Really, I would say that our day of indulgence started Thursday night when Heather and I were able to watch 2 episodes of an American TV show-a first for us since leaving the states! The indulgence continued through the entire day Friday. I was finally able to talk to a couple friends back home on Skype (another first since leaving the states), I went on a "field trip" with the other volunteers, and to top the day off, I got to watch an American movie while eating popcorn and drinking Lemonade--it doesn't get much better than that!
Since today (Saturday) is "Sports Day" and we will not be leaving the campus, and because this is the last weekend at Rising Star for a few of us volunteers, Steel, the Managing Director here, agreed to let all the volunteers borrow one of the school vans and a driver (the streets are crazy here--local drivers are a necessity!) to go to Mahabalipuram (A resort/beach town about 2 hours away). We spent the day seeing the sights, shopping and enjoying the ocean (I assumed we would be swimming, since it's a beach town, but when we got there we found out that the locals don't really swim there... not really sure why, but we decided it was probably best to follow their lead and refrained from jumping in).
The main sites in Mahabalipuram are an ancient temple and "Butter Ball". "Butter Ball" is a park featuring several ancient ruins. The namesake for the park is a huge round bolder that looks as though it could roll down the hill and crush you at any moment. I'm not sure where the butter comes into play... Besides the "Butter Ball", temples, archways, and steep stairways carved into the rocks, my other favorite thing at the park was the monkey's--especially the baby monkeys!. One of the volunteers, Audrey, warned us that the monkeys were actually pretty aggressive and not as cute as they look, but most of us didn't think too much of it and got pretty close (within 2 or 3 feet) without any problems. I think maybe the monkey's caught on to Audrey's words of condemnation though, because on the way back to the van they "attacked" her. She was holding a fruit drink with one hand and they came at her from both sides and knocked it out of her hands! No harm was done, but Audrey nearly hyperventilated, and it caused a pretty hilarious scene.
The rest of the day was spent eating amazing Indian food, checking out the ancient temple, and shopping. I thought I would be tired of curry by this point in the trip, but the curry I had today was the best food I've eaten yet--by far! Plus, I'm not really sure if you can count what we eat at the school as curry (no offense to the cooks). I had less than 5 Rupees (42-45 Rupees is equivalent to $1) left by the time we got home, but I picked up some awesome souvenirs in Mahabalipuram and for the first time in weeks I was full!
My favorite thing about today was probably just discovering a different side of India. It was nice being in a town that wasn't overcrowded or filled with the sound of honking horns. The scenery was beautiful and the company was excellent :) Good times!
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