"When the Sun Comes Up, You Better Start Running" -African Proverb

After 30-some hours of travel time we arrived in Mysore on the 29th…at about 7am.
Our professors left us to take the bus from Bangalore to Mysore by ourselves. The two hour bus ride was especially eventful as Maleah, Gretchen and I rode in the back and hit our heads on the ceiling of the bus when they went over a bump a little too fast. We stopped half way to Mysore for a bathroom break and coffee, which tasted like a little slice of heaven.

On our itinerary it said we would check in to the hotel at 7 upon our arrival and have breakfast, which was great. We were all excited to wash off the grime from travel and saw the Ginger Hotel as an oasis in the midst of the squalor which is the poverty we witnessed on our bus ride to Mysore. I must say, it can be pretty gritty, but also can be incredibly inspiring. However, we were dismayed to find our hotel rooms not ready, but a breakfast laid out for us.

After breakfast, then a shower (finally!) 8 of us hit the ground running and decided to take a walk around Mysore. The streets were crowded with bicycles, motor bikes, busses, auto rickshaws and vibrantly dressed people everywhere; and, oh yeah, cows… everywhere. Harvey made the mistake of giving money to a girl who was asking for money and she and her friend wouldn’t leave us alone thereafter.

We went to a bird sanctuary for Rs10 each (which is about 25 cents) and took a boat ride on the lake for Rs 25 (which is little more than 50 cents). We had a very nice Indian man rowing our boat, who didn’t speak much English but managed to point out what wildlife he could to us. Poor guy had his work cut out for him, rowing 8 Americans… I honestly thought we were going to tip over. We then walked back in time for lunch at the hotel and went up to our rooms for a much needed nap.

Gretchen and I started out in a room with one double bed and with a shrug from both of us we unloaded our stuff and made the room home for the next couple weeks. However, after complaints from our other compatriots they switched us to a room with two twin beds (in the middle of our nap…). So, no spooning for Gretchen and me, but we do have dance parties (I mean “study groups”… of course).

That first night we had a little meeting at 5:30, during which, most of us were delirious from the lack of sleep and quite cranky. It probably wasn’t the best first impression on our Indian hosts, but what can you do… Gretchen and I went back to our room after the meeting (at 7) and went to sleep for the night.