Beach views and lime juice. Good day.

As I'm trying to spend a good chunk of the day working on our paper that's due Monday, I thought I'd just throw up a few pictures of the views in Alleppey at the homestay we're at. After departing from the houseboat after a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and fresh fruit, our driver brought us to check out the Arabian Sea before we could check in at our next place.

Riding the ferry to school and work often requires umbrellas during the monsoon season!

Arabian Sea

Celebratory jump from Leslie, myself, and Megan in honor of the near conclusion of our projects!

Current view from Megan and my bungalow. The Arabian Sea is literally on the other side of the stones -  15 yards away!

Our private beach! :)

Pathway along the sea coast through the neighborhood.

Checking in from a houseboat in Kerala!

Hi everyone,

First and foremost, I would like to say that everyone in the TPS course is accounted for. In case you hadn't heard, three bombings occurred in the city of Mumbai (Bombay), resulting in the deaths of 18 persons and injuries to more than 100. Luckily, none of my classmates or friends from ICTPH were visiting the city...

On a lighter note, six of us TPSers are spending a long weekend in the state of Kerala. After a 12-hour train ride, we arrived in the coastal town of Kochi around 6 AM, where a representative from the travel agency we booked through picked us up and took us to see the coast. We got to see the "Chinese fishing nets" the area is famous for and stroll along the Arabian sea. Not a bad way to spend the morning! :)

As I write this, the six of us (Whitney, Nancy, Allison, Megan, and Leslie) are in the backwaters of Alleppey, lounging on a houseboat tied to a coconut tree. We've just finished lunch and are now basking in the sun, enjoying the beautifully green rice paddies. All-in-all, a great day.

Our driver took a detour to show us his friends' house where they make doormats out of coconut leaves!

View from the houseboat!

Just another day in India (workin' hard, believe it or not!).

Views from the boat when we docked for lunch.

We'll spend the night on the houseboat and then check out tomorrow after breakfast, where we'll head to the associated beach resort for the next night. Updates soon!

PS - check out my friend Leslie's blog for more details about the day! :)

Banana leaves, rotini, and elephant snot

[apparently I forgot to click publish when I wrote this... Oops. It's a few days old]

Good morning folks!

I know it's been a few days since my last post, but since I've mostly been working on our final project and sleeping, I wanted to spare you the boring details of my recent days in Thanjavur!

However, this morning life got a little bit more interesting when Sonia convinced me to walk to nearby Hotel Victoria for breakfast. As we left the ICTPH/Sugha Vazvhu headquarters, we were instantly greeted by an adorable yellow puppy with a curly tail. Sonia and I decided that if we had a few more weeks time in Thanjavur, we probably would adopt him and name him Rotini, in honor of the curly tail. [Side note: there is a backstory to the pasta-related name. One of the dogs at our residency is named Ragu, who happens to be a reddish orange color. Stephanie decided to name another house dog Alfredo, in honor of Americanized pasta sauces. Many of us TPSers greatly appreciate Alfredo and his protective nature, as he actually walks with a lot of the students who go to a nearby track early in the morning to run. Apparently he plays with other dogs at the park and barks at men who are at the track who come close to the girls while they're running. Pretty awesome.]

When we finally made it to Hotel Victoria, Sonia and I relished in dosas and chutneys for breakfast, each of which were served on a banana leaf!  All of this for only Rus. 15 (i.e., less than 50 cents).

Then, on the walk back to the office, we heard some jingling and realized there was a man riding an ornately-decorated elephant turning the corner onto our street. My class members came out and we fed him some bananas and gave some coins in order to get blessed by the elephant. Pretty great way to start the day!