Rainy Season

Well my first weekend got completely rained out. I still haven't had a dosa and I still don't have a good map of Chennai. I don't have a phone and I can't find a good place to change money. Rather, it's difficult to get to one of my banks to do so. The commission is a huge fee.

That being said, I finally reached the bay of bengal and touched the waters. It was rainy and getting dark out so I only touched it. I'm still so disoriented here, because there are no street signs. Furthermore there are so many side street that are really alleys and I don't think they're actually listed on a map. So I can't even pick out where I live on a map yet...

All things being held equal, since yesterday was so rainy and crappy I came to the office to catch the college football scores and what not. I thought that I could watch the replay of my yellowjackets stomping Duke, but alas, another blow to my adjustment.
I can't watch espn360 here because they don't' broadcast outside the USA. Anyway, it was still raining when lunchtime rolled around so I ate here at the canteen again. The canteen makes my stomach churn just a little. It's in no safer cleaner than a street vendor and it's three meals of curry a day. I am lucky to have gotten over my aversion to curry. In fact I quite like it for a day or two. Six straight days and I'm not liking it so much now.

I met up with another postdoc at lunch. He's been around India and did his undergraduate education here in Chennai, as well as his PhD in France. So he knows this area and enjoys drinking (at least a little). So we went to a bar, and I got the Vorion 6000 (the stong beer). It makes me a little sad that strong beer here is not that strong and has no hops. Maybe I should work on growing a hop trellis while here. It's a little too hot, but I have a long growing season. In any case, this other postdoc is an adventurer. He's originally from New Delhi and says he's like to show me his home, so I think eventually I'll get to see Delhi. Apparently it's quite a bit more liberal than here, but this doesn't shock me.

A quick rundown of yesterday's activities: Rain, breakfast, more rain, lunch, more rain. Yeshu takes me around what I think is Indira Nagar neighborhood of chennai. I see the beach eat some decent food, have a decent beer, we stop in to a youth hostel to watch a Karnatik dance performance performed by some school children. It is now getting to be the cultural music season. These performances are happening all the time.

So yesterday wasn't a complete wash.