Sunday Driving...

Events...
Yesterday, I found myself in the beneficiary of more Indian hospitality as we visited another of Teju's family relations for lunch, which was abundant. After being greeted and welcomed warmly and fed thoroughly, I was even included in the gift giving. We then spent the afternoon taking a long, leisurely drive to mamabalipurum, a historical sight and beach on the coast. It was very pretty and full of people, jostling, and poignant smells. I'm happy to report that it was a very good day for cow counting, and our new total is 554.
Last night, we found ourselves out for a late ice cream although it was very difficult to find a place. In this city of 10 million people, there is almost nothing open past 11. Where do all the restless, constrained energies of youth find their release?

Observational tidbits...
-STD is an abbreviation which, here, has something to do with making phone calls... this means that it is regularly advertised as something to be provided by stores, right below FAX and color copies. My favorite version is a cell phone add that ends with a black screen and "STD @ 1.5 Rs. / min"
-Indians, (at least the ones i'm around) frequently state a questions/ statement by stating their guess at the answer before adding "eh?" Almost like a Canadian.
- The language is very difficult to pick up- i'm pretty sure there are subtleties between pronunciations that just don't exist in English. This makes them very difficult to remember, much less pronounce correctly. This has been the source of much frustration- especially when it comes to the names of people I've just met.
-Uno is fantastic
-Every student i've met is studying engineering or something related to business. Medicine is supposedly also popular. The idea of a liberal arts education (by which I mean study without a specific job in sight) seems to be non-existent. (although I'm told it happens)