Weekend Update

Our group was invited to a wedding reception so all the girls needed sarees to wear. Saturday morning we took a taxi to TNagar to shop for sarees. All of us ended up buying them from Kumarans. We walked in and kept going upstairs to the nicer sarees. Everyone got something different. Mine is a blue/green with some red embroidery and brown beading. The colors and beadwork on all of our sarees is amazing.

On Sunday a few of us went to mass at St. Thomas's Basilica which is built over the remains of Doubting Thomas. The mass was a little different, the music was very modern. After we ate lunch at Sarana Bhavan and I had a mini meal with different types of rice and a delicious desert that was made of rice, milk, and sugar.

We found black coffee at work. The coffee at our hotel is either instant or already has a ton of cream mixed into it so all of the black coffee drinkers get really excited about going to work in the morning. They also bring us snacks occasionally which is very nice.

Beach Trip

Yesterday after our meetings we all got a little bored and two of the guys decided that we should go to the beach so everyone that wanted to go went downstairs and Pramod (the graduate student who is babysitting us here) bargained for an auto rickshaw which was very entertaining to watch. He eventually got the right price and nine of us piled into 3 cars and started swerving through Indian traffic, where laws are merely suggestions. It was a little scary at times but it was fun. We all met up at the beach and put our feet in the Indian Ocean and then walked around. We had cotton candy, roasted con with lime and chili, and ice cream. One of the girls had her palm read and all of the girls got some colorful bangles.

Today we had our first individual meetings with the person we are working for at Larsen and Toubro. Our leader made very efficient use of time an we were done within an hour, but we were the only ones. So we walked around and got juices, I had a banana lissi which similar to a banana and yogurt smoothie. Then we walked around some more and just decided to leave because we weren't doing anything productive. We bargained for an auto rickshaw and then the driver tried to charge us more but we did not allow it.

Office Visits

Yesterday we went back to IIT and met with a professor there and discussed projects that we will be working on. I will be working with someone on Lifecycle Costing Analysis, meaning if you have a light fixture how many bulbs will it use over 15 to 20 years. Another project is working with qualitative and quantitative data so that engineers and architects/designers can work together better. There is also a project dealing with thermal comfort in buildings and material comparisons. Then we ate lunch at a typical Indian restaurant and everyone ordered a different side and we all shared and ate them with naan and it was delicious. I ordered chenna masala which is chickpeas and a tomato spice sauce. Mangos are also in season here so everyone had fresh mango juice. Then we all went to Larsen and Toubro which is a huge construction and engineering firm that has projects all over India and in other countries. The projects that we discussed in the morning meeting will be taking place at L&T. The buildings were really neat, all of them were different geometric shapes and I think that a lot of them were LEED certified as well.

Today we had another meeting at IIT but with a different professor and we visited his lab which was pretty interesting. He does a lot of research with X-rays and microwaves and what not. I am also noticing cultural differences because when we were in the meeting he answered his phone several times which would have been rude to do in the states but is fine here. Also, time is not an exact thing here, they usually give you a 30 minute to 1 hour time to meet somewhere which is strange because if you are meeting with a professor at home you better be on time or else you look like a bad student.

Now we are all back at the hotel cooling off. I don't think I will ever get used to this heat.

Adventures in India

My mom dropped me off at the Atlanta airport around 11 and then it was hurry up and wait for about an hour until I got to my gate. I made some phone calls and then sat with my group until the flight at 1:55. We got to Chicago around 3 and got some food (the last salad I will be eating for awhile) and then left Chicago around 5 and got to Brussels around 8 a.m. Our next flight was delayed a little because of maintenance issues and we left around 11. Sometime after midnight we arrived in the Chennai airport in India.

The first thing I noticed was that it was hot and crowded, even that late in the night. The group of 12 piled into a van with all of our luggage and headed to our hotel. At night, it did not look like we were in the greatest part of town and we realized the next day that we aren’t.

Our first day we all woke up in time to get the complimentary breakfast provided by our hotel and then most of the group walked to the IIT Madras campus, where some of us will be working. Our hotel is next to a slum, but there is a fence with guards around our hotel to keep us safe. On our walk to the campus we saw plenty of goats, chickens, and dogs in the street. The campus is very pretty, lots of trees keep it a degree or two cooler than outside. On campus there are a ton of monkeys but don’t make eye contact with them because they try to take things from you. We visited a lab and then walked back to the hotel and got the rest of the group and then went for lunch. We walked to a food court in an Industrial Park and noticed that there is a KFC, Pizza Hut, and Subway, which will be nice if I’m crazing something familiar. I had some Indian foor, chicken curry with a steamed rice noodle patty and some sort of bread (sorry I don’t know the names) which was a little spicy but delicious. After that we came back to the hotel and soon after that Autumn and I worked out in the tiny gym here. There is a strange machine called a “CrazyFit Massage” and we looked it up and it claimed to be “Australia’s favorite vibration work out.” I’ll keep you updated on that. There is also a bike, treadmill, and weights. It’s really hot outside (around 100 everyday) so I think I’ll stick to the gym, at least until I’m more familiar with the area, but probably the majority of the summer. We ordered a pizza for dinner and it tasted basically the same as pizza back home and then went to bed around 10.

Today we got up around 8 and had breakfast. The coffee here is already mixed with milk and not very strong so I think Autumn and I are just going to make coffee ourselves in our room each morning. Now we are waiting to go to the grocery store and watching Indian television. I have noticed that a lot of the advertisements are for making your skin paler which is the opposite of what the commercials are at home right now which is interesting.