Happy New Year!!

It's 2013 here and let's just say it will be a New Year's Eve I will never forget! Today was a day for learning. We had three lectures today all one after the other. Our first lecture was on the history of Madras Christian College, the college in which we are staying. This way very interesting, the one thing I found to be the most striking were the notable alumni. One was the second president of India, another is the CEO of PepsiCo.

After this lecture, we had tea. As India was colonized by the British they take on many of the mannerisms of them, one of the more popular ones was tea. Then we continued with our second lecture of Hinduism. This was an interesting topic but it was just the start for our learning about this religion. Due to our time limit we could not fully comprehend the totality of the religion but just got the basics for their religion.

The people we are staying with are very helpful and some of the nicest people as they are trying to make sure we are satisfied with everything we have. Therefore today was the day we got our first rupees! It took us roughly two or three hours to go through this process as the system is all done by hand. After that we were late for our third lecture so we had to rush back. This was the first of many lectures and instruction on Indian music.

The lecture was on Indian classical music. It was very interesting but very different. It was hard to follow the songs or raagas they were singing as it is in their native tongue and Had a religious meaning. After the lecture we had the lecturers give us a performance and it was very wonderful. I should note that the lectures that are given to us are not done by our professors that have traveled with us rather by people the college has brought in for us, most of whom are highly regarded in India. So to say the least we are very fortunate!

Now onto the festivities! We have now passed into the new year and it was a joyous one to say the least. We went to the house of the housekeeper for the college for dinner. Their family was very welcoming and they even brought guests from the college to come enjoy it will us! The meal was wonderful as is every meal we've eaten. However, most of our host would beg to differ. After talking with them about the meal they said it was rather bland as they are used to the spices but I a very glad they have toned it down for us. Today I had an experience with the spice as during lunch we have cucumber salads and today there was to me a pea looking thing, in which I thought it just looked different because of the differing crops they have. Man was I wrong! After a big bite I was almost in tears as I quickly found out this pea looking vegetable was a really hot pepper!

Indian fact of the day: Indians aware never on time! They always say everything is 20 minutes away or it will be 20 minutes. It never is!!

Have a good new year in the states!

P.S. Happy birthday Abby!!!!