Saturday finally came, and thanks to our 10 o’clock consultation with the doctor for our ayurveda massage, we got to sleep in a bit! Anyone who knows me knows that I love to sleep in and that getting out of bed in the morning is close to impossible for me. Poor Rachel has had the pleasure of dragging me out of bed several times this summer. So sleeping in was a great start to the day. After waking up refreshed, I went down to the gym to do my Insanity workout while Rachel skyped her roommate. After showering and having breakfast, we walked to the hospital, excited to be one step closer to our massages.
After checking in, we met with the doctor. He looked at the two surveys we had to fill out and asked us a few questions. He looked at our hands, eyes, and nose. He took our height and weight, checked our pulse and blood pressure, did a few calculations and finally concluded that we were both Pitta-Kapha. He explained that the philosophy of ayurveda is that there are three different body types, Pitta, Kapha, and Vata. These body types explain one’s nature and behaviors. For example, Pitta-Kaphas tend to be disciplined, stubborn, and athletic. We decided that we agreed with this description. After making this declaration, he sent us up to the fifth floor to the ayurveda department. There we met with another doctor. He explained that based on our determined body types, he would prescribe oils and bathing powder for our treatment. After talking with us about the treatment, he sent us on our way with prescription in hand.
Back at the apartment, I decided to have an early lunch before I headed into work. I made one of our boxes of macaroni and cheese for lunch. It was so delicious. Macaroni and cheese hardly ever fails. As I was eating my delicious lunch, we heard a knock on our door. Our caretaker and several men came into our apartment, telling us that they were going to fix our hot water heater. At the thought of a hot shower, I welcomed them in with open arms! Before they were finished, I left to go to work, but couldn’t wait to take a steaming shower when I got back from work. Little did I know, they ended up taking our hot water heater with them, and we would have to wait until Monday to get it back!
Work went quickly, broken up with a meeting with Mr. Simhan about our trip to Goa and organizing train tickets. Since Rachel had taken the rest of the day off for a business lunch and a hair appointment, I made the executive decision for a two-person sleeper car and a few other particulars of the trip. On the way home I stopped at the ayurveda medicine house to get our “prescriptions.” After guessing as to which shop was the right one, I walked up to the lady behind the counter and handed her our prescriptions. She studied them for a minute, went into the back room for a minute, and then handed me the slips of paper and shook her head. I was slightly confused, “You don’t have these?” I asked her. She just shook her head again, “No.” Confused and at a loss as to how I was supposed to get these oils now, I walked back to the apartment. After her business lunch, Rachel had spent the afternoon getting her hair permanently straightened. I could hardly wait to see how it looked!
As I opened the door to our apartment, Rachel was standing in the middle of the room with a huge smile on her face. Her hair was perfectly straight, and she looked so great! We had one of those squealing, jumping up and down, girl moments, as I gushed over how wonderful her hair looked. She was so excited and told me all about her lunch and the experience of getting her hair straightened. As we were talking, Rachel got a call from an unknown number. Confused she answered the phone and realized it was Mrs. Pai calling. She invited us to a party she was hosting at Valley View. She told us it was a fancy gathering, so make sure to dress up. We assured her we would be there, excited about the last minute
change of plans. She told us the party started at 7:30, and as we looked at the clock and realized it was already 7 o’clock, we had to hurry to get ready.
When we arrived at the banquet hall, we found out that it was Mr. Pai’s parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. What a great thing to celebrate! We said hello to Mr. and Mrs. Pai, thanking them for inviting us. Looking around, the hall was a huge room with a stage at the front. IT was decorated with streamers and a banner that said “Happy 40th Anniversary.” Everyone looked wonderful, and we met so many new people. One girl we met is a German university student, Katharina, who is here studying jewelry management for a semester. She had only been in Manipal a few days and was definitely still in the adjustment phase. We were so excited to get the chance to share some of the things we had learned about India and Manipal. We also ran into Rahul, one of the people we went to dinner with at China Valley. It was nice to see him again, and he introduced us to one of his friends. The five us of started a “young people” table and sat around talking. Meanwhile there was a small presentation going on up on the stage. There were a few songs, a little boy played drums (quite impressively too), and a few girls performed a dance. Our favorite performance, though, was when Mrs. Pai, her two daughters, and another woman and her daughter performed a dance they had made up. They had a surprise dancer,
when another little girl decided to join. It was so cute to watch them all having fun up there. After a wonderful evening, it was time to go visit Mike and AJ. We were supposed to go over to Mike’s apartment much earlier, but when Mrs. Pai called us, we made a few adjustments to our plan. We invited Katarina to come along, and the three of us grabbed a rickshaw and made our way to Mike’s apartment. A few of our friends were already there: AJ, Aseem, and Nitin. We all hung out and talked and played games. It was pouring the whole night so we just had a fun night staying in. Before we knew it, it was 3 AM! We wrapped up quickly, giving Katarina our numbers, thanking Mike for having us over again, and went home to get in bed.
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