Back to reality

What a great weekend it has been.  Thursday through Sunday were spent perusing the tourist town of Kodaikanal, located in the Palni Hills, which was approximately a 5.5 hour drive southwest of Thanjavur.  This includes the 2-hour trek up the winding, weaving mountainous roads, which luckily occurred at night (because, quick reminder - people drive on the opposite side of the road as in the States, and I happened to be sitting on the side of the vehicle that came within inches of falling off the cliff.  Oddly enough, it reminded me of a crazy drive across Washington state with my parents a few years ago, with my dad pointing out gorgeous views [while driving] and the rental car swerving towards the edge of the mountain...  Off on a tangent, my bad.).

Anyway, once we made it to the top (about 7000 feet, I believe), we were greeted with some cold, damp weather, which was pretty sweet, considering we've been used to 100+ F temps in Thanjavur.  After getting a quick tour of the homestay, we enjoyed some "take away" (i.e., take out) food from a local restaurant called the Royal Tibet, which was followed immediately by some sleep.

As mentioned in my earlier post, we spent the next day (Friday) hiking around the city with the owner of our homestay, Shaheed.  He took us through some gorgeous waterfalls, past a brick fence protecting a pear orchard, and to a local secret that provided us with great views of the valley.  Unfortunately, thunderstorms started soon after we departed from the spectacular (though cloudy) view and walked several miles in the pouring rain.  [Tip for future India travelers: bring a raincoat if you plan on going to the mountains.  And shirts with long sleeves.]

Dessa, me, Erin R.

After working up an appetite from the hike, we went and enjoyed some biryani, which was fantastic, and despite being soaking wet and freezing cold, I decided to splurge and get some Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream!  The gang took over downtown Kodaikanal and spent hours perusing local stores and picking up some souvenirs and necessities for the weekend (read: party pants [i.e., Hammer pants] and long-sleeved shirts) before hitting up The Carlton Hotel for dinner and drinks.  I must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed the "awesome" American pop tunes being played, as our group collectively sang some N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys, Alanis Morissette, Britney Spears, Nickelback, and Blink 182 tunes while indulging on a dinner of delicious bar snacks that included fresh fruit and vegetables, masala peanuts, and potato chips.  I'm pretty sure everyone thought we were crazy.

The next morning, we again enjoyed a delicious meal of omelets, toast (well, sans toast for me), coffee and tea before we headed out for another day of hiking.  We decided to try to go back to Shaheed's top secret location to catch a glimpse of the valley without as much cloud cover, and boy am I glad we did.  After a minor incident with some monkeys, we made it to the edge of the cliff and enjoyed the absolutely stunning views.

That's as close as I could get to the edge of the cliffs!

So grateful to Shaheed for his hiking suggestions!

We then headed a few minutes down the road to check out a tourist attraction called Dolphin's Nose, which is a rock protrusion that provides fantastic views of the valley below.  Let's just say getting down (and back up) the path to this tourist attraction was crazy intense, with steep descents lined with "stairs" of tree roots and rocks, and lined with rest stands serving fruit, sodas, masala tea, and even Arun ice cream and other goodies. I'm just glad they didn't charge me to sit at every shop along the way up, or I would've lost a lot of Rupees that day!  From Dolphin's Nose, we were able to get a closer look at the village of Vellagavi, which apparently is only reachable by foot.

Dolphin's Nose.  Loaded with tourists and photographers.

Megan, Shawn, and Leslie enjoying the views.

Our driver decided to accompany us on the hike!! (Side note: he was also our driver to Pondicherry!)

Megan and Shawn ventured out onto Dolphin's Nose!

Village of Vellagavi, which is only reachable by foot.

Delicious trail-side snacks. (Bri - note the Thums up!)

Why yes, you can get delicious ice cream snacks along the path from h-e-double hockey sticks.

After the utterly exhausting treks, we headed back to town for lunch at a Punjabi restaurant.  I'm so glad my classmates are pro-"family style meals," so we can all try new things and expand our palates for Indian cuisine!  Although I've become addicted to butter chicken (or paneer) masala, it's nice to try out the other curries and deliciousness that my friends are brave enough to order!  Post-lunch involved even more shopping (surprise, surprise) which means I've now stocked up on lots of souvenirs (if I can bare to part with them).  We then hit up The Carlton for some delicious bar snacks and wandered around the city to enjoy even more Indian food, where I manned up and tried mutton for the first time (thanks again to Shawn for 1) letting me try his food, and 2) steering me away from the non-muscle [i.e., organ] part of his meal.).

1. Note the Budweiser on the table.  Kind of fitting for a group of St. Louis students, no?
2.  Believe it or not, we're actually talking about school/public health topics!

All-in-all, great weekend.  Now, however, we're back in Thanjavur and have to get back to work, as our next presentation and paper are due in less than two weeks.  How did it already get to be crunch time!?!

Wishing everyone at home an early Happy 4th of July!  I'll keep you all updated on the shindigs we have planned for tomorrow (spoiler alert: party pants [i.e., Hammer pants] may be involved).

Views from the top of the world!

Kodaikanal is FANTASTIC.  Not only do they have horses roaming the streets, but there's a Baskin Robbins and hot showers!!

We've been staying at a wonderful place called Dalethorpe Homestay, described on the website as an English bungalow built in the 1930s.  The grounds are beautiful, with a very well-tended garden.

Kind of a weird view, but I was just trying to snap a picture of the yellow lady bug.

After some miscommunication with our driver and a rescuing phone call from our house mom Tendrall back in Thanjavur, we along with the owner of the homestay, Shaheed, spent the day hiking in the mountains.  We played in some waterfalls, saw baby monkeys, and enjoyed the view from the edge of a mountain.  For real.

Despite walking a few miles in pouring rain, today has been absolutely fantastic!  Kodaikanal has already provided me with a much-needed break! :)

No worries - I'm still alive!

Hello faithful readers,

I apologize for the lack in posts this past week, but all of us TPSers have been diligently preparing our first of two 25-page (single space, mind you) papers, which was handed in this morning (insert a deep sigh of relief).  We also had to develop and give two presentations explaining our intervention plan.  I'd like to give a quick shout out to my team members, Stephanie B. and Erin R., for all of their hard work, particularly this week.  An especially grateful thank you to Erin R. for knocking our presentations out of the park!  (You have incredible public speaking skills, girly!)

Anyway, the only relatively exciting event since the last post was on Monday, when we spent the day at an ICTPH conference held at the nearby Ideal River Resort (check out the pics! pretty posh.).  During the first half of the day, we presented our proposed intervention plans to ICTPH staff and SughaVazvhu board members.  Although intense, it was great to get some feedback from such experienced members of the organization.

The fourteen of us students spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the luxuries offered by the rest of the resort, i.e., lounging by the palm-lined pool, enjoying delicious meals by the riverside... You get the idea.

Anyway, after our presentations today (Thursday), nine of us students hopped in a van (which happens to be the same van and driver from our trip to Pondicherry) and trekked a couple of hours to the hill-town of Kodaikanal (google image search results)!  Updates (and more pictures) soon!

What a week!

This has been a week full of field visits and intervention planning.  And paper writing. So, here's some pictures!

Cafeteria kitchen!

Hibiscus flower!  Apparently Indian women eat them for PMS...

How many girls can you cram in a seat?  Apparently 5.

Meeting at the Panchayat's house.  She's the President of the village (similar to a mayor).

More monkeys...

We started out the day with some more monkeys... Apparently one of the men who lives here has been feeding them, which explains their constant presence!

We then had a productive field visit in the Ambalapattu area!  Since my last posts have been kind of word heavy (and because I need to spend time working on my paper), I'll just throw up some pictures!  Enjoy!

Back to school we go!

Water tap at the school for handwashing!

The GI team went to primary (elementary/middle) school!

While geotagging the water system in Ambalapattu, we (Alex - ICTPH, Erin R., Stephanie, me) stopped to check out a water tank. 

I just can't get enough of watching people carrying things on their heads!  It's so impressive!

PUPPY!

Ravi's friend preparing some coffee for the GI team!  It's such a great process to watch:  pour a layer of sugar in the cup,  followed by milk, coffee grounds, and then the boiling water.  Then, you pour it back and forth between two cups to make sure everything mixes.  Soooo cool!

Christmas in June!!

It's official: June 20 is my Indian Christmas.  Today, I received two giant boxes of American goodies from home (thanks, mom!).  Although I'm really excited about the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Champions t-shirt, I think the plethora of chocolate goodies is my favorite!  Unfortunately some of the chocolate didn't arrive in the best shape.... No worries, the mass M&M was still delicious!

In other news, I just had my first confrontation with the monkeys.  I was sitting all alone on our balcony/deck doing some video chatting, when I began hearing some ruckus coming from upstairs.  Then, out of nowhere, the beast and I locked eyes.  He (or she? I was too terrified to notice) was sitting on the stairs chewing on something that looked like a battery, curiously staring at me.  Then another hopped down the stairs behind it.  I quickly (and I like to think calmly) walked down a flight of stairs to the floor my room was on and made it to my door.  I realized I should probably go close the entrance door to our hallway to make sure they don't scare any of my classmates should they come out of their room.  As I headed back to shut the door, laptop in hand, I realized I was too late - they had breached our floor.  "Sorry classmates," I thought, "you're on your own."  I've been sitting safely in the comfort of my room since the encounter and plan to stay that way until dinner is served, which is unfortunately on the balcony/deck.  Eesh.

Oh yeah -- in other news: I found my first "Gluten Free" label yesterday while shopping and wanted to share!

Happy Dad's Day!

First and foremost, happy father's day!  In honor of the holiday, I have decided to indulge in what I remember to be my dad's favorite candy bar:  Snickers.  So good.

Also, in response to my sister-in-law's request to see some of the MC Hammer pants, I've included a picture of my classmate Whitney wearing her pair.  Sorry, K, but I don't have a picture of me rocking the Hammer pants yet (knock on wood), but should one become available, I pinky swear that I'll share it!  However, I do plan on wearing them when I'm back home, so you may be lucky enough to see them up close and personal!  Now that I know you're infatuation with them, you may be getting them as a souvenir!

To throw in a quick public health/educational sentence about the pic of Whitney, she is actually standing on a scale outside of the Oriental Market, weighing herself.  Although this service costs 1 Rupee (i.e., about 2 cents), after learning what the average annual income of Indian families is, I doubt that this scale gets used that frequently.  Either way, we get to enjoy a delicious picture of Whitney rockin' her pants!

Megan and I also spent a large majority of our weekend cleaning and doing laundry.  We used a stick broom as our first round of sweeping, in order to get the big dirt balls, but then Megan went over the room again with the animal hair broom.  Interesting.

Speaking of sweeping, people here always seem to be sweeping.  Inside. Outside. Everywhere.  I find it a bit oxymoronic that people sweep sand off the streets to keep them clean, but continue to throw their garbage in massive piles right next to their homes.  I guess you do what you've gotta do within the environment you live...

The last exciting thing we did this weekend was laundry.  Oh, General Electric, Maytag, Whirlpool and more generally you dryers, how I will never take you for granted again!

Check out our sweet new clothesline.  Pretty rad, if you ask me!