Day at the Beach!

Stephen and I took a train to the beach!  The trains are quite cheap and are an incredible experience in themselves.  Here is a quick picture to get your imagination running about what the train system is like:

The walk to the beach from the station took us by a giant Portuguese building that  served as the police headquarters. 

Safari Hats!!

The beach has a statue dedicated to Gandhi.

Walking up and down the beach was a great experience.  From the beach we could see the smog emanating from the factories and blowing over the city.  We also got to see beautifully colorful fishing boats lining the shoreline.  Dogs and people were using the shade generated from them to sleep in.  The two women walking in the picture tried some very intricate scam on Stephen and I, and were very disappointed that we didn’t have a couple thousand rupee to dedicate to their cause.  

The saddest thing we saw was a small boy wandering on the beach through the heat.  It is not uncommon to see young children struggling on their own to get by.

After the beach we visited a mall that had roof access.  I took a lot of pictures of the city, here are a few I liked:

The station that we get off at for the mall/beach.

Looking away from the beach.

Been Workin’ on the Railroad…

Well… I’ve been doing a lot more reading that working.  Like this little gem:

I have a lot of catching up to do on the subject of railway testing.  My boss is one of the great minds in the field of non-destructive testing and is renowned globally.  Looking forward to learning from the best!

Breakfast Club

    Every morning we are lucky enough to eat at the hotel.  They offer traditional southern Indian breakfast, with some western options.  The southern Indian dishes all come warm to hot, somewhat spicy, and very heavy on carbs.  The American equivalent would be like eating green chile stew and tortillas for breakfast with a side of sourdough bread and sopapilla to dip in as well.  Apart from the southern Indian classics, they offer warm cereal (sugarless frosted flakes and coco-puff inspired flakes), omlettes, and toast.  To drink there is always pre made coffee and then, depending on the day, mango, cantellope, watermellon, or orange juice.  

Adventure time with Autumn and Stephen

Today was pretty interesting.

    The thirty plus minute walk to work has gotten much shorter and increasingly enjoyable (Red Path).  From work, I have a ten minute walk to Tiffany's for lunch (Blue Path).  It is a student mess hall that serves vegetarian Indian cuisine.  It is quite amazing.  At lunch, I am the only American, but more importantly, I am the only ridiculously white skinned person.  This is not a bad thing in any way, but it means I stand out, which means people want to talk to me.  I meet people everywhere I go because people are just curious as to why I am at their campus.
     Today, at Tiffany's, I made a friend in a doctorate student named Paul.  He saw me sitting alone and decided to befriended me.  He is a Catholic from Chennai studying philosophy.  He was extremely interested in my opinions of: Catholic education in America, president Obama, president Bush, American curriculum in philosophy, American implementation of technology in classrooms, the difference between urban and rural education, as well as my opinions of India and Chennai.  I tried my best to keep the conversation up, but he was much smarter than me.  The difference between American hospitality and Indian hospitality is staggering.  After talking for only ten minutes, he gave me his whole dessert (one that is only made on fridays) and offered to take me around the city.  It was a very good lunch.

     As I was walking home from work, I ran into Stephen and Autumn.  They were on a mission to find a lake that is on the IIT campus.   With them, I walked to the swimming pool, ping pong club, hindi temple, and finally the lake.  The lake was very pretty, and we ended up taking a nature walk.  We trekked through game trails and dense forest as we worked our way toward our hotel. I got nervous the further in we went because there were signs of random people living in the forest.  However, we had gone too far off the beaten path to turn back.  Instead of people, we ended up seeing beautiful birds and a wild rey mongoose.  I was quite afraid we might see crocodiles (we were warned by signs), but nothing came of it.  We eventually made it though the jungle to a debris laden road that led to our hotel (within IIT).

THE MAP

Red: The way I walk to work Blue: To lunch Green: The big jungle adventure

     After getting refreshed at the hotel we left to go visit the City Center.  We took a rickshaw to the train station- a waste of 40 rupees since it was only a 15 min walk.  At the train station several groups of people assisted us in reaching our destination.  The sanitary quality of the stations was appalling, but it is more than acceptable in light of the ten cent fare.  The city center mall was awesome, and offered beautiful views of the city.  We really enjoyed our time in the city center and loved the train experience because the locals were so friendly and helpful. The spicy chicken sandwich was not spicy!!

Inside IIT

The IIT campus is a wonderful nature oasis.  There are lots of beautiful trees, monkeys, deer, ants, and crows.  It reminds me of walking through a nature park, except there are a few more buildings.

Right as you walk in the back gate

Just a cow, no big

The question is when you are no longer a child in India

The campus has a maximum 30% buildings to land.  This means lots of nature is out.

Cafe for students

Awesome old school cars can be found.  Actually, lots of this exact model.  The rest are modern.

                                                 Walking                                          Cars

Auburn in the lab we had a meeting in.

Faith in the system

     OMG. Wow. Holy explicative. Whatever the phrase you exclaim in extreme excitement or panic is sure to slip out in an Auto Rickshaw ride through Chennai.  It is a thrill ride like no other.  The daytime drives in taxis that scared me just yesterday pale in comparison to the roller coaster ride through traffic I took with Stephen and Autumn this evening.  In our ride to the beach there were no lanes, laws, nor driving inhibitions.  Our driver nearly killed us several times, but escaped death by only a few inches.  On one occasion he was unable to brake in time to avoid a crowd crossing the street, so he had to throw the car in a tight turn and reroute.  We basically touched the man on his bike.  In response to the move, a cop ran out on the street to confront our driver, but instead of stopping, our driver just drove past the officer. 

    The reason we got into an auto rickshaw was to go to the beach.   We arrived at dawn to a beautiful carnival scene.  There were Indian versions of carousels made from Tonka cars bolted to rotating plywood.  With them there were 15 foot tall Ferris wheels made of wood with four carts each.  Along the food shops kids maintained target ranges and old women sat, telling fortunes; the entire scene was very friendly and happy.  Our people got chili covered mangos and fire roasted corn at one vendor on the water.  

     Overall, an unforgettable experience that anyone and everyone must try.

A Relaxing Drive

Highlights of this video include cows, an average bus stop, examples of how lanes are only suggestions, shared road ways, aggressive driving, and beautiful street-side shops.

The Road

So, we have to walk a ways to get to one of the IIT gates.  It is through what is acknowledged as a slum.  The people are very friendly and are always interested to see such a large group of interesting foreigners walk down their street.  Kids run out to their doors to laugh, wave, and smile at us; parents watch us with more guarded expressions.  All in all, it is a pretty humbling and good experience.

Things get much nicer the closer you get to the gate

The theme song for India

Slight tangent:

India has excellent taste in 80's music.  I've heard this beautiful ballad a few times here now- at least enough to notice.  Thank you Jet Airways and ritzy department stores for your awesome taste.

Room with a View

     

     Our hotel is located on the top floor of the IITM Research Park building located next to the IIT Madras campus.  It is a great facility, apart from the unreliable internet.  The building is under construction, which leads me to suspect the authenticity of this photo (the building just doesn't seem this polished yet).

Our 11th floor window has a view of the Ascendas building, a poorer neighborhood, and the IITM campus.

     Here is the Ascendas building.

Everything to the right of the road is IIT Madras

The hotel is surrounded by a wall with guards.  The way we walk to campus is out the gate and up the road.

A service elevator that is used for the unfinished floors of the building.  Some supplies.

           

                A little house on the other side of the wall             Some one had to use the restroom!

Otherside of the Hotel:

 Gone fishin'

                                  Pond in front of our hotel                           Cricket players

                                            More housing                                   More housing

Bright colors are everywhere

Well, this concludes all of the wonderful sights from the eleventh floor of hotel Ginger Chennai.  Our hotel doesn't fit in with the surroundings, but that's great.  India is full of all forms of diversity, which contributes to its unique flavor.