Farewell Thanjavur, hello Chennai.

Life in India has been a bit busy the past few days, as I literally traveled the entire width of India, from Alleppey/Kochi (on the eastern coast, by the Arabian Sea), to Thanjavur, and ending in Chennai this morning.

Long cross-country trek -- Alleppey/Kochi --> Thanjavur --> Chennai.  Oy.

Alleppey/Kochi 
The last day in the state of Kerala, in Alleppey, was spent doing some work on the paper/presentation, beachside of course. Our driver Ajit then took us from our homestay to the city of Kochi, where we had an unsuccessful shopping trip, in the pouring rain. Since our train to Thanjavur didn't leave until 10 PM, we decided to go hang out at a fancy-schmancy hotel in Kochi - for five hours - to get out of the rain and enjoy some pampering! It was pretty interesting getting into the hotel, as the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai have led a lot of the nice hotels to up their security. Some guards had to check out the inside of our car before we get into the parking lot and then our bags had to go through an x-ray machine, just to enter the place! I don't know if these screenings made me feel more safe or more creeped out... :)

Right outside our room! :)

Open bathrooms! Some of the girls took a shower in the monsoon rains!

Welcoming lime juice!

Thanjavur
Once we returned to Thanjavur on Sunday, the entire day and night was spent working on our paper that was due on Monday. Luckily, I'm part of an amazing group who picked up the slack when I fell ill on Sunday night. Let's just say that my poor roommate, Megan, woke up repeatedly to sounds of vomiting... Unfortunately, I spent all of Monday bed-ridden, with a doting Tendrall checking in on me.

We had a quick dinner at the house before a teary goodbye  with Tendrall, during which we gave her a beautiful sari as a thank you for being such a doting mother to us all. We then headed out to the train station, during which we were hyper-aware of all of the places that have been near and dear to our hearts:

• More - the grocery store down the road that supplied us with caffeine, Lay's, Cadbury chocolate, 
• Bombay sweets - not really my cup of tea, but my classmates frequented the dessert bakery!
• Hotel Sangam - swanky hotel and restaurant
• Infant Jesus temple (don't ask)
• The John Deere tractor store - yeah, they exist in India
• Too many more to list :)

Chennai
We arrived in Chennai this morning, which means I need to go pass out to finish fighting this GI infection before we head out and do some last-minute shopping. Email me your souvenir requests! :)