Over the hump?

It’s Wednesday and in the second half of the week, I’ll actually accomplish something besides getting here.  I did sleep like a baby until 5:30 AM so it helped to wake up with energy.  Around 6:30 AM, I decided to run and although being blonde, wearing neon shoes and being one of the only runners, I earned many strange looks but it was totally worth it.   Besides the extreme humidity, the weather’s not awful (especially early in the morning) and today’s breeze and slight detours through sprinklers made it very bearable.  Mara promised me mid-80 degree weather, which would be even better than North Carolina in the summer.  Unfortunately, its been unusually hot here according to one of the locals (38-39 *C) so I think Mara underestimated the daily temperatures.  But most spaces are air conditioned (which is extremely unusual in India) so I’m not worried.  But then again, the man in the dining hall said the rainy season starts in three days.  So we may not have to deal with sun?  I don't know what to believe- last year, the program wasn't during the rainy season...

Then we had breakfast, I met my TA briefly, and the gringos were off to Mysore to get registered with the FRO, which was a kind of anti-climatic 2.5 hour adventure.  Last Friday was a major State election so most of the important people were counting ballots.  However, the people we did get to speak to said we don’t need to check in since our 6 month visa should be fine with the 180 day check-in limit (since they went by months).  Mara’s still going to investigate this and get official documentation so we don’t get detained.  Because that happened two years ago.

 Silly picture from traveling to Mysore today... there's always cows!

Walking into the FRO office- so much prettier than the one in Delhi

Mysore Palace- need to come back to tour this

Came back to fight the good fight (trying to get internet access), currently waiting for the ever-illusive engineer, we’re meeting for lunch shortly then we’ll spend the afternoon getting supplies organized.  Tootle-loo!