This past week has been interesting. Kendal, Kevin, and I got up very early on Sunday morning to go to the Indian Embassy and get our visas. We woke up to a surprise...it had rained the night before!! When I walked outside, I at first just thought the dorm cleaners had gone a little overboard with housing done the sidewalks, but when I noticed there was water everywhere, I realized it had rained. It smelled like rain does on a warm summer afternoon. Of course, this was seven in the morning, so it was slightly different. It was renewing to see everything wet, but it hasn't rained since, and I don't know when it will again.
It took us about an hour and a half to get to the Indian Embassy, and then it took us three hours to get throught the visa application process. First, we had to find out where we got our applications, then we had to fill them out, then we had to wait in line for an hour so someone could check to make sure we had all the necessary parts, then we were sent to another room where some guy looked at the application for a second and scriblled some writing on it, and finally we had to wait in another room for an hour and a half to pay for the visa. It was a long process in hot rooms with smelly people. Luckily though, because we have residence visas, the embassy would not allow us to come pick up the finished visas in a few days; instead, for 10 dirhams, they mailed the visa and passport to AUS. We got them within two days, which was a relief as we can now go to India without an problems.
On Tuesday night, the six of us who are going to India and Nepal (we leave a week from today!) got together and made a very rough itinerary for the trip. We will be relying a lot on bus and train transportation to get us from Kathmandu to Delhi and to various places in between, so we left a lot of time for travel and mistakes. It seems like it is going to be a fun trip though.
On Wednesday night, Kendal, Jeremy, Max, and I went to a campus event called GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) night. There was music, dancing, henna painting, football (soccer), and lots of really good food. The events on campus are very random and seem to have no real point, but they are usually a lot of fun.
Yesterday, for lunch, Bader, Daniel, Jeremy, and I went to an Emirati restaurant. The Emirati food I have had so far hasn't been the most amazing thing I've ever had, but this food was really good. I had a chicken and rice dish both of which were really good, though the chicken was a little bland (better than too spicy or bad tasting I suppose). I even got to order in Arabic which was nice. Things got a little awkward when Bader informed me there was no female bathroom, and I then realized I was the only girl in the entire restaurant. We started joking, saying that if I was the first girl ever to enter there, I should get my picture on the wall, but when we asked the waiter, he informed us that females do come in from time to time. So I wasn't the first.
Anyway, aside from all that, I've been attempting to get a lot of work done. I have a long paper and presentation due the day we return to school, and I don't want to be thinking about those while in India and Nepal. This morning, I was able to almost finish the paper, and I am now in the library starting to work on the presentation. The library is only open for four hours today (used to not be open at all on Fridays) so I should get to work before they kcik us out.
-Lindsay
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