- School ended, 1.5 month break started. Excellent.
- Christmas happened. Showing off my amazing coordination skills (is that the right word?) a bunch of us got together for a nice Christmas Eve dinner and an almost-midnight almost mass. It was Anglican and it started at 11:30, but close enough.
- Christmas Day potluck. I love potlucks, because I can experiment then nervously ask everyone what they thought. I'd be crushed if anyone didn't like my food, and I always suspect people are lying to me. I semi-succeeded at making peppermint marshmallows, failed at vanilla marshmallows and made my onion soup which is hard to mess up.
- My house fell apart. A fuse needed to be flipped, then I found my fusebox behind a locked door outside my house. After that, my gas ran out (the reason for the failed vanilla marshmallows) leaving me with no ability to heat anything. Yikes.
- Vacation! I headed to Lucknow then Varanasi where I met up with a bunch of people I know from MN. So nice to see faces of people I've known for over a year. Lucknow was decent (the Residency was impressive) and Varanasi was the same attractive pit it was when I was there last time. A timeless city, if that's a good thing. Plenty of fun and feces for all...
- 28 hour train ride to Hyderabad wasn't actually that bad. I was surprised.
- Hyderabad was mixed. Hussain Sagar, a big lake in the middle of the city was great. Perfect weather and a walk by there after a nice meal was a great mix. Golconda Fort and a few tours of former palaces were nice too. Rickshaw drivers seemed especially out to get me though.
- A taste of the West- Subway, KFC, and an IMAX theatre playing Avatar in 3D for Rs. 200 (around $4)
So, I just got into Chennai today. I'm staying with my friends from MN, Taylor and Ann for the next few days. I'm then off to Madurai, Cape Comorin, Trivadunum, Varkala, Kumily, Munnar, and finally Cochin. From there, I'm flying to Delhi (need my passport renewed) and then back to Mussoorie for a ton of work for the next semester (a trip to Italy and a new Indian history class await!). I'll be sure to write another update of my vacation later.
Ciao.
