The longest day ever...until tomorrow

June 14th 11:30 pm- After breakfast this morning we headed to meet our instructors at the PSG College of Nursing. We were greeted by three beautiful students dressed in traditional sarees from different parts of India.

They put the most fragrant jasmine flowers in our hair and placed bindhis on our foreheads to welcome us.

After that we entered a room where we were greeted by the principal of the college, Professor Elizabeth Jean Abraham and all of the other instructors. We held a lighting ceremony where they burned incense to welcome us. Next we listend to a series of introductions about the college, our program, Tamil culture (Tamil meaning Tamil Nadu, the state that Coimbatore is in), and Coimbatore information. We learned about the various festivals celebrated in Tamilnadu called Pongal (an offering of a bounty of rice), Delpali (a festival of lights), and Dasara (where neighbors come together to celebrate). We also learned that the bindhi when placed at the top of the forehead near the hairline signifies marriage. Otherwise it is purely decorative. We learned that the majority of marriages in India are arranged. One of the instructors was telling us on the bus that she only met her husband for one day before she had to decide if she wanted to marry him or not! And now they've been married 11 years! We had a short break with coffee (which by the way is soooo yummy! I actually might venture to say just as tasty as my Starbucks lattes!) and a puff pastry with potato and peppers inside and after we had this really yummy shortbread treat.

Next we took quite possibly the longest campus tour I've ever experienced. We saw every medical college that PSG has to offer along with all their classrooms, libraries, and laboratories. Their laboratories were quite disturbing. One was a room full of jars of fetuses ranging from 10 weeks to full term. Some were conjoined twins, some were anecephaly (no brain), some had spinabifida..but they all still had faces and hair and it was just creepy. Don't worry, I didn't take any pictures. We got to visit the embalming room next to the pre-med anatomy lab. There was a huge concrete tomb-like box with 15 "fresh" bodies in the process of being embalmed. Next to the huge box were large tubs labeled with various vital organs and body parts. And don't worry, the lab techs opened up all the tubs and boxes for us to see. They even pulled out some of the bodies. I fear I might have nightmares tonight. Probably the most strange lab was the forensic science lab where they had huge poster size photographs of dead people with captions below describing the horrible ways they died...totally weird. They also had a wall of blunt and sharp objects commonly used to kill people in India. I think this school is really hands on in their learning.

After our long tour we went back to the guest house for lunch and then went in to town! First we went to exchange money. In Coimbatore you can't just walk where you wish and look up at the buildings and scenery, no you have to be very careful of the huge sewer holes in the middle of the side walk...and the stray dogs everywhere...and the absolutely crazy drivers. The bank we went to was up these very sketchy stairs with strange liquid-like stains on the walls. Once we were inside the "bank" which was about half the size of my bedroom we each exchanged $100 US dollars for $4,500 INR (rupees). Half of us got charge $25 rupees for the transaction and half of us didn't which we were fighting with the bank men. So about the time half of us were getting refunded the 25 rupees (which we figured out is the equivalent of about 40 cents...oops our bad) the other half of us were being charged again. It was sweltering hot inside that tiny bank, everybody was arguing (over 40 cents mind you), and we were all exhausted. Finally all was well and good, us greedy Americans were refunded out silly 40 cents, and we were on our way.

Next we went to a store called Kalyan Sarees to buy churidhars. Churidhars are typical casual to semi formal wear for Indian women. It is a pants and top combo with a scarf. This was quite the experience. We had a ton of Indian women helping us and in the end there must have been over 200 Churidhars unfolded and out of their packages that we had looked through. I think the clerks were pretty annoyed with us but I'm not sure we could have been more polite in our actions at that store. Oh was it hectic though, this color, that type of pant, and clothes everywhere...surprisingly very anxiety provoking for all. Especially since they kept pulling out more and more clothes (many of which we didn't like or were too expensive!). Finally we had each picked out one or two outfits, some bangle bracelets, and a bindhi so about 3 hours after entering the store we were ready to leave. It surprised me how many different colors of bolts of fabric they had in this store, but one of our instructors informed us that most women have their Sarees and Churidhars custom tailored. It also surprised me that we were offered free soda and tea when we were done shopping and were even given a free gift (this strange pleather-like purse...my Lola would love it haha). So many of the women working in the store fell in love with one of the girls with us. They kept saying "oh, Alexandria Pearce this, Alexandria Pearce that" it was pretty funny. They even gave her a special "gift" which was two dirty glasses in a wrapped box...then they asked for her phone number. Supposedly they probably were wanting her to take them to the US.

Finally we were home around 7:30 and had to get ready for a big dinner with the main sponsor of our program. Now its about 10:30 at night and I'm finally snug under my mosquito net emailing this blog to my mom to post for you all. Don't worry, we have Indian Dance lessons at 6 am tomorrow, immediately followed by breakfast, clinical, and a tour of some statues...another long day I'm guessing! But everything is so wonderful!! I just need more coffee or more naps :)