Friday morning yoga left me feeling relaxed and ready for day. Walking to work, Rachel and I talked about how quickly our trip has gone. We only have three weeks left! Work went on as normal, accompanied by our always tasty tea break. After lunch at Dollops, we went to “Prem’s Unisex Tailor.” I had to get my salwar fitted! We walked into the small shop and a little old man come out from a back room to see what we need. I pull out the shirt, hoping I can gesture my way through telling him that I want the sides tailored. Thankfully he understood, and after taking a few measurements, he told me to come back tomorrow same time. I thanked him and walked out of the shop, eager to get the chance to finally wear my salwar.
After getting back to work and working for a while, Rachel and I made our way downstairs to the first floor to visit George. Not only do we enjoy visiting him, but today we wanted to talk to him about getting some Ekam candles to take home. Ekam is the name under which Primacy and the Manipal Group produce candles. George had given us a rose-scented candle a few days before. It made our whole apartment smell so good! After that and getting to see the factory and how the candles are made, we were convinced that we needed to bring a few home with us.
After work, Rachel and I decided to celebrate that we only had three weeks left by stopping at “Home Pride Bakery.” Pushing away the feeling that I had been eating far too many sweets lately, I picked out a delicious-looking pink cake. Rachel chose a chocolate cake, and both of us just stood there enjoying our after-work treat. We aren’t often disappointed by the food here, and this was no exception. Especially given that our snack was only Rs. 12 ($0.25) each, we decided we may need to come back to celebrate again.
Trekking downstairs to the gym, Rachel and I were both nervous about our Insanity workout. We’re definitely still at the stage where we stand with dropped jaw as each exercise is explained. We tentatively started our workout and dragged ourselves through the seemingly endless jumps, pushups, and suicides. As we finally did our cool down stretches, we confidently declared that by the time we finish this program we are going to be ninjas! With this assurance, we made our way back to our room. We hurried to shower and get ready. We had dinner plans with Prianka! Prianka is the girl who lives in the apartment right beside us, and also the one who rescued Rachel when I accidentally locked her out. She is so nice, and we were really excited to get to spend some time with her getting to know her better.
We decided on Blue Waters for dinner. We had only been there once for dinner, so it was nice to go someplace a little different. As we sat down in the booth, Prianka told us about her job as a designer. Lately though she said her job title is more like “jack of all trades.” We surveyed the menu and I settled on a fish steak, Rachel on a mushroom sizzler, and Prianka on paneer dish. We talked easily and our food came quickly. Everything was absolutely delicious. As we sampled each other’s food, we decided that we were very impressed with Blue Waters as a dinner spot. We talked more about Manipal and compared our experiences here. Prianka is from Jaipur and said that Manipal is very different from other cities in India. Because the town came up because of the university, it doesn’t really have its own identity as southern or northern. It’s just a mix of lots of different people and places. It was so interesting to hear her perspective. I could tell she is very intelligent, and I hope to spend more time with her. I appreciate having real conversations much more than the small talk that occupies so much of the day. We finished up our dinner, caught an auto back to our apartment. Rachel and I thanked Prianka for the lovely dinner and promised to do it again soon. We were still so tired from our workout that we fell asleep almost instantly!
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