Bad Bus Photos and Some Randoms

As you may or may not know, we have done a TON of driving around.  While we are driving, I always see so many cool and interesting things and have tried to take pictures of them.  Well, as you can imagine, the pictures don't always turn out the best.  Therefore, I am going to share some of them with you, solely for your entertainment.

A very nice wall

Another very nice wall.

Women in sarees ride side saddle.

There is a triangle of paper stars that goes up there... obviously I didn't capture that.

Some lovely steel.

I don't even know what I'm trying to take a picture of.

I actually meant to do that.  I just find it absurd that there is a KFC in Trivandrum.

I also uploaded a video to youtube trying to show what the driving is like.  At times it is much worse than this.  Also, I apologize for the shakiness.
Driving in Trivandrum

Also: this is the wonderful doorman at SP Grand Days!

A few times, we have had to push our bus because it wasn't starting.  Today I walked up to Ingrid and Stephanie pushing the bus.  I tried to capture it, but I just missed them pushing it. I took a picture anyway:

I've never understood this, but our bus says Phoenix Tours on the side.  I'll never understand.

You never know when we're going to have internet connection again...

Monkeys. You're welcome.

Last Full Day in India

This morning we had a lecture on the settlement patterns in Kerala by Dr. Prabhakaran.  He explained how social structures, religious beliefs, and cultural practices have influenced the development patterns and structures.  The buildings they built were built to meet specific needs related to environmental contexts using available resources and traditional technology.  These patterns can still be seen today, but some of the social aspects that influenced them have died.

After tea we visited a local, public, government owned K-7th grade school.  We were able to interact with a class of 5th graders.  We interrupted their math class and all of the students quickly moved their things from the tables and stood at the sides of the room to let us sit down.  At first they were all so shy to talk to us.  Once a couple started talking, almost all of the students were giggling and asking questions and we were asking them questions.  It was a lot of fun.

I see that Pluto is still considered a planet here.  

We went back to the LBC for lunch.  Then a few people gave the presentation all of us students compiled to the people at COSTFORD.  A few hours after we got back to the hotel we had a farewell get together with a lot of the people that gave lectures or helped put things together for us.  Laurie Bakers son and grandson were also there.  As always, the food was great, and we all drank some questionable drink (typhoid? Ah!).  In a couple hours I'll be leaving the hotel for the airport for my 4:15 AM flight out of Trivandrum to Abu Dhabi.  Then to Chicago!  I'll be back on American soil by 3:30 PM Friday.  I can't wait to see everyone :)

Town Planning, Daycare, Mithraniketan, and Tree Climbing

The day began at the LBC with a lecture on town planning from Mr. A. Kasturi Rangan who is the Chief planner for the state of Kerala.  Most of the students on the trip are in the Urban and Regional Planning graduate program and they all loved the lecture.  While I thought it was interesting, I don't really know much about the planning processes in the U.S., so it was hard for me to make comparisons.     But now I can tell you all about the planning process in Kerala!

After the lecture we had snacks and then walked to a government funded daycare that was down the road from the LBC.  The kids were aged 3-6 and so cute!  They sang about their toys for us, but were quiet so it was hard to hear.  There was one girl who was not happy with all of these giant weird looking people walking in her daycare and smiling at her.  She started crying and hid in another room the whole time.  I felt bad for her.

Then we went to a boarding school: Mitraniketan.  We had a talk with K. Viswanathan, the founder of the school and he told us all about his idea when he was forming the school.  We then toured some of the campus and went to the bakery where we tasted some of the delicious bread they make.

Bread. Nom.

It was kind of like a jelly filled doughnut with a pineapple jam

We also watched this man make pottery.  He was so efficient and was able to do it so fast.  I was pretty impressed.

Finished products.

Before we went home, we stopped and saw people climbing coconut trees!  That's how they pick the coconuts!  It was rather impressive.

On our drive back to the hotel, our driver pulled over to this reservoir where he wanted to show us these giant fish.  He even bought food to throw for them.  It was very sweet and he seemed so excited to show us.  Apparently they are temple fish and so fishing is not allowed in that area.  I was not disappointed;  they were huge fish.

And, of course, I saw more beautiful flowers:

College of Engineering + Ayervedic Spa Resort

Hooray for sleeping in!  Well, kind of.  I still woke up relatively early.  Probably because I was so excited for an SP Grand Days breakfast.  NOMS.  We had the morning free to do as we please.  But, we had to have three slides done before noon for the group presentation that will be given to COSTFORD about our favorites experiences in India.  That wasn't too difficult, though.  After our free time, we traveled to the Department of Architecture of the College of Engineering, which is where Jerry got his undergraduate degree.  We met with the President of the University and then went to hear a presentation by some of the planning graduate students.  The students presented about a redevelopment project in the boat jetty area in Kochi (the same ferry and area I was in last week) funded by the state government.  The issue is the large amount of traffic occurring in the area.  They completed this project in only 6 weeks for one of their classes, which was really impressive based on the amount of work that was put into it.  They did a lot of background work on the area, took surveys in the area, did research in the area, and compiled all of their information in various ways to look at where the issue is heaviest.  Then they came up with proposals to improve the heavy traffic.  Recommendations that they came up with include: building a vertical parking structure (like our parking ramps. These are extremely rare.), constructing an entertainment center, promoting tourism through the water canals, relocating vendors off the streets, and developing better waste management systems (which would be wonderful!).  It's nice to see that there are people here that are capable and want to improve the infrastructure of the streets.  They are extremely chaotic and could definitely use a little bit of TLC!

Mini model of the school

Courtyard art

Afterwards, we went to an Ayervedic spa resort on the Arabian Sea.  Most people got massages, but I opted out.  Quite honestly, I'm glad I did after I heard everyones stories.  I added links to other students' blogs on the right of my page, so if you would like to read about the massages, feel free to read theirs, because I'm not going to go into details! :)  I lounged around the resort, ate some pakora and samosas (essentially just friend vegetables), drink hot ginger lime honey, and enjoyed the sea breeze.  Just living the life, ya know?

Looking out to the Sea

Taking the boat over to the restaurant in the resort

Only two more full days in India. Time is simply flying by.  Soon I'll be home and cuddling my kitty! :)  Here's a picture of him, just because:

How could you not miss that face?! Adorable. 

Tiger Reserve

4:30 AM.  That's what time I woke up.  I don't like waking up anytime before 7 AM.  But, it was for good reason.  We went to a tiger reserve!  We had to wake up really early for the 7:30 AM boat ride through a protected area in the Western Ghats for tigers and other wild animals.  When we got to the reserve, we had to wait for probably an hour in the bus.  We had to get there so early because the line builds up quickly and people are crazy!
Before the bus was inside the reserve, three people had to get out and go in the reserve before everyone else to try and get tickets for everyone on the first boat ride.  I guess they had an auto-rickshaw race with other people and then had to run to the ticket line.  The rest of us were in the bus.  When the bus got into the reserve, we were speeding through to get to the parking area and then our driver hurried us off the bus and everyone sped walk to the ticket line.  We were all sleepy and had no idea what was going on or why we were walking so fast.  Well, once we got to the line, we realized that one person in a group will run to get in line and then the rest of the group would try to budge in front of everyone else to meet up with the first person.  It was pretty chaotic.  Since we didn't know what was going on, all the people that were on the bus waited in the ticket line for a couple minutes until our driver told us to get out of line.
We met up with Jerry and the three who went ahead.  They told us what they had to do and that they had bought tickets for everyone.   They were in such a hurry to get tickets that they had to make up names for some people because they couldn't remember them.  They were some pretty funny names.  I was glad that we didn't have to stand in that line.  There is not really any concept of waiting in line here.  It's kind of a free for all.  Personal space also does not exist.  They will get right up behind you so no one can budge in front of them.  I personally like my space.  Just one of those things I enjoy.  Anyway, we took our boat ride through the reserve, but unfortunately did not see any tigers.  We did see elephants, bison, wild boar, lots of birds, and monkeys, though.  The monkeys were after the boat ride.  They were in the trees over the walking area.  I even took pictures of them for you... even though I don't like monkeys.  They're creepy.

Bison

P.S. "Don't feed the monkeys." There are signs everywhere that say that. Nonetheless, this guy pushed a bag of something toward this monkey, then tried to take it away once the monkey started to pull on it. The monkey was not having that and swatted at him.  So, the lesson is: don't give monkeys food and then try to take it away. 

After the tiger reserve, we had lunch, stopped at a spice shop that sold spices from the plantation we visited, toured a tea processing factory, and took a long drive to our hotel home in Trivandrum.  It's good to be "home."

Flowers: