrassed we were about it. Stella just has this presence that is very maternal. It’s like she has this “mom vibe” that makes it hard to keep anything a secret. She just laughed and asked if we needed a wake up call, but we were still quite distressed about our blunder.
In the morning, I emailed Mr. Kiran to ask what he would like me to focus on while he is away. He told me to meet with the man in charge of costing, Mr. Nagesh. After I emailed him about setting up a time to meet, Rachel and I went for our usually tea break. This time, Rachel tried a veg puff instead of the non-veg puff we tried the other day. She said the only differences were that the non-veg puff had egg in it, and the veg puff had more spices and flavors. That seems to be the trend here. Veg food tends to have much more flavor than non-veg. Anyways, after branching out with our tea snacks, we went back to work until lunch. We went to Dollops for lunch and had one our favorites, Egg Biryani.
After lunch, work went by quickly. Mr. Nagesh emailed me back and asked that I meet him in his office in Canara Security Printing. Since I had no clue if that was a department or an entirely different building, I asked one of my coworkers. She explained that it was a nearby building and gave me directions to get there. Unfamiliar with every landmark she mentioned, neither she nor I was sure if I would be able to find it. Nor did I know if I was going out for a mile trek or a quick walk around the corner. Nevertheless, I grabbed my umbrella and set off on my mini-adventure. Even if I could find the building, I had no idea how I would find his office. Happily surprised when I ended up at the right building after several blocks and a few left turns, I walked up to the security desk. I was questioned in broken English as to my purpose for visiting and eventually motioned to sign the visitor book. Then to my relief, a security guard showed me the way to Mr. Nagesh’s office. Walking in, I was so thankful to have made it. It may seem trivial, but I celebrate the little things in life. Navigating unfamiliar roads to get to an office in a building that I had never been to with the help of people who barely speak English counts as a small success in my book.
Mr. Nagesh welcomed me into his office and took a look at my cost sheet. He explained what was correct and what was incorrect and how to fix it. He also showed me how the company’s costing software worked. Trying to fabricate my own cost sheet given all the minute details seems nearly impossible after seeing the actual cost sheet software the company uses. With nearly ten machines involved in any given printing job, the variables seem endless! So after spending a few hours with me, I thanked Mr. Nagesh for helping me and walked away with a greatly improved understanding of the costing process for printed materials.
I always think I understand how the costing process works, and then I learn something else and realize I have a long way to go! I guess that’s the point of this internship though. It is such a different way of learning than in the classroom. Regardless, I am always impressed with how much time the people here invest in us. Of course they all have very busy work schedules, but they still make time to spend teaching us and making sure we are learning things. I know I am! After my meeting with Mr. Nagesh, it was already five o’clock and I only had one hour until the end of the day. I spent the rest of my day writing notes about what Mr. Nagesh and I talked about and then reading and taking more notes on my Getting Things Done book.
When I went to get Rachel from the Think Tank a coworker who is associated with Primacy (the candle factory) was there. His name is rather difficult to pronounce, so he also goes by George. I was so glad! He has come by the Think Tank a few times to visit friends there and has always been very friendly. When he was there yesterday he asked Rachel and me to come by and take a survey about makeup. Although I often opt for ten extra minutes of sleep instead of putting on makeup, I’m still a girl and love to play in it when I have time. As we said goodbye to George, promising to come take the survey, we walked home excited because we had plans to have dinner with two Americans we met over the weekend, Mike and AJ. We weren’t far into our Insanity workout when Rachel said she wasn’t feeling too well and had to call it quits. I was worried but decided to let her have some time by herself while I finished the workout. As soon as I was done, I ran upstairs to see if she was feeling any better. Thankfully she was; I suppose she just needed to rest for a bit. After showering and freshening up, we got ready to go out with our friends. Rachel said she was feeling much better, and we were eager to plan our 4th of July celebration!
Mike and AJ came to pick us up, and we were off to a restaurant in Udupi. They told us it was the best place around, and we were hoping they were right! We arrived at a nice hotel and went upstairs to find Sai Parivar Restaurant. It looked very nice, and we were excited to have something delicious. As we sat down, Mike and AJ told us how they practically kept this place in business when they first arrived in Manipal. Assuring us they could recite the menu and knew what was good here, we asked them to order for us and surprise us. When the appetizers came, we weren’t disappointed. The first appetizer to come was these green disks that were crushed peas and lentils that were formed into a kind of patty and then fried and topped with tiny pieces of peanuts. Next was a dish of bite-sized chicken and vegetables in a sauce. After that was another kind of chicken and vegetable dish. The final appetizer was a simpler vegetable medley in a sauce, this time more vegetables and less sauce. Everything was delicious, and I was stuffed already! But then the main courses came, and of course I had to try everything! I mean, this was important for my cultural experience. When everything was on the table before us, we had a paneer dish (a kind of compressed cottage cheese), a chicken dish, and a dal dish (made of crushed beans and lentils). And don’t forget the three different kinds of naan including cheese kulcha plus rice. Talk about a feast! Everything was so delicious; when I finally sat back I realized just how stuffed I was. We spent the evening talking and getting to know one another. We swapped stories about life in Manipal, our colleges, and our travels.
After doing impressive work on our dinner and finally noticing that the waiters were cleaning up around us, we decided it was time to head back. When Mike looked at his watch and saw that it was already 11:30 we could hardly believe how fast the time had gone! When Mike and AJ dropped us off at our apartment, we thanked them for a wonderful night and told them we couldn’t wait for our 4th of July celebration. As we went inside and got ready for bed, Rachel and I talked about how happy we were to meet such nice guys. It’s usually a good sign when the time goes that quickly. Crawling into bed, we realized that this was the exact halfway point of our trip. It was odd to think that we had been in Manipal for an entire month already. And knowing that we have some great friends to hang out with definitely makes the second month something to look forward to.
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