Day 5: Celebrating a Birthday

        Since we were a bit early to the lab yesterday, we decided to show up later today. We had breakfast at the hotel. It was similar to the other mornings. There was a sign saying eggs to order. So I asked the man working behind the buffet for a plain omelet. He shook his head side to side and walked out of the room. A bit confused, I grabbed a bowl of corn flakes and small portion of the two different Indian dishes and joined the others at the table. About 20 minutes later the man brought me an omelet with onions and green peppers in it.

        We arrived at the lab around 1030 am and Caroline and I returned to the table we were working at yesterday. We still did not know all the details we needed for research so could not be very productive. Plus the internet was not working very well so that slowed us down.

Tim, Caroline and I headed for lunch at 2:30pm. We decided to check out a new place on campus called Café Coffee Day. I got a Tex-Vex Veg sandwich. It was very spicy and I didn’t like it. I ate the bread and part of it. I then had a Belgium Choco Shot which was a shot glass full of delicious chocolate.

         After we ate it looked cloudy and as we walked to the bus stop it began to drizzle. We waited for the bus under a tree so we wouldn’t get wet. The bus came and was full of people. People were standing on the stairs and hanging half off. We decided just to walk to the lab from there. When we go to the driveway of the lab it began to down pour so we scurried inside.

         Today was the first birthday of one of guys in the lab so there was a celebration at the lab in the afternoon. Everyone from the lab gathered in one room and the wife and son joined us. It was a big deal that the wife was able to come to the lab. We sang happy birthday for the son. The son was afraid of the cake so his parents had to blow out the candles. The cake was distributed on paper plates without silverware. We all just ate it with our fingers. About ten minutes later we were given another plate with three things on it. I am not sure what they were but some sort of Indian dessert. I tried them all though. As everyone finished we headed toward the doors to head home.

        As we were putting our shoes on outside the lab they asked us to come back inside to take a picture. This took an hour. Every person in the room held the baby for a significant amount of time. There were a lot of pictures taken too. They gestured for me to hold him and I was like yes I would love to. As I reached to grab him from Tibin the baby shied away. He really enjoyed hitting people’s faces. After awhile longer he let me hold him. He was very squirmy but also very cute! After a dozen more photos we headed home. Luckily it had stopped raining.

         Once our whole group was back at the hotel we made dinner plans. We wanted to go to a place fifteen minutes down the road so we set out. About five minutes out it started to rain and then pour. We decided that the restaurant was not worth it especially because it was an outdoor café. We got dry clothes on and ate at the restaurant at the hotel. It was again difficult to order and communicate with the waiter but that has become normal to us now.

Hopefully I will have time to upload some photos tomorrow!