Journal 9-17-2010

Journal 9-17-2010

Today is Friday. We started the day off in the usual manner with an Indian breakfast. At about 10:00 we hopped in two rickshaws and headed off to Madras Women’s Christian College. This was a really cool experience. The women’s college offered mostly 3 year undergraduate programs in a wide variety of subjects. They have about 3,000 undergraduate students. The majority of the students commute from around Chennai (madras). But there is a small population of girls that live in dorms on the college campus. These girls are typically from areas outside of Madras, and would need to travel a considerable distance every day to commute.

We had the pleasure of talking to a group of about 25 of the girls who were in their third and last year.

(haha they look pretty serious here, but they were really fun to talk to.)

They all spoke perfect English. We talked a lot about the similarities and differences between the higher education systems in the United States and India. They also showed us some a microbiology lab and some of the experiments that some younger students had been doing in their micro practical.

MWCC had a really beautiful campus and all the people were very friendly!

The girls also had some suggestions of other places to visit. They suggested a bird sanctuary and a zoo. Unfortunately I can not recall the names of these two places.

We came back to ICSA for lunch and a short nap.

Around 2:00 we were off again. This time we piled into a hired car and were driven to a dump that has been converted into natural wetland type area. ( I can’t remember the name of this place at the moment but I will ask matt or the girls when they get back.) This restored area was a really encouraging sight to see. It has been two years since they began the planting and now the are looks beautiful.

There is no trace of the dump that was here almost two years ago. Much of the landscaping here is done on top of the garbage left behind in the dump. Regular water testing for contamination from the layer of waste has consistently been negative. The plants planted on top of the trash also seem to be flourishing. We had a very knowledgeable guide take us around to the different parts of the 50 acre site. He was the education director, and must have gone to school for biology because he knew every plant and animal we came across on our tour. He also spoke flawless English, so we were able to ask him complex questions about the restoration effort.

At about 5 we left and went to the train station. Where we went inside and Irene tried to explain how to buy train tickets. It was so loud in the station that I didn’t catch most of what she said. But how hard can buying a ticket be…? I am sure we will be fine. The station was possibly the most crowded place that I have been so far.

For dinner we went to Buffet night at Sparky’s diner. It was GREAT. I ate a ton of food. It is really nice to have Sparky’s to supplement our Indian food diet. I think that I would otherwise I would be losing weight.