Friday, June 7, 2013

Day 1: Seeing campus and meeting professor

Friday June 7- The graduate student who picked us up from the airport told us to call him the next morning and he would send a car to pick us up at our hotel. He said to call around ten and we would make the plans. We woke up promptly at six am and tried to sleep until about eight thirty when we gave up and showered and got dressed. We headed downstairs to the ground floor where breakfast was. We walked into a cafe where we had to buy everything so we were confused on where the complimentary breakfast was. We asked the guy at the cash register for some help. He told us something that maybe was helpful or maybe wasn'y but either way we had no idea what he was saying. So still confused we continued looking around and found a little room attached to main cafe area. We had located breakfast and now just needed to figure out what exactly we were being offered to eat. I ended up having two hard boiled eggs, toast with jam, corn flakes and I tried two things I didnt know what they were. The eggs were normal and good and so were the corn flakes. The jam for the toast was thick and very tart. I tried what looked like a pita but had dill pickles and something else in which made it spicy. I also tried what looked like a fried donut but was supposed to go in this spicy soup. I opted to not have the soup and just eat the donut shaped thing which was still spicy. We also had pineapple juice which was very good!

After breakfast we called shiva, our grad student friend, around ten and he said he would send a car in a half hour and call when he was at the hotel. He called just after eleven, so not exactly a half hour later but none the less we were off to see the university. A post grad student, Tibbin, drove us to campus. We stopped a little market area where Tibbin bought us water bottles which was very nice of him. We went to the MDS building which is the mechanical design buidling where the CNDE lab is located. CNDE is the center for non destructive evaluation which is where we will be doing researach this summer.

As we entered the lab, Shiva took his shoes off an added them to the pile of shoes outside the door. We followed and entered the lab barefoot. Nobody wore shoes in the lab. It was kind of nice to be barefooted though. Shiva showed us all of the labs. There are labs on floor two and floor three. We talked with a couple of students who shared about their projects. We then headed to meet Dr. Krishinan, who is the dean. We waited about twenty minutes outside his office and then he welcomed us in. He then had to deal with an issue and answer an email so we waited 30-45 minutes in his office. He is a very important person and very busy. Nonetheless he discussed our research projects with us. I am very excited for what Caroline and I will be researching and we will be open to take the research where we want which is cool.

After the meeting with Krishinan we were hungry and Shiva took us to the cafeteria on campus. We all got Dosa Masal for a late lunch. It was a large crepe type thing filled with potato and onion mixture. The filling was bright yellow. We dipped it in sauces that I dont know what they were. It was very spicy though. We then headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit and planned out going out for dinner around seven.

It got dark quicker than we expected so we decided to stay in the hotel instead of explore unfamiliar area in the dark. There is a restaurant where breakfast was served so Caroline and I ate there. I got egg Brujili which was like an omelet. It was not too spicy and very good.

The other half of our group arrived last night so now there are six of us. Today we are going to Dr. Krishinan office so that the rest of the group can meet with him and discuss their research projects. We are hoping to go to the mall to do some shopping after. We will see where today takes us.

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