Welcome to my neighborhood,

I have so much to write.. I have so much that I don't even know where to begin!

Rockey the Rooster, If he doesn't get quiet, I might have to eat him



water pump/well where people get their water supply. Don't worry I have running water and AC



Rocky and his girlfriend

People are always sweeping, like every 1-2hrs

stray dogs resting in a rickshaw

my street around 7am

First of all, I would like to show you guys around my house and introduce Rocky the rooster, who starts crowing around 4 and never stops. Also it's monsoon season so it freaking rains all the time.. and it will until... decemeber! And I have seen too many corpes of frogs, how did they end up dead in the middle of the street? I wonder..

My street around 2pm

I started working with this amazingly driven, dedicated, ambitious and young group of people who share the common goal of improving health care for the rural areas of Southern India. I am humbled and honored to be a part of this group for a period of time. If I had any notion of arrogance in my coming here, It is now replaced with tremendous respect for them. I will and am already learning so much more from these people than what I can give. The only thing is that these people work like 10 to 8 everyday! I can't do it. I am sticking to my 8hr/5d schedule. Call me spoiled but I ain't doing no overtime! =)

Let's do Chennai

I only added a few pictures here on my blog, you can see all my pictures of Chennai on Facebook link here, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=519266544#!/album.php?aid=208923&id=519266544&ref=mf

So Let's talk about Chennai... It's definitely NOT on your top 10 places to go in India. so when you're in India and don't make it to Chennai, don't feel bad. 
This is the 4th largest metropolitan city in India, the capital of the state Tamil Nadu. Also has the longest shore line for a city. This is also where St.Thomas preached and was killed. However, it is very hard to navigate. My short stay here ends tonight when I head out with the group of people from work to Thanjavur, where I plan to stay for the majority of time during working months.  My general impression of Chennai is that this is  a city for work, not for leisure tourism. Tamil Nadu has a very strong culture but I was not able to appreciate any of them due to being busy staying alive. The most interesting part of this city is Mylapore, one of the oldest area where the city started. The following pictures are all of Mylapore. The contrast of life in India was most visible in this part of the city. It felt most authentic as well. I can't say I will miss Chennai, and I am actually looking forward to going to a sleepy town.

Kapaleeshwarar Temple, dedicated to Shiva

So I ask you,

Since I have nothing else to do but play on the computer and be on facebook, I figure I will make some use of my time by making a list of things that's been bugging me. Maybe you guys can help me figure this out,

1. So I don't know if it's just me but I am actually quite surprised to see how chubby people are in India. Alot of them have diabetic bodies, too. You know like round belly and flabby here and there. These are petite people who actually have large behind. Isn't this also the country of yoga and vegetarianism?
2. What's up with head bobbling thing? I can't figure out if they are saying yes or no. Not everyone does it but a lot of them do. It's kinda constant bobbling when talking to you.
3. There're more men out there, where are the women? Everywhere I go, everywhere I see, there're so many more men than women, about 10:1 ratio. Where are the ladies? I wonder if they are the ones doing actual work somewhere while men are just hanging out.
4. Dogs, let's talk about dogs. I've seen people with dog as pets. there're stores where they sell royal canine dog food and other pet related things, as well as animal hospitals. I don't even feed my own dogs Royal Canine cuz they're expensive. Yet, there're so many stray dogs. I highly doubt there're any rescue groups for dogs. so where are these 'pet' dogs coming from? Do they have breeders??
5. Shopping.. wow....I'm disappointed in shopping here. I haven't seen any stores where they have gold. What am I doing wrong? or did I just have too high expectations??  

So there goes my rambling of nothingness, but it feels good to get it out. Any thoughts on any of these????

First day is... well... interesting

First of all, the flight was probably the best flight ever, had 2 seats for myself, watched about 5 movies and slpet well. The only events were being frisked by two german security ladies at the airport (She did not have to feel my butt 5 times!) and a creepy pilot kept breathing into the microphone whenever making annoucements. The fun begins here in Chennai. Walking out of the guesthouse is a suidecide attempt in itself. Cars, motorcycles, bicycles and buses just keep coming at you. I love how the lanes are just a suggestion that no one follows. I bargained hard with rickshaw drivers or at least I think I did, found the office, got a cellphone(my number is 91 99524 64239, I know the numbers are so long, they look like a fake #), and ate very very spicy but awesome shrimp marsala. I was practically crying at the restaurant and the waiters kept apologizing and gave me free mango ice cream. Now I'm so pooped out from multiple suidecide attempts or rather homicide attemtps by a mass of motor vehicles.. oh, I saw about 5 dogs that I would live to rescue. Thank godness I got rabies shot, who knows what I would do when I get confused from heat stroke






pictures do not do justice for the organized chaos on the roads



School bus is internationally yellow







These school boys saw my carmera and wanted me to take pictures of them



street corner store



Some pics from the partay! Thanks everyone!!!!

There're alot more pics but I still don't really know how to use this blog thing and it's taking too long, so some peeps are saved from embarassing pics on the web.

Pre-Departure

before

 

after

So less than 48hrs from the departure to Chennai, India... I've been looking for different ideas to pack effectively and cleverly. One of my tricks is to put socks in sneakers and other shoes. Rolling shirts and pants help with spaces, too. My trial packing proved that I could take a backpack and a messenger bag for this trip. There' re pics to prove it for those with little faith.