I am not sure I know a good way yet to describe India… I have been to Chennai for two days and I am on the way to Cochin to spend two days there before heading to Mauritius. I am not a huge fan of having to be fully covered when it is five thousand degrees and humid outside. I have been in pants, sneakers, and a sleeved shirt of some form every day because to do otherwise is culturally indecent, and being a young, little blondish person gets me enough attention as it is and I don't need any more. Also, this is irrelevant but important - I have developed a slight obsession with the Men In Black song [by Forever The Sickest Kids] in case you get bored and want to listen to it on YouTube - it's pretty fun to sing and I am working on converting Lydia into addiction as well.

The first day, when we arrived, I wasn't feeling well. We had a diplomatic briefing scheduled for 8AM so I woke up at 715 and got breakfast with Carson, Lydia, and Michael before the briefing - which was late, go figure since I woke up early. The briefing started about 9 and really wasn't overly helpful or interesting [are you seeing a theme yet with diplomatic briefings?]. During the briefing, called by ID numbers instead of Seas, we went through face to face customs on the ship, something that is coming to be very pointless and annoying. They look as us then give our passports back - it takes five seconds but it just manages to annoy me, maybe more than it should but maybe not since there is always one person who manages to sleep through it and hold the ship up. From there I was lazy in my room until lunch at 1130. I had a trip at 1230 that I was pretty sure did not involve lunch, and since I didn't have any currency I didn't want to be stuck hungry and broke in the middle of India.

I got on the bus at 1215 for my trip called "The Hindu Family." We drove to a neighborhood and visited a woman's home who had once been an inter-port lecturer for India through Semester At Sea. We stayed there for about 4 hours and talked to her and had a snack. People asked questions about politics, religion, missing women, her life, etc. It was interesting but it was not something I couldn't find in a book or article online so I was bored most of the time and just talked to myself [in a non-crazy way obviously, but I had to find something else to do].

From there we drove to a Shiva temple. It was huge and elaborate and decorated like crazy. Shiva is the Hindu god of destruction and the people that worship him have three white horizontal stripes across their foreheads. We went in the temple, after taking our shoes off, and walked around in a counter clockwise direction because that is how it's done in India. The temple was interesting but there are a lot of restrictions on what tourists cannot do inside because we are not Hindu - which makes sense, obviously because we are in their temple, I am just saying. From there we walked back to the ship being chased by men determined to sell us drums which no one bought. We took the bus back to the ship and got there at 6, just in time for dinner.

I ate and then found Carson, Lydia, and Michael who had not eaten yet so I joined them back upstairs for company. I had a ticket for the welcome reception at 630 but I still wasn't feeling good and after dinner I was glad I didn't go because I passed out hard, which I think I needed. I set my alarm for 840 so the next day I could wake up and find some internet early and then have the rest of the day to explore with Michael, Carson's man, because Carson & Lydia both had to be up and out by 4AM to catch flights for the Taj Mahal. I didn't have any burning desire to see the Taj, so I saved the money for something else more thrilling in the future and enjoyed my sleep that night.

I woke up, got ready, found Michael, and headed out. We got in a really awesome looking white taxi that made it about a mile before breaking down. We transferred to a yellow rickshaw, which is basically my car without doors, and got to internet land. Having come from all these modern countries I assumed an internet café was wi-fi and you bring your computer, do what you need to do, pay, then peace. However, I was wrong. In India I used a dinosaur computer to talk to a friend for a few minutes then checked my Facebook and bank account before leaving. My original idea was to post photos to my blog / Facebook from Viet Nam and a day in Japan that I had forgotten to post but that was not going to happen.

From there our driver took us to an ATM, since I still didn't have any cash, and then took us to a store we didn't ask to go to. The rickshaw drivers have deals with stores that if they take us to them they get a kickback - however, I do not have thousands of dollars to spend on golden elephants and I didn't go in the store to begin with so his plan backfired. We paid him and walked away before he got too annoying. We walked to Spenser's Market to walk through the shops but they didn't open until 2 on Friday because the Muslims were doing something in the building that we weren't allowed into. We got another rickshaw for 50 - a great deal because 50 Rupees is only 1$, and asked to go to the temple that I had been to yesterday [where I had run into Michael, also]. He took us to a kickback shop and we said to take us to the temple because we weren't going in there [What would I do with gigantic silk rugs?!], so he finally did.

We got to the temple and we handed him 50 Rupees to get out. He wanted 50 Dollars [!!!!] for what was maybe a mile long ride to the temple from where we started out [since we had no idea where we were and how to get to the temple, it was kind of the only choice since we didn't know we were so close]. Obviously that was ridiculous and we weren't going to give him that much [I didn't even have 50$ since he wanted it in USD] so he started to argue with us and a crowd started to form. On the ship everyone warns us to avoid crowds in India because they either end up in someone going to jail or getting stampeded and dying - neither of which I really had any interest in. We ended up giving him 600 Rupees just to get away from him and into the market.

We weaved through the men selling drums and got some fresh watermelon which was delicious and a great way to cool off aside from ice cream, not to discredit ice cream in any way. I got some screens to use to print shirts when I got home - they use them to strain rice powder through in the temples, but I think my use will be equally as awesome. They also had Ganesh figurines, the Hindu god of good luck and remover of obstacles, which I wanted to get for a few people at home but didn't out of the incorrect assumption that I would see them again later. Then we went to a place that sold clothes and got a few things as gifts. I am pretty excited about what I got because they have such pretty fabrics and clothes even though they feel kind of crunchy since I haven't washed them yet.

We kept wandering for a while and found cold orange soda which seemed to make Michael's day. We found a school in our wandering which was full of kids getting on busses and running around the street and talking, etc. One of the guys came up to Michael and shook his hand and introduced himself. It was interesting that very few people, except some women, interacted directly with me; the rickshaw drivers always introduced themselves to Michael but ignored me. Only once did a woman who was sweeping the street say hi to me as I walked by. From there we got another rickshaw back to the ship to get lunch. Sorry if it makes me a bad person, but I have only eaten in India once [at the house of the woman my group visited] because I cannot eat spicy food, am advised against eating street food, and really don't want to be stuck in the bathroom all day as some of my classmates have been.

This brilliant idea of eating on the ship paid off wonderfully. The driver didn't know where we wanted to go so we walked a little over a mile to the port from where we convinced him to stop. Once we got on the ship not only did the air conditioning feel amazing [remember it is 90something degrees and I am in shoes and pants], but the smell of the 5th floor was very alluring. THERE WERE CHILLI DOGS AND FRIES ON THE SHIP! Again, let me remind you that on the ship we are fed potatoes, pasta, salad, vegetables, and some form of meat every day - so this was a huge deal. The fries were salty enough to pass for McDonalds fries and the chili dogs were delicious. I cannot wait for Carson and Lydia to come back from the Taj and make them jealous - it was worth not seeing the Taj to get a chili dog, and yes, I am serious.

After lunch we went to the pool and swam and it was wonderful and refreshing. The top deck of the ship was covered in plastic wrap and tape so India wouldn't ruin the ship. Unfortunately the ice cream machine and snack deck were also covered so I could get ice cream or a smoothie which I was really hoping for. The swimming lasted until about 5 so I showered and then Michael and I met back up again for dinner around 530. We ate and then turned in our passports and customs paperwork before beginning our Dexter Marathon [remember, in Viet Nam I got EVERY season of Dexter on DVD for 20$ because I am awesome] because he had never seen it and that was unacceptable to me. Around 8 we had to go through customs so the ship could depart - it was also pointless because all that happened was they opened our passports, looked to see if our face matched our picture, and then handed it back, the same thing we had to do to get on the ship to begin with. We went back to Dexter until about 1130 - 5 or 6 episodes total for the night, and it was time for me to sleep.

The ship left India about the same time I went to sleep, and when I woke up today there were Chicken Fajitas and fries for lunch! Being at sea with less than 200 students / staff on board seems to have major advantages with regards to what can be cooked. I have been catching up on homework and papers so far today and am currently undergoing a major project to consolidate and organize all of the music in my iTunes [something I have been doing for days now but am close to finishing, I hope]. I will be in Cochin, India in two days. It is supposed to be cleaner and have more to do - let's hope so.